Jim Paull

It’s been about a year since I last jammed my finger putting together Ikea furniture. It was for my brand new apartment, and even though I broke a sweat and a little skin at the top of my hand, I saved a ton of money—that’s the benefit of outfitting your home in Ikea housewares. Now, your favorite Swedish furniture…

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From missing planes to Cold War-style assassinations, Malaysia has seen its share of emergency situations over the past four years. And through it all, one question keeps popping up: Is Malaysia capable of crisis management?

Quite a number of people would give “No” as an answer.

The MH370 tragedy alone demonstrated what media reports have dubbed a “masterclass in crisis mismanagement”.

For starters, authorities took far too long to issue any kind of statement on the matter. They delayed even acknowledging the plane’s disappearance. It took Malaysia Airlines (MAS) five hours to admit that it had lost contact with the flight.

The government was also criticised for its sluggish development of a clear consensus on the search area, as well as its hesitation in asking for international aid.

An expert in aviation crisis management, James Lee, said much of this had to do with national pride. “They don’t have the technology, they don’t have the experience and they don’t have the resources,” he told the International Business Times. “They want to hang on to the lead because they feel a moral obligation.”

PR experts said things ran more smoothly after Australia took the lead in search operations.

Mishandling of relatives

After news broke of the plane’s disappearance, family members of passengers flocked to the Beijing airport, desperate for information on loved ones. However, the flight number continued showing as “delayed” for hours.

Robert Jensen, president of Kenyon International Emergency Services, said this was a mistake. Speaking to Canadian media, he said the first thing MAS should have done was to take MH370 off the arrival board and set up a reception area for family members.

However, relatives were left without any clear communication from authorities for days. MH370 went missing on Saturday. Some relatives said it was Monday before airline staff spoke to them.

But perhaps the move that will go down in history as the airline’s biggest mistake was its decision to deliver official condolences to family members through text message.

The full text of the message, delivered on March 24, 2014, read: “Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”

This, experts say, was “a recipe for turning a terrible event into an irredeemable destroyer of brand image”.

Breakdown in communication

Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who was acting transport minister at the time, and then-Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, came under scrutiny for publicly contradicting each other on details related to the search.

Soon after MH370 disappeared, Hishammuddin said the plane’s communications system was disabled at 1.07am. This was reportedly before MH370 transmitted its final verbal sign-off. The next day, though, Jauhari said the final transmission might have occurred before any communication was disabled.

Hishammuddin insisted that what he said was based on verified facts, but the clash of information did nothing to boost confidence in the investigation.

Throughout much of the search, authorities continued providing patchy information, sometimes retracting statements or issuing corrections to earlier assertions.

This led to a breakdown in relations with China, which had lost 153 citizens on the flight. State press agency Xinhua lashed out at Malaysia for what it said was a lack of transparency. It said: “It is known to all that inaccurate, or at least incomplete, information led the initial search in the South China Sea nowhere and thus that precious time was wasted.”

Although Prime Minister Najib Razak issued a statement on March 15, PR firms pointed out that the initial spokesman assigned by the airline was not the CEO but someone more junior in rank.

“It should always be the CEO, and if he’s not available, perhaps because he’s in flight, then the number two,” travel PR agency Rooster chief James Brooke told PR Weekly.

Geoffrey Thomas, editor in chief of AirlinesRatings.com, agreed, adding that the MAS PR team appeared to be missing in action.

Following the recent announcement that search efforts would be abandoned, Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said the government would reward any private company able to find the main body of the Boeing 777.

However, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said that statement was incorrect. He said it represented his deputy’s personal view and did not reflect the government’s stand.

The blame game

While accepting some responsibility for the response to the tragedy, representatives from Malaysia Airlines said the Department of Civil Aviation, not the airline, was responsible for search, rescue and repatriation efforts.

According to the British newspaper Express, the airline’s crisis director, Fuad Sharuji, said Malaysia Airlines had no control over these functions and that it could only communicate with the government and provide any assistance required.

Sharuji added that the airline’s team was kept in the dark about much of the government’s efforts, despite having given authorities information each time a tip on possible sightings was received.

“It was like groping in the dark,” he was quoted as saying.

“From the public’s perspective, they thought that there was a lot of cover-up and we were withholding information, which is actually not true because we also didn’t know.”

Locked in a tussle

It appears doubtful that Malaysia has learned much from its experience with MH370.

In the most recent incident to rock the nation, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was murdered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) on Feb 13.

Malaysia has been locked in a tussle with North Korea over the release of Jong Nam’s body. Police say they will not release it without a DNA sample and fingerprints from his relatives.

On Feb 24, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said a family member was expected to arrive in Malaysia to identify and collect the body. However, this was denied by Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who said his deputy had been “misquoted” on the matter.

Speaking on Malaysia’s response to MH370, Kenyon International’s Robert Jensen told PR Weekly, “The challenge you have with crisis communications is not to make it worse, because you can’t make it better.”

Investigations into Jong Nam’s murder are ongoing. Amid a diplomatic spat with North Korea, here’s hoping that Malaysian authorities take a leaf out of Jensen’s book.

ANA has just shown off a special livery for its very first Airbus A380. Back in October, the airline held a competition to design the paint job for the jumbo jet that will operate airline’s flight between Tokyo and Honolulu (HNL). Over 2,000 designs were submitted to the airline, and the winner, Chihiro Masuoka of Tokyo, was revealed this week. He’ll be receiving two round-trip business-class tickets on the Tokyo to Honolulu flight, as well as some serious bragging rights.

The design, nicknamed ‘Flying Honu’, shows a family of Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles painted in different shades of blue. The airline is known for its unique liveries, including special Star Wars and Pokemon designs on its 777-300ERs. It also held another competition to pick a design for its 777-200 to represent the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games — the winner of which will be revealed at the end of this month or early next month.

ANA will become the first Japanese carrier to operate the A380 when it takes delivery of the aircraft in early 2019. It will have the world’s smallest fleet of A380s, with only three on order.

Featured image courtesy of ANA. 

Whether you use a digital scale in your workshop or in your kitchen, certain materials can make it tough to clean up. Over at Tested, their very simple solution is to just cover that scale with a Ziploc bag.

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At Kitchn, we are big fans of IKEA. It is, after all, the inventor of the RÅSKOG utility cart. But the Swedish superstore is no one-trick pony! It delights and amazes outside the home as well.

In fact, an $18 IKEA find is the best travel companion that's ever hit the road with me. (No offense to past travel buddies!)

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Do you scratch your head every Monday evening, wondering what you're going to pull together for dinner? After a long day at work — where all your mental energy went into tackling your email inbox and dealing with the tasks you happily abandoned on Friday afternoon for "Future You" — you don't want to think too hard about supper. Allow me to choose something for you ... something like this skillet chicken. It's wholesome, delicious, and, most importantly, easy enough for a weeknight!

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Optical illusions have the power to send the internet into a frenzy. Just think of the dress or the ham picture. Now, a psychology professor at Ritsumeikan University in Japan has a new illusion and it's all about strawberries. Or, at least, their red hue.

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From BB creams to CC creams to powder, there are so many different types of foundation to choose from. If you don’t know where to start or you’re just looking for a new product, you might find Pigment File useful. It’s a searchable and filterable database of every foundation on the market.

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Americans toss out about $165 billion worth of food every year, which can be up to $2,200 for the average family. One of the simplest ways to save money on groceries is to make sure you’re not wasting food. To avoid this problem, personal finance site Clark.com suggests keeping a list of stuff you toss.

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Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

JAKARTA: An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 192 people from China to Bali was forced to turn back after the crew realised one of its doors was not properly closed, the airline said Friday.

It was the latest problem to hit an airline from Indonesia, which relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years.

The Boeing 737 operated by Sriwijaya Air was 1.5 hours into the five-hour flight Thursday when its system detected that a passenger door at the front of the aircraft had not shut properly, said spokesman Agus Soedjono.

“The system did not detect this prior to the flight, but when the plane was up in the air, it was detected,” he told AFP.

The plane returned to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where it had set out from, and was checked for 30 minutes before taking off again for Denpasar, the capital of the resort island of Bali.

The plane was carrying 180 passengers and 12 crew but after it was forced to turn back, about 20 passengers decided not to continue when the aircraft set off again for Bali, he said.

No one was hurt or injured in the incident.

Sriwijaya flies to Indonesian destinations and a handful of international destinations.

It has suffered three accidents since 2008 that caused substantial damage to the aircraft involved, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which monitors plane accidents.

KUALA LUMPUR: UMW Holdings Bhd’s FY16 core net loss was worse than CIMB Equities Research and Bloomberg consensus expectations due to weaker-than-expected contribution across all its operating divisions.

KUALA LUMPUR: UMW Holdings Bhd, hit by massive operating losses at its listed and non-listed oil & gas (O&G) businesses, had one of its worst-performing years in 2016 with a loss attributable to shareholders of RM1.69bil.

Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

PETALING JAYA:  Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad wasted no time as Malaysia’s new Auditor General this morning by clicking the download button and installing a trial version of the Quickbooks accounting package onto her work computer. “Some may doubt Madinah’s lack of qualifications, but once she’s done familiarising herself with accounting software, she’ll be more […]

The post Auditor General downloads trial version of Quickbooks appeared first on FMN.

PETALING JAYA: A senior officer of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has been arrested for allegedly abusing his position by spending RM80,000 on skin and slimming treatments.

According to a source from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the suspect, who is a senior manager at the human resources department, was picked up this morning at his residence in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras.

The 41-year-old, who is obese, is believed to have used the corporate credit card supplied to him by MAHB to pay for the cosmetic treatments although they were not included in his employment contract.

“It is understood that MAHB provides the corporate credit card for qualified officers, for official use,” said the source in a statement today.

“Official use” would mean the purchase of flight tickets, accommodation and meeting expenses for company business as listed in the company’s standard operating procedures.

The suspect was appointed to head the department in 2015, and the source said he had undergone the skin and body slimming treatments at a private hospital in the Klang Valley sometime between December 2015 and August last year.

The source said medical claims made by MAHB employees were checked by a third party appointed to manage the employees’ medical benefits and approved by the MAHB’s human resources department.

MACC director of investigations Simi Abd Ghani confirmed the arrest and said several documents had been seized to help with the investigation.

The suspect is expected to be taken to the Magistrates’ Court in Putrajaya tomorrow for a remand application.

This weeks Whine Wednesday is about a service that I’m usually quite satisfied with: UBER and their pattern of letting drivers accept rides while they’re still having other passengers to drop off.

In certain cities even small distances can take plenty of time especially at rush hour traffic which means it can take a very long time for your UBER to actually arrive if the drivers still needs to drop off first.

I’m currently in Bangkok and everybody knows how bad the traffic is in the city which actually goes for most major cities in South East Asia.

Local taxis are the absolute worst so I’m trying to use UBER whenever possible and usually I’m really satisfied with the way it works but this (for Bangkok) relatively new feature that allows drivers to accept a new ride while they still have to drop off other passengers is costing a lot of time and is the source for frustration.

As the customer you don’t see that the driver still has a customer until the ride is actually confirmed and displays as En Route.

The other day I had to cancel 2 rides in a row because of this and another one because the driver was obviously heading into the wrong direction after he missed a turn.

In the end I had to use Uber Black instead of Uber X since I already wasted more than 10 min messing around with the app and the 3 ride requests that ended in no result. It was more expensive but since I was a bit in a rush time was of the essence here.

Unfortunately it’s not possible to set preferences in your UBER app which includes not allowing drivers to accept your ride if they haven’t completed their trip yet or even “blacklist” certain drivers you had a bad experience with.

Conclusion

After sometimes waiting more than 20-30 minutes for not completed rides I always cancel such requests immediately, especially in a city such as Bangkok where I have a good feel for the traffic now.

UBER should really stop this practice of having “nearby” drivers accept your rides while still having other customers as it highly distorts the estimated arrival time for the customer, adding to the other frustrations such as having drivers who can’t properly operate the GPS or make mistakes while driving such as missing turns or other navigation issues.

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It’s hard to improve on an onion ring, but I dare say the folks at Tastemade have done just that. Instead of dipping the allium loops in a batter and then frying them, they’ve gone low-carb (and high-taste) by wrapping them in strips of tasty bacon and baking them.

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KUALA LUMPUR: UMW Holdings Bhd is expected to incur major impairment related to its oil & gas assets in the upcoming 4Q16 results as part of the group’s initiative to exit the business.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has threatened a defamation suit against the Perlis Mufti Mohd Asri Zainun Abidin over a remark made yesterday.

This was in regards to a statement made by Asri yesterday claiming that Hindraf is known for stirring racial controversies, and had deliberately taken Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s teachings out of context.

Asri was responding to a previous statement made by Hindraf chief P Waythamoorthy, asking the United States government to step in and take action against Zakir, whom he accused of promoting terrorism.

Waythamoorthy is now demanding Asri  apologise within the next five days, otherwise legal action would follow suit.

In a press conference at Hindraf’s headquarters today, Waythamoorthy told reporters that perhaps Asri failed to understand his calls to the US government due to his poor English skills.

“You are a well-respected person within the Muslim community in Malaysia. I should not advise you but when you are making an allegation, you must know your sources and facts.

“Maybe you do not understand English well, so please get advice from someone who is intellectually capable to read and explain the contents of my letter to the US Secretary of State,” he said.

Waythamoorthy then took a jab at Asri’s credentials, pointing out that he is an expert on Islam, but not an expert on the issue of global terrorism.

He said: “The global terrorism threat involves the top leadership of the country and the armed forces are dealing with it. You are no expert.”

Waythamoorthy then told Asri to understand the contents of his letter and decide whether to apologise within the next five days.

“Get someone well-versed in English to read and explain the contents of my letter. If you think that you have made a mistake, I’m giving you an opportunity to apologise within the next five days.

“If I don’t hear from you, I will instruct my lawyers to commence defamatory action against you.”

He said that Zakir’s teachings have always been known to be promoting terrorism, citing last year’s Dhaka bombings which left 22 people dead in Bangladesh.

“It’s been proven that the individuals involved in the Dhaka bombings were motivated and radicalised by Zakir’s preachings and teachings.”

Waythamoorthy also warned that Zakir’s teaching would not only influence Malaysians, but also the large number of Bangladeshi and Indonesian migrant workers in the country.

“These people may be radicalised by him and they could promote terrorism here in Malaysia.

“A person that’s promoting terrorism shouldn’t be allowed on Malaysian soil.”

Last year, Zakir created an uproar among non-Muslims after numerous allegations that his teachings had demeaned the religion of others.

Many have since expressed concern that Zakir’s preaching could harm Malaysia’s diverse multi-racial society.

From Apartment Therapy → A (Seemingly) Counterintuitive Trick That's a Must for Small Spaces

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When you think of makeup, you think of lipstick—lipstick and blush, probably. Lipstick is a cornerstone of everyone’s beauty routine and an essential to every beauty bag. It’s one of the few products that can finish a look, or be a look all on its own. With so many lip products available, finding the right product for…

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Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

KUALA LUMPUR: A husband and wife are taking the Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi) to court for arresting them for khalwat (close proximity) despite them having a marriage certificate.

In the suit, Mohd Ridhuan Giman, 34, and Siti Sarah Maulad Abdullah, 26, said they were suing the department for wrongful arrest and invasion of privacy.

They also accused Jawi of abusing its power and violating the couple’s rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement under the federal constitution.

The couple named Jawi, the department’s director-general, two Jawi enforcement officers, the Prime Minister’s Department and the Malaysian government as defendants, among others.

Speaking to reporters at the High Court lobby here, the couple’s lawyer, Yusfarizal Yusoff, said he was disappointed that Jawi refused to accept his client’s proof of marriage.

“If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. This is why we are taking action to ensure justice is served.”

According to Yusfarizal, the couple were spending the night at a budget hotel on Jan 8 when eight religious enforcement officers came knocking on their door at 1.30am.

He said even though Ridhuan informed them that his wife was not decently dressed, a male officer barged into the room.

This led to a scuffle between Ridhuan and the male officer, which resulted in Ridhuan injuring his neck.

“Ridhuan had on several occasions informed the Jawi officers that they were a married couple and had even shown them a picture of their marriage cert on a handphone. But the officers refused to accept the explanation.

“Instead, one of the officers instructed Siti Sarah to get properly dressed in front of him, while another male officer took pictures and a video of the couple.”

Ridhuan and Siti Sarah are seeking damages, an apology from the department, and withdrawal of further investigations and legal costs.

SINGAPORE: Two Pakistani men face the gallows in Singapore after a court Friday found them guilty of murdering a compatriot over a gambling dispute and dismembering the body.

Street-side tissue sellers Rasheed Muhammad, 45, and Ramzan Rizwan, 28, were convicted of smothering fellow Pakistani Muhammad Noor to death in their lodging house in 2014, before hacking up the body with saws.

The 59-year-old victim’s torso and lower limbs were found stuffed in two separate luggage bags in the city-state.

Murder convictions in Singapore are punishable by death and carried out by hanging.

“As the photographs and evidence of the discarded limbs and torso show, both Rasheed and Ramzan acted in concert after the murder as they did before and during it,” High Court Judge Choo Han Teck said in his judgement.

Rasheed and Ramzan arrived in Singapore in May 2014, and sold packets of tissue paper for a living.

The dispute started after the pair sought to retrieve Sg$1,100 (US$776) Ramzan had lost to the victim in a card game.

After using a shirt to smother the victim, the two men purchased saws to dismember the body.

A bag with the torso was found by an 81-year-old man and Rasheed subsequently led police to a second bag containing the legs, court documents showed.

Defence lawyers for the pair had argued that they did not intend to commit murder, and both blamed each other for the death.

Rasheed, a father of eight, and Ramzan, a father of three, will appeal the conviction, their lawyers told AFP.

Earlier this month, Singapore’s highest court upheld the death sentence of a former Singapore policeman for double murder.

Singapore executed four people in 2015, one for murder and three for drug offences, according to prison statistics.

Rights groups have called on Singapore to abolish capital punishment, which was carried over from British colonial rule, but the government argues that it is a deterrent to crime.

I’ve been searching for a way to get myself to bed earlier for years, and I’ve finally found a trick that works for me. I just have to treat myself like a kid and make a deal I know will almost always work in my responsible side’s favor.

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