Jams aplenty

Syed Nadzri wrote in his column in NST today that the number of registered vehicles in Malaysia is 15.7 million or 1 vehicle to every 1.6 person in the country. But I believe the figure in the Klang Valley is very much higher. Drive along any housing estate and you can see that an average house has 2 or 3 cars parked in their driveway. In the bungalows area, you find that the average is about 5 cars per household. No wonder there are jams aplenty.

However, many local authorities when approving plan require car parks provisions when their target is to encourage lesser cars coming to the cities. We should learn for the developed countries that all project contribute to the public transport improvement fund by levying the developer according to the net area developed - not asking them to provide car parks. When there are no car parks in the cities, then people will think twice before bringing their cars into the cities. Build more park and ride facilites in the suburbs.

Is a Fine Sufficient Redress for Zakaria Mat Deros

The Selangor Menteri Besar was recently quoted as saying that the law provides those in breach of its by-laws could only be compounded. Therefore in Zakaria's case, there is little else the Local Authority could do..

Under the country's Town and Country Planning Act 1976, anybody who carries out development, even a single bungalow, must have planning permission for the development. The law also provides that owners of surrounding premises must be allowed to air their objections to such development. In this case, the area is designated a low cost housing zone. Were the owners of the surrounding premises consulted, and were their views taken into account prior to permission given?

Section 20 of the Act provides that if planning permission has been given, the person cannot start development work( even building) before he complies with the conditions of such permission. If he start work prior to, or before he complies with the requirements of such permission, meaning before plans are submitted criminal proceedings can be taken aginst such land owners. If the criminal proceeding ends in a conviction, the land owners concerned may be fined not exceedong RM500,00 or ajail term not exceeding 2 years, or both.

Other than the Town and Country Planning Act, there is also the Roads, Drains and Building Act 1974. Under Section 70 of the Act, no person shall build a building unless he has a written approval from the local authority. If a building or a structure has been built prior to permission, the local authority can, under Section 72(1), demolish such illegal structures if the owner refuses to do the same.

The local authority inthis case demolish a stall built by the common trader but chose to do nothing to a magestice istana built by polotixcians. Are ther above the law?

The Fallacious Philosophy of a Flippant Fellow

This is reproduced in toto from the PWD Magazine of the Federation of Malaya 1959
which I got from the Shah Alam flea marlet last Sunday. It's titled:

THE FALLACIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF A FLIPPANT FELLOW
(not to be read by anyone below the rank of Superscale E)

by G.H. Caldicott

As an Assistant Enginee
I cared for rank no jot
At the big wids I would sneer
For what to me seems crystal clear
Puzzled them a lot

When an E.E. I became
I still shewed no respect
For grizzled experts at the game
I scorned the S.E. when he came
My district to inspect

When seniority I acquired
I began to have doubts
For the S.E oft I wired
Listened to his words inspired
Welcome them with shouts

When I reached the ranks of S.E.
(This makes shameful hearing)
I was then a V.I.P.
But I consulted an S.E.E.
On matters engineering

You'll guess by simple inference
When I left that rank behind
Though treated with great reverence
I'd hold a full scale conference
Ere making up my mind

The moral of the tale, one sees
(Here I may be quoted)
Directors know less than A.Es
Who could do their jobs with ease
And to them be promoted

Blogger's note: How very true!!!

Men are afraid of their wives

Men are afraid of their wives.

A survey conducted on ten men proved this is true.

Ten men were picked randomly and a survey was conducted. Those who are afraid of their wives were requested to stand on the left, those who are not to stand on the right.

Eight stood on the left, one stood on the right and one stood in between, neither left nor right.

When asked why he stood in the middle, he replied that his wife had not told him where to stand. As for the one who stood on the right when asked why he stood on the right, the man replied that his wife always told him to be away from crowded places!!

No Maintenance Policy

It is in all major papers today.Millions of ringgit are wasted due to poor maintenance of public buildings and utilitiles.

Well, this is nothing new. Malaysia never had a policy for maintenance. What they have is breakdown repair policy, that is you use a facility until it breaks down, then get a provision for either repair of replacement. Nevermind the downtime or consequential loss in productivity.

Part of this is due to our procurement policies to get the cheapest! When we as consultants recommend the suitable tenderer, we are often sarcastically asked: if the contractor say he can do the job, why is the consultant recommending the higher cost tender.

The law of business is that nothing in this world if free. If you think air and water is free, well, think again. When you pay less for something, you get what you pay for: poor materials, shoddy workmanship and inferior products. Then you have to spend further to make the facility work in the manner you want it to. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys working for you. You cant ask for a mercedes and only be willing to pay for a proton!

Lets hope the PM's advise is an eye opener in planning our building and public amenities. Let there be a campaign for awareness that if we painstakingly maintain our facilities, it will serve us for longer years to come.

Al-Fatihah untuk Tan Sri Dr. Haji Nordin Sopiee

Tan Sri Dr Haji Nordin Sopiee passed away yesterday at the Gleneagles Hospital of thyroid cancer. He was 61. I met the late Tan Sri while performing the umrah in 1986 and has kept myself informed of his rise to stature since. He played a vital role in drafting the Vision 2020 policy, proposed the idea of a National Economic Action Council, the body which played a key role in charting policies during the financial crisis and was architect of the Knowledge Economy Master Plan
AlFatihah, dan semoga ia dihimpun bersama orang-orang yang salih.

Affin Bank Berhad V Zulkifli Abdullah (HCM 2005)
(as reported in the NST 30/12/2005)

The high Court made a landmark judgement yesterday on whether a person who has taken a loan through the Islamic banking (name only) Al-Bai Bithaman Ajil loan facility is liable to the entire amount that he has "akaded".

Fact of the case is that in 1997 Zulkifli Abdullah took an Islamic loan facility for an amount of RM346,000 for the purchase of an end lot terrace house. The amount he had consented at the akad was RM959,000, divided into eqaul installment over 18 years or 216 monthly payments. When he defaulted in the payment, the bank sued for default in the amount that he had "akaded".

Justice Abdul Wahab Patail, in reducing the debt by some RM376,000, noted that the consequence of defaulting on an Islamic loan facility is far more burdensome on the borrower than a conventional loan. He ordered the house to be auctioned under the National Land Code (forfeiture) to recover RM582,000 instead of RM959,000 as sought by the bank.

The learned judge said the issue before the court was the amount a customer has to pay to the provider of the facility in the event of a default after having paid his installments. He said the reason for the difference was that in the event of a default before the end of a tenure in a conventional loan, the amount to be paid over and above the borrowed sum is the interest and late payment charges limited form the period the facility was released until full settlement.

The Judge cited two previous cases in the High Court involving similar Islamic banking facility to arrive at his decision, one for an amount of RM265,000 and another for an amount of RM150,000.

In the words of the learned Judge: When the gratification of being able to satisfy the pious desire to avoid financing containing the element of riba gives way to the sorrow of default before the end of the tenure of the facility, the revelation that even after the security had been auctioned off at full market value, there remain a substantial sum owing to the bank, comes as a startling surprise. This is more shocking when iot is further realised that a borrower under a conventional bank was far better off. To allow the bank to recover the"profits" for the unexpired tenure of the facility would mean the bank was able to earn a profit twice upon the same sum at the same time.

"That profit continued to be charged on the unexpired part of the tenure cannot be actual profit. It is actually unearned profits. It contradicts the principle of Al-Bai Bithaman Ajil as to the profit margin that the provider is entitled to. Obviously as the profit has not been earned it is not profit and cannot be claimed under the facility.

He ordered tha house be auctioned off on March 29 and the bank is entitled to earn RM98.54 per day profit until full settlement of the loan.

Scale of fees or Free for All

The livelihhod of professional have never been challenged to the extent we are facing now. Professionals, especially in the building industry not only have to face declining job numbers, but their fees are also being compromised! Realising that the situation need to be checked before things get out of hand, several professional boards have got together to emphasize the need to stick to a scale of fees, or a minimum scale of fees, whatever the case may be.

Professional services are intellectual and creative products, not commodities that can be subjected to bargains. The purpose of a scale of fee is to set a benchmark to establish an equitabe level of remunerations for professionals, commensurate with the level of intellectual input and establish professional standards.

The Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia ( http:/www.jkr.gov.my/ljbm or www.bqsm.gov.my ) is in the process of gazetting the new rules, which inter alia, will contain the new scale of fees. The gazette will be made under PU (A), meaning that the Board can now take action on those consulting quantity surveyors who did not charge according to the scale of fees. When the new rules comes in force, hopefully fee cutting will be a thing of the past.

Recovering password

The process of recovering a password is terrible.... hope they can improve on that