It’s a little bit frightening, reaching 100. – Dr Mahathir Mohamad  

He’s as old as some trees. – Anon

People generally know who you’re talking about when you refer to the Old Man. 

Thirty years ago, the candles already cost more than 

his cake. Like the night, or a sunset, he seems to have always been around.

That’s because heis. Dr Mahathir Mohamad, twice Malaysia’s premier, turned 100 on Thursday. 

I first interviewed him in late 1987 in the aftermath of Operation Lalang. It was the name the police gave a nationwide crackdown during a period of racial tensions. It saw 119 people – mostly oppositionists and civil activists – detained without trial Two newspapers were also shut down. 

As we awaited the Prime Minister’s arrival, something caught my eye. Directly behind his chair, there was a poster of a cruel-eyed eagle, hovering, its talons outstretched. Beneath it, however, the caption read: “How Can I Soar Like An Eagle When I’m Surrounded By Turkeys?”

Truth be told, Dr Mahathir Mohamad preferred the turkeys: he’s even said he prized loyalty above competence where his staff were concerned.  

When Dr M assumed the premiership in 1982, the government he took over was relatively clean. His predecessor Hussein Onn may have been considered slow and indecisive but he disliked, and didn’t tolerate, corruption.

Case in point: In 1977, Harun Idris, a very popular Chief Minister of Selangor state, was sentenced to six years in jail for accepting a MYR250,000 bribe. 

Ironically, such a sum is considered penny-ante, even laughable  these days. 

But there is a larger point here. When Dr M took over in 1982, most people in positions of power were careful to keep their noses clean because they feared retribution. 

During his 22 years in office (1982-2004), Dr M, like Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore,  had near-absolute power. During that period, his ruling party had a two-thirds majority in Parliament which meant he could push through any law.  

But while Lee Kuan Yew used his power to crack down on corruption without fear or favour, Dr M did not.  

It cannot be a coincidence that Malaysia began appearing on Transparency International’s global corruption lists by the time the 2000s rolled around. It was a dubious first for the country.  

The ex-physician did not believe some of his own policies. His Vision 2020, for example, spoke of a single Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian race) whose people walked “free and equal under the Malaysian sun.” 

It was empty talk in the main and he largely ignored any attempt to forge a united people. Indeed, when he first took over, the civil service was aggressively made more Malay. Its non-Malay population currently stands at less than 10%. In 1982, it  was probably around 35%.

Dr M never seems to have accepted the merits of multi-racialism, surprising for a doctor of Western medicine educated in Singapore. 

On the contrary, he’s consistently harped on issues of race and religion while simultaneously decrying its use. 

He’s all for Malay dominance whilst asserting he wasn’t its architect. His current preoccupation is that Malay interests – its unspoken dominance – is under threat from without. He does not specify the threat and it’s the old us-them bogey all over again. 

He once had this to say about Anwar Ibrahim: “A leopard cannot change its spots.” 

The same might be said of him. 

ENDS

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.  –  Proverb

When I was in Form 6, a wise old teacher summarised the role of a constitutional monarch into seven words: “The King reigns; he does not rule.”   

That’s concise wisdom101. As is its wont, the English language even has a word for it. 

They are called proverbs and they are sometimes considered advice to live by.

Example: If only Fearless Leader aka Jibby had grasped the concept of honesty being the best policy, he might have saved himself, and the country,  a whole lot of money and trouble. 

That’s the problem with having a friend with a degree from Chicago’s Wharton School of Business. Fatboy almost always agreed. Yes, he’d say, it’s generally considered the best policy but…

You have to watch these fellows like a hawk. It’s their “buts” that get you every time. 

There are some proverbs that are baffling to say the least. There is this old chestnut, for instance: people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.  

Only a moron would throw a stone inside a glass house because that’s the way to rack, ruin and expensive bills. I’ve a better idea: people who live in glass houses shouldn’t!

I’m not sure which genius  came up with this obvious proverb but surely it’s the pits. “The way to a man’s stomach is through his mouth.”

Duh.

Maybe it’s an intro to the new Spanish Cooking for Dummies. 

The ancient Indian doctors were a cynical lot. What else are we to make of a Hindu proverb that goes: “No physician is really good until he’s killed one or two patients.”

Mark Twain was either a weirdo or a philosopher because he was the one who came up with this: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” 

I suppose it’s a reflection of the old adage: “It can’t get any worse.” 

You have to love the optimism of this old Italian proverb: “Since the house is on fire, let us at least warm ourselves.”

To the inscrutable, and sometimes scrutable, Japanese, everything is Zen and mystic. But some of their proverbs are maddeningly obvious, which make it even more enigmatic. A case in point would be this confounding conundrum: “The reverse side also has a reverse side.”

Here’s the Polish equivalent of “a bad carpenter” – “A man who can’t dance thinks the band is no good.”  

I’m not sure which Czech guy came up with this theory but my gut tells me he was an artist and a prince among men: “A fine beer may be judged with only one sip but it’s best to be thoroughly sure.”  

When I was still working for a salary, I’d probably agree with this philosophical nostrum: “Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7^th of your life.”  

Jim Fixx was the guy who advocated running as a motto to live by and his hugely  popularThe Complete Book of Running remained on the best seller lists for a long time. Even so, the man died at a relatively young 52. That must have inspired this cynical American proverb: “Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.” 

And if anyone still thinks this century isn’t about information technology, think again. Even the Sermon on the Mount is being rethought.

The latest has this to offer:

The Geek will inherit the earth.    

ENDS

Education is what remains after you’ve forgotten everything from school – Albert Einstein 

This morning I read about one of my final-year university classmates becoming Malaysia’s first scientist to be made a Fellow of the United Kingdom’s Royal Society.

That’s no mean feat as her peers would include Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. Clearly she’d drunk deeply from the river of knowledge that life presents us.

Then there is the guy who’d been staring at me the other day at the Selangor Club. He came over and said he thought I’d been his science teacher in 1979. 

I had. 

He seemed delighted to see me. Alas, It was more a reflection of my public relations’ skills than anything of a pedagogic bent: he confessed to   flunking out of school and now sold insurance. 

Remember said river? He’d probably only gargled its waters but appeared no worse off for anyone’s wear.  

In 1979, I was playing guitar in a pub band and was happy as a lark until a news daily featured us. My father read it and was understandably furious because I’d told him I had a temporary job with the university. 

The band had to find a replacement guitarist and I went back home to become a “temporary” teacher. 

I wasn’t happy but, truth be told, it paid a lot more than gigging in a pub. 

The replacement guitarist is now the chairman of a  think-tank while my  other two bandmates settled and thrived in the US, but in non-musical careers. The pianist though still tinkles the ivories at weekend gigs in Tampa, Florida. 

Back in Seremban in 1979, I didn’t have a driving license which meant I had to do what I generally did when I went home – use the bus. When you’re a teacher in charge of the “rougher” classes in the Anglo-Chinese School – said insurance salesman et al – that can get tricky.

The mornings were fine because my father generally dropped me off. But the afternoons had to be managed. 

The trick was to wait a prudent half-hour after the bell when the bulk of the students would have left. 

There is precious little moral high ground or dignitas to be had when you board a bus only to find your students sitting while “Sir” has to stand because there are no more seats. It’s even worse when, God forbid, a student actually offers you their seat.

I think that’s what Shakespeare meant when he babbled about “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

That’s the beauty of the half-hour wait. There are enough seats and most, if not all, students would have left.

During weekends, I went to the Seremban Bowl with my old classmate, Chris, because it served good beer.

One evening, a large person looked us over for an uncomfortable while before sending over a complimentary jug.  

He joined us and said we were all in the same class but we wouldn’t remember him because he was in a “lower class” and “you  were the Smarties” (his words).

He said he dropped out after Form 5 to help in his dad’s pig farm. Now he ran “all three.” 

He asked me if I’d been to university and what I did now. I told him. 

“Teaching” appeared to genuinely grieve him. That made two of us. 

Then he asked how we got to the Bowl and I confessed I’d used the bus. 

As if to reinforce his point, he pointed to a gleaming Volvo in the parking lot.

“I can give you  guys a lift,” he said. 

ENDS

I found out recently the most common reason we head for A & E (Accident and Emergency) rooms in Malaysia is to obtain relief from stuck fish bones in the throat.  

In New York City, it’s for gunshot wounds. OK, the US doctor gets better on-the-job training but I think we’ll stick with fish. You could argue the point but this is neither the time nor the plaice. 

Speaking of fish, I’m  reminded of a story I heard about Justice Eusoffe Abdoolcader. The man had a brilliant legal mind but occasionally could get tripped up. 

While hearing a case in Ipoh, the Judge was irritated with a lawyer who, in his opinion, was belabouring a point to death. 

He called a timeout for lunch and, glaring at said lawyer, advised him to “repair in haste” to a shop nearby where there was fish head curry. Fish, remarked the judge tartly, “is very good and might help your brain.”

“Very good, My Lord,” replied the unrepentant  belabourer. “And you will be joining me?” 

I interviewed Justice Eusoffe for a profile in the early 1990s and he was all he was reputed to be – sharp and testy. 

When I asked  for some judgments he was proud of he summoned his secretary. Ms Lee was asked to fetch MLJ (Malayan Law Journal) Vol 26 and photostat pages 124 through 148. 

The man had a photographic memory. 

But his writing could be over the top. There was one particular sentence that I read with incredulity. It went through word-thickets and muscular metaphors, through comma, semi-colon, parenthesis and colon, winding its way in perfect grammar to  its bitter end, 220 words later. 

It was during the late 1990s when I heard of a case being heard in the High Court involving Japan’s Yomeishu.

I was working for a foreign newsmagazine and it was a dry news-week so I went to court. 

Yomeishu is a potent medicinal liqueur that’s claimed to promote vitality through its boosting of circulation.

The Japanese firm was outraged that a local company was selling a similar product with a similar sounding name and was suing, claiming patent infringement. 

The judge hearing the case was one V C George and things got interesting when Yomeishu’s President took the stand. 

The President was extolling his product’s virtues using words like “health” and “blood circulation” when the Judge wondered aloud if it had any effects on male virility. 

The President replied in the affirmative, so certain was his opinion that Viagra itself would have folded its tent and stolen away into the night.

But the answer didn’t satisfy the Judge because he followed up with a question so keen and penetrating it reduced the courtroom into hysterics. 

Judge:  “Do you drink it or does one apply it?”

All this with the deadpan gravity of a Walter Matthau. 

The Japanese interpreter had a fit of giggles before he translated the question. 

After the President digested the question, he had a giggling fit himself  before he composed himself sufficiently to inform the suddenly-interested courtroom that one had to drink it for full benefit.

Remember, you read it here first. 

ENDS

Before we were sent off on our postings, the Ministry of Health sent us to the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) for “training.” 

I don’t remember much of the training but I do recall being taken by a senior colleague to the best chap fan restaurant east of Suez.  It was along Jalan Pahang and the trick was to get there before 12.30, after which the hospital’s hungry hordes laid waste to its spread. 

After three months, we were dispatched to the front-lines. I got Perak. 

I reported to the state’s Chief Medical and Health Officer, a suave Sikh, who informed me that The Plan – he liked to Declaim in Capitals – was to send me to Teluk Anson. No one had heard of Teluk Intan, not even Intan herself.

The prospect filled me with alarm as the place was only a district hospital with a rudimentary laboratory. 

Sensing my unease, the CMnHO suavely slid in this caveat: “Pending your  transfer, you’ll serve in Ipoh General Hospital.”

It was 1980 and the government wasn’t computerized so I wandered around in abject  poverty for three months! Then my file reached whoever it was supposed to reach and I was deemed salary-worthy. My first salary came in a rush, all three months of it. (In the IMR, we only received an allowance).

Apart from the blood bank, the biochemistry department was the largest component of the pathology department. In Ipoh, we had two labs. There were smaller labs for hematology (bloodwork including the preparation of slides for biopsies) and serology (tests on serum).  

You might see how a young man might rapidly get disenchanted amid such cheerful company first thing in the morning, three years in a row. But that’s another story. 

At the time, medical lab work was primitive. Only the blood gas machine was automated. Everything else was done manually. Hundreds of titrations a day and it had to be reasonably accurate because the results mattered.

There were two of us and we needed to know the basic work as well in case of  emergency.  Nowadays almost all blood tests are automated. Back then, it could be soul destroying. 

I had great admiration for some of the medical lab technicians: they performed very skilled work rapidly and uncomplainingly despite not being paid much.  

Most of them depended on overtime pay: someone had to man the labs on weekends. 

When I joined, Mrs Ang, the senior biochemist, immediately told me to take over the OT assignations. 

I quickly realised why. Many of the MLTs, who depended on OT, were highly suspicious of whoever doled it out. Try as I might I couldn’t convince some people of my scrupulous neutrality. 

You can only be a good guy for so long. One day, I lost my temper and I threatened to transfer a constantly grumbling staffer to Teluk Anson. 

I had no such power but he didn’t know it. Neither did anyone else because no one ever questioned my methods again. Even Mrs Ang gave me an approving nod. 

I think it was then that she went to bat for me and I got off Telok Anson’s hook. 

ENDS 

Brains, you know, are suspect in the Republican Party – Walter Lippman, American intellectual

All is not well in Scamelot.  

President  Donald Trump and First Buddy Elon Musk have fallen out faster than a speeding Tesla. 

When the world’s most powerful man clashes with the planet’s richest man, expect fireworks! Even Don King, always quick to give odds, scurried for cover. 

A week ago, the President presented Musk a golden key to the White House amid lavish praise for his contributions towards cutting government jobs. 

Now the White House’s  changed its locks. The reason: Musk criticised Trump’s tax-and-spend legislation, his ”Big, Beautiful Bill” which aims to enrich the wealthy and, among others, cut medical care for the poor. He called it an “abomination.” 

It isn’t exactly clear what Musk objected to but it’s unlikely he disliked lower taxes or reduced welfare. 

And things rapidly escalated to DEFCON 3. That’s when Musk alleged Trump didn’t declassify the Epstein files – which he’d promised – because it incriminated him. Jeffrey  Epstein was a party-throwing socialite who killed himself after being arrested for molesting minors. 

Apart from the minor kerfuffle, it was just another day in Trump’s America, his Home of the Knave and the Land of the Fee. 

If Obama had attempted even a little of what Trump’s done so far,  he’d have been tarred and feathered.  Since his inauguration, Blomberg reports that the Trump family has raked in US$2.1 billion through investments mainly from Middle Eastern countries anxious to gain leverage in Washington. It’s barely elicited a disapproving tut-tut from the Republicans. 

The inflows haven’t stopped either. Trump recently accepted a US$400 million jet from Qatar, ostensibly to replace Air Force One although he made it clear that the plane’s his. Again, there’s been little domestic criticism apart from some embarrassed hand-wringing among both parties. 

For the record, the acceptance of gifts by a serving President from foreign nationals is barred by constitutional statute. It is, therefore, illegal. 

The Grifter-in-Chief simply did things no one expects a  President to do. And so far he’s gotten away with it. 

In his first week, for example, he fired all 17 Inspectors-General in federal agencies. IGs are independent executives charged with protecting taxpayer money from fraud, corruption or conflicts of interest. 

Their offices are set up under Congressional Act so their firings were, and are, blatantly illegal. Despite press alarm, Congress was loudly silent.

The passivity of both Houses –  Republican controlled, both  – appears to have emboldened the President and he’s not looked back since: he’s left no turn unstoned so to speak. 

He’s taken a wrecking ball to the universities, museums, the arts, even “soft-power” agencies like USAID. The latter is dispiriting as it cuts aid to the poorest of the world. 

Then he ignored Congress altogether and began a global trade war that’s still playing out. 

The only ones holding out against him are the courts but he seems to have brushed that away by ignoring its rulings. No one has cited him for contempt. 

Yet. 

Even so, the Sacker-in-Chief’s only real threat may be his former best bud, the Nazi-saluting, ketamine-ingesting, multi-children-having zillionaire Elon Musk. 

The tycoon  reportedly spent US$300 million helping the Donald to the Presidency. 

How much do you think he might be willing to splurge to get him out?

ENDS 

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School teaches its alumni to prosper. They mostly have: Elon Musk and Warren Buffett come to mind. One Donald Trump is also an old boy.

But it never specified how.

That was the rub, thought Felonious cheerfully. The ample architect of the world’s biggest fraud – 1MDB – was really named  Jho Low but Felonious was apt. 

He was awash in reminiscent memory as he’d just read that Tim Leisner, the ex-chief for Goldman Sachs’ Southeast Asian operations, had been jailed for 2 years in the US for his role in the scam.

Timmy had been key to the whole scheme, mused the plump pilferer appreciatively. Felonious had figured out the whole scheme and he knew it would fly because money trumped scruples every time.  

With the blessing of the prime minister, Goldman would raise money for Malaysia through US$6.5 billion of IMDB bonds. That was all it needed to do. Felonious would take it from there. 

And how he had! Felonious remembered the excitement of it all, the sheer rush. 

And everyone had benefitted. Even the FBI agreed with him. It said  Premier Najib Razak aka Jibby collected US$756 million (RM3.2 billion), Tim Leisner got US$73.4 million, while Roger Ng, Goldman’s Malaysia head, took US$35.1 million. Meanwhile,  Felonious raked in a whopping US$1.42 billion. (RM5.97 billion).

He was the mastermind after all. Even so, he noted the press rarely mentioned the money he’d given Reza Aziz, Jibby’s step son, for his  Hollywood  ventures (US$60 million for The Wolf of Wall Street).

14 years later, how’s everyone doing? 

With Leisner’s cooperation, Goldman was criminally indicted for the first time in its 150-year history, and settled at a US$2.9 billion fine.  

Roger Ng, sunk by Leisner’s testimony, got a 10 year US jail term. 

Leisner himself only got a couple of years but appeared the most shaken. 

He told the court that, since the scandal broke, he’d lost his “freedom, family and financial independence” and that he was now on “pills” and had “lost the will to live.” 

Jibby was sentenced to 12 years in jail and, although the sentence has since been halved, he still faces other trials that could potentially see him remaining in prison. 

Even so, he looks cheerful, has not lost any weight and is pursuing a doctorate behind bars. 

If his sentences continue, who knows? He could be the first Penitentiary Professor. 

Pity the poor Malaysian taxpayer. He may be paying off the interest on 1MDB’s bonds into the foreseeable future. 

And Fatboy?

He’d gotten off Scot-free and he truly loved his Scotch. But there was a price for notoriety and being on Interpol’s Most Wanted List: he couldn’t travel freely and so Scotland was out.

Nor could he return to Hollywood where he had once wined and dined with the best of them,       thanks to Other People’s Money. No, the US wouldn’t give him the time of day. 

Over a moody cigarette, a thoughtful Burgundy and a fragrant Camembert, Felonious was taking stock of his life. It was ironic, he reflected, his father had always advised him never to do anything he wouldn’t get caught dead doing. 

But he wasn’t caught so it didn’t apply. He cheered up instantly and thought maybe he could teach: impart some of his knowledge to the next generation. 

But he would be honest and, if so, this is what he’d say… 

“I would hate to advocate booze, birds, money laundering or grand theft to anyone but they’ve always worked for me. “

ENDS

What does an investment bank do after its senior executive, charged with a crime, explains it was the “culture” that made him do it? 

They resort to the old “blame-the-other-bugger” trick. It never fails. 

Tim Leisner, a former executive of Goldman Sachs and one of the men responsible for the billion dollar 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scam, was due to be sentenced in New York for his role in the crime but he’d co-operated with the  authorities. One man was jailed while Goldman was fined US$2.9 billion (RM12.5 billion). 

Now the authorities were asking for clemency for Leisner. No way, snorted Goldman. 

In a letter to the judge who was to do the sentencing, Goldman’s lawyer said Leisner had engaged in “serial lies and deception”  and “had never taken responsibility for his actions” in the theft.  

She also attacked his criticism of the industry’s “culture.”  

Methinks she doth protest too much. 

Goldman had already been known, even admired, for its predatory and exploitative nature. A 2009 article in Rolling Stone described Goldman as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” 

Indeed, the metaphor is a recurring theme whenever Goldman or Wall Street is discussed, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis. 

Never taking responsibility for their actions is another theme where  Malaysia’s IMDB is concerned.  

To say it was big is an understatement. The US Justice Department called it the “world’s largest kleptocratic heist.”   

Scores of people, including government officials, bankers and corporate figures were involved in the scandal but only one – its biggest fish, Najib Razak – was prosecuted. All the others played a part but pleaded they were obeying orders. To a man, they  bore “no responsibility” for the fraud. 

The First Felon is currently serving a 12-year jail term for abuse of power.  But even he, with whom the buck stopped, maintained he wasn’t responsible.

He explained the US$680 million (RM3 billion) in his personal account was a “donation” from the Saudi royal family. Apparently, they could be very generous if they liked your face.  

The people of Pekan testified that Jibby had a likable face. 

Alas, his unyielding if implausible plea was dismissed. He began serving time in August, 2023. 

Meanwhile, he is also facing other charges in separate trials and could potentially face longer prison terms.

And yet, there is already a movement to reduce his sentence to “house arrest.” The poor man, it was argued, already had been humiliated  by the courts and wasn’t that punishment enough? He’d  served 21 months. What more did they want?   

Everyone knew Putrajaya was just another oasis of outstretched palms, so what was a Premier to do? 

But justice has been served. Both Goldman Sachs and Najib have paid a price and their punishment is ongoing. 

But there’s one man remaining annoyingly free. Worse, he’s retained most, if not all, of his ill-gotten gains. And going by the old adage “the family that steals together stays together,” he’s managed to spirit his family out of Malaysia. 

While nibbling on caviar and champagne in the safety of Macao, the vast vampire squid known as Jho Low felt his eyes moisten at the thought of Najib behind bars. But he also nodded understandingly when China denied his presence. 

It was all about money. It was why he’d come up with the idea in the first place.  

He was safe where he was because in that country, he was guilty until proven wealthy. 

ENDS

In Kobe, actually.

But first…never take the word of a railway guard. 

We were trying to catch  the 10am Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kobe from Tokyo’s Grand Central Station which was large and difficult to navigate: English seemed in short supply. 

Till said guard that is. He scrutinised our tickets, nodded and commanded: “Platform 17.”

It was delivered  with the magisterial authority of a Tun Suffian and we believed him utterly because it was easier. The platforms were clearly marked so it was doubly easy. 

The thing is,  bullet trains don’t hang about. Two minutes max and when we piled into the scheduled tenner, we found our “reserved” seats occupied.  

Wrong train! 

Turned out to be Platform 18 and we only just made it.

We had to sprint.  

Travelling by Shinkansen isn’t cheap – about RM440 a piece for a journey of over 2 hours.  But it’s comfortable and you get a grandstand view of the countryside flashing past at 285km/hr (180mph). 

There were rice plots everywhere although we never saw anyone actually tending them. Indeed, Japan is wholly self-sufficient in rice, amazing for a wholly-industrialised nation of 124 million.  

It all looked green and orderly from where we sat, with everything in place, even Mount Fuji which looked serene and detached-from-it-all.

Apart from fish – Fifty Shades of Fish is a best seller – the Japanese love their beef. And nowhere is that flaunted more in the country than Kobe, the place synonymous with beef so tasty it practically leaps off the plate. 

I’ve mixed feelings about it though. On our second day in the city, we boarded a hop-on-hop-off bus that took us around part of the city. We got off at Nanking-gate, an entrance into a rabbit-warren of alleys boasting all sorts of items for sale including all manner of Japanese food. 

It was 19 degrees out and pleasantly crisp when we stopped at a stall that was especially crowded. It boasted “Kobe Beef Steak” with government insignia that  proclaimed, in several languages, this was, indeed, the Real Deal.

The Nepali chef – a Hindu grill-master no less – assured us of the sanctity of his steak. But while tasty, the meat was cool to the taste which implied if it were any rarer, it might awaken to hail a cab. 

It was, to say the least, disconcerting. 

But what struck me most was the overall cleanliness of the place. The stall was off a side street crowded with people and yet it – the surroundings, its floors –  was scrupulously clean. 

It was the norm everywhere I went. The bathrooms in Japan made  Singapore’s look like the public toilets along our North-South Highway. 

On our last night in Kobe, Becky spotted a hole-in-the-wall outlet that promised “killer” KB sliders. 

We tried them. They were the best I’ve ever had. 

It isn’t cheap to eat out in Japan. We went to a hawker centre in Kobe and ordered bowls of ramen which was as hoi-polloi as it gets. They cost RM32 each. 

Even so, the country tries. You can get cheap do-it-yourself meals in any 7-11 outlet in Tokyo. They sell everything from freeze dried rice meals to all manner of pies. You can also get whisky if that’s what floats your boat. 

And did I say it was organised? You could put the entire Malaysian population in the Greater Tokyo Area and it wouldn’t be enough: it is host to 37 million people. 

But I never witnessed a traffic jam in Tokyo.

Not once in my two days there.  

ENDS

Make money and the whole world will conspire to make you a gentleman – Mark Twain 

The Canadians have more sense than their southern neighbours. 

Early this week, the country’s voters gave  Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party a third term. It was a stunning turnaround: only three months ago, Mr Carney seemed set to lose, trailing his conservative rival Pierre Poilievre by 20 percentage points.

In the event, Mr Carney’s Liberals narrowly won, Mr Poilievre lost his own seat and, not surprisingly, it’s thanks to Donald Trump. 

For reasons known only to his therapist, the Donald had slapped tariffs on Canada’s exports. He also threatened to annex the country, talking about making it the USA’s 51^st state. 

Mr Poilievre, a right-winger himself, didn’t appear as outraged as Mr Carney who, correctly sensing national anger, made Mr Trump’s actions an election issue. He was right: enough Canadians agreed and left Monsieur Poilievre snatching defeat out of  the jaws of victory. 

Alas, poor Pierre. If he felt trampled upon, a great many Americans felt the same way. Indeed, the CIA’s secret files have classified the Donald’s first 100 days: “Bull Meets China Shop.” 

That’s the problem with ignorance: it picks up confidence as it trundles along.  

Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who considers modesty highly overrated , has dubbed this period “A 100 Days of Greatness.” 

It’s anything but. Truth be told, it’s the most destabilising period in current world history. Canada isn’t the only country feeling   uneasy. The Donald has threatened to take Greenland by force and has spoken about seizing control of the Panama Canal. 

In one of his milder acts, he arbitrarily renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Given his litany of complaints in the run-up to the  Presidency, he might want to make the grouse America’s  national bird. 

He’s acted on those complaints, too. Example: Mr Trump  complained about his “enemies.” Now he’s weaponised the Justice Department, tightened the government’s purse strings, and gone after institutions that’ve “slighted” him – legal firms, media outlets, universities, even museums.

He’s gutted the civil service: an estimated 100,000 federal workers have been sacked.  

And if you thought he’d set an example, he has – a terrible one. He’s pardoned every single defendant convicted of crimes related to the Jan 6 riots, including those related to violent crime and criminal conspiracy. 

The Watergate scandal brought a serving President down and its aftermath brought on rules designed to protect against political meddling in law enforcement. Mr Trump said nuts to that and showed it the finger. 

A compliant Congress has allowed him to take over spending and trade policy. In the process, he’s unleashed an international trade war in the name of remaking the global economy. 

The result has been the US economy’s first contraction in three years: real growth shrank 0.3% in the year’s first quarter. 

True to form, an unfazed Mr Trump blamed his predecessor, the hapless Joe Biden. Mr Biden actually bequeathed the ingrate a strong economy. 

Like a modern day Caligula, Mr Trump has arrogated enormous  power to himself. Indeed, everything so far is unprecedented and uncharted territory.   

The man’s self-belief is terrifying. Like Oscar Levant, he believes  there are only two sides to any argument: his side and the wrong side. 

ENDS