Wednesday, June 07, 2006

dont they use credit card ?

Did you ever notice that kwai lou in Malaysia buy things with cash ? I’ve never seen one that buys with a credit card.

Don’t believe, go over to ikea in the morning, just when they open, why, don’t you know the expatriate in this country go to our shopping malls early, before the KL mad rush starts. If you visit jusco at 10.00 in the morning, chances are there will be a lot of Japanese there doing their grocery shopping. Same goes for ikea.

Anyway, you might think it’s a few hundred RM, maybe 100-200. no I tell you. I saw a man bought things worth up to Rm800, the man paid in cash. In carrefour, I saw a man took out a stack of 100 bills to pay for Rm600 worth of beers. Maybe you say hundreds only. I say no again, I saw a man at ace hardware buying a bbq stove, you know those big one the size of a kancil, it was like RM3,000++, the man paid in cash.

Are this kwai lou telling us something that we don’t know yet ? my guess is they felt the Rm is junk, and they have no intention of keeping any of it.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

what's wrong with buying in cash when you have them? it saves the hastle of of having to pay credit card bills later and the possibility of getting into debt with over swiping. I'm no kwai lou, nor loaded, but I buy in cash whenever I can. It's not treating money as junk, it's just wise spending. When you see the cash, you just don't spend as much coz it's so easy to swipe the cc.

Anonymous said...

1. they have the ca$h, load$ of them
2. banks dun offer credit cards to ang mo's. (use to work in a bank)

Anonymous said...

Our Malaysia BN government is racist, corrupted and apartheid. Decisions are made for a few and a specific group and not for the masses. Period.

40 years ago Singapore left Malaysia. A little red dot with no natural resources has become a country which enables its citizens to average a per capita income six times that of Malaysia, based on foreign exchange rate.

The success story was made possible because the civil servants of Singapore are not corrupted, the ministers are not corrupted, and also the police are not corrupted.

Ministers in Malaysia may be paid RM300000 a year, but they live in palatial dwellings. Apparently, the ministers here only do part time job for their positions, and spend the rest of the time doing business. Is there no rule to prohibit minister doing business?

If there is, then it is easy enough to check whether their salaries and allowances could provide them the wealth and lifestyle. If not, then there is clear evidence of moonlighting.

Even though Malaysia ministers are paid maybe one-sixth that of their Singapore counterparts, Malaysia ministers are really Boleh in accumulating wealth. Either they earn it themselves, or they have especially gifted siblings or off-springs.

Without substantial inheritance to start with, there are many siblings and off-springs of past and current ministers who have accumulated hundreds of millions or billions in matter of years.

When ministers have such rich relatives, they are naturally surprised that price increase in ringgit and sen should arouse those "uncalled for reactions" such as what happened last time. The incident was a threat to the "Semuanya ok" image of Malaysia and had to be dealt with sternly.

If only Malaysia had uncorrupt-able ministers, then with our natural resources we should have at least the same level of per capita income as Singapore. If only the people subscribed to Malaysian Malaysia back then, we will not have to be so concerned about the price increase now.

Due to poor financial management of previous leader, the old man, the current government is running in deficit, thus the increase and change lifestyle. Most of the thing we buy today is not value for money.

A crooked people will vote for government that build crooked bridge. So as a corrupted people will vote for corrupt government. It is democracy, incompetence government reflects its incapable people. Wake up, Malaysians.

Most of government's subsidies were channeled back to support those Ali babas, corporate bailouts for MAS and Proton, cronies, lazy-to-work entrepreneurs, university students with few As, and etc.

What is the use of saving government subsidies on oil? So that Umno leaders can buy more luxury cars and feed their cronies?

This is the corrupted lifestyle of BN politicians and their cronies. They should change their lifestyle first before asking the people to change! They are doing unimaginable damage to this country and its future through their arrogance, corruption, and sheer incompetence!

50 years is enough because we do not choose you to tell us "change our lifestyle". The BN government is not admitting its mistake in mismanagement of public fund.

Najib and all Umno leaders are living in a different world altogether. They do not have the slightest inkling about the pains the people have to bear. They are filthy rich. Without empathy, how can the leaders think of the sufferings of the people!

How many more years do we have to put up with this shitty thing call BN. Gosh……….50 years is damn long, enough is enough.

Yes, let us change lifestyle once and for all by changing the government - that make perfect sense.

Anonymous said...

This race stereotyping is actually the work of the present day government, headed by the Umno racist using race and religion as a tool to stay in power.

The native of this land a.k.a. son of the soil are the Orang Asli (Dayak, Jakun, Sakai, etc) in Peninsula and the natives (Dusun, Iban, Kadazan, etc) of Borneo. Not you malays arrogant pieces of shit!

Before the arrival of Islam into Malaya, the different races live in harmony without questioning religion or race . They may be cultural different but they accepted each other.

After independence, race was used by the Umno racist, and then formulated the NEP, which divided everyone. The Umno fascist use Islam in schools, universities and workplace to segregate, and in the name of fighting PAS.

The modus operandi of Umno has always be, divide and rule, and the devil is in the details and implementation of the religious department.

Umno is king creating diversion when they are cornered, use race and religion. Race and religion is the most explosive issues and they have used it successfully since independence.

All this is done to perpetuate their hold on political power. It is to Umno benefits to play the race card, because this is the only way to ensure their hold on to political power. And 50 long years have proven them right. The race card works well and works every time!

They have succeeded in keeping the races apart socially, and fanned animosity amongst the races with their racist and discriminatory politics.

All give politically reasoning - well here goes a correct one - malay is lazy because of Islam.

How can one pray 5 times and yet be expected to be productive? Wait for the foreigners to come and set up their factory and having to cater for Islam needs!

If malays embrace other religion then there is hope for Malaysia……….otherwise your hope is in the existence of Umno terrorist liars - don't count on them being there forever - we are factoring in Umno racist absence in our business plan!

The problem with malays is that they forget too easily. It was the Chinese, Indians and Malays who fought for the independence.

The NEP was design to help malays catch up with the Chinese and the Indians. Now looks like after 40 years, the malays are still behind and very proud of it.

Still want to receive handouts from the government! Still afraid to fight it out on fair ground with the Chinese, Indians and the other races! Fearful is the malay race!

Without the government subsidies and support - I don't know how many malay businesses will still stand? So when can we see some towering malays and who dare to refuse government help and still succeed? Grabbing other people success and call it your own success is not success but a disgrace!

Their laziness caused the nation's economy to slump and resources are wasted. They take 5 days to complete a day work. Malays always think that they are helping the other races when they are lazy. For God sake, please wake up! You are doing it for your own, not for anybody!

Majority of the nation need to be educated again. On the meaning of Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

I am currently studying in Australia. I managed to get friends from China and Taiwan who are here to learn English. I am proud to say that I am able to communicate with them in their mother tongue.

All sorts of discrimination exist in our Malaysia nation and actively practised by our government. Discrimination is our way of life and heritage sustained by our government.

Don't you see in our national papers many advertisements on 5% discount given only to so-called economically disadvantaged malay buyers to buy RM3 million to RM5 million bungalows?

Najib knows this, otherwise he does not deserved to be our deputy PM. How dare he wants certain people to stop practising discrimination? That will be double standards and discriminating against people who follow the mainstream practice of discrimination!

Like the saying goes, mother crab is trying to teach young crabs on how to walk straight!

We should redefine what is the meaning of national universities! A national university is the university by the people, for the people and of the people!

Talk about discrimination, this is what we should do - but is Malaysia ready for such a cultural revolution? Me think it will take at least 2 generations (40/50years). Similar with education, you can't change it overnight, it takes time up to ten years minimum.

No wonder we are never near in any top rank world-class universities that would possibly produce prospective Nobel laureate.

I doubt if there is anyone who can fight with the "invicible hand" in this highly-globalize era. Countries, e.g. North Korea, Laos or maybe Ghana may able to do so by eliminating any international collaboration.

For the sake of Malaysian, please don't head us to this kind of circumstances. No one can close the door and do business internally.

Anonymous said...

Racism is always the weapon.

Umno use Chinese as enemy to unite malays, just like unite Malaysians against Singaporeans. Hopefully, the younger generation malays learn the truth and not be blind by them.

I think all BN Chinese party is shit-head who are just Umno lap dog. Wagging tail as Umno speak. Pathetic.

Government only pays to built mosque, have they ever pay a cent to built temple or church! Malaysians do have freedom of religion but to what extent? I think we all know how "true" is that.

The racism will always stay because Umno is so one sided even though they say they treat all races equal.

The politicians want the public to keep feeling a bit jealous, hatred of each others. They lied to the public in believing the need of NEP by showing biased statistic. How many others actually benefit from it?

What their leader did actually does not benefit the malay community as a whole, only the rich and connected malays.

Public listed companies must have at least 30% hold by malays. Indeed in reality the percentage is higher, but why the malay community is still lagging? Who can be part of the 30%? The rich and connected malays? Yes!

The politicians are afraid that if the public united and "forced" BN (or should we say Umno) out of political field.

Yes, any politicians that continue to play the racist card - Beware! Your days are numbered!

If anything, the malay race's main downfall is their inability to compete without crutches. Say what you will against the Chinese and Indians, but unless the malays look upon ourselves in the mirror, we shall see who our "real" enemies are.

Best thing is Malaysia history being altered to say all hero in Malaysia are only malays. Pathetic! This will only further split all of us.

If they managed to unfortunately cause another race riot, do you think at the end of the day - life will be better for the malays? The answer is no - race riot or tension is like a civil war - it weaken the country and invite outside interference.

Malaysia to be developed status is a joke in year 2020. Developed status is not on economically but politically and socially.

I am glad, reading through the replies that there are some sane, rational malays, but I am also saddened and frightened and most of all, amazed by the sheer bigotry and shallowness of some of the people here.

Those who feel hurt and challenged should not just sit back and complain, stand up and do something about it.

We are fellow countrymen should stand up and achieve our visions together.

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am a Malaysian Chinese and yes, these racial discrimination things really happening now in Malaysia.

I think I will emigrate to other countries too later on. God bless the rest of us minority! And I beg to the international community to pressure our government to stop this racial discrimination.

The Malaysia government should be ashamed of itself. These policies are more akin to some Nazi state than a democratic country. I sure feel fortunate not to have been born in such a country where races divide rather than unite the people.

As a Malaysian Chinese sadly I need to say we can't do any shit about it, I wish I can just run to Singapore and stay there.

Trust me, it is not use ranting here. Malays are very tribal and they might consider you a friend if you are Muslim. Otherwise sorry, you just have to get used to second class.

I am sick of their attitude and my father was a victim of malay politics. Basically the corporation which used to earn billion dollars of profit now is losing millions every year.

Malaysia Airlines is following suit too and I am sure many people who received the "insider email" know what happened.

I am just sick of it you know. I want our country to flourish and these racists are here treating everybody else as outsider and enemies. Tolerance? We tolerate them more than they tolerate us.

So I left the country. Outside Malaysia, not many Malaysian malays can survive - the harsh reality of working to survive rather than being spoon-fed.

They can tell everybody else to "get out of the country" as usual and so I did. And when the time come Malaysia will become like Indonesia and I hope they enjoy a country with 100% tribal malays.

Such a waste and pity. A country with so much potential but they just can't get over their tribal mindset.

Everyone should stop flaming malays, come on, their body so smelly, the don't eat pork but much more stupid than a pig, their face so ugly, their music and movie all third rated lame ass stuff, they can't even eat food without having other people feeding them, how come you guys keep flaming the malays, be more considerable, they already having a miserable life now.

Look at the state of mistrust among the races. There is no unity.

It is the mentality of the people that we should be more concerned about. Only when the individual changes, can the community change, can the society change, can the government that represents this society change - for the better.

Racism is a cancer. Until we rid of it, nobody whether Chinese, Indian or Malay can prosper in this country.

Truth hurts but truth really prevails……….this country sucks!

Anonymous said...

Just don't ask the professionals to come back and say that Malaysia is home country since we are just - penumpang.

Nice speech there……….Did Singapore pay you for that? Because you are encouraging people to go to Singapore and never look back.

You will see an exodus of people going to Singapore and Singapore will thank Malaysia for being the surrogate mother for 12 years (free education from Standard 1 - Form 6).

Singapore is not a natural country but man-made, a trading post the British has developed into a nodal point in their worldwide maritime empire - they inherited the island without its hinterland, like a heart without a body. Don't get me? Ok.

Managing Singapore is easy? You must be kidding me. Try to read up on the history of Singapore when they first leave Malaysia to go their own way with no signposts to their next destination.

They had to build up an army from scratch, and the British had made no offer to help. They need to prevent massive unemployment when British wanted to pull out. No financial centre at the beginning, messed up the general election, the communist self-destruct was even scary……….

My history probably get the facts wrong, but what I know is that the Singapore we see today - shining, rich and modern was a poor, decrepit, colony once.

The Chinese and Indians have been in Malaysia for more than a hundred years but still some people think they are second class immigrants, not even full fledged citizens.

Let me ask you a question. If you say that the other races are second class, why collect the same amount of taxes from them? Why not has a separate taxing system for the different races? If a race contributes more to the country income, I can understand if the government decides to give that race special rights and privileges.

Otherwise, it is a silly policy that will make us lose out in the global competitive environment. How do you compete with another country, say Singapore, when you have a steady decline of human resources (the educated and technical population) to the other country? Singapore become first world within one generation. Where are we now?

It seems that they are contented by the fact that we are the leader of third world countries. Nothing to be proud of - actually - but that is their mentality……….

To be honest, I rather see Malaysia economic die than see people been unequal because of their race. Most of us here are eligible to vote, so say no to Umno and their BN bullshit. MCA, MIC are Umno's puppet.

Show me a malay who has more than 9 A1s in SPM who was turned away in his application for scholarship, and I will show you 20 non-malays in the same situation.

I wish the pro-malay special rights people could step into a non-malay shoe for one day and taste life in Malaysia.

I will just leave. Sooner or later, they are going to realize the massive brain drain - in fact they already have.

Anonymous said...

Most of my family on my mother side resides in Malaysia and I have been there many times. I think that many of these facts are true, but from what I see when I am in Malaysia is that, most the Malaysia economy is dependant on the Chinese population.

I have no empirical data on this but my observation is that the Chinese population is harder working and more entrepreneurial on average than the malay population.

I not reside in Malaysia and yes - most of the comments posted, if not all are true. We even call it here as the "crutch" - the government use to help the malays walk.

The government has the intention of dominating profitable businesses in this country. They even use the taxpayers money to save ailing malay government-linked companies, e.g. MAS (the national airline) with losses of over RM1 billion.

I guess much of this has something to do with the fact that most malays are jealous of the business acumen of Malaysian Chinese businessmen. It is our taxpayers money, for goodness sake!

Scholarships in local universities for deserving non-malays, especially the Malaysian Chinese people are always denied whereas the number of malay students (regardless of socio-economic status) with average results being sent overseas in thousands for expensive tertiary education, is increasing year by year. Meritocracy is definitely not practised by the government here.

On the outside the Malaysia society is in racial harmony. But deep down there is discontent amongst the Chinese and Indian community in Malaysia toward the government pro-malay policies.

It is just that we can't do anything because we are the suppressed minority as malays make up 60% of the total population whereas other races only constitute about 40%.

The malays are generally (not all of them) full of pride of their own race to an extreme and are emotional people.

I reckon bloodshed would happen if we were to openly and publicly oppose the ruling government. It has happened in Malaysia in the 1960s, where many Chinese in Malaysia have fought against the malays and died in the process for equal rights and treatment.

Maybe it will happen again in the future, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of history repeating itself.

Other than that, our representatives in the parliament are nothing but a bunch of bustards, that are placing more importance in debating aloud about making bow ties compulsory in the parliament and making countless other stupid comments, instead of discussing important issues like how to increase productivity and such.

Could any of you readers out there tell me what the very country is this? I just don't understand why we are paying these people through our taxpayers money. It is obvious that they are not doing their job.

It is just that the minorities here in Malaysia have to work harder than the malays to earn a decent living due to denied opportunities and unequal treatment. I am pretty sure liberal countries would help the minority but it is the other way round in Malaysia.

I am a Malaysian, I was born and brought up here, I have many a sweet memory in Malaysia, but due to all these factors, I just can't bring myself to shout out "Malaysia, I love you!"

I have nothing against my malay friends. They were lucky to be born into Malaysia. It is the government that is the root of all problems. It is dumbfuck pathetic. Let the truth be open to the world.

So I hope that the Malaysia government will learn from the history lessons - had to learn the hard way and, treasure their economically very active minorities and try to keep them in the country.

By the way, I am not Chinese. My grandmother is Chinese but my grandfather is from a mixed European-Indian background and my father is white. I am not putting the races against each other, I am just stating my honest observation from my numerous visits to Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

Indirect employment discrimination based on racism is not something new in Malaysia and it tends to grow rapidly day by day. This will eventually lead to an uncompetitive situation for the organisation in the long run as the best talents are not sourced for the particular position advertised.

Najib request for the private sector to stop Mandarin-language discrimination shows how poorly informed he is about the way the Chinese are balancing the discrimination of the government against them by hiring their own people.

'Oh, my god.' I said to myself.

Who is perpetrating the big discrimination against Malaysians of Chinese origin here? How do we feel when all around us we see 'For bumis only'?

Such hypocrisy is so easy to forget when you are not the victim and so nice to enjoy when you are one of those in positions of superiority.

Apart from that, the Mandarin language is the world's most spoken language and with China emergence as a global market, it is imperative that we learn and equip ourselves with Mandarin.

I am working for a MNC in Manchester and the whites here (who are very proud of their English) has recognised that Mandarin is an important business language and are urging their staff to learn the language.

The current Malaysian government needs to change their attitude first with regards to discrimination before requesting someone else to do so.

Anonymous said...

Yes, certainly a change in lifestyle is needed. But a change in the management of our country's wealth from the abundant natural resources seems to be a more effective medicine than merely changing one's lifestyle.

Hey whilst having a dream to live in Australia is indeed good, don't forget that those who screw us all these while will be there too. They have mansions and yachts everywhere.

So wherever you go these people will still haunt you for the rest of your life. Again I m saying this, in other parts of the world there are natural disasters to destroy the nation but in Malaysia we have these numbskulls. Maybe God is just being fair.

Yes, I agree Australia is a Utopia because people manage the resources of the country well.

Australia is definitely the place to be for living a high quality life with everything you need. Was studying there for a couple of years and definitely would like to relocate there.

Seriously……….besides the good food, natural resources, some amazing friends and relatives, and (used-to-be) beautiful islands, I don't see anything that wonderful about this screwed up country run by screwed up people.

I give up. Period.

Anonymous said...

Exactly, a government change is what we need, not a lifestyle change as suggested by our idiotic money sucking Najib. We have the biggest cabinet in the world (where - Malaysia Book of Records!). And with every problem up pops a cabinet committee. For that also we have the most in the world.

Ah, this really is Bolehland, everything also can. Shake head……….

In previous BN government, there always had been widespread corruption and come election season, they will hand out sweeteners to the voters who will happily cross the box beside despite complaining about the government for the previous 5 years.

But I am under the impression that this is the first time these BN politicians (including their local councils) are showing the irony of spending lavishly and yet tell the people to buck up. Am I correct, everyone?

In Malaysia, the purchasing power of the whole country seems to be going into the drain together uniformly. From the economical meltdown until these days, have you seen any significant recovery yet?

My point of view is, I see the economy becoming even more stagnant and dying a slow death in Malaysia. Hence the sinking purchasing power all over the country. Coupled with competitive markets from neighbouring countries life sure is getting harder.

The government however played active ineffective roles to 'help' the situation. Everybody knows they are trying to divert the funds to save their arise in their so-called businesses when Soros began the assault.

This is where a lot of the tax money has gone to. But it didn't help because of corruptions and more money spent on useless mega projects - hence the wealth of the country is once again being abused time and again.

So with the raise of petrol cost are they still expecting the people to just sit idly by and let them be trampled with? We are drilling petrol for goodness sake, and to have things so expensive flinging at us is just bullshit……….I don't know what to say.

Do you really think we are lucky? Yes, if you want to compare it to Africa. But look - our country actually have money. But where did they all go?

Alright so now is your chance to change, in the next election. Many people get carried away by the 'buying' over tactics used by BN. If the next election the BN (robbers) still win big, then the people do deserved to be punished.

The amount of taxpayers money they wasted on those mega projects are not even funny if you calculate it. The amount of money they spent for their lavish lifestyle is ridiculous.

It all boils down to the productivity, the real income per head. In Malaysia, one person works, and many parasites have to suck from him.

Now Pak Lah says with the 9th Malaysian Plan to be materialized, they need to increase the civil servants by a certain number. Come on, we have already had enough parasites and yet more has to be added on because of the problem of the unemployable graduates.

We have a king size cabinet and yet we have to increase the already oversized civil servants further. How not to get our purchasing power shrinking!

Who else you want to blame! After living on handouts for lots years or maybe after a couple of generations how to change.

Sigh loudly……….felt so sorry for this country.

Perhaps we should convey this to the people who are not reading this matter or have so little knowledge about what is really going on in our country.

Anonymous said...

Gwailo won't use credit card here because Malaysia is one of the top 5 listed country for credit card fraud. (2nd only to indonesia here).

The credit card companies from their own country will most likely flag their purchases with alarm.

And also the fact that credit card fraud IS prevalent in this f*ck up country, it makes sense to never use it here in retail.

You're more likely to get your card misused offline in Malaysia than buying stuff online in the internet.

Even I myself will not use my credit card in the retail sector here, no fucking way will I risk having my card cloned by the pariahs that roam this country by the herds.

ducky said...

leona of course it is better to use cash, if you carry that much all the time ! and if you have that much to spent.

i see, bank dun offer credit card to ang moh, ok, thanks.

ok ok card frauds and all. so you dont use your credit card in malaysia, so you use it overseas only ? but better credit cards banks do call you if you spent on non-normal habit, like the first time i pay online for air-asia ticket and streamyx, stan-chart called me to confirmed.

inevitable said...

ducky - I think there is a racist in this comment section. I think u better moderate/delete those comments just in case some big shots are reading this. Might land u in hot water...

Anonymous said...

ducky!! i am very interested to know what u have to say about Tun M and Pak Lah's feud!

ducky said...

are these spam comments ? i dun think so right ? what are this then ? cut & paste comments ? i think its like lost comments that belongs to jeff or kitsiang blog instead of mine.

interested to know old tun & pak lah's tug o war ? so do i, get a name and i might just do that.

Anonymous said...

I am no kwai lou, but I prefer to just use cash if I have them. No need the hassle of paying the credit card bills later.