The making of a Detroit city, South East Asia

And PASSAT to replace PROTON PERDANA? SYED Mokthar Al Bukhary is on to a Herculean task - building Detroit in a town called Pekan.

Richest Malaysians 2010

Eleven years after setting up the Port of Tanjung Pelepas at the backyard of of Singapore, the tycoon is attempting to use his tie up with Germany's VW to position Pekan as the Detroit of South East Asia, by making Pekan the main VW hub for 600 million South East Asians.

While many would laugh it off as day dreamer's dream, the Singaporeans certainly aren't one of them.

Singapore's HwangDBS Vickers Research says there is minimal execution risk for the venture, as DRB-HICOM have proven their mettle by being the first assembler of the Mercedes S- Class outside of Germany.

The venture with VW, is less than three weeks old and the tycoon has been busy pushing the German marque to the forefront. Read From Perdana to Passat. 

Apanama: A blogger unmasked

AH, FIRDAUS! So, the blogger behind  Apanama is Firdaus Abduallh, a seasoned journo who left the New Straits Times recently to be on his own. The official story is Firdaus has "taken over" Apanama, one of the blogs that contributed towards the political tsunami in 2008, i.e. short-living Abdullah Ahamad Badawi's tenure as PM. Any which way, congrats Firdaus (and the former owner of Apanama), blogosphere is the richer for this move.

Firdaus also runs Signboard and tweets with @firdyfire.

KJ merajuk?

"TAKING A BREAK FROM POLITICS." Woken up this morning about this article published by the Star today and am wondering if the newspaper had made a mistake. When my friend told me about the news, I thought it was a joke. My response: "Maybe he's going to stand in a State seat". But the Star article is quite clear:

Read the entire article H E R E.

Happy New Year!

To a momentous 2011, InsyAllah. Here's wishing all my dear readers, commenters and fellow bloggers a Happy New Year and may you and your loved ones remain healthy and happy always.



It's going to be a big year for politics, again (this is Malaysia, so every year is a big year for politics). Sarawak election must be held by mid-year and there's talk of a snap state election in Selangor to coincide with Sarawak's. More and more people are convinced Najib is going to call for general election this year though I myself believe he isn't in such a hurry, that he's looking at the slow-and-steady method to win the race. But then again, some people may see a hint in the PM's New Year's message:

"Let's not be satisfied and just sit back to be mere critics. Let's mould a better future for the coming generations.

"The power to build lies in the hands of the people. Fulfil this responsibility as best as you can," he said.

Read more: PM Najib urges Malaysians to build a better future http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/PMNajiburgesMalaysianstobuildabetterfuture/Article/#ixzz19i56Ext3