Mamak! Lagi Satu....!

Note: Although it seems that I've gone beyond the "one more topic before break thing" I felt that there is something amusing to comment over what is said by our hate figure here...!

While I feel that today being Christmas, every Malaysian should have time off from paying attention to serious matters and spend some time in relaxation.

But I do understand that there are some who had to do work today but given the chance for time off either the next day or Thursday. This particularly happen to our friends who work in essential items industry...sure you know who.

Well, throughout a well deserved 6-day break that I had since last Thursday, I just told my brother that I hope that I don't hear any idiots (the lieutenants of AAB making kind of fool comments), I refer the idiots to either the Zam Zam Alakazam or El Balachi making stupid statements that wanted someone to just say the line 'I am Optimus Prime' to shut it up.

Things went well today, but somehow, today was capped off in an anti-climatic fashion by two statements made by the Mamak of Merbok.

The first one is not as serious as the latter one, but after reading it, I was asking myself a question or two concerning the level of education and speech in Malaysia.

Refer to this Star article here:

I'm fine with things that promote multi-racial relationships here, but I thought shouldn't we give more attention to English being the number one worldwide language here? Where is Bahasa Malaysia in this era ranked at? Number 3? Number 4? Or somewhere below the bottom? Well, we do know that the two most important languages now is English and Mandarin, and to prepare Malaysia in facing globalization, there should be more priority of English over Bahasa Malaysia. Yes, I know that we should be proud of our own National language, but putting that over English is not the right way to move forward.

I have concern that because of this wrong emphasis on BM has resulted in producing many graduates who some could not speak English well, and they lose out in jobs especially those under multi-national companies. My dad once had a subordinate, a Chinese girl who only speaks Chinese and Malay. She could not write, read and speak English at all. Sure, most companies require English minimum because all correspondence and work documents are in English. She only quit after two days because of this problem above. Sometimes, I feel that the zeal of ultra-nationalists in pushing this over preparing for global challenges has resulted in efforts backfired.

I watched Tunku the Musical in August and at the end of the third act, it was shown that it was the act of ultra-nationalists with their fiery zeal ended in backfiring, and the May 13 1969 incident. The man (played by Tony Eusoff), an ultra-nationalist, who witnessed his son killed by a mob in that fateful incident, wept over his son's body in regret that his zeal and actions had triggered a backfire and led to the boy's death. This also happens in the civil war in Ireland. The fiery zeal of the Irish Catholics at that time had resulted in bloodshed of thousands, disregarding of humanity while pursuing their goals to win at all costs.

It will better if they promote more use of English. Let's take into account of foreigners who want to ply their trade here. How on earth are they going to proceed if certain forms or billboards or notices or advertisements are purely in Bahasa Malaysia? Sure, we can read, no problem, but what about them? They will...ah...ah...and frustrated to understand, they might go elsewhere like Singapore, because everything is handled in English that everyone, locals and foreigners understand very well.

Fine, there is just a remedy of putting dual languages to solve that. But if there is an Englishman talking to a person who doesn't speak English that well like ZAM did the other day, he might be giggling or annoyed over the fact that the 'handicap' guy couldn't face him!

I am more worried about the latter half statement made by the Mamak, saying that there is little importance made by Paramjothy.

We have learned in history that nations and leaders are ultimately punished for their ignorance over certain remarks that might be small in scale but carry important messages that requires acting on a moment's notice. Reading through, this shows that if the next general election results in the Opposition winning and people voting for them instead of BN, that could be an example of BN being punished for their ignorance over certain issues.

You see the thing is that this is not 1980 or so. This is 2007. People think differently than before. Many of our ministers seem to have the thinking patterns of the 80s or the 90s. I'm not doing any government bashing here, but telling them to wake up from their dreamland or something. When you read this Malaysiakini letter, this has clearly underline that people are no longer fools who know nothing. A man who knows nothing is as ignorant than the man who goes digging around to get the facts out of something, which is what Mamak of Merbok is put under.

Harv Eker once said that you can't run away from all the problems that you face. If you face it and succeed in that, the problem is off and forever. If you run away, the problem will still be there and will never go off until you face it yourself. So, by saying that, what the Mamak of Merbok implies is that he wants the public to run away from the problem.

Pet Names For My Bullets

Blondie: One, two, three, four, five, six. Six. The perfect number.
Angel Eyes: I thought three was the perfect number.
Blondie: I've got six more bullets in my gun.

-The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I had a talk with an ex-journalist at the Raya open house at PWTC yesterday, who brought up an interesting subject yesterday about the things that idiots at Bolehland did that makes Malaysia losing out to other nations. His interests clicked together with my interests and since a magnum had a six-bullet chamber, I have pet names of my six bullets for a magnum, if I have one.

My pet names are (from order of less to the highest notoriety):

6. Nor Mohamaed Yakcop - According to the ex-journalist that I've spoken to, this man (currently the Second Finance Minister) was directly implicated in the Central Bank scandal in 1992, whereby account inconsistencies had resulted in the loss of $9 billion and the eventual sacking of then governor, the late Jaffar Hussein in 1994. He told me that he actually spoke to the man himself when he was in the front portion of the banquet hall - I bumped into him after following him -. He actually asked a question of economical matter to him: how come the Sing dollar is now valued twice as the ringgit whereas they only need to pay $1.46 for a USD. $1.46 against $3.36? That's more than twice the value. The answer he got from Yakcop was "time will tell" - which implicitly means that the administrators of Bolehland are not doing proactively to stimulate the economy. Sure, everyone knows that a higher ringgit means lesser expenses with imports particularly the current oil price hitting $83 per barrel! Expect a hike in the coming months or even after 2008!

5. Muhammad B. Muhd. Taib - The former Chief Minister of Selangor, now UMNO information czar has hit headlines with on two occasions: one, failing to declare $1.2 Aussie Dollars at Brisbane in 1996 and recently added fuel to the war against bloggers by making a police report against bloggers over a remark made at Malaysia Today. He needs followers to go with him to make the report! But what is the truth is that the remark is not an offensive, but a suggestion. Unfortunately, the man with two Muhammads misintepreted the meaning of the remark, thanks to his illiteracy in English. He's one of the monolingual idiots in Malaysia. But hey, we've got tons of proof of him breaching conduct including marrying the daughter of the late Sultan of Selangor and mismanaging the KDE funds. And now, in a desperation to avoid further embarassment with RPK, who challenged him to an UMNO open debate, live of TV, he cancelled it! Simple, he's got no guts to face him because of the proof against him. You now have him as the UMNO information chief, which means, he decides, with the ISM what is to show up in the Malay dailies and what is not. After all, Utusan is the mouth of UMNO, right?

4. Abdullah Badawi - Ah...our current Prime Minister. I was wondering whether he actually went off for a nap late afternoon yesterday at Hari Raya open house yesterday or not? The latest mistake by him was to ignore calls for the Royal Commission over the Lingamtape scandal that has put the judiciary system in Malaysia to another low point. Now, let's go back to 2004, when he came up with a BN manifesto, where a core point is to get rid of corruption. But did his administration fulfilled all the four points in the manifesto? Only one. Corruption in the administration is still running rampant and the Islam Hadhari principle is still not working well.
Then again, he is not doing his job well. I doubt he can last for another term. It was said that Abdullah never talk eye-to-eye with Najib over matters, which means that it is possible to say "enemy of my enemy is my enemy or my friend?"

3. Hishamuddin Hussein - The Kerisman comes from a family of political figures or shall I say one of the silver spoons. Father is third prime minister Hussein Onn, grandfather is the founding father of UMNO, Onn Jaafar. Educationists may find his policies and how he runs the Education Ministry as a disgrace. I don't have much points to elaborate on education matters, but seems that he's not right for the Education post. The other point is about how (according to Malaysiakini) he said "shut up" against the MCA and Gerakan over the remarks of "secular state". Truth to be told, Malaysia is a secular state, but the UMNO Bolehland idiots called Malaysia as "Islamic State". At the UMNO assembly, he was waving the dagger at the audience, threatening to bath with "minority blood" as so to speak. At the recent Gerakan assembly, while everyone was applauding, he was the only one not applauding, a sign that he doesn't take it well.

2. Nazri Abdul Aziz - El Balachi ("Crony") is the BN's loudmouth. This taxi driver from Padang Renggas has been making numerous statements, some dubious in the point to claim fame as the so called de facto Law Minister. First thing was on 21 June, he made racist remarks and calling people "stupid" against opposition leader Lim Kit Siang. Second mistake is that he insisted to have the Child Act charge against the parents of Nurin for negligence. Not enough, there's more. Following the march of the lawyers last month, Nazri denied Malaysia has having a judiciary crisis and called the BAR Council lawyers marching there as another UMNO Youth assembly. Later he assured people that there is a Witness Protection Act that protects whistleblowers of the Lingamtape scandal. The truth is there is no Witness Protection Act.

There are many things he states which are mistakes, even trying to gag Wee for making a mockery of the National Anthem. He makes statements simply because he wants to play hero. Nuff said.

And now,

1. Zainuddin Maidin - The Mamak from Merbok, Information Minister has been the scourge of bloggers over the entire year. No doubt, with what is said, Malaysia is moving another step backwards to the primitive age with the kind of decision making. Why I put him as the number one bullet is because what he said can be a threat to bloggers - even those who talked about food, other subjects than those who are social-political writers. First mistake he made was the idea of classifcation of bloggers. There is no such thing as classification in blogosphere. Later he calls bloggers as "stupid" a remark which I take it as a very offending manner. We all know that most newspapers in Malaysia are politically owned except for the Sun in which Lim Keng Yaik admitted is the only one that portrays the true Citizen Malaysia spirit. But instead we get an third-world mentality remark from ZAM. He proudly announced Bernama radio as the authoritative source, but then what he does not aware about is that with the Publications Act in place, newspapers cannot publish all articles and it must be pro-government. Where does the newspaper get its update on Dr. M's condition? Marina's blog of course! Talk about authoritative that is...

And then he makes this mistake: no need to tell the PM the truth. Is he trying to cover up for the government? Remember that he was implicated or involved in the murder case of a GRO sometime back. How did he get the $6 million to build a banglo back in Kedah, whereas the family runs a roti canai stall? Mysteries, mysteries.

I fear that as long as these six bigshots and others counting running the administration of the country, Malaysia can never progress further and it will tax the people further of burden. As my ex-journalist friend asked Shafie Apdal, when are prices going to be lowered? None and up all the time!

The Rich and Greedy

Image by Mob's Crib

This is a classic example of fat men. Not the physical fat men, but those who are rich, corrupt and worst of all, this man is a Member of Parliament. Member of Parliament of Klang.

You are an MP but you built your own house - a rich man's house in front of a garden estate populated by normal people. People will look kind of little jealous about you.

Last week, this man and a few company directors were cleared of 37 charges against them.

Show off. Isn't that a show of vanity? MP, make money through other businesses and build your own house like you don't even care of your duty?

As an MP, it is foremost a duty to help and serve the public who had entrusted you with the job to lead them, speak out for their troubles and always be ready in the time of their need.

But hey - he's shaking his legs. Building his big mansion, opening an illegitimate food shop without the council's permit and you still can get away with nothing?

Surely there must be someone above that is pulling the judiciary strings. In my opinion, maybe the judiciary was told not to do so against the VIP man like this man above for the risk of losing promotion. But who would be that mysterious party?

VIPs getting a preferential treatment or special treatment? They are spared from the blushes. But what about this scenario against an ordinary person like Wee Ming Chee? Wee was never given the chance. The idea of keeping him in leash despite apology shows how these big men practice double-standards. It's like clubbing a person to death, unconvinced of the sincerity.

I'm still scratching my head trying to understand that thing.

Wanton Punishment Part I

I still really got nothing to do today. I kept reminding myself that I only one more week left minus Thursday before the JIRA evaluation period expires. And then my P.A. did nothing serious to pay attention to this work. Please, come on. We got to finish this, then I want to do something else. I've seen other colleagues at work with tasks in hand. What about me? Are you leaving me behind?

One thing that annoys me is that my Indian colleague sitting next to me kept crying at certain times. She must have been hit hard since her father passed away last December, sometime before my grandmother does. But it's already four months already and she's still mourning? Maybe it's the Indian folk music that she played and listening through her earphones makes her something like that. But she's still staying back in that circle of mourning. The truth is that you can't stay in there forever. You need to move on. Can't she get this to her senses?

Anyhow, since today marks the official release of The Punisher Vol 7: Man of Stone, I will be writing three parts of wanton punishment in retrospective about one of comics finest and popular vigilante: The Punisher. In case you do not know, here is the TPB cover of Man of Stone.

Most fans agree as I do that Irishman Garth Ennis, who writes The Preacher is the only man who can write The Punisher at its best compared to anyone else. The Punisher is the modern day incarnation of Josey Wales as modeled by Forrest Carter (1925-1979) in its Wales duology titled Gone To Texas and The Outlaw Josey Wales respectively, with the latter being made into a film starring Clint Eastwood. Like Wales, Frank Castle is a man who lost his family to evil and resolved to wage a one-man war against crime. His modus operandi is not on revenge -to him revenge is a dark emotion -, but punishment where there are circumstances where law cannot punish the guilty. His rules are somewhat similar to the Hammurrabi Code concept: "an eye for an eye." The Punisher is the best selling title in Marvel's MAX line - aimed for adult, matured readers only. Full of violence, profanity, uncensored stuff all intact. That's where The Punisher should be.

In each of the story arcs, Ennis has placed a common theme and sometimes Bond references (He's a James Bond fan BTW) in the storyline and setting. If you go through the arcs, you will notice that these themes represent the crimes that are committed by the USA - which is part of its hegemony - the quest for Global Domination. Famed critic Noam Chomsky, in his book Hegemony or Survival outlines the sins of America in its greedy quest to become the undisputed superpower on the planet.

The first story arc In the Beginning marks the return of Frank's associate Microchip, but this time working with a team led by a rogue CIA agent Robert Bethell. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama declared that greatest moment in world history is the fall of Communism and the Cold War. In here, Frank was questioned of his role in the new millennium - just as in GoldenEye, Bond is questioned of his role in the post Cold-War era. For both men, they were the past. Whatever he did was during the post Vietnam War is now under question, and maybe no longer be accepted. To Microchip, Frank is a direct relic of the Vietnam War. He thinks that Frank never has enough of what he did, ever since the moment he became the Punisher back in Vietnam. Some of the scenes were referred to in the prequel to the series, Born. In the world where we live in fear of Al-Qaeda and the post-911, the CIA thinks that they can erased his past criminal records clean and give him a clean slate by making hunting the terrorists including Osama Bin Laden.

Castle always work alone. At times, trust is something that gets a person killed. He had encountered double-crosses. The latest double-crossing by Microchip is something that he'd never forgive. He gave Microchip a chance to run while he is alive but in the end...was punished for squandering the opportunity before Frank changed his mind. James Bond is described as a blunt instrument for the government - an extension of its dirty work. Frank saw through this and immediately said no - knowing that he'd be manipulated - something evident later on in Mother Russia.

Bethell is a corrupt agent who would smuggle drugs for weapons and money. His crossing with New York mobs coupled with Nicky Cavella and his gang made him an easy target. He's a CIA agent - he can do anything - good or bad - and maybe things tilting to your favour. And while Frank is held captive by Bethell, the gangs think they can eliminate two birds in one stroke. Lewis Larossa modeled Cavella after actor David Strathairn but in the later arc, it's different since it was drawn by Leandro Fernandez. A common cliche in stories is the recurrence of a female damsel-in-distress character that most people seem to be tired with. Thankfully, it was avoided. Kathryn O'Brien is the partial flipside of Castle - an instrument of the corrupt bureaucracy, an unlucky woman who had to do the worst to save her image and sanity. Wisely, she was written as a all-round character with her own independence and the ability to take care of her reputation.


The second story line, Kitchen Irish was mainly about Irish gangs in New York fighting for the will left by an old man Nesbitt worth 10 million dollars. The premise is somewhat the famous Gangs of New York, fighting for control in the turbulent period of 1847-1863. The questioning here is of some people are still stuck back in the past. The past actually serves as lessons for us, to remind us while we move on, taking care to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Many of Irish people are still scarred over the fighting between the Irish Republican Army and the pro-British faction during the 30 year civil war of Northern Ireland, the worst being the Bloody Sunday in 1972. Ennis, being a Irishman himself suffered during those times there. In the later point, Michael Morrison lamented:

"What are we like anyway? All that misery and bloodshed back home and we come to the States and the best we can do is just fucking carry on with it? Did you not even hear what Maginty was saying? We don't have to slaughter each other! We can get what we want without that! We're free now...free of the frigging past!"

In GoldenEye, Bond's ex-partner turned villain, Alec Trevelyan's motives was purely blaming on the past: the British sending his ancestors, the Cossacks of Lienz to their deaths in World War II. In Harry Potter series, Voldemort turned bad because of the past where his Muggle father, Riddle Sr. abandoned her mother, Merope. See the coincidence? It's like letting the past shaping you into a pervert and succumbing to the evils conjured from it. What about the River Rats? They are still kids inside...playing pirates!

The Continuity IRA is also a political example of the syndrome. To that cell, anything short of a total victory is like capitulating to the British. People are sick of fighting already. They want to go on and rebuild their lives rather than destroying because of a group of perverts. In this context, there is no Kingdom of Heaven. A kingdom of heaven is a place where there is no fighting, everyone living together in harmony, each respecting one another, work together. Some don't like it...take the Nazi Germany for example. Purity of race?

Here's one of Tyler Durden's quotes in Fight Club:

"The people that you're after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. DO NOT FUCK WITH US."

There was a saying that once you are a baddie, forever you are a baddie. This would be the case for old Napper French. He had enough of doing the past job and retired to a happy life until the Dublin nigger Maginty dragged him back into the gang fight. The past haunted him and it showed clearly to the little boy. The question is no matter how hard you try to forget the past, why does it come back to haunt us?

A problem with the arc is that there lacks the opposite sex relationship between a man and a woman. Ennis attempted to address one by putting it here, but it is not until when we reach the later story arcs, that we have somewhat a complete working relationship between man and woman later on. However, though it worth to point this out, Frank ended up being the supporting character of the story. Kitchen Irish remains the least cohesive story arc of all. Maybe it is full of black comedy as the MAXI series and it is not serious enough. The arc is pretty independent of the others. In the next few storylines, neither one is associated with Kitchen Irish. But perhaps you should take the inspiration from The Devil's Own or Gangs of New York as the source of reference when reading this. Or maybe read Frank McCourt's memoirs such as Angela's Ashes or The Teacher Man.

An interesting side note about Kitchen Irish is the locations used. For example, Pier 86, The Intrepid Museum is Frank's setup point for The Westies and the gangs fighting here. For those who do not really know which part is it in New York, it is located on 46th Street below the Joe DiMaggio highway. That's Pier 86. Secondly, the fictional O'Malleys bar used in the shootout is actually the McSorley's Old Ale House, located at 15, East 7th Street, near St. Mark's Square.

Next: Mother Russia and Up Is Down, Black Is White