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As I was cracking my head with yet another Crystal Reports formula, a colleague from the neighbouring department stormed into my office. She’s shouting something about earthquakes and evacuation.

Read the rest of Back Home Early, Thanks To An Earthquake »

Remember my earlier post about the petition for JB police to improve? Personally, over that time period, I’ve observed that the presence of the police force can be felt much, much more than usual.

Everytime I took a drive in town nowadays, I’ll always see a police car or officers on motorbikes patrolling the streets. Occasionally, a police helicopter would hover around town; at night, you can even see it beaming down a floodlight onto the darker areas of the city. Sometimes it makes me wonder, what was the helicopter doing before? Why didn’t the previous police leadership make full use of its resources?

Anyway, this grateful citizen of JB would like to thank the Malaysian Royal Police for the effort they’ve put in to make JB a much safer place. Let’s hope that they can continue with the sterling effort.

Of all the civil services in Malaysia, I respect the Royal Malaysian Police the most. They are an often under-appreciated group of professionals that help keep the peace and make life better for law-abiding citizens.

Nevertheless, the level of commercial crimes as well as violent crimes are beginning to become overwhelming for residents of Johor Bahru. Let me give a few examples;

For the past week or so, there were a few hit-and-rape cases around JB. Yes, you heard that right, hit-and-rape, not hit-and-run! The thing is, this was not a once off case. It happened a number of times just last week alone!

Commercial crimes is also on the rise. The one type of commercial crime that I’m trying to get widely publicised is scratch-and-win scams. Currently, the biggest scratch-and-win syndicate in Malaysia is Welley Corporation Sdn Bhd. They seem to be getting more and more active in Johor Bahru. Right now, they seem to be actively targeting Singaporean visitors. Is this part of the Visit Malaysia Year activities the government has in store for them?

With this in mind, I’ve signed a petition drafted by the Tiong-Hua Association of Johor Bahru. For those who can’t read Chinese or Bahasa Malaysia, here’s my translation of the text:

We feel that the peace and security in Johor Bahru is getting more precarious and the citizens are getting worried and restless. Therefore, we are signing this petition to communicate our concerns to the authorities. We hope that the Police focus more on this issue and put in their full effort in eradicating crime in order to regain the confidence of citizens

At the time of this post, almost 40,000 people have signed the online petition. I know that a paper petition drive is also concurrently taking place.

I urge everyone to please sign the petition. It is for a good cause. Even if you’re not from Johor Bahru, please show your support. Who knows, the next crime victim might be your friend or loved one.

Let’s let the Royal Malaysian Police know that with their recent pay rise comes big responsibilities. The Rakyat has spoken. Now the ball is in their court.

I used to get my supply of Dr Pepper from Jusco Permas Jaya. But since last weekend, it’s been noticably absent from the shelves.

I’m not sure if they’ve pulled Dr Pepper from their store (which is a bad move, especially for Dr Pepper fans such as myself) or they simply ran out of stock. Nevertheless, for other afficionados of Dr Pepper based in JB… do you know of any other stores which sells Dr Pepper?

Yesterday was the wettest day I’ve seen in JB my whole life. Floods and fallen trees were everywhere! Apparently, such weather conditions occur once every 100 years, although frankly, I don’t trust the Drainage and Irrigation Department, regardless what their so-called records say.

More coverage of this phenomenon by NST and The Star.

Yesterday, about a quarter of my colleagues came in past 10:30am. And today, a handful took emergency leave because they reached home hours later than normal (one girl only arrived home at 3:00am, after leaving office at 5:45pm sharp!).