Voice of a Senior Citizen

Voice of a Senior Citizen
By Bob Yong

Come January 2010, the new budget announced by the Government recently will come into effect and this has left senior citizens in a lurch. While it has often been said that old is gold, the government does not appear to think that it is so.
Here are the reasons why:-
5% Real Property Gained Tax (RPGT)-Ordinary citizens who had bought houses often considered such purchases as investment for old age. This notion has changed after the announcement of the 2010 budget whereby a property sold after January 1. 2010 will be subject to a 5% RPGT on the total gain. This means if you were to sell a house, bought at RM200, 000, 20 years ago, at RM1 million after the effective date, you will be taxed 5% on the gain of RM800, 000. The tax will work out to RM40, 000.
RM40, 000 would mean nothing to property speculators but it is a heavenly lot to retirees, especially to those who are required to sell the house to meet medical bills.
Prior to this, the 5% Tax was based on a sliding scale for a five years term. Should an individual’s property be disposed off after 5 years, no RPGT will be imposed. Why is there a need to change this? Does the Government know the long-term property owners are the losers? If indeed it is necessary to do this, the new rulings should only be applied to properties bought and sold after January1, 2010.




RM50 Service Tax on credit cards-Although the amount to begin with is a small sum to fuss about but the government has overlooked that these credit cards are for security and convenient reasons for the holders, particularly of that of senior citizens who do not want to carry a big amount of cash, lest they fall preys to snatch-thieves and robbers. Seem to me by citing the reasons that it would cultivate good habit of prudent spending and discouraging those who have many credit cards to give up some, is like putting a cart before the horse. It is more acceptable to the credit card users that the Service Tax will only be imposed for those who have multiple cards. A bad pay-master is always a bad-pay master and it has nothing to do with the number of cards one holds.
Senior citizens are always at the receiving ends. While employed, they had paid all taxes dutifully. With this in mind, the Government should be mindful not to further burden the senior citizens with all the unnecessary taxes. The Government is responsible to look after the public fund diligently, and must bring those who misuse the public fund to book without excuses. It is not right to ask the public, especially the senior citizens to make good the misappropriation of fund by these crooks.
I ask the Government to leave the senior citizens alone and let them enjoy their twilight golden years.

It's More Than Just Being Lucky

It's more than just being lucky
Bob Yong
This was what happened on October 28, 2009.
Stepping out of a lift at a basement parking lot, I walked towards my car which was parked some 100 feet away. Suddenly, I noticed a MPV drove up and stopped in front of another car, a few feet away from us. A young woman rushed out of this MPV and headed straight towards another car parked close to mine. She got into her car (I presumed) and came out with a brick in her hand. On seeing this, the man hurriedly reversed his car in high speed; obviously he was trying to avoid being hit should the woman throw the brick at him.
At that time, I was about to cross to the other side of the path with my pet dog named Goldie in my left arm. I felt the MPV whisk-passed me, just missing us by an inch. As a result, the MPV brushed against my right arm and the wheels ran over the tip of my shoe.
Though we were not hurt, I was shocked and stood there motionless for a moment before realizing this was a near-missed. It could have turned out to be more serious than it looked. I could have been knocked down and killed or badly injured!
Looking back, I can conclude that the Lord was walking by my side on that day. He protected me and Goldie from harm.Praise the Lord.
Here is a gospel song “If the Lord wasn’t walking by my side” by Elvis Presley.

Life Is Mission

Life Is Mission
By Lintang Bob Yong
I was on the way to a dinner party at a local renowned restaurant. As my car was parked at a distance away from the restaurant, I needed to walk along the 5-foot way to reach my destination. Nearing to the restaurant, there were a few aquariums, put up by the eatery that housed the sea creatures which had attracted a lot of attention from passerby. Curiosity made the better of me and I stopped by to have a closer look. There were big eels more than 3 feet long, garoupa fish look like monster, lobsters with eyes popping out, staring at me. There were other species of fishes that I could not identify.

I looked at the garoupa fish and took a fancy to its monstrous appearance. They swam and periodically chased their own kind and I wondered whether they knew their destiny. One garoupa fish swam towards me and greeted me by nodding its head as if to say hello. I murmured something like “see you later” and off I went to my party.
I was having fun at the dinner table, enjoying my food. A dish, named steamed fish, was served. I took a good look at the cooked garoupa fish. Suddenly it dawn on me that fish could be the one I bid farewell earlier on at the aquarium. I didn’t expect that we had to meet this way, and so soon. A sense of guilt felt over me.
God has created fishes as a food chain for us, just like some animals are a food chain for other animals. We are in this world for a purpose. God the creator of universe granted us the privilege to obey and be lead by Him.
I felt better when I think God has his way of doing things.
Listen to this gospel song, Life by Elvis Presley

Malaysia-52 years of independence

Malaysia-52 years of independence
My reflection by Lintang Bob Yong

I asked a school boy aged 12 of what he understood by the term “1 Malaysia”. He answered that all Malaysians are the same. What he meant was all Malaysians are equal. I asked the same question to a man in the street. He replied that in his opinion, 1 means 1; there is no other equivalence he could think of. When asked to elaborate, he explained that 1 means any one can be the prime minister of our country.
A lot has been said and written on unity, royalty, equality, justice and fairness, integration of ethnic groups, co-existence and live in harmony and peace, religions tolerance, embrace cultural differences and of late, abolition of the need to state racial identity. It is not my intention to elaborate on these subject matters in this article.
Indeed, 1 means 1 and I find it hard to accept that 1 can mean 2 or 3 and any other descriptions the politicians are saying now. “Tear the walls down” by all means, but this must be done by all Malaysians who believe in the true sense of “1 Malaysia”. Perhaps, the most appropriate interpretation of “1 Malaysia” is the theme song featured in the film of the 3 musketeers which is “one for all and all for love”. Is this what we wish to believe? If so, I give my full support and Pledge of Allegiance to Malaysia.
In a war, soldiers died for their countries and more often than not, army generals would also perish with the soldiers. This kind of honorable act and leadership by example is diminishing fast in modern society. When Malaysians go hungry, will our leaders prepare to go hungry too? If they do, then this “1 Malaysia” concept must be promoted with all cost.
Our Federal Constitution is the guiding light and no matter which political party governs our beloved country, one must bear in mind that all Malaysians accept Malaysia as their country and have pledged their loyalty to the King and Country. Why then the Malaysian minority are treated differently in many aspects of their lives?
Tell me why.

Elvis Presley-It's yesterday once more

Elvis Presley- It’s yesterday once more
By Lintang Bob Yong

Elvis died in the year of 1977 at the age of 42 and today, Aug 16 is the 32nd anniversary of his death.
Elvis was the king of rock ‘n’ roll, an international icon and a pop superstar in the music world. Elvis recorded more than 700 songs and many hundreds more that were not released. Till today, his music is still as popular as ever. Shortly after his death, rumours had it that he had been seen in many parts of the world. His fans simply did not accept that he was gone.
Elvis was my favourite singer too and like many others, I am one of his millions of ardent fans. His unique voice and singing style had a great influence on me. I like his songs and naturally would impersonate his style of singing and I, at my younger days tried very hard to be a copy-cat of him. Even now, I continue to sing his songs with enthusiasm and passion.
I have recorded some of his songs and burned a CD as a tribute to him in 2007.

There could be more than 70,000 Elvis impersonators all over the world. In Malaysia, I met quite a few of them personally.

In-house Karaoke Competition-Royal Lake Club 2009

In-house Karaoke Competition-Royal Lake Club 2009
By Lintang Bob Yong
This was an annual event organized by the Karaoke Section. There were 12 soloists and 6 duets in the final. These were the winners selected from the 2 heats conducted earlier in the month of June.

The results of the final are:-
Solo Section
Champion: Emily Tan
1st Runner-up: Jade Liew
Joint 2nd Runner-up: David Wong and Puteri Kamaliah
4th Runner-up: Sally Ngam
Duet Section
Champion: David Wong and Emily Tan
Runer-up: Philip Soo and Puteri Kamaliah
Congratulations to all winners!

Bob and Cecilia sing The End of the World

Money does not fall from the sky

Money does not fall from the sky
By Bob Yong
Cashing on human greed, fraudsters are capitalizing their skills to making fast bucks by coming up with all kinds of tactics to hoodwink the public to part with their hard-earned money. These get-rich schemes promoted by unauthorized investment companies are offering high returns or interest on deposit placed in trust with the bogus companies. The scam is normally in the form of a direct sales model whereby a multi-marketing level method is used. The modus operandi is nothing new and yet many people are still drawn to these get-rich-quick schemes without hesitation. When a scam comes to light, many would have lost tens of thousands and even millions of ringgit. The biggest surprise is many of these people who being conned are educated and some of them are successful professionals.
More than 18,000 cases, involving total financial losses of close to 2 billion ringgit (2007) are now being investigated by the police. Attention is drawn to the much talked about conman, Bernard Madoff who heads a bogus investment company, ripping off billion of dollars from the public in United States of America. Those who believe in easy money must realize that money does not fall from the sky.
The ingenuity of the fraudsters is beyond comprehension. These con-men are clever enough to come up with schemes that are so convincing that even experienced investors cannot tell the difference between the genuine and the false one.
Of late, there are restaurants offering membership to the public. These are restaurants that have many outlets all over the country. Besides collecting membership fee which may amount to RM100-200, members are encouraged to place with them deposit which guaranteed interest. Membership allowed members to redeem points, based on their deposit sum by patronizing the food outlets and members will also receive a fixed monthly interest on the deposit amount for a stipulated periods.
All scams prey on the public greediness and emotions. Legal opinion cautions investors that before one commits in any scheme, it pays to check it out first. Senior citizens are often targeted and it is prudent for them to learn more on how to protect and keep their hard-earned money safely. Learning, identifying and differentiating the true investment from the scam are itself an investment technique which can save them from falling victims to fraudsters.