‘They choose to enforce bans on the media whenever they like it and lift them whenever they like it. If there is press freedom then it should be total and not just when it suits the ruling party.'

On Show road map on press freedom, Najib told

John Johnson: First the new media is banned from the coming Perak assembly sitting and then suddenly the ban is lifted.

These are all political games played by the top people to garner votes for them. The public and the rakyat will not be hoodwinked.

They choose to enforce bans on the media whenever they like it and lift them whenever they like it.

If this is not an abuse of power then please enlighten me. If there is press freedom then it should be total freedom and not just when it suits the ruling party.

On Ten points for better schools, better students

Maniam Sankar: Rightly, if kids are taught mainly in one language; the heavy reading subjects like science and maths should be taught in that language.

However, and looking long-term, if children are exposed to more languages in their early, formative years in, say, Standard 1 to 3, they would be a ease with any of the languages subsequently.

The solution to this long standing problem is therefore to make the early years more for language comprehension and not for fact accumulation in history, geography and even science.

I note that now even kindies are busy ‘smartening' kids with a lot more than the alphabet.

Take a leaf from countries like Australia. The kids there don't lug heavy bags. They have lots of playtime.

They just learn to express themselves clearly first. And appreciate the world around them.

Parents too should be a lot less pushy. You cannot make Einsteins in primary school.

With early language proficiency, kids will be able to absorb the tonnes of information in English while maintaining their Bahasa or other identity which politicians especially seem so keen to preserve (manipulate?).

On ASM shares: Maybank so lame

Fellow Investor: Many of us can relate to the writer's gripe about Maybank.

Walk into any counter service outlet in Malaysia; regardless whether it is government or private and one walks away cursing at the blatant incompetence, ignorance and arrogance.

There's an effective way to handle the rude ones - do not take ‘no' for an answer. Ask for the supervisor. Ask and take down the name of the useless person you are dealing with.

Follow-up with a letter of complaint. I find making a scene works, too...hey, this is Malaysia; land of Bolehs.

Seriously, take this matter directly to PNB; Maybank is just an agent and thus this explains the incompetence.

Bypass the agents and go directly to the source, ie PNB. If all else fails, Maybank is not the only agent for PNB; take your business to RHB or CIMB.

Go where your business is appreciated and valued; this is true for all circumstances whether you are shopping for a PNB investment product or just a plain T- Shirt.

On 'McCurry' celebrates win over McDonald's

Jegatheeswaran Manoharan: I would like to thank the courts for acting fair in this case. There are strong reasons on why the prefix ‘Mc' or ‘Mac' cannot be trademarked.

The condition for trademarking a term is that it has to have a unique expression. For example, Nike, Nescafe, Nokia.

These are words that do not exist on their own in a common language. However, if a company wants to trademark a common expression such as ‘voir' (French) then the uniqueness could be classified by combining a few words.

Such examples are ‘Mind Mapping' (by Tony Buzan), ‘Situational Leadership' (by Ken Blanchard), ‘connected thinking' (by PricewaterhouseCoopers) or for that matter, the name PricewaterhouseCoopers itself.

However if an organisation would still like to use common terms, they can. However they need to provide a unique ‘visual expression' such as the way/style/font of word; like Canon, Olympus, Proton, Voir, Siemens and Citizen.

Under this notion, the prefix ‘Mc' cannot be trademarked. This is because ‘Mc' or ‘Mac' are historically Scottish and it means ‘son of'.

The prefix ‘Mc' also stands for Megacycle - a scientific unit for frequency.

With all these various meanings of the term ‘Mc' and it being used even before the birth of the McDonanld brothers, how could a company claim ownership to the prefix ‘Mc'?