Even the locals are not spared the shabby service of unkempt and hostile drivers behind the wheels of decrepit vehicles who refuse to use the meter, overcharge and pick-and-choose which destinations they will travel to.

At the popular KLCC mall under Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Twin Towers is a typical scene, as a gang of cabbies negotiate with a young Norwegian couple just metres from a signboard warning against "taxi touts".

"Flat rate, flat rate, no metre," one driver insists as the tourists try to find a cab to take them to their hotel, less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away.

Anxious to escape the baking heat, they agree to pay 25 ringgit (7.22 dollars) for a trip that would have cost less than three ringgit on the meter.

"Is it expensive? We don’t know, we thought it is normal here," said the woman as they piled in with their shopping bags.

More frequent visitors, however, are vocal in their criticism and say that aggressive and unprofessional drivers are tarnishing the nation’s image as a squeaky clean and hospitable destination.

"I first visited Malaysia in 2006 and I was impressed by everything I saw except for the worst taxi service I have endured," said Kabir Dali, an Indian tourist waiting in vain for a metered taxi at another mall.

"I paid a whopping 260 ringgit (74 dollars) from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to town and was later told that was twice the proper amount."

Complaints about taxis are common in many countries, but in Malaysia it has escalated to an outpouring of frustration, on blog sites and in letters to newspapers.

In a survey by the local magazine The Expat, some 200 foreigners from 30 countries rated Malaysia the worst among 23 countries in terms of taxi quality, courtesy, availability and expertise.

The respondents lashed the fleet as "a source of national shame" and "a serious threat to tourists — rude bullies and extortionists".

Salvation is in sight though, as a number of smaller, up-scale operators enter the market to provide a more expensive but quality taxi service for frustrated visitors and locals.

The uniformed drivers, behind the wheels of smart new multi-purpose vehicles and sedans, switch on the meter as a matter of course and do not refuse destinations — surprising and delighting commuters in the capital.

Abdul Razak, operations manager for Dubai-based Citicab which launched here in January, said that even in poorer nations such as Thailand and Indonesia, taxis are smarter and the drivers far more courteous.

"I would say it is the worst in this region, undoubtedly. I have travelled to all countries in this region and our company operates taxis in many parts of the world. The situation here is the worst I have seen," he told AFP.

"The vehicles are in shabby condition, the driver will take you if he likes your face — that is, if he agrees with where you want to go for the price he insists on."

The government has called on taxi firms to lift their standards, but various campaigns have achieved little, and many blame the lack of enforcement on rampant corruption in the police and bureaucracy.

"It is difficult for the roads and traffic department to take stern action," said a security officer at one city mall as he watched the touts swoop.

"Taxi operators and the company which hold the licences are all linked to some politician or another," he said. "Drivers here are ruthless because they are unchecked by authorities who are almost non-existent."

John Koldowski, from the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said that "less than desirable" taxi drivers have an outsize impact on a nation’s image.

"The first contact a tourist gets with locals is often during airport transits to hotels and it creates a very, very strong first impression, either be good or bad," he said.

"Authorities certainly need to do their jobs and act upon any complaints strongly, quickly and visibly."

(Agence France-Presse - 9/18/2008 2:55 AM GMT)

Discover this thing while browsing through my msn messenger (2 of my frens put that in their signature). Have download it and try awhile… still not quite get used to it.

Will post more comments after i try on it more….

Btw… some links:
1 2 3 4 5

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia on Tuesday canceled a concert by Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne, saying it may taint the Muslim-majority country’s independence day celebrations after the Islamic opposition slammed her show as being "too sexy."

The Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry said it had decided not to permit Lavigne’s show because it was unsuitable to Malaysian culture and could not be held on Aug. 29, two days ahead of independence day.

"It is not timely. It’s not in the good spirit of our National Day. If we go ahead with the concert, it is contrary to what we are preparing for," said Shukran Ibrahim, a senior official from the culture ministry’s department that vets all foreign artists.

The decision came after the youth wing of a fundamentalist opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, called for the show’s cancellation.

Kamarulzaman Mohamed, a party youth official, told The Associated Press on Monday that Lavigne’s show was "considered too sexy for us" and would promote the wrong values just before independence day.

"We don’t want our people, our teenagers, influenced by their performance. We want clean artists, artists that are good role models," he said.

Lavigne, who became famous with her 2002 debut album "Let’s Go," had planned to launch her monthlong Asia tour in Kuala Lumpur.

The show’s promoter, Galaxy Group, can request a new date for the concert, which will be considered by the ministry, Shukran said. Galaxy officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Galaxy began advertising the Grammy-nominated rock singer’s concert this month even though it had yet to obtain a government permit, which is mandatory for all foreign music shows. It said Monday about half the concert tickets had been sold.

Last year, R&B singer Beyonce moved her show from Malaysia to Indonesia, and Christina Aguilera skipped the country on an Asian tour after a controversy erupted over a dress code for foreign artists.

Malaysia requires all performers to wear clothes without obscene or drug-related images and be covered from the chest to the knees. They must also refrain from jumping, shouting, hugging and kissing on stage.

Still, members of PAS and other conservative Muslims often protest against Western and even Malaysian music shows that they deem to be inappropriate.

The local organizer of a Pussycat Dolls concert in 2006 was fined 10,000 ringgit (US$2,857) after the U.S. girl group was accused of flouting decency regulations.

(quoted from google news)

In 2003, at the age of 13, she participated in the 28th "Horipro - Talent Scout Caravan - Love Music - Audition" (ホリプロ・タレントスカウトキャラバン・ラブミュージック・オーディション) and, out of the 34,911 hopefuls, became one of the 4 who survived the final eliminations at the Shibuya Club Quattro.

In 2005, she made her single debut with Crazy Crazy Crazy. The single was later re-released with an extra track. Her second single, Sympathy, was also released later that year.

In 2006, she sang the ending theme for the anime Love Get Chu ~Miracle Voice Actress Hakusho~ (ラブゲッCHU ～ミラクル声優白書～,) which was included on her third single Fallin’ in or not.

In 2007, she was chosen to be the singing voice of Sheryl Nome of the anime Macross Frontier (マクロスF (フロンティア),).

In January 2008, she changed her stage name to May’n (taken from May Nakabayashi). On Sheryl Nome character songs that were released during the year, she is credited as May’n.

More:
1. HoriPro Official Site
2. Universal Music Official Site
3. Victor Entertainment Offical Site
4. Old Official Blog
5. New Official Blog

More:
1 2 3 4

Well… if it is indeed true, then it is such a shame…

Btw… link for the opening ceremony video…

While adding a flash navigation panel on a “oscommerce-engined” ( dun not the more suitable/official words ), 1 error occured. For eg can refer to the following links:

1. http://www.silverbelle.cc/
2. http://silverbelle.cc/

You can find that at link #1, you flash nav bar was not working (ie. when click on buttons won’t load pages). Link #2 is what it should have function.

And for this website, the root (HTTP_SERVER) is set to http://silverbelle.cc.

The same problem happen to another “oscommerce-engined” website - http://i-bizzone.com.

Solution:
1. oscommerce forum
2. adobe technote

In the html code ( when the flash is being embeded ):

<object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=http://download.macromedia.com
/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/
swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0 width=”950″ height=”28″>
<param name=”movie” value=”images/button.swf” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
<param name=”AllowScriptAccess” value=”always” />
<embed src=”images/button.swf” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/
go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”950″ height=”28″></embed>
</object>

Possible targets?:
1
2
3

(Source: http://simonwillison.net/2002/Aug/1/mysqlTextLimits/)