3 posts tagged “malaysia”
... some phones are more equal than others. Tri-band GSM phones sold in the United States, yours truly included, operate at frequencies of 850/1800/1900 MHz, while those sold in Europe and Asia have the 850 MHz replaced with 900 MHz.
Result? Coverage can be uneven if the cellular operator has a mixture of 850/900 and 1800/1900 MHz transmitters. Which, apparently, Maxis does in Malaysia. There are areas where my phone gets a signal strength of low-to-none, especially in lower floors of tall buildings, or the outskirts of KL.
It is most ironic when such a thing happen near Maxis service centres, like the one at KLCC (a.k.a. Twin Towers)..
As reported by Unspun, Malaysian blogger Mat Salo is feeling the heat from recent Indonesian coverage of Malaysian religious freedom:
His main target is Badawi’s Islam Hadhari, with Luthfi stressing the concept to be flawed, and preceded to shred two of the “Ten principles of Islam Hadhari”, namely:
Luthfi stated various recent examples to back his argument, and include “the conversion issues”
- Freedom and independence for the people
- Protection of the rights of minority groups
summarizing with
Wow, this is all heady stuff. On the one hand, Luthfi appeared to be right. But are they, really?
But for Luthfi’s essay to appear on the influential editorial page of Indonesia’s premier English broadsheet means Badawi’s Islam Hadhari is being watched very closely by its neighbor Indonesia, which may or may not spell anything on the diplomatic front.
Is the criticism justified? In this case, I think it is. As I commented on Unspun:
When it comes to the legal status of Islam, Indonesia is certainly a more liberal country than Malaysia, though getting a mixed marriage recognised is getting slightly harder (due to the belated application of the 1974 Law on Marriage, requiring a religious ceremony before the issuance of a civil marriage license. Mixed couples without access to an understanding member of the clergy could always get married abroad, though).
We don’t “re-educate” people who commit apostasy either. Celebrities have been known to do it without people batting an eye — though if you live in a rural area of conservative Aceh, Sumatra Barat or Jawa Barat, you probably wouldn’t want to stay put afterwards. Alas, when it comes to church-building, or legal rights for any religion outside the officially-recognized six, Indonesia still has much to improve. Try claiming to be a Baha’i, or a Jew, on your KTP (IC) !
Arrived in Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday, after my Air Asia flight got delayed, initially by two hours (6 PM -> 8:05 PM), which they were nice enough to announce via text message (not e-mail, though, which caught a friend out a few days earlier). Got to the airport early, just in case there's traffic, and was just settling in with a newspaper at a departure lounge when suddenly at around half past six there was an erroneous announcement that the flight is now boarding. It was not -- the departure lounge was not even open yet!
Uneventful flight -- apart from a further half an hour delay in boarding (plane has not even arrived by the revised departure time) and another half an hour or so waiting for a take-off slot. The low-cost terminal was surprisingly decent, and arriving at night means short lines at immigration. First time since secondary school Malay oral exam that I have to use Malay for official business, and do Malaysians speak faster than Singaporean Malays!
Had a late night/early morning bak kut teh, and did a bit of sightseeing/shopping today. Malaysian transport infrastructure is surprisingly good -- the highways, and the LRT monorail, which unfortunately does not extend much beyond the city centre yet. The centre does get congested, but that's unavoidable, I guess. Saw a bus from a curious company, Durian Burung, but alas I forgot my camera. Some other time...
