#KL112 HKR Part II

This is just a short posting on the statement made by the Home Minister, Hishamuddin Tun Hussein regarding the #KL122 HKR rally ... He was quoted as saying the crowd who attended the rally did not represent the majority of the Malaysians population of 28 million ... Your Excellency Mr. Minister Sir, on the issue of "majority of our 28 millions population" let's ponder the following points: 1. Out of this 28 million, we have to knock of about 10 million of those age below 15 years. We have to abide by the Akta Perhimpunan Aman anyway which forbids those age 15 years of age from attending any rally .....; 2. That leaves us with a figure of 18 million i.e. those age from 16 to 64 as per the National Census conducted in 2010; 3. However, the most important factor in determining "majority" in a politically democratic state is the number of registered voters ,,, As at 4 June 2012, it was reported that 13 million had Malaysians had registered as voters; 4. Consider this i.e. the result of the popular votes secured by BN in PRU 12. In Peninsular Malaysia, BN only secured 48.1% of the popular votes ... Only to be saved by the votes in Sabah and Sarawak making the tital of 51.2% popular votes for BN as a whole .... The question is, does the above what Your Excellency meant by "the majority of the 28 millions of Malaysians."?

# KL112 HKR

Much has been said about the recent rally on 12 January 2013 known as KL112 organised by the opposition PR and supported by various NGOs country wide at the Stadium Merdeka ... Statements had been made from both political divides commenting from the number of turn out right up to comparing the rally to that of the Arab Spring ... Let's go to the statistics ... A Maths Professor estimated - using his Maths formula - came up with a fugure of 700,000 while the police somehow or rather "tersilap kira" by pressing the calculator button twice hence changing the figure from 80,000 to 40,000. The organiser of KL112 claimed the figure was at 500,000 while the rest estimated the number at between 100.000 to 200,000... The issue is what's the actual figure? Now let's do some hard facts here: 1. Stadium Merdeka can accommodate maximum capacity of 33,000 and judging from the crowd, this was easily achieved; 2. This 33,000 has to be added with another estimated about 20,000/"berdiri" who sat on the green... mind you the 33,000 crowd were not watching a football on the "padang" played by 22 people plus 3 match officials!!!! 3. The estimated total number of 53,000 crowd in the stadium then has to be added with double that figure due to them not being able to enter the stadium .. this crowd swelled from outside the stadium right up to the old Chinese temple at the vicinity of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Jalan Maharaja Lela with pockets of them at the vicinity of the Masjid Negara. Another group swelled from outside the stadium right up to the vicinity of Jlan Sultan area/Stadium Chin Woo.... The result is the crowd was easily at the figure of 100,000 or so .... Just imagine this, this 100,000 surely must have their parents - OK, let's take half of that number - or they must have their "adik beradik" or "saudara mara" ... voila!!! the number will swelled and bloated even further .... Next, let's go to the report by the mainstream media ... "Mingguan Malaysia" in its report the next day at page 13 posted a picture of a Malay family (3 of them) draped in DAP flags with a caption below the picture which read as " Sebuah keluarga berbangsa Melayu bangga menyarungkan bendera parti DAP semasa berarak ke Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, semalam".... I bet the Utusan reporter must have spotted the opposite scenario where the Chinese were seen waving the PAS flag and draped in PAS flag ... Somehow or rather these were not published by Utusan whose majority of its readers are Malays .... The Sunday Times in its headline the next day front paged several pictures, one of which depicting a Chinese lady with her head lurking towards a certain direction - presumably at the crowd/rally while both her hands appeared to be ready to shut the (door) grill of her shop ... Again this is misleading as what I witnessed was the opposite ... At least 2 elderly Chinese couples waved from their window of their shop house with thumbs up along Lebuh Ampang plus another 3 Chinese couples along Jalan Sultan and not to mention those shop/stall operators alomh Jalan Sultan/Jalan Petaling ... Shame to the mainstream media .....

Are We a Pessimist Lot?

Yesterday while having breakfast, I overheard a guy at the Cafeteria where I worked uttered the Malay proverb "Sedangkan ulat dalam batu pun boleh hidup!!" Apparently, he was arguing with his friends on how to survive financially when almost all "barang naik".... This makes me wonder is the "peribahasa" denotes a pessimistic approach towards life or the opposite. The positive aspect of the proverb is that how the "ulat" has to work hard to "hidup" in a "batu"... On the other hand, it is more towards an attitude of apathy or "tidak apa" attitude ... Perhaps our elders those days had their reasons in coming up with these pessimistic proverbs. One of which is "kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang" which need not be analysed using special mixture of chemicals or litmus test or even being sent to the court of law for interpretation!!! It's a crystal clear pessimism to the highest level. Other "peribahasa yang sewaktu dengannya" are "seperti habuk di atas tunggul" and its synonym "seperti melukut di tepi gantang". These two proverbs are normally used to show how a person's existence is of no significance towards others or in "bahasa pasar "ada pun serupa macam tak ada"!!! Those are the proverbs, there might be more ... What about our "pantun"? The only "pantun" which I could think of is a "pantun" from the film entitled "Seri Mersing" where the hero, Nordin Ahmad said: " Kajang Tuan Kajang Berlipat, Kajanag Hambang Mengkuang Layu, Dagang Tuan Dagang Bertempat, Daganag Hamba Musafir Llau" The pantun does have a pessimistic colour in it but I would be more inclined to say that it's a "Pantun Budi Bahasa" as we, the Malays are known to be courteous lot ... Just like the proverb "Masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang harimau mengaum" ... Lastly, the National Laureate Shahnon Ahmad wrote a novel entitled "Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan" , a story about husband (Lahuma) and wife (Jeha), slogging hard at their "14 relong sawah padi" at "Kampong Banggol Dedap". They have no son but seven (7)dauhters. They were faced with so many "dugaan" ... their "padi" were destroyed when attacked by "ketam" and "burung tiak" and even "air bah" ... If that is not enough a "dugaan" Lahuma the husband was taken ill after his feet "tertusuk onak nibung" which led to his death. Jeha was left alone mending the "sawah padi" and due to the tragic death of her husband and pressure of hard life, she went mad .... If this is not pessimism, I do not know what it is .... I will leave this post with another proverb " biarlah enggang dengan enggang, mana nak sama dengan si pipit" .....

Let's 'Belajar Sejarah"

I "balik kampung" over the weekend and found some interesting facts on our nation "sejarah" from a "buku sejarah" entitled "Exploring Sejarah" "Terbitan Oxford Fajar" for "Tingkatan 2 KBSM" written by Zamri Zakaria. It's about Haji Abdul Rhaman bin Abdul Hamid also known as Haji Abdul Rahman Limbong, a religious teacher who spearheaded the farmers' opposition against the British rule in Terengganu between 1921 to 1928. He was known as Haji Abdul Rahman Limbong due to him regularly went to Limbong, Kemaman to "mengajar ugama." In 1921, the British introduced "Pas Kebenaran Membuka Tanah" where any clearance of land for agricultural purpose would be taxed at "50 sen". In 1922, 43 farmers cleared and opened an agricultural land in Kuala Telemong and refused to pay tax to the British. they were arrested and charged in Court. Haji Abdul Rahman Limbong acted as their lawyer and argued in Court that "Tanah adalah milk Allah dan bukan hak negeri" leading him to win the case. In 1925, a group of about 300 to 500 farmers gathered at Kuala Telemong to cultivate on 200 acres of land belonging to Tengku Nik Fatimah and 400 acres of government land. The then Sultan, Sultan Sulaiman was urged by the British to take action against the farmers. In 1928, the British threatened to take action against farmers who refused to pay agricultural land taxes. On hearing this, about 1000 farmers protested in Marang, Kuala Terengganu and Kuala Berang and declared war against the British. In the process, they occupied a police station and government buildings in Kuala Berang and flew red flags. Intense war erupted at Padang Kachong where 12 farmers were killed and Haji Abdul Rahman Limbong and several other Malay leaders were arrested. Haji Abdul Rhaman Limbong was the exiled to Makkah by Sultan Sulaiman, obviously at the advise of the British, on charges of instigating the state of Terengganu's farmers to an act of war against the government. Below is the translation of the exile order: " Perisytiharan Buang Negeri Haji Abdul Rhman Limbong, 12 Zulhijjah 1346, Bilangan 1295, 1346" Ketahuilah sekelian rakyat-rakyat dalam negeri Terngganu dan jajahannya, iaitu dengan hukum dan titah perintah DYMM Sultan Sulaiman Badrul Alam Syah kerajaan Terengganu telah mengeluarkan Haji Abdul Rhaman bin Abdul Hamid (Haji Abdul Rhman Limbong) dari dalam negeri Terengganu dan jajahannya oleh disyakkan dengan sebab-sebab pengajaran Haji Abdul Rahman kepada pihak rakyat-rakyat menubuhkan gerakan menderhaka rakyat-rakyat kepada Raja dan kerajaan Terengganu." Maka bagi sementara Haji Abdul Rahman belayar ke Makkah diserah dia di bawah jagaan kerajaan Selat demikianlah adanya." There you are and Haji Abdul Rhaman Limbong was not the first to be punished due to due to act of war against the British colonial rule then ... In Perak, Raja Ismail was sent into exile to Johor while Sultan Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim were sent into exile to the Seychelles Island. Meanwhile Dato' Maharaja Lela, Sepuntum (Si Putum), Dato' Sagor and Pandak Indut were hanged in Taiping on 20 June 1877. All because of their role in acting against the British imposition of new tax rules in Perak by killing the Perak First British Resident, J.W.W. Birch. My take on the above and on this "Tingkatan 2 Buku Sejarah" are as below: 1. The Perak incident were led by the "Pembesar_Pembesar Perak" and whether you like it or not, their action was motivated more on "self interest" as opposed to a mere "guru ugama", Haji Abdul Rahman Limbong; 2. The "Buku Sejarah" did make a cursory note on the role of the left wing independence fighters such as Burhanuddin Helmy, Pak Sako and the "Kaum Muda" But most important of all, at least kids nowadays "belajar sejarah" pertaining to local historical events/persons unlike when I "dan teman-teman yang sewaktu" was in the school those days ... We learned about David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer who explored Africa and Alexander the Great (this was when I was in Standard 5 or 6). In the secondary school, we traveled in a time machines almost half the world and got to know with Romulus & Remus, the twin brothers who founded Rome, the Spartans, The Moghuls and to China and met with Shih Huang Ti and the Han clans ,,, no!!! no!!! not Shahrukh Khan or Saif Ali Khan but Genghis Han & Kublai Han. How lucky are kids nowadays ......

How I became the 16th "Penyelidik" in 2013 ...

I spent a whole day at the Arkib Negara, Jalan Duta on 4 January 2013 and to my surprise, Arkib Negara had been kind enough to conferred the title of "Penyelidik" ... This is big a title for me to shoulder and I would ensure I will come again to "selidik" at the Arkib Negara ... How did I become a "Penyelidik"? This was what actually happened .. I went to the Arkib Negara to do some research related to work - something about the mass illegal strike staged at my current work place way back in 1979 (I was still in Form 4 at that time). As I approached the guard post of the Arkib Negara, I stopped and got a pass in exchange of my identity card. The guard asked me "Encik nak buat penyelidikan ke?" I answered with a simple "Ya, saya nak pergi ke Dewan Penyelidikan". The guard then mentioned about I would be given a "Pas Penyelidik" to which I just nodded my head ... When I reached the counter at the Dewan Penyelidikan, I was asked to fill in a Form and my name was registered and voila!!!! in not even half an hour after I entered the Arkib Negara I was appointed and given a pass with my name and the title "PENYELIDIK" and it's in Capital Letters as if affirming "look here guys!!! This guy is the "Penyelidik" and do not mess around!!" Upon cursory look at the Pass, I noticed that my "nombor pendaftaran" is 00016/2013 so I assumed I am the 16th "Penyelidik" honourably appointed by the Arkib Negara in 2013. Not bad though not able to be in the top 10 though ..... I went into the "Dewan Penyelidikan' and asked for the Sraits Time (S'pore), the NST and the Star newspapers for the year 1979 from the months of February until April of that year .... I managed to find what I looked for but two (2) news in 1979 during those months really caught my eyes, apart from the Iranian Revolution when Khomeini was back to Iran from his exiled conutry, France and the fall of Idi Amin of Uganda .... The two (2) news were: The Star dated 7 March 1979 had a headline read as "Students on Rampage" ... This is news to me. It states that 1,500 students of Sekolah Menengah Maxwell, Kuala Lumpur went on rampage during the 7.30 AM school assembly when their suspended Head Master bid them "farewell". Apparently, the HM Mr. P. Nadarajah was suspended on alleged of 3 charges of falsifying documents in relation to the salary claims of three teachers. The 1, 500 students refused to go to their class rooms and shouted in unison "We want Nadarajah" for 2 hours. Some of them apart from shouting were reported to go on rampage, banging the doors and furnitures as well as scribbling messages on the wall with 50 teachers watched helplessly. It was also reported that the Head Master left hurriedly soon after with the acting Head Mistress, Madam Jeanette Lim locked herself in school. On 8 March 1979, the STAR reported again as its headline which read as "Maxwell pupils back in class" but not before they booed the Ministry of Education Officer, one Encik Mohamad Diah who gave them a "ceramah perdana" at the morning school assembly. Was Madam Jeanette there? Yup she was ... I cared not to copy down the details as the news on 7 March 1979 is a real news to me compared to the 8 March 1979 report. Slightly more than a month later, The Star on 20 April 1979 reported that "450 Students of MARA Vocational Institute at the Kampung Pandan campus, Kuala Lumpur demonstrated over strict disciplinary rules in force in their campus. They were against the strict ruling of the campus administration in only allowing them to go out twice a week and to be back at the campus by 6.30 PM. In their mass protest they locked out the campus for more than 5 hours by shutting the main gate from 5.30 AM. On 26 April 1979, the Star reported "MARA College closes down" and again I did not copy down the details as it is not news material and it was an "easy way out" .... There you are the early months of 1979 were an eventful months with lots of manifestation of emotion or a manifestation of support and/or protest by students as young as in the secondary school right up to college students and not to mention those in Iran ..... It was really a busy first day for a first time "Penyelidik" for me and I promise Arkib Negara this .... Your "Penyelidik" will come again - this time I have to take a few days leave - to "selidik" the history, the cause and pattern of manifestation of one's or a group's emotion in Malaya/Malaysia .... Till we meet again ....

Mak Buat Bedak Sejuk ....

The other day I turned on the Radio Klasik channel and the topic for that day was "Bedak Sejuk". That reminds me of Mak making her own "bedak sejuk" when I was a kid... The process for 'pembuatan bedak sejuk" is quite tedious and it's a long and tedious process. Mak will soaked some rice with water in a small pot ("bekas/tempayan kecil") and will cover it with a cloth. The soaking process will normally takes about 2 to 3 months to ensure the "beras" really "hancur".... Mak will keep the pot somewhere at the far corner of our "dapur"... as the fermentation process come to the second month, it produced foul smell indicating the next stage of "bedak sejuk" production process is about to commence. When the rice had totally "hancur", the whitish substance (beras hancur") will be separated from the water using "tapis (tepung) halus" and poured into a small container (I used to call it " besen", orang Perak should know). The "bears hancur wiall then be poured into a coned shaped "acuan" normally from "daun" and Mak will squeezed the substance onto a thin white cloth spread on a "talm/dulang".This will be when I will eagerly assisted Mak is aqueezing the "beras hancur" as I liked to see those white small droplets took their places onto the white cloth. Normally Mak will do this at nights and would managed to complete two or three "talam". The next day, Mak will put the trays ("talam") under the sun for the "menjemur" process to dry up those small droplets. This will take about a few days and "daun pandan" will be put onto the tray so that it will be "wangi" in aroma. After a few days, it's time for me to be busy again as the next process is to detach the droplets from the white cloth into "bekas bedak sejuk". The droplets will be detach using a knife to "kikis" off the dried "bedak sejuk". This is the last process of Mak being a small time producer of "bedak sejuk" as she again put "daun pandan ricik" into the "bekas bedak sejuk". Every evening, after I had a bath - normally at 6.30 PM Mak will dressed me up in my "baju tidur jalur -jalur" with "bedak sejuk" on my face!!!! That was years ago when I was a small kid and the last time I saw "bedak sejuk" was on a shelf on a shelf of "kedai runcit" at the Little Infdia, Lebuh India .... How I missed Mak's "bedak sejuk", it's the best and softest of all the "bedak" in the universe ......

Kad Laporan Sulit Murid

Yesterday, 2 January 2013 was the day when parents became "students" ... in a state of helter skelter sending their kids especially those enrolled into Tahun 1 - those days it was called "Darjah 1"... As I passed by a primary school on the way to work today, I saw parents were running about and some of them standing outside their kids' classroom lurking their heads into the classroom... Almost all of us had that experience including myself... Today's post is not about the first day in school but about "Kad Laporan Sulit Murid"... I recalled when I was in Standard 1 in 1970, the class teacher would called us one by one to her table. On her desk was a red "kad laporan sulit" where the details of the "murid" were written, things like name, address, parents' occupation and wart not ... The best part about the "Kad Laporan Sulit Pelajar" was the part "Cita-Cita Murid"... I was a "kampong boy" and when asked by my "Cik Gu Darjah, Cik Gu Naimah what was my "cita-cita" - there were 3 choices - I unhesitatingly told her firstly I want to be a pilot, a doctor and a engineer. I ended up a "failure" as far as my three "cita-cita" are concerned .... it's way far off and off the track or rather "melencong jauh" ... There's an opportunity to achieve the "cita-cita" to become an engineer when I was at the Sekolah Menengah Teknik but it disappeared and evaporated into the sky as I "disappeared" from the classes during the two years I was there!!!! The favorite "cita-cita" among the boys were "polis" and "askar" while the girls "guru" or "jururawat". Somehow or rather, my friend Syed Hishamuddin @ "Abang" told Cik Gu Naimah his three "cita-cita" ... He said he wanted firstly to become "ahli gusti", "askar" and "polis"!!! Abang is a "lasak" boy and there was a post regarding him earlier in this blog ... Unlike me, Abang managed to become a police fpor quite a years. I was smiling in my car this morning when I recalled the "Kad Laporan Sulit Pelajar" as the school I passed by disappeared from my view ..... I wonder what were your three "cita-cita" in your "Kad Laporan Sulit Pelajar" .....

2012 .... Looking Back

It's 2013 and wishing you a very happy new year.... A friend, Jailany Jafar called me and wished me happy new year. How nice of him!!! So what have 2012 offered us, Malaysians? Just a shot post on this ..... To me, the Malaysians of the year should be won hands down by those 300,000 Malaysians - young and old - who transformed all the streets leading to the Dataran Merdeka during the Bersih 3.0 rally. In contrast, the sour grape of 2012 should go to the "Bapak Menteri Internet & Budi Bahasa" who "politely" claimed that based on his "grid calculation" the Bersih 3.0 rally only attracted less than 70,000 participants. To this, I would "dengan hormatnya" do not agree as all the roads leading to the Dataran was painted yellow on that day. By the way 2012 also saw this "Bapak Menteri" tried his luck to be a lyricist of the Merdeka Song "Janji di Tepati" which happened to be a flop and did not make it to the chart!!! I would say he single handedly caused Malaysians to be "embarrassed" to fly the "Jalur Gemilang" on their vehicles. Next medal of honour would go to the organisers of Bersih 3.0 rally amongst others S. Ambiga and A. Samad Said who braved the "threats" and barriers in organising the said rally, Hishamuddin Rais. Again in contrast, a big "boo boo" to those few Army Veterans who performed "tarian punggung" in front of Ambiga's house. On par with the Army Veterans are the so called small traders who in defiance of the local by laws "offered" "petak gerai" on the road right in front of Ambiga's house. My question is since when they have the power of the local authority - in this case DBKL - in offering "tapak gerai"? It's an act of stupidity "tahap gaban/dewa"!!!! What else? 2012 also marked a year when a particular MB was quoted as saying he dared to cut off his ear when he insisted that the participants of the "Hijau Walk" from Kuantan - ooops!!! now you know the MB already!!! - to Kuala Lumpur were not on foot but some of them "naik kereta & bas"... I think he rather chooses to cut of his ear than his hand/fingers so that he could continue making a deragotary and offensive gesture using his hands as what he did during a by election years ago.... Heard that his "biskut telinga" has become phenomenal on the eve of new year 2013 in Kuantan area .... I could go on and on but I want to be positive in moving forward into the year 2013... To Malaysians, please do make a change in 2013. To all my friends, Happy New Year!!!