Persatuan Karyawan Malaysia – The Never Ending Story

Datuk Aziz Sattar led a group of 6 members to quit as committee members of Persatuan Karyawan on Jan 02, 2008 and has lodged a report against the top management of Karyawan alleging amongst other charges, mismanagement of funds.

The ACA has stepped in to investigate. This is nothing new. It’s an old and recurring story, like a broken record playing the same song over and over again.

Francis Danker, K.Selvaraj, Adrian Doshi, Edwin Nathaniel, Amizan Ariffin, Leonard Tan and myself walked out of Karyawan's annual general meeting on July 28, 2004, making the headline in the Malay Mail.

Later, Adrian Doshi and I quit our committee positions in protest of alleged funds given to actress Azean Irdawati to solve her personal financial problems and Francis dissolved the hotel and club artistes division. We maintained that funds generated through our various activities be used to aid musicians in need of urgent medical aid, and not to bail out members who purposely breached contracts and then got sued.

I urge Karyawan members to exercise their rights in the upcoming emergency annual general election meeting at 3:00pm on 05 Feb 2008 at the Johor and Kedah Halls in PWTC to choose their leader for the next term. Freddie Fernandez has been the president from 2005 to 2008. I will be there, of course, to cast my vote and to cover the event.

AMIZAN'S AMAZING ADVENTURES

On a related topic, I am now officially declaring that I am jealous of my brother Amizan Ariffin (different father and different mother mah, you Malaysian or what?). Not only is this cool cat a super talented singer, songwriter and entertainer but he also makes the pretty girls swoon when he croons. Being the manager of CK Music gives the lucky bugger the opportunity to regularly rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in musicdom at the NAMM.

The National Association of Music Merchants is the largest music products trade show in United States. Held every January in Anaheim, California, USA the show brings together all facets of the music products industry to reveal new musical instruments/products and ideas to help music products retailers and manufacturers become more successful. More than 80,000 NAMM Members and guests attended the show. NAMM is not open to the general public.

Joseph “Satch” Satriani was recruited by the Rolling Stones as lead guitarist for Mick Jagger’s first solo tour Satriani is widely recognized as a technically highly advanced rock guitarist and a virtuoso. He has mastered many performance techniques on the instrument, including Legato, two-handed tapping, sweep-picking, volume swells, harmonics, and extreme whammy bar effects. One of his trademark compositional traits is the use of Pitch Axis Theory, which he applies with a variety of modes. He is also adept at other speed-related techniques such as speed picking (a rapid form of alternate picking) and sweep picking.

Satriani has received 14 Grammy nominations and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide. Since 1990, he has used his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is widely sold in stores. Satriani also has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX.

Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American Grammy Award winning guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for being the lead guitarist with rock band Toto. Lukather has also released several solo albums and, as a studio session guitarist, has arranged, composed, and recorded on over 800 number one albums. While his work with Toto is predominantly based on pop rock music, Lukather's solo work spans many genres including rock, prog, jazz and funk.

Amizan's new pop group should be called 3 Non Blondes. No prizes for guessing who's the non-blonde. Damn. The lucky lucky bugger. *Sigh* I'm off to the syariah court to find out how you divorce a "brother". I figure its about time for Malaysia's next scandal. You know, he sounds like my brother and he looks like my brother but...