Religion's Loss In Sense of Loving, Sharing, Caring and Forgiving

Early this year, the Brits are given a slight rude awakening with the unearthing of more historical findings of the famous King Richard III. The king’s identity was confirmed by the scientists of the Leicester University following the skeleton’s discovery at the car park in August 2012, buried by the Greyfriars after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Following the confirmation, things started to show up such as the artistic impression of the church prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, graphic visuals of how the Tudor propaganda vilifies Richard via Shakespeare’s play and of the indication by art experts pointing that a well-known portrait of the monarch that has the slightest signs of biasness.  Since then, there has been hardly of the play being performed. People are starting to see a different angle to the history that was shown to them more than 500 years after that series of events.

If that's what happened about Richard III, why not Chin Peng? After all, the existence of Internet has allowed users to look for alternate information to what is found the present books available in the market or at our home shelves.

There has been an admission by the English and the historians that the 1948-1960 communist insurgencies led by Chin Peng against the British have accelerated plans for independence by 10-12 years. Had Japan was not A-bombed at the end of WW2, Malaya would have been declared independent on 17 August 1945.

I can understand that many of us, especially those who were born pre-Merdeka are quite scarred by the horrors inflicted by the faction that was led by the man himself that it is quite hard to forgive such person and to move on. In fact the emotion before the moving on stage is the difficult part for most of us.

There is a sense of inconsistency where JI terrorists originally from Malaysia like Noordin Mat Top were allowed to be buried back home while just because Chin Peng is not a Malay or just because the name strikes prominently in the Malaysian history that politicians, government and people have started to get too emotional until the point they lose their marbles and the logic to think properly that they outright said no way Jose on bringing the remains back.

I was watching Hanipa Maidin’s speech on the Legal Profession Act amendment a few days ago and at one point, he was describing of how our authorities and sometimes leaders tend to act very emotionally rather using their heads to think properly under a very calm state of mind. No doubt this is exactly why the Malaysian society has still yet to match with their counterparts in the first-world countries, socially speaking.

Every religion in the world actually emphasizes on loving, sharing, caring and most important of all forgiving. Instead, most of the preaching now no longer emphasizes on that but instead merely points on sin, legal, not legal and most important of all, heaven and hell. Every Friday, there are news articles that shares what Jakim tries to talk during their Friday sermons. The texts are prepared by them, and imams are not given the free reign to decide whether to use their own sermon or to use the prepared text sermon.

The late Sultan Idris Shah of Perak wrote three days before his death that the religion has lost its allure and has the need to show the love and caring attitude (love thyself and thy neighbor mantra) rather than scaring the people with things that are sinful or talking just of heaven and hell. Turns out he’s right - that after nearly three decades since his passing things have taken a turn or the worst.

History has often shown by number of cases and scenarios that most of the Christian missionaries are much more successful than their Muslim counterparts. It is largely attributed to the approach that they undertake. It is noted that most Christian missionaries adopt the community service method and show them of how they can help the community there and how the community can help them in return. This would be in far contrasting with the more hardball approach that the Muslim missionaries would adopt. 

Further reading: RPK’s article The Approach (6 Feb 2013)

Towards Merdeka, JAKIM’s controversial sermon has painted an impression that vilifies the non-Bumiputra. And to add more insult, JAKIM seems to paint itself as someone who has a direct divine communication with God with so many recent non-sensical statements. They may have forgotten while they keep fingering other people as their worst enemies in the name of religion, it is they themselves that they are not aware of, as of one finger forward, three finger backwards.

So what’s the point of writing this? I am trying to say that despite all of Chin Peng’s atrocities during the communist insurgencies; it would be a rather less messy and let the wounds heal by letting his ashes being interred back in Sitiawan. Why would the authorities and UMNO in particular want to scream around and flog a dead horse that is called Chin Peng whereas there’s a more pressing national situation that would be addressed? Are they implying that as in the Spartacus movie they are like what Crassus would react and feared of Spartacus even after his death? Are you saying that a whole city fears just one man?

History is not always 100% accurate, as what the further discoveries surrounding Richard III has shown us. The Malaysian history as what we’ve learnt in the school books isn’t always accurate. UMNO and the police have already shot themselves in the foot by highlighting one man by the name of Chin Peng. On the other side of the coin, this has instead increased the curiosity of knowledge-seeking people that wants to see more of the history than what it was written on the surface. In fact what is written in the history books in school is just a scratch on the surface.

The society controlled by old men is somewhat driving many people towards mundane and in fact getting more people lazy and being manipulated. The internet, on the positive side has instead shed more light to what was hidden from the surface of the Malaysian history that we have known about.

An Omitted and Forgotten Part of Malaysian History

Activists Hishamuddin Rais and Adam Adli were arrested in the Sedition Act due to numerous police reports that they have put up a Sang Saka Malaya flag during the Merdeka countdown night at the Merdeka square. What has been noted is that the action by the police was due to the number of police reports made by a few right-wing Malay NGOs including the GPMS.

The Sang Saka flag was one of the parts of the pre-Merdeka Malaysian history that has been omitted and deliberately forgotten. It is meant to paint the picture that it was UMNO that spearheaded the road for independence in 1957. However, the path was traveled twice before:

1. The first attempt was in 1945 just before the end of the Second World War. Japan had agreed to grant independence to Malaya on 17 August 1945. However, following the A-bomb incident resulting in Japan's surrender on 15 August, two days before the set date, the plan was scuppered.

2. The second attempt was in 1946 spearheaded by AMCJA - the All-Malayan Council of Joint Action. Because it has mostly comprised of left-wing people, UMNO calls it a communist.

In the Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain, pg 344, the Sang Saka flag was alluded there. Excerpt:

On behalf of PUTERA, I proposed four more clauses to strengthen our rights, referring to the magic phrase "The 9 Malay States" already in the preamble as proof of PUTERA's absolute right to claim them:

a) Malay to be Malaya's national and official language.

b) Malaya's defense and foreign policies to be handled by the Malayan and British governments with equal responsibility.

c) Malay as the nationality for the people of Malaya.

d) The National Flag would have a red band over a white one.

The problem is there are many NGOs and parties who are actually too emotional and sentimental, not using their brains to think well. This is why there are a flurry of unnecessary police reports made as a result of being blinded from one part of history by the main party that runs the government. It is no wonder that Malaysia was described by someone as the country in the world where there are most number of police reports made!

There are still many who while acknowledged that the national flag did not realize that it(s) design was largely influenced by the American flag (noted for its blue, red and flag bands). On the other hand, our national anthem's tune was largely based on Memula Moon tune, popular in Hawaii. Unfortunately, we didn't acknowledge the work of the original composer, unlike in Germany. The German's national anthem, though it(s) lyrics had changed over the last 200 years, yet it's tune was credited and acknowledged that it was written by the Father of Symphonies himself, Joseph Haydn. 

Are we still in the believe that UMNO was the first and last party that spearheaded independence without bloodshed? On the contrary no. There are precursor parties and events prior to 1957 that shaped the path of independence from colonialization by the English. Why are many Malaysians no longer fly our national flag? Partly it's because they have realized and discovered the unrevealed history of our nation. Partly it's because that the independence fighters, those who have fought against the English including Tok Janggut, Datuk Bahaman and the rest have been totally forgotten by the people and made to do so by the UMNO propaganda machine.

Have we really forgotten as the famous saying of "Melayu mudah lupa?"

In the memory of 'Death in custody' victims

Alvivi: A Double Edge Sword Case

As of now I do not want to comment further or repeat again about the fuss going around with the situation surrounding the sex couple Alvin and Vivian thing. I have so far examined some remarks spoken by some people and I observed that the situation is a double edge sword. In other words, it's not just the pair who's in fault, but instead it is the society and the people too that plays the part.

First and foremost, the pair should have replaced a photo of the dish with something more generic in nature that can be consumed by all. Alternatively, they could also consider sending their message with a short one minute clip of them greeting - no pomp - instead of showing that. 

It is a sad thing that there's still many things to be learnt by both of them. The present society, though it's still naive and conservative are yet to be ready to accept the ideas of liberalism that advanced societies have been advocating. I remembered of one interesting line spoken by a minister, Nancy Shukri saying that drug criminals should been treated as patients rather than being criminals. We still have yet to see things from the other side. 

Of course, I would say let the law run its course, but the methods used to investigate like, how they are being made to sit for nine hours and subsequent overlapping questioning and multiple charges by police and even Islamic religious regencies have shown how inefficient our investigation system is. I also had a imagining thought of a couple in jail for a non-serious physical crime (murder, drugs, criminal breach of trust etc..) whereas on the real world, serious crimes have yet to be solved and addressed.

Muslim people, particularly in Peninsular Malaysia often mistook the pork ribs with herbal soup (bak kut teh) by associating it with pork (a taboo thing in Islam and many people). Another lesser variant, substituting pork with chicken is actually available, but it was to cater for other races who wanted to have a taste of the famous delicacy of the Chinese. 

Weakness In The Malaysian Society Psyche

However, while we let the police do their job (I wish they would have been more efficient rather than a triple-deck procedure), the ruckus that was triggered by many people, Malays in particular. Speeches and comments one after another with many commenting about the insensitivity of the two and chest thumping themselves, telling others not to interfere with the affairs have clearly demonstrated key weaknesses in the Malaysian society psyche.

First of all: we are people obsessive. We seem to be minding people's affairs and more interested with tabloid stories rather than more serious pressing matters. As the result while the nations foundation stones keep on rumbling of a possible collapse, people still remain ignorant all in the name of maintaining national security. 

Secondly, this has already revealed how certain groups of Malayisans are prone to various emotions. Many reacted small heartedly, not respond, to various situations at the slightest hint of mentioning something that will tick them. For instance, a few got very small hearted when seeing their non-Muslim people eating in front of them or if they see them wearing clothes that they do not like. When they are in that situation, they tend to make plenty of mistakes in decision making and this could at times result in a scenario being taken to the extreme (overboard).

Third, this has revealed hypocrisy by these people. This doesn't mean it's for certain group, but it happens to all of Malaysians, politicians included. A very simple example explained is about we showing our support for Syria and Palestine, but on the other hand, acted and responded wildly if a Vatican ambassador or any ambassador starts to make criticism or support to a certain view in Malaysia. In other words, we go emotional if there are things talked which didn't match our set of ideals that might be flawed. Okay, go ahead and charge them but the common question asked in this situation is "what about Ibrahim Ali or Zul Noordin?"

Fourth, is of course that many leaders rely on the old excuse answer of "for the sake of national security" or
"it will confuse a certain group of people" demonstrates their lack of inquisitive nature to go forth and find out the real answer. Was this excuse built on the hear sayings that was passed down for generations? Can't our leaders and the intellectual people dig down further to see whether that excuse myth is actually true or false. Surely, it is no harm done of revisiting the holy books, narratives, commentaries written by the scholars of the past to ascertain our hypothesis? Our leaders - especially the old guard are still bankrupt of ideas, and those young and energetic might have the problem of breaking ranks with the veterans considering of repercussions to come.

Today, Malaysia is one of the small number of countries in the world that still uses the British-spawned Sedition Act. The act, according to the time of conception is actually close to 800 years ago, introduced during the reign of Henry VIII. Even our own former colonial master has abolished it three years ago seeing of its irrelevance and the alternative laws that can be used for that. It's no wonder that Malaysia is actually a neo-feudal country. This old law is one case, the native's mentality, especially the uneducated is still stuck around the equivalence of the 17th century Europe. I often wondered what really happens if this same structured society is around the next two - three centuries: we would be ridiculed and chastised all the way even until after death. A fitting way to say how stupid and naive we are until we die. 

More Boredom and Doldrum In Learning History

Islamic Civilization to be a must in private varsities (Malaysiakini, 11 July)

An opposition MP today questioned the Education Ministry’s move to make Islamic Civilisation (Tamadun Islam) studies compulsory for local students even in private universities.

The ministry has stated that the subject would be made compulsory in all private institutions beginning Sept 1 in an effort to “standardise” requirements with public universities.

“We strongly urge the Education Ministry to reverse the ruling and let the individual universities decide on the needs of their courses,” DAP’s Kampar MP Ko Chung Sen said during a press conference today.

Ko questioned the need for the ministry to make this subject compulsory for non-Muslims but at the same time restrict it to only local students.

“How will this help those who are studying to become lawyers, doctors and engineers?” he asked.

He said that Muslims would have known about Islamic civilisation beforehand through their teachings, whilst non-Muslims do not need to learn of Islamic civilisation in universities.

He said that according to the federal constitution, any individual should not be forced to learn any religion that is not his or her own.

*******

I used to like History. It was a favorite subject in school. I found it quite fascinating because the syllabus, be it whether you study in lower-secondary and upper secondary covers history from the Malaysian history to world history. At least it scratches the surface of each part of the world.

When coming to Form 4, the inclusion of the Islamic civilization section (forms one bulk of the SPM syllabus) has eventually driven many classmates, whom I have observed into boredom. It rears an ugly head in learning history. Instead of making it quite exciting and more balanced, the bias focus on one civilization has got many losing interest and subsequently, it is one of the essay questions that many students would skirt around / avoid when doing homework or sitting for mock / actual exams.

The names and terms in the Islamic civilization is enough to drive a non-Muslim (especially student) into nuts and subsequently boredom in learning. This has resulted of many teenagers losing steam and interest towards the subject towards the end of their secondary education. It's not the alif-ba-ta  thing that makes them lose. It's the historical period - dull and sometimes monotheistic in nature.

Fortunately, when I was in tertiary education, the local subjects - a requirement before you can complete your degree in a local university was mainly on moral studies (Form 6 equivalent) and the other one called the equivalent of Form 6's Pengajian Am. I nearly didn't graduate because of that Pengajian Am paper: I took Moral studies during my freshman year while skipping Pengajian Am because of the subject set on Saturdays at that time - it didn't interested me to come for Saturday classes. In the end, I only took it on the second half of my third year (out of the total 4 years). 

I recalled that 2002 was the last time that in foundation year, a student is allowed to skip the first semester (of three) if the SPM results are quite good and satisfactory to warrant a bypass. By December 2003, it wasn't allowed anymore and at that time, when we're near to the end of the third year of class, we went through a crash course of finishing that missing period - all in the space of one month itself out of the full four months.

I don't even know who's idea was to add one more to the existing but sufficient two local study subjects but you can be sure that it is from the academic point of view will result in more boredom and frustration at the expense of standardization as what the Education Ministry claim to be. The one problem right now is that Malaysians don't even realize until the very last minute or when something hit them so hard that they will only do so.

Ibrahim Ali replied today and gave the same high mighty tone akin to "who are you to question it." Let's just let that frog croak whatever he wants - since it represents his political face (you'll see a different face if you happen to sit with him for dinner or a cup of tea in private). There are many people who closed their eyes and say kind of crap, unless they talk to their non-Muslim friends about being in their shoes and see from their point of view to gain their enlightenment.

One thing I noted was that Dr. Ko never referred that matter to Agong and etc..whereas Ibrahim's comment mentions the Agong. It might be that he may have either been misled by his loyal-to-the-end newspaper Utusan. It ain't about race and religion here, but on the long run it will not make students love history that well - it makes things worse because you are being made to stare at one focal civilization compared to having a fair amount of share time on studying other civilizations - the proper way to go through that syllabus.

What Kind of Dumbkopf Is He Talking?

Cynically, as an inverse of "Apa Cina Mau", I would say, "ini Melayu cakap apa ni?"

I find it a little hard to understand the logic of this MP from Penang. Perception wise, it is enough to piss a lot of people of mix races on this where the ambience of late night stalls is one way to get the people from all races together over a nice supper and a cup of coffee at a reasonable price.

There are far bigger problems than this late night stall eating and shisha that as according to the saying of Malays forget easily that the quality of life has degraded into a mediocre state - something that the recent "enlightened" minister Khairy has said in light of the incident in Bukit Bandaraya (will talk later on).

As you can view the video, you can see many urban people will start to be very very unhappy, while those in the rural areas will have no clue to what this fellow is talking about.

Buat apa lu orang pilih orang ini masuk Parlimen? Tak tahu malu kah?

By the way, another fellow in Selangor, Dr. Xavier also deserves to be screwed by other people. The common thing about both men is that "who are they to tell us to do tit for tat?" In other words, please lar, let other people have their own privacy. 

This is tantamount into wading into people's private everyday life telling you not to shower or forcing you to go to a specific place everyday against your will. There's bigger picture to look at lol!

Anyway, even if I don't write this, he's already shot himself on the foot as the statement invited plenty of brickbats anyhow. 

The Myth of The Lazy Native Still Lives

Utusan last Sunday have attacked again the Chinese, warning them that the community stands to lose much by voting the opposition in the recent general elections. It is indirectly part of a series of attacks meant to alienate and hurt the community by the conservative and the extremist side of UMNO who still today are unable to understand why the community behaves differently from their expected follow the herd mindset. This is more of brainwashing those who have not been enlightened by the actual truths and misleading them into believing that one community is behind all the problems. This is however in contrast with the so called "call of reconciliation" that Najib makes weeks before.

The present set of problems faced by the country matches the hypothesis that I made a that there isn't going to be substantial changes despite promises by Najib. It's likely that it would be more or less a status quo with nothing to change more to appease the rural folks. One year ago, I have written my concerns in a posting detailing that it is high likely that the chances of change of government is unlikely because of one main factor excluding the gerrymandering factor: Malay votes. 

My view is that the cost of BN's win is acceptable but morally hollow. In the long run the ruling government will start to feel alienated with many voting for a refreshing change but with the smaller number of people were the eventual ones who decided on them forming out of  the new cabinet / government.

Base of the mindset and psyche of the Malay community, there are still those who are unwilling to change out of fear, uncertainty and victims of the fear mongering as well as the laziness of their attitudes / spiritual mentality. In the 1970s Mental Revolution analysis report, as again I've repeated over and over again:, the negative perception of the Malay community that many observers including former colonial masters noted is as follows:

1. Not truthful with themselves

2. Unpunctual

3. Looking for a quick buck using any means necessary sans hard work

4. Fatalistic attitude - always saying it is the fates of God vs working hard to decide their own fates

5. Spending very lavishly including having big feasts despite not having the sufficient budget to do so.

6. Getting emotional and sentimental too easily resulting in the inability to think logically and rationally.

7. Education that encourages submissive attitude with taking everything in without reasoning / questioning why.

As emphasized again, the scathing remarks no longer confines to one single race, but instead has already extended to every Malaysian, given that the limited scope referred by the analysis was made more than 40 years ago.

Let's put the first point above as example. Two days ago, Utusan has published a front line article saying that prices of cars have reduced between 2 to 11 percent on selected brands and models. Yesterday, car manufacturers, Volkswagen and Peugeout have denied this stating that the price still remained the same and not the one that was reported in the papers. Thus, was Utusan writing on their own imagination? And if people were expecting for a car reduction of 20% approximate across the board while it doesn't seem to happen now, it shows how the government is insincere. The real solution is to deduct a portion of the excess tax.

Utusan claims that the Chinese are emotional and greedy. However, by using the Revolusi analysis it is actually most Malays, they themselves included are actually emotional and greedy.

While the reasons of the voting trend for certain states like Kedah, Negeri Sembilan and Teregganu were known, and explained and understood to me by certain people who are familiar with politics, other states however do not have that factor applied in this reasoning, but instead, the ignorance is bliss attitude still adopted by many of these people will eventually prevent Malaysia from reaching the idealized Vision 2020 that Dr. Mahathir wanted more than 20 years ago. 

Many ministers in the government over the more mature world would definitely quit on admittance of committing a malpractice in government administration out of their sincerity. Sincerity is a key issue that is taught in each religion across the world. But not in Malaysia. Ministers, even committing physical assault, and other practices in conflict of interest will never sincerely quit because of the fear of humiliation and trend of Malaysian obsession with personalities over national interests.

The most often answer of why people in Singapore or other first world countries are socially more successful in every aspect is because of the emphasis of real nation building, with emphasis of religion factor out from day to day affairs. Some critics say that Turkey is like Malaysia today, but with one main difference: religion factor is out of the nation governance aspect.

The New Economic Policy could have made many Malay and Bumiputera people richer by the time the original program period ended in 1990. Instead, there are still 40% of 29 million Malaysians are in the poor class catergory, while many are still unable to get a better pay with the salary market still stagnant. Had the policy got executed perfectly minus loopholes, we would have seen many people driving better cars, say Mercedes, got better houses with the percentage of the poor reduced to around 5%. Instead, we are still seeing situation of the 80s despite better facilities and improved technology.

Criticism is very essential in every religion. Absolute control is equivalent to a man trying to play God is against the mission of man in the world. 

Menang tersorak, kampung tergadai - merely to hold on to 56 years of power, they unadmittingly brought in foreign workers from other states to vote in areas (videos recorded and put up on Youtube /facebook to prove it) at the expense of forsaking the national sovereignity. And when the disaster strikes, as what I have said sometime back, many people would eventually realize, but it will then be too late and the cost learnt from the disaster would be very very expensive and painful.

A Promise That Is Warm As A Fowl's Manure

One of the views that were shared by the Dutch, English and even the Portuguese on the natives of the land from the 16th century until now is still relevant today and it has still been proven that the myth of the lazy native still exists. Negative perceptions, describing about the natives have been documented by an UMNO research paper in the early 1970s entitled the "Mental Revolution."

Of course, I definitely would like to find time to comment on why majority of Malaysians are still unwilling to change, apart from a few identified factors that have been identified that have been commented by other people such as from the election campaigning perspective and the mindset of people in certain states, but given that this piece has been written at a public location, I might find some time to comment on one attribute that is hindering overall national progress.

The negative view that was given by our then colonial masters to describe the attributes of the Malays was that the Malays have the tendency to make promises as describe by the Malay idiom "hangat-hangat tahi Melayu" or the translation in English would be "as warm as the fowl's manure". What it means is that once it has been promised, a party would do it well at the beginning but efforts undertaken by them would be diminished in the subsequent period / years after the original undertaking. And given of the latest case of car price talk, I felt it is appropriate to frame that problem to the issue just as to state my point.

Out of the desparation to get it's diminishing urban and possibly a certain small percentage of rural support, BN added in at the very last moment of one of the PR's manifesto cases to be implemented, which was the gradual reduction of the car excise tax. Base on the parliamentary-seat results of the election, it seems that together with the die-hard old timers that refuse to change, many fence sitters fell for that promise.

So we thought that we could see the same thing that PR promised that BN would do before the year is over that they would reduce the car prices. After all, one of the problems that many people face is replacing their worn and torn cars that have aged more than seven years for newer and more efficient cars. To compound the existing problem, the car insurance premium has gone up by another 15% across the board. It means that more people face problem with the money in the pockets since you need to have an insurance before you are allowed to renew your vehicle road tax. 

Presently, things are not going well. And from what Tok Pa said about only reducing car prices by 2017/2018 at most, as what Tony Pua said in his letter in Malaysiakini, it is indirectly signalling to the lower-level people in particular to forget about buying newer cars. But hold on, didn't Najib Razak promised about reducing car prices in stages? 

Excerpt from Malaysiakini and Bernama

“As promised, car prices will be reduced in stages until 2017. Insya Allah, I will ensure that every promise is fulfilled." - Najib on 28 May

 
"Car prices will not be reduced (at one go). Prices will be reduced in accordance with market forces" - Mustapa Mohamad on 28 May

Sounds contrasting isn't it? Now it's almost a month since the general elections and the new cabinet has been sworn in the presence of the King, so where's that happy hamper that every car buyer is waiting for? 

Maybe to show that promise is a equivalent to an Indian capati, I would suggest people who are buying a new car to pay according to the actual price minus the additional excise tax. You are already paying for service and import tax already together so why pay extra when that money has been found to be misused? Let's give an example: a Mazda 3 selling at RM 100K, 1.6 is actually selling at RM 56K, with import and service tax included, and insurance counted in. $44K balance should been used to pay as a deposit for an average apartment in Kuala Lumpur that sells around RM 450K.

Motor scrapping and old motor exporting is actually a lucrative business, especially that Africa now needs a lot of those vehicles for those poor natives to afford it so, I don't see why there are more excuses of not reducing car prices except to enrich the fat cats whose income "solely" depend on those exorbitant cash.

So it seems that people who voted for BN have either been mislead about that promise or are actually as what Mental Revolution said: not truthful of themselves. If any of the people that belongs to the latter, there's something wrong with the logic. Why pay two times to buy one car whereas you can actually use the extra money for investment, or for those young and working professionals use it as deposit to buy a new house to stay? I just would hope that whoever defends BN with such crazed would suddenly rant about having a hard time of getting one car like that when you don't earn that much money as the rich would do and yet being willing to be manipulated by the wily old man Mahathir for his own personal ends indirectly.

I am sure many nay sayers would definitely come out with the conventional argument of "closing off one source of income" with that excise tax, but since Proton is still yet to perform at the satisfactory level on their own despite plenty government assistance, stripping them of the assistance would psychologically get them to think and work hard on putting their foot on their own on the global level. There are some of us who would gape in awe over shiny and prestigious cars that our Singaporean friends drive into the country but yet showed their other side of themselves by defending what is illogical and incorrect without being honest with themselves.

What Tok Pa said about that matter is exactly the problem that our previous English colonial masters described of the natives: promises as warm as a fowl's manure. In plain English, it is called as not walking your talk, since Tok Pa is part of the current incumbent government. But that commentary was written over 100 years ago, still relevant but it no longer confines to just one race of people in Malaysia but instead everyone of us.

Excerpt of Tony Pua's letter in Malaysiakini:

Umno president, Najib Abdul Razak announced that, if the BN is returned to power, it would “revamp the National Automotive Policy to gradually reduce car prices by 20-30 percent and increase the competitiveness of the national cars”.

Yesterday, however, International Trade and Industries Minister Mustapa Mohamed - who is in charge of automotive policies - announced that car prices will only be reduced after another five years and not in the near term.

In effect, the BN government is telling Malaysians that they can stop dreaming of cheaper cars for the next five years, and if car prices drop at all, it will be after the 14th general election.

Midnight In St. Michael's

Sharing some of the pics that were taken during a midnight visit to our old school St. Michael's with some of our schoolmates. Some of us had not visited the school for more than 12 years and that visit, made just before Christmas was one way to catch up for the old times and revisiting the past.

"Sons of St. Michael valiant and true!"

It's The Karma Thing

I knew and anticipated that there will come a day that a non-Chinese person could approach me and either start asking questions of why like other Chinese people I went against convention, or voting for opposition; or an extremist right-winger will start a tirade of insults of being ungrateful to what the country has done if by chance seeing this. Of course you don't see much of this on a public area unless you invite the attention of other curious by-standers there. Any well open-minded layman who has a greater understanding of the current political scenario and the aftermath of last week's general elections would clearly know a few reasons why this would happen.

While the dust from the election has yet to settle down, Najib has more problems within his own turf rather than giving more insulting speeches on the outside. He had to sing to the tune of his own party's conservative members, extreme radicals and even to the tone set by his own party's mouthpiece. There's a big possibility that he'd end up like Pak Lah in 2009 by Mahathir because he had scored below the number that Pak Lah did in 2008 and he didn't get back Selangor as he had promised before. 

The voting trend has driven many of the extreme right-wingers into emotional frenzy that as characterized by the "myth of the lazy native" that as such they could not have the capability to think out of the box, open minded and often prone to the desires to commit acts that are considered violating their own religious creed. It makes sense that when the Islamic scholar, Dr. Asri said that they are committing an illegal act by committing racism. Another characterization of the "myth of the lazy native" is that rather than admitting their own faults, they would also blame their failures on other parties, such as calling DAP a racist whereas they, UMNO themselves are actually committing racism with their own concept of Malay Supremacy.

Judging by statements from various UMNO-aligned leaders and even their own newspapers, it seems that those statements confirmed those characteristics defined. The clear case of example is that of Ali Rustam who lost both state / parliament seats and instead starts blaming people voting for opposition for being ungrateful. That is why until today, they will have a hard time to understand why other people thinking patterns don't go in line with their own way of thinking and culture.

Everyone has his own limit, and there will be a point that the people would be force to go to the extreme for they would no longer defend themselves by doing nothing.

If you remember that every year, the Muslims and Indians usually have around 2-5 days break for their festivities, whereas the Chinese, from the start of the new year can have business breaks up to 15 days (those following the Chinese tradition very closely), resuming after the Chap Goh Mei day.

Do you remember that any naive people would have been told that the Chinese control the Malaysian economy? The percentage still remains at the high margin as of today.

Let's assume, that given of the current political scenario that the Chinese have absolutely enough of the tirades of the extremists who keeps blaming them for all their problems. Say during Chinese New Year 2014 or maybe anytime before / after, everyone decided not to do business for 15 days as a gesture of protest. Everyone, not just the Chinese will suffer and the daily Malaysian economy gear will come to a screeching halt. Everyone will definitely suffer just because of the big mouths but small brain of those people.

By the way, Nazri Aziz seems to do a "cakap tak serupa bikin" thing, indirectly singing to the tune of the UMNO grassroots. The Malaysiakini video had him saying that Mahathir is the father of racism, giving the impression that he too will not like racism, but the latest statement tends to paint the picture that everything has to be in the mould of UMNO Baru's ideals. A very clear-cut example of "Melayu mudah lupa" thing I'd say!

And let's say that if I say the same similar thing, will our Malay friends feel upset as well? Again it goes back to the different levels of thinking that each race has. However, Nazri's comment doesn't carry much weight unlike my thought that the nation cannot progress more if the majority (read Malays) do not have the necessary mindset to carry themselves up.

And in case if you have forgotten some eyewitness accounts have indicated that the prices of certain goods have gone up including bread, RON 97 petrol price without any announcement and even despite denials from the Domestic Consumer Affairs ministry. If some of you have voted to BN because of the 1Malaysia brand that Najib sells, get ready to dread for Najib might not survive by year's end - thus in the end you get cheated for your blind support.

We tend to forget the concept of karma, "what goes round comes around" and we are now seeing how UMNO is behaving in national scale compared to what happened in state scale 5-years ago. While the opposition has been constantly making tirades everywhere, even before 2008, because of their role as opposition in state-levels, BN has never been accustomed to that role before and the moment they became state-opposition, they make more complains than ever, even accusing the incumbent state government for their own mistakes committed before then. I am not very surprised of the reaction of some politicians would have said statements such as "I am closing down support centres, now your problem is not mine" or even in reference to Ahmad Said, "I am not going to send any development officers / build new houses in areas won by Pakatan" out of the grudge of no support." Any keen eye observer would notice that this kind of politicians should have been out rather than put them in like Johari Ghani in Titiwangsa.

If race is no longer part of the factor in the election, it is actually a horizontal divide between the ruled vs the ruling elite and the poor, middle-class combined vs the elite rich, as well as the rural vs urban. Unfortunately, since most seats are won from the rural areas, it shows that the rural class has yet to demonstrate their courage to change and sincerity. Recently, there have been several tweets that I stumbled on Anwar Ibrahim's tweet account from people who have finally admitted that they have been victims of misinformation / mislead that they have offered their profound apologies for their mistakes to the person.

So thus, if one is open minded enough, the real fight, the horizontal divide in Malaysia in the big picture is actually the ruled vs the UMNOputras, simply to say that even Malays also form the bottom 40% of the poor and marginalized of the 29 million Malaysians. However, Wednesday's Kelana Jaya stadium gathering has yet to show sufficient number of non-Chinese participants (still at 20%) 

In the end, it is the normal people like us that have to judge for yourselves and think bigger.

What Happened to Sultan Azlan Shah?

Author's note: While outlining my thoughts regarding to the concluded general election, I have received some information that it might be happening.

In the last few days, I have received information from several sources saying that Perak's Sultan Azlan Shah is either near death or as one source said, declared in a vegetative state (a.k.a brain dead).

About two weeks ago, the first information surfaced on that situation was when Ku Shah (Raja Shahruzzaman Idris Shah) wrote of whispers within the palace circles: 

"Terdapat bisikan yang mengatakan Sultan Azlan Shah amat gering (sakit) dan hampir tenat..."

Over the weekend, a schoolmate of mine has been talking about him declared dead. However, due to the election and the allowance of the next 24 hours at most in order for the situation to settle down, the announcement could only be made likely on Tuesday with Perak declaring a state holiday following this. 

Another reliable source came from a friend's wife who's working at the National Heart Institute. According to her, Azlan Shah went to London for treatment of the liver but the situation took a turn for worse upon returning to Malaysia. Currently still in the institute but a few days ago went into a vegetative state with absolutely no hope to recover. The doctors, on request are likely to pull the plug on the life support system.  

If things are as it is, the official announcement of death would go as planned on Tuesday.

At the time of writing, I am still awaiting a confirmation from sources on this so please do not spread the word until if there is a press statement or there's assertion from them.

Today's Polling Day is A Citizen's Real Test of Courage and Sincerity

It's D-Day and we're barely less than 15 minutes before the polling is closed. As the clock ticks down, many people have been monitoring news around the country over various attempts of phantom voters being ferried in as part of the covert cheating strategy that only the present regime that is Barisan Nasional will use to keep in power. Why do you think some of the known figures in the coalition would depart for London, Singapore or other places? Why is Najib and Rosmah voting later unlike the other rulers?

In the last few hours, many concerned citizens have demonstrated proof that phantom voters are ferried in. It is ashamed that there are FRUs, cops and some party quarters have colluded with the Election Commission to  stop those who tried to prevent illegals from voting into it. And this has resulted in some altercations. Worst is that some of the rowdy supporters have threatened PEMANTAU people and even chased voters out of some of the polling stations.

My main thought is that today's general election is actually more a less a test of a citizen's courage and sincerity.

Voters today are given the choice, in my opinion as an analogy of choosing whether to continue a new sense of living or choose to rot and dying in the unknown time. Judging from the preliminary reports, it seems that there are many people who have succumbed to the temptation of lies and have shown their unwillingness to have the courage to change. 

Another analogy to explain the point is that you are given the chance to take the winning away back to yourself or leave the money to be staked by the casino for other deeds. The bonus is that the element of luck is not included in the game. The cases of where the authorities colluding with the EC has already in the end demonstrated how forgetful and how unaware that citizens and pro-UMNO supporters are willing to forsake the nation's sovereignity to thousands of foreign people merely to remain in power. 

There's a Malay saying that once you got knocked in the head, you will finally realized. It's true. If you try to criticize them, they will get very unhappy and will get too emotional, sentimental to the point that they cannot think logically. It will take one national disaster (e.g, austerity, more livelihood problems) to finally realize what a terrible choice they have made. 

But at that time, it's already too late. Too much damage has been done and it will be very hard to recover.

After the results are out, we shall see how much sincerity and courage that you Malaysians have, as what the book The Myth of The Lazy Native would talk about.

Ipoh Timor / Canning for 13GE

Having some extra time has allowed me to write a first-look impression on the candidates for the Parliament level of Ipoh Timur and the state seat of Canning. 

Basically, the criteria that I am looking for the two candidates is that the MP and the ADUN has to do a decent job. Nonetheless, people have to understand the hierarchy of looking for the appropriate persons to do the job. Local Councillors are the lowest of the hierarchy, followed by the state assemblyman. Generally, the area where a voter would be should usually look for the lower and if not, the middle-tier, that is the assemblyman.

If all else fails or if something requires federal government attention, then it is the job of the MP to do it. I once remembered a professor at a forum saying that MPs are not supermen and instead suggested that the people view it from the hierarchy and understand the demands of the job, supposed if they are one of them someday.

When I voted for the first time the last time round, I understood from the beginning that getting the right MP to represent that constituency is more important over than voting for the right assemblyman. Ultimately the resources are controlled by the federal government. State governments can only take it up to a certain limit. 

Taking a cue from my friend Haris Ibrahim's posting, I am prepared to settle for someone who ultimately does a decent job and not being a mere "drain ADUN / MP". The goal for this GE is to whack UMNO and BN to kingdom come. In 2008, I just told some people in Ipoh town, those whom I know, family friends there to give the vote to DAP, and not to some man in MCA whom many have learnt that they just merely kow tow to the whims of UMNO, as it was run by the Ong brothers.

I recalled asking my late grandparents in the late 1990s about her thoughts of the then MP, Thong Fah Chong and the then assemblyman Hew (something ).  My late grandmother's answer was summarized as "not doing their jobs". At that time, internet in Malaysia has yet to expand though.

Now that Lim Kit Siang has moved to Gelang Patah (in DAP's strategy move), Thomas Su, originally the Pasar Pinji assemblyman has been promoted to the Parliamentary capacity while Howard Lee (formerly part of Kah Woh's motley crew) has been moved to that place.

I know some of you may recall an episode that Mediaperak reported in Taman Kaya (Ipoh Garden East) involving Howard's parents and the old man Simon Thong that there's a call for punishment or protest against DAP. But at this point of time, I have to disagree of the timing, but more importantly the need to remove the "scales in blue" party takes a higher precedence. 

While I am not familiar with Thomas, word from the mouth of those who were in Pasir Pinji painted a positive light on Thomas for his work done. In fact, Fong Po Kuan, who wanted to vacate the seat before the 2008 elections had in fact recommended Thomas for Batu Gajah but was persuaded at the last moment to stay there for one more term until now.

Do you remember Ceylyn, the Gerakan Ipoh councilor who was caught saying "ham kah chan" in Cantonese early last year? Watching a Chinese New Year greeting banner hanging at the Gerakan's house office in Kampung Simee with her picture on it seems to be a direct hint there. 

Here's an interesting thing: the bilik gerakan for DAP in Kampung Simee is less than 100 yards away from the Gerakan's bilik gerakan!

From their work rate, Kah Woh and Thomas have passed the integrity test, and there are at times I would bump into the former and his motley crew in some assemblies. I have also have seen his name mentioned prominently in the news about his work in Canning and as well as hitting the headlines of having the BN 6 suspended (prior to the February 2009 coup).

While I am not familiar with the MCA candidate there, I think that it is vital to send a message to the MCA that they are to be ditched for they have outlived their purpose of representing the Malaysian Chinese community.

Place Your Bets! The Casino Has Opened!

20 April 2013 - this special casino has opened its business to the people and other parties.

But the game they offered is very much different from the other casinos that you see in the world. This is because the game that they play do not require luck. You either take side A or side B.

In the hours following the nomination on Saturday, the bets have now opened. Big time rollers, as seen in the Penang and Klang festivities have started betting for the casino, not the player. Of course, any savvy casino player will know that the chances for the bank to win each hand are much higher than siding with the player.

And yes, judging from the amount of campaign ads on the ground and even on cyberspace, the amount of campaign money is not around RM 700 million so to speak but instead around RM 1.7 billion. Leading the boardroom in this special period is the casino owner himself, the 88-year old man who has restless nights fearing that his one-time protege is out to take the money that has been stored in the vaults and the banks who are connected with the casino. 

A RM 500 million loss approximate loss in the betting day means that the big pit boss will be kicked out by the casino owner in a special assembly next door of the casino in June 2013. The so-called alphabet and transformation programs could end up in the drain, unless, the casino wins at least RM 1.1. billion. 

But what is known is that there are pit bosses and their underlings that are far worst than the normal pit bosses and the croupiers that I've seen in international casinos. The writing is on the wall that the casino could lose more the amount lost in the 2008 edition. The latest rumor mill from insiders in the casino seems to confirm my suspicion.

In the next 13 days, I will try my best to write some thoughts and err "necessary insults" to get people wake up.

Six Feet Under

I don't like to get overconfident but with the main non-UMNO members of the coalition in Peninsular fielding in a total of 58 against UMNO's remaining 107 out of the 165 Parliamentary seats, it has the obvious signs that they are likely to be almost buried six-feet. It's one of the signs, the other being when Ah Koon (Gerakan's Koh Tsu Koon) and the pornstar both said that they will not contest in the general elections.

Two main points about MCA that I felt is that the party had already outlived its purpose and claims to defend the Chinese. Question mark is defending against who exactly after World War II and the Malayan Emergency was already long gone? When UMNO radicals started screaming over the Allah bible issue or the Shah Alam cow head issue, what was MCA doing? Daydreaming? Keeping quiet as like when the Ong brothers running the show? 

MCA and Gerakan both have the common thing of being kow tow to the lesser intelligent but yet the bigger bully in the current coalition called UMNO, a.k.a The Casino in Kuala Lumpur. As what Lim Kit Siang pointed that when MCA surrendered Kuantan and Gelang Patah to UMNO, it also paints a  perception that MCA is losing its marbles, knowing that full well that they could be in the bin.

On Saturday, while in Ipoh old town for some food, there were a group of MCA people going around giving pamphlets to customers in various shops. This reminded me of the MCA group that went around Lou Wong and Tuck Kee a few nights before the 12th GE many years ago. I think many still regards MCA candidates in particular as a typical example of a 'drain MP' - jaga longkang.

I told a few friends that they should go wager against the MCA that the party would lose worse than the last round from 15 to say around 7 seats, with each loss that they pay monies, a.k.a casino style. I would really like to see them dead and buried. Now that Superman OTK has been excluded in the candidates list, I have a feeling that it indirectly gives Rafizi Ramli a clearer shot in Pandan, unless there is a direct intervention from Najib or an unexpected problem happening in the PKR camp and so forth.

In 2012, Ipoh city councillor Ceylyn Tay was under hot soup for allegedly uttering "ham kah chan". While it didn't really interest me much of that petty issue, I knew for sure that she would definitely contest in Canning, given of a Chinese New Year banner that I saw in Simee Market for last year's Chinese New Year. I don't know how good is she, but my impressions with the present incumbent, Wong Kah Woh seems to say that he has handled well on his own, for now, given of a group of 12? people in his team. 

That's a little bit for those from Ipoh reading and voting there next month.

Gerakan is near death throes last round. MCA is sinking waist down. Could they be hammered one more time deeper to six feet under? I wish to see that, but you can't be that overconfident, considering that there are several die-hard people from that side, naive, and hardcore BN people out to stop the sinking sub-ships.

April 15: The Two Emma(s) Day

For almost every year without fail on this day 15 April I would definitely re-post what I've written in the 5 years. Today is famously known as the "Two Emma(s) Day" in conjunction with the actresses who share the same birthday. 

I trust that since most of us are internet savvy, you can use various resources like Wikipedia, Google and IMDB to check it out. That's what I encourage you readers to do some searching, eh?

2010 (here):

2008 (here)

On the other hand, it is also the anniversary of the infamous Hillsborough disaster, and for those Liverpudlian people, a moment of silence for them as well.

Email Tapping?

"Pintasan E-mail" - or e-mail tapping in English.

On 18 March, The Malaysian Insider published a report originally sourced from the New York Times stating that the state uses spyware to tap to keep tabs on citizens via images off computer screens, recording video chats, turning on cameras and microphones, and logging keystrokes.

The software used is FinSpy or  the FinFisher suite, the report alleges.

Later of the day, the report drew the ire of the state's own Multimedia Commission.

While the original goal of FinFisher is mainly use to monitored known criminals, thieves, human / drug trafficking, and terrorism, it is also a double-edge sword and it can also being misused. Misused in the sense that the tool is being used to oppress dissenters / human rights and democracy activists, etc.. (those who fall in that group)

****

The below photo appeared on the Radio Bangsa Utama Facebook page an hour ago at the time of writing..

For those who are not from Malaysia, the translated letter reads about the report on the Federal opposition strategy. On the second paragraph it says in translation: Attached herewith is the report about the PR Opposition strategy that has been obtained via "email tapping" for your (Najib Razak) attention.

Can anyone notice and explain why there's this covert e-mail tapping going on there? It's already an abuse to the system.

Who is that man (National Security Council secretary) who signed the letter? A mamak. Upon digging the name via Google, you get:

This picture was taken from last Sunday's Star titled: "NSC: Cyber War is a Crime."

E-mail tapping right?

The letter above says that the government e-mail tapped the opposition e-mails to document the report on the opposition strategy in the general election. So who's really lying? But the signature on the letter is genuine.

The context is abuse of system, with you know which organization is presently running the federal level show. This of course plays hand in hand with the likelihood of gerrymandering of the upcoming general elections no doubt. 

Don't believe everything, says MCMC in response to the report. But this?

 

If there was a talk that by certain people that BN would suffer a reversal like the result in 2008 if elections were to be hold in November last year, then it also implies that the intelligence report leading to this illegal activity that they have committed would be also true after all.

What is the inference with the Citizen lab report and the leaked letter? Up to you to decide.

Even With Reckoning Pack Origin Mass Effect Server Still Needs A Haul

Surely many people say that Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode is quite an interesting and at times addictive play, especially with many people including myself participating in the weekend challenge without fail in order to gain weapons and additional upgrades to one of the 5 N7 promotional weapons. Since each of those weapons have 10 levels, so expect to play throughout the entire year minus Christmas period before you can fill up that portion, but that does not stop you from earning more credits to buy higher-level packs to get newer weapons and characters.

Many of us are aware that the final multiplayer DLC, Reckoning was released one week ago and adds few more new characters and weapons that will help improve the chances of whacking enemies to kingdom come, especially those from the Reaper / Collector class. But the bane of every player's multiplayer experience, the frequent disconnection from the EA server near to the end of a match knows no ends to the anger of a person who have worked hard to farm credits and utilizing special ammo / gear for that match itself.

Once after I installed Reckoning, to participate in the weekend challenge, I got very very pissed off.

I thought it was my Internet connection that screwed me up for it reminded me of the sudden surge of ping latency when I was playing Diablo III sometime back. Ping latency is higher on a non-fixed line compared to a industrial-grade fixed line as noticed in top countries or in organizations.

Bioware was generous to throw in a gift pack for installing at the start, but I wasn't lucky like other players - I only got an extra character for Reckoning - a Cabal Vanguard to play. Seeing that the week's challenge was only to complete one match at any difficulty using any Reckoning kit, I decided to finish up my other character that I was playing, the Vorcha Engineer hoping that by playing three more matches, I can farm enough credits to get a Spectre Pack or a Reserve / Arsenal / Premium Spectre pack to get some new stuff or so.

After playing four matches with Vorcha, I am getting nothing out of it as by the 10th wave, I got disconnected almost every time. While looking at similar topics online about this problem, I stumbled upon a small forum post on reducing lag at the Origin server. I thought this might help since, the fifth match got disconnected three seconds before extraction (on Cabal Vanguard) - can you imagine the anguish of being so closed to the finish line only to be stopped?

Team Fortress 2 has the ability to distinguish whether the player quits midway or gets disconnected against his will. 

The posting apparently suggested that the UPnP Device Host service should be turned off in the services window. (I also turned off other background applications that requires connection to the net as well). Frustrated that I spent 2 hours with nothing to gain from playing the earlier matches, I just turned it off, and went off for a 3 hour nap, hopefully to have some extra time in case things go sour again.

Just open the Services window (services.msc), then look for that UPnP service and turn it off (stop). 

I got lucky somehow as I managed to complete that match. But I wasn't sure whether the method is a stop-gap measure for now. In any case, EA and Bioware has to do something serious about it, especially if this game is played by PS3 and XBox users as well. If I have time back home at night, I might try again on testing that solution on leveling up my Vorcha at level 20.

The other thing was that the iPhone app for the game has outlived its usefulness. Apart from helping to improve your military rating, the credits earned from the match couldn't be transferred over, which is a disadvantage as to helping to get more packs for matches.