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All's well, as usual

Our hearts feel for the Japanese victims of the tsunami in Fukushima. May tranquillity be restored in the shortest possible time. I am not here to tell them 'serves you right for the atrocities you created in Nanking and Malaya in the 30s and WW2. That is another time and at another generation. Let bygones be bygones.

What I am mainly perplexed is that when the news of the 8.9 Richter scale quake was announced by our radio, within the same breath, in the next sentence, the newscaster mentioned that all Malaysian students in Japan. Then over the next few days, slowly like the peeling of the onion skin, one by one all the problems unveil. After being hit by the earthquake, tsunami and now fear of radiation exposure, the issues unfold. It has revealed that 2,100 Government-sponsored students in Japan are uncounted for. Interesting.

This seems to a standard answer of officials for any malady. During the Egypt debacle, he heard the same. This was also echoed during the haze episode in 1998. First, when API readings were low, the public was reassured and not to panic. Then when the API continued climbing, suddenly the API readings become official Government secret.

The same formula is also applied when toll charges are increased or when the price of essential items like sugar, cooking oil and petrol escalates. The standard answer is it would not pose a burden to the poor!

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