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To quote:

However, the PM, who is also finance minister, appeared uncertain about the figures involved, reports Malaysiakini.

From Wikipedia:

He received a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies from the University of Malaya in 1964, having originally wished to pursue a degree in Economics but failing to meet the required standard after failing his statistics paper.

Is there a significant association (p less than 0.005) of the two quotes above? ;-)

howsy

I wouldn't put the blame on Pak Lah for the maths.

The blame should fall on Samy Vellu being the Minister in charge of providing the statistics and numbers to the PM.

Samy Vellu's head should roll for this mathematical blunder. Pak Lah should call for his sacking for embarassing the Govt and the Prime Minister.

Samy Vellu's term in Cabinet has past the used-by-date.

He should be asked to retire, give him a Tun-ship, like Lim Liong Sik, Musa Hitam, and enforce the "elegant silence" on all these retired Tuns. Their terms of reference for a Tun is "elegant silence".

F&H,

The term "elegant silence" applies to Pak Lah only...not the Tuns...
please correct your misunderstanding....

I think Samy is not responsible but the Finance Ministry. Unless some else doing the Finance Minister's job....that probably explains sometimes "blur sotong" answers.

Sounds like this PM is not competence! How can he let his advisers goreng him till so blur, SAD case lah

Don't expect 60 year olds to remember all kinds of figures without prompt, aid and preparation.

If that is our expectation, then we are not looking at top managers but rather high school and university students to run the country.

Unless we have similar itemised breakdowns for both the bridge and non bridge, no one is going to get any intelligent answer as to why a cancellation is going to cost more than a cynic build.

PenangWang

Why should "elegant silence" be applied to Pak Lah only?

there's an email been widely forwarded, comparing qualifications of malaysia and singapore's leaders. obviously our leaders are not quite qualified for the position they are holding. how could you ask someone who failed his statistic paper to be finance minister? malaysia boleh

How much had Spore spend on this project?

commoner

you said...could you ask someone who failed his statistic paper to be finance minister? malaysia boleh?

That is hitting below the belt and an unfair comment.You will know there are people who are useless students but proved to be brilliant in their work.

Take Albert Einstein, that famous mathematician, if you don't know him.

This is what Encyclopaedia Britannica says about Eintein's student days:

The Encyclopedia Britannica says of Einstein's early education that he "showed little scholastic ability." It also says that at the age of 15, "with poor grades in history, geography, and languages, he left school with no diploma." Einstein himself wrote in a school paper of his "lack of imagination and practical ability." In 1895, Einstein failed a simple entrance exam to an engineering school in Zurich. This exam consisted mainly of mathematical problems, and Einstein showed himself to be mathematically inept in this exam. He then entered a lesser school hoping to use it as a stepping stone to the engineering school he could not get into, but after graduating in 1900, he still could not get a position at the engineering school! Unable to go to the school he wanted, he got a job at the patent office in Bern."

The rest is history.

Poor judgment makes poor analysis.

The only good thing about Pak Lah is of his nice guy image, other than that, he is probably a 'half past six' person that TM mentioned. Throw Pak Lah some tough question, most of the time he is clueless and looks 'blur blur'. Call himself a Finance Minister but all he does was let the 2nd Finance Minister do the job and he provide final approval. Talk about gaji buta, this one really is gaji buta. If cannot do, let other people become the one and only Finance Minister, don't be greedy and take more that one can handle.

present PM of singapore, i belived failed add maths and mandarin in secondary school. he is now into his second marriage. the first marriage ended when the wife, herself a qualified doctor and a malaysian, commited suicide.
Pak Lah should have appointed mahathir to be advisor or chairman of commitees of mega project he initiated, including the bridge. He has no time to clean up mess created by others. Best just let bridge project stop immediately with RM100 million compensation. The CIQ complex can be converted into some shopping complex and sold to a developer.

what shock news for me. Cost of compesation is same as cost of building the brigde. In that case, why we want to cancel the project!!! Let's us build it for solving the heavy traffic face by our johorian. How come penang 2 bridge can be in MP9 and jb-singapore bridge need to remove from MP9. And now compesation fee is in our MP9 without benefit for malaysia economic but juz only benefit for gerbang perdana.

http://malaysia-today.net/reports/2006/06/people-behind-gerbang-perdana.htm

http://www.malaysia-today.net/CorridorsPower/2006/06/orgy-of-malaysian-politics_16.htm

THis one really had me laughing.

a bit of digression, but frank&honest, i think you need to check your einstein facts (or update your britannica):

from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_einstein

Although he excelled in the mathematics and science portion of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zürich) entrance exam the following year, his failure of the liberal arts portion was a setback.

we could argue about the merits of wikipedia and britannica (as the journal nature did) but it makes sense for a physicist (not mathematician) to have a good grasp of maths.

the urban legend about einstein being bad at maths yet able to reinvent quantum physics is probably a mis-used motivational tool for us puny mortals.

Confused about the cost...not good at stats...getting annoyed...not knowing whether the figures came from MoF or Public Works...

Any surprise why we had the Kuching Prison and Matrade Building fiascos?

Any hope that things will improve with these fellas doing & saying what they have always done and said? ..."you support me, I will support you" "don't question me", "do you think we are stupid"

They will carry on in their bad old ways while are told to change our lifestyle to accomodate their foolishness

See the latest Update, Sat Jun 17. PAC maintains cancelled cost remains at RM740M But...
there are many other costs (which are difficult to quantified and NOT considered) like:-
1. REPLACING the old RAILWAY & water PIPE lines
2. DREDGING Johor STRAITS and
3. REMOVING causeway.
Check details at:
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2006/06/pac-shahrir-still-rm740m-for-scenic.html

F&H, I didn't say a paper of certificate means a lot in a person's life, but don't you think there are just too people in this country who are more competent to hold the post of finance minister? people who are good in politics not necessary to have good knowledge in certain field (of coz he maybe support by an elite group but what's the point if he can't make a wise decision?)

the only reason why gerbang perdana gets the last laugh is because of the special *royalty* treatment ...

whether u build or u don't built, the *vip* will get the beef ...

but since the southern counterpart revolted over the sale of sand, tak boleh built lar ...