An Instant Democracy in 10 Minutes.......

Apart from having instant noodles, normally an instant 2 minutes noodles Malaysians had been pleasantly introduced with an instant democracy ..... The prime news on 22 March 2013 were focused on the announcement by the "Courteous" cum "Internet" Minister that RTM (read as "Radio Televisyen MALAYSIA" - it has to be in capital letters as "Malaysia" means ALL OF US!!!!) would allow all political parties including the Opposition Parties to have a 10 minutes slot on air explaining their election manifesto... I bet the following comments would appear in all electronic and printed media, be it from the opposing sides of the political parties, certain academicians cum "part time lobbyists including from the small fraction of the "mentally impaired historians" in the Majlis Professor Negara (MPN)and so on: 1. Politicians from the government of the day, including the "Internet" Minister will say that the 1o\0 minutes air time slot shows that democracy is thriving and breathing healthily in Malaysia. This just shows that the government of the day is being fair to all political parties as they are being given a fair and equal treatment in airing their election manifesto. All of them would appear to be mentally hypnotised by issuing somewhat similar comments - just like their comments every time when the YAB PM had finished the yearly tabling of the Budget with a monotone standard comments: " Belanjawan tahun ini adalah belanjawan rakyat..." Another slightly different comment " Belanjawan ini adalah bukti kerajaan sentiasa memikirkan kepentingan rakyat jelata ..."; 2. The few selected academicians from the MPN will echo similar view as per No. 1 but will try their best to differentiate themselves with the politicians under No. 1 by using superfluous academic "big words" like " Ini menunjukkan iltizam kerajaan dalm memperkasakan (not that "Perkasa" yea!) serta membudayakan proses demokrasi ...." whatever that means!!! or quoting quotes from the Athens/Rome era. There might be a possibility of them comparing our latest instant product with those in Communist China or other autocratic states not realising that even in China they changed their Premier every 10 years!!!! 3. Those from opposition will surely say "What can we do in 10 minutes?" or commenting that " It is inadequate as the government of the day has 365 days minus 10 minutes in bragging about their manifesto with BR1M, TR1M, SL1M and so many 1s!!!!" 4. Not to mention the "Listen! Listen! Listen! Lady" who will of course consult the animals before issuing out her comments; and 5. Last but not least, the "great Old Man" who always wants to be different and might most probably say " Apa pun kerajaan buat ... apa nama .... pembangkang tak akan hargai. Pembangkang hanya tahu membangkang saja, dia tak tahu mentadbir negara ...." My dear Sir, that's what "pembangkang" is all about anyway and your comments/statements have come in full circle over the years .... My comment? ... Well at least it's 8 minutes longer than the "2 minutes instant noodles" and there is no such thing as an instant democracy!!! .... Till we meet again .....

Remember "Ali, Tong Seng, Ah Moi, Ramasamy and Salmah?

All of a sudden, I recalled when I was in Standard 1 way back in 1970,there was a Bahasa Melayu textbook with the main characters namely Ali, Salmah, Tong Seng, Ah Moi, Ramasamy and Kumari. I will tell you why my being so nostalgic later .... Ali and Salmah are siblings so as Tong Seng and Ah Moi as well as Ramasamy and Kumari. The texbook even had pictures of these characters ... Salamah with her long hair and the pony tails and her "baju kurung", Ali wearing a songkok while Ah Moi and Kumari wearing the good old days dark blue uniform ... In the textbook, these multi racial characters went to school together, they play together and had their "adventures" together ... There was an incident of Ramasamy climbing a tree to save a trapped cat but he ended up trapped and could not go down.His friends managed to get help and Ramasamy was saved by the "orang kampung" ..... It's a simple and ideal multi racial story for us in the primary school though I have to state here that 100% of my classmates were Malays .... Well, there's nothing wrong being an idealistic anyway. Each one of us should emulate the traits Ali, Salmah, Tong Seng, Ah Moi, Ramasamy and Kumari - they learn, play and having fun together. By the time, I finished my Form Six there were so many textbooks which I had to "digest" and I would say those textbooks made sense to me ..... The textbooks had somewhat gave me the idea of how to be at least a good and civil member of our society. Fast forward, in 2013 last week I was frowning and frowned hard I was when Tun Mahathir was reportedly as suggesting the 180 pages biography of our PM's wife to be made as a textbook in schools ..... He was quoted as saying the RM150/ (Note: RM here denotes "Ringgit Malaysia" and nothing else!!!) biography could be served as guidance for generations 100 or 200 years from now ...... Given a choice between this RM1.28 per page biography and the texbook about "Ali, Salmah, Tong Seng, Ramasamy and Kumari" ... I would definitely opted with my eyes open the latter!!!!! Have pity on our kids please .... Till we meet again ......

Light and Free Flow Posting ....

Amidst the hot news on the Sabah being intruded, the following news which appeared in the SUN 1 March 2013 edition really caught my attention ... It was reported from Lima that a leading Peruvian football club, Alianza Lima is considering the possibility of giving its players Viagra during matches played at altitude in the local championship. It was the club doctor who explained that Viagra could help improve the physical conditioning of players at altitude. The club's coach said that if result showed the male potency pill enhanced on field performance (read as playing football!!!!)then "the club would use it". The club's doctor, Dr. Blacido further explained that Viagra helped the heart pump more blood, thus allowing better oxygenisation without it falling foul of anti doping measures. it is also reported that a Brazil football club, Gremio had already use Viagra for matches played at altitude. Hmmmmm..... this is interesting!!!! This is what we termed as "multi tasking" of Viagra. The only thing there might be a day when the noble intention of improving the sport via Viagra would be abused ... Well, what say you FAM? Perhaps a good option to improve our Malaysian football world ranking, I reckon... The second news is from Jakarta ... A tragic case of a murder by a mother who drowned her 9 year old son in the bath, claiming she was worried that his "small penis" would affect his future. She was reported to have drowned her son in a bathtub filled with water then dressed him and laid him on bed before surrendering to the police. I have no comment on this Jakarta news but my heart goes to this little angel....... The third news came from thousands of kilometers from Jakarta where it was reported that a Union boss in New Mexico embezzles to pay for plastic surgery. A Ms. Elba Esther Gordillo, who is the head of Mexico's teachers' union and one of the country's most powerful union has been charged with embezzling USD$200 million to fund a lavish lifestyle of shopping spree and plastic surgery. Apart from plastic surgery and shopping spree, the 68 year old also used the "ill gotten" money for acquisition of real estate and artworks. This what we called "Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi" and if she is a teacher - she might be (if she is a fully employed union staff)or she might not be a teacher - the "perumpamaan" would be "Kalau cikgu kencing berdiri, anak murid kencing berlari" .... Till we meet again .....

Pok Nik, Al Arqam & Me ....

It's been quite a while - actually almost two decades ago - Al Arqam movement had been disbanded and declared as an illegal movement by the Government of Malaysia. The ban came at the height of the movement when its founder Allahyarham Ustaz Ashaari was said to be the most influential man in this country. Al Arqam's tentacles had spread out and reached at almost every strata of the country - the civil service, corporates & private sector even the media - with tens of thousands of followers and sympathisers. This post is not about Al Aqrqam per se ... I do not want to delve into whether Al Arqam is an "ajaran sesat" and so on as for a mere mortal like me I am not in a position to make any judgment except Allah the All Mighty... As a mere mortal, I wish to share with you my experience with Al Arqam ... The first encounter was in the late 70s when I was in Form 4 and the encounter was kinda like a very "santai" and quite humorous. It was a Friday at the "Stesen Bas Besar", Ipoh, a group of us met and planned on our "rock concert excursion" over the weekend at the Perak Stadium. It was a "double act of head banging" from the top rock/blues groups, Sweet Charity and the Blues Gang. We met at the Stadium that Saturday night and had a hell of head banging session and at one time was practically chased by the FRU as some of us tried to go near the stage at the center of the "padang" including a friend of us ... let's call him " Kid" (it's not his real name anyway)... Come Monday, we were - five of us - were "lepaking" at the "Stesen Bas Besar", Ipoh after school session still "rockingly" chattered about the rock concert but Kid was not to be seen and I guess it went on for that whole two weeks. On the third week, Monday, we nearly fell from our bench at the "Stesen Bas Besar", Ipoh on seeing a young lad wearing "jubah hijau" and clean white turban ... It was Kid indeed!!! To my astonishment, I saw a handsome young lad with a radiant face ... It could not be Kid right? It was indeed him ... My friend, Yang being the most outspoken from us said "Eh Kid!!! Ko ni kan? Last 3 weeks kita baru jerr pergi konsert Sweet Charity kan? Balik ke pangkan jalan ke?" We, including Kid ended up having a good laugh and we spent another hour or so addressing each other "Ana & Anta" at the bench before parting good bye. Kid hugged each and everyone of us at the amusement of those at the Bus Station ... That was the last time we saw Kid and that hug was the warmest and best hug I ever had .... Moving forward, it was Year '83 when I encountered with Jemaah Al Arqam ... I was at ITM Shah Alam and my dorm was at Perindu 3. I I really could not recalled how may of us were at the dorm but I do remember there was a guy from Jemaah Tabligh and the rest, about 8 of them were all from Jemaah Arqam with me as the only "non alliance" individual. I spent a solid 1 semester with these guys ... The Al Arqam group was led by a guy from Kelantan, Nik something - could not recall his real name - hence the nick name "Pok Nik" and there was a guy called as "Wak" a Johorean and the rest from Melaka, Perak and Selangor. They really took care of me well as my being the most junior at the dorm. I could still recall Pok Nik will without fail for that 1 semester - except when they went to Sungai Pencala for their gathering or "Usrah" - draped me with blanket at night when I went to bed. Pok Nik will also said these words without fail whenever he draped me with the blanket "Ana kesian tengok Adik Fauzi ni tidor tak berbaju - jauh dari kampung Ayah Mak dia". I knew because most of the time I was still not sleeping when he draped with the blanket but had to pretend to be sleeping anyway .... Pok Nik and Gang always asked me , in a polite way of course to join them for their group Usrah. Those days the ITM Jemaah Al Arqam's Usrah was normally held at one of the hostels which was located outside ITM at the vicinity of the "Bulatan ITM" Section 2, Shah Alam. I being a "Non Alliance" guy of course always politely rejected the invitation with a smile. However, I did attend a "ceramah" session held at an ITM Lecture Theater one particular night ... That evening Pok Nik and Wak approached me and told me that there would be a ceramah by the top guns from Al Arqam at the Lecture Theater. As always I just smile ... somehow or rather either out of guilt feeling for being constantly rejecting their invitation or out of curiousity, I put on my faded jeans and black T Shirt and my "selipar Jepun" I braved ny way to the Lecture Hall. Upon reaching there, I hesitated at the door because I noticed if I were to enter that Lecture Theater I would be the only one without wearing any Jubah or turban and of course the only one not wering jubah and "purdah"!!! All eyes wre focusing on me and to my surprise my Al Arqam dorm mates who were there approached me from their seats and each of them hugged me so tight and led my hand to sit beside them in the Lecture Theater... I could see the happiness and satisfaction in their faces .... After the "ceramah" we walked back togethher to Perindu 3 and Pok Nik and Gang made "Projek Haram" i.e. made tea and masak Maggi - we were not allowed to "masak" at the hostel - ... Tell you what that was the most "sedap" teh and "Maggi" I ever had in my life not to mention the hug from each of the 8 of my Al Arqam dorm mates.... I wonder where are they now ... Kid, Pok Nik, Wak and the rest. My Allah bless all of you ...

#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" .....