The 2008 Election.

My parents and their friends about to vote in Sek Men Sultan Ismail, Johor Bahru.

I remember an Imam quoted a few months ago, while I was attending my Friday prayer, something I think is 'relevant' to this election - i.e ,'the worse hell is reserved for cruel leaders who perform injustice towards the citizen’.

In my opinion, the best example of leadership is from our own 'Prophet Muhammad S.A.W' himself and all the ‘khalifah’. One of the 'khalifah' even refused to burn oil to light his house at night in the grounds that the oil doesnt belong to his personal property.

I was in Johor Bahru yesterday at my family’s house and went with my parents to vote in the morning. I didnt ask my parents or anyone else of their choice of political party or candidates as to respect their privacy. At least, we did our job to excercise our right to vote for the country. I have a wish to leaders who emerged as winner in the election, 'please conduct better leadership for the sake of Islam and the pursuit of progress towards the nation'. If we do it together with sincerity, I believe Malaysian will become a great 'Race' and Malaysia a great nation.

'Yee Sang' performed in a malay house.

Yee Sang? I know its traditionally a chinese dish served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year and is usually eaten on Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. In a celebration known as "lo hei", families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying (Jíxiáng Huà, auspicious wishes) out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

Typical ingredients include: fresh salmon, daikon (white radish), carrot, red pepper (capsicum), ginger, daun limau nipis (lime tree leaves), Chinese parsley, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder. The dressing is made primarily from plum sauce.

Well, last Sunday, my Sister’s family celebrated my brother in-law's birthday after Tahlil and Yassin together, starting with Yee Sang, following with Nasi Beriyani (Prawn and chicken) and ended with dessert of Baskin Robbin Ice Cream courtesy of my nephew – Syafique.

Yee Sang? Well I guess Malaysian are more intergrated culturally today than in yester years.

Happy birthday to Abang Mus.

The new gear = Sony Alpha 200.

Hi guys,

I bought my Sony Alpha 200 on the 16 February 2008. It is my first DSLR camera as it is about time to upgrade. Why didnt I buy other brands? Simply, because I like the outcome of the camera and most importantly the budget suits me. One thing that I am impressed with the DSLR is the built-in IS function (image stabilizer) which come as a great help to people like me who lack the steadiness of holding a camera.

So this is the pic, of-course with a little help from 'photoshop'.

Happy belated chinese new year.

'Gong Xi Fat Choy' to all my chinese friends. Yes, I have many good friends among the Chinese, Henry, Michael, Mr Chin, Andre, Nicklaus, Goh......may good fortune be blessed upon you guys.

Upgrading oneselves.

Hi there,

I took a long break from blogging, but now I am back. Well, I was busy keeping up with my businesses, moreover I went back to a few computer classes (not as a trainer but as a student) to update myself. I invested money and time in classes like photoshop, adobe illustrator and 3D max (nothing come cheap these days).

I think once in a while we need to upgrade ourselves 'knowledge wise' just like our computer hardware. Oh speaking of hardware, I upgraded my PC’s, now most of them come with more than 1gb ram, bought a few new notebooks, all that for my business, so I am ready to step into 2008.

To my dad, this is a gift for you, a black and white photo of his mother and grandmother (they were Japanese) in a school compound, that I took liberty to colorised the photo myself using photoshop techniques (since dreams are made in color). 'Yes Abah, just click that picture to enlarge in fuller scale'. The result might be amateurish but as a beginner it took me half the night. With photoshop, not only I can colorised black and white photos and vice-versa but I can also restore badly damaged photos to its former glory.

Also, would like to thank Abang Osman (my cousin) for e-mailing the pic of our great grandmother (Mak Tua) and her Japanese certificates of origin.

Cheers.
Love you.

Ps : anyone can check out my 2 new blogs ,
http://kursusautocad.blogspot.com and http://kursusautocadlevel2.blogspot.com.

Malaysia Internet Marketers Gathering in Starbucks, KL Sentral.

I sat next to Starbucks hot foods and munched non-stop, all through the gathering hehe.

Mr. LimCS from 'Increseo' his own company.
Mr. Najib Habeb was on CMS.
Mr. Hanson was representing Google.

Mr. Gobala Krishnan and his inspiring talk.

LiewCF, me and Gobala Krishnan. Ladies, pick your choice, one only.

For me, one of life pleasures is to meet friends, old and new. Today, I met with new friends, lots of them, in Starbucks, KL Sentral during the ‘Malaysia Internet Marketers Gathering’ hosted by Exabytes / WebmasterMalaysia.com. My new friends are from a group of bloggers, webmasters and Internet marketers. Some are very popular and familiar Malaysian online personality like Gobala Krishnan, Liew CF, LimCS and many others, not to forget our Google Country Consultant, Mr. Hanson.

There were door gifts, plenty of free food and drinks courtesy of Exabytes and Starbucks. Mr. LimCS did a marvelous job as an emcee of the event with his friendly and warm personality. The first speaker Mr. Hanson, briefed us on Google roles in the cyber world including a newly released ‘blogger’ in Bahasa Malaysia, ‘Google map’ and 'Google Calendar'. The second speaker Mr. Najib Habeb gave his talk on 'CMS' and our last speaker, the most anticipated, non-other than our successful and well known Malaysian Internet marketer, Mr. Gobala Krishnan.

As good as his blog writing, his presentation on making money on-line was brilliant and inspiring. His memorable line that I admire was – “everybody have different specialized skill that can be transformed into products with opportunity to market on-line (as e-book), even if there are someone better in that area of specialization, that doesn’t mean that our skill cannot be appreciated”. Well, that was not the precise speech of Mr. Gobala Krishnan but I am sure that’s the message he was relaying. I personally agree with him especially on his suggestion of ‘selling specialised skill in the internet as a good idea’.

The event that started at 2.00pm ended amicably at 5.00pm with our last agenda the ‘networking’ and group photo.

I would like to say ‘thank you very much’ to the organizer. Congratulation for organizing a successful event.

Ps: Events like this one are very educational and will foster business network, our 'usahawan' should look out for event opportunities like this.

Love,
Hanafi

Vocational Institute of Baitulmal (Institut Kemahiran Baitulmal), a bright hope for our economic underprivileged brothers and sisters.

Dear readers;

This morning I had an appointment with a very special client (Institut Kemahiran Baitulmal) in Taman Maluri, Kuala Lumpur to discuss our ICT related future training with the Institute’s Principal (En Affandey Yaakub) and his officer (En Mohamad Saidi). Alhamdullilah, the meeting went quite well. Afterward, I took the opportunity to study the Institute itself which is supported by 'Baitulmal' under ‘Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan’.

I believe the little information I found here is worth sharing among our fellow Muslim around the world. I am proud to say that the Institute has partly achieved its purpose in poverty eradication effort of Muslim community in Wilayah Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur through education and vocational training.

'Baitulmal' is a nonprofit organization providing benefit to Muslim community members and organizations based on the guidelines of Al Quran and the example of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The organization is funded mainly by coordinated ‘Zakat’ and contributions while cultivating in self sustaining environment financially.

The Institute which has been producing 200 vocational graduates per year was established around 15 years ago. The major objective of the Institute is to improve the economy of the poor brothers and sisters from the Muslim community (those from lower income family and orphan) through vocational education.

To join the Institute, the student must at least have completed the primary 6 as a basic requirement. Student intake will commence in August every year following the Institute advertisement in local newspapers. Qualified candidate will have to go through interview before selection.

Student of ‘Institut Kemahiran Baitulmal’ will have to undergo a 2 years training in the centre under their chosen fields with options from ‘basic electrical engineering’,’ fashion and tailoring’, ‘food and catering’, ‘building construction technology’ and ‘art and graphic design’. Baitulmal students are allocated a sum of RM350.00 per month each for their living allowance and hostel is provided for their living quarters.

The very friendly En Saidi gave me a tour of the whole Institute’s from the fully equipped training hall, cooking lab, computer lab to the multipurpose halls. I was told that every student (all courses) will be required to attend computer and English lessons for 2 hours each, every week.

How happy and proud I felt upon seeing the high quality artworks of the students including window curtains, dresses, toys, paintings and even amazing graffiti. I must say trainers in the Institute did good jobs to inculcate quality vocational skills to students, manifest by student’s high quality workmanship. Proceed of sales from the production in the Institute will supplement the income of the Institute (the Institute also participates in tenders of supply to agencies and corporate).

Today, after finally completed my brief research on the Institute, I am very happy to know that there are hopes and economic prospects for the poor in Muslim community of Kuala Lumpur to improve their economy, courtesy of ‘Institut Kemahiran Baitulmal’. Thank you Allah S.W.T. for blessing us.









En Mohamad Saidi showing me around 'building and construction technology' lecture and practical site.

Love.
Hanafi

Ps: The Institute is able take orders of tailormade dress, souvenirs, toys, handycrafts, as well as handling food and catering for functions.
Pss: Will be busy after Monday.

Electronic commerce or on-line business in Malaysia.

Dear readers.

When we think of the on-line business, ideally, the picture is shopping for goods and services using the internet platform with our debit or credit cards. Although we have to admit that on-line business in Malaysia is still in the infancy stage, to ignore it totally might be a mistake as it is getting increasing attention from the public. For general Malaysian consumers, shopping online cannot beat the excitement of real shopping while the threats like phishing and scam diminish the merit of shopping online.

Let us look at the general idea of on-line business in Malaysia. The on-line business is divided into three categories i.e. B2B (business to business), B2G (Business to Government) and B2C (Business to Consumer).

B2B
B2B (Business-to-business), is a term commonly used to describe electronic commerce transactions between businesses, usually takes the form of automated processes between trading partners. In Malaysia, the volume of B2B transactions is much higher than (B2C) for greater adoption of electronic commerce technologies by businesses, relative to adoption by consumer.

B2G
B2G (Business to Government), as the name implies, describe the transaction between Businesses to Government. In Malaysian context, we have our ‘ePerolehan’ and ‘myKatalog’ that manages the Government process of purchasing. ‘ePerolehan’ streamlines government procurement activities, converts traditional manual procurement processes in the Government machinery to electronic procurement on the Internet.
‘ePerolehan’ allow suppliers to present their products on the internet, receive, manage and process purchase orders and receive payment from government agencies via the Internet. The supplier's product catalogue is converted into the form of an electronic catalogue or ‘myKatalog’. Suppliers are able to submit quotations, obtain tender document and submit tender bid through ‘ePerolehan’.

In addition, ‘ePerolehan’ allow suppliers to register or renew their registration with the ‘Ministry of Finance (MOF)’ and ‘Sijil Bumiputera’ through the Internet. Suppliers are able to submit application, check application status and pay registration fees through ‘ePerolehan’. ‘ePerolehan’ is built, maintain and manage by Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd, a company nominated by Malaysian Government while ‘myKatalog’ is the wholly owned subsidiary of the Internet Business Group Pvt Limited.

I strongly suggest, that local entrepreneurs especially Bumiputera who have business potentials with the government, to register the ‘MOF’ and obtain their ‘Sijil Bumiputera’ as prospects to do business with our Government is wide and lucrative. The application can be done in simple steps online through ePerolehan or go to www.eperolehan.com.my.

B2C
B2C (Business to consumer). Although we are familiar with B2C, thanks to Amazon.com, eBay, etc., the average Malaysian are not favoring the habit as rapid as our western counterparts. This might be due to our culture differences, infrastructure and the pervasive fear of on-line scam. Lately, the trend of shopping online is picking-up when consumer confidence has been gradually restored with the help of our financial institutions and anti scam software.

My first experience with on-line business was with my sister’s business that I assisted in setting up. She sells on-line biotechnology products that carry her own brand name where she heavily promotes her products off-line through local magazines and participating in exhibitions and expos. Business is now picking up with new customers while she works hard maintaining her loyal customers. We learnt a valuable lessons of on-line business that success is largely depending on off-line promotion.

A month before Hari Raya, I have conducted an ICT training workshop for 3 days in Prescott Inn, Kuala Lumpur, organized by MARA for our Bumiputera entrepreneurs. During our free time after class (10.30pm), I did extra subjects and coached them about blogging and on-line business transaction although that was not in the curriculum. A few of them have successfully commenced blogs and on-line shops even though they have zero knowledge of on-line business initially. Here are the examples of the blogs:

1. farmasinorinaonline
2. nmelectrical

The blogs are from a student of mine with very big prospect in business, on-line and off-line. Off-line, he is a well known good electrical contractor in Lembah Kelang area whom I trust to give good quality of services. Well, Muhammad Omar, congratulation and welcome to the blogsphere.

Let us pray for his success in business.

Ps: Do write some encouragement words to him if you can and promote his business.
Pss: I am totaly against the 'get rich quick scheme' or selling clones crappy 'make money' ebook on-line that exploit spamming strategy in the internet.

Love
Hanafi.