theSun - 2-3 April 2005

a little bit of highlights on the latest issue for theSun.

cover page: No business like show business.
verdict: the title is pretty attractive because it deals with the entertaintment industry. Even free newspaper like theSun worries about losing popularity.

there are few articles I've read with great interest. the rest of it just didn't catch my attention.
1. Blind trainers aim to inspire.
Verdict: Few blinds, after years of harwork in the local varsity, eventually graduated with various degree from U.M have joined effort to start up a training business called the Practical Learning Services. Their mission is into human development and personal growth programmes.
Email: practical_ls@yahoo.com
Address: 94-B, Jln Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields
Contact: 03-2272 4959/ 1442
2. On MCA, Utar and more.
Verdict: Interview with Tun Lim Liong Sik.
Tun Lim Liong Sik explained the reason being him as the longest serving party president is that immediately he took over, the solved the following crisis faced by chinese community and politics.
2a. MCA building was going under receivership, owing millions. Interest monthly amounted to RM400
2b. The cooperatives was failing, hundreds of thousands of depositors were crying.
2c. The start nearly went into receivership.
Then, he shared the trade secret into building TARC with limited funds.
First of all, negotiated with Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew to have 20 acres of land for 10.90 per square fit. (The price then was RM15 per sq feet). Now the land worth RM50 per sq feet, thanks to the present of the college. (This is property)
Then as he and his team got smarter, they negotiate a new deal at Johor for not paying based on the reason that the price of the land will be increased after the college been setup.
Then came Utar, their negotiation confidence increased to the next level, that time, they could aks for free land plus RM5 million(to build the college) as goodwill for their intention. And finally, they paid 1300 acres * RM 800 (per acres) for the UTAR campus in perak. What happened to the free deal ? I guess it is give and take..
Then another thing he stressed was the lack of funding for UTAR operations, which now solely dependent on student fees. The fund for building it had been solved at RM 200 mil contribution from the community.He is looking into solutions, to get funding by teaming up foreign university such as University of Abertya Dundee(world biggest computing research on video and virtual game) and University of Warwick wher its yearly research yield some RM500 mil of income. So he plan to channel this money into UTAR, by using manpower from those universities. Because the payroll would not need to be settled by UTAR if it is visiting professor. So this is bad news for local budding lecturers, they might need to apply for job at the other side in order to teach here.
The rest of the talk were pretty much boring.. he closed the conversation by lobbying for bangsa Malaysia concept and praise of God.
3. Title: No business like show business.
verdict: Local film makers express plight over funding problems. The latest hot-topic; Sepet cost RM400k to be produced and they investor had to sell of cars and etc. They managed to receive funding from Nation Film Development Corp(FINAS) eventually, after one year. They also expressed plight over the cencorship board. Their claims were that news showed violence images sometimes while local movies only and sometimes show soft porn. According to Finas, there is a 37.5% increase in local film development. The average profit for one movie is around 0.5 to 1 mil in Ringgit last year.
4. Title: Somke rings around small cigarette packs.
verdict: I particularly respect this author; R. Nadeswaran who described the cigarette boy has being so rich that aside from T.V advertising, they could also spent on below-the-line advertising (means underlying advertising..something which is not made public), sponsorship and etc. But he could be a smoker because he ended by querying the government decision to extend the postponing of ban on small cigarette packs to another year. So he is implying how they(cigarette boys) did it ? u know what i mean. Then he continue to other issue, citing New Zealand petroluem increased of 5 cents as petrol tax with reason to build better roads. He predicted and challenge the local government would use the same technique of increasing tax when there are other means of collecting money from the tolls and etc. He ended with "Is that something for our leaders to chew on?" Finally, he concluded with an Australian issue where MP's husband was found to have stake in a highway company. The husband claimed that he invest in it because he was pushing for opposition of tolls being charged on the road. He used it as an alibi and given reason that even law-maker broke the law by saying "sometimes you wonder if lawmakers live up to their claims of working for people or are just here for the share of financial spoils. He means that law-maker is more guilty than him for being corrupted because they know the twist out.
5.Title:Doping atheletes to win medals.
Verdict: Before the break down of berlin wall, there is a great urge by the communist-loyal to prove to the world that communism stands at the first spot. Their attempts was to have excellence results on the olympics, but giving olympian potential steroid doping, which consists of high testosterone and evetually transfored woman into man.