John Connolly, who is considered one of the smartest accountants in Britain, receives a total salary of £5.7 million (US$10.7 million) this year. The amount equals to US$890,000 per month.

John is also one of the top bosses in Deloitte UK, holding a portfolio as the Chief Executive and a senior partner for the accounting firm. The £5.7 million comprises of basic salary, plus the profit sharing.

Many firms in various industries including financial, legal and consulting adopt the practice of offering partnership to their long serving or high performing employees as a means to reward their contribution, and Deloitte is no stranger to this. Its UK operation has more than 600 partners, with each averaging about £970,000 in annual pay.

Every year, Deloitte recruit more than 1,000 top graduates, both local and foreign graduates, for their operations across Britain. The firm is currently the second largest ‘big four’ audit firms by revenue behind PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and ahead of Ernst & Young and KPMG.

1. Trainee Doctors

For Foundation 1 of training, the basic salary starts at £22,412 per year, and in the second year, will increase to £29,705. Trainee doctors take home basic salary, as well as additional supplementary wages if they work for more than 40 hours, or work outside of the 7am-7pm hour window between Monday and Friday. This can take range between 20% and 50% of the basic salary. Does not sound like a bad percentage.

2. Specialty Doctors, Associate Specialists & Consultants

Doctors and physicians in this category earns between £36,807 – £70,126. As for the consultant, the salary is in the lucrative range of £74,504 and £176,242, depending on the number of years of service. the longer the length of service, the better the pay and the more the performance related awards.

3. General Practitioners (GPs)

A large number of GPs are self employed, holding contracts with the local primary care trust (PCT), either independently or being part of partnership. Various factors and metrics would factor in to make up the total take home pay, including years of service and experience. The salary of a GP falls within the £53,781 – £81,158.

According to Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Malaysians Chinese are marginalized because they are wealthy and hardworking. This is the common trait of being a Chinese who tend to be more successful in whatever they pursue. The bumiputeras on the other hand expect handouts every time from the government and are lazy to work. I have personally met quite a few of them and they admitted to being lazy most of the time. How could the country progress if there is unfairness in all this? Malaysia should emulate Singapore based on meritocracy and this island state is now so successful and prosperous. The nation can never move forward with the wrong people in the government!

UMNO and Population Engineering
by Hussein Abd Hamid

Since 1957 UMNO has effectively carried out the population engineering of our country to ensure its long-term survival by creating the myth of a two pronged “Ketuanan Melayu”. “Ketuanan Melayu” for the Malay masses who are lull into a feeling of being superior over the non-Malays because of their numbers and “Ketuanan Melayu” for the UMNO Malay political elites through the accumulation of massive material wealth for themselves and their cronies. And while UMNO has failed by almost any measure you chose to gauge them – good governance or morality – without question they have succeeded too well in the engineering of the population of this country of ours.

The duplicity of UMNO in proclaiming Satu Bangsa, Satu Negara while all the while undertaking a relentless program to whittle down the numbers of the non-Malays through very precise and focused initiatives is breath taking in its effectiveness!

Consider this:

In 1957:
– 45% of the population was Chinese.
– 12% of the population was Indians.

In 2010
– 25% of the population is Chinese.
– 7% of the population is Indians.

Over 600,000 Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship and possibly 60% of them had passed away due to old age.
Since 1957:

– 2 million Chinese have emigrated.
– 0.5 million Indians have also emigrated overseas.
– 3 million Indonesians migrated to Malaysia to become Malaysian citizens with Bumiputra status.

Now the non-Malays are well aware of this tinkering and engineering of our population and it would do us Malays no good to say that it was UMNO doing and that we had no hand in what happened. As a Malay I was then comfortable that UMNO was the dominant partner in the Barisan Nasional.
It was comforting to know that Malays controlled four of the five major banks.
Education? Between 1968 to 2000:

– 48 Chinese Primary Schools closed down.
– 144 Indian Primary Schools closed down.
– 2637 Malay Primary Schools were built.

Of the total government budget for these schools 2.5% were for the Chinese Primary Schools, 1% for the Indian Primary School and 96.5% for the Malay Primary School.

Petronas Petrol Stations? Of the 2000 station the Malays owned 99%.

Yes we Malays were indeed in control. In control of what?

We were in control of the all the business licenses and permits for Taxis and Approved Permits.
We were in control of Government contracts of which 95% were given to Malays.
We were in control of the Rice Trade through Bernas that bought over 80% of Chinese Rice Millers in Kedah.
We were in control of UMBC, MISC and Southern Bank – all previously owned by Chinese.
We were in control of bus companies. Throughout Malaysia MARA buses could be seen plying all the routes. Non-Malays were simply displaced by having their application for bus routes and for new buses rejected.

Every new housing estate built had a mosque or a surau. None, I repeat “no” temples or churches were built for any housing estate!

So why with control over all these highly visible entities and business opportunities are the Malays still unable to stand tall and with pride over and above the non-Malays? We are unable to so do because it was not the Malays that benefited from these opportunities – UMNO did.

Why must UMNO constantly harp about the need to spoon feed the Malays – about ketuanan Melayu when it is already in place and about Bumiputra status and all the privileges and rights that goes with that status?
And as a Malay I want to ask the non-Malays why do you still choose to live in a country whose government has by its actions and deeds done whatever it could to make you not feel welcomed? The non-Malays I know have all told me the same thing – Malaysia is their country – they know of no other country they can call their own. And so they stay and put up with the abuses.

The difference now is that there are enough Malays who are shamed by the antics of this Malay political organization called UMNO. There are enough Malays to tell the non-Malays that we feel your pain. We understand your frustrations and despair at not being treated as equals in a country you call your own. And enough non-Malays have migrated abroad to cause our country to understand that their loss is another country’s gain. A loss, which our country can ill afford to sustain.

And more importantly all this ground swell of disgust and contempt at UMNO has manifested itself in a way these political idiots understand – losing our votes in the 12th General Elections. Amen for that.

And so we wait for the 13th General Election which we hope will dish out the relevant karma for UMNO and its Barisan Nasional partners. Meantime understand what they have done to us all – not only the non-Malays but also to the Malays and do not allow Barisan Nasional to play the race card and start their divide and rule antics on us anymore.

You are one with me we are two.

My youngest sister just came back from Shanghai on Saturday last week. This week, she will be flying off to Singapore for her church’s Choice meeting where the group will be meeting there and also having a holiday as well. She is so lucky to be jetting around for her work and church activities while I stay put at home to continue blogging in my home office. Travel around while you are young before those legs become wobbly and your health start failing you. By the way, Singapore’s First Prime Minister’s wife, Kwa Geok Choo has passed away recently at the ripe old age of 89. She was mute and unable to move for the last 2+ years already. The leaves have started falling in the lives of Mr and Mrs Lee Kuan Yew.

DEMAND has been strong for Sime Darby Property Bhd’s RM1 billion Oasis Square project, the central business district of the Ara Damansara township in Selangor.

It has three 12-storey corporate office towers; five blocks of 10- to 12-storey retail outlets and office suites, called The Capital; two 10-storey serviced apartments, named Oasis Serviced Suites; and double-storey food and beverage kiosks with 15 outlets.

Managing director Datuk Tunku Putra Badlishah Tunku Annuar said the project has recorded impressive take-up rates since the launch of phases 1, 2 and 3 last year.

All the 288 shop-offices in Blocks A and B under phase one of The Capital development are sold. The take-up for Blocks C and D under phase three is 86 per cent and 93 per cent respectively.

Block E, which has some 88 units, is targeted to be launched in the last quarter of this year.

“The need for office space in prime locations is evident from the swift take-up of the business units,” Tunku Putra Badlishah said.

The serviced apartment blocks with 326 units are 99 per cent sold at between RM440 and RM503 per sq ft. They were snapped up less than a year after its launch in April and May last year.

The one-bedroom studios, two- and 2+1 bedroom units range between 572 sq ft and 1,108 sq ft.

Upcoming launches include the Oasis Corporate Park, a mixed commercial development comprising office towers, retail space, serviced apartments, a hotel and a convention centre which is still in the planning stage.

Key products in the 306ha Ara Damansara project, launched in 1999, include the 400 resort condominium units under Ara Hill, the Seri Pilmoor semi-detached houses and bungalows, and the Ara Damansara Linear City.

Sime Darby Property has sold some 3,123 mixed development units, including double-storey link-houses, double-story semi-detached houses, bungalows, low- to medium-cost apartments and high-end condominiums.