Saturday 11 July 2015

inconsequential nothings

I have been very lazy this Ramadhan, leaving the day to day work to Yaya and Ema while I brood in the solitude of my room doing my own thing.

Ida is spending her Ramadhan with her family up north, so I doubt that we would see her on the the first day of Raya, but Ema will only be flying back three days after the end of Ramadhan so she'll be around for Raya.

There are four of us girls - Ida is the eldest and the prettiest, next is Yaya who does everything hereself and takes care of everyone, while Ema is the socially adept one with a large circle of friends, and then there is me, the odd one.

I can't remember when was the last time we were all together at the same time during Raya as even back then when I was a lot younger, someone was always somewhere else during any family get-together, Raya included.

However, what I like most about celebrating Raya back in the kampung was the nervous anticipation of waiting for the announcement on the eve, the "Takbir Raya", and everyone being up all night cooking the "ketupat", "rendang" and "kuah kacang".

Dad would not be back from the nearby mosque until much later, and then he would take over presiding over the final stages of the cooking.

We had this outdoor cooking stove where we cooked the ketupat and rendang.

I wasn't much into the "bunga api" and "mercun" let alone the noisy "meriam buluh", so I spent most of the evening trying to help out in the kitchen.

Mom and my sisters would be up very early in the morning to cook the "sayur lodeh" and other quick cooking stuff for the morning breakfast.

I admit that I am not very handy around the house - whatever I can do, someone else can do it better and faster.

That's the problem when one is the youngest in a family of achievers, you find yourself to be in the way most times instead of being useful, and after a while you simply do not know how to be useful.

For example, Yaya not only does the cooking, sewing, cleaning and gardening, she also does things like  putting up wall fans, shelves, curtain railings, to tiling and painting the kitchen walls.

She makes her own organic fertiliser, plants vegetables to supplement our store bought foodstuff, and now hardly ever have to buy herbs because her herb garden is thriving.

Yesterday, we helped her cleaned and serviced all the air-conditioners in the house in addition to cleaning up all the ceiling fans.

She is also responsible for maintaining three other properties too.

She is also raising two boys who are doing reasonably well academically and fairly well-behaved.

I can only say that I may not be nearly half as accomplished as Yaya is, but putting up the curtains in the living room for Raya this year is fully my responsibility.


Thursday 2 July 2015

Towards total collapse

The attack is now moving on to Mara, the first vehicle that enable Bumiputra economic and social empowerment, now that they have fully established public distrust against the present administration under PM Najib.

Previously their attacks have mostly been against those associated with PM Najib, but now they are moving towards creating greater public distrust and disgust at everything that was built by the BN government and the Bumiputra agenda.

Politically speaking, the Peninsular Malays as a whole have completely lost their collective political power, it is the Sabah and Sarawak Bumiputra that continue to determine whether the Bumiputra will continue to hold on to govern the country.

All three states that contributed the most to the present Bumiputra-controlled federal government - Johor, Sabah and Sarawak - are under intense pressure, politically speaking, with certain powers in Johor pushing for secession and Sarawak demanding more autonomy, while Sabah has both Manila and the secessionists in their landscape.

What amazes me is how easily people are being manipulated to further weaken our own socio-political situation.

It is very disheartening to see my people being manipulated to a point where we have lost sight of the big picture, being blinded by overwhelming ego, insatiable greed and flawed judgement.

For me, it is pretty interesting to watch how we have managed to get to this point where an entire ethnic group has been fractured into little bits - ensuring that they will eventually lose their majority power in a western-style democratic election system to determine the next administration.

First they attack the man at helm, making sure that he is seen as weak and incompetent.

Then they attack his initiatives to further undermine him, his administration and everything associated with him.

Once that distrust and disgust has been firmly established, the connection between him, his ethnicity and the establishment means the present administration is continuously on defensive mode as they make their attack from one establishment to another.

Now every issue raised against the establishment is immediately perceived by the public as true and the demands are made for explanations, even though hardly anyone actually believed the explanations given.

Our country is breaking apart, and yet there is nowhere I want to be as I believe that what is happening here is also happening elsewhere.

It is a time where chaos will rule.

Just a note to those who practice "The End Justifies The Means", the Almighty determines "The End", we should think how we will be judged by "The Means" that we employ to achieve "The End" that we wanted.