Who wants to be .................... my Neighbour?

My neighbour Jimmy had his business base transferred from the Klang Valley to Muar, Johor recently. As it is quite clear that the new base at Muar would in most likelihood be a permanent arrangement, he has decided to let go his house to any interested buyer.

Completed in Year 2000, this 22 x 75 Double Storey Link House, located at Bukit Rimau, Shah Alam, Selangor is now being offered for RM 300k.

The House is moderately renovated and the owner intends to sell the house as it is, meaning by leaving all fixed appliances like the 4 sets of Air-Conditioning units etc. intact.

Bukit Rimau, if you need to know more is currently a fully residential estate, easily accessible through the Shah Alam Expressway (or also known as the Kesas Highway). With an interchange of its own (Interchange 505), the Expressway links motorists to Port Klang at the coastline and to the City of Kuala Lumpur and all those places beyond.
The Chinese Taipei "International" School is also located here. The school caters to the children of Taiwanese community in the Klang Valley.
For Malaysian children, there is this SRK Bukit Rimau, touted to be the "best" primary school in Selangor in terms of infrastructure and amenities.
Pre-schooling kids also have their own top notch kindergartens all over the neighbourhood.

And lastly, Buddhists should be glad to note that it is here in Bukit Rimau, one of the most modern Buddhist Temple is located. A surau is also in the drawing chart and it's construction is due to commence very soon now. For the time being, Muslims in Bukit Rimau are utilising the school's surau for their main religious needs.

For more information on the neighbourhood, please visit here. The township servicing Bukit Rimau is Kota Kemuning. Besides the several parcels of commercial areas, Kota Kemuning is also well known for its lush landscapping and public parks. Visit here to learn more of Kota Kemuning.

Drop me a line if you're interested to secure a landed property here in Bukit Rimau. Alternatively, you can just e-mail your interests to jasnijalil@yahoo.co.uk

One thing for sure, you're not only going to get a value for money landed property, you're going to get the best other asset as well, you're going to have us as your new neighbour. The best neighbour anyone would hope to get. We don't make much noises, we sleep early and every year on a day in the Raya month, we hosts a Hari Raya Open House Reception.

Write in fast, the longer you wait, the slimmer the chance of you getting a piece of its action.

Jasni AJ

From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 4

11th March 2008 - Our vacation was getting better and better each day. Today we joined thousands of Bangkokians commutting in their much prided Skytrain.

The Skytrain coaches are surprisingly of top notch quality, in terms of service, infrastructure and facilities. Just look at this picture, see how wide the coach is. It certainly a class above our much bragged about LRT (of both the Kelana Jaya Line and Ampang Line). Come to think about it, it is even better than some of the older lines of London's Tubes.

But just to be fair, Bangkok's Skytrain was just recently introduced in 1999 (more or less at the same time as our Ampang Line) while the first line in London would be 150 years old this year. So I guess the later you get the service, the better it would be as you would get the latest of the latest.

One thing that I liked about this Skytrain is their multiple number of coaches. The coaches are long, as long as our Komuter Lines and with greater frequency, the coaches would not be as packed as both our Komuter Lines or Kelana Jaya Line during peak periods. Well, at least was what I observed, I may be wrong but on that day, a ride in the Skytrain was a breeze ride, both back and fro our destination.

So where did we go to?

Yes, we went to Bangkok's Ancient City, known to the locals as Muang Boran.

A City where a visit there would mean that you have travelled troughout Thailand, from Pattani to Chiengmai, and from the territories bordering Cambodia to the territories bordering Burma.

It's 320 acres in size and shaped along the actual map of Thailand. In other words you would be entering the City through Pattani all the way up to Chiengmai.

And what do you see there?





Hundreds of scuptures. From recognisable images like these elephants of various sizes and postures .....

... to strange and mystical creatures like this part human part snake statue ...

... and to these eeery looking seven headed snakes ...

.... not forgetting the hundreds of Buddha images of every descent postures, from meditating ......

... to sleeping ....


























... to sitting, standing, walking etc etc etc all of which I just could not post them here for fear of consuming to much memory space.

Most amazing was the sight of magnificent reproduction of the hundreds of Thailand's historical structures, buildings, palaces, temples from all over the country, grouped into one city for all to admire.

And to reflect the real Thailand, there is a reproduction of an ancient mosque too on display. A reproduction not only for display but functional too as you are free to perform the solat without any problem.






















You would also be brought back in time of about fifty years once you enter the Old Market Square Enclave. Old Kopitiams, Barber Shop, Grocery Shop and all those that exist 50 years ago were carefully preserved. Entering this Barber Shop for instance would bring you back to the memories of the old Malay films and the experience of reliving in that era was simply tremendous. Imagine being at a place where your grandpa or even your great grandpa could be used to, something that is now extinct in our modern surrounding.

Getting around the huge Ancient City was absolutely not a problem. The management of the city was proactive enough by providing vehicles for rent. This buggy, for instance, was rented for a fee of 300 Baht an hour. But since the City is huge, don't ever dream that you can cover the whole City within an hour. In the most minimum, you would be spending about three hours there, the amount of time we spent there.

Other than buggies, you can also rent bicycles or if you wish, you can always join a guided tour of the City in a tram.
My elder son would be the happiest person when we chose to rent the buggy. After a few metres driving it, he politely asked whether he could get his hands on the steering. His request was duly granted and that day became history to him as the first time he ever drived.

Yes, we did had our scary moments with his driving, but for a first timer, I would admit that he was not bad a driver indeed. I guess it won't be not long now that he would be driving us around town, as I'm sure he would be scrambling to get his driving license once he reach the eligilibity age.

All in all, we were extremely glad that we managed to get our way to the Ancient City. For new visitors to Bangkok, do make it a point to pay it a visit and have a taste of wholesome Thailand. Like us, you won't regret it.

But not to confuse you, you can't actually reach the Ancient City by just taking the Skytrain ride. The Skytrain ride was only probably a third of the journey. The rest of the journey would be by taking a cab from Skytrain's last station On Nut. The taxi fare from On Nut to the Ancient City would be around 250 Baht (according to the meter).

Day 4 ended with a splash in the Hotel's swimming pool, a day well spent and the splash was simply refreshing.

Stay tune to our adventures in Day 5 coming up next.

Jasni AJ

Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive

Poles were climbed, banners were hanged, flags were hoisted, all these seems to be nightly activities of my group of friends for the past few days in the run up towards the big G-Day, yeap, the 12th General Elections, fast coming up on 8th March 2008.

These bunch of friends of mine are basically just ordinary folks, volunteering themselves to be the Alternative Front's "party workers". They also are self appointed, self motivated and self financed. They might be sympathetic to the struggles of either party in the Alternative Front but they are certainly no party "fanatics", in fact some of them are not even party members to any of the parties in the Alternative Front. In keeping and ensuring the democratic spirit alive they are just making themselves available through the rendering of their valuable services to the disadvantaged party, the party that needs help the most in order to make them to be at least visible to the public eye in our small Taman through their banners and flags as they are not too positively viewable (over TV), positively audible (over Radio) and positively readable (over the mainstream newspapers). Why the word "positively"? Well, if you really want to qualify your claims that the Alternative Front are not getting publicity over those media, you are dead wrong as they do get publicity no doubt. But for some orchestrated reasons, all the publicity they're getting are mainly negative and stereo typed publicities that carry the message that everything good comes from only BN and everything bad comes from only BA.

I guess for that reason alone, the BA Ceramahs are something the local folks would look forward to as that would be the only platform that is made available to the Alternative Front folks. And thanks to the self-appointed, self-motivated and self-financed BA "party workers", a grand BA Ceramah was successfully held just last night at our main padang in the Taman, an event that would make the other party contesting in the GE duly worried, if attendance has any bearing on the indication of the voters' preference in casting their votes.

This GE would be our second GE as a community in our small Taman, the first, some 4 years ago, saw contests from the same two parties, i.e BN (MIC) vs BA (PAS) for the Parliamentary seat and BN (UMNO) vs BA (PKR) for the State Seat.

BA lost both seats then, but their lost was not something to be ashamed of as they had managed to garner quite a substantial number of votes though short of a majority. And all these were achived despite of the lopsided campaigning tools made available to all parties contesting in the Elections.



The same tactics are still being used this time around, in fact I personally think that it has gone from bad to worse. There is definitely an overdose of messages asking voters to choose the god-sent BN leaders to continue to lead the country. There is absolutely NO CHOICE BUT ONE and that's the BN. No one else can do a better job as if you do pick the wrong ones, you're just pushing the country into the pits, at least that's what I understand from the messages I'm seeing over TV, listening over radio and reading over the mainstream newspapers.

How far is the claim true, no one knows actually. But the fact that nobody can deny is that Malaysia is indeed very unique that despite having a single ruling party ever since achieving independence and for a period now exceeding 50 years, the country has been doing exceptionally well, certainly far and a lot better than other third world countries that were once in the same league as ours in terms of resources, population, racial mix etc etc. If this were to take place in other third world countries, we could almost be certain that there would either be in turmoil with suppression, corruption, abuse of power etc. etc. ruling the day. We are actually blessed indeed having the Perikatan/BN ruling us all these years.


Well, I'm actually straying from the topic in hand, the topic is actually "Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive" and not an essay on my own political beliefs. So, reverting back to the topic in hand, just what was the product of all those pole climbing, banner hanging etc etc, well see it yourself. Don't you think they have beautifully decorated the roundabout rather well? Of course, the BN party workers played their part too. In fact, they're working much harder as the roundabout shown here has actually been given a new facelift last night where more BN banners could now be seen there, but there are still 3 more days to go, the roundabout might just change its appearance every single day!

Selamat Mengundi

Jasni AJ

Between Strangers (The Haves) and Friends (The Have-nots)

Yes, the neighbourhood folks have indeed caught up with the election fever. With the Operation Centres of each opposing parties are within viewing distance from each other, both camps would certainly be working very hard towards winning the hearts and minds of the neighbourhood folks and ultimately their precious votes.

For the first time ever, the Barisan Nasional is having their own Operation Centre in the housing estate. Just recently renovated, given a new coat of paint and complete with air-conditioning units, the Operation Centre is surely a class way above the other Operation Centre belonging to the Opposition Party which lies just a few metres away.

However, though the Operation Centre is most comfortable with spacious compound, noticibly missing at the Centre are the local folks. Yes, the Operation Centre is practically completely run by those from outside the housing estate. In fact, the manager of the Operation Centre is a Ketua Umno from the neighbouring housing estate.


Just where are the local folks? Well, you can find them at the other camp, the one with the flags of two parties. No air-condition, no computers, no nice tables and chairs, just a canopy at the lawn of an unoccupied house. But even though you can't find convenience there, what you will find are the all too familiar faces and friends of some of whom you would have known for more than 7 years. Only there you'll be able to talk and laugh like real friends. Only there you'll find people who understand each other. And most importantly, it's only there you'll find a group of people who truly and really believes in a political struggle that couldn't be achieved if the traditional government, the government that has been ruling the land for the past 50 years, continued to be given a huge mandate to keep on ruling.

You will also find true volunteerism there, they don't ask for money or incentives, in fact they themselves throw in their own money to make things happen, like renting the canopy for instance. In short, only there you'll find the true, frank and sincere people.

Sadly, a visit to the fully equipped Operations Room across the road that's surely costing thousands of Ringgit to maintain would give you an impression of visiting an official office like a government office that has no personal touch. In fact it would make you feel sort of alienated and stonic as you are practically with total strangers, strangers whom who have never met before until just yesterday!

So if you were me, where would you go to spend time and to join in the election fun? The BN Camp or the BA Camp? I would think the answer is obvious. Don't you?

Happy Voting All.

Jasni AJ

Election Fever and Unfair Campaignings

Though election campaigns are yet to start formally but parties interested in the election have actually started them up by utilising the various mediums.

While the Police insist on political parties apply for Police Permits for any election campaigns, that rule does not seem to be applicable to personalities linked to the "previously" ruling party. Why I say "previously" is simply because they are no longer the ruling party ever since the parliament got dissolved. At least this is what I understand by the effect of a parliament dissolution taught by my lecturers back in college those days.

There is an article in The Star today that reaffirmed my understanding on the matter written by Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim. In his article, currently there are no more Yang Berhormats except for those holding positions in the Federal and the various States Caretaker Government.

Dr. Shad Faruqi made a comparison between the practice in Malaysia and those in India and Bangladesh. If at all Malaysia follows the systems implemented in India and Bangladesh, we would be almost be certain not to be forced to listen to "official" propagandas over radio & tv that overly and unshamely making unveiled but direct campaigns for the "previous" ruling government.

Not enough with the super advantage, other platforms are also being used unshamely too. Today, at a PTA Annual General Meeting of a school near my home, the VIP guest turned the event into a BN Election campaign and started to discredit the proposed programmes of the other competing party (namely BA) especially on the "Welfare State" ideology.

While the Police are saying that any election campaign needed a Police Permit, these "official" campaigns can simply be held without one and worst, by making use of government machinery and infrastructure for free.

And this practice is not confined to the local politicians but being the practice of those high ups especially by the No. 1, 2, 3 and so forth. The No. 2 was in Kelantan yesterday, what was he doing there if not campaigning with the new catchword "Tahun Merawat Kelantan" just to redicule the State Government's "Tahun Melawat Kelantan".

I am not against BN or support opposition parties. I don't believe the guys in the oppositon parties can do a better job than the ones in BN. But I'm against unfair practice. The more unfair practices I see, the more turn off I get and this will definately cost those practicing the unfair practices of my valuable votes, one for the parliamentary seat and the other, the state seat.

At the last 11th General Election, I helped arrange for BN candidates to meet the voters at my "Taman" after a hugely turnout PAS meet the voters event was held. But I'm not so sure if I would want to get myself involve this time around as I think BN do not really need of such event as they have the TV and Radio to do the job for them.

I also (with a couple of other friends)hang the BN string small flags along the major roads and junctions at our Taman for free. That's how much I want to make sure that the Taman would not be branded as an opposition's base though there are no branches of any political parties in our small Taman.

Actually, I like it better this way, at least we are more genuinely united, without the political alliances breaking us up.

How I wish the new government that is to be formed after the General Election, which is most probably will continue to be held by the BN, consist of Ministers and MPs who are genuinely working for the interest of the rakyat in mind and not self interest superseeding anything else and besides that no more puppetry judiciary as what it is perceived now.

We'll look forward for this 8th of March 2008. Incidently, we are starting our vacation on that day with a flight to catch at 1.30 noon. So it look like we would have to rush to Wangsa Maju early that morning (as my wife is a registered voter at Wangsa Maju) and quickly get back here to cast my votes for the Sri Muda (State) and Kota Raja (Federal) constituencies.

Happy Voting All.

Jasni AJ