I Speak

Running On Twos In A Three Legged Race

2011-04-18T01:13:00.001+08:00

In a 'three-legged' race the person who runs on two feet will be the most likely winner. Everyone else in the race will have one leg tied up to another person's leg which makes running or even walking hard if not impossible. The person running on two legs does not suffer from this disadvantage since he/she has full use of all their facilities. Of course there are exceptions to this, sometimes, very rarely and I mean VERY rarely the 'three-legged' runner will win. Maybe it could be that the 'two-legged' person tripped or is simply just a really, really bad runner. Basically what I'm trying to get at here is that under normal circumstances short of divine intervention there is no way a 'three-legged' runner can win against someone running on twos. However there is a term for people who run on two legs in a three-legged race, they're known as cheaters. Because if you have an unfair advantage in a competition or the playing field is 'rigged' to favour you then that is cheating plain and simple.

So, the Sarawak State Election is over and done with. BN retains their 2/3 majority with 55 seats while the opposition ends up with 16. 12 seats to DAP, 3 PKR and 1 Independent. Taib Mahmud is still the Chief Minister and we're all waiting to see if he'll be stepping down anytime soon. There's no need to elaborate further on what happened or how as everything is in the news and the internet for everyone to see. BN supporters should be having a field day as they've managed to hold on to the state and a win always makes for a good story.

So BN wins again. Big deal, it's not as if they've never won before. It's also not the first time the opposition lost. But when BN politicians and their supporters claim their win is based on a level playing field that I cannot accept. There is no level playing field in Malaysian politics. All the fields are tipped towards BN's end. Notice that little story above about the three-legged race? Well BN are the ones running on twos. And we know what a two-legged person in a three-legged race is called right? The opposition never had a chance from the beginning. All the money poured in, the government machinery, the police, the projects, goodies, ang pows, TV, printed and online media, Distributed Denial of Service attacks, radio jamming, etc. All these were used by the BN not just in Sarawak but all the elections prior and it is a strategy that's tried and tested and they intend on using it forever. If this is not cheating then I don't know what else to call it.

Makes me wonder sometimes how our government can unabashedly for a lack of a more suitable word, cheats at every election? Could it be because they know that they can get away with it? No one will hold them accountable for it, not Taib, not the Deputy PM, much less the PM himself. They don't seem to find the idea of vote buying by any of these means as morally wrong because they always get away with it. In some countries, the people would expect their government to conduct themselves at least with some kind of dignity, to take the moral high ground so to speak. Obviously that's not the case here in Malaysia. Here the catchphrase is: Win at whatever cost, by whatever means necessary.

But with some reflection we can actually see why they get away with it so often. Perhaps the majority of Malaysians are truly a contented lot. Misinformed perhaps but contented nonetheless. We are a party to the government's gerrymandering because the majority of us keep on voting for them year in and year out. The majority of Malaysians seems to either don't know or pretends to have no idea of what the government does wrong and does not take steps to address this wrong. So the question I would like to ask is how do we break this cycle? On one hand we have a government that does not know how to play fair and on the other we have a population that is too forgiving or naive if you prefer. I can see only one solution and it's the opposition. No I'm not talking about getting everyone to vote the opposition here. As much as I prefer that to happen I'll leave that for another time.

I see the opposition as the ones with the responsibility to educate and enlighten the masses on the needs to be a more responsible citizen of this country. The BN government cannot do this, you can't cheat but at the same time lecture people on how to be more responsible. That's so wrong in so many ways. The way I see it, more than ever before, the opposition is now the moral guardian of this nation. There is no more turning back from this responsibility. Those in the opposition and those who support it must come to realise that it is their patriotic duty as Malaysians to save the rest of us from the mistakes that we are making. It is not just a simple matter of winning elections and taking over the government anymore. The mantle of the bearer of Malaysia's moral high ground now rests with the opposition. They must now work together even harder than before and set aside whatever petty differences they have in the past to bring change to this country. This is going to be a tough job for them. After all nobody said being in the opposition is a walk in the park. It never was, never has and never will.

Sarawak: Countdown to the Future!

2011-04-16T01:43:00.001+08:00

The clock is counting down. Tomorrow 16^th April 2011 is D-Day in Sarawak. Are we going to see a change or will it be same old same old once again? I've no idea at all as I am not on the ground and I can only rely on what is reported on the web. I don't bother with mainstream media as most of the time it's full of cow manure. I mean how can you claim 'un-biased reporting' when all the news is one-sided? More on that later. But as we know, perception can be misleading and reality is never always as perceived. PR and BN may or may not be calling the other's bluff. On one hand we have BN saying that they'll retain their 2/3 majority and on the other hand Anwar is saying that the opposition coalition will be able to deny them that. We'll find out which is which soon enough by the time the dust settles.

What I do know is that one side is desperate to win and there are no prizes for guessing it right. BN is feeling the heat in Sarawak and though they know they'll probably still retain the state tomorrow they have no idea by how many seats it's going to be or how many among their top guns are going to survive. Will there be major surprises served tomorrow is anyone's guess. At best I'm hoping that the opposition will be able to deny BN their 2/3 majority. At worst I hope the opposition wins enough seats to put a dent in BN's armour there. The latter will hopefully wake them up so that they'll put a stop to all the monkey business and start doing what's right for the state and its people. The people of Sarawak deserve a better deal than what they have now and hopefully enough of them will realise that when they cast their votes tomorrow.

Which bring me back to the roles the media play in this election, more precisely the mainstream media. In this modern age it's unthinkable that the media is still controlled by the ruling government. The BN government through its various coalition partners either owns, have a stake in or simply just uses its powers to control what can or cannot be communicated to the masses. It is common knowledge that in Malaysia when it comes to politics it's a one way street. Only the good things about the ruling government are mentioned and only the bad (perceived or otherwise) by the opposition are reported. Or more correctly: highlighted, sensationalised and given the widest coverage possible. We can only deduce that this is in order to paint the opposition in the worst possible light. But why is that? Is there something to hide? There's a saying that you don't actually have to see the shit to be able to smell it. For as long as I can remember, and BN has been in power for a long, long time now this has been the modus operandi of the government. How bad is the opposition really? Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan are opposition states thanks to the previous General Elections. Are these states really worst off under opposition rule as compared to when it was under BN? It's a good question. Let's make a quick comparison, look at Sarawak. It's been under BN for as long as anyone alive can remember. Taib Mahmud himself has been the CM there for the last 30 years. Can we say that things are any better there? Given the way the BN portrays itself in the news as the Rakyat's champion you'll think that by now everyone in Sarawak would be living in bungalows and driving expensive cars but that's not the case now is it? There are still a lot of poor people, there are still lots of places lacking basic infrastructures like roads/houses/electricity etc, and there are still a lot of people having to leave the state to look for jobs elsewhere. How can anyone say that Sarawak under BN is better and please don't quote me that oft mentioned phrase that Sarawak is a huge state and it takes time to bring development. 30 years under a single Chief Minister is not enough issit? Somebody's either been sleeping on the job or been busy doing something else entirely. If for example Sarawak has been intermittently governed by a string of lousy CMs or changed hands from BN to opposition over the years then maybe there would be something to debate about but it's been the same guy all along. 30 years is one hell of a long time. If you plant a sapling 30 years ago it'll be humongous by now. Yes Sarawak is huge but then again we're talking about a state with enormous natural wealth here. You got oil, gas, timber followed by palm oil plantations and not forgetting the huge tourism industry. The income from these sectors combined are not the least insignificant, it's BIG. Big enough that by itself Sarawak has no need for help from the Federal Government to develop itself. If BN is as good as they say they are then Sarawak should not be as it is now. And if you can't see this reality then you should get your eyes checked.

But none of this if at all ever makes it in the news does it? Instead we hear of how bad things are going in the opposition controlled states, how the opposition coalition can never work together, how the opposition can never run the country, bla bla bla because they lack the skills, knowledge and experience to do it plus all those other propaganda news we are fed daily. What, are these BN people saying that they're special or something? An uncommon breed of Malaysian stock that's smarter and better than the rest of us? Really, the Information Ministry should have its name changed to Propaganda Ministry. That's more fitting. But try as they might, some things are inevitable in the end. Read my lips: BN will fall eventually. It may take 10 or 20 years or even longer but they will fall in the end. Some things once started can never be held back. I'm talking about CHANGE. Anwar may have started it back in 1998 with the Reformasi Movement and all and he may have been the glue or catalyst to bring together the various major opposition parties but he is no way the reason for it to continue. Those BN people who think that by taking out Anwar will make their life easier are deluded and are totally out of touch with reality. Change has come and it's here to stay.

Late night ramblings 2.

2011-04-13T01:27:00.001+08:00

This government's stranglehold on information is ridiculous. Don't they realise it's now 2011? Not only everything you see and hear on TV and newspaper is pro-government, they even block access to web news portal. Although these Denial of Service attacks might not actually be sanctioned by the government itself but whoever is behind it sure has a lot of resource not mention time to bring down the servers hosting these pro-opposition sites.

It's interesting to note that as the Sarawak State Elections inches ever closer the more desperate the BN seems to be. If the mainstream news is anything to be believed in, you'd be excused for expecting them to be sitting on their laurels and doing nothing. But instead, the whole BN machinery is in Sarawak on an all out campaign. Something's got to give.

Could it be that BN is actually afraid? After all they're spending a whole lot of taxpayers' money on this election dishing out goodies, projects, holding 'ceramahs' and other functions and that's not even counting the 'ang paus' that are usually handed out to voters before election day to ensure they vote in the right direction. BN's that is. But Sarawak is crucial to them and I'm not talking about just a simple win. BN needs to win big in Sarawak this time. A reduction in seats for the BN could mean real trouble in the future. At worst they will hope to retain the seats that they won the last time. But things seem to be different in Sarawak now. Although their hold on the interior may still be strong it's the town areas particularly the Chinese seats that have them worried as the opposition have really made great in-roads there. And then there's also the Taib Mahmud thing with his overstaying and stories of massive wealth and land grabbing and all. I'm sure those Federal boys know that Taib is their biggest liability in this election. They've all heard about the hanky panky that goes on in Sarawak all these while and that the opposition is going to have a field day milking the issue dry. And still, after all that can't get Taib to sit this one out. Even the PM couldn't get him to do that.

Why is it that after 30 years as the Chief Minister, Taib still can't name a successor? The latest story today is that he says he'll step down 'in a few years' and he's already 'found' his replacement. That is really one hell of a shameless lie and not something that we've never heard before. Why 'in a few years'? Why not before or even right after the elections? Does he really expect people to believe that should he step down soon all hell will break loose? C'mon man, this is a civilised country. Sarawak is not going to fall apart just because you're not there. That old man plans to be there for a long time more given half a chance. And he's got his bunch of merry men to back him up.

So yeah, I'm hoping for the best in Sarawak this time around. It's about time someone show these jokers they mean business.

Late night ramblings

2011-04-12T02:13:00.001+08:00

There are undoubtedly many things that can dampen a person's mood. For instance, no 3G connectivity when you're on a holiday like what is happening to me now. I say, DiGi when are you going to upgrade your services? Putrajaya is the Nation's capital after all. And another thing, please please get some proper coverage up in Mt. Kinabalu, people need to mms their achievement pictures back home in real time you know. Well, at least I did.

Another would be watching other people enjoy doing the things that you love best but couldn't. And before your mind goes elsewhere, I was talking about motorcycle riding. I just missed those days when I'll just go out and ride just for the heck of it. The wind in my face, the road under my feet, the legions of adoring fans, no wait, that's my rock star dream. My advice is, if you have a cool ride, keep it or end up like me. Sore and it's not even physical.

The current state of affairs in the country is also another mood dampener. As if in cue with the upcoming Sarawak State Elections on April 16^th this nation has been fed daily on news of a certain sex video purportedly starred by none other than the Opposition Leader himself. Talk about the perfect timing. First was the screening at Carcosa, then it was on Youtube, after that it was all about the Omega watch. Sheesh and you'd think that we'd have more important things to worry about. And the way the MSM was going about it every day of the week, it just makes my stomach churn. Obviously nowadays parents should really think twice or trice before letting their kids watch the news. The last thing you'd want is to have to explain to your six year old what sex, prostitute, etcetera, etcetera are. And can you even imagine the impression foreigners are going to get by all this? Here we are, the supposedly moderate, progressive example of a modern Islamic nation (as our Muslim leaders are quite fond of quoting) and all we're are interested in are sex, sex and more sex.

Anyway, while we're still on the subject of the sex video, I'll have to say that I have not seen it. Nor do I want to. I was posted a link to a certain website by a friend when it came online but I chose not to watch it. Why? Because to me I felt like it would not make any difference. If it came to be, let the proper authorities decide on it. I'm not going to be a party to this porno watching club. Now you have the whole nation discussing about sex and there were talks about showing it in Parliament. The Parliament can you believe it? And the best bit was the proposal to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom (excuse the pun) of who is the actor in the video. A Royal Commission on porn, now that is a first. Malaysia definitely Boleh!

And the reason this Dato Trio is doing all this is just to prove that Anwar is not fit be a leader and as a result, neither are the opposition party. First there was the sodomy thing and now we have the sex video. Anwar is not even the PM yet and the opposition has not even taken over the government and already those in power are all out to destroy him. I mean if you look at all this from a professional point of view it's just silly. We're spending so much of our nation's resources on trying to prove he's morally guilty of something. For what?

You see this is what's wrong with this country. When the government sees the opposition as a threat instead of an alternative to the people. To them, there can be only one alternative. None. Nobody is better than them, nobody can do what they can, only they can be the people's champion and all that nonsensical rubbish. If they perceive the opposition becoming stronger it is not due to their own fault. It's always the opposition that are splitting the nation, creating discord and disharmony among the people and generally turning the people against the government. They can't see that it is the people who give the opposition the votes. The people have the right to choose whoever they wish to represent them. We are not blind and neither are we stupid. Contrary to what those in power think, we can actually tell the difference between good and bad. Nobody in their right mind votes for a lousy opposition or for that matter rejects a good government. Perhaps being in power too long did this to BN. They forgot what it's like to be the underdog.

What’s Up Datuk?

2010-06-25T19:27:00.001+08:00

Ah, it's raining heavy and I got locked out of my office again. Since I won't be able to do anything productive today I might as well update my blog.

I suppose most if not some would have heard about the recent revocation of Datukships (is that even a word?) in Malaysia. It seems that a few unfortunate persons got their titles taken back by the current Sultan of Johor. No official reason was given to date as to why but a senior palace official was quoted in the news that it is the prerogative of the Sultan to withdraw a title without giving reason. The official also went on to say titles have in the past been withdrawn before and those affected have only themselves to ask. Subsequently news came out that at least five persons were stripped of their titles. Among the more notable ones were Chua Jui Meng; former MCA Vice-President now PKR Supreme Council Member and a Syarifah Mazlina Syed Abdul Kadir the first Malaysian female solo trekker in Antarctica. Both duly returned their respective medals to the palace.

Now, although some parties may believe there's some hanky-panky going on from the palace's side especially in the case of Chua Jui Meng, nevertheless in the end the Sultan does have the right to strip the titles as much as it is his right to award them in the first place. Whether the 'right' is a right or wrong that is another matter altogether. But what interests me was the statement made by the palace official, he says the Johor titles are awarded based on very strict criteria and only those who are really and I mean REALLY deserving are awarded the titles. This strict criterion places the award on a much higher level compared to the same award from other states and quoting the official is equivalent to the British Sir awarded by the Queen. Not only that, the palace also keeps track of these awardees' conduct and should he/her do anything deemed unfavourable, would not hesitate chop off their heads. Sorry just couldn't help myself but you know what I mean.

Well, isn't that nice to hear but it also begs the question what standards or criteria have the other states been using to award titles all these while then? We've all come across a few Datuks that have been how do I put it less than deserving to say the least. To start with let's ask ourselves how does one become a Datuk in the first place. It seems that the basic criteria is that a person should be a respected member of society who has given great contribution for the betterment of society. Sounds fair enough. That should make it fairly difficult for your average guy to get one doesn't it? But then, how do we explain the hundreds or maybe thousands of Datuks out there? Could it be that Malaysia is actually filled with these amazing people? Indeed that would be great, if it were true but let's get real shall we?

How does one deem a person to be a respected member of society? A postman can be a respected member of society for without them we get no mail. How about the garbage collector guy? His hard work ensures our garbage gets collected instead of piling up and rotting in front of our house. Surely these people's job demands respect from their society do they not? They too have contributed their fair share for the betterment of society as well. Shouldn't we award them with a Datukship too?

If great contribution is then a factor then sadly most of the Datuks out there are definitely undeserving to say the least. How many have actually contributed to society in the real sense of the word? Let's take a politician for example. What exactly is a politician's contribution to society, really? Have we actually asked ourselves this before? Is being an elected representative a great contribution in itself? Contribution to what exactly? If we take UMNO for example (I love doing this) even division heads are mostly Datuks what more elected reps and ministers. How on earth you contribute to society by being an UMNO division head is beyond me. If there's any contribution it's definitely not to the public that's for sure. By the way has it ever occurred to you that the British Prime Minister is just called Mister as in Mr. David Cameron. Yes, the Prime Minister of our former colonial master has no Sir to his name. And yet in Malaysia we give out awards to politicians like candy.

And then there are the business Datuks. Tycoons with businesses running into the millions even billions. Some I agree do deserve their titles and rightly so. These are the ones who give back to the society that made them what they are now. Some build schools, hospitals, donate to the less fortunate and set up education funds etc. These are the cream of the crop, the ones that give without expecting anything in return and in most cases nobody knows about it other than themselves, god and maybe the Inland Revenue Board. But the rest? Their contributions can probably be summarised at best limited or worse dodgy. We've heard tales about businessmen buying titles. I can't really tell if there is any truth behind the story but all I can say is based on the characters of some of these Datuks I can understand how the story started. I for one know one such person. I worked for him once. Why I say this? Well, firstly maybe because it's kind of unlikely at 31 a businessman can already contribute enough to society where others spend a lifetime. Secondly and more importantly, building a shopping mall to me does not qualify as contributing to society, even if it's the largest in Borneo. And last, this guy's character is so off the mark for a Datuk that whoever awarded him the title should get himself shot!

I believe that this whole awarding title thing should be reviewed. I list below some of my suggestions:

For a start, I would suggest to the various states to stop issuing out titles be it a Datuk, Tan Sri or Tun pending a review on the current criteria.
The selection process should be reviewed as well. The people involved in the selection process should be independent of political/business ties and must be qualified enough to advise the various Sultans i.e. no more political/business appointees.
States that have no rulers should not be allowed to give out titles. I can't imagine how someone who himself is picked every five years or so as the Yang Dipertua Negeri can give out awards to people as if they're Sultans or something. The awards should be given out by the Agong instead.
Politicians be they division heads, party leaders, ministers or even the Prime Minister himself should not be awarded titles unless they have already proven themselves to be worthy prior to joining politics. A minister or Prime Minister can be considered for award only after their term has ended based solely on what they did for the country.
Likewise all government department heads including the police and the armed forces can only be awarded titles after their services have ended. If not, how can we judge what a person can do while they are still in office? Makes sense right?
Title holders who have been proven guilty in any court of law must be stripped of their titles. There must not be any two way about this. Guilty is guilty.
As in the case of Johor, there must be an appointed committee in each state to monitor the conduct of these awardees. Should any of them slip, action must be taken immediately.

I'm giving out these suggestions in the hope that only people who are really deserving are recognised as contributors to society. People who have made the country proud and those who have worked to make a difference in our lives. I have no reservations on giving out awards to national sportsman and woman, leaders of trade unions and some of the NGOs and even scientists and doctors. These people deserve the recognition for their work.

The sad thing is some states give out awards after awards to family members, cronies and friends year in and year out without thought of merit that the significance of the title becomes a joke, even laughable. Its value reduced to zero. It is high time I think to put some prestige back in these titles. After all respect is earned, not given and definitely not to be asked and bought for.

Laskar Pelangi

2010-06-06T01:02:00.001+08:00

Recently I was in Indonesia where I finally managed to get my hands on the original Indonesian version of the bestselling novel Laskar Pelangi. Needless to say I fell completely in love with the story and the characters. The way the story was written, the development of the characters as well as the overall telling of the story gives life to the novel and you read it as though you're watching a movie. This simple story of ten underprivileged children and their near-collapsed school who refuse to give in to their poverty is really inspiring. I cheered at their achievements, laughed at their antics and almost cried by the tragedy that befell them. Not surprisingly more than a few times I had to go back and re-read a particular paragraph or sentence not because I missed the plot but because it was so moving that I just had to go through it again. I strongly recommend reading the book but if you are not familiar with Bahasa Indonesia there's the English version as well as a Bahasa Malaysia version you can get your hands on. By the way, in case you didn't know Laskar Pelangi is part 1 of a 4 book series. Currently I've got both Laskar Pelangi and Sang Pemimpi. I've yet to get part 3 and 4 which are Edensor and Maryamah Karpov. My only regret was that I didn't get to know about the book earlier (it was first published back in 2005).

What a mess.

2010-01-12T04:32:00.001+08:00

My oh my what a situation we have got ourselves into this time. Churches being set on fire, and all this because of what again? Exclusive right to God’s name? Well that’s very matured indeed.

Thankfully as it turned out, for the most part we Malaysians are a sensible lot. The situation could have gone very bad very fast had it not been for the many level headed people including from the clergy pleading for patience and calm. But still when push come to shove, things may still end up ugly and it could still unless our government acts decisively instead of pussyfooting around like they did.

Setting fire to someone else’s place of worship is just plain wrong. I wish I could say for sure that it wasn’t a Muslim that did it. But unless a foreign hand is involved all clues seem to point in only one direction. Somehow the idea of a secret Christian organization setting fire to it’s own churches to create chaos sounds too far fetched, I mean c’mon man, are you for real?

Before I go any further, I need to clarify that I am all for the right of Christians to refer to God as Allah. Not only that, I am all for the right of anyone from any religion to call their god whatever they deem appropriate. Of course as long as it makes sense right?

Ever since the whole court ruling issue came out I’ve heard some really how do I put it, inappropriate statements being issued over the internet and newspapers. Even by some high level government ministers. And I say inappropriate because some of the statements made especially by ministers in the government smacks of insensitivity, even borderline seditious if not full blown.

I list below my list of favorites:

1. “Young Muslims may get confused by this and will easily be misled.” Seriously? Should I start sending my 1 year old daughter to religious classes now? You know, just in case she unknowingly gets converted to Christianity.

2. “The Hidden Agenda theory: where Christians nationwide are in cahoots to convert every last Muslim in this country.” Damn them Christians, and all these while I thought they were just being friendly.

3. “The court ruling will set a precedent and eventually we’ll have Buddhists and Hindus wanting to use Allah as well.” I particularly like this one. Now it’s really gonna be 1Malaysia for all!

4. “If we give in to their demands, they’ll climb all over us and we’ll end up as beggars in our own land.” Yawn. Not this subject again?

Then there’s the final one but I don’t care much for that whole historical usage argument of who used what first and why. These kinds of argument is like the chicken and egg story. You can argue till the cows come home and still get nowhere so why bother.

Based on the list of the above 4 statements wouldn’t you feel that it is meant to incite fear and anger? Especially among the less educated ones. And at least 2 of the statements above was actually uttered by a high ranking minister in our government. How can this minister be so callous in his statements and when churches started to catch fire, claims that neither him nor his party were responsible for it. I say Mr. Minister, a person can be responsible by either being directly involved or indirectly involved. And by virtue of your statements you are definitely responsible. What he and his government should have done was as many have said before to take charge of the situation and contain it before things get out of hand. Plus I feel that the government should have made a proper stand on the issue like that of the Pakatan Rakyat. At least they were brave enough to take a stand and I have to say I’m proud of them for that.

So is it true that Muslims are against letting Christians using the same term to refer to God? Well the answer is both yes and no. It’s true that some Muslims are uncomfortable with Christians calling their god the same as ours (even when it actually is) due to both religion’s differing concept of God. I too have to admit that I am a little uncomfortable with the idea as well but that doesn’t give me or anyone else the right to dictate what we think is best for them. Besides, I can live with a little less comfort anyway. Too much comfort weakens the mind and muddles your thoughts.

Perhaps there is some truth that Muslims in Malaysia suffer from some kind of identity crisis. While Islam is oft touted as a religion of moderation, progress and tolerance by many of its proponents, its adherents more often that not are the exact opposite of that. On one hand we have that superiority complex that Islam is ‘The Only’ valid religion but at the same time suffer from inferiority complex when we feel threatened by other religion. A fine example of this are those who claim that Muslims are at risk of being confused if Christians are allowed to use Allah.

Let me give an example to refute that claim. The early Muslims i.e. the Prophet, his wives and companions all suffered insult, harassment, torture and even death at the hands of the Quraish. They didn’t flinch from their new faith. On the contrary it made them stronger, more dedicated and more determined. As did the early Christians when persecuted by the Romans. There’s a lesson here that today’s Muslims can learn. If the early Muslims can overcome such obstacles and still keep their faith why can’t we with all our established Islamic institutions do the same? Will such a simple thing as sharing the same name for God erode our faith in Islam? And whose fault is it really if a Muslim were to convert to Christianity? Ours or theirs?

Also check out my earlier posting on the same issue at My God vs. Your God

So, what do you have to say about that?

2009-09-16T01:50:00.009+08:00

I originally intended to publish this piece to coincide with the National Day on 31^st August. But since I missed the deadline it now has to go for Malaysia Day instead. Now that I think about it, I'm glad things got delayed as I feel this article will have more relevance come Malaysia Day 16^th Sept 2009.

In April this year there was a commotion of sorts in the town of Lahad Datu, Sabah when a group of men staged a protest near the old harbor area and burned the Sabah flag. You can read the article by Daily Express here, here and here.

To quote a line from The Daily Express dated April 12, 2009:

"A Suluk man's claim that he is the rightful heir to the so-called Sulu Sultanate - and thus the most appropriate candidate to pursue the so-called claim to Sabah - is what prompted a group of 12 men to burn six Sabah flags in two places in town, here, last Saturday.

The Suluk, who is a MyKad holder, claimed he is the descendant of the so-called Sultan of Sulu and led the group, including his brother, to burn the State flags at the old harbour area near Milimewa and at the central market, near here, at 8.40am that day."

In the days that followed the flag-burning incident, there was quite an uproar with various quarters issuing statements condemning the act as treasonous and calling for the perpetrators to be swiftly arrested and charged under the Internal Security Act for threatening national security. Some even go the extra length to suggest that the huge number of illegal immigrants in Sabah means that a takeover is imminent and it is only a matter of time before Sabah is fully controlled by these people, if they aren't already.

Before we go any further, please allow me to briefly run through the history of Sabah for the benefit of those who may not know it. Sabah during the 16^th century was ruled by the Brunei Sultans who at the time were at the peak of their powers most notably under Sultan Bolkiah (1485 to 1524). However due to civil war between claimants or the Bruneian throne in 1658, parts of the then North Borneo was given to the Sulu Sultan as a gift in return for Sulu's help in quelling the rebellion. In 1878 (see the date of the deed below), the areas under the ownership of the Sultan of Sulu was leased to Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent for a sum of five thousand dollars per annum.

After WW2 when the North Borneo Chartered Company was liquidated, it transferred all its holdings to the Crown and henceforth Sabah became a Crown Colony until the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16^th September 1963 comprising of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore before the latter pulled out. And the rest as they say is history.

But this is a history that continues to haunt Sabah till this very day. Immediately after WW2 when Sabah was made a Crown Colony the British somehow decided to turn a blind eye on the lease issue and even ignored petitions made by the United States reminding them that North Borneo did not belong to the Crown and was still very much part of the Sultanate of Sulu which was now under the Philippines.

Naturally the Government of Philippine objected to this Malaysian federation as they consider Sabah as their territory. Compounding the issue further was the cession agreement in 1962 transferring all rights and ownership of the Sultanate of Sulu in North Borneo to the Philippine Government.

Do look up this article I found on Wikipedia titled Sabah Dispute. Then take a close look at the copy of the lease below which was in essence the agreement signed between the Sultan of Sulu and Von Overbeck/Alfred Dent on behalf of the North Borneo Chartered Company.

From my understanding of the agreement above, the areas mentioned as territories under the ownership of the Sultan of Sulu was never given away, it was only leased although the duration was forever and until the end of time. Moreover the agreement also states that the lease shall not be transferred to another nation, or a company of other nationality, without the consent of His Majesty's Government. His Majesty's Government here means the Sultanate of Sulu.

The word 'lease' in the agreement above has been a subject of contention between the British who prefers to consider it to mean sale whereas the Americans and the Philippine Government after them prefer to see it to mean as it is; a lease. It all comes down to how you interpret the original Malay word used in the agreement which was Pajak. Now I don't know how some people would see it but as far as I can tell, pajak means lease.

So where does that leave us then? The areas mentioned above covers almost half of Sabah on the east coast plus all the islands lying within nine miles of the coast. After WW2 the North Borneo Chartered Company transferred all its holdings to the Crown, Sabah included. But according to the lease, it had no right to do so with the lands that rightfully belong to the Sultan of Sulu. North Borneo or Sabah as it is now known was only partly owned by the company and the other part leased.

Now before anyone starts accusing me of being unpatriotic or a traitor I would suggest you take a step back and think it through. The Philippine's claim on Sabah does have a basis. That's probably why our government has been sidestepping the issue all this while and would try their best to avoid the issue from being taken to the ICJ. If the Philippines decide to press for the issue, we may be end up in a pickle of a situation here. Plus, did you also know that our government has been paying the yearly lease to the heirs of the Sulu Sultan all these while, without fail? I can't confirm the amount though as different sources claim different amount.

Of course there are other issues playing in the background as well. The first one being the lease that was supposed to last all eternity. Those who support this argument would say that as long as the terms of the contract were fulfilled the Sultan of Sulu and his successors would be obliged to keep their end of the bargain. But to those opposed to it, the argument is that by transferring their rights to the British Crown and subsequently to Malaysia, Overbeck and Dent were in a breach of contract and that would nullify the whole thing. The second issue is the current wrangling about who is the rightful heir to the Sulu Sultanate. At the moment there are at least three claimants to the throne that I know of. Two of them have their own website at www.royalsulu.com and at www.sultanatesulu.org. Feel free to browse through their respective websites. You will get a better idea about the whole issue.

The bottom line is nowadays nobody cares too much about long forgotten monarchies more so if they're no longer in any position of power, wealth or influence. But in the case of Sabah and the Sabah lease, the proverbial chink in the armor is presented that can be used or even manipulated to someone else's interest. We are after all talking about almost half the state of Sabah here. No measly sum no doubt especially if you are in a position to bargain for it as in the case of these 'Sultans'.

I wonder should it ever come to pass that Malaysia ever has to 'return' Sabah to its rightful owner, would this new master be gracious enough to allow their newly acquired subjects the liberty to decide for themselves whether they would like to remain as loyal subjects to the crown or to be self governing as in a republic. Scary thoughts there.

Whatever it is I hope that day will not come too soon. I kind of like being a Malaysian, at least for the moment. Happy 46^th National Day to all. And remember, 16^th September 1963 was the date Malaysia came into existence. Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined together to form Malaysia on that day. Yes you heard me right, Sabah and Sarawak is not one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is 2 of the 3 states that make up this great country.

Much Ado About NGOs

2009-08-18T17:45:00.006+08:00

Our very own Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was in town recently to officiate the Kudat and Kota Marudu UMNO Division Meeting on Sunday, 16^th August 2009. As usual, I couldn't care a rat's ass about what goes on in UMNO. It's always the same story. But I was interested in the news report that came after that. It was reported that during Muhyiddin's trip 170 Non Governmental Organizations from Sabah signed a memorandum against street demonstrations and urged the government (read BN) to take stern action against those responsible (read Opposition).

I think there's no point for me to get into the whole story about why people take to the streets. If you care to read I found this rather interesting article posted on Marina Mahathir's blog here. I mean you can probably pay a few hundred people to join you in a march around town but not 5000. Getting that many people to join you in your cause requires a little bit more than just talk and promise of refreshments. These people have to believe in the cause, if not why would anyone bother wasting their Sunday off marching about town and risk life and limb against our often overzealous riot police with their batons and water-cannons?

And I think there's also no point in mentioning prior to Merdeka it was UMNO that organized street demonstrations protesting the Malayan Union. And they say that street demonstrations are not in our culture. Well, maybe in Sabah it's not. We're a nice bunch people over here and we allow ourselves to be pushed around and stepped upon all the time. That's why Sabah is known as BN's fixed deposit. If shit happens in Peninsula there's always those nice, meek, loyal Sabahans to the rescue. Forget MCA, MIC, GERAKAN and all those other unimportant BN component parties, it's UMNO that matters most.

Anyway, before I digress even further let's go back to my main story. 170 NGOs. That's a whole lot of NGOs. And all these groups came down to Kudat to hand in their support letter to the Deputy Prime Minister. Wait a minute let me recall, wasn't there like a few hundred NGOs that came down for support every time our government (read again BN) decides to slam the Opposition over something? Is it me or is the trend now shifting over to Sabah as well? Something smells like fish to me.

Do you really expect me to believe that 170 NGOs suddenly developed a loathing for street protests? Or have these NGOs been keeping their silence all these while and have only now decided to make their voice heard. More pressing is the question of who these NGOs are? Who is their President, what do they stand for, how long have they been active if at all? In most probability you will find them to be either newly established or barely active organizations that have little or no meaning or have members or sponsors who are probably linked to political parties like UMNO. Somehow I don't think Persatuan Pengakap Sabah (Sabah Boy Scouts) will be among those 170, do you?

NGOs are a dime a dozen these days. It seems that anyone can set up an organization and call themselves an NGO, even if you're actually more of a Pro-Government Organization instead. Makes the whole Non-Government thing sound more of a paradox doesn't it? But hey, we're told that Malaysia's a free country right? So any Tom, Dick and Harry or rather Amat, Ah Chong and Samy can go and register their own NGOs whenever they see fit. I could even set up my own 'UMNO Diehard Ass Kisser Association of Sabah' society and qualify myself as an NGO. The Registrar of Society might object to the name though. Not because I use Ass Kisser as part of the name but because it might make other UMNO ass-kisser groups jealous. The last thing we want is a whole bunch of UMNO supporters vying for the honor to be the biggest ass-kisser in town.

Such a pity that NGOs are now being used for political mileage. But that's what you get from BN. Dramas, dramas and more dramas.

Here we go again. (PPSMI part deux.)

2009-07-09T17:30:00.002+08:00

I felt like laughing when I heard the news last night that Maths and Science subject will again be taught in Bahasa. I mentioned in my previous blog my disagreement regarding the change of teaching language for both these subjects here. But I suppose as usual ‘Big Brother’ aka the government knows best. Or so they still choose to believe.

6 years. That’s how long the last major education policy lasted. 6 years. Not a single generation of our students has finished their primary and secondary education yet and we’re already changing the policy again. 6 years and we’re still flip-flopping our way into the future. Education wise that is. There’s no need to mention the rest of our government’s policies, it’s just too depressing.

I’ve already said enough in my last blog why the policy should be continued. I think I’ll add a few more reasons not that it’ll change anything anyway.

Back in the days when my parents were in school, English was their medium. This was somewhere around the 60’s. Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia as the education medium was only introduced around mid 70’s. I suppose I can correctly assume that back then, most of our rural student’s command of English was probably much worse than it should be now or at worse the same. But it made no difference then to my parent’s whatever language was used in school. The medium could have been Martian for all they care. If that’s how you are taught in school then that’s how you learn it. There was no two way about it. School’s not a democracy, just because you’re Indian you can’t decide to be taught in Tamil or Sanskrit at school. My dad was from a kampong. They didn’t have proper English teachers to teach in kampongs back in the 50’s. Still he managed to learn to speak English properly over the years although we still laugh at his heavily Filipino-accented English (his English teacher was a Filipino lady).

Doesn’t the Honorable Education Minister realize that it’s not in what language subjects are taught that matters? We have to look at the bigger picture here. The goal of teaching these two subjects in English was because Science and Maths are in most cases in English. Look up all the terms in your kids textbooks, aren’t most if not all are Anglicanised? We can’t Malaysianise everything or else we’ll end up confusing ourselves. There still aren’t enough reference books on the two subjects that are published in Malay and new books and theories are coming out all the time. There’s no way we can keep up with the pace until we have enough Malay scientists and mathematicians who can devote enough of their time to write their own book in their own language and thus come up with their own terms and terminologies. Admit it we don’t have enough Malay academicians in those two subjects yet. As a plus point, by teaching these subjects in English our kids will have an additional avenue to practice and improve their English skills apart from their regular English subject lessons.

Eventually our kids will have to learn these subjects and more in English later on in universities or college. Why not give them a head start and teach them while they’re still in primary and secondary school when their young minds are still fresh and can absorb so much more. Is there any difference teaching them in English during primary and secondary school as compared to university and college? Are we expecting most of our students to flunk their SPM and will never make it past Form 5 and go to institutes of higher learning? That is a scary thought. If we intend for our kids to reach for the heavens why should we worry in what language they are taught in school. Think about it for a moment.

Why can’t our Education Ministry stick to their guts on this anyway? Why is it that after such a short 6 years they have to change the policy? After all the flack they got changing to English 6 years ago and explaining to everyone and everything under the sun the reasons/advantages/justifications behind their move they now go and U-turn the whole thing again. Now they’re giving a new set of reasons. Whatever happened to the previous reason then? Are you saying that the previous policy was a mistake? What kind of fools do we have running the ministry anyway? If it was a mistake then it was a costly one indeed. And it’ll be costlier now with the new policy, we have a generation of students caught in the middle of it.

It is said that the new move is because many from the rural community (read Malay) can’t keep up with the subjects because of their low command of English. These rural Malay folks are at a disadvantage compared to their more affluent city cousins who can afford to take tuitions. Question: Did anyone bother to ask those poor Chinese and Indian folks if their kids are any better off? Why is it always about the Malays? Bodoh sangat ke budak-budak Melayu ni?

Back to the main issue, rural folks will always be at a disadvantage regardless what language was taught in school. If it’s not one thing it’s another. You can’t compare a kampong school to a city school. The teacher’s are different, the student’s background are different, even the amenities are different. We can’t change that unless of course our government decides to go on an all out spending spree and bring up these rural schools up to city school levels. Even then we can’t guarantee things will improve.

Disadvantaged or not, our government 6 years ago committed themselves to teaching Science and Math in English. They should stick to their commitment until they see results. 6 years is way too soon to see results. The review should only take place after 20 years or so. Only then will we be able to see a clearer picture. So what if rural kids have poor command of English? That is not something new or surprising. Employ better teachers then, give them better incentives and more importantly make sure the teachers know what they’re teaching. We can’t have semi-standard teachers with bad English teaching Maths, Science or heaven forbid English to our kids. We never get anywhere that way.

Playing the race card

2009-06-25T03:17:00.002+08:00

There was once a time when I lived in a grey colored world. When everything and everyone was practically a shade of gray. The kids I play with, the neighbors, people who walked past our house, everyone used to be in my young eyes just gray. There was no such concept of color or race or ethnicity.

Things changed of course, I grew up and became aware of the things around me. From the things I see or read or hear. Suddenly that nice eatery where my parent’s buy Roti Canai is now known as the Kedai Keling, that sundry shop near the house is Kedai Cina and that old lady who sells vegetables at the market every weekend is now the Kadazan auntie.

My first memory of an election was way back in 1985. I was eight then. Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) headed by Pairin Kitingan defeated Parti Berjaya of Harris Salleh at the state elections. I learnt then that there’s a difference between us and the Kadazans by listening to the elder’s talk. It was also the first time that I became aware of what I am; an Orang Berunai (Bruneian). Suddenly my whole world was put into color, there are other people out there who are not of my kind. Though it would be many more years before I can actually tell the difference between races, I was already on my way to being indoctrinated to the concept of racial difference.

Ever heard the saying that everyone’s a racist? There’s a theory behind it though, like it’s some sort of built-in defense system inherited from the time when we all lived in caves and anyone who looked different was probably an enemy. While it may have its uses back in the day nowadays it’s just not cool anymore. To a certain extent, it’s acceptable to be proud of your heritage but never should it be at someone else’s expense. Yes we may all be racist but that doesn’t mean we have to walk, talk and live like one.

Malaysia has a big racial problem it seems. Big enough that the government felt compelled to introduce the Program Latihan Khidmat Negara or PLKN in 2003 for 17 year old school leavers. Among its objectives are to instill racial solidarity as well as national integration. And all these years our government has been spinning tales of a unified multicultural Malaysia when in fact things are not so rosy after all. Racial solidarity as well as national integration course for 17 year olds? The fact that we need to teach our kids to live together is already bad enough as it is. To have to send them to camp to do that is a whole ballgame altogether.

Where are we headed to as a multi-ethnic nation? What did we and our forefathers do wrong that after almost 46 years of nationhood we are still plagued with racial issues? Did May 13 not teach us how dangerous it is to allow inter-racial problems from getting out of hand? Or was that dark episode in our nation’s history been cleverly manipulated by some quarters to further their political agenda? If so, then we have not learnt the lessons of our past and those who do not learn from it are doomed to repeat the mistakes again.

Probably what is worse than inherited racism is institutionalized racism aka. State sponsored racism. The current Malaysian government is also guilty of this. While we may be able to blame May 13 as a byproduct of our colonial master’s divide and rule policy it should have had ended after that incident. Instead we still hear of the occasional clashes now and then like the one in Kg. Medan a few years back. HINDRAF’s rally recently just goes to prove how bad things are here. Do we need a CHINDRAF rally next to prove that things are really bad?

UMNO as the current dominant Malay party in Malaysia is still peddling their Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Dominance) concept around much to the chagrin of the other races. Calling the Chinese and Indians Pendatangs will not endear them to you. UMNO needs to wake up to the reality that we are all in this together. Whether you’re Malay, Chinese, Indian or dan lain-lain we are all Malaysian and as Malaysians we have an equal responsibility to ensure that the next generation will be better than the ones preceding it.

Countering racism requires education, knowledge and understanding. The powers-that-be should provide and promote these very ideals to the people they are governing. Only with education can we gain knowledge. And from knowledge comes understanding. In this I find Barisan Nasional’s (BN) supposed power sharing concept flawed. BN has over the years shifted from their initial concept of mutual cooperation to being an UMNO dominated political outfit. BN’s non-Malay component parties such as MCA, MIC, GERAKAN, etc. has seen its status in the coalition relegated to mere lackeys. Just another yes man to the UMNO warlords. And when one party dominates the others in the government it bodes ill for the rest of the country as their own views tend to override the views of others.

In furthering their Ketuanan Melayu concept, UMNO has willingly or unwillingly allowed their insidious ideas to germinate into areas outside the political realm such as the education and public sector. Take for example the Biro Tatanegara or BTN. Public sector employees who are more often than not Malays are subjected to this course where it is drilled into their heads that the Malays are the Master race of this country and the Chinese are a bunch of immigrants who are trying to take over the country and turn it into another Singapore. The element of fear is used to incite hatred towards members of another race, sanctioned by the government. The course facilitators play on the ignorance of the attendees. As mentioned, ignorance is the key word here as it is often said; ignorance is the devil’s playground. Ignorant because they do not understand the feelings of other people which is due to their lack of knowledge brought upon by lack of education.

So it’s back to education then? To teach these people and educate them. Unfortunately our schools and institutes of higher learning are no exception either. Fully residential schools and universities like UiTM caters specifically for the Malays and/or Bumiputras. Of course I may be over-simplifying the matter here. There are of course differences between the various Malay groups i.e those from Kelantan, or those of Javanese descent etc. Even among the Bumiputras there are differences as well for example Sabahan Bumiputras and Sarawakian Bumiputras. And even among those from the same state there are further differences, say between an Iban and a Melanau. But for this time let’s just sum these groups up as a collective entity of Malay speaking people.

While it may be a noble idea for some to provide education for the ‘natives’ we should also look further and broader to see the disadvantages in these racially inclusive institutions. For one, we are subjecting these students to only members of their own Malay speaking group. Their whole world revolve around people of their kind when in reality there are other people of different ethnicity living in the same land as they. By sticking to ‘their own kind’ these students will never learn to live amongst others. On top of that ideas of racial, religious or political supremacy are also encouraged among students of these institutions and it is easy to be so when there are no other race sharing the same space as you.

In maintaining these institutions we are unfortunately segregating our students and by doing so we are instilling in their minds that it is okay to be inclusive. We are not preparing them for the day they leave these places and see how the real world works and they play directly into the hands of those who will use them.

Back to the issue of racism in general, the Malays as the major political power in Malaysia needs to learn to respect and embrace the other Malaysians. While a Bangsa Malaysia will probably never come about anytime soon as ethnically, culturally and religiously we are all different we do however have one thing in common, this country of ours. Everyone needs to play their role in making this country a safer and more pleasant place to stay. It is not the sole privilege of the Malays to claim this land as theirs and only for them. Malaysia is for Malaysians whatever color they may be.

As an end note, it is sometimes said that in this age of fear and paranoia it is sometimes easier to hate than to love. But didn’t someone used to say that all you need is love? Perhaps that is just what we need after all.

Stop the hating and start participating.

Latest Update

2009-06-22T00:49:00.002+08:00

Sometimes ideas just won’t come to your head.

Tried to write about something but when I try to commit it onto paper or in this case keyboard, the words stubbornly refuse to flow. I wonder if this is what writers mean by writer’s block. In any case I am no writer and would not try to pretend to be one either. Neither am I a blogger. Somehow I have this mental picture in my head that bloggers have to be blogging all the time. Regularly. Which I apparently do not.

Whatever the case maybe be it writer/blogger block or uninspired or just plain lazy I figured rather than just leaving my blogspace un-updated I might as well just post something. Anything for that matter.

Today’s Father’s Day.

Yup, 21st June is Father’s Day. And for the first time in my life, I finally get to celebrate it. Although Jasmine’s only coming to 10 months this end of June and it’ll be a few more years before she can wish me a Happy Father’s Day it is still a wonderful revelation to me nonetheless. Me, a Dad. Who would have thunk? And Dad, if you ever get to read this…

“HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO YOU!!!”

Global Warming.

The heat’s been unbearable lately. I know El Nino is in town but this is ridiculous. Don’t have a thermometer with me but it does feel like it’s over 40 Celsius out there. Night doesn’t seem to bring much relief either. Besides, I don’t remember it being this hot last year, or the year before that. If this isn’t global warming, I don’t know what else to call it.

Wax Princess.

Gotta admit that I’m no outdoors person. Don’t get me wrong, I love the outdoors. What I mean is I am adverse to medium-heavy labor under the sun. My parent’s especially my dad loves to point that out to me whenever I have to get down and dirty so to speak. And to add salt to wound, Dad seems to be oblivious to neither sun nor heat. Be it on a hot day, rainy day, semi-clouded day or even during fasting month, if he’s got a shovel or a hoe you can bet he’s gonna stay out there till he’s done. Me no way, I’ll make a half-hearted attempt at keeping up with his pace and then slink off somewhere cooler.

Crap, I digressed. Where was I again? Ah yes, the heat. Anyway it’s been so hot lately that I think (although I’ve been told that it might just be in-my-head) the heat’s wrecking havoc with my body’s internal cooling system. I feel like I’m overheating most of the times. Before retiring to bed I have to take a long cold shower to cool off or else I’ll be tossing and turning all nite. I’ve done that just now and I’ve also popped 2 aspirins to take care of the oncoming headache. That’s another thing that I hate. Headaches. I’ve been getting them on a daily basis ever since I came back from that trip to Keningau last week. Like clockwork, by 10pm I can feel it creeping in like bad news on a Monday morning.

“Can’t buy food here la, they’re not Muslims. And my God, there are dogs everywhere!”

Last Thursday, accompanied a group of Johorian headmasters on a trip to visit a school in Keningau. By their request, we took the KK-Ranau-Tambunan-Keningau route as they wanted to see Mt. Kinabalu (doesn’t everyone). As usual there is the compulsory stop at Nabalu town. If you’ve experienced driving up there you’ll know Nabalu is the most strategic place to stop for a loo-break. Plus, the peanuts there ain’t half bad either. Yeah, so one of the headmistresses (the group leader actually) went round the stalls there looking for munchies before mentioning the above to me. I just sighed to myself. Malays… so typical sometimes. Kacang saja pun.

TGIF

Last Friday was special. And all thanks to the wonders of internet. 520.

Ditch that Celcom!

Finally took the plunge and switch my provider to Digi. Been holding it off for months partly because I didn’t have the money to pay off my outstanding bills. That’s what happens if you don’t get paid regularly. After 4 years of usage all I get in return is lots of junk sms that asks me to: ‘Type ‘ON BOGEL’ to view the steamiest acts by Malaysian artistes’. WTF??? Don’t they have some kind of control mechanism for these kind of things?

Garage Sale

A mutual acquaintance had a garage sale at her place Saturday. Came down more for moral support rather than scavenger. But I did buy a book from her though, Armored Fighting Vehicles 2004 edition. Well at least I bought something.

Books I’ve Read

Bought a book earlier last week, the first part of a trilogy apparently. The Brethren. Finished reading it in 6 days. Tells the story of a young knight-to-be by the name of William Campbell from his troubled early years in the Templar’s preceptory in England till his knighthood as a Templar knight. Lots of famous names thrown in for good measure. Edward the Black, Baybars, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin the works. I am a sucker for historically based stories.

Another book which I’ve just finished reading is I Am Muslim by Dina Zaman. What a coincidence, considering she’s somewhat associated with the Sisters In Islam (SIS) organization and their recent spat with PAS over allegations of deviationist misconduct. Excellent read although it’s more of a collection of short articles instead of an actual book.

On my blog.

I’ve started off with a few lines, stopped, rested, continued, no idea coming, rested some more. I’ll get to it one of these days. I need a muse.

Death & Taxes: The 2 constants in life.

I got till end of this month to file my income tax returns. Clock is ticking but why am I sooooo lazy to finish it…

So that pretty much sums up what I’ve been up to lately. Off to bed now.

The State of Our England

2009-06-04T00:24:00.003+08:00

Heard this joke by comedian Harith Iskander a few years back, it was about him trying to pull off a funny one while on stage, in the UK, during a show that was also telecasted to Malaysia. This particular line which he was trying to pull off which although familiar to the average Malaysian did not go down well with an aunt who saw the show. Basically during the show Harith was trying to gauge the mood of the audience by asking them in the classic Manglish 'Are you enjoy?" which to us Malaysian is the market-equivalent of 'Are you having a good time?'. Needless to say his mom later received a call by a rather distressed aunt commenting 'Your son, his England very bad yes?'

I don't mean the above to slight Harith Iskander in any way. He is a very funny man and the jokes he comes up with are simply hilarious. I also know that his 'England' is actually very good. Either that or my standards must be really low, jokes and languages included.

I've been meaning to write something about the state of our education system in Malaysia for quite sometime now. I admit I am no educationist or an expert in the field of education but as a former student as well as a current father I think I should have some say in choosing the path that our education system should be going most notably the in the government backed schools and universities.

For one, there is the issue surrounding the yo-yo game of using Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia/whatever they call it these days as compared to using English to teach certain subjects in schools. Seems that over the years, depending on who is currently the Education Minister at the time we'll have to change the language for these subjects. A few months back, again with a new Education Minister the issue of using the National Language to teach these subjects was raised again.

For your information, currently Maths and Science subjects are taught in English since the PPSMI was introduced back in 2003. The government finally realised that as important as it is to empower the national language, it should not be at the expense of neglecting the English language. Especially since English is generally the language of business, science, medicine, etc. and our students, or at least the rural Malay ones are sorely lacking the skills to communicate in this language.

As is it widely known, most students from government or government backed schools have poor command of English. The lack of good teachers coupled with the unwillingness of some students to communicate in English is some of the reasons behind it. And so, after these students finish high school and graduated from the respective universities they attend they suddenly find that unless they work in the public sector they need to be able to speak, write and communicate in English.

When it was first announced that certain subjects in school are to be taught in English I thought that although impractical and a little late, it might not be such a bad idea. Fastforward to the present, the standards of English in schools are still pretty much the same. Students from rural schools still can't speak English which brings to mind what on earth were they learning during Science and Maths classes. Perhaps some would argue that it takes time, a long time sometimes to bring about change. And that is what is worrying.

Education policies especially those that involves a drastic change in policy (teaching in English from Bahasa is a drastic move) is no small matter. Those in power should come up with policies that last a minimum of 50 years at least. Preferably longer. Once a policy is set it should not be changed with every subsequent change of ministers or the government. Any policy should be well thought out not just for the present but for a long time to come. And it should be the responsibility of the following ministers or the government to maintain that policy. We cannot afford to have different ministers or governments changing this policy because they think it is not working or is not currently popular. This kind of thinking can and have adversely affected our education system. Whether it is about ego or trying to prove you are better than your predecessor I don't know but what is definitely certain is that you do not mess around with your children's future. I do hope that the current government will not change this policy.

Broke Again

2009-05-26T02:34:00.002+08:00

Sigh, it’s been a while since I last updated by blog. I must admit that I’ve been rather lazy lately. Nothing in the internet or the news seems to interest me. Sure there’s been some nice stories on the news recently, politics of course. The latest being the Perak MB court case where the High Court favored Nizar and shortly after, the Appeals court decided that the High Court judge erred in their judgment and reinstated Zambry as the legal MB. I followed the events as they unfolded but somehow seem disinterested with the whole thing. Then there was the whole 13^th May thing, also uninspired. Wasn’t there so nothing to comment about. Also there was the Sri Lankan civil war and the demise of Prabhakaran, but not my cup of tea.

Ahh, I suppose it’s got something to do with myself being broke yet again. It’s that whole cycle of broke, not broke, broke again that’s affecting me. Sure I’m currently employed which is better than being broke and unemployed but the fact that I’m not getting paid while being employed is still rather disheartening. It’s kinda like you’re stuck at a junction unsure whether to go left or right. On one hand is the choice of looking for a new job (sigh, again?) and on the other hand is to stay, duke it out and hope for the best. You see I just joined this new company that my old boss just set up end of last year. I left my old job that pays well for a chance to do something that I liked but at the risk of a reduced pay and the possibility that things may not work out. So to cut the story short, five months down the road and I have received less than half of what I’m supposed to, my bills unpaid and the bank and phone company is looking for me, yet again. Business has been slow as most new businesses go but the promise of additional funds from the partners never materialized and that effected the day to day running of the business i.e. phone bills, rent, electricity, MY wages etc. Fortunately there have been some business coming in and that helped a bit in avoiding a total halt of operations. Unfortunately whatever is left after paying off those bills are insufficient to pay wages. My wages that is.

To tell the truth I don’t really blame my boss for not being able to pay me in full, or in time, or none altogether at times. I knew full well the risks I took when I joined the company but it’s a bit hard not to feel bad when the bank keeps calling you every other day to ‘remind’ you of your unsettled bills that are now a few months overdue. Add on the fact that I also have a wife and a daughter to take care of plus other expenses as well, it gets downright overwhelming sometimes. The last thing I need right now is a mental breakdown. If there is one thing I know about myself is that I really suck at handling stress. I don’t know how to channel negative feelings in a constructive way so I bottle it up and hope it all goes away. Most of the times it does but sometimes all that pent up frustration and anger gets the best of me and gets released at things or persons around me with terrible affect. I was reaching that point a few weeks back but fortunately I managed to bring it back in control. I’m now trying very hard from going back to that state of mind but I also know that that breaking point is just a breath away and the dam can burst anytime.

What I need is actually a permanent or even a temporary solution to my monetary woes. I can’t really recall where I heard this from but it goes something like ‘The worst thing you can do for yourself is being broke.’ And boy oh boy is that the truth or is that the truth? And never has the truth been more true as when you yourself is the one experiencing it. I’d be the first to admit that I hate the idea of having to work for money. I used to tell myself years back that I’ll never put myself in a position where I’ll be indebted to money but the sad truth is that without money everything screeches to a halt. It’s easy to say things like money is not the reason I work and so on when you have the money but once you don’t, reality sinks in real fast. We live in a money society where to live, you’ll need money. It’s like a trap where once you fall into it, it sucks you in and it’s very hard to get out.

Anyway, moving on to more cheerful things. Business seems to be picking up at work albeit slowly. It may be a few more months before it stabilizes and with it my hopes of getting paid regularly. I’m leaving for a short trip in a few days time and once back, my next plan is a small scale fish farming project which will be at the back of my house fully funded courtesy of my father-in-law. And to top it off just for additional back up, I’m going to take that Mutual Fund course that I’ve been talking about for so long but yet to do anything about. Perhaps with all the experience I’ve had by being broke so often my skin will be thick enough for me to approach people and sell them the funds. Wish me luck.

Cheers!!!

Perak’s Former Exco’s Camry To Be Auctioned Off

2009-04-21T23:45:00.004+08:00

Got this bit of news from our friendly pro Government Utusan Malaysia. You can read the full article here.

What the heck man? Just because there’s a change in the state assembly line up doesn’t mean you have to erase every shred of evidence that the previous government was ever there. Those cars are only four months old and you’re auctioning them off already? So much about cost saving measures courtesy of our Barisan Nasional government.

According to the article, the auction will be held at the Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan there starting at 9.30am till 4.00pm from the 4th till the 18th May. There will be a total of 16 cars altogether with prices starting from RM148,000 for each car.

Brings to mind the question of what cars the new BN lineup will purchase next? Camry’s will no longer be possible, and after all the complaints we’ve heard from the high maintenance Proton Perdana V6 that will not be in the picture either. European mark anyone?

At this moment, there is no ‘official’ report as yet whether or not this news is true. But if it were, well then it’s definitely good news for Pakatan Rakyat. BN just shot themselves in the foot again. I’m personally hoping they’ll go for it. What the heck, new state government, new exco lineup, new chief minister, why let the fun stop there? Pamper yourselves to a new car while you’re at it. All paid for by the Silver state of Perak.

Morally wrong for Wong to resume duties

2009-04-17T17:49:00.003+08:00

I happened to chance upon this post on Elizabeth Wong written by this dude Ashraf Abdullah . You can view the whole article here.

It is morally wrong for Elizabeth Wong to resume duties as the State Assemblywoman for Bukit Lanjan and Selangor State Exco member. It is so because, by her own admission, she allowed her boyfriend, a Muslim, to be alone with her at her home, I presume on several occasions.

As a leader, Wong should have known that being alone with her Muslim boyfriend is an offence under the Syariah Law. He was committing khalwat each time and I am she knew it, but she let it happen.

Although, as a non-Muslim she cannot be charged under the Syariah Law, she should lead by example. But what she did points to only one thing - she has no respect for laws governing Muslims in this country.

Her Muslim voters have every right to protest.

And whether this is an invasion of privacy, is debatable. It would be clear cut invasion of policy if a stalker breaks into her house and takes her pictures. But in this case, the boyfriend was a guest, he was in the house with her permission.

Can we tell for sure that he took her pictures without her permission?

All I can say is that this dude is so far off the field he's practically lost. I mean dude, seriously? From which piece of rock did this character crawl out from? I got so pissed reading his article that I can't even think of a good reply since like 10 minutes ago. I tried typing something on his comment column but nothing smart came out of my head. Looking back, I suppose that you can only give a smart reply to a smart posting. A dumb posting such as the one above probably does not merit any comment whatsoever. So, instead of wasting my time commenting on his dumb posting I decided to paste it to my blog page and let my readers decide for themselves.

The Unfairness in Democracy

2009-04-11T17:31:00.002+08:00

Got this in my thoughts as I pondered about the recently concluded by-elections.

I'd like to start with the question of what constitutes a Democracy. After looking up Wikipedia, my all time favorite site for reference I found out that there are actually many forms of democracy out there. There's Representative Democracy, Parliamentary Democracy, Liberal Democracy, Constitutional Democracy, Direct Democracy, Socialist Democracy and even an Anarchist Democracy among others. Should have used the Ctrl-C & Ctrl-V to copy and paste all that Democracy-s.

Basically my understanding of a Democracy is that of universal suffrage which I quote: "Granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of race, gender or property ownership." In other words, we get to vote who we want to lead our government. Here in Malaysia we follow the Westminster system based on the UK Parliament in which we have the head of state (Agong), Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition. But I don't plan on going into the details here as that is not what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is the process of election itself whereby we have on one hand a group of people who vote for one person for instance and another group of people who vote for another person. In any election process there will seldom be a situation where the split is right down the middle aka indecisive split. Thereby the group that has more people in it forms the majority and will gain the upper hand in an election hence a win. Here in Malaysia we have grown used to hearing our politician's claim of 'The people have spoken unanimously' or 'The people have given us the mandate' and all that after an election win. And I'm not just talking about government politicians here; opposition politicians are also fond of using these 'The people' talk as if everyone who voted had chosen them and here lies the problem.

Since the by-elections are just over and still fresh in mind plus the fact that I am always interested in the political scene in Malaysia, I will take the election results as an argument point. In Bukit Gantang recently, voter's turnout was roughly 40,993 people. Of that number 19,071 went to UMNO (BN), 21,860 went to PAS and the balance 62 went to the independent candidate.

In Bukit Selambau, turnout was around 24,687 people. MIC (BN) got 10,229, PKR 12,632 and the rest of the votes were split among the various independent candidates.

In Sarawak, Batang Ai's turnout was 6,019. PRS (BN) got 3,907 votes while PKR managed 2,053 votes. We all know by now that BN lost both Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang but retained Batang Ai.

Now in the Bukit Gantang by-elections, PAS's aim was to get a referendum of sorts that 'The People' (there's that word again) were against the BN takeover in Perak. PAS claims that should they win, it would be proof that the people of Perak were against the takeover. I'm repeating myself aren't I? To cut the story short, PAS did win. With a majority of 2,789 votes (refer above), an increased majority compared to the previous election results. Bravo and all that they say but is it really a referendum? Did the people really spoke out? There were 40,993 people who went out and voted that April 7^th and PAS only got 21,860 of it. That's just slightly above 53 percent. What about the rest of the 47 percent? Obviously those people didn't think much of PAS's referendum. Of course the 47 percent losers don't count as much after you've already won. You can shrug them off as diehard BN supporters or bought over by BN's money spending tactics or just uninformed village folks who don't know any better. Basically we're saying that if you lose, you lose your relevance as well. Your views don't matter. A majority of one is still a majority in a democracy. That actually sucks. 53 percent does not equal 100 percent. You can't claim the 'People' spoke if only 53 percent of them voted for you. The balance 19,071 voted against you! That's a whole lot of people to disagree with. If it were 2 or 50 or even 100 people then it would probably not have been so bad but 19,071?

The same trend can be seen in Bukit Selambau and Batang Ai as well. No one won big and no one lost big either (contrary to what we are told). And if we look back to the previous general elections the trend is pretty much the same. It is so seldom that we see a clean sweep nowadays and even if it did happen we'd be forgiven to think that something is wrong somewhere.

Probably to the optimists that is just proof that democracy is alive and kicking in Malaysia. At least we all get to vote don't we? And why should I be complaining, Pakatan Rakyat won 2 out of 3 elections didn't they? That is very good news already.

Perhaps it's because I subscribe so much to what the Opposition has been peddling i.e. good governance, fairness to all, weeding out corruption etc. that I find it hard to swallow that there are still a lot of people out there who aren't buying it and they view Pakatan Rakyat with the same suspicious eyes I view the government.

And a round of applause to the winners!!!

2009-04-08T01:12:00.002+08:00

The results of the just concluded 3 by-elections is out. 2 Bukits; Selambau in Kedah and Gantang in Perak remain in Pakatan’s hands while BN retains Batang Ai in Sarawak.

I am well pleased with the results. Although a win in Sarawak would have been sweeter but you can’t win them all can you? So in the the end it’s back to the status quo. Bukit Selambau to Keadilan, Bukit Gantang to PAS and Batang Ai to BN.

Makes me wonder what’s the point of having the by-elections anyway? If we could see the future we might as well forget about all this and just leave things the way they were before. What a waste of money and time. Well true but not quite. To a certain extent, the elections serve as a testing ground for our newly installed 6th Prime Minister and to a lesser degree the return of our former Prime Minister back into the fold of UMNO after an almost one year hiatus. A 3-0 knockout would be a good indication that both of them have the support of the Rakyat especially with Tun Mahathir joining the fray at the last moment to lend weight to the BN election machinery. With the results now out I wonder how it will affect their relationship. I’m sure by tomorrow if now right now there will be some finger pointing in BN as to who’s to be blamed for the loss. After all, we have to remember that after Tun Mahathir resigned, Tun Abdullah Badawi went on to helm BN in their biggest electoral win in history. Something that never happened while Mahathir was in office. Some of Najib’s supporters are bound to blame it on the ‘Mahathir factor’ and vice versa. Ahh, the thought of that just brightens my day. And not forgetting also, poor, poor Samy is going to get a big hit as well. Seems that MIC’s fortunes have not changed with him recently re-elected as President for the 11th term. The loss of Bukit Selambau will only add misery to his already embattled public image. Time to step back and resign old boy! You days in the sun had come and gone. Should have quit while you’re ahead.

Anyway, the full impact of the by-elections can only be seen in the coming weeks after the dust settles and the spin doctors finish their work. At the moment I can only comment that the trend in West Malaysia still favors Pakatan Rakyat whereas it’s still BN across the pond. Can’t wait for the next General Elections….

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-28T22:38:00.003+08:00

Earth Hour 2009 Malaysia is done. It's now up to the next time zone countries to continue carrying the torch all the way till it's done all over the world. In the next less than 24 hours we shall find out how successful it is this year.

For my part, I did what I can although it is not much. Did some light campaigning on Facebook and hope that it got the message across. Turned off all our lights at home at 8.30pm sharp earlier but we left the fan and the TV on though. The fan; coz it's waaay too humid here in KK and the TV; coz I was hoping there'll be some good environmental programs on Discovery Channel or NatGeo. Unfortunately at 9.00pm I had to cave in to popular requests from my sisters-in-laws to switch channel to Astro Ria because that is when Akedemi Fantasia Concert starts and as you may already know, the earth takes second place to an AF fan. But AF aside, we all agreed that the lights will and shall stay off till 9.30pm and it did.

As of this moment I still have no idea how wide is Earth Hour celebrated in Sabah. A few of my neighbours did have their lights out but I can't say for sure if it's for Earth Hour or some other reasons. It has been highlighted in the local papers and a few establishment did commit themselves to it. At the very least we can hope that this will open up more eyes for Earth Hour 2010 next year.

I would like to make a pledge for next year. For Earth Hour 2010, I would like to do more than just post messages on Facebook and sit at home with the lights out. Next year I plan to actively participate by going to the ground. I will print flyers, sell T-Shirts, set up booths and I will get as many friends and relatives to join in if nobody's planning on doing the same thing. I was actually planning on doing that this year but alas it did not materialise. Well, here's hoping for a better 2010...

As an afterthought, the idea behind all this is all well and good. To send a strong message to goverments all over the world about our overdependance on non-renewable energy and our wasteful habits on using them. But I hope that Earth Hour will not end up as just another over-hyped show and the message behind it gets lost along the way. I'd really hate it if it became another excuse to throw a party. If you asked me, I'd say the best way to celebrate Earth Hour is to stay at home, turn off the lights and enjoy an hour of darkness with your loved ones. That way you'd save on electricity, fuel and money. What better way of doing your part for Mother Earth and yourself.

Peace Out!

Something to think about.

2009-03-17T23:08:00.003+08:00

Below is the lyrics for Bob Marley’s You Could Be Loved. Just something to think about.

Could you be loved and be loved?
Don’t let them fool ya,
Or even try to school ya! oh, no!
We’ve got a mind of our own,
So go to hell if what you’re thinking is not right!
Love would never leave us alone,
I am the darkness that must come out to light.
Could you be loved and be loved?
Could you be loved, wo now! - and be loved?
The road of life is rocky and you may stumble too,
So while you point your fingers someone else is judging you
Love your brother man!
Don’t let them change ya, oh! -
Or even rearrange ya! oh, no!
We’ve got a life to live.
They say: only - only -
Only the fittest of the fittest shall survive -
Stay alive! eh!
Could you be loved and be loved?
Could you be loved, wo now! - and be loved?
You ain’t gonna miss your water until your well runs dry;
No matter how you treat him, the man will never be satisfied.
Say something!
Say something! say something!

Housebreaker

2009-03-15T13:04:00.002+08:00

My in-law’s house got broken into last night.

Yesterday, 14th March 2009 was my mom-in-law’s 46th birthday. In order to make her birthday more memorable, we brought her out to have a family gathering cum dinner at a nearby mall. We got ready at the house, packed all the cameras and video recorders and left at about 7.00pm.

Dinner was simple yet wonderful. We sang Happy Birthday, cut the birthday cake, took lots of pictures and videos and ended our evening with a stop at the ice cream parlor before going back home.

As there were 9 of us, we had taken 2 cars. One is driven by my father-in-law and they left for home first. The other was driven by myself. I got there less than 5 minutes after them and as soon as I alighted from the car I could hear my mom-in-law wailing from inside the house. I couldn’t make out exactly what she was crying about but I did manage to make out one word…PENCURI.

That was at about 9.30pm. We have been out of the house for only 2 and a half hours or less. The thieves had climbed the back gate, disabled the backlight and pried open the window grill with a crowbar. Total damage done: almost all of my mom-in-law’s jewelries, 2 cameras, 3 watches, a mobile phone, 6 grand worth of cash, a few phone chargers and a pair of replica Samurai swords. Don’t ask me why they took the swords as well. Someone’s probably feeling a little Ninja-ish with all that sneaking and breaking in.

Anyway, my in-laws are naturally traumatized. This is the first time they experience a break-in. As for me, last night is my fourth break-in so I am somewhat less affected by the shock. Nevertheless it still sucks when the sanctity of your own home is violated by strangers. Our home is still our last refuge from the dangers that the outside world pose. The phrase ‘A man’s home is his castle’ is an apt reference to this and very true indeed. With this break-in, the safety and security that my in-laws used to have in their own home is now forever shattered thanks to these opportunistic burglars. My father in-law will now have to re-install the grills and get himself an alarm system. And for the next few weeks or months, depending on the severity of their shock will be always on the lookout for any strange looking persons walking around the neighborhood.

Having been a person who’s experienced in these sort of things before I can’t but agree more to imposing the ‘Hudud’ law of cutting off the limbs of thieves and burglars. At the very least I can rest assure that there will be one less limbless person to worry about. If you don’t have hands it’s definitely going to be a whole lot more difficult to climb walls now wouldn’t it?

My God vs. Your God

2009-03-02T21:07:00.001+08:00

Article quoted from Utusan Malaysia 2 February 2009:

“KUALA LUMPUR 1 Feb. – Tindakan akhbar Herald Catholic yang menggunakan perkataan Allah dalam edisi terbitan bahasa Melayunya boleh mencetuskan krisis agama paling buruk di negara ini.

Justeru pihak akhbar berkenaan serta seorang menteri bukan Islam digesa lebih menghormati sensitiviti umat Islam dengan menghentikan perbuatan mereka serta-merta iaitu sebelum kesabaran umat Islam di negara ini tercabar.

Pensyarah Jabatan Fiqh dan Usul di Universiti Antarabangsa Islam Malaysia (UIAM), Prof. Datuk Paduka Dr. Mahmood Zuhdi Abdul Majid berkata, semua pihak harus sedar bahawa isu yang diperjuangkan oleh akhbar tersebut merupakan satu perkara amat sensitif dan umat Islam sedia bangkit mempertahankan kesucian Islam sekiranya keadaan terdesak.

‘‘Hasil penelitian saya, akhbar Herald Catholic sengaja provokasi masyarakat Islam Melayu kita dengan menyentuh perkara paling sensitif. Ia diburukkan lagi dengan tindakan seorang menteri yang tidak menjaga sensitiviti ini.

‘‘Kita sanggup bangkit mempertahankan hak ini dan Allah sendiri mewajibkan kita berjuang sekiranya kesucian Islam dicemari. Jangan sentuh semangat jihad kami,’’ katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini hari ini.

Beliau mengulas peringatan dan amaran keras Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yang ditujukan kepada pemimpin tertentu bukan Islam yang terus menimbulkan isu menyentuh kesucian Islam di negara ini.

Sambil merujuk kepada isu akhbar mingguan Herald Catholic yang mencetuskan kemarahan masyarakat Islam kerana menggunakan perkataan Allah dalam edisi terbitan bahasa Melayunya, Ahmad Zahid menegaskan bahawa perkara itu sepatutnya tidak timbul sekiranya semua pihak prihatin dengan kedudukan Islam sebagai agama rasmi negara.

Pada 24 Januari lalu, Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok merayu Kementerian Dalam Negeri membenarkan Herald Catholic menggunakan tulisan Allah dalam edisi terbitan bahasa Melayu sehingga mahkamah membuat keputusan.”

I have to say that I felt very, very embarrassed reading this article and I would like to apologize on behalf of these dumb idiots. Is it a wonder why non-Muslims think of us as terrorists and religious fanatics when they read articles such as this in the daily paper?

Basically the issue surrounding this article is about a Catholic newsletter printed in Malay that uses the word Allah in reference to God. In Muslim Malay dominated Malaysia, it is illegal for other religious followers to refer to God as Allah. Allah as God can only be used by Muslims. All kinds of reasons were given to justify why only Muslims can use the word Allah. I’ll quote a few of them.

1. Allah is the name of God in Arabic (Islam)

2. Christians refer to their God as Lord, Tuhan, God or Father. Not Allah

3. Muslims have always referred to their God as Allah.

4. Christian missionaries will use this as a trick to convert Muslims to their religion

5. Allah in Arabic means God, Arabs are Muslims. Local Christians are not Arabs so there are no reasons for them to use the word. Hence reason number 4 above

Muslims in Malaysia are a paranoid lot aren’t they? We live in the fear of being converted to Christianity at the slightest suggestion. Only we can refer to God as Allah, no one else. If Christians wants to start calling their God Allah as well then they’re asking for trouble. As the Lecturer in the above article mentioned: ‘The Herald and the said mentioned Minister is strongly urged to be more sensitive to the Muslim community’s feeling as their patience is now tested to the limits.’ Also mentioned was: ‘We will rise to defend this right as Allah Himself commands us to fight if the sanctity of Islam is challenged. Don’t test our Jihad spirits!’

My oh my, is this country being run by turban wearing, scimitar wielding religious nuts? Jihad? Here in Malaysia? Are you kidding? And what would this Jihad be then? Start killing Christians? Convert or we’ll send you to hell?

Before I go any further, let me go back a bit to the five reasons given above.

Reason No.1 ‘ALLAH IS THE NAME OF GOD IN ARABIC (ISLAM)

Well it is true that the Arabs refer to God as Allah. Allah means God in their language. And it is also true that most Arabs today are Muslims. However, not all Arabs are Muslims and Arabs have not always been Muslims. Arabs in Mecca and the surrounding areas were idolaters before the coming of Islam. They worship many different gods as minor deities but there was a greater god known as Allah. Therefore it has not always been about Islam.

Reason No.2 ‘CHRISTIANS DO NOT REFER TO THEIR GOD AS ALLAH’

This is incorrect. If you are an Arab Christian and the only language you speak is Arabic, wouldn’t it be logical for you to call God Allah? After all, it is you own mother tongue right?

Reason No.3 ‘MUSLIMS CALL THEIR GOD ALLAH’

The Koran is read in Arabic regardless of what race the reader belongs to. Allah is God in the Koran. Since all Muslims read the Koran in Arabic so we call God according to the Koran as well.

Reason No.4 ‘A TRICK TO CONVERT MUSLIMS’

If you are a Christian missionary, what would your job be? If you’re a Muslim missionary, what would your job be? See any difference? I don’t.

Reason No.5 ‘LOCAL CHRISTIANS AREN’T ARABS, SO WHY USE AN ARABIC TERM?’

Well, I don’t actually have any idea on that. Maybe they like the sound of it. Sounds more specialized, more personal when you have a name to call God with instead of just God or Lord.

Anyway, God does not belong to any of us. The same goes for His name be it Allah or Yahweh. Just because in Islam we call God Allah doesn’t necessarily mean only Muslims are allowed to use it. It belittles God’s greatness to limit the use of His name to just his followers as if only Muslim are created by Him. If this was the case then who created the other peoples then, aliens?

Were we not taught that in Islam the God we serve is the same God that Jesus, Moses and Abraham worshipped? Wouldn’t that mean that the Christian and Jewish God is also our God? What issue is there if Christians want to call God Allah? It’s still the same God. It’s not as if the Christian God is any different from the Muslim God. It’s not a matter of their God or our God. It’s the same God for God’s sake!

It may be true that there are theological differences between Islam and Christianity. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God whereas in Islam we believe that God neither begets nor is He begotten. It all depends which side you’re on. But it seems that as Muslims, we’re brainwashed to think that somehow our God is a totally different entity altogether. It’s like saying the Christian God is a fake God. That’s wrong man. If the Christian God is a fake, then our God is a fake too. To be a good Muslim, we have to believe that the God who spoke to Jesus is the same God that spoke to our Prophet Muhammad. Islam is not a religion that came out of nowhere. Our God didn’t just pop out of thin air. He was there since the beginning. The same God that kicked Adam and Eve out from Paradise. The same God that drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea.

Personally I would see it as a compliment to Islam if Christians were to use the same name for God as us. That would make it so much easier for Muslim missionaries to do their job wouldn’t it? They can just go to any Christian and say ‘Look here, in your church documents it is stated that God’s name is Allah. Here’s a Koran look, same name.’ With something like that for ammo, how could you not get converts? It’s going to be like taking candy from a child.

But instead of seeing it as an advantage, we Muslims go on the defense. Now it’s Christians who are trying to convert Muslims and it must be put to a stop lest all of us are at threat of being converted. Is our faith in Islam so shallow we’re that easily converted? What defines a person’s religion, faith right? Your faith is your belief. If you don’t have faith in your religion then perhaps you need to look elsewhere. There is no use for you to have an Islamic sounding name if you don’t have faith in the religion. Our faith is not defined by our names or what we wear; it’s what you believe in. It’s not the Christian Missionary’s fault if you get converted to Christianity. You yourself don’t believe in your own religion, that why. Those people in the article above are frankly barking up the wrong tree. They’re totally missing the point here.

The sad case is that the majority of Muslims don’t really know much about their religion. It is either no one ever taught them or they themselves never took the opportunity to learn more about it. Most Muslims take it for granted that they are Muslim because they are born as one. They pray because they have to, fast because they have to and do all the things a good Muslim are supposed to do because they have to. It never crossed their minds what or why they are supposed to do all these things. This is probably one of the reasons why we blindly swallow whatever is shoved down our throats.

Is there something really wrong for Christians to use Allah in reference to God? In the bigger scheme of things I don’t think so. Our government may be able to enact laws to stops Malaysian Christians from using the word Allah and probably send them to jail for doing so but that is about as far as it goes. In the end what the government is doing will only make Muslims in Malaysia look like a bunch of fundamentalist who have no care for other religions. Who are we to impose our religious views onto others anyway?

More Petroleum Royalty Please

2009-03-02T00:44:00.000+08:00

Well recently I happened to have a conversation with my wife regarding the development level in Sabah. This was during our recent trip over in Penang while I was driving to Batu Feringghi to get us some pirated DVDs. We were talking about the rise of so many luxury condominiums in Penang and how it came to be that Penang with virtually no natural resource of its own became one of the highest developed states in Malaysia whereas Sabah with its abundance of God given resource is currently the poorest state with the highest percentage of hardcore poor.

I suppose it all came down to planning I guess. The ‘Powers That Be’ in Penang knew that they did not have much resource to play around with to generate income for their state. Therefore it was imperative to their survival to come up with other means to generate income. They attracted foreign investors to set up manufacturing plants there and gave them attractive incentives so that they stay put. These plants and factories generate income for the state as well as provide jobs for the populace.

It’s a bit of a disappointment actually that Sabah which used to be one of the richest state in the whole of Malaysia is now the poorest. We have timber (had actually), agriculture sector, copper mine as well as oil and gas. Minus the timber industry which is now in its twilights and the copper mine which went bust, Sabah is still the country’s largest producer of Palm Oil as well as one of the few states in Malaysia that has access to petroleum and natural gas. Add in the income generated from the tourism sector, from the outside it looks as if Sabah has all it takes to be a Malaysian economic powerhouse. Unfortunately it is currently the opposite. No doubt that our economic situation is now much better compared to say 5 or 10 years ago but the fact remains that we have fallen so far behind in terms of development compared to states like Selangor, Johor and Penang.

Sabah and Sabahans have been on the losing end of bad decision making as well as planning for almost as long as we’ve been in the Federation. We’ve had leaders who were corrupted to the core, state governments who care more about their own survival than development as well as political masters from KL who take everything and then some. We were robbed of our own wealth and then left in the gutter. Every year, scores of Sabahans still leave the state to look for jobs elsewhere. There is still not enough jobs available here to stem the outflow. And where jobs are available, the pay is so low that in some cases it doesn’t even pay to stay.

Overall Sabahans are still poor. Our per capita income is lower compared to West Malaysia because we earn less. The thousands of acres of Palm Oil estates here doesn’t translate into real income because they are mostly owned by big corporations not based in Sabah. Their profits mostly go to their shareholders elsewhere and to make as much profit as possible they do not hire locals because foreign labor is cheaper. The tourism sector is doing well to a certain degree but it still does not provide a wide enough coverage of employment. The construction industry is still powered mostly by foreign labor. What does this leave us then?

Our state is still underdeveloped and lagging behind in terms of education and job opportunity. We need more income to fuel development in this state. With more money we can build more schools to better educate our children, better roads so we can get our produce from one place to another faster, more houses so that our people won’t need to live in dilapidated homes and create more jobs to raise our standard of living. Sabah needs to be self sustaining economically and rely less if not at all for federal grants and loans. Money from the federal government has to be divided among the various states and is generally insufficient. Sabah needs more money for itself to grow.

Fortunately we have that option. Unfortunately we’re now receiving only 5% from the revenue of that resource and it is petroleum. The other 95% goes to federal and I think that it is a little unfair. Petroleum from Sabah is and should remain state property. After all, what is produced by the state is it’s own is it not? Let me give an example, if you work and get paid RM1000 a month would you give away RM950 (95%) from your pay to someone else and live off the whole month on that balance RM50? Every month for the rest of your life? Don’t you think that’s a little too much to give away? We are literally giving away OUR money to the federal government in return for scraps. Charity giving is for the rich and we are not rich enough to give away 95% of our state income away. We need that money for ourselves.

Sabahans need to open their eyes and see that we are being marginalized. Sabah will never be on par with KL or Selangor if we remain as we are. It’s a simple matter of geography. Sabah is too far away from KL for the federal government to develop. Yes, they will still give us money and will still allocate funding for development but it will not be enough. Yes Sabah is developing, compared to 10 years ago a lot has changed here but then again a lot has changed in Kedah, Pahang, Sarawak and other states as well. We need that extra boost and it can only come from oil. We have the resource but we’re not fully utilizing its benefits or rather we aren’t allowed it’s benefit. We need to renegotiate the royalty we receive. The argument given that we can’t negotiate the arrangement is pure rubbish. The resource is ours. We set the conditions for its exploitation not the other way around. Our state leaders know this and so does federal. If we push hard enough, federal will have no choice but to relent to our demands. But it looks like our current crop of leaders aren’t too keen on doing that. They’re happy enough with the scraps given and they want us to do the same as well. It seems to me that they are more interested in staying in the good graces of their KL masters rather than to us the people of Sabah and I wonder why. Perhaps we should put a stop to this kowtowing business once and for all and start putting people who are genuinely interested in our needs into power. Next general election perhaps?

To be nice, we can probably settle for 50% royalty instead. After all, by doing so we can help the other states in Malaysia who need money as well. We can be gracious with the balance. 50% royalty from the revenue will definitely go a long way to raise our standard of living provided of course that it doesn’t get squandered along the way by our politicians. But that is another issue altogether.

The Battle For Perak: Round 2

2009-02-07T00:29:00.002+08:00

So it’s final then. After all the wrangling and haggling and bribery, BN has finally secured its ‘Victory’ in the state of Perak Darul Ridzuan. The mainstream media or MSM have been in frenzy especially the pro-BN ones like RTM, TV3 and all the UMNO owned newspapers. If you caught the 8pm TV3 new tonight you would know what I’m talking about.

Yes, BN has managed to snatch Perak from the clutches of Pakatan Rakyat’s coalition of DAP, PAS and PKR. Just look at the smug face of Najib The Conqueror. He’s so proud now he’s in danger of blowing himself up. However it’s still not smooth sailing for BN yet. Ex-Chief Minister Nizar Jamaluddin is still adamant about not relinquishing his post and from my reading of today’s paper, he’s willing to be arrested for going against the wishes of the Sultan of Perak who has not granted his request to dissolve the State Assembly to make way for a fresh poll.

If you’re the type who follows Malaysian politics (don’t we all), then you would probably know all the going-on that’s been happening in Perak this past week or two. Two PKR and one DAP rep going MIA then re-appeared before jumping ship to BN. An UMNO man joining PKR then within weeks made an about turn and re-joined UMNO. The last General Election couldn’t be more exciting than this. This round has more surprises and suspense than a Hollywood summer blockbuster.

Anwar sure got a slap in the face over this no doubt. After all the hoo-hahs about BN Parliamentarian jumping over to Pakatan and wresting the country from BN the opposite happened. The opposition alliance now controls only four states instead of five. All that euphoria from the last general election seems to have disappeared. The question now, will other states follow suit? Will other Pakatan reps from other states jump ship too. Kedah is another slim majority state. Will BN attempt another coup d’état there as well? It’s too early to tell now but in Malaysian politics anything can happen as what we’re witnessing in Perak now.

Nevertheless, Perak has fallen. At the end of the day, regardless of whatever Pakatan and its supporters do or think (myself included) the fact of the matter is that BN now controls the majority seat in the Perak State Assembly. The new Menteri Besar has already been sworn-in. By tomorrow the BN machinery will be in full swing running the show. For good or for worse they are here to stay. At least till the next general elections.

I for one feel that the loss of Perak sucks. To me the last general election was a turning point in Malaysian history. After so long, the opposition finally manage to break BN’s 2/3 majority in Parliament. No longer can they mess around with our Constitution and laws at will. Finally we have a say in what the Government can and can’t do. Not only BN lost the majority in Parliament, five states including the two richest states in Malaysia fell to the Opposition Alliance. In the weeks that followed the General Election, opposition supporters were actually toying with the idea that maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to pull it off the next round.
Then suddenly, Perak happened. The Pakatan chief’s probably sensed that something was afoot when three of their reps went missing and were incommunicado. There was already talk about BN feelers being sent out to buy over Pakatan reps. The fact that the two PKR reps are under investigation over sex-related bribery scandal means they’re ripe pickings for BN. Honestly I wasn’t expecting a DAP rep to switch sides. PKR I can believe. Most of their people are former UMNO members anyway. Two sides of the same coin you can say. I wouldn’t be all too surprised to hear their case will later be ‘magically’ dropped due to something like lack of evidence or something. After all if they were to lose their case and be convicted, chances are they’ll have to vacate their seats and a by-election will have to be called. Judging from the way Pakatan has not lost any seats so far after the last election, it won’t be in BN’s best interest for the two to lose their seats now wouldn’t it? Kinda makes the whole ‘bought-over’ theory seem more likely doesn’t it?

I can understand Pakatan’s reluctance to hand over the state to BN. Pakatan didn’t lose, their reps jumped ship. Pakatan won the popular vote albeit a slim one. BN’s win is not by popular vote. They didn’t get the Rakyat’s mandate to rule Perak. They got three frogs to play jump and another frog to re-jump. That’s how they got Perak. But we are a country of law and our law states that if one party gains a majority over the other in the State Assembly then that party shall rule. Of course I’m just summarizing here. The actual rule is much more complicated but that pretty much sums the whole thing up. BN now commands the majority in Perak’s State Assembly. How they did it is another matter.

I would prefer it if Pakatan call it a day in Perak. They’ve done what they could as best they can and hopefully it will be remembered by the voters come next election. There is no shame in losing. Pakatan won the elections. The people of Perak voted them to power in the last elections and they can do it again. BN’s takeover in Perak is only a temporary setback that can be addressed at a later date. Lets not make too much of a commotion over the loss. We’ve still got four states to run and take care of. As it is now those bastards in the government and the mainstream media are going all out to discredit and sow dissatisfaction within the ranks of the opposition. Lets cut our losses and plough on shall we? Let’s not drag the Perak royalty in this mess as well. I’m sure the Sultan isn’t all too pleased with what’s happening as well but it was expected that His Royal Highness will not be very likely to agree to a fresh poll just ten months after the last election, regardless of the political climate. The time of reckoning shall come for BN, all in good time. We’ve waited before, we can wait again.

Finally, as the saying goes every cloud has a silver lining. When all seems dark and gloomy, something good will sure to come out. In this case, we found out that there are within Pakatan’s ranks people who are insincere and can be compromised. Now would be the best time for PKR, DAP and PAS to look inwards and find them before they cause more damage later.

OF PORSCHES AND POVERTY

2009-01-20T23:57:00.006+08:00

I was driving on my way to work this morning with my wife when our little car got overtaken by this huge, dark blue, very expensive Porsche Cayenne S driven by a 40-ish looking lady wearing a headscarf. After reaching the office, I duly checked the internet and found out the price to be a whopping RM800,000!

Whoa! That’s a lot of money for a car. Hold on a minute. Let me do some quick calculations here. If my monthly pay is RM2000 and I don’t spend it on anything at all including food, drinks and all those other unimportant things in life, I should be able to buy that car in about 34 years time. Not too bad at first glance but then I hit a snag in my plan. I’m 32 this year, plus 34 years I’ll be 66. I’m not going to be employable after 56 years old. That sucks! Now I have to recalculate the whole thing again.

RM800,000. That’s a whole lot of zeros. If I had that kind of money with me imagine what I can do with it. Man, that would easily fetch me at least three decent sized houses in Kota Kinabalu. Or two decent houses and a very nice car. Or even one house, a nice car and extra cash to cruise around the world with the wife and kid. That is a lot of money. It’s a lot more when it’s spent on just one car. I’m talking MTV Cribs a lot here. Just imagine, if your car cost 800 grand, how much does your house cost then? It’s mind boggling the kind of money some people have access to.

Anyway, I’m not writing this to comment on how rich the person driving the car is. Or how much more their house cost. What draws me to the car was this little badge at the back next to the registration number that reads ‘AHLI DEWAN UNDANGAN NEGERI’ aka STATE ASSEMBLY MEMBER.

A State Assembly Member is an elected representative akin to a Member of Parliament except they are elected on the State Level. They’re paid a monthly salary by the Government somewhere around the figure of RM3000 a month. Calculator’s out again. That means it will take an Elected Representative of the People approximately 23 years of service before they can even think about buying a Porsche. Considering that most politicians only get in the fray when they’re in their 30s, they should be at least 53 years old. The lady I saw in the car definitely did not look like she was 53. Unless, she happens to be the guy’s wife. Yeah, that’s probably it then. But again, if that was the case she shouldn’t be driving the car because she’s not the elected representative. Her husband is. I’m pretty sure the badge I saw did not read ‘State Assembly Member’s Wife’ on it. So what gives then?

What I’m actually trying to say here in case some of you are wondering where I’m going with all this, it is the show of excessive wealth that some politicians are so fond off. When was the last time that a politician actually sports a small house or drives a small car? It’s unfortunate that it didn’t cross my mind to take down the registration number so I can find out who this ‘Representative of the People’ actually is. Well in my defense, Kota Kinabalu is but a small city so it is just a matter of time before I see that very expensive car again.

Truth be told I’m personally not against anyone from buying expensive things if they can afford it. If you have what it takes by all means go for it. If you’re a successful businessman and you need to buy an expensive car as a way to project your own successes and impress your clients then by all means buy one. If you’re the son of the Brunei Sultan and you need a car or a house that matches your status then why not? Knock yourself out.

But for an elected representative of the people to drive around in an 800,000 ringgit car, that to me is a little too much. What possible excuse is there for you to buy such a car anyway? Is it because you need an All-Wheel-Drive vehicle to drive to the villages where roads are bad to visit your constituents? Whatever happened to the all dependable Toyota Land Cruiser? Now that’s a car you drive if you need serious traction in the mud. Not some fancy looking, aerodynamically designed SUV imported from Germany. What use is an aerodynamic design with a drag coefficient of 0.38 if the fastest you can drive off road is 40km/h and your major roads have potholes in it every 10 meters? Besides, please don’t tell me you’ll actually drive a Porsche Cayenne that costs RM800,000 in the mud? What’s wrong with you?

Some specs for the Porsche Cayenne I got from the internet. Just so we know what we’re talking about here. Engine capacity is a 4.8 litre V8 with an output of 385hp. This translates to a 0 – 100 in 6.8 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h. Oh, and the automatic version comes with the spanking 6 speed Tiptronic gearbox so you can play manual even though you’re driving an automatic. And less I forget it runs on petrol too. Not that smelly dirty diesel that most 4 Wheel Drives run on. Warms your heart doesn’t it knowing that even in these trying times with the looming economic crisis and ever increasing cost of living our dear elected representative can still drive a gas guzzling monster around town. Bless him.

Then why oh why must you buy such an expensive car if not for the sake of showing off? Why is it a show off? Well let me put it simply. Buy a new edition Toyota Land Cruiser and people around you will say ‘That guy’s got money.’ Buy a RM800,000 Porsche Cayenne S and people will say ‘Damn, motherfucker!’ Ooops! Sorry about my choice of words. My bad. I’m just trying to prove a point here.

Why must you as an elected representative show off such extravagant luxury when there are people in your constituency that voted you into office are still in need of basic necessities? Why must you live in multi million ringgit homes when just a stone’s throw away, a family has to make do with a small shack of a house that leaks everywhere whenever it rains? Why must you drive a car that costs more than two decent sized houses when your gardener can’t even afford to buy a motorcycle so he can send his children to school? What kind of message are you sending to the people by doing this?

Becoming an elected representative is not a passport to great wealth and fame and fortune. Accumulating wealth is not the job of an elected representative. Making money is the job of businessmen, not politicians. It seems to me that most of our politicians got the wrong idea when they signed up for politics. Either that or I’m missing something important here. Even if you can’t resist the urge to make money then at least do it subtly. A multi million ringgit mansion is not being subtle. Neither is an RM800,000 car. These things stick out like a sore thumb. Any idiot can tell that there is no way a person who makes 3000 a month can afford a million ringgit home plus several high end imported cars. Even if they’re a minister for many years it is still a long shot. Alas, knowing how politics work in Malaysia especially if you are a member of the elite ruling party, the sky’s the limit. Or as I’d like to say, the amount of wealth you can accumulate is only limited to your own greed. And boy oh boy, some of them can be real greedy. They amass fortunes as if they’ll live forever. They will do anything to remain in power so that their source of wealth will always be secure. Why shouldn’t they? All their colleagues in politics are doing it, why be the odd one out.

I know that it’s difficult for politicians who are in power to stay out of the greed trap. There are probably only a handful of them who could show real integrity, sincerity and honesty in the face of such temptations. These guys are usually found in the opposition or the bottom rung of the ruling party. The guys that will almost never make it to the top because of their political leanings or their lack of greed.

To ask your average politician to renounce wealth is probably a little too much for their weak, corruption infested hearts. They would rather pimp their own mothers probably, if they haven’t done that already. Instead, I would suggest why not tone down their extravagances a bit? A smaller house here, a cheaper car there. The people who voted for you will see a humble, down-to-earth public servant who’s got no interest in his/her personal gain. A real People’s Champ. Hey nobody said you can’t buy an expensive house or a car elsewhere? No one in Sabah needs to know if you have a ten storey mansion in KL with enough space to fit an Olympic sized pool in it. Nobody needs to know if your wife drives different colour Ferraris everyday to get her nails done in Bangsar. Even if people in Sabah got to know about it, it won’t make much of a difference. Your own people won’t see it in front of their eyes staring at them, that over-the-top extravagance. What people can’t see with their own eyes will not affect them. In return, you get double for the price of one. You get the votes as well as the money and power that come with it. How you sell your soul to the Devil is up to you.

So to my dear Mr. Elected Representative or Minister or Assistant Minister or whoever you are that owns the sweet Porsche Cayenne S I saw today, I hope my ramblings about your display of wealth will knock some sense into your head. Please do something about it and please also tell your friends in the Government to do the same. All of your competing about who has the biggest house or the most expensive cars or the the hottest mistresses is making me nauseous. You guys are good actors anyway. Start acting like one.

MY TAKE ON THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE

2009-01-17T16:18:00.009+08:00

Recently, I happened to be in the Mosque early for Friday prayers which does not happen very often. For those of you not familiar with the workings of the weekly prayers, the session starts with a sermon usually about current issues relating to the Islamic community followed by the prayers itself after which the Imam or the head of the congregation will say the Doa and everyone present will say Amen then go home, have lunch or whatever it is they usually do.

Typically, the topic of the sermons is your usual ‘Stay away from doing bad things, love thy neighbor’ type but this was a little different. This time, our topic was the Israeli siege of Gaza. Muslims in Malaysia love this topic. We love it so much that even our Muslim leaders can’t seem to keep their mouth shut when it comes to it. Everybody has something or wants to say something about it. While I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, sometimes it helps if we look at the bigger picture. To see things from another perspective. To view things from another angle.

Why I say this sermon was different? Actually when you look at it, it’s not too different. I’ve heard it too many times before but seldom during sermons. It starts with an appeal to ‘Feel the pain of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Gaza’ and then goes on to attack the Jews. ‘The Jews have invaded the land of the Muslims, killed women and children, more than a thousand have died and thousands more injured. Houses, schools and mosques have been bombed. Our brothers in Hamas are fighting with their lives to uphold God’s word while around them enemies of Islam are trying all they can to silence them. Let us pray for God to send deliverance to them in the form of the destruction of the evil Zionist and their American backers.’ Sounds all too familiar don’t it?

While listening to all this I suddenly thought, ‘Whoa wait minute! Who invaded Gaza? The Jews? I thought Israel was the one doing the invasion. Isn’t this a war between two states? Israel and Palestine? If the UK were to invade India for example, do we say Englishmen or Scots are invading Indians? I think not. Muslims love to hate Jews don’t they? We can blame them for everything except for the weather, and even that I can’t be too sure about. Jews are behind everything that’s wrong in the Muslim community. Islamic countries are weak because of the Jews, Muslims are not united because of them, they can bring down our economy with their wealth, they control America, and the list goes on and on and on. And if you grew up listening to all this crap like me, you’ll start believing it after a while. If we demonize someone long enough, they will cease to be a person. Then it’s no longer wrong to do anything to them. Take Iranian President Ahmadinejad for example, calling for the destruction of the Israel state. Well I say that guy’s an idiot. But then again most politicians are anyway. Drop one bomb in Israel and the US will bury his ass in the ground. You don’t fight fire with fire, especially if all you have is a match and the other guy’s got a flamethrower! It is in America’s best interest to keep the Israeli state running. They need a dependable ally in the Middle East and those crackpot Arab countries aren’t really that dependable. The whole damn region is a revolution waiting to happen. Once oil starts running short, well we’ll see then what happens. Say what you want about Israel but at least they have a real Democracy there. Plus, it’s a secular state. So you won’t have religious nuts running amok in the government.

But the Palestinians are our brothers in Islam some will say. God and our Prophet said so. We should all unite and support them in their holy struggle against evil. Why should I care about the Palestinians? They’re not my relatives. I don’t have a brother there. None from my family has died because of Israeli bombing. No Jew has ever come up to me to take my land. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know a single Jew. Why should I care about some suffering Arab in Palestine? Is it because in Islam we are all brothers and sisters? What if the reverse happened and some poor Jewish sod got his house flattened and his family killed. Would we take to the streets to condemn our fellow Muslims for brutality and murder? How many of us secretly or openly applaud Ben Laden when the World Trade Centre came crashing down? Serves America right you say? A few thousand Americans dead is alright for all the wrongs they’ve done us. Is there a rule in Islam that says kill Muslims wrong, kill Infidels not wrong? Back to that Muslim brotherhood thing, most of us don’t even know the name of our next door neighbor much less how many kids they have. That’s why we hear cases like a house break-in but the neighbors’ all thought the owner’s moving house and all that. Why care for someone we’ve never met who lives thousands of miles away when we won’t even lend own flesh and blood money when they need it? Why do protest marches at another nation’s embassy when your own countrymen suffer from its own government? Religion? Spare me that crap please.

A hypocrite in Islam is worse than a murderer. This, Muslims are told in the Koran. There is no salvation for a hypocrite. If you die as one you burn, forever. Enough said. Why do I say this? Some of our leaders have called for Muslims in Malaysia to boycott products that are associated with Jews and America. The rationale is that by boycotting these things we will put pressure on their respective government to end the injustices done on the Palestinians. America my dear friends is Malaysia’s main export partner. We need their business. It doesn’t hurt their economy if Malaysians boycott their products. But if someone there decides that perhaps they don’t really need to buy from us, we are screwed. Big time. Besides think about it for a moment, what good will it do to boycott for example Coca Cola, or Pepsi for that matter? Those drinks are canned in Malaysia. If their sales drop, the factory will close down and their workers (local Malaysians of course) will be laid off. Where are they going find work after that? Will it in any way effect the global income of this multinational corporation? Not very likely.

I find it rather amusing that even high profile people like our former PM Mahathir encouraging this boycott. What is he, stupid or something? He of all people should know better than that. But he’s not stupid. He’s actually very, very smart. You don’t stay on as PM for 20 odd years if you’re not smart. And to stay on top in Malaysian politics that long requires a substantial amount of political brilliance. It’s just a publicity stunt. They want to be seen as a champion to the Islamic cause. Will it in any way effect Israel’s action in Gaza or America’s foreign policy? Hell no!

Jews are people too. They have the same two eyes, two arms and two legs. They have hair just like we do and they sweat and bleed and die. Just like we do. As a matter of fact, the Jews are even related to the Arabs. They’re both Semitic tribes descendant from the Prophet Abraham’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Islam traces its roots in Judaism. We are taught that Islam is a continuation of God’s religion after Jesus Christ and Muhammad is the last in a long line of Prophets since Adam. All their major Prophets are also Prophets in Islam. It is wrong for a Muslim not to acknowledge this. Islam is in many ways more similar to Judaism compared to Christianity. Male circumcision, not eating Pork, absolute strict Monotheism. All these are carried into Islam as a continuation to the Old Testament. Did God not say that he made us into tribes so we may know one another? He didn’t say kill each other. Why would God in his infinite wisdom and mercy not send any help or salvation to the Palestinians? Could it be that there’s something wrong somewhere? God will not change the destiny of a people unless they work for it. Heard that before? Could it be that the Palestinians have been going the opposite direction? War according to Islam is a very serious business with very strict rules of engagement. Non combatant are strictly off limits, no destruction to buildings or homes, no indiscriminate killings etc. Now how many times have we heard about Hamas firing rockets into civilian targets in Israel? I don’t even want to talk about suicide bombings. Yes, some will say that the Israelis started the fight first. But that is not an excuse. God has told the Muslims that their religion is the best. A Muslim should set a good example to those around them. We are expected to lead not follow. It is not a suggestion from God, it’s a command. Now tell me, have we Muslims been very exemplary lately? The problem plaguing Islam is not the Jews or America. It is the Muslims themselves. We as a nation are divided because of our own fault and arrogance and greed. Blaming someone else will not solve our problems. That’s just looking for excuses. There are approximately 1.8 billion Muslims in the world compared to just 1.2 million Jews worldwide. It’s a little much to accept that a measly 1.2 million could in any way influence the other 1.8 billion.

I’d like to quote José Ramos-Horta’s statement calling for the Palestinians to adopt a Gandhi-an approach to the Israeli conflict. He says that Hamas should avoid fighting Israel from a militaristic point or the tit-for-tat killings that both sides have long engaged in. Israel is more superior to Hamas. Logic dictates that you can’t win a strategic war against a superior enemy. Eventually Hamas will run out of leaders and fighters. To me that is a flawed plan. Arabs and Jews have been dying there for ages and they will continue to do so. There is no end till one side admits defeat or is totally destroyed. Someone there needs to open their eyes and say ‘Gentlemen, this isn’t working. We’ll need a more workable solution to our problem.’ A pacifist approach from the Palestinian side will gain them more sympathy from the global community. Any aggression from Israel will then be seen as a genuine sign of suppression of their rights. This is especially more true if it is not immediately followed by an armed reprisal from Hamas. Hamas has an urgent need to shed its terrorist label. It needs to find a spokesperson who’s not burdened with a terrorist tag. Someone clean to head its organization. Israel can’t be expected to hold talks with someone who’s been shooting rockets and training suicide bombers against its citizens. Hamas enjoys popular support from the Palestinian community for its charity and welfare work by building houses and schools. They are going in the right direction with all these, what they need now is just a push away from violence. No one said it’s going to be easy or results will be achieved immediately. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in jail to make a change but came out a celebrated hero worldwide. A pacifist approach is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it shows great strength of character, determination and will against a far superior opponent.

Finally, Jerusalem and its surrounding areas are Jewish ancestral lands. Is it so wrong for a people long displaced to long for a return to their own land? There’s enough land in Palestine and Israel for both Arabs and Jews to live together should they agree to it. All these talk about Israel being an illegal country that doesn’t merit creation is pure nonsense. Neither is it about the Jews trying to erase Islam from the earth starting with Palestine. This war is not and has never been about religion. It’s all about real estate. History always favors the victor. And I don’t see the Palestinians emerging as victors in this conflict any time soon if they proceed on their current self-destructive course.

I for one will not contribute any money for the Palestinian fund should any come my way. It’s just a waste of money. What, help them rebuild their homes so that the Israelis can bomb it again? I might as well keep that money and buy myself my own house. At least I can almost say for sure that nobody’s going to bomb it. Does this mean I’m heartless to other people’s suffering? Not at all, if something is wrong then it is wrong. But what we are going to do to make it right matters more. Solution to the conflict cannot be settled by us encouraging further violence from the Palestinians or forcing Israel to stops its raids into Palestinian lands. Both sides have to come to terms with each other.

Give them Immigrants A Break! Should we?

2008-07-12T12:20:00.006+08:00

I wanna talk about immigrants. I wanna talk about immigrants here in Sabah. I wanna talk about immigrants here in Sabah because I am from Sabah.
Do we or do we not have a big problem with non-native peoples aka immigrants who reside here in Sabah through channels deemed illegal by the Goverment? Then again what about the ones that got their residence status via the 'legal' way aka the infamous Project IC fiasco.
Who are these illegal immigrants anyway? Are we talking about Indonesians or Phillipinos only? Although the highest number of illegals in Sabah are from these 2 countries they do not form the only group of people who have gained entry to Sabah illegally.
It's actually not so easy to talk about the illegal immigrant issue in Sabah. Why? Simply put, because there's just too many of them. Not only are they everywhere, they've also penetrated into the social strata of the population. It's hard trying to point your finger at people when some of them are in the Government holding high positions in the various ministries as well as hold important posts in the political scene.
I have to admit that to bring an issue such as this will invoke some kind of racial sentiment which I will not deny. After all, we are talking about us vs. them issues here. If you're not with us, then you're with them.
But, methinks I will leave that issue out for now. Recently, there's been talk about granting permanent residence (PR) status to the IMM13 holders. FYI, IMM13 holders are the peoples originally from the Southern Phillipines who are accorded Refugee status that came over to Sabah during the civil war in the southern Phillipines during the Marcos era. The Refugee status also applies to their offsprings even if they are born in Sabah. For most IMM13 holders, they have been here for almost 30 years, some of the older ones have died in a foreign country without ever seeing their home country and relatives again. Most of the first generation refugees no longer see the Phillipines as their country and for their children, Malaysia is the only home they know.
The question is, how long will these displaced community remain as refugees? Is there a time lapse before they become naturalised? Will Malaysia deport them back to their country of origin? Or will we send them packing to another country willing to accept them? Personally I think it sucks to be a refugee after 30 years. You don't go back to your own country after 30 years, that's way too long a wait. Anyone of them that wanted to go back would have done so on their own accord years and years ago. And it's a little too late for our government to send them back or turn them over to another country after 30 years. The best course of action would be to grant them PR status.
But hold your horses now, don't start lighting up your torches and pick up your pitchforks just yet. I said to give them PR status not full citizenship status. It seems to me that the biggest issues in Sabah regarding immigrants is that by them not being Chinese/Indians, they get native status treatment.
Native status or Bumiputra status is the Holy Grail of Malaysian citizenship. By being native, you are entitled to a host of privileges such as scholarships, goverment contracts, special rights and so on. Privileges that the ethnic Chinese and Indians in Malaysia do not get even after 50 years of Nationhood.
So is it a suprise when Sabahans are upset by the influx of foreigners who they see as supplanting their place in this state? Not just the local natives but the Chinese themselves aren't very happy about it. How would they not, after generations residing in this country they are still regarded as second class citizens despite contributing the highest to the nation's income. Whereas the immigrants by virtue of their common ancestry and a dose of shady deals over the years have been able to legitimise their presence here as a Native and receive all the privileges that comes with it.
Back to the IMM13 issue. Give them the PR status. Let them stay in Malaysia legitimately. Let their children go to schools and get jobs. Let them contribute to the building of our nation. By denying them these rights, we will be sitting on a time bomb that will explode in our faces eventually. Maybe by then the problem will be too big to contain or address.
But, and I say BUT. By virtue of them being non-original native to this state or the country they must not and should not be accorded native status as the term Native implies the Native-Of-The-Land. Therefore, their citizenship status should be as that of the Non-Natives. I think that should be fair enough.
And from there onwards, should be the way we approach the issues of illegals in the state. Especially the ones who have obtained their ICs whether through legal or illegal channels. I don't blame the Bugis or the Suluks or the Pakistanis or whomever if they want to be citizens of this country. Anyone willing to go through all that trouble to be a citizen must mean that they are serious enough to be granted one. After all, almost all natives of Malaysia started out as immigrants anyway.