Hasyudeen

Red is the color! (Updated)

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:15:00 +0000

If one were to stand by the Karak highway today and observe the flow of the traffic, one would notice something obvious. There would be a lot of cars, and even buses, carrying red flags. He or she could be observing Kelantan supporters heading towards Stadium Bukit Jalil, where the final of the FA Cup will be played between Kelantan or more fondly known as The Red Warriors and Sime Darby Football Club.

As a Kelantanese myself I could understand the passion of these supporters. Others may perceive us as fanatics, not just in soccer but in many other aspects of life. To a certain extend I agree that Kelantanese can be too passionate that their emotions could persevere over their brains, sometimes good, other times otherwise. This could also be reflected in the ways soccer is played on the pitch.

I first experienced tear gas when Kelantan was losing against Perak at the Sultan Muhammad IV stadium in Kota Bharu. This was in the 70's. If I am not mistaken, it was also a FA Cup match. When Perak scored their goal, the spectators were unhappy and invaded the pitch. It was so chaotic that the Federal Reserve Unit had to use tear gas to control the crowd. Yes, tear gas, even those days, could be very stinky and really hurt your eyes. To cut the story short the match was abandoned. When it was pealed again at the same stadium, Kelantan won 4-1.

Kelantanese are also passionate about their politics. It is one of the states in Malaysia where government changes are normal. The people understand about risks and don't mind to venture. Some say Kelantan is a poor state but the people are rich. At least rich as heart, from my humble point of view. The political undertone will be obvious today. The Kelantan team is managed by a group and the other group is running the state at present. The state government has declared tomorrow as a holiday and I am sure the other side will claim the credit if Kelantan wins this evening. At stake would be the hearts and minds of the young Kelantanese supporters who could be voting in the next election.

Beyond party politics, a Kelantan win will also stir the leadership of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). Not only FAM may be embarrassed if somebody that they had recently "disciplined" is able to lead a cup winning team, people might start to questioned the status quo in the FAM's leadership. I just can't understand why most of them are still proud to be there when the Malaysian national team remains steadily slotted at the lower end of the world ranking. I suppose many of this kind of questions will surface in the near future.

Back to tonight's match, Kelantan is certainly the favourite. Based on its track record so far, there is no reason why it should not win. However, Kelantan was in the same position last year but they lost 2-1 to Terengganu, their traditional nemesis. Could this happen again?

As a Kelantanese I hope that red will be the color of the evening. However, as mentioned above, should this happen, the vibration could be felt beyond the soccer pitch in Bukit Jalil.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated:

Kelantan won the FA Cup for the first time with a 1-0 victory over Sime Darby, courtesy of a penalty kick. It was not really a match that we expect in a cup final but as most people will say, a win is a win. The pitch was really terrible that it attracted a lot of commentary.

The competition did not end last night. The next chapter would be the race to reward the winners. I am sure the state government and other parties are now planning to come out with goodies to demonstrate their conviction towards the game and the warfare of the players. The cup will be paraded in the districts of Kelantan and many people will try to score as many political mileage as possible. I hope they would not go overboard to the extent of killing the sporting spirit generated by the whole episode.

English the preferred language for world business

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:15:00 +0000

I am sure the debate regarding the usage of english in education will not subside although those who can afford could now send their children to international schools to get them educated in English. In addition to this, these kind of schools focused more on the development of mental capacity and the ability to rationalize and challenge. The article below is just another point about the importance of English in the context of a more globalized and competitive world.

Happy reading.

(Reuters) - Workers whose jobs require them to interact with people in foreign countries say that English is the dominant language of business, according to a new poll.

By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK | Wed May 16, 2012 10:02am EDT

More than one quarter of employees in 26 countries around the world told an Ipsos poll that their jobs involve dealing with people in other countries. And of those, two-thirds said that English is the language they use most often.

Workers in India, Singapore and Saudi Arabia were the most likely to say their jobs involved interacting with people in other countries, with 59 percent, 55 percent and 50 percent saying so, respectively.

But only nine percent in Japan and 13 percent in Russia said their work required communication outside the country.

"The most revealing aspect of this survey is how English has emerged as the default language for business around the world," said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters.

The survey of 16,344 employed adults in 26 countries showed that 67 percent, or just over two-thirds, of workers who deal with people beyond their borders said English was the language used most often, with Spanish a very distant second at five percent.

Nearly as many, 61 percent, said the language used for such interactions was different from their native one.

Bricker said the findings suggest "that all those in the English-speaking world who suggested that our children should learn Mandarin or Japanese to have successful careers were beaten to the punch by the Chinese, in particular, learning English first."

While more than three quarters of people in North America said they used English most often to communicate with those in other countries, 63 percent in China said the same thing. The same was true for France.

More than two thirds of workers in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa also defaulted to English.

In Latin America only one-third said English was most common when dealing with people in other countries. In Argentina and Mexico the choice was Spanish, in Brazil, Portuguese.

The survey showed that people with higher levels of income or education were among the most likely to say English was most commonly used for foreign business relationships.

Gender and age had no bearing on the dominant language for conducting business.

Countries surveyed included Indonesia, Turkey, the United States, Sweden, Great Britain, Spain, Canada and Italy among others.

It’s time to study the likely impact of listed companies issuing audited accounts sooner

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:15:00 +0000

OPTIMISTICALLY CAUTIOUS
By ERROL OH
errol@thestar.com.my

WHAT if the fourth-quarter results of listed companies are in fact the audited full-year financial statements, as opposed to the practice now of releasing unaudited figures first? Is that entirely a good thing or should we be concerned that there may be drawbacks to such a change?

What's for certain is that we ought to start thinking about this possibility, because it appears that the regulators are already soliciting feedback on a proposal to require listed companies to issue their annual audited accounts sooner than within four months after the financial year-end, as currently stipulated by Bursa Malaysia's listing requirements.

The Securities Commission (SC) signalled the likelihood of bringing forward this deadline when it published the Corporate Governance Blueprint 2011 last July.

Arguing that there was a need to consider reducing the timeframe for dissemination of certain information to shareholders, the SC said: “Currently, the time frame for the submission of quarterly and annual reports is two months and six months respectively. To ensure investors receive critical information in a timely manner, there is a need to consider the possibility of shortening the submission period for these reports.”

The Blueprint recommended the formation of a task force of industry representatives and regulators to review the framework for periodic disclosure of financial and non-financial information, including the shortening of the submission period for quarterly and annual reports.

Nothing more was heard about this until February, when the World Bankcame out with a report on the observance of standards and codes in the accounting and auditing environment in Malaysia.

According to the report, Bursa wants to move the deadline for submitting audited financial statements from four months after the end of the financial year to two months. The World Bank adds that the stock exchange is conducting a consultation process with other stakeholders.

In addition, it is understood that the task force mentioned in the Blueprintwill soon be set up.

At present, listed companies are given two months to announce their unaudited results for the fourth quarter. This means there's as big as a two-month gap between the release of the unaudited numbers and that of the audited financial statements.

This has led to situations in which investors have bought or sold securities based on the fourth-quarter results of the companies, only to find out several weeks later that the audited financial statements were significantly different.

A decision to halve the timeframe for the submission of audited accounts will eliminate this because the listed companies will no longer make public their unaudited full-year figures.

Being able to go through a listed company's audited annual accounts two months earlier than before is certainly a good thing for the investing community. But such a change doesn't happen without other consequences, including unintended ones.

The World Bank report points out that one potential problem lies within Section 174 of the Companies Act 1965. If strictly interpreted, that section demands that the auditors of a holding company (which is what every listed company is) review the audit opinion for each of the holding company's subsidiaries before issuing an audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements.

As such, the bank says a move to bring forward the deadline for the submission of audited accounts is a challenge for listed companies with many subsidiaries. It suggests that Section 174 be amended or clarified, and adds that the Audit Oversight Board is leading a discussion with stakeholders to clarify this legislative requirement.

However, there's also the worry that audit firms may have to make tough choices in meeting the tighter deadlines. To ensure that their workload is manageable and thus the quality of the audits is maintained, firms may be compelled to jettison some listed companies from their client lists.

The question then is, who would step in to be the new auditors of these listed companies? What if the new auditors are smaller outfits with limited resources and yet they have no qualms about taking on more jobs? What if these audit firms are willing to charge lower fees to secure these clients?

If not studied carefully and implemented wisely, a move to ask listed companies to be quicker in issuing their audited accounts may backfire. There is indeed a huge difference between haste and timeliness.

Executive editor Errol Oh wonders why a handful of listed companies are always among the first to announce their quarterly results, while so many of the rest just barely meet the deadlines.

How Much is Your Price?

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:03:00 +0000

RM 100? RM 200? RM 500? RM 15,000? Not for sale? Well, I just cooked these numbers. Unfortunately, the common believe now is that everybody has a price. It is the price for doing something against what he or she believes in, if the person has any principle in the first place. In the absence of any values, anything goes I suppose.

If we are honest and sincere enough in observing people's behaviour, we could see these sort of trading happening everyday in many forms. Trying to encourage our children to do something? Offer him or her cakes or chocolates. As they grow older, the value of the incentive get larger. I'm not saying that we should not reward our kids for behaving in the way we want but there could be a line somewhere where this sort of practice may not be sending the right signal to them.

As they grow older and have more key decisions to make in their lives, they may need more incentives to behave "appropriately". Sometimes I just wonder what is the different between this practice from offering our cats and dogs food for doing things that we want them to do?

People have many needs and wants in their lives. In the words of Gordon Gekko, a character in the movie the Wall Street "Greed is good". In fact, it is greed that get the Wall Streets of the world going. The lessons from the recent global economic crisis is pretty obvious about how people will go all the way to make money even by selling bad debts with fancy names. In the movie, greed resulted in Gekko to be sent to prison. In the real world, this may not necessarily be the case all the time. In contrast, those committing evil could be cheered by the society and their hands got kissed instead.

Some people could be poor enough that they are willing to sell anything including their mothers, just to live. While there are people who will do this without blinking, there are others who will try to camouflage this by calling these sort of behavior with more respectful names. We see this being done around the world. Instead of admitting that they are corrupt, abuser of power and outright crooks, they create images of being benevolent after illegally obtaining the wealth at an insulting proportion. Some may even feel they are Robin Hoods!

While we could not prevent other from selling their souls to the devil, we could control ourselves. We have to be honest enough to accept that there are rights and wrongs. There is a line somewhere where right become wrong. It does not matter how we sweat talk ourselves, getting kickback for the favor we give is corruption. Further, corruption is evil irrespective of the reasons behind the despicable conduct. We cannot use a good cause to justify corruption and abuse of power. Don't sell ourselves to the devil, at whatever price.

Federal Court makes final decision in the SC's favour

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:09:00 +0000

Kuala Lumpur, 8 May 2012

Federal Court makes final decision in the SC's favour
Ramesh Chelliah ordered to pay costs of RM10,000

The Federal Court today dismissed Ramesh Chelliah's application for leave to challenge the Court of Appeal's decision on the Audit Oversight Board (AOB)'s registration of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on 1 April 2010 under the Securities Commission Act 1993. He was also ordered to pay costs of RM10,000 to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). The decision of the Federal Court today concludes the case.

In May 2011, the High Court had dismissed an application by Ramesh for leave to commence judicial review proceedings against the AOB's decision to register PwC. The High Court agreed with the SC that there were flaws in the application and that the applicant did not have the locus standi to commence judicial review proceedings. The High Court also ordered the applicant to pay costs to the SC.

The Court of Appeal, on 6 October 2011, upheld the High Court's decision and ruled in favour of the SC. Ramesh subsequently appealed.

Today's Federal Court's dismissal of the appeal application officially concludes the case.

The Federal Court panel was made up of Tan Sri Md Raus bin Sharif, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid bin Embong, Dato' Hasan bin Lah, Datin Paduka Zaleha bt Zahari and Datuk Seri Paglima Sulong bin Matjeraie.

The AOB was established in 2010, under the Securities Commission Act 1993, to protect investor interests and promote confidence in the quality and reliability of audited financial statements of public interest entities (PIEs) and licensed institutions.

SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA

Boiling the Frog

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:26:00 +0000

I am sure we have heard about the moral behind the story anecdote of boiling the frog. It goes by arguing that if we throw a frog into a boiling water it will jump out of the water but if we place a frog in a nice cold water and heat it up slowly, the frog will enjoy the warming water and will fall asleep and realises the danger when it is already cooked.

Whether or not it is really an anecdote or just a fiction, there is something to learn from it. The lesson is simply that we will eventually suffer from a gradual change if we choose to ignore it's consequences. Worse if we were not able to detect the change due to our ignorant attitude.

In a fast changing world, change is inevitable. In fact many people has argued that the only constant is change itself. Change could happen in many dimensions, not just in technological terms as what many of us are familiar with. It could happen in our social structure, business practices and many more aspects which affect our lives.

If we look at what the Americans and Europeans are experiencing now, they have themselves to be blamed. These developed economies have been living beyond their means for far too long, perhaps believing that their successes in the past could be repeated in the future without much efforts. I don't have problem with them if they want to sustain their standards of living. The challenge is that somebody has to pay for it and if there is no other party that is doing that, they have to be the payers. Without real productivity, they will be eating out the capital that they had built over the years. Given the growth in other markets with lower production cost such as China, Brazil and Russia, the centre of global growth is slowly but surely shifting from the economies which used to lead the world. Interestingly, the demand of goods produced by the emerging economies were created by the hunger of the developed economies, financed primarily through debts.

What could we learn from the Americans and Europeans? Well, to me we should not be living based on whatever little success that we had in the past. We need to pay for the kind of life that we want. If we are lazy, eventually, time will catch up with us. There is no such thing as guaranteed rights or privileges. We can't blame others for our own weaknesses. We need to accept that change will continue to happen and we have to positively respond to it. Otherwise, we could end up being cooked like the frog.

Unfortunately, some changes require the mass to change. This is where in most cases involving societies, change would never be easy. By nature, most of us are selfish, we think about ourselves more than our concern towards others or the society at large. Unless or until something come knocking our heads, not many would be willing to move from our comfort zone and do something different. We could even feel that those advocating for change are traitors if we are the benefactors from the status quo, despite knowing that our lifestyles may not be sustainable without significant change.

Whether or not change is required, in what ever aspects of our lives, depends on the facts before us. We could accept or ignore those facts. However, such ignorance could cost us dearly, the only question is when. It could come later and our children or their children would eventually foot the bill. However, I am not surprised if many of us could not be bothered as that would not be their problem, they could already be 6 feet underground by that time. It is going to be the problem of their children and grandchildren! What's the problem?

What is the problem?

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 08:49:00 +0000

I got to meet accounting students in my various capacities in the accounting profession over the years. I like to engage them as they would be the future accountants and leaders for the country. The key reason behind these engagements is to provide them with the insights of the real world that they will face and what they need to do while they are at universities.

One of the topics which I normally cover with them is about problem solving. Off course professionals are hired to help organizations to solve problems and how effective they are able to do this would determine their value to the industry. Different from the university environment where students are given problems and they are required to provide their views and solutions, in the real world the first challenge is to identify what is the problem in the first place. In most cases, what is perceived to be the problem is only the symptom and further work need to be done to identify the real issue.

Problem solving or problem identification require strong analytical thinking. The issue need to be framed based the available facts and further analysis may be required. If we start this process using the wrong question, the answer may not resolve the real problem. What I notice here is that asking question is not something that many people are comfortable with.

When we ask question, we are probing status quo. Many people perceive status quo based on their knowledge, experience, availability of information and even their values. When people are asked questions, they need to provide explanations. While this sounds easy, not many people including those occupying high positions could do this with comfort. Why? Some may just assume that status quo is such and such but may not have a clue whether that is true or not. What more when the "truth" means they have to admit their weaknesses and incompetencies. Thus, culturally, we may not like people asking penetrating questions even when we know they honestly want to solve our problems.

So, we need to encourage students to be brave in asking questions. Instead of blindly doing so, they need to learn to link the facts that they have and the issues on hand. Some may face pushback but in most cases, push backs means they are on the right track as people will not be behaving as such if those questions do not matter. Off course some may need more time to pick up this skills but the more they try, they more they would master the art of asking question. Perhaps, this is the reason why doctors ask us many personal questions before they decide how to deal with our sickness.

The next challenge for the students is to figure out the meaning of facts which they obtained from the answers gathered. There are many ways to do this including using mind map as a tool. The idea is to spot trends or patterns which could provide the clues to the answers.

Some people use a different approach is solving problem. Once the problems are understood, they would list down the options and work backwards to gather data or facts to support those options. This process would enable them to eliminate weaker options and could save a lot of time as well.

I hope the lectures are not complaining when their students ask tough and challenging questions. We, people working in the real world, face these sort of challenge on a daily basis. Identifying unknown problems and working on solutions which may not be in any textbook certainly demand for handwork and perseverance. In any case, our value in the eyes of our stakeholders is based on how relevance we are to them. If we create more problem than value, don't be surprised if they will look elsewhere for their solutions.

A 'bloody' path to better audits

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:46:00 +0000

A ‘bloody’ path to better audits

OPTIMISTICALLY CAUTIOUS
By ERROL OH

COMBINE the idiom “heads will roll” with the phrase “blood in the streets”, and you'll get the gory yet powerful notion of “heads rolling in the streets”.

Audit Oversight Board (AOB) executive chairman Nik Hasyudeen Yusoffused this twice in a media briefing on the board's Annual Report 2011,which was released on Wednesday.

He was referring to the general feeling that there ought to be hefty penalties whenever auditors are found guilty of sub-standard work, particularly when this relates to the financial statements of listed companies.

Indeed, we tend to develop this bloodlust each time a listed company reports financial irregularities. Inevitably, the focus of the flurry of questions will swivel to the company's auditors. If the auditors were doing a good job, how could there be fraud and mismanagement? Where's the warning from the auditors?

And if it were the auditors that had raised the alarm by qualifying the audit opinion on the company's accounts, there would still be room for criticism. How come the auditors didn't detect the hanky-panky earlier on? Sure, they have qualified the latest financial statements, but what about those for the previous years?

In other words, auditors are in the line of fire when listed companies are found to have cooked their books. And by extension, so is the AOB.

Like it or not, the business of auditing companies is measured by failure rather than by success.

Nik Hasyudeen conceded: “Unfortunately for auditors, they are just like pilots. They have to take the planes to the skies and land safely every time. And our job is just like that of the Department of Civil Aviation to make sure that all the planes take off and land safely. People will only remember us when there's a plane crash. But they forget about all the hard work that has been done to create a safe environment for flights.”

Unlike in aviation mishaps, people don't die when a company has financial irregularities. But people can lose their investments in the securities of the company. Creditors may not be able to collect what the company owes them, and employees may end up jobless.

As such, it's not at all unreasonable for stakeholders to expect the AOB to begin imposing sanctions on errant auditors.

The board has already flexed its regulatory muscles when registering auditors, allowing several auditors to be registered for only six months instead of the standard 12 months, issuing warning letters, and attaching additional registration conditions.

In addition, inspection of audit firms is a big part of what the AOB does, and it has asked the firms to come up with remediation plans to address deficiencies uncovered during the inspections. Nik Hasyudeen said the follow-up to these plans was the main thrust of the board's work.

Another threat that the AOB brandishes is the possibility of it publishing inspection reports if the firms fail to take the relevant remedial measures.

Yet, there's nothing like a sanction to show that the board means business. Among the sanctions that the AOB can impose are fines and the removal of an audit licence and/or registration.

Nik Hasyudeen assured that the board would not hesitate to use sanctions when necessary. He explained that it had yet to do so in its brief history the AOB began operations in April 2010 because it could not act retroactively. That is, if an offence occurred before the statutory provisions that support the establishment and operations of the AOB came into force, the board can't penalise the auditors.

But presumably, in the two years after the AOB had been set up, there have been breaches that may lead to sanctions. Nik Hasyudeen refused to confirm this. He would only say that any sanction by the board would have to come at the end of a due process and such a sanction would be made public.

Let's hope this happens soon, because we can tell from findings of the AOB's inspections so far that the audit firms, including the six largest in the country, are far from flawless when it comes to ensuring audit quality.

The AOB or anybody else, for that matter cannot guarantee that every company audit will be perfectly conducted. However, the board can provide some comfort that when the auditors are not up to mark, heads will in fact roll, figuratively speaking, of course.

Executive editor Errol Oh believes in the deterrent power of sanctions, especially among auditors, who rely heavily on their reputation. However, no matter how many heads roll, there will always be black sheep.

AOB Annual Report 2011

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:38:00 +0000

AOB tells audit firms to think twice before accepting more jobs

KUALA LUMPUR: Audit firms, many of which face problems in the form of talent shortage and work overload, should think twice before accepting more audit jobs, says the Audit Oversight Board (AOB).

The industry watchdog reminded audit firms about this in its 2011 annual report released yesterday.

"We would like to reiterate the need for audit firms to reconsider their capability in respect of time and resources before accepting further audit engagements," it said.

The AOB noted that while some audit firms have tried to spread the workload of their partners, statistics gathered during its inspection of these firms last year revealed insufficient time charged by partners.

It was observed that the supervisory function was not effective.

The concentration of audits with similar financial year-end added to the concern about the workload of partners, the AOB said.

Audit firms last year continued to voice concern about the relatively low audit fees in Malaysia, although generally, the AOB observed marginal increments in the fee level.

"The increase, however, may not be sufficient to cover the general rise in salary costs due to greater competition for talent in Malaysia," it noted.

In 2011, the AOB - set up in April 2010 by the Securities Commission (SC) to oversee the auditors of public-listed companies (PLC) - conducted inspections on 17 audit firms which audit over 98 per cent of the market capitalisation of PLCs, or 86 per cent of the total number of PLCs.

It noted that audit firms are responding to the findings of inspections by implementing remediation plans to improve the overall quality of their audit work.

"While the auditing framework remains strong and all international standards are adopted, the findings from the AOB oversight activities suggest that more efforts are required to enhance audit quality," its executive chairman Nik Hasyudeen Yusoff said in a statement issued by the SC.

This year, the AOB's audit inspection will continue to be on audit work of high-risk areas, which include fair value, the evaluation of going concern, revenue recognition, segmental reporting and compliance with ethical standards.

It said emphasis will be placed on key areas of judgment and the application of professional scepticism.

Effective 2012, Malaysia officially joined over 100 countries in adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards as the reporting standard for PLCs.

AOB: Firms remediation plans key

By ERROL OH
errol@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Having completed two annual cycles of registering and inspecting auditors, the Audit Oversight Board (AOB) is now concentrating on ensuring that the firms come up with concrete plans to address deficiencies observed during the inspections, and that these plans are executed properly.

Auditors that fail to do so may be penalised by the publication of the AOB's inspection reports, thus exposing the firms' weaknesses and failure to comply with auditing standards.

In its Annual Report 2011 released yesterday, the board said it had conducted inspections of 17 audit firms last year, compared with six in 2010. The listed companies audited by these firms accounted for 98% of the total market capitalisation of the companies on Bursa Malaysia.

Nik Hasyudeen: ‘Inspection is just to identify the issues.’

As at the end of last year, 75 firms have registered with the AOB, which began operations in April 2010.

Following an inspection by AOB, an auditor is required to come up with remedial measures and timelines to boost audit quality. This proposed remediation plan is taken into account when the board finalises its inspection report on the firm.

AOB executive chairman Nik Hasyudeen Yusoff described the follow-up to the remediation plans as the main thrust of the board's work.

He pointed out that the AOB wanted to avoid the experience of the audit regulatory bodies in some developed countries, where there appeared to be little headway in improving audit quality.

“Do we want to keep on reporting the same problems year after year or do we do something different? That's why we have decided that our focus should be on the remediation plans. We cannot be doing the same things and end up with the same results,” he said in a media briefing to coincide with the release of the annual report.

“Inspection is just to identify the issues, but what matters to us is what the firms do with the findings. Of course, if they cross the line too far, we will take action against them. But more important is to get the firm to figure out the root causes of the deficiencies and to tell us what they are going to do about these.”

He added that the firms were also expected to indicate how they would measure the effectiveness of their remediation plans.

By the end of last year, the board had issued 16 final inspection reports, while six more were pending finalisation. It also approved 13 remediation plans, which focused on the strengthening of governance structure, improvement of methodology and the rebalancing of partners' portfolio and workload. These are now in various stages of implementation.

Nik Hasyudeen said it was too early to assess the effectiveness of the remediation measures because the process began in the middle of last year and many of the measures needed time to have an impact.

Examples of such measures are the introduction of new partnership agreements that specify the importance of audit quality, and performance evaluation systems for partners and staff that clearly link audit quality and remuneration.

However, he said the AOB would not dictate the measures that the firms needed to adopt, saying the board was “not in the business of running firms”.

He warned that the board would publish the inspection report if a firm failed to take the relevant remedial measures. “That's quite a powerful disincentive. If that report goes out, it will be very bad for the firm,” he said.

Busan - a pictorial diary

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:22:00 +0000

Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is situated in the West coast, facing Japan. It was the host of the 2002 Asian Games and the 2005 APEC Summit. It is a popular destination for holidays, especially during summer given the proximity of this city to the sea.

Among the popular spot in Busan is the Haeundae Beach which is flanked by rows of hotels. Even in spring the beach is vibrant with activities.

Fishing appears to be popular amongst the people of Busan. Fresh seafood is readily available and offered in varieties of styles.

A boat trip along the coast would provide the opportunity for visitors to appreciate the city from a different perspective. A number of little islands along the coast add to the beauty of the city. Friendly seagulls will accompany you during the trip.

Dongbaek Park is a nice walking path with flower and greeneries. The APEC Building is also situated at this park.

There are a number of highlands around Busan. Trekking those highlands would provide visitors with a more wholesome view of the city.

While communication could be a challenge for non-Korean speakers, the warmth of the people of Busan will make you feel welcomed.

Killing time

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:23:00 +0000

I need to kill another 2 hours before my next flight. This journey started just before midnight yesterday and I may be another 4 hours away from my destination. Life is funny, yesterday was crazy and every moment matters. Now, time seems to travel at a very slow pace to the point that I need to kill time. I hope writing here would be worth while instead of wondering around the airport alone.

What is time actually? Is it about the number of times the earth circulating the sun? Or it is simply an indicator that we are slowly but surely consuming whatever balance that we have of our life? It would be interesting for us to reflect which segment matters to us, the past or the future. I can complaint about those who live their present live and totally forgot about even tomorrow. The perspectives from which time is viewed could shape the behaviour and conduct of a person. Some may use the good deeds of others in the past to justify whatever entitlements they believe they must have at the present, create a mess out of that in such a way that causes the futures of many others to be affected. Sounds familiar?

We also have people who behave without any concern for the future. Many of these people just think about themselves and could not be bothered about others. The danger is when they collectively make critical decision resulting in a massive irresponsible decisions. Selfish people could be bought easily. Those days their price was only a piece of Batik. Now, at least, it is worth RM 500. They forgot to divide that by 4 or five to realise how cheap they are in selling their souls.

Maybe we should be more concern of what is left for us to do with our lives. What are we going to do next, tomorrow and beyond. What are the objectives that we want to achieve? Who we have in mind when we decide what we want? Ourselves, our flesh and blood, our society or the world at large? Many will feel that they are too small to be ambitious or to desire something which will benefit beyond themselves. The issue with this sort of thinking is they will let things to be as they are and have no desire to initiate or exert their will to make changes for the better. They will sit by the side and accept anything as fated. I would like to encourage each and every of us to be more proud of ourselves and have the belief that we could make a difference. Please make sure every action that we are going to make from now on to benefit the broader society, beyond ourselves.

There more we give, even a little, the more we would get in terms of satisfaction. If each and every of us persistently care and act in the best interest of our society, we are using time in a very unselfish way and hopefully gives more meaning to our lives. So, think of how you all would use the remaining time that we have in the best possible ways.

What A Relief

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:03:00 +0000

By now most of us, especially those living in this part of the world, would feel relief that the Tsunami warnings were lifted and the worse is over, for now. The report that an earthquake measuring around 8.6 which occurred near Aceh and the subsequent warning about the possible Tsunami had caused anxiety not only around the affected areas but globally as well. The faces of people in Aceh which were shown on TV reflected the magnitude of concern over the whole episode.

What could we learn from what happened yesterday?

Well, in case we have forgotten, disasters such as earthquake could occur anytime, especially in countries which are situated on the Ring of Fire. When such event occur, the risk of devastation could be very high, as what happened in Japan last year. The question before us is how would such events affect us. This is more important for governments and businesses as natural disasters could affect business activities and require governments' intervention and quick response from businesses.

Depending on where we are, natural disasters could be assessed to be a risk which would have high impact. Whether the probability of occurring is high or otherwise depends on the types and nature of such disasters. I would say that the probability for floods to cause problems to Malaysia is higher compared to earthquakes. However, given the interconnectedness of business, this nexus need to be evaluated with more detail by businesses.

How do we sense when these events could occur? Well, weather related events could be anticipated by understanding the weather patterns. What about earthquake?

About a month ago, a colleague of mine told me about the behavior of a colony of ants which live in his garden. The ants were behaving strangely lately although he taught this could be attributed to the rain which fell in his neighborhood. Well, could such behavior meant that the ants sensed the impending earthquake? Given their small size, even small seismic movement would be huge for them. So, do we now need to keep ants at our offices as a predictor of earthquake?

Respect

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:07:00 +0000

This simple term has a very significant meaning. Sometimes it could be confused with something else. When somebody who occupies a high position, the confusion could be deeper. When people smile at him or her, is it because of the chair he or she occupies or the smile is genuine from their hearts due to respect?

We could google the meaning of respect but most of the description revolves around a positive feeling towards a person due to the person's actual quality. Positive feelings could be demonstrated by a simple smile or more fanatic actions. This is where the problem lies, those actions could be manufactured. The more the power a person has, there could be more tendencies where people around him, especially those who could benefit from him or her, to fake respect.

In certain circumstances, a leader for example, don't mind if people around him fake their actions as if they respect him honestly. In situations where popularity matters, such misleading conducts would be helpful. What more when the leader himself is a weak person but, instead of working on elements that will make him or her strong, the leader focuses on managing people's perception instead. If the leader is in control of unlimited resources, these resources could be disposed to create a resemblance of artificial respect to convince continued support towards him or her.

Unfortunately, while the more liberal information regime provides more opportunity for the mass to be educated and informed, it also provides many platform to manufacture fake respect. A combination of offering goodies and heavy usage of propaganda could be an effective respect faking tools. This is even more useful in a society that is less sceptical, especially when power distance is strong.

I strongly believe respect is an important element in leadership. It has to be based on real performance, build on honesty and integrity as the critical foundation. In a challenging environment, these qualities would differentiate the real from the fake. More importantly, they could influence the performance and outcomes of the conducts and decisions of a leader.

So, exercise scepticism before we offer somebody our respect.

A Very Simple Message

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:12:00 +0000

We love to complaint. However, when we are expected to stand up and be counted many people will chicken out for reasons only known to them. What more in dealing with issues which will collectively affect us all as citizens.

Voting is important and the message in this short video is simple but loud and clear.

Do We Know What We Are Commenting About?

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 03:06:00 +0000

The web has certainly enabled free flow of information. The mushrooming of social media provides the platform for news to be shared faster and for common people like you and me to put our point of views across, literally around the world.

In the older days, if we have concern regarding certain public issues, the only avenue for the masses to know our thoughts was through the newspapers. If we are lucky, our letters to the editor would be published. Otherwise, our thoughts will remain with us and perhaps with few other acquaintances who we meet over coffee.

Now, we have a different problem. Anybody could express himself or herself on different platforms such as blogs or social media such as Fecebook and Twitter. This resulted in a hugh volume of viewpoints circulating around the cyberspace waiting for somebody to pick them up and read them. In fact this has created hugh business opportunities for organisations such as Google. Instead of the challenge of convincing one news editors we need to attract the whole world to consider our thoughts and views.

As people could freely write what they believe as the truth, our challenge is to evaluate whether such thoughts are really valid. Given many platforms allow their readers to post comments, people from all walks of life could write their pieces from many angles based on their understanding of the facts and circumstances. Are all these views valid?

People normally form their point of views based on how they understand the issues being considered, their knowledge and past experience as well as their feelings towards the issues. Some may make general conclusions based on incomplete facts. This lead to people making general sweeping comments which may not fit with the circumstances. Whenever emotionally charged issues are debated, the emotions of the commentators would influence the views expressed. Worse, when people purposely write to defame or insult others with wild accusations without offering any evidence.

We, as readers, need to be more careful in considering information on the web. This does not mean that we could not believe what we read on our favourite websites but we need to exercise some sort of scepticism. Understanding the background of the commentators would provide us with some perspective on whether those comments could be considered on face value. Volume of similar thoughts and views does not necessarily imply the validity of those comments, especially when emotion is the main driver.

So, let's continue sharing our thoughts and views freely. However, we should remember that we do not necessarily be commenting based on similar facts, knowledge, experience and emotion. Happy sharing : )

Do We Value Integrity?

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:58:00 +0000

Integrity what?

Honestly, I am not sure whether all of us understand the meaning of integrity. We may be using this word in our daily conversation but whether we mean what we say is another question. The real test is how we conduct ourselves, especially when nobody is watching. As Spiderman says, "with power comes responsibilities". The more power we shoulder, there would be more opportunities where our integrity to be tested.

In a society where the power distance is huge like ours, we tend to ignore behaviors which compromise integrity simply because the person concerned is "somebody". Worse, that particular person would go everywhere behaving as if that such behavior is the reason or quality which gets him to be in the present position. Why? Wherever he goes, the people keep on kissing his hand as a tacit acknowledgement that they too are happy which such conduct.

While, our sons and daughters are also watching. They could then form a view that for them to be successful in the future they have to do the same. Eventually, the compass of the society will turn south, we would eventually be happy in selling our soles to the devil to progress further in a society where wealth and money are symbols of success, how we accumulate them is irrelevant.

In is interesting to note that Muslims form the majority in this country. Integrity is fundamental in Islam as Prophet Muhammad was known as "Al-Amin" or "The Trustworthy" even before he was promulgated as a prophet. I suppose this indicates that the prerequisite of leadership is integrity. We can appoint a crook into a position of responsibility but can't expect the person to act with integrity. A crook will behave like a crook and we should not be complaining if subsequently chaos is created later. Are the Muslims walking the talk when in comes to acting with integrity in our conducts and in making decisions?

Are we as a society gradually moving into the situation of collective irresponsibility? We don't care about our conducts but keep on complaining when our collective decisions resulted in disappointing outcomes.

Remember Einstein used to say, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Are we collectively insane? If so, no wonder we don't value integrity.

Defining Success

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:30:00 +0000

Today is the day where many Malaysian kids look forward to. The result of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (Malaysian Certificate of Education) will be announced. By this evening the media will be sharing the joyous moments of those who scored straight A's and how many schools managed to get the 100% pass rate.

In the next few months the issue will be shifted towards who get into which university. Many will be happy to get the programme which they applied for any many more will be disappointed that they are offered programmes which they do not fancy, including those who managed to get many A's on their result sheets.

Three four years down the road the media may be selling stories about straight A's students failing in their university programmes or becoming somebody who are not representative of a straight A's student. In many cases, these sort of stories are about nothing but if we look are what are written or reported in the media these days, that is not an issue.

My point is that life is not about how many A's you score today. It is a continuous journey and how we react to situations on a daily basis define who we are and what our future would be. While A's obtain in examinations may reflect something, they do not represent everything. So, don't be too excited if you score A's and do not despair if the case is otherwise.

Success could be anything to different people and we should not make a small milestone as the end itself. Unfortunately, people nowadays fancy instant glorification and many will use today's event to shout about themselves. Well, they are entitled to do that but the questions is who is going to have the last laugh.

Good luck Nurul Aliah, my beloved daughter.

WYSIWYG???

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:32:00 +0000

In the computer term, "What You See Is What You Get" or WYSIWYG implies that what you see on the screen of your computers is what you get when printed or what the finish product really is. I am sure we have also heard remarks about "Seeing is believing". Why I am writing about this topic this morning?

As we all know the US is having its Presidential Election later this year. In fact the fun fair had started earlier with the primaries held by the Republicans, a process to select the candidate who will be facing Barrack Obama, the current president of the United States. Later, when the two or more candidates are made official, more fun will begin when all the parties try to convince the electorates who they should choose to lead the most powerful country on this planet.

Why fun?

Perception or sometimes deception are part of the American way of life. The amount of money, time and efforts spent on "image building" could eclipse the GDP or many other countries. TV advertisements, lobby groups and now the usage of social networks are some of the tools used in creating positive or negative perception towards a particular candidate. Every little details about candidates would be scrutinised even those incidents or behaviours are considered acceptable to the general public. The results? What we watch on TV or heard on radio or read in newspapers or online may not necessarily reflect facts and truth.

While many would not like this comparison, the most famous persons using these kinds of techniques were Hitler and the Nazi. Hitler was very aware of the value of good propaganda and appointed Dr. Joseph Goebbels as the Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. All media was used to promote the ideas of the Nazi on top of the practice of censorship to ensure the people see, read and hear what the Nazi wanted them to believe.

Somehow propaganda is still being legitimately used in many parts of the world by political parties, businesses and even non-profit organisations. Many of the practitioners of propaganda believe in the end justifies the mean. What is worrying is that such believe means morality and values would be compromise in ensuring the desired ends are achieved. To ensure such actions do not invite negative responses from the public, these propaganda tools are branded in many nice and friendly names, as if everything done is in the best interest of the people.

Given the wide usage of propaganda around the world by many people, WYSIWYG may only be applied in a limited circumstances, perhaps when you want to prints photos from your computers. In other circumstances in life, especially when involving politics and business, we should be more careful and think deeper before agreeing or believing what we see, hear or read, perhaps this article included.

Remember, this is the year the US is having its presidential election!

This Site is Worth US14!

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:30:00 +0000

It is official, finally there is a value attached to this blog. The following is the review on this site from StasCorp.Com:

"Hasyudeen.com has 3 years old, it is ranked #25,402,278 in the world, a low rank means that this website gets lots of visitors. This site is worth $14 USD and advertising revenue is $0 USD per day. This site has a good Pagernk(2/10), it has 4 visitors and 8 pageviews per day. Currently, this site needs more than 5.88 MB bandwidth per day, this month will needs more than 182.16 MB bandwidth. Its seo score is 45.8%. IP address is 216.239.38.21, and its server is hosted at San Francisco, United States. Last updated on Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:08:47 GMT."

Certainly the above assessment gives me hope. By starting at no 25,402,278 it will be easy for me to move up the ladder. Not sure how long would it take me to reach the top 20,000,000 but there is a lot of upside for this site. Actually who cares if you are at this present position or 50,000 spot ahead. Nobody nows the accuracy of the assessment and worse, nobody cares.

This is the reality of having an online presence. While we could rant and brag, it could also be a futile exercise or as the Malay saying goes "Syok Sendiri". However, at a minimum, this blog allows me to put on record my views on many issues, especially those which relate to us as mortal humans. Maybe this song will make the message clearer.

OK, will work harder and see how I will fare when this site get assessed next!

Am I an Apple Polisher?

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:51:00 +0000

Looking back 5 years ago there were no Apple product at my home. Being brought up in the PC environment, Mac was considered evil. Now, we have few iPhones, iPads, a Macbook and a Mac. Within that short period of time we somehow got convinced to cross over to the "dark side".

Last week Apple released its new iPad, with retina display and able to support Long Term Evaluation (LTE) technology. It released IOS 5.1 and few other enhancements which reinforced the tablet/smart phone ecosystem. While as usual Malaysians will have to wait for a while before the new iPad arrives, some of the stuff released last week could be already enjoyed through existing Apple toys.

Where would Apple go from here? I stumbled upon this article which talks about how Apple is slowly refining its grip on the tablet market. The writer describes the strategy adopted by Apple in strengthening the iPad is a reminiscent of what it did with the iPod for music. Another article about Apple describes how it adopts a different philosophy as compared to, for example Microsoft, where Apple has no problem to introduce new products which compete with its own high performing products. Interestingly, the writer is talking about post-PC era. Is it going to be real?

Competing based on platform is never easy. It requires huge investment and development of a healthy ecosystem which supports the platform. Given the huge cash available to Apple, finance may not be a problem. However, getting developers, users and third party content providers to choose Apple's ecosystem such as iPad as their preferred platform would need a lot of convincing, especially when there are plenty of choices around. Further, Apple is quite firm in deciding how the ecosystem should work such as the iTunes platform. While we have been hearing grumblings from many stakeholders, the functionality and convenient offered by the Apple products, act as the key decider for people to remain loyal to Apple.

Am I an Apple polisher? Well, I am quite happy with the gadgets supplied by Apple and they help we quite a lot in my work and social life. I don't aspect everybody will support my views but based on the development so far, this innovative company would get my support provided it continues to supply me with products and services that I need. I leave it to you to decide what tools and gadgets that you use but having choices like what Apple offer would certainly help.

P/S Most of my kids use Nokia phones. It cost me less to buy those phones for them. Once they earn their own money, they are free to be Apple polishers.

Commitment

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:30:00 +0000

I am a Liverpool fan.

Whatever happens tonight, Arsenal earned my respect based on their performance so far against AC Milan in the Champions League. Starting the game needing to score 4 goals to neutralise their 4 goals deficit, they put their hearts and minds towards that target. It was 3-0 in Arsenal's favour at the half time mark.

Commitment is a single word which describes the way Arsenal takes this match. To achieve the nearly impossible target they gave themselves the chance by adopting an attacking strategy and took control of the mid-field.

They took a different approach in the second half, perhaps expecting Milan to move their players further up to prevent Arsenal from having more chances to score. This resulted Arsenal to be on their back foot and survived a few Milan's scoring opportunities.

With 8 minutes left of the game, we never know what will happen. Notwithstanding the final outcome, commitment by Arsenal was the order of the day.

Prolonging the Depedency Mentality

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:25:00 +0000

What if people who are resourceful and competent feel they are not good enough and rely on you for their future? Some may feel that this is an unfortunate situation and may try to encourage those people to be more confident in themselves. However, there are also people who see this as an opportunity. To this opportunists, the more people are dependent on them, the more leverage they have on those people.

Just imagine if people who are incompetent and inferior somehow ended up with the ability to influence they lives of others? How they ended in such positions could be the question that we have, but in this real world such circumstances do occur frequently. So, instead of empowering the people under their care, they would use all sorts of means to box the minds of their followers. One of the frequently used tricks is to create non-existence threats and claim that they are the only people that could provide protection. This trick has worked in many places but somehow they get repeated with high percentage of success.

While we may consider those who continue to create the culture of dependency as selfish, they should not be blamed for exploiting the opportunities provided by their dependents. In situations where people do not care less about their own future and sit and wait for things to happen, opportunists would step in and exploit such situation.

Like it or not, there are many people out there who are also addicted to the culture of dependency. Some claims that it is their birth right. Even if we try to dislodge them from such mindset and convince them that they could stand on their own feet, they would accuse us of trying to compromise their rights. Ironically, in their struggle to retain their rights to be dependent on their self-appointed masters, they sink deeper in the culture of dependency. Worse, they enjoy it when handouts are distributed to them, although only happen once in many years.

I am convinced that many of those who thought that dependency is good for them are strong enough to stand on their own feet and could push themselves out of their miseries. However, for change to happen, their minds need to change. Perhaps the first step that they should do is to stop watching ghost stories which are screened on television!

Can't Explain Yourself? Be A Pak Pandir!

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:48:00 +0000

This is a second time I am writing about Pak Pandir, a character in the Malay folklore. Briefly, Pak Pandir symbolises a person who is naive and stupid. One of the stories about him is about the death of his son. He overfeed the son with porridge until the innocent little kid died. The tiny body was wrapped in a mat and was brought for burial. Somehow the body slipped through and Pak Pandir buried the empty map. On his way back home he saw the body of his son and said to himself "I am not the only one who lost a son today".

To many Malaysians, the above short story about Pak Pandir is meant to be a joke. That's why when somebody did something foolish, the person will be equated as Pak Pandir and people will just laugh off and move on. So, Pak Pandir is not only an escapism in the old days but a way to excuse oneself when there is no other option to choose.

In the modern days, many people use the option to be Pak Pandir when they are caught at a corner and could not explain their behaviors or conducts. By insinuating that others did the same or they did the same thing in the past and nobody was bothered, one indirectly says, "Hang on guys, I am a Pak Pandir, just laugh at me and move on. Don't worry for what I did".

Unfortunately, many Malaysians will forgive Pak Pandir easily, irrespective where the contemporary Pak Pandirs sit in our society. Perhaps, unconsciously the concept of Pak Pandir has been hardwired in our brains. It could be that we themselves want to ensure this escape route is open for us to use should we need it. Many of us love Pak Pandir so much so that we kiss their hands when we meet them.

So, we when we are caught doing something which we could not explain, be a Pak Pandir and we will be forgiven.

Kuala Selangor Re-visited

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:37:00 +0000

Kuala Selangor is the old capital of Selangor and famous for firefly sighting. I was there not for the firefly but to enjoy seafood which is fresh and reasonably priced. The new KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway (LATAR) which was opened in June 2011 reduced my traveling time to around 30 minutes compared to an hour previously.

I normally have my meal at the restaurants which are located along the river. There are also shops selling seafood products such as dried fish and squids around the area. The supply of fresh seafood is not a problem as many fishermen land their catch there. Given the distance and traveling time, Kuala Selangor should be one the places which you could consider for a nice lunch on weekends.

Inner Strength

noreply@blogger.com (hasyudeen) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:40:00 +0000

We have a lot of things that we want for ourselves. Great life, financial freedom, good company and many other things. Some of these are within reach, some may remain on our wish list forever. Nevertheless, wishing (and working) to get what we want requires efforts and perseverance.

Some people have enough motivation and inner strength to continue to strive towards what they want. Some requires assistance of others. Some, however, expect to be assisted and are proud of that fact. I am sure we want to avoid to be grouped in the last category but somehow we do have many around us who are proud of having that right.

While many people would like to determine their future and would be willing to strive for a better life, there are others who make themselves important by getting others to rely on them. They will go around handing out little goodies and keep on promising more.

What is more surprising is that there are people who rely on others in protecting their own beliefs and faiths. Faith and beliefs are something which flow inside out, not the other direction. If our inner defense is weak due to our own doubts about what we believe, we should not blame other for articulating their viewpoints and arguments. In a plural society, this issue is very important as it could lead towards tension if not managed appropriately.

So, if we believe in something, we better keep on reinforcing that rather than expecting other to do it for us. Otherwise, we should be concern that our "faith" may not be there in the first place.