One Win and One Loss

THE WIN

Man Utd won the UEFA Championship over unlucky Chelsea on penalties on Thursday morning. I had to make a trip to Kedah and Perlis on Thursday morning but how can I miss the last game of the season? So I ended having only 1 hour of sleep before the trip as the game went to extra time and then penalties.

It was a tense affair. Man Utd should have wrapped up the game in the first half when Chelsea was totally outplayed. Only Peter Cech was lucky to make some excellent reflex saves which prevented Man Utd from being a few goals up before the first half was over. Just before the half time whistle, Lampard got lucky when a shot towards goal was deflected twice before it reached him and he shot passed a stranded Van der Sar.

The second half was basically Chelsea's and they had two shots hitting the post and the bar. The extra time was also evenly contested but Man Utd was unlucky to see Giggs' attempt headed away by John Terry at the last minute.

The penalty shoot out was another event altogether when MU's top scorer of the season, Ronaldo, who had scored 42 goals made a feeble attempt which was well saved by Cech. All seemed lost for MU when Terry stepped up to take his penalty. Had he scored, Chelsea would have been champions. But he slipped just before making his kick and the ball shaved the outside post. Two attempts later, Van De Sar saved a shot from Anelka and MU had a memorable double season.

THE LOSS

The International Court of Justice decided that Pulau Batu Putih belonged to Singapore. How did that happened? I thought the whole area in the region (including Singapore) belonged to Malaysia. So how can a state the that chose to quit Malaysia in 1963 managed to claim land that is clearly closer to Malaysia than to Singapore?

My first thoughts (they maybe wrong) on why we lost include the following:

1. We did not send our best legal team to fight our case. I heard an inexperienced lawyer was part of team just because she was a daughter of somebody "important"
2. Our team failed to a good research job. For example they used a photo from a newly created and unverified website to support its case.
3. Somebody or a group just screwed up

Since we have agreed to honor the decision of the ICJ we have no choice but to do just that, respect the decision and hand over the "rock" to its owner.

But we must show that we are a sovereign country able to act for the sake of its people. We have to take steps to show that we are no push overs. We may have lost a disputed land but in our country, every one better respect our laws. So, I suggest that we take the following steps:

1. All non-Malaysian registered vehicles coming into our country must pay a levy of at least RM100 per entry for using our roads, causing congestions, pollution etc
2. All lorries taking goods out of the country should be charged a levy of at least RM500 per trip. All lorries coming into the country should be charged a similar amount. Empty lorries should be chaged half the rate for a loaded lorry
3. Non-Malaysian registered vehicles should not be allowed to purchase subsidized petrol as the subsidy come from Malaysian taxpayers
4. All acts of showing disrespect towards our country should be dealt in the most stringent manner. For example, any incursion into Malaysia's air space should be dealt with firmly including reporting the matter to the UN. If not in a few years, these foreigners will use the excuse that since we did not demonstrate our rights we seemed to have consented to their actions.
5. Review all agreements that were entered into during the time when a certain state was part of our country. Of course, those agreements were very favourable to a member state but it is not reflective of the prevailing market rates but was merely a federal government gift to a state government.

I hope the government acts like our government who has OUR interests at heart.

I'm pissed off