It's gonna be a good year for the Chinese

Sorry, I'm a bit late in wishing a Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who celebrates the occasion via this blog.

I was actually giving some time for my earlier posting on
Remembering the good old man of Bukit Serene
to be this blog's main headline.

Well, at the time I'm writing this, it's still the first day of the Chinese New Year.
So, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Personally, I think this is going to be a great year for the Chinese community.
Despite the rather gloomy economic forecasts, things shouldn't be too bad. Politically, the community will be the ones who will decide where this country is heading in the coming general election. The Malays are too fragmented to play that role. I think, they will choose wisely and not let this country falls into ruin due to racial polarization and stuff.

I can see that most Chinese people are enjoying themselves today. A lot of firecrackers being lit at midnight and later today. So, things must be good for the Chinese community for now..

Heard, even Guan Eng and family had flown off to celebrate CNY in Italy....flying business class some more....hmmm, good la if true....sometimes must enjoy also ma.

Guan Eng's father had meanwhile called for the Chinese to unite into one big dragon this year (for the coming general election, he said)....ok lor, if he want to say so...free country liao...just that later don't hantam Umno as racists la if they call Malays to unite, ok?.

I didn't get to go visit my Chinese friends today as I am working. Instead, I just ate some mandarin oranges which were send by the crates to my office by some well-wishers. Maybe, I will get the time to go on my CNY rounds tomorrow.

Ok lah. Everyone must be still busy celebrating. What do you expect....hehehehe....whatever it is,  please try not to lose too much at the mahjong table ya. CHEERS!!!!

Remembering the good old man of Bukit Serene

It is exactly two years today since I found myself shedding tears in front of the Puteri Specialist Hospital, Johor Baru.

I had rushed to the hospital that morning upon hearing that Sultan Iskandar Sultan Ismail was admitted during the night.

It was not the first time that the sultan was warded at the hospital. Still my anxiety upon hearing the news was real.

The first thing that I was told as I reached there was that the sultan was gravely ill.

I had immediately send several text messages to those I deemed needed to know.

Admittedly, I was emotional at that time. One of the text messages read something like this, "Let's pray the old man survive this. Johor still badly needs him."

When I got the information that MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman had chartered a flight to immediately return from accompanying PM DS Najib Razak in India, my heart sank. I knew at that point that there was not much hope left.

About 7pm, as Ghani arrived, my fear was confirmed.

Ghani was wearing the songkok with the strip of white cloth around it. He was already in mourning. The good old man of Bukit Serene, as I fondly called the Sultan among friends, was no more. I recited the Al-Fatihah for my beloved Sultan at that moment with tears in my eyes. Yes, I cried, and I'm not exaggerating it.

Some may think I must be some sorts of a royalist for shedding a tear for the Sultan. Well, the truth is, I am not.

I never had any personal engagement with the Sultan, never even got to shake his hand, let alone received anything directly from him.

But I do love Sultan Iskandar as if he was my own grandfather or someone like that. To me he was a good man in his own way and had kept Johor safe during his reign.

True, I had heard a lot of nasty things about him being a garang man. When he was young, he even lost his position as the Tengku Mahkota to his younger brother Tunku Abdul Rahman because of his temper.

But stories I heard from people I trust, made me believe that Sultan Iskandar was actually a kind person even during those time. He sincerely love his subjects and went to great lengths to do the best for them....of course, in his own way.

In an incident, related to me by my father when I was a teenager, Sultan Iskandar, who was then the Raja Muda had landed his helicopter near our home, which was a unit of delipidated laborers barracks. This was in the mid-1970s.

Upon making some inquiries, Sultan Iskandar went to the office of my father's boss and without saying anything, gave the man a tight slap.

After that, Sultan Iskandar told my father's boss that he was slapped because he let his laborers live in homes which were not even fit for animals. The next day, our barrack home got renovated, complete with a fresh coat of paint.

Sultan Iskandar did not go around slapping people for no good reason.

Nonetheless, what I love most about Sultan Iskandar was his principled way as a monarch.

HE NEVER TAKES ANYTHING FROM HIS RAKYAT.

As far as I know, Sultan Iskandar never asked the State government for anything which didn't belong to him. He may seems to be not the most friendly monarch to most people, but it is a fact that he loved his rakyat enough not to burden them with his demands.

Instead, he gave a lot to his rakyat, of which most were unrecorded. Among the few which were reported by the newspapers was when he gave his land in Bakar Batu, JB for the government to build new homes for residents of Bukit Chagar and Lumba Kuda whose home were to be demolished to make way for the new CIQ.



There are not many places or buildings in Johor named after Sultan Iskandar. When he launched the Iskandar Malaysia project in 2006, other than making that famous statement about the need to demolish the Causeway (and left Pak Lah red-faced), he had also suggested that the economic corridor should had been named after Datuk Abdul Rahman Andak, a 19th century Johorean nobelman who was instrumental in modernising the State. Sultan Iskandar, to me, was definitely not a glamour-seeker. Due to the lack of use of the name, Iskandar now symbolises quality and exclusivity in Johor.

And that, brought me to another Johorean man who is also not a glamor-seeker and was close to Sultan Iskandar.

It was well known almost to everyone that Sultan Iskandar treated Datuk Ghani, his longest serving MB like a member of his own family. He snubbed Pak Lah twice, in 2004 and 2008, when the then PM tried to replace Ghani with someone of his choice. That, to me was the most wise decision by Sultan Iskandar, as I suspected that he knew how much the Tingkat Empat boys at that time had greedily eyed Johor and looking for a foothold. By keeping Ghani to keep the wolves at bay, Sultan Iskandar probably prevented Johor from being sucked dry by those leeches. 

The Sultan and his MB shared many common traits. They are men of integrity and honor. Of course Ghani does not slap people even though sometimes I feel that he should when it comes to dealing with some people.

When Sultan Iskandar bestowed Ghani the highest Johor honour, the Darjah Kerabat 1, many had puzzeled over it as the award was rarely given to a commoner. It technically made one a part of the royal household.

The story that I heard was that when Sultan Iskandar was about to undergo an operation in Bangkok in 2003, it was Ghani who actually contributed his own blood for the operation as the sultan's blood type was of a rare type, which is the same as Ghani's.

However, I'm more inclined to believe that Sultan Iskandar appreciated Ghani simply because he was a monarch who was a good judge of character. He always wanted the best for his subjects and as for leadership, he would had wanted someone who is good to lead Johor, instead of someone who would only be good at saying YES to all his whims and fancies.

The last time I saw Sultan Iskandar was at the opening of Kota Iskandar, the new State administrative capital of Johor on March 16, 2009. He looked frail but was in jovial mood. In his speech, he had cracked jokes and pretended to be crossed with the speech he was supposed to read as it contained several "big Malay words". That was a good day, except that it was also the last time I ever saw Sultan Iskandar in person.

I will always miss that good old man of Bukit Serene.

Al-Fatihah.

    
(Note: Dear readers, please be careful not to make any seditious comments)

Another lousy day

Sorry ya. Today is another lousy day for me.

Cant post anything proper.

When I am like this, I rather relax and listen to good music.

If I try to write when my mood like this, I will end up bitching to no end. So I better shut up and chill.

This is good music. The artiste was not yet very famous when this was recorded.

An old war story

Met an old friend I haven't seen for a long time last night.

We hanged out over a few drinks and mostly talked about our "old war stories".

He is by the way my senior and mentor. A really cool dude, who takes no bullshit from anyone.

He was with me at No8, Jalan Setiamurni, Bukit Damansara when Anwar Ibrahim was arrested that tense night on Sept 20th back in 1998.

I was a Reformasi sympathizer at that time while he was, and still is a pro-BN guy.

At that time, I had wondered why my senior, who knows so much more than me and never compromised on his principles could be so sure that Anwar was not innocent.

I never asked him what were his reasons to take such a stand at that time as I did not want to offend him.

Whenever people asked me why I was sympathetic to Anwar at that time, I always said that the case against him was so poorly handled that it smells a conspiracy from the start.

I was young and rebellious. I was ready to side with anyone who was deemed to be victimized.

The image of Anwar, his soft-mannered wife and young children being victimized really didn't go down well with me.

The funny thing about it all was that I didn't even like Anwar previously. I encountered him several times before he was sacked from his DPM post and find him to be arrogant to those whom he can be arrogant with. His young aides and even his bodyguards were the same. Anwar was at that time at the pinnacle of his power.

But I brushed aside all negetive thoughts about Anwar after I went to his house a day after his sacking. On that day the house was packed with his supporters. But what caught my attention most was the sight of his daughter Nurul Nuha, then 14 crying at one corner and was being consoled by Wan Azizah. That was the turning point for me at that moment.

Now, I'm much older and more objective. I do not let my emotion rules my thinking anymore. Post 2008, I realized that this country is in danger of falling into the hands of hypocrites.

My friend finally told me last night why he was so sure that everything are not right about Anwar.

He was closely involved in the Anwar's case since a year before his arrest. He saw with his own eyes when Anwar abused his power by ordering the police to arrest and harass Umi Hafilda and his driver Azizan to retract their allegations of his sexual misconducts. Anwar was later convicted for that but many, including me at that time believed that it was just part of the conspiracy against him. My friend nonetheless told me how the policemen who had to execute Anwar's orders agonized over what they had to do.

Knowing my friend and what he stands for, I know he was not lying.

"Do you think the same thing will not happened again if that bugger really becomes a PM?" my friend asked.     

You really want Umno dead meh?

I have been following the Pakatan's "Asal Bukan Umno" (ABU) campaign with some amusement.

The campaign, as I understand it was to vote in anyone, except Umno and anyone related to that Malay-based party.

Umno is to these campaigners, the source of all evils in this country. Members of the party are deemed to be corrupt, insidious and immoral.

In fact, DAP leaders such as Guan Eng even equated Umno to the Nazis and the BN government something like the Germany's Third Reich. well, that one was mostly targeted for the Chinese audience la. Najib is something like Adolph Hitler? Are you serious?   

My understanding is that this campaign targeted ALL Umno members and those related to them. Ya lah - anything/anyone but Umno, isn't it? Good or bad Umno people, doesn't matter isn't it?

Is it really like that? All those pakchik-pakchik and makchik-makchik of Umno are evil? Are we very sure of that?

Well, there is this Youtube video clip starring that comedian turned Pas ustaz who goes by the name of Bob Lokman which I watched the other day.

It was of course done in the usual Malay comedy acting where Ustaz Bob was hanging out with his Pas friends at a kedai kopi and making fun of the government's financial assistance for those in the lower income group. It was not very funny to me at that stage, but then again I am not much of a Malay comedy fan.

Then came this man wearing a songkok acting as an Umno man. Ustaz Bob and his gang started giving a lecture on the evils of Umno to the guy and at the end told him to throw away his songkok. In its place they gave him a skull cap whereupon they congratulated him for jumping ship to become a Pas man.

Well, it was funny to me at that point as to me that reflects the simplistic mentality of the Pakatan people when they tell everyone, especially the Malays to throw away Umno.

Let's say after the next general election, Pakatan rules the country. What will happened after that?

Will BN still be there to be the opposition?

.My calculation, based on the reasoning of these ABU campaigners, Umno will die a natural death.

 

I do not think that BN will still be there once Umno is dead.

 So, will everything be honky dory in Malaysia then?

Umno, is the main force of BN, they said. BN is therefore evil as a whole. All those over 50 years of their rule has made Malaysia such a terrible place. Same as Zimbabwe. Really ka? Ustaz Bob have been to Zimbabwe meh? Guan Eng, you have been there ka?

Fine, which party is the main force of Pakatan? Don't tell me they are all equal. If I say I want Guan Eng as PM, would PKR and Pas object against it? I think they will.

Anyway, they said they want Anwar Ibrahim of PKR as PM. Are we so sure everyone in PKR are pure and sinless? Remember arrr....Anwar and the gang are mostly Umno rejects. Are we so sure they got kicked out of Umno because they are sinless people? Think carefully.

I wonder what was the doa of Anwar and Mahathir when that picture was taken.

Will this country be as perfect as .... let's say Singapore (this is if you ask the DAP fellas la).... once Pakatan takes over and Umno is dead?

Are we sure everything will be fine once Umno is no more?


Are we sure we want to vote just anyone (even an ultra of some sorts) if the Umno candidate is proven to be a good man/woman?


Is that how we should determine the future of our country? The future of our children?


 

My story : In the begining

My first memories were when I was about 4 years old.

At that time, my family was staying at a small house in Bukit Batu, near Kulai, Johor.

I was born at a nearby town not very far away from there.

My late father was a laborer who had to move us from town to town depending on his work.

My late mom was a housewife. She was semi-literate. She learnt jawi at a religious school when she was young but could not read the roman text. Later in life, she self-taught herself to read by going through the newspapers with the help of my father and my older siblings.

I was closer to my mom as my father was always away at work.

My father was the garang type. My older siblings were always scared of him. He, however, mellowed down as he grew older.

Despite my family being poor, I never remember us as being so. That was probably because I never mixed around with rich kids. Most of my memories when I was young were happy ones.

At the labourers' quarters where my family's house was located, the richest family was that of a clerk's. Their house got three rooms while ours only two.



Occasionally, my mom would go to their house and I sometimes tagged along. It was marvelous to see all those luxuries - TV, fridge, washing machine etc etc. At our house, the most modern stuff that we got those days were a radio and an old sewing machine. My mom used a kerosene stove to cook and had to shop every morning for fish and vegetables as we got no fridge. We only acquired the other stuff when I was about 10 or 11 years old.

Somehow, I can't remember being envious of the clerk's family. Just admiration for their "wealth", but definitely there was no envy.

My fondest memory at that time was when my mom let me walk with her to a sundry shop nearest to our home. That was about three kilometres away. The towkay was a very nice old Chinaman who always gave me a sweet or two. Even that was considered as a luxury for me. Sometimes my mom bought me aiskrim kapit for five sen, which was really a treat.

My older siblings however always told me that our family was much better off by that time. They said previously we were much poorer.

I had always wondered how much poorer we could had been.

I was told that before I was born, during Hari Raya, the most luxurious food that my family had was ikan kembung sumbat. That is mackerel with its meat scrapped out and mashed with coconut and spices before it was tucked in back and fried. Our family couldn't even afford to have chicken or beef.

For vegetables, my mom would go to a nearby vegetable farm where the Chinese ladies working there would be kind enough to give her some kangkung, sawi or young yam stems deemed not good enough to be sent to the market.

There was once when my mom assigned my eldest brother to get those vegetables but he ended up only with yam stems of poor quality. My mom did some investigating and one fine morning caught him stealing yam stems from a nearby pig farm.

The yam stems was meant to be eaten by the pigs. Apparently, my brother was too embarassed to ask the nyonyas and amois at the farm for the vegetables. He would rather steal from the pigs. Of course he kena walloped by my mom.

My father would be at his work place during day time while at night he would go around doing part-time jobs, especially repairing cars. Those days his day job salary was only about RM150 a month.

 It was in the 1950s and 1960s and before the NEP.

My mom used to tell me that my father spent all his salary buying books and paying the school fees for my siblings.

For food and household upkeeps, our family had to survive on his extra income of repairing cars. At that time, there were yet to be any buku pinjaman scheme or free school fees.

My mom said my father had insisted for all of my siblings to finish school, something which he himself never had the luxury. He only managed to get to standard five of the sekolah melayu. Many kids in our neighbourhood at that time never finished school as their families could not afford their education. My father's dream was for his children to be better than himself, a labourer - maybe they could become clerks, supervisors, nurses or teachers. He never thought that any of his children would one day become engineers, surgeons, lawyers or corporate hotshots. That was beyond his comprehension.

My mom said my father's only true investment in life was his children's education. She said it was pointless for him to try buying land as what most other laborers did at that time because they do not have that much money anyway. She reasoned that, let's say a labourer like my father managed to buy 10 acres of land. After his death, the land would have been divided between us and each probably would get a small portion. What's the point then if we have no education? That was why my father was single minded in trying to give the best education for his children using all the resources available to him.

By the time my father passed away five years ago, he left behind only our family's kampung house and nothing else.

Just before he passed away, he told us to sell off the house. His dream however did come true. All of us his children are doing fine. I am the only laborer of some sorts in the family.

By the way, my father was laid to rest not far from my mom, who passed away much earlier. Their final resting place was at the Muslim burial ground of my adopted kampung. We managed to bring my father to be near our mom despite him passing away far from that place. That was another of their shared dreams fulfilled.

Belajar lagu Cina

Today I am feeling sad and not in a mood to write.

So, since CNY is near, you all can instead learn this Chinese song. I've been singing it the whole day.

This is also just in case your Chinese friends ask you to go karaoke. Can impress them la.

Two new names for Johor MB post

I had previously posted here
Fortress Johor - Part 1 : A new MB? about what many believed to be the impending retirement of Johor MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman after the next general election.

In that posting, I had listed four main contenders who are vying for Ghani's post.

They are Khaled Nordin, Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Nur Jazlan Mohamed and Aziz Kaprawi.

Ever since that posting, I had heard murmurs of dissapointment among some people who think that I should had also included people like Hasni Mohammad and Dr Adham Baba.

Well, to satisfy their curiosity - I do not think the duo have much chance to take over from Ghani because they currently belong to the wrong Umno camps. Hasni may still have a chance if he can wait for another term but Adham is simply out of the race.

Actually, the four who made it to the list are also there by long shots as my sources in Putrajaya indicated that the sane Umno minds there still prefer Ghani to stay as MB for another term.

These federal Umno leaders who want Ghani to put aside his retirement plans feels that Johor will be in great danger if the wrong person takes over the MB post.

They are of the opinion that Ghani is the only one who have the gut to say "NO" to anyone in Johor or at least make a decent trade off if necessary..

If Ghani really goes after the election, they are quite confident things will no longer be the same for Umno or BN in Johor.

Nonetheless, the jockeying for the Johor MB post continues with two more names emerging of late.

The first one is RAZALI IBRAHIM, who is the deputy youths and sports minister, Umno youth deputy chief and Muar MP.



I was not surprised when a reliable source told me about Razali's name being aggressively bandied by his young aides as a potential MB.

I got no problem with Razali as he seems nice as a person, well educated and have great potentials. However, in my opinion, he still need some more experience and do more to develop his stature if he is to run Johor. For one, I do not think at the moment he is capable of handling the fiercesome Umno warlords.

I sincerely thinks that Razali will make a good Johor MB one day, but not for at least another term. He need to be seen as not being a young man in a hurry.

Another crucial thing he need to do is to advise his very aggressive young aides to cool off. Otherwise, they can seriously damage his future.

Meanwhile, the second name which just emerged recently is a real shocker.

Those who knows Johor Umno politics may think I have gone mad or something for naming this guy as a potential MB,

but I got this info from a really credible source.

The guy is OSMAN SAPIAN, the Kempas assemblyman.

Yup, unbelievable but true. Osman is in the running too.

He is seen in this picture with his "good friend" and boss in the Pulai division Nur Jazlan Mohamed  (who is also a MB candidate).



Don't ask me who are the backers of Osman Sapian as I am not at liberty to tell, but he is now considered as among the top three among the candidates.

Well, good luck YB Osman. Untung sabut timbul, untung batu tenggelam. Something like that lah.


Meanwhile Datuk Ghani, and his small band of loyalists are in Segamat today, checking the kawasan-kawasan peti undi in preparation for the coming general election.

They seems oblivious to all these talks about a new Johor MB.

"Engko jangan kacau aku lah," a Ghani's aide said to me when I called him in Segamat to ask about Osman Sapian this morning.

"Kita orang tengah sibuk ni. Pedulik apa aku Osman Sapian nak jadi MB. Kalau Ghani pencen aku apa susah. Aku nak balik kampung ngaji pondok."


(Reminder: Dear readers, please be careful about being seditious ya.)

Men better than animals....isn't it?

Woke up this morning and feels like writing about Shahrizat.

But, Bujai had already  wrote it here
Shahrizat takes leave as minister

A lot of other people probably going to write about her also.

So, I think I work on something more profound.

Well, the most profound piece for me today is this posting by Rockybru
Amnesty says Anwar's acquittal shows why Msia must scrap sodomy law

Honestly, I do understand why men always want to go a step further in what ever they are doing. It is in their nature to do so.

They always need to prove that they are on top of the food chain.

Men, after all, must be able to outdo the other species...in everything.

Well, personally, I don't think they should because they may still lose out to dogs.....

See, elephants and giraffes.....they seems to have other original ideas....men want to try like them also ka? Want to legalize this also ka?

 

Ultra men need to shut up

A lot of not so nice things have been said about Chinese-based BN component parties after the disastrous 2008 general election.

Some of the harshest critics are in fact their own friends within the coalition, particularly those from Umno.

MCA and Gerakan were said to be not working hard enough to win back the Chinese community's support and some of their leaders were accused of being Chinese chauvinists who would be ever ready to defect to Pakatan in the event BN were pushed to the brink of defeat.

I used to think so too, that is until of late.

I am not very familiar with Gerakan and therefore not very sure what they are doing these days, but from what I observed, MCA seems to be on the rebound.

No matter what the Pakatan people said about MCA president DS Dr Chua Soi Lek, I think he is working very hard to do the right things for the party ever since he made his dramatic comeback from the sex video incident.

There seems to be some sense of urgency now in MCA's preparations for the coming general election. Well, at least that is what I observed in Johor of late.

Ok, it is still not so tip top, but at least the grassroots members seems to be enthusiastic again.

MCA service centers are now mostly opened and doing what they are good at - providing services for the Chinese community and others, by tackling problems ranging from ahlong menace to daughters running away from home.

These may seems trivial for most people more familiar with big big issues such as Anwar Ibrahim's saintly persona and the super intellectuality of Guan Eng and his new oh so handsome look - but the truth is that, these grassroots problems and efforts by these MCA guys in solving them are the ones which would win over the people's trust and confidence.

I honestly believed that no matter how much we argue for our cause and how cogent  the evidence of wrong doings we throw at our opponents, it all doesn't really matter if we do nothing to make any impact on what really matters to the every day life of people.

After all, mere talks are cheap.

On this point, I think MCA is the best party in this country. I can't remember any of their good leaders who are fiery orators. All are hard workers who were judged by the results of their efforts rather than what were spewing from their mouth.

MCA works for the Chinese community all these years, and I don't think anyone can deny that.

Yes, some may accused them of being involved in corruption or even organized crime, but individuals who strays from the good path should not be used to condemn the ideals of the party.

Do not tell me that all DAP people are pure. Do not tell me that they do not know any gangster and not made deals with them. Come on lah, we are all not so dumb, ok?

All those good things done by MCA touched the very soul of the Chinese community - their schools, temples, guilds, etc etc. I do not think the Chinese community would easily forget.



The other day I had a chat with an MCA friend who runs a hardware shop in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah.

He said things are not yet as good as before 2008, but at least things are improving and it would not be getting any worse for the party.

"And it is bullshit that they are saying Johor BN only have less than 10 per cent of the Chinese community support," he said.

"Those people who made that calculations are from KL lah, what do they know about things in Johor. Look at what happened in Tenang, BN got more than 30 per cent of the Chinese votes what. It could be better but at least it was more than the less than the 25 per cent in 2008.

"And can you please tell your Umno friends not to keep saying we are not doing work and Chinese are all against BN.

"They think all Chinese people like DAP ka? What have DAP done so great for us that we all like them so much ? Please la har, tell them that.

"Oh, one more thing, can you please tell that bugger Ibrahim Ali and people like him to shut the f#@* up. They are making it difficult for us la. They want to win personal brownie points, go and fight among themselves la. Don't use us Chinese as  bogeymen to make themselves look like heroes. Real stupid f*^&s la those people."