Musings: Of the Future that I See

I finally managed to get some quiet time with the boys away on a trip with Mummy and Daddy.

Actually there was no reason whatsoever for this particular post, other than to remind myself that I do have an outlet for my thoughts, albeit a rather public one, since I have entirely missed all the possible sensational stuff which I have not found interesting enough to waste any cerebral activity on.

That's the problem about our political scenario - nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

The toll hike, the recent price increases of daily goods, the implementation of GST - all are the expected things that come with our drive towards becoming a high income nation.

What I have been spending some cerebral activities on is pondering on the possible scenario of the future of Malaysia and Malaysians based on what is happening right now.

What I am seeing right now is the possibility of the government continuing to increase their focus on the development of pockets of 'high-income' areas and Malaysia will gradually move to become a more open capitalistic free-market nation, removing the more socialist-related trappings of the previous administrations such as subsidies and government assistance.

These pockets of development areas will be centred around what they term as growth areas, namely the Iskandar Region, the Klang Valley and Pulau Pinang.

Select urban and semi-urban areas in the outlying region will be developed to become feeders for resources and materials, while the rural areas will be provided with minimal development to quiet any possible grumbling as they hold the key to political stability.

The privileged and disgruntled urbanites will continue to be rewarded with better facilities, improved infrastructure, more access to all the trappings of good living, while the number of urban poor will increase to serve the high living that mark the life of urban elites.

True to a free-market capitalistic society, capital is what will make the difference between making it or slogging your years away for a decent living.

Connections and networking has always been the key to business success, but this will be far more important in the future that I see, with talent and abilities being far more dependent upon who you know and how much financial backing you can garner, as all the government's support mechanism will gradually be removed in the name of meritocracy.

Meritocracy will also mean academic scholarships will no longer go to those who can't afford the high cost of education, but will become a reward for academic excellence, meaning parents will spend an enormous amount of resources on private tuitions, private schools, lessons aids to ensure their kids can win a scholarship to a prestigious college to kick-start their future.

Those who can't afford or do not have access to these extras, will have to be content with their children taking up PTPTN loans to pay off tuition fees for the less expensive programmes - which will earn their kids a diploma - or even working immediately after school to expand the household income.

The gap between the haves and the have-nots will increase and we will eventually have a society of a small group of elites, while the presently large middle-class will eventually be squeezed with rising costs of living to merge into the growing working class.

I guess my nephews are lucky that their dad could give them all these little extras that will ensure them a decent future if they apply themselves hard enough, but to the less fortunate children of some of the rural places I have been to, the future seems rather dim.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong, for I cannot imagine wanting to live within that future environment.

Of Transmittable Diseases

I have been down with flu' so BigCat has been severely neglected just as I was thinking of writing regularly again.

I took the boys to Kidzania KL last Monday for a bit of R&R and must have caught something along the way.

This is the first time in days that I feel better, just in time to catch up with a friend who has been covering the just concluded Muktamar PAS.

I guess the inability to come up with a good excuse for discrepancies in voting results is a transmittable disease.

But I think what is worse is the PAS President's dismissal of these unexplained discrepancies as "perkara kecil".

It's like saying that the 86 delegates' show of choice (representing how many thousands of your own party members) is small matter to him.

Dato', it is better to say you don't know and will find out what really happened than make such an arrogant comment, you know.

If you are that dismissive of your own party members, I am beginning to wonder how much more dismissive will you be of the general public, especially those people who are not even your party supporters who are still the rakyat that you are obliged to serve if you become their representative in the House.

And if the party president is like that, people will start wondering about the character of the people who chose you to lead them.

The fact that PAS delegates chose that Mat Sabu fella as their second in command is reason enough to give me doubts about the intelligence of a group of people who claim that their party consists of clever, educated, classy and righteous thinking Muslims.

I have heard that fella speak in public a few times.  To this day, I can't understand why people like him so much as a politician because I couldn't find anything he said worth thinking or discoursing about, nothing about logical governing policies, nothing about initiatives to address societal imbalances, nothing other than political rhetorics and crowd agitations.

I was told he was an interesting and funny speaker, and yet I found him disappointingly empty.

Today I was told that he is the second most powerful man within PAS political leadership.

Majlis Syura Ulama PAS, you say?  Come on la ... with the results of the ballots, do you really think the opinion and decrees of the Ulama within PAS matters to the delegates who represent PAS members in the country?

Oh by the way, the boys thought Kidzania was fun.  Al chose to be an aircraft pilot, a firefighter, a dentist and a secret agent (in that order) while Deen chose to be a firefighter, an aircraft pilot, a dentist and a secret agent.

Both wanted to go again, but I told them I am all broke so they have to wait until their daddy has the time to take them.

Of Being a Laze-about

I finally went and got myself "micro-simmed" to go with my brand new (almost) iPhone 5S, a gift from my sister, who has been handing fancy smart phones left, right and center lately.

Mwahaha .. I knew I was going to get one of these fancy schmancy piece of tech for free ...

So, for the first time in my life, I got myself a piece of tech which I refuse to call a phone because 90% of the time I am using it for things other than communicating with someone else at the other end of the line.

I even trashed some youngster somewhere in the epic slugterra slug it out multiplayer game three minutes after downloading it on my brand new (almost) 5S.

My nephews think that was too cool.  We cheered my winning together.

My sister, on the other hand, thinks it's sad that a grown woman would actually waste precious minutes in a game meant for preschoolers, but hey, it is just a bit of slug-slinging entertainment that the child in me simply can't resist.

She thinks if I were to just get out of the house and get a regular job, no matter how much the pay is, I'd be able to break the bad habit of being a laze-about.

She may have a point, as all these fun and games are what have been keeping me occupied and out of touch with the political scene.

I mean, what more can you write about the present political situation in this country anyway?

Everyone and everything is just too predictable, and there is really nothing new to perk my interest that I get more pleasure out of creating game content than browsing for current affairs news.

Seriously, if not for my rather boring and dull online persona, and a boring and dull lifestyle, I would consider transforming BigCat blogspot into a lifestyle blog as I would have more to write about.

Trying to keep up with the so-po label and being all serious and intellectually acceptable is taking its toll on my senses.

Even the Sg Limau by-election failed to register a tremor on my "interesting stuff" gauge.

As for (formerly Dato) Hamsan Saringat, way to go, sir, I have always thought that you are an interesting and upright person, so hang in there and stick to your principles.  What is more important is that you continue to maintain your integrity and upkeep your responsibilities to the public.

As for Sees, don't worry ... rezeki dari Allah.  We know that what you've got, you earned it the hard way.  Hang in there, may the righteous be the eventual winners, insya Allah.

Of Mental Midgets and Self-Imposed Alienation

Apparently Chief Minister Lim is still at it, at least according to rockybru, Annie, Helen, and a score of others covering the Sungai Limau by-election.

I am not going to waste my time pondering on the obvious lack of political maturity being displayed by the DAP Great Leader.

His inability to actually speak publicly without taking potshots at his political rivals and his tendency to badmouth his own country and countrymen when addressing foreigners is a sure sign that his mental capacity isn't capable of thinking beyond lame midgetry and racial incitement to justify his existence.

We can only thank God for the infrequent opportunity for him to embarrass us with political potshots at BN and Umno at international events where he is supposed to maintain the decorum and dignity of a state leader.

I am, however, quite curious about how the majority of the cina in Malaysia who claim to be educated and superior in every way than the Malays could be so full of themselves, so steeped in self-pity, so lacking in mental fortitude and logical reasoning that they could actually fall for such an obvious political ploy meant to incite racial hatred in order to gain political support.

I wonder whether this completely self-absorbed and insular mental state is a common cultural trait of the ethnic cina or if it is a result of indoctrination from childhood of their imagined superiority while at home, at the chinese vernacular schools, among their peers and also within the chinese trade associations of Malaysia.

It doesn't help that the cina of Malaysia maintained an almost "jijik" attitude when it comes to the Bahasa Kebangsaan, such that the majority of them who were born and bred in this country couldn't communicate effectively in the national language, whereas I have met a Bangladesh national who have been here for less than 4 years to have better command of the language than many cina I have met.

They would rather speak in broken English than in broken Malay.

The irony is, the greatest champion of vernacular schools and chinese trade associations is MCA who has been providing not only financial funding and business networking, but more importantly lobbying for contracts in the public sector.

In my opinion, if there were any lacking in the quality of life of the ethnic cina in this country, or ethnic indian for that matter, the blame should be laid at the feet of their own political and business leaders who have not done as much for their respective communities as were expected of them despite being given positions of power in the government, business licenses to operate without restrictions, government contracts aplenty, even financial funding for their respective vernacular schools and tertiary colleges.

Now they are all blaming Umno because that is too easy and far more convenient than sincerely asking themselves what they have done for their respective communities and that whether all these while they have taken advantage of ethnic differences to the point of alienation to put Umno to ransom purely for personal gains and political mileage.

I am not particularly fond of most Umno leaders, but I will not be party to the perpetuation of a myth that non-malay political leaders are blameless for their becoming irrelevant to the very people they claim to represent, the reason why I took offense to statements of Gerakan leaders at their convention.

I find such posturing despicable.

At the end of the day, I have found that the saying "it's every man for himself" is absolutely true in business and politics, regardless of what they claim in public, and I doubt that Chief Minister Lim is any different.

Gerakan and The Boot

Gerakan will no longer kow-tow to Umno?

Do you even realise that your representation in any part of the country is courtesy of Umno, giving you face?  

Do you even realise that MCA and Gerakan political representation in this country after GE13 is courtesy of Umno's tireless grassroots activism?

Have you no shame?

You think you could have won in Simpang Renggam and Pemanis if it hadn't been for Umno branches campaigning without any support from Gerakan members on the ground?

As far as I am concerned, Gerakan should show some self-respect and leave the coalition.  You are not only dead-weights, you are also a major liability to BN.

Umno will not give you The Boot, so you should just go, you know, walk the talk and take your stinky hide out of the Coalition.

You are giving a bad name to all those "superior", "classy", so-called Malaysians with your caving in to the inevitable "we will continue to be part of BN" thing that you finally came up with at the end of all that blaming Umno for everything wrong with your party.

I dare Gerakan to pull-out from BN.

Otherwise, you are just proving yourselves to be a bunch of spineless wimps of the most despicable kind.

Musings: Politically Speaking

I have refrained from putting down my thoughts here during all that Umno thing that has been the main topic of the political kind these past weeks because I was hoping against hope that Umno leadership will seriously walk the talk - you know, about all that transformation bull and stuff - but the results of the Wanita and Pemuda elections kinda tell me that all that transformation talk was just that - bullxxxx.

The thing is, I'd rather not make predictions early on as I had no wish to see my fears confirmed, but unfortunately the outcome was such that I spent the most part of yesterday creating content for my favorite computer game instead of being useful around the house.  It was really disheartening.

However, I am not going to start getting all emotional and throwing tantrums with proclamations of "Umno is dead, long live PR/DAP/PAS!" or things of that nature.

I haven't lost it all yet, for despite the less than stellar leadership line-up within Umno, it has far more credibility and variables than those presently in power within DAP and PAS.

At least BN/Umno still has some conscience, especially since it has not resorted to the kind of bigoted demonisation that has been used against them by the PR/DAP/PAS and their liberalised "classy" minions from both sides of the divide in cyberspace, twitterdom and elsewhere.

The next political struggle to watch for in the Peninsular states will be within PR/PAS.

PAS has never been politically active in Sabah and Sarawak, so its fight will largely be focused on the  Peninsular Malays, presenting an alternative to BN/Umno, and will be taking advantage of the present dissatisfaction among urban and young Malays with Umno's insular attitude.

That's why Khairy Jamaluddin's winning the Pemuda leadership is the saddest thing for Umno's future as I think he is out of touch with the majority of young Malays urban or rural - he is seen as too liberal, too untrustworthy, too in love with himself and too fake - that I think they will eventually flock to PR/PAS if Pemuda continues its present "syok sendiri" mode, its current trademark.

I have just completed re-reading about Pemuda Umno, and my quick assessment is that its decline really began in the late 80s to early 90s, so it is not surprising that the present Umno leadership is the way it is right now.

Looking at the voting trends from 1999 to 2008, there has been a steady decrease of support for BN/Umno at the ballot box among the younger voters even in Malay-majority areas.  The results of GE13 would be an interesting analysis.  However, I digress.

The way I look at it, PR has milked all it can milk, politically, from the Peninsular Chinese through DAP's chavinistic politics, and will now focus most of their energy in converting Sabah and Sarawak.

What happened at GE13 sort of proved that PR and their backers cannot win the federation purely by playing on Chinese sentiments.

Despite using PAS and their rhetorics to undermine Malay solidarity in semi-urban areas, and gaining almost all the Chinese heart and soul, they failed to win sufficient seats to form the federal government.

The Chinese and the liberal Malays have largely ghettoed themselves into highly dense urban enclaves of "the haves" that have limited their effectiveness during elections.

All PR can do now is play the Chinese sentiments to maintain the status quo within the Chinese enclaves, that is playing up all the Chinese issues they can find to keep the fire burning, so to speak.

PR realise that they need to garner the rural votes themselves as PAS has failed to deliver rural support - this is proven in Johor and Perak.

They can only do that among the bumiputra of Sabah and Sarawak.  Their tool is Christian evangelism.

At least that's why I think PR/DAP are going all evangelical for the past 2 terms and why they immediately went into campaign mode for Sabah and Sarawak barely a month after GE13.

Their focus will be in using Christianity to get the rural votes from Sabah and Sarawak, and that is why they are working with the various churches to increase both flock and votes - a mutually beneficial partnership indeed.

PR/DAP have not seen massive success yet, but their backers and strategists are confident that their "superior intellect" and massive funding through NGOs will prevail against the "simplistic and less than intelligent" natives despite failing to rouse a Malaysian Spring into the summer of 2013.

After all, the only thing in their way is currently being controlled by self-serving pursuits of the few and lulled into complacency from within.

The Expected Happened

The Pemuda result was totally expected, as having seen Pemuda in action over the past two years (or rather inaction where it matters) I was fairly certain that YB Khairy would win.

I wasn't expecting her to win, but I was definitely hoping that Datuk Maznah wouldn't be given such a rout by the Wanita delegates.

Wanita was indeed a disappointment.

On the other hand I hope YB Emy will bring about a difference to Puteri and bring her activism on the ground to the rest of the Puteri Wing.

Although it is important for Puteri to take up issues faced by young Malay women, I sincerely hope that YB Emy's experience as the rep for Masjid Tanah will give her greater understanding of grassroots issues which will help her give greater substance and relevance to Puteri's political and social activism.

Congratulations and my best wishes YB Emy.

Rooting for Datuk Maznah

I have been reading up on Datuk Maznah's candidacy for the Wanita Umno top post.

I don't know the lady personally, and I have never met her in person, but what I have read seems to be fairly neutral and devoid of negativity.

Even my sister thinks she seems to be an OK person from her dealings with her.

Among the three contesting, I have the most confidence in her to clean up Wanita's image and bring back the original spirit of the Wanita grassroots movement that has always been the backbone of Umno social activism, without which Umno political activism would not have been sustained all these years.

I am not a Wanita member, but I have a great deal of respect for a number of Wanita members I have met and worked with over the past 2 years.

I also believe that the work that they do on the ground is not only good for Umno, but also good for the community that they serve.

Both Wanita and Puteri should be working together in developing social programmes that capitalise on their collective strengths,providing feedback that can be incorporated at policy-making levels to ensure Umno political activism continues to be relevant.

I have great hopes that the new Wanita leadership will look upon Puteri as apprentices and future leaders as opposed to rivals, and I hope we will eventually see a seamless continuity of Puteri activism when they graduate into Wanita.

Nauseating

The latest Demi Negara piece is an absolute must read for those who wants to understand why I no longer respect the present Umno leadership and why I have been rather scathing when it comes to writing about the "classy" people surrounding our PM.

I have been unfortunate enough to have seen some of them in action, in this case the PEMANDU crowd, and I must say that I wasn't too impressed with what I saw.

If everyone in PEMANDU had been so fabulously talented, and everyone had performed commendably, why do we still need McKinsey, Boston Consulting, et al?

I also had the misfortune to have had dealings with the political types from Umno War Room HQ prior to GE13, and that wasn't too pleasant either.

How can he be so blind as to surround himself with these kinds of people when I have encountered others on the ground who are far more sincere and just as capable if not more so than these types that he depends on for advice?

For example, although I am a city girl myself, my social circle is rather limited and does not include the urban poor as mentioned by Demi Negara.  That is inexcusable, but I can only say that I will attempt to rectify that as soon as possible.

However, if that is inexcusable for me, it must be more so for people who make decisions that affect other people's livelihood and the future socio-economic opportunities for generations to come.

Maybe PM himself would have all these photo-ops with poor people, but does he really understand these people's needs?

When I was a Management Trainee with a British multinational, I had to spend at least 3 months each in Customer Services, Marketing Communications, and Product Development before I was finally placed in Management Consultancy Services as an Associate.

In Customer Services, I had to understand our customers, their different issues, how to communicate with them directly, and how to address their problems.

In Marketing Communications I had to learn all the different perspectives, master the mass communications skills and tools required to reach a large audience of diverse backgrounds, to gain acceptance of our corporate messages.

In Product Development, I had to understand not only the products that the engineers develop, but also to relate that into real applications that can address real customer issues, while others had to translate market requirements to be incorporated into product life cycle plans.

I quickly became a full-fledged consultant once I mastered the art of the con, the use of communications tools to impress the audience, and there was one occasion that a customer actually asked for me because they remembered me and was impressed by my presentation.

In short, it is all about understanding customer requirements, meeting customer expectations and manipulating marketplace/customer perception, i.e. creating a need where there is none.

Guess which one our politicians have been good at lately?

Frankly, I find them all nauseatingly fake.

Intellect Beyond Measure (Edited)

Oh my!  The current darling of the neo-liberal has spoken!

In 10 to 15 years they (he and his exalted like-minded companions of the super-intelligent IDEAS) are going to do away with Articles 153 and 3 of the Malaysian Constitution.

(These pieces at Free Malaysia Today, Pure Shiite and rocky's bru as reference.)

So people, be prepared for the day, 10 to 15 years from now, when we shall no longer have Islam as the official religion of the Federation, while the Malays and Bumiputras of Sabah and Sarawak no longer can claim the pride of being sons of the land as defined in the Constitution.

The land of their ancestors will be theirs no more.

And there will no longer be justification of federal funding for Islamic pursuits such as for JAKIM, IKIM, Tilawah Al Quran, etc., nor should Malaysia be a member of the OIC, as that would be unfair to the other religions.

It will happen for sure, as these IDEAS chaps are supremely intelligent beings, immensely meticulous researchers with infallible analytical predictive models that can predict the future socio-political landscape of any given society.

Well, of course what they predict always comes true ... not only are they supremely intelligent, they are all educated in London, and all lead classy lives.

Remember when IDEAS went around the country telling government servants that they must be prepared to accommodate a smooth transition of power once the Pakatan takes over control of the Federal government after GE13?

That really, really happened.  Pakatan took over Putrajaya and the transition was smooth because of IDEAS efforts to ensure smooth government transition, so smooth that you don't even see much difference other than some loonies and their 505 black something or other.

What do you mean BN is still in power?  Stop hallucinating ... supremely intelligent beings don't make such mistakes when declaring future events ...

You think if they are not supremely intelligent and infallible, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Washington, D.C. would want to be their partner ke?

Or that IDEAS would receive grants from the International Policy Network and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation ke?

That one I got from wiki la .. 

Only the super classy newspapers and media outlets understand them enough to quote them regularly in justifying their opinions of current issues.

Just like at one time there were media people who were in love with IKD and Khalid Jaafar.

That one was a Pakatan outfit?

Well, you think this one is not?

As for me, I am more of a down to earth practical kind of person and I prefer to spend time scrutinising materials with enough depth and substance for my less than superior intellect to digest.

Life Goes On

I find Chin Peng and the people who idolise him totally repulsive.

I admit that I am glad that that particular terrorist is dead.

He was not a citizen of Malaysia, he fought against the country when it was Malaya, he fought against it when it became Malaysia, so he didn't deserve to be interred in this land.

For people who wish to bring this dead terrorist home, go and find where his loyalties were as that would be the proper home for him and for you too.

Anyone who justified terrorising and killing his own countrymen, innocent ones at that, purely for ideological differences and for being in the way of his own political ambitions, deserve an ignoble death.

Those who consider him a hero, or freedom fighter, deserve the same, for nothing justifies murder of innocent people.

As for me, we have far better things to think about and do for the country than to glorify an alien mass murderer who directed a bloody terrorist war against "tanah tumpah darahku" that lasted a couple of decades.

End of that story.

Life goes on for the rest of us.

The PM's Bumiputra Economic Empowerment Initiative

When the PM first announced that he would be announcing some measures to address the Bumiputra economic agenda recently, I wasn't too excited as I have often been disappointed with his decisions in the past.

His decisions in the past have been proven to be Bumiputra-unfriendly and he has spent the larger part of his time as Prime Minister pandering to the demands of the louder non-Bumiputra groups that despite all the groveling that he did, they showed him what they really think of him and his efforts by supporting the Pakatan en masse during GE13.

So this time around, I am taking the attitude of wait and see, before deciding whether this time it is a sincere effort to uplift the poor, or just another gimmick to garner support before the Umno General Assembly.

Finally I get to see Najib's speech text at Annie's, a bit too long to digest immediately, though, so I need time to see what he has to offer the Malays and Bumiputra in the form of economic empowerment.

It is good that PM Najib acknowledged early on that BN won because of Malay and Bumiputra support.  It is a sign that he knows whose welfare he should pay attention to as head of the BN coalition.

It is also good that he noted that Bumiputra represent almost 68% of the Malaysian population, forming the majority despite their voice being hardly heard in the din created by the minority groups.

It is interesting that he did not elaborate about how his Model Ekonomi Baru was initially devoid of the Bumiputra agenda, and how he then qualified the meritocracy in Rancangan Malaysia Ke10 as meritocracy with respect to competition among Bumiputra.  Heh ... good one there ..  so the meritocracy is just among Bumiputra ...

For me, I think the most significant part of the whole thing is where Bumiputra-engagement, in various forms, is included as part of Heads of GLCs' KPI, and the setting up of a materials supply chain for Bumiputra businesses.  The rest isn't particularly exciting to me, not even the ASB2 if its going to be managed the same way as ASN and ASB.

The role of GLCs in nurturing Bumiputra enterprises is such an important part of the Bumiputra economic development mechanism as it provides opportunities for Bumiputra organisations to gain the much needed experience and networking to compete effectively while creating job opportunities for the Bumiputra workforce.

There is no point in training, re-skilling or even marketing our Bumiputra human capital if we cannot develop organisations willing to employ them at their market value.

Hopefully these Bumiputra organisations will prove that despite our Bumiputra graduates' lack of command of the English language, as is claimed by so many people to be the reason why they are unemployable, they can excel in their jobs, given the opportunity and support.

The proposed supply chain  to assist Bumiputra businesses to be more competitive is also something to look forward to as cost of supplies has been a major stumbling block for Bumiputra businesses to compete effectively in the open market.

To conclude, based on my early assessment, I look forward to the implementation of these initiatives, and will be looking at how the government intend to check for abuses on the part of the enablers, i.e. the GLCs and the Ministries, to ensure that this time around, Bumiputra economic empowerment can really be achieved.

Wanita Umno Revisited

Annie got tired of Umno decide to kacau Sin Chew as a hobby.

Well, I got tired of Umno and DS Shahrizat a long time ago.  She is just the most obvious example of the "tak sedar diri and mabuk kuasa" syndrome within the upper echelons of that political party.

I would say that the majority of the so-called Umno leadership are inflicted by the same syndrome.

We have seen the decay within the Pemuda wing and we are now seeing Wanita going the same way as Pemuda.

What makes it worse for Umno is that Wanita is the backbone of its grassroots programmes and their acceptance at the grassroots level is much closer associated with the public acceptance of  BN.

Worse still, is the lack of new blood in Wanita leadership at the middle and grassroots levels, or more specifically the demise of Puteri leadership once they become of age and graduate to Wanita.

Puteri was supposed to be the training ground for young women who are supposed to be groomed as future leaders of the Wanita wing.

They are supposed to bring youth, new ideas, innovations and vibrancy and to continue making Wanita more relevant to a larger crowd.

In order to do this, Wanita should be working with Puteri, grooming and training them to succeed them and eventually make way for new blood to invigorate the movement.

This is obviously not happening.

Puteri seems to have less success in the transition into Wanita.  I think this is best illustrated by what is happening between DS Shahrizat and DS Azalina in the fight for Wanita leadership.

This is a fight between a sitting MP who won convincingly, a single woman, relatively younger and with a track record of not only leading the Puteri movement but was responsible in enabling its formation, who have some baggage herself but has no sufficient impact to kill her political career, against the incumbent Wanita leader who lost her constituency to the opposition but was given a position in government only because she was the Wanita Head and promptly lost that because of a scandal that has also become a major liability to Umno and BN.

DS Shahrizat not immediately dissociating herself and her family problems from Umno, never acknowledging that she is a massive liability to the organisation, that she was willingly subjecting Umno to the humiliation of having one of its top leaders being associated with such a damning scandal, clinging on to power by whatever means, is a problem in itself.

What makes it dire is the support of other women in Wanita who cling to her in fear of change, living in a cocoon that insulate them from the realities on the ground.

This same "ostrich with head in the sand" syndrome is the real reason why Umno will not be able to transform into something more relevant to the public.

Being Classy

Unspinners, rocky's bru and OutSyed The Box have been knocking at PEMANDU's door for the unbecoming behavior of some of its highly paid cons ...

Fellas, don't you people know that this is all part of the government's plan to ensure that the nation becomes a "highly developed nation" populated by extremely "classy people" with a lifestyle that can match the Pakatan's social icons of their many amateur video actors?

Pakatan have the two iconic sexual exhibitionists and their various liberated politicians, so PEMANDU must also create similar icons, you know, to fight fire with fire, so that we can also have very "classy" gomen people to avoid being dubbed low-class by the Opposition.

For pro-BN bloggers, your views, opinions and requirements are not important, no one listens to you now as you are already captured slaves and all the Prime Minister's men are only concerned about attracting those Opposition-inclined voters.

You know la how the gomen people always kena hantam, with Pakatan politicians and those cons from IDEAS saying they want to reduce the number of gomen servants?

No good la if BN and gomen always kena hantam for not keeping up with the time, so we need to hire as many liberal-minded "classy" cons as possible to prop up the government's image, and indirectly BN's image, so they can say that we are just as liberal, just as classy, and just as shallow as the next Pakatan supporter.

They are Opposition sympathisers?  Man .. BN-led government are equal opportunity employers, what ... and we must show all those "low-class" BN members that they must emulate the thinking of these liberal-minded people before they are "classy" enough to be considered for all that "transforming" that is happening throughout the country.

You don't want to transform and become "classy", PM carik la already classy people to advise him.

You see that clever KJ?  He is very clever one, emulating PM with his classy Press Secretary.

Sheesh ... as if you don't already have many PAS and PKR people in the gomen, want to complain about some liberal-minded Opposition-sympathisers and supporters joining the government service ke?

Why PEMANDU?  Probably because their skills and salaries wouldn't fit in the present SPA structure (and probably they wouldn't have been able to pass the entrance exams anyway), but PM probably wanted classy people around him pronto, so the PMO must create a reason for their existence.

You know, probably one of his transformational KPI is to have more classy people around him or something to that effect?

To justify the humongous salaries required to maintain their "classy" lifestyles, we need to create important-sounding jobs and functions, not that they are doing anything that existing gomen people and their functionaries aren't capable of.

They don't speak Malay?  Alah ... so low-class la, speaking in Malay, why do you expect classy people to speak Malay?  The stronger the British, Australian or American accent, the classier.  You don't know that?  So low-class la you ...

Besides, you don't expect our Prime Minister to be surrounded and advised by ordinary rakyat, living ordinary lives, like you and me, do you?  Tak class la camtu.

For those who aspire to be a PM adviser, you also need to learn all those fancy English words that consultants normally use to confound their clients (and the public at large), otherwise you are not "classy" enough or intelligent enough to advise the PM.

And remember, everything else is not important, as long as you can convincingly spout fancy words in a reasonably foreign accent and can blow your own trumpet while hobnobbing with the big guys, you'll fit in with the PEMANDU crowd.

Queuing for RON95

My brother called last night to tell me about the 20sen price increase of RON95 effective from midnight and suggested that I and my sister to go and fill up our cars before the new price became effective.

Neither of us bothered to do so as we don't really see how the few ringgits of savings would make much difference to us personally given the amount of time and fuel wasted while queuing up at the local petrol station.

The problem with Malaysians nowadays, we are so fixated on the immediate advantage without thinking beyond the obvious, as in the case of queuing for hours to take advantage of a few ringgits savings before the price increase which will last how long given the amount of fuel we waste on private vehicles.

We are unwilling to pay the full price of our excesses.

Throughout the decades, we demand development and progress that transcends our lives with excessive food choices, increased wages, improved infrastructure and facilities, and yet we are still expecting prices to not increase at the same pace as our own voracious consumption of everything that came with "progress".

We continue to expect the government to bear the burden of an excessive lifestyle through public subsidies while at the same time deriding the very same government for attempting to uplift the life of rural dwellers with better access to things that urbanites have been taking for granted.

If the urbanites are as intelligent and educated as they claim to be, instead of queuing up for hours just to make a few ringgits in savings, they should be thinking of lifestyle changes to tackle increasing costs instead of being such cheapskates.

For once, start thinking rationally about politicians who stupidly predict stupid things such as more road deaths should petrol prices increase because people will be using motorcycles instead of cars to get places, or those who promise lower petrol prices which means greater subsidies that will without doubt eventually contribute towards crippling the government.

What they should be thinking about is how they could change their lifestyle to accommodate increasing prices, environmental degradation and dwindling resources such as clean water.

They should be thinking of using public transports more instead of personal cars or motorcycles to reduce fuel consumption, inculcate the habit of recycling things that can be recycled and reducing using things that cannot be recycled, and minimise water wastage at work and at home.

How can we possibly improve our public transportation system if there isn't any demand for an improved system, not to mention those people who protest about mass transit system going through their neighborhood?

How successful was the recycling programme introduced by the government some time ago, and how many of us actually recycle stuff or even segregate our waste at home?

How many of us actually use water from the dishwasher and laundry washing machine to water the plants and lawns, or reduce water wastage by being frugal with water in our daily lives, or have collecting tanks to ensure we can collect rainwater to supplement our piped water?

Have you considered having an edible garden to supplement what we buy at the supermarket, with each household in the neighborhood contributing a different vegetable to be shared with others so everyone can have a variety?

How about having a little herb garden so you can grow your own tumeric, ginger, green onions, chillies, oregano, basil, etc. in pots near the kitchen?

Have you considered going out less for entertainment purposes and spend more quality time at home with the family, hence reducing fuel consumption, traffic jams and air pollution?

How about getting to know your neighbors better by spending time entertaining neighborhood friends at home instead of going out in the evenings and have a healthy social life within walking distance?

There are so many other little ways in which we can reduce our cost of living, so many things that the community can collectively do to create an environmentally friendly and socially healthy neighborhood.

Please stop whining about increases in prices.

Start thinking about how we can reduce costs and still have a good life.  You'd be surprised that not only life will be good, it may be a healthier life too.

Foreigners and their Stories About Us

This morning I had a bit of a giggle over Annie's response to Reuters' attempt to give credence to the pronouncements of a certain irrelevant political personality.

I am now seriously doubting the credibility of these foreign news agencies based on the kind of opposition-slanted stories they choose to write about Malaysia, which make me think that those other reports they carry about other countries are also just that, biased and judgmental stories.

Obviously they have no idea of the realities on the ground, (or purposely have no wish to impart the realities as they can't possibly be that ignorant) about what is relevant to Malaysians, not just the opinions of the self-proclaimed "educated classy urbanites" of certain parts of Klang Valley and Pulau Pinang.

More obvious is that they probably think "uneducated low-class ruralites" like me do not understand English, or they probably don't care that we think they are silly or that our opinions are not important compared to that of the "educated", "classy" and loud "urbanites".

I wonder what will they write after witnessing the obvious pledges of loyalty to the King by our security forces on this years National Day Parade with every "Daulat Tuanku" and "Menjunjung Kasih Tuanku", including the sight of our drummer boys in full battle gear?

Do they even understand the meaning of those pledges by our warriors to our King at this point in time?

You think those pledges were only directed against Suluk lunatics and external aggressors?

Are they truly ignorant of the subtleties of the Malay culture and language that loud voices, coarse language and insulting acts directed at our leaders and national symbols of sovereignty currently in fashion among the "educated classy urbanites" translate to the single word "biadap"?

Do they understand the depth of contempt that can be expressed in that single word?

For that matter, do they even bother to understand the cultural differences between Malaysia's loud "educated urbanites" and the majority "low-class ruralites", their differing aspirations, priorities and lifestyles, and that the few English-speaking "educated urbanites" they talk to do not represent the majority rural dwellers who choose to retain their cultural identities and values?

Do they really understand the meaning of "balik kampung" and why it is "balik kampung" instead of "balik bandar" even if your  family base is in KL or JB?

Do they think that everyone would readily abandon the values that define our cultural identity for ages and replace them with the hybrid urban culture and lingo that has been promoted endlessly on television, social networks and various other forums as the in-trend characteristics of "educated classy urbanite" lifestyle?

Or will the values and customs of our forefathers be relegated into the realms of cultural shows and museums and only practiced by antiquated individuals largely considered as loonies?

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

To all Malaysians, Happy Merdeka Day!

I watched the Malayan Emergency on History Channel again while waiting for the countdown to midnight.

It reminded me what my elders had to go through for us to arrive to where we are now and make me value the security forces more than ever to ensure that the majority were protected from the vagaries of the few who were determined to have their way regardless.

May we continue to be free from those who wish to forcefully impose their will and ways on others through whatever means and may Malaysia continue to be a safe and peaceful place for all of us.

Mental Deficiency of the Political Kind

I guess the recent events surrounding politicians' reactions to the killing of 5 organised crime careerists by police is further evidence of the kind of  lawmakers we have managed to elect as our representatives and the kind of people deemed suitable by our Prime Minister to be appointed as Deputy Ministers.

I have concluded from their statements that they are of the opinion that it is perfectly reasonable for these lowlifes to carry guns and shoot dead people on the streets as they are criminals, but heaven forbids should they be shot at by the police.

It is also a reflection of their complete disregard of their responsibility to safeguard public safety in their political pursuit for what they deem as the rights of the minority (in this case the criminals) regardless of how their actions infringe on the rights of the majority (the public).

And when the actions of these individuals harm the public, the law enforcers are conveniently blamed as not doing their job.

We have managed to put our police force in a Catch 22 situation, where criminals and their families are encouraged to take the government and authorities to task when their very own actions or inaction precipitated a series of events that led to deaths in the family.

How can we, as part of the public, even consider electing people who blame police of atrocities when dealing with armed criminals who terrorise the public as our representatives and lawmakers?

When our policemen died in Lahad Datu, some called it a drama.

When people are gunned down on the streets, the police are accused of sitting on their collective butts.

But when criminals died, they call it police atrocities.

Would these people rather see dead cops than dead criminals?

Apparently the motto "Live by the gun; Die by the gun" no longer applies to criminals.

Nowadays it seems to be "Live by the gun; anything happens xxxxx the police".

It is easy to be a bleeding heart when you have never been subjected to the intimidation and violence of armed criminals, but I expected YBs to at least have a balanced perspective when addressing matters related to public safety and crime reduction.

I certainly am not expecting such shallow opinions from politicians whose responsibilities are to serve the public, but not only are they not rebuking those who glorified their "fallen heroes", they are instead encouraging and assisting the families of these "fallen heroes" to seek "justice" in the courts against what some of them have termed as our police being "overzealous".

Apparently the police have nothing better to do than wait out meekly for criminals to come out of their hiding places of their own accord and that our police should never ever consider using their guns when faced with armed criminals.

Seems that to these politicos, the lives of these criminals are far more valuable than that of our policemen.

Clearly some of our politicos have lost their sense of balance and perspective.

YBs, this is not about BN vs. Pakatan or Government vs. NGOs, not even about your own ethnic groups.  It is about  reducing crimes.  It is not about politics.  It is about safeguarding public safety.

Stories Around the Blogs : Discipline Post Ramadhan 2013

My Ramadhan break is now over, so I must really now start looking for new job opportunities near where I am based.

The hunt will have to start soon as I am getting almost too lethargic to even prowl around the blogs to keep myself updated with the latest happenings, let alone write about it.

Maybe when I am fully employed again will I be inspired to write more frequently here.  Until then, I am going to discipline myself with just one posting a week.

The stories that stick to mind are:

1.   Pak Lah's awakening 4 years too late

2.   The spate of underworld-related killings that coincide with the abolishment of preventive laws that has been used to contain organised crimes activities

3.    Continued abusive tones directed towards the police who are just doing their job in responding to police reports and their routine operations to uphold public order

The way I see it, Pak Lah's book is being published now because some people see this is the right time to undermine Najib as he is being seen at his most vulnerable now.

I reckon this is an opportune time for someone ambitious to take up the vacuum left by Najib should Umno decide to get rid of him.

To my thinking, publishing that book now is not really a good idea, and whoever thought that up can't be very clever, no matter what university/college he/she graduated from.

If that book gets distributed widely, it will be disastrous to people associated with Pak Lah's previous indiscretions, as it will simply remind people of those excesses that led to the whipping that BN got in 2008.

It will backfire big time to people associated with Pak Lah within Najib's administration and will be fodder for campaigning at the Umno General Assembly.

But who am I to say this, since I am a nobody and have repeatedly been called stupid here in my own blog, so just ignore me and do go on and publish that book.

As for the underworld-related killings, I think it is time that the police and the Home Ministry stop pandering to all these liberal leftists who are so gung-ho about demonising the police, slagging off the government and wanting to UBAH everything, including our constitution, our government system and even our flag.

They are just so self-absorbed in their own little "tempurungs", taking for granted all the preventive action taken by the police using those "outdated/outmoded" laws to keep the streets as safe as they possibly could without restricting public freedom, and make such hue and cry to abolish those very laws.

They are all out to protect the rights of criminals against "police brutality" as part of their "demonise the authorities  propaganda" that makes people so absorbed in their petty little grievances against the authorities that they don't realise or care that these preventive laws were what had been keeping in check the menace of these gangsters and crime-lords on the streets.

Now that these lowlifes are loose on the streets, they are shouting that the police are not doing their jobs.

Some of them  slagging off the police may look beautiful and seem articulate on the outside, but they are truly ugly, intellectually-deficient hypocrites on the inside.

Selamat Hari Raya

My congratulations and best wishes to all Muslims celebrating the Eid ul Fitr tomorrow after a month of blessed Ramadhan.

Of Pride and Prejudices

I am seeing worrisome development of what has been an ever deteriorating race relations in this country, no thanks to agitators who have been at it non-stop to batter at the already fragile social fabric of the nation.

I am not going to start the blame game, although it always start with the politicos, but I believe that our own selfish prejudices and inability to see things from different perspectives are responsible for the ever increasing racial and religious tensions in Malaysia.

Sensitivities are being provoked merely to prove a point, with some hammering away at something that should have been better left alone with a mild rebuke and reminder, but their pride pushed them to create unnecessary ever increasing suspicions and escalation of collective anger.

What some of these agitators may not realise, just as they have their pride and prejudices, so do others.

When you keep on hammering at someone's pride, you are provoking an angry reaction from him.

More so when you are dealing with a large group with varying degrees of tolerance to provocation and perceived denigration, with what they consider as disproportionate pandering to the provocateur. 

Maznah Mohd Yusof had been tolerated for 3 years, but that tolerance disappeared for some when they are continuously being battered by the non-Malays, non-Muslims until there is nothing is left of their pride.

It is one thing to be insulted by a stranger, but to be insulted by one claiming to be sharing your faith is unacceptable.

For those non-Malays who think that they are winning the battle of perception, continue battering the Malay Muslim psyche, and you will find a much stronger reaction than the defensive stance you have seen in the Sri Pristana case.

You are dealing with human beings, and despite what you might think, Newton's Law of "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" applies to humans too.

To the non-Malays please do not invite that opposite reaction as it may not be an equal reaction to your reckoning but would be deemed to be less than equal to the Malays.

We are already seeing Malay Muslims becoming highly sensitive to non-Malays's words and actions which we would normally dismiss out of hand prior to May 5th.

If things continue in this manner, it is just a matter of time before we find ourselves revisiting 1969.

I beseech everyone to take a step back from the current hostilities, reign in our pride and prejudices, for the good of our society.

Being Liberated Malaysians

I have concluded that Malaysians are now super liberated that we can step on everyone else's sensitivities with no fear of repercussions.

Except for the Muslims and Malays not categorised as Pakatan supporters, of course, as they are not allowed to have any cultural or religious sensitivities, nor entitled to have rights to voice their opinions or make decisions.

Only the liberated Malays and Muslims of the Pakatan have those rights.

Any decision made by the Malays and Muslims must be judged as guilty of discriminating the minorities, before any investigation is done, and this guilt must be broadcast through all the social networks and discussed in all forums too, while calls must immediately be made to sack, imprison and punish someone.

Why?

Because, Malays are largely racists who have since Independence Day harassed and persecuted the non-Malays in this country such that they can't earn a decent living, have insufficient education opportunities, can't practice their culture and religion in peace or speak in their native languages.

This is true because there are no rich and prosperous non-Malays in this country and those vernacular schools are just for show, they are actually being taught in Malay.

That's why in Malay schools (Malay is such a low-class thing that any school that uses that language cannot be considered a national school and must be termed as a Malay school), when pupils have their lunch in the changing rooms, it is a form of discrimination against the non-Malays regardless of the fact that everyone else eat there too.

The repressive Umno led government which has been in power since Independence that has led Malaysia into a state worse than third world countries (according to Pakatan politicians), is so evil that they must be toppled by any means.

Putting into power a sex-deviant as Head of the Nation is really to ensure a truly liberated nation.

We should have ex-convicts as ministers to champion the rights of criminals who are being persecuted by the sadistic police for just trying to make a living in their chosen career paths.  

We should also appoint gangsters as security officers in place of the police, since they are already collecting protection money, so might as well empower them to protect the public as vigilantes.

And of course we should fully institutionalise all the groups championing all those new-fangled rights that currently exist as NGOs as fully funded government departments so they don't have to depend on foreign funds and obliged to fulfill foreign agenda.

And all the government officers must be sacked as they are largely Malays and Muslims, which of course make them corrupt and lazy, to be replaced by those dropout students such as that would-be teacher, whatever his name is, and that one who kicked a police officer who was already lying injured on the ground during the last Bersih violence.

We must also allow Muslim women to represent Malaysia in beauty pageants as prohibitions of Muslims from participating in such events by the Fatwa Council should be rescinded as liberal Muslim women knew that the reason Allah bless them with physical beauty is for it to be paraded in all their glory for all to see.

And sexual exhibitionism must be celebrated, exhibitionists should become celebrities at par with politicians.  To be truly a liberated politician, they must be seen as accepting sexual exhibitionism as a way of life and iconic lifestyle that should be celebrated.

Their every move must become front page news for fully liberated newspapers, never mind that in western countries only trashy tabloids celebrate such people, for Malaysian media outlets must be seen as more liberated than their western counterparts.

If they denigrate other people's religious beliefs, we must find all excuses possible to exonerate them and explain it away as them just having a sense of humor, as apparently, only Malay Muslims are guilty of being bigots.

As the final step in creating a truly liberated Malaysian Malaysia, all those who voted Umno/BN in the GE13 should be exported to their countries of origin as they are not truly Malaysians, at least according to ABU.

If all these things happen, I would readily find somewhere else to call home as I truly can't abide such a repressive liberation that persecutes against my choices, beliefs and way of life.

Talent Can Be Nurtured

Annie's latest posting about Talent Corp.'s useless endeavor of spending millions to bring brains back to Malaysia reflect an amazing lack of appreciation for the talents of those who are already here in this country.

I am not going to focus on the value those millions of ringgits spent to bring them home, like Annie.

My question is, if these "talents" had wanted to serve the country, wouldn't they have looked for opportunities to come home, like I did, and not wait for people to go to them enticing them with tax exemptions, special status, and what nots?

And please, do not think their American, British or Australian accents make them more talented than the average Malaysian executive with a distinct Javanese accent, whatever language she happens to be speaking, slogging away to make ends meet.

What we have failed to do is to spot local talents because we are too limited by our prejudices.

I know of how someone who should have  been recognised for her talent and excellent work rate but was stuck at the same spot for years, training her supervisors instead of being promoted to do the job, and couldn't get out of the rut in that particular organisation because she wasn't "up to the responsibility".

When she got an opportunity elsewhere, in a nurturing organisation, she rose within 16 months to manage a whole profit centre, earning five times what she would be earning in her previous employment.

What Malaysian organisations should be looking for are individuals who are adaptable, fast learners, quick thinkers and innovators who can deliver results instead of continually focusing on similar work experience or networking as the basis of recruitment.

That way, we can open up opportunities for those who lack the network or previous work experience to create a far healthier corporate culture than what we currently have.

You seriously think those Malaysians working abroad are actually more talented than locals?

I have worked abroad, only for a couple of years though, but it was enough to say that it was the work culture and values that breed a certain discipline which I find to be lacking locally.

To function, you must overcome any timidity to voice and defend your opinions in front of people far more experienced and knowledgeable than you.

To get the job done, you must be resourceful and creative, because everyone treated you as an equal and you have no excuse for slacking or seeking help because everyone else have their own deliverables.

People who have been exposed to such an environment tend to be more competitive and far more articulate than they normally would, given normal circumstances.

The kind of work culture that creates achievers and mercenaries alike.

Being Ridiculously Self-Absorbed

Oh!  How exciting!  Some self-absorbed, mentally challenged characters are suing to declare GE13 null and void.

And if the courts rule for them, like in so many cases these days, we are going to spend another half a billion ringgits to conduct another general election.

And we will continue to have elections after elections, because, hey, Malaysians would never vote for a bunch of Umno Malays because they are corrupt, evil, lazy and stupid.

It is impossible that there are Malaysians who would elect 88 of these corrupt, stupid and lazy people to represent them in parliament, so the election must have been rigged.  There's no two ways about it.

And the election would never be acceptable until Pakatan win every single seat in Malaysia.

I think we should just continue to have elections after elections until the government runs out of money, then we will demand Petronas to fund more elections.

Then there is Sime Darby, and Tabung Haji and Baitulmal and EPF.  We can have elections every 6 months, no problem.

And if Pakatan still fail to win at least 6 bi-annual general elections, let us sue to declare electorates of certain localities where Umno/BN consistently win as ineligible to vote.

Moreover, since they seem to continuously vote for the evil and corrupt Umno/BN, they must all be Banglas or Indos or various other foreigners.

Let ABU decide what these people's nationalities are, and we should send these people off to where ever ABU say they came from.  (ABU are our experts in spotting foreigners as they can spot non-Malaysians by just looking at them.)

We can just take them to court and let the courts declare them as foreigners, so we can kick them out of Malaysia without much ado.

If no country would take them, we should just put them in little boats and send them off to sea, or we could just kill them off, as they do not belong on Malaysian soil.

These people are part of the rigged and fraudulent elections, and should be eliminated from the electorate rolls.

It can be done, because it happened to the Rohingyas and the Palestinians, and for decades they are still dying and stateless, so we should be able to do it to these foreign true-blue Umno/BN supporters with very little censure from the international community.

That way, we can keep Malaysia free from "low-class ruralites", and we can have a pure Bangsa Malaysia consisting of only "educated urbanites" who voted Pakatan every time.

Being At Peace

I spent a bit of time at afterdark's blog this morning after my subuh prayers about learning from the converts (or reverts).

I find the part about most Malays recite the Quran without bothering to understand the meaning of what they recite as highly interesting.

I never realised that.

I guess it made sense that when I first went looking for the Malay translation of the Quran, I found the Indonesian version in most bookstores but hardly a Malaysian version.

I found a copy a couple of years ago, and it has become one of my most cherished books alongside my Middle Kingdom, Lord of the Rings collection and Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series.

I admit though that I also have two English versions of the Quran translation, an Indonesian one, and a full set of the tafsir by Dr Hamka in our family library that I refer to from time to time.

These past few days, I spent most of my time doing mundane stuff, and the evenings at the library with my books.

Even the happenings in Kuala Besut failed to catch my fancy, not that there is anything interesting anyway, but I just can't seem to garner enough interest in the political goings-on lately.

As for Annie's gripes about Siti Zailah's latest pronouncements, heh, I can only giggle about that.

I admit that I, like Annie, believe that cases of sexual deviancy such as rape have got very little to do with how women are dressed.

The fact is, people tend to forget that little girls, boys, young men and fully covered women were also subjected to such crimes.

It is just a lazy way of explaining away social illnesses by laying the blame on something tangible, and not bothering to find out, or not accepting, the real reasons for such perversions in our society.

I can go into lengthy discourse about this subject, but I am in such a state of peace that I can't be bothered, really.

I found reciting the Quran in Arabic extremely therapeutic.  I am attempting to complete reciting the entire Quran, the Arabic one, this Ramadhan, insya Allah.

May you all find your peace this Ramadhan.

Ramadhan

Tomorrow will be the first day of Ramadhan and Muslims will begin their month-long religious observation of one of the five pillars of Islam.

This time, I will be spending Ramadhan with my family in Putrajaya.

For us, Ramadhan is not only a time of abstinence, but also self-reflection and moderation.  And by moderation, that includes food and lifestyle.

We tend to eat less during this time, so the various "Pasar Ramadhan" hardly gets a visit as our family has always favored home-cooked food for breaking fast.

I remember once, my Mom actually made the green jelly for a fully home-made cendol as we wanted so much to have a taste of it, and Dad bought one of those hand-operated ice shavers because we wanted to have ABC.

Nowadays, we are more likely to have the more ordinary chilled chocolate drink, or the black jelly cincau or just plain orange juice or rose cordial to accompany a simple meal of rice with vegetables and fish or noodles.

Although I really can't understand the frenzy that people get over food during this period that is supposed to be a period of abstinence from worldly excesses, that somehow I feel that we have lost sight of the reason for Ramadhan in the first place.

I guess it has become a cultural thing, that we have managed to commercialise Ramadhan and Eid al Fitr to such an extent that these two occasions have become reasons to satisfy food cravings and a single day of celebration has been dragged into a month-long festival of "open house" food orgies.

However, I sincerely hope that all Muslims in Malaysia spend this period of religious observance to ponder the fate of Muslims and the direction we as a nation are taking to protect the sanctity of our faith from harm, both seen and unseen, either obvious or obscure.

With the Muslim nation in such disarray, I find it extremely petty of us living in bountiful Malaysia to create social tension and invite violence that would cause everyone lasting harm.

We should all reflect on all the good things that we have, think about others who are less fortunate than us, and try not to dwell too much on what we feel as our entitlements, as I can assure you, no matter how difficult life is, there are others who fare worse.

I shall also pray that hopefully this month of Ramadhan will allow our Muslim brothers and sisters all over the world to see beyond the obvious and put aside our petty grievances such that we can unite for lasting peace and betterment of the Ummah.

To all Muslims, may we all have a blessed Ramadhan.

Prayers for My Nephews

I have been moving around for quite a bit lately, pursuing things I have been putting off for ages while at the same time putting together my little room at my sister's place.

In doing so, I have neglected BigCat and I must say thanks to all those who kept coming here to motivate me  to keep on writing.

Unfortunately, since I am currently spending more time with my nephews, helping them with their homework and entertaining them, which keeps me fully positive and less inclined to spend too much time thinking about all the negativities that exist in the political scene.

There simply are too many negativities and bad vibes circulating in that environment, it gets tiring to be angry all the time about things that one can do nothing about nor can make much difference even if one's fingers bleed from typing out opinions that nobody cared much about.

Who cares really for what I think, its not like big policy makers would even give my opinion a glance unless I touch on their sensitivities, which then would probably send them witch hunting and making police reports.  An idiot actually made a police report against this blog not so long ago.

There are also people who are so absorbed in their own insecurities and imagined slights, who refuse to stop to even consider for a minute beyond their own self-interest and see things from different perspectives, that they spend inordinate amount of time on rhetorics and other inane matters while there are still people working almost their entire waking moment just to ensure that there is food on the table.

I know of someone who actually earns more than RM1.5 million a year spending his free time gossiping with his friends about things like Rosmah's alleged multi-million ringgit ring, not caring whether that allegation was true or otherwise.

"Everyone I knew said it was true", he said.

What worries me is how someone paid to fix other people's brains have so little inclination to actually investigate the truth before swallowing everything, hook, line and sinker.

He never bothered to even balance his perspective to take into consideration the fate of many others, less privileged children of men and women similar to his own parents, who are still in need of assistance to break the vicious cycle of low wages, limited access to quality education and no discernible asset to fund higher education.

I am beginning to find these educated middle-class urbanites less and less appealing in their overwhelmingly loud self-absorbed "me-first" pettiness.

The more you give them what they want, the more ridiculous their demands get.

It's like trying to appease the never-satiated appetite of a huge dinosaur that keeps wanting more and more regardless of the needs of others who have just as much right to exist and prosper.

I pray that my little nephews will grow up to be less self-centred, with better consideration for others, who spend their leisure time doing voluntary work to make life better for others instead of on the streets violently demanding for things of which they have limited understanding, and to have a life full of positive ideas for the betterment of the nation.

Heya People

It has been over two weeks since I last posted something here and I bet most people thought I've stopped blogging.

That is not so, it's just that the haze situation had not been kind to me and I have been having some health issues.  

Today is the first time I actually ventured out of the house to accompany my sis on her usual weekly grocery shopping.

It's not that I wasn't interested in all the hoo haa of the opposition variety.

It's just that I just find their incessant drama and tantrums are beyond annoying that I find them quite repellant actually.

The problem is, I am beginning to find some Umno politicians to be equally repellant, and some of those in the cabinet are just as annoying as those "perasan bagus" pollies.

For one thing, Mimi updated me on the situation in Johor and she seems to think the situation is rather dire.  I am not going to elaborate, but those in the know would know what I mean.

As fo Dato Ghani, today would be his first day in his new job.  Congratulations and best wishes Dato, I am sure you would do well.

Why MCA Will Not Die Off

For those predicting the death of MCA, don't worry, it won't happen.

At least not until DAP have managed to tighten its grip on Putrajaya and the nations various core economic development agencies through its Malay proxies, the super liberal Malays who feel they are superior and better than all other Malays combined.  (Annie describes these types best in her latest posting.)

As an anon commented in a previous post, the MCA has its uses for the Chinese community, so it will continue to provide a link to the much despised Umno, just in case their plans to control the country do not go accordingly, like what happened in GE13.

While MCA continues to provide all these services to the Chinese and its various NGOs or associations, with full financial support from the most hated Malay Umno/BN government, the DAP focuses all its propaganda machinery to continue its demonisation of Umno and perpetuating all the myths of the corrupt, lazy, inefficient and evil largely Malay government servants.

In essence, they have it good both ways.

And they will continue helping PAS leadership to delude the young Malay masses, playing to their egos, hyping up their own importance and perpetuating hatreds such that they are so focused on Umno that they can't see anything else, and too dumbed down by the PAS indoctrination system that excel in creating mental zombies, to be able to see beyond the obvious or to think outside of the scope of what they were told.

Why Gerakan Calls For A Single BN

Isn't it rather strange, that of all BN component parties calling for a single BN party is Gerakan, which claim to be a multi-racial party?

Out of all the political parties presently active in Malaysia, Gerakan are the most similar with DAP in terms of member composition, leadership structure, and the evolution of its social network from the worker's associations of yester-years to what it is now.

Unfortunately for Gerakan, the rise of DAP and its continued dominance in KL and Penang as well as the rising star of Southern Johor urban areas means Gerakan is fast losing its social and business network to DAP.

The flight of what used to be Gerakan's social/business network into the embrace of DAP was never better illustrated than the fall of Gerakan in Pulau Pinang and the back-stabbing of Ghani by the Chinese associations in Skudai, a formerly Gerakan stronghold.

Gerakan is dying, and its leaders are trying to remain relevant.

As leaders of a coalition member party, they are ensured of having a say in the newly formed single party.

For them, the single party must therefore be formed before Gerakan's death.

Why PAS will never join Umno for Malay Unity

I have been seeing many Malay Muslim commenters expressing hope that PAS will be joining Umno to counter what they now see as the threat to Malay Muslim survival presented by the Chinese who are totally united under DAP's political leadership.

Sorry to say, I don't see that happening under the present PAS leadership and not likely to happen in the next couple of generations either.

First and foremost PAS shares DAP's objective, which is also shared by the 90% Chinese who voted for them, in killing off Umno.

For PAS, with Umno dead, they will take on the mantle of being the Malay Muslim political force that will shape the direction and thinking of the more than 60% Malay majority of this country.

To their thinking, DAP will only be able to command the support of less than 40% non-malays, hence will never be able to challenge the superiority of their numbers.

They also think that all the present business interests controlled by Umno and the Malays will naturally fall into their control as they hold the upperhand in the Malay internal power struggle.

For them, the end justifies the means.

However, they fail to take into account what their partner are doing to preserve their interests.

For DAP, it has never been MCA.  That's why they managed to convince the Chinese to weaken MCA to such a point without killing it off.

Although it can no longer be a credible partner in the coalition, MCA can still utilise its position within the coalition to protect Chinese large business interests that depend on the government and Umno patronage.

The weakened state of BN also forces Umno leadership to make large concessions to appease the Chinese at the behest of their MCA partners and the Chinese NGOs and special interest groups.

Their final battlefield was supposed to be GE13 where even members of MCA and Gerakan voted DAP.

Their miscalculation was they underestimated the intelligence of rural Malays.

All Is Well At Medkom

Last night I had a chat with a friend who used to work for the Johor MB's Office and is now back in KL.

She told me that like me, she has decided to leave Johor and is looking for job opportunities here in KL now that her capabilities are no longer welcomed there because what was perceived as her affiliation to the previous administration.

However, she has quietly been keeping tabs on the fate of her team, whom she had been worrying over all the while.

Last night, though, she was kind of pleased as she was informed that the new Manager had given them six months to prove their worth instead of the previous uncompromising one month termination notice.

"At the very worst, they have at least six months respite to look for a new job, so I am happy for them.  Now I can sleep well again."

As for herself, she had no regrets, despite now facing an uncertain prospect of long-term unemployment.

When asked why she didn't start looking for a new job the moment Ghani was certain to retire from politics, she said that she had a job opportunity at the time, but decided to remain because she couldn't leave at a time when her services were still required by BN Johor.

So what happens now?

"I'm sure I can survive.  My conscience is clear, I didn't abandon my friends in their hour of need.  That's all that matters.  As for earning a living, I am sure I can find something soon.  Besides, I have some savings to tide me over until I find some source of regular income again."

PS:  I have storage!

Quiet Monday

I have been spending the past 15 minutes flitting through my regular stalking territories, but nothing perked my interest other than Helen's DDD and that led me to Kit Siang's claim of Umno's dastardly act of hiring Utusan as part of an evil plot to Demonise, Destroy, DAP.

Aisey Grandpa, enough la with the drama.  Trust me, you don't look cool doing that, you just look absurd.  Stop trying to match up to Mahathir, you simply don't have the cool factor that Mahathir has in spades.  Lee Kuan Yew can carry it off, you can't.  You are simply not his match.

As for the imaginary DDD brigade .. come on, get real.  Just look at the comment section of previous postings in this blog and you know the DAP supporters and CTs did their very best to demonise themselves.

And that's not even going to the various facebook pages and tweets of these DAP types.

These DAP CTs and their kind are just so full of themselves that I am indeed in awe of their complete and total inability to relate to others who do not share nor appreciate their political ideology.

When we try to state our differing points of view they refuse to open up to reason, and when we point out the weaknesses and contradictions of their arguments, they become abusive.

Grandpa Kit, your Red Army demonise DAP all by themselves.  So chill and stop trying to further demonise Umno and Utusan, you've already captured all the audience you can get for that line of propaganda.

Find something else as your next 5-year political propaganda tagline, can or not?  Be creative, or learn from PKR, they are very inventive when it comes to cooking up fairy-tales.

As for my PAX wardrobe it is just a matter of putting up the sliding doors.