The Polite & Courteous "Melakans"

Not too long a time ago, the CURRENT (no pun is intended here!!) YAB Chief Minister of Melaka urged the people of Melaka ("Melakans") to refrain from using the discourteous remarks such as "lahabau" etc which is commonly used in the Melakans daily conversations ... Coincidentally, I am in the midst of reading the English translation of "Hikayat Hang Tuah" by Muhammad Haji Salleh and after reading up to page 105, I found that Melakans - those days at least - were indeed very polite and courteous ... Here are some of the extracts from the "The Epic of Hang Tuah" as a proof: At page 103, when the Sultan of Melaka ordered the Bendahar Paduka Raja to compose epistle to be presented to the Patih Gajah Mada of Majapahit, the Bendahara asked Tun Tuah and his four comrades - ooopsss!!! wrong choice of word!!! - compatriots instead by saying: "Come, gentlemen, please listen to the tenure of this letter and verify these gifts; if they are apposite and suitable please state your agreement, and if not please also speak your mind." On hearing this, both Tun Tuan and Hang Jebat said (please read this ....): " Both of us are but servants to Your Lordship; would it be ever possible to surpass My Lord in wisdom and knowledge, who is coversant with the governance and customs of the "negeri"?" Now if that is not polite and courteous of Tun Tuah and Hang Jebat, please be mindful that even the Sultan of Melaka was also so polite towards his subject, the Bendahara Paduka Raja. When the Bendahara had an audience with the Sultan after completing the epistle, the Bendahara said: " Daulat, Your Majesty, your humble servant has done your bidding. Now I leave it to Your Lordship's judgment. Should Your Majesty disagree, I shall rewrite it, but your servant has listened to it being read." The Sultan of Melaka upon hearing the epistle being read to him thereafter said: " Both the sound and composition of the epistle please us greatly. Now it is time for my revered Bendahara to prepare himself; in seven days we want Patih Kerma Wijaya and Bentara Tun Tuah to sail to Majapahit." No wonder Melaka was such a great empire those days as the Sultan and his subjects were so courteous with each other and "bermuzakarah" in their dealings as illustrated above. So, my dear YAB Chief Minister Sir, not too worry all is not lost ... I believe the Melakans are indeed a polite and courteous lots!!! What say you, Norm? Till we meet again ....

SOP

SOP stands for "Standard Operating Procedure" and what was reported in the Malay Mail dated 17 July 2012 on Tuesday has relevance to SOP... The front page of the Malay Mail reported that the former IGP who is also the Bersih 3.0 inquiry chairman as saying the "violence" and the mishandled of the media personnel during the Bersih 3.0 rally was due to the absence of police SOP on handling media personnel. Meanwhile, at page 3 of the same newspaper the current IGP was saying "Guidelines will be out soon" and said the SOP for police handling of media personnel during mass gathering will be implemented soon. The IGP said the police were drafting the SOP. If I could recalled soon after the Bersih rally, complaints were made by the media personnel that apart from being "roughed at' their cameras were destroyed and/or confiscated. To this, the Home Minister was saying that is within the police SOP but it was denied less than 24 hours later by the IGP who said the action was not the police SOP. Now we know why, there is no SOP at all in the first place!!!! Interesting but better late than never eh? Good night and "Selamat Berpuasa" ....

The Real Reason of the repealed of the ISA?

I could not believe my eyes when I read the headline appeared at the front page of the Malay Mail dated 10 July 2012 (Tuesday). The headline read as: "PM: ISA enhances political careers" and below the headline there was this caption: "Najib says Internal Security Act repealed as it didn't help BN-led government politically but uplifted profile of detainees." I then turned to page 2 - just to make sure and it was reported the PM as saying: "... If you put someone under ISA it doesn't kill them politically, instead it enhances their political career." The reasoning as put up by the PM is definitely far off than the reasons given when the announcement of the decision to repeal the ISA was first announced by the PM at PICC Putrajaya if I am not mistaken. I further believe that the reasons given during the motion at the Parliament were also not similar to what was reported in the Malay Mail. From what I know not all ISA detainees are politicians and not all politicians detained under ISA experienced a drastic uplifting of their political career. Just look around and you should be able to guess without me naming the names. There goes the "Janji ditepati" down the drain ...... Good night ....

Jakarta!! Jakarta!!! & Soe Hok Gie

I am just back from my duty travel of 2 days' to Jakarta. Apart from attending meetings, I have resolved to 'merewang" at the "toko buku" - who knows I might find some interesting books to buy. True enough I managed to buy 3 books - one is a book on the thinking and ideology of Tan Malaka, a Partai Komunis Indonesia activist, another book is on the "no holds barred" interview with Pramoedya Ananta Toer,a prominent Indonesian writer who was banished by the "Pemerintah Orde Baru" (Soeharto regime)for almost three qurter of his life for being suspected as a communist and lastly a book entitled "Soe Hok Gie - Catatan Seorang Demostran". To be frank, I have never heard of Soe Hok Gie's name before. The only reason why I bought the book because of the word "demonstran"!!! I was telling myself this would be an interesting book and indeed it is very interesting and intriguing. I browsed through the internet and found below about the firebrand Soe Hok Gie: Soe Hok Gie was born on 17 December 1942 in Jakarta. He studied history at the Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Indonesia from 1962 to 1969. He was a prolific writer and started writing at the age of 15. "Catatan Seorang Demonstran" is a collection of his writing in his diary. During his varsity days, he was an activist and he was believed to play a role as university students in toppling the "Orde Lama" (Soekarnoe) in 1966 by forming "Angkatan Mahasiswa 66". He was an idealist and remained strong and steadfast in his fight against injustice to the extent of " ... (Soek Hok) Gie sangat kecewa dengan sikap teman-teman seangkatannya yang di era demonstrasi tahun 66 mengkritik dan mengutuk pihak pemerintah kemudian selepas mereka lulus berpihak ke sana dan lupa visi dan misi perjuangan angkatan Mahasiswa 66 ..." Soe Hock Gie also loved nature and hiked up the mountains in Indonesia with his close friends. This hobby "robbed" Indonesia of one of his "great son" as he died at the age of 26 at Gunung Semeru (Mahameru) due to "tercekik gas beracun kawah Mahameru". His life as illustrated in the book was translated into a film called "GIE" with Nicholas Saputra as Soe Hok Gie. I depart from this post with a quote from Soe Hock Gie: "Bagiku sendiri politik adalah balang yang paling kotor. Lumpur-lumpur yang kotor. Tetapi satu saat di mana kita tidak dapat menghindari diri lagi, maka terjunlah." He also on 22 January 1962 as if knowing that he would die at a young age quoted: " ... Seorang filsuf Yunani pernah berkata bahwa nasib terbaik adalah tidak dilahirkan, yang kedua dilahirkan tapi mati muda, dan tersial adalah umur tua." In agreeing to this, he wrote further "... Rasa-rasanya memang begitu. Bahagialah mereka yang mati muda" Plus his poem entitled "Hidup": "Terasa pendeknya hidup memandang sejarah Tapi terasa panjangnya karena derita Maut; tempat terakhir. Nikmat datangnya dan selalu dibeti salam." Till we meet again ....

"Ape citer ni Yeob @ YAB?"

The Malay Mail on 26 June 2012 at page 14 reported that the YAB Menteri Besar of Perak urged the Ipoh City Council to "look into iconic cinema's status". This came about as a result of the demolition of the Majestic Theater in Jalan Chamberlain, Ipoh on 14 June 2012 in order to make way for a commercial project. The cinema was built in the 1930s and some of the city's folks were insisting that the iconic building should be preserved due to its historical significance and heritage status. I believe many of my Ipoh friends had been to the Majestic cinema those days and it was iconic indeed with significant "pre merdeka" architecture. I myself had been there enjoying movies with Apak. Even the counter "beli tiket wayang" at this cinema theater is unique ..... The Menteri Besar was reported as urging the City Council to ascertain if the demolition had been done in accordance with the law and further said "If there had been a violation of the law, the council must take action". At the end of the report, the Menteri Besar had knowingly or unknowingly "defending himself" by saying " matters concerning the preservation or demolition of heritage buildings came under the purview of the state's heritage commissioner". To me all these comments/remarks have become academic - "nasi sudah jadi bubur" - the building had been demolished and torn down to the earth .... Perhaps Perak is too vast a state and the Menteri Besar had been too busy lately as not to notice what's up at a location merely about 3 KM or so from the Menteri Besar's Office!!!! Until we meet again ....

A Lacunae in History

On the 2 June 2012, a prominent "anak Malaysia" passed away. He was Cikgu Zul who won a seat in 1969 (Sg. Lembing, Pahang) under the ticket of Partai Rakyat. Unfortunately, it was a short lived victory as he was detained under the infamous draconian ISA law. Upon learning of his death, I tried to "dig" more about Cikgu Zul's history in particular his role in independent movement as well as his contribution in post "merdeka" era. In fact since 2 June 2012 until now, it's a futile effort as ............................................................... ................ obviously there is a lacunae or a gap in the "pages of our history books as far as the leftists are concerned and I am still searching for a "just & fair" recordings of our Malaysian history. Think about it & good night!!!!