Sungei Petani

Jln Ibrahim Sungei Petani.wmv

Batu Kawan

The Penang Batu Kawan Stadium was built in 2000 for the 8th SUKMA games in Malaysia.

Bukit Tambun Jetty is just a short distance away (via shortcut path) away from the Stadium. The Jetty was once the place to take a boat to Pulau Aman. The new jetty is still very difficult to find due to lack of information and signages.

From Video-clips

Guard Our Money During Financial Tsunami

Guard our money during financial tsunami
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam

Bank Negara's assurance to Malaysian depositors that their money in banks and insurance companies in Malaysia are safe is most welcome given the current global financial crisis.

But is this assurance by itself sufficient to remove the fears of Malaysians that they could lose their money in the financial system? I would seriously doubt it. 

Bank Negara has to do more than just give out some assurance that may not be sustainable if the financial turmoil in the rich industrial counties becomes even worse.

Asean/Asian central banks should call for an emergency meeting to appraise this financial tsunami and come out quickly with a contingency plan to defend the financial system from the destructive tides sweeping the world's financial markets .

The central banks or those that can do so, should introduce schemes to guarantee the safety of all deposits in their respective countries as soon as possible. 

If Asia as a whole cannot agree, then Asean countries should. If Asean countries also cannot find consensus, then at least Malaysia and Singapore should provide the deposit guarantees since our economies are relatively healthy and so intertwined.

The present Malaysian guarantee for RM60,000 per depositor is just not enough. It covers only about 25 percent of total deposits. It is therefore little comfort to advise our depositors that we have defensive systems based on our well-capitalised banks and good revised regulations when our Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia or deposit insurance scheme is inadequate.

It is also not persuasive to tell our depositors that our economic and financial fundamentals are strong and that there is no need or that it is too early to introduce a guarantee for all deposits.

At least the authorities should promise to guarantee the deposits of individuals (not companies) to give confidence to ordinary savers who have sacrificed their hard -earned incomes to provide for their future.

If we keep claiming that our economic and financial fundamentals are really strong, then we should also be equally bold in promising to protect the deposits of the ‘small man/woman’ even if it is difficult to provide a blanket guarantee for all depositors, including the big corporations, many of which caused this problem in the first place in the US and Europe.

Malaysians wait with bated breath for quick preventive action before it is too late and the financial tsunami hits our shores with its disastrous effects on the economy and our country. 

We urge the authorities to please act decisively and immediately in public interest for the good of our country.

The writer is chairperson, Asli-Center of Public Policy Studies.

Source: Malaysiakini.com

Bank Structured Products

$250k down the drain


THE injustice that she felt was so strong, she was trembling as she spoke.

Last year, her parents, both retirees, had invested $250,000 in three structured products.

The life savings of her father, 62, a former civil servant, and her mother, 60, a housewife, were wiped out when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

Over eight months, her father had put $150,000 in three structured products sold by a bank.

The long-time bank customer had first invested $50,000 in the Pinnacle Notes Series5B in March last year.

Two months after that, he made another $50,000 investment, this time in the Jubilee Notes Series3.

Last November, he put a further $50,000 of his life savings into another Pinnacle Notes product, the Series9.

Her mother had also invested $50,000 each in the Pinnacle Notes5B series and the Jubilee Notes Series3.

Their daughter, who wanted to be known only as Ms Koh, said: 'My parents still do not believe that their investments have been reduced to zero because they were told by the bank relationship manager that only their returns have been affected.'

She was at an event organised by former NTUC Income boss Tan Kin Lian at Hong Lim Park yesterday.

Whipping out a document released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore from her paper bag, Ms Koh said: 'It was written in black and white on this document that if a credit event happened, they (her parents) would still be able to get back their principal.

'My parents thought that the worst that could happen would be that they would lose their 5 per cent interest.'

Ms Koh had approached The New Paper on Sunday at the Speakers' Corner, where investors seeking recourse had gathered.

Frustrated after hearing how one of the speakers, Mr Leong Sze Hian, cautioned against putting all of one's eggs in the same basket, she said: 'My parents were told that these products were different from each other. They were told that these products were all different baskets.'

Now, Ms Koh is just trying to break the news gently to her parents and trying to recover as much of their investment as she can.

As the 'most highly educated' of three children, Ms Koh, an IT executive, is now going to hire a lawyer to prepare an affidavit for her parents so that, with other such investors, she can get the bank to take her complaint more seriously.

She had stayed up till 3.30am the previous night to prepare a letter of complaint she was going to send to the CEO of the bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The letter, which she showed The New Paper on Sunday, had details of how her parents ended up investing with the bank and included questions on why bank employees were allowed to 'mis-sell' the products.

She said: 'I do not blame the person who sold these products to my parents. It is the person who designed the product that is out to bluff laymen like us.

'How could they have not told us that we could have lost 100 per cent of our investment? My parents had bought the products thinking that their exposure was only 5 per cent at the most. What kind of (a) deal is this? You stand to gain only 5 per cent, but you could lose 100 per cent.

'My parents had jumped into the swimming pool thinking that the water would only come up to their feet. Now, it seems like there is a black hole in the swimming pool that is sucking everyone in and drowning them.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on October 12, 2008.

Source: AsiaOne

Cherok To' Kun Raya Adilfitri Open House

 

I'll Stick To Fixed Deposits

I'll stick to fixed deposits 
By Sumiko Tan

I can still remember my one and only encounter with a 'relationship manager'.

He was a tall, tanned, beefy man in his 20s with a bushy head of hair. He wore a white shirt and a colourful tie and was a smooth and fast talker.

He persuaded me to part with $80,000 for five years.

I was at the POSB outlet in Great World City in mid-2003 to close several Save-As-You-Earn (SAYE) accounts. The amount totalled $80,000.

I'd kept a few POSB Save-As-You-Earn accounts ever since I started work. Under that conservative savings plan - which is no longer offered - you saved a fixed amount every month for two years.

At the end of the first 12 months, an additional 10 per cent was paid on the interest earned, and at the end of 24 months, you got a 20 per cent bonus on the interest.

The interest was paltry - less than 0.5 per cent - but the scheme forced me to set aside some money each month. I also liked how I got that little extra on my interest.

Anyway, the teller must have alerted the relationship manager because the next thing I knew, he was at my side, politely ushering me to a booth.

He sat me down and launched into a sales pitch on why I should put the $80,000 in the DBS Star Track Fund.

He sure made it sound like I was in for a fantastic deal.

What I recall him telling me most clearly was that no matter how the fund fared, I would definitely get my $80,000 back.

I queried him on this and he kept repeating that I had nothing to worry about. There was '100 per cent capital protection' if I held it to maturity.

I still have the Star Track brochure with me. In it, investors were told that this was 'a chance to participate in the performance of global leaders that will be the star performers in a stock-market recovery'.

I would get 'a minimum payout of 3.75 per cent after the first year. In addition, you may receive a potential additional payout of up to 2.25 per cent'.

To cut a long story short, after half an hour with him, the relationship manager convinced me to invest my $80,000 in the fund.

In September 2004, I received $3,000 from the 3.75 per cent payout.

Over the next four years, I got letters updating me on how the fund was doing.

If I'm not wrong (because I didn't keep all the letters), the market value of the units I'd bought were consistently below $80,000. I never got another payout.

But I wasn't worried because the relationship manager (whom I never heard from again) had assured me I'd at least get the $80,000 back.

In July this year, I got a letter and a five-page document from DBS, basically saying that a bond in the fund's portfolio had to be replaced by another in 2005 because its credit rating had been downgraded.

'The replacement resulted in a trading loss which affected the protection provided by the bond portfolio.' In layman's language, I wasn't going to get my 'protected' $80,000 back.

But all was not lost, the bank told this 'dear valued client', that is, me.

DBS had put together 'a special promotion package' (this was underlined) for us.

I would get 'an exclusive 50 per cent off sales charge!' (this was in bold font, complete with exclamation mark) if I re-invested my (now-diminished) proceeds from the Star Track Fund in any of five other funds it was offering.

Gee, did the bank really think I was that dumb?

In the end, I got back $79,342.40 from the $80,000 I put in. If you consider the $3,000 I received earlier, I got $82,342.40 - that is, I made $2,342 over five years.

But if I had put the $80,000 in a fixed deposit at a conservative 1 per cent interest during that period, I would have been $4,000 richer.

But I'm lucky.

Some investors are now reeling from the DBS High Notes 5 debacle where they might not get back even a cent of the principal because of its links to the now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Still, it bothers me that my 'relationship manager' had not been more open with me. Why did he keep going on about how safe my money was when there was no guarantee I would get it all back?

But I am also reasonable enough to realise that it was ultimately nobody's fault but my own that the fund didn't live up to expectations.

Although I am not financially savvy, I am an adult, I am educated, it was my money and the burden was on me to do research on the fund before I committed myself. Indeed, if I had made pots of money, I would have had no complaints about the relationship manager.

Instead, I was goaded by greed. I wanted easy money and the interest sounded good. Too bad for me that I took a gamble that didn't pay off.

It's a lesson that I never seem to learn.

I was looking at some old Central Depository account statements the other day and it pains me to realise that one stock I'm holding was trading at $5.65 in December last year. It is now $1.80.

Why-oh-why didn't I sell it then and make a big profit? Because I thought it would go up to $6.

Why-oh-why didn't I sell it when it went down to $4 or even $3? Because I thought the price would recover. What am I to do now? Hold or sell? I have no idea.

I don't think I'm a particularly greedy or materialistic person, but I certainly would like to increase my wealth so that I'll have an easier life when I'm old and can't work.

In fact, when you think about how the cost of living is rising every day, greed doesn't even come into the picture anymore. It's about survival and it's about fear.

People need to find ways to invest their money such that the returns are higher than the scary inflation rate. The question is, how?

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a tortoise rather than a hare when it comes to making money.

I'm one of those who have to work hard and plod all their life to grow their wealth. I'd never be a hare who can take wild gambles, play the market and strike brilliant deals to fatten his bank account.

But the desire to make a quick buck is hard to suppress.

Last week, after the United States House of Representatives turned down the financial bailout plan and stock markets plunged, top on my mind was whether I should take advantage of the situation and do a mini-Oei Hong Leong.

As reported, the Singapore tycoon had bought one million AIG shares recently when the company was in trouble and its share price dived, then made a killing when it was saved by the US government and its price shot back up.

But, of course, I didn't have the money, acumen, expertise, experience, guts and gumption to buy any stocks, let alone strike it rich, which is why Oei Hong Leong is Oei Hong Leong and I'm, well, a salaried journalist.

But that's the safest route for me.

I just need to look for a reliable bank to park my money in fixed deposits, never mind if the interest is paltry. At least my money will be safe.

Perhaps DBS could do us a favour and bring back its Save-As-You-Earn scheme.

Source: AsiaOne

50 & Over Perks

Don't laugh... it is all true!
 
Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and heading towards 70!

 
1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
3. No one expects you to run--anywhere.
4. People call at 9 pm and ask, did I wake you?
5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
7. Things you buy now won't wear out.
8. You can eat supper at 4 pm.
9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.
10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.
11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
12. You quit trying to hold your stomach-in, no matter who walks into the room.
13. Your eyes won't get much worse.
14. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
15. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.
16. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.
17. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
18. You can't remember who sent you this list.

 
And you notice these are all in Big Print for your convenience.

Anyway, have a good weekend. Cheers