It ran a brief letter by Alcon on Saturday. Then on Monday, some old man who writes to The Star daily and who’s like 80 years old replied, saying increase liquor taxes!

Goddamit. We dying out here, and he just goes and shoots his mouth off.

Anyway, good news is today (Wed), it ran Alcon’s reply in full and unedited. We gave back to the old man.

There has been a lot of publicity on Alcon, which I’ll summarize sum up after the Budget.There’s supposed to be a full-on feature story on Alcon on Saturday. Look out for that.

Budget announcement takes place Friday late afternoon. I think cigarettes are gonna be hit. Booze, I feel it’s 50-50. Lets hope for the best.

Who da group

The group was formed last year to, among others, counter the crazy taxes we face in this country. Highest in Asia. And for beer, second highest in the world! Why??

It’s ridiculous, considering how much we earn. A couple of our points were raised in this article.

Anyway, some of us decided we’re not gonna take this shit, and launched a successful campaign last year. You can read the background here.

Our aim is also to start giving free promotion and publicity to reasonably-priced outlets.

Alcon press conference

Now we’re takin it a step further, and some have plans for the year. But next step is the launch party on Saturday afternoon, in Desa Sri Hartamas.

Handing our demands to the Ministry of Finance

Places are limited; first-come-first-serve, but all are welcome to attend the festivities, so long as ur a member of Alcon. Join Alcon here. (Our Group page has 5,000+ members, but we have just created a new Fan page). And get your friends.

Media and blogs are welcome too.

Event page here. If u cant view, you might have to join Alcon first.

Need media

The more members we have, the more we can do, and the better our chances of at least freezing alcohol taxes for a few years.

Latest I hear is the government needs money, and are targeting to whack booze this year. We need to object. We should not be targets for easy government cash anymore.

Will probably need volunteers to help in photography and publicity for the event. Pls let us know on the group’s wall page if you can help the cause in any way.

Flattering, but totally false.

It quoted a deputy minister Heng Seai Kie, saying things like we’re alcos, bla bla bla. The journalist and editors just took it as gospel and ran the story, creating all sorts of reactions and consequences.

Maybe it’s part of an excuse to raise the tax on alcohol even higher this October, then probably we’ll have the highest tax in the world!

Prices are high enough

I wrote a letter to them on behalf of Alcon (Alcohol Consumer Rights Group), telling them the real situation, and giving them links to actual data.

Unfortunately, they didnt publish the letter, nor did they run an appropriate clarification. Biasa la. Screw up and dont wanna admit. So i guess its up to me to clear the air, once and for all. (The link to the letter is here.)

In the drinking world, Malaysia ranks 167th. That’s right. 167.

How dehell did we suddenly become Top 10?

It was based on some obscure report (available online but i wont bother to link) by Consumer Association of Penang. CAP’s president SM Idris is kinda militant alcophobic.

Must have had a bad experience.

Either way, the grandad aint gonna defend drinkers’ rights, thats for sure. If it was up to him, drinking would be illegal.

Anyway, according to WHO’s (World Health Organization) global report, the average consumption on Earth is 6.2 liters of pure alcohol per human per year. Malaysia’s annual intake in merely 0.82 liters / person. (The Star said 7 liters!) And WHO also states that 97% of Malaysians are abstainers. WHO’s report on Malaysia here.

Malaysia might be ranked low, but we sure know how to party eh

This Top 10 bullshit has been around for a few years. It’s a myth that i hope is finally busted.

Hence, the need for Alcon to enlighten journalists, public, NGOs, government, etc. And to push for a freeze on taxes until 2020. Pls join the group as we need support. And suggest to friends too. 5,000 members would be a good figure.

Good news is Alcon will be having its official launch early next month, and all members are specially invited to d party. Watch the group page!

Looks like Baskin-Robbins Malaysia has gotten rid of its rum ‘n raisin flavoured ice-cream. Some friends of mine were pretty pissed off about this. Picture of notice here.

I told them to do sumtin about it, if they were sincerely upset that is. Am not gonna bother, since i dont eat ice-cream much.

It’s supposedly to ensure that their ice-cream is halal.

Weak excuse if u ask me. All that needs to be done is to use a different scoop for the rum flavour. Anyway, even if u eat a whole tub, its not gonna get u drunk.

If it’s a very popular flavour that people say it is, then i guess consumers would go elsewhere, and BR’s business would be affected.

As for me, i’d rather get some chocolate ice-cream / milkshake and fire a shot of Baileys and Jamaican rum into it!

Are they outta their fuckin little minds?? Whodafuck is WHO to me for it to suggest a rule like dis?

Thats the only source of reasonably-priced booze for poor people all over d world. Wat, this one-bottle quota each is gonna end the world?

U know what i really feel sometimes?? Some people need to be sent to rehab -  to learn how to be human again.

We aint flawless. Accept it.

There’re a million ways to die. Duty-free booze aint gonna do shit. Alcohol paranoia at work again. They must be on some baad LSD.

The best treatment for these alcophobic people. Stuff a bottle of Jose up their ass, but lubricate with some lime n rock salt first

Duty-free is the one small thing many travellers look forward to, coz of the price and wide range of booze u can discover at a convenient location. (Actually u can get it in Brickfields too. Haha. Mail me for details.)
For EVERY bottle of liquor sold (non duty-free), $50-$100 goes to the fuckin government (to fund their excessive lifestyles and promote further oppression of the people.)

Obviously, right-thinking people would not wanna pay any tax. It’s something that’s best avoided at all costs.

Anyway, there’s this other organization called the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP). Its full of shit. The president is an extremist called SM Muhd Idris (hmm, wonder what SM stands for). Unfortunately, CAP is very vocal. And very few people fuck them up, considering the crap this senile dude spews.

This nut would ban booze if he could. He’s the loco orang utan who asked the government for a complete ban on mobile phones! Haha! Back to your cave asshole.

Lock him up. Dont throw away the key though. Say “Catch mafucker!” & throw a grenade in.

*Sigh*. Look at what harmless people who just wanna live our lives have to fight against regularly. It’s a constant & vigilant battle to maintain our simple way of life.

So glad i didnt go then . Feel sorry for those who went all the way there and got conned. Imagine being at a party and being forced to remain sober – all night.

Thing is, the kind of unprofessional and unethical people who are behind these events dont even have the BALLS to announce on their promo material and on the websites that its an alcohol-free event. Watdefuck.

Even if u ask.

I’m definitely NEVER going for any Speedzone events. Ever. Fuckin waste of time. Same goes for ‘Freedom‘ events.

These people need to grow up.

Booze-free events are for little teens.

They were actually going to do a booze-free and Muslim-free party? How inappropriate and insulting, especially the Muslim-free part. What a disaster.

How dahell did we allow ourselves to get to this situation?

The thing is many event organizers (this event is by Galaxy Group) usually care about makin sure the event happens, so they make their profits. I guess they dont care if the sell Malaysian citizens out while they do it. That’s extremely selfish and unpatriotic, dont u think?

They aint gonna fight for our rights.

If everybody in dis country did exactly what the government ordered, this country would be fucked. Dat’s why the government keeps doin u-turns – coz the People make it clear whenever they fuck up. Which is often. Thats our responsibility as citizens.

Been kindly offered a free ticket or 2 by d organizer’s rep. Not sure if am goin tho. Companies and event organizers that sell-out our rights so easily to the authorities for the sake of a gig, turn me off. What efforts were made by them to protest against such stupid rules? What will they be doing in the future to ensure this kinda crap dont happen again?

Respect our rights.

This whole incident has left behind a bad taste and bad vibes. The worst part is it’s supposed to be an ‘entertainment’ event.

Talk about segregating non-Muslims and Muslims! This will be quite effective. That’s what the so-called government wants – disunity.

A worldwide Guinness event with no booze. Is this a joke?? I guess Guinness will never choose KL again as their Asia Pacific venue for future global events.

It happened once before, but few took it seriously.

Shit has hit da fan, and it’s hit real high. It can only get worse. Our civil rights are being screwed.

Thanks to those of us who could do something about it, but refused.

Beer = satan

Yea, we all know Muslims aren’t supposed to drink beer (if they follow what they religion says), but does the religion also say non-Muslims cant have access to beer? I doubt it. Muslim rules dont apply to those who dont believe in that religion.

It’s like me saying to Muslims or Jews its ok to eat pork coz my religion says its ok. Dat’s wrong.

If u dont wanna drink, just dont drink la. Chill. There’s really no need to freak out n over react n deny others their rights. So there’s beer for sale there – but does someone drag u to the store, drag u to pick up a beer, drag u to d cashier, then force the beer down your  throat? I sure havent seen shit like dat happen before.

Convenience stores are for d convenience of everyone right?

If this is d concept, what wd be next? Ban food with pork over there? Ban beef in Sentul cos majority are Hindus? It dont work dat way man.

Just disallow sales to Muslims there la. Problem solved.

Politicians always tryin to divide Muslims and non-Muslims. Bodoh.

A caveman and alcophobic like Hassan Ali should remain in a cave, no?

No temptations there. No beer there either.

Rilek la. Kita semua orang Malaysia. Satu geng.