HEART...

Life in the Malay Utopia

2010-08-24T23:10:00.001+08:00

Mariam Mokhtar
Aug 23, 10

If Tunku Abdul Rahman were alive today, he would weep at the destruction of bridges he had built between the races in Malaysia.

In a speech to the Foreign Correspondents Association in May 1961, he warned us about “a small minority who did not think, feel, believe and work for the good of Malaya”. Referring to national unity, he said: “This goal would not be achieved if the Chinese continued to think and talk of everything Chinese.”

Ironically, some Malays and a misguided Chinese convert have let the Tunku down, while the non-Malays have embraced his vision wholeheartedly.

The Tunku was passionate about loyalty: “We, who are here, have only our little Malaya. The Chinese, Malays and others have to make the best of our home here. Malaya, our one and only home”. He explained that without unity, "there would be conflict and hell will break loose”.

Fast forward to 2010 and the two school principals who allegedly told their Chinese students to "return to China". They've aped the anti-Chinese rhetoric of Ibrahim Ali, Ahmad Ismail and Ridhuan Tee Abdullah. They are egged-on by a former prime minister, who refuses to retire gracefully, and whose constant meddling will destroy this country.

Not content at being sidelined, Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has condemned the MCA president for demanding the gradual reduction of the 30 percent bumiputera economic equity.

However, let's forget about 30 percent bumiputera equity.

Let's imagine a 'Ketuanan Melayu Utopia' with 100 percent Malay bumiputera equity, with all the Chinese 'banished' to China and the Indians to India.

Will we be socially, economically, morally and religiously content, in Malay brotherhood?

In this Utopia, will the handful of individuals who used to control the wealth of the nation, relinquish their economic stranglehold and share it?

Their actions could eradicate poverty across the country and lift the economic status of the Malays, especially the rural Malays.

But I doubt that they will give up control and power.

Will the government-linked companies or the companies 'belonging' to powerful politicians share projects with the other 97 percent of the population? Would projects be put to open tender? Would the Ali Baba companies that used to exist be disbanded? Or will clones of these Ali Baba firms emerge?

Lifestyle changes?

How will our schools fare? Teachers, especially principals, need not go into racist rants. Will bullying and harassment manifest itself in other forms?

Out will go the subject called 'Moral' for the non-Malays. Sports, especially for girls, would probably cease; Westernised activities like boy-scouts or girl-guides would stop.

As music is anathema to Muslim teachings, unless they are nasyid songs, students who appreciate music and want to learn a musical instrument would have to stop harbouring foolish ideas.

There will be even less emphasis on English. A nephew at a Mara boarding school tried to improve his English, by speaking English to his friends. Unfortunately, both his schoolmates and teachers teased him, "Kamu-ni action-nya, nak jadi Mat-Salleh kah?" (Why are you showing off, do you want to be a Westerner?) so he stopped.

With universities attended and staffed by Malays only, standards should be expected to rise, because there is no competition to slow them down and distract them.

With this new Ketuanan Melayu Utopia, there will be open season on polygamy. Men will be able to marry whenever and whoever they like. There will be no equality for women.

A man can opt to marry girls as soon as they reach the age of puberty. He can get around the laws prohibiting sex with a minor, by marrying in Malacca. When he tires of her, there is always the option of a second, third or fourth wife.

He need not worry about his children's welfare, or breakdown of the family-unit, as the courts rarely enforce maintenance payments. Women being responsible mothers, will always work harder, to subsidise his lifestyle and support his family.

Places that used to sell alcohol, and entertainment establishments like nightclubs or karaoke bars, will cease to exist and 'social ills' should disappear. The 'moral police' who used to look for drinkers like Kartika, may be downsized. Unemployment figures could rise as a result.

Will the khalwat squads still turn a blind eye to immoral VIPs? Having a 100 percent Malay nation will not stop illicit sex.

As there will be no more Gregorian New Year and Valentine's day celebrations, there will be no more abandoned babies.

How will the Malays decide between employment in the cushy civil service or a job in the private sector? Will the government machinery become leaner and more efficient?

Identity, cultural crises

With religious fervor, will the Malays become fully Arabicised or Islamicised? Our Malay architectural heritage has long been abandoned for Arabic domes.

The kebaya has been usurped by the jubah. Tudung or mini-telekung have replaced ordinary head scarves. Even Malay men parade in white Arab robes. War memorials are banned and logos on football jerseys are subject to scrutiny.

Malay weddings have long since become politically correct and institutionalised. Apart from the customary vulgar display of wealth, there is no more joget or mingling among guests. Men and women have neglected how to behave in each other's presence because of segregation. Basically, everyone has forgotten how to have fun.

The Malays are suffering from an identity and cultural crisis. They are stuck in a time-warp and refuse to move with the times. They lack a strong leader. They have been held back by leaders who do not understand their needs but who were content to use them indiscriminately. Malays have been conditioned to be suspicious of each other and kept in check by fear.

All the Ibrahim Alis, Ahmad Ismails, Ridhuan Tee Abdullahs and racist school-principals of Malaysia are simply 'dark-skinned' neo-Nazis. If these 'pseudo Aryans' believe that 100 percent bumiputera equity, or banishing non-Malays from Malaysia will improve our social and economic outcomes, then their heads need examination.

When their experiment for a 100 percent Malay nation-state fails to lift the rural Malays out of poverty and creates a wider gap between rich and poor Malays, what then? When their ill-conceived 'social-engineering' creates more Malay disunity, who will they blame?

In our Malay Utopia, will Dr Mahathir Mohamad be sent back to Kerala, will Ridhuan Tee be returned to China and will the other 'Indonesian Malays' like Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and Najib Abdul Razak be sent packing?

马来西亚华人

2010-08-11T19:07:00.001+08:00

马来西亚华人痛苦！

何谓马来西亚华人——我们是马来西亚人，但不是马来人，我们是华人，但不是中国人

这篇文章是留学北京大学的何灿浩写的!!

当我刚到中国时，人们问我的第一个问题总是：“你的汉语怎么说得那么好啊？”紧接着“来到中国多说年了？”、“难道是从小学汉语吗？”

场景2

当时我和中文系的辩论队一起看01年的国际大专辩论赛决赛，马来亚大学的三辩提到“日本军在南京大屠杀凌虐我中华妇女”，有位同学问我“你们也提中华妇女吗？”

从我到中国以来，以上的情况遇上了无数遍，于是我很早就想写一篇文章来告诉大家：马来西亚的华人是一个什么样的存在。这个题目很大，我只能从我切身的体会和感受来写这篇文章。
缘起
先用一个大家都熟悉的历史背景来做开场白。1840以来，中国进入了一个动乱的时期。一方面，好些中国人想往外逃窜；另一方面，西方列强想捉苦力到东南亚地区为他们服务。于是，大量的中国人（尤其是福建、广东一带）就散布到东南亚各个地区，其中就包括了马来西亚。

尴尬的存在

当人家问我“你的汉语怎么说得那么好啊？”这么一个简单的问题时，我还真觉得这不是一句话就能解释的问题。最简单的回答就是：“因为我祖先是中国人”，但是有人又会问：“那么为什么好多印尼人就不会说汉语了呢？”问题的复杂之处就在这里。

从迁居到马来西亚，我们的先贤就特别重视中文的教育，通过私塾、宗祠等单位教授三字经、四书五经等教材，后来随着中国教育体制的改革而改革。这个时期，我们的祖先基本上还是以中国人自居，黄花岗七十二烈士就有二十九人是华侨、抗日战争时期全体华侨出钱出力、著名的华侨陈嘉庚创办厦大、集美大学。。。。。。这样的事情不胜枚举。

后来，随着居住马来西亚日久，我们的命运渐渐在这片土地上生了根。从马来西亚（大马）方面来看，我们开始更多地关注大马的政治，与马来族、印度族联手争取从英国的殖民统治中独立。从中国方面来看，周恩来总理提出：华侨应在其居住地生根发芽。但是，不变的是：我们始终坚持自己的母语教育。
在印尼，由于当地华侨没有组成统一的阵线，于是他们不能拥有中文名字、不能庆祝农历新年；在中国人普遍认为完好地传承了中华文化的新加坡，李光耀总理主动地消灭了中文教育，关闭了新加坡唯一以中文为教学媒介的南洋大学，全体人民学习英文，于是目前多数新加坡人的母语是英语。如今，随着中国的崛起，中文的 “经济”价值日益提高，许多东南亚国家才掀起了“汉语热”。唯一的例外是马来西亚，因为我们的先贤从头到尾就没有以“经济”作为考量，而是从“民族文化” 出发。

那么，难道马来西亚就没有遭遇当地政府的阻挠吗？有！而且很大！马来西亚教育终极的目标是：以马来语为唯一的教学媒介语，换言之，华语、淡米尔语的中小学迟早都得消灭。60年代，大马政府规定：只有以马来语为教学媒介语的学校才能获得政府的津贴，于是许多中文中学纷纷改制，变为政府中学。这时，我们的先贤，以林连玉先生为代表，明确地提出：学习母语是每个民族的天赋人权，即使不要一分钱的津贴，我们也要办独立中学！

于是，马来西亚的华文教育保留了下来，华小以及民办的独立中学、学院形成完整的中文教育的体系，甚至创立了“全马来西亚独立中学统一考试”，受全球各高校承认（除了马来西亚的大学），我们基本上就是以这张文凭为基础考进北大的。在这个过程中，多少先贤抛头颅、洒热血，林连玉先生被褫夺公民权、好多人被大马政府关押、无数的民众以自己的血汗钱支持独立中学。

但是，来到中国，没有人知道这一切。不止中国，我相信全世界的人都不知道这一切，不知道被我们称为“族魂”的林连玉，不知道马来西亚的华人用血、汗和泪水来争取母语教育的权利。于是，中国的同学反过来问我们：“为什么你们会说汉语？”时，我真觉得这是巨大的讽刺。
尤其，当中国同学问起我：“为什么你们也说‘中华妇女’？”时------尽管不理智------我还是立时火了：“为什么日军侵袭时，马来西亚的华人要出钱出力？为什么同一年发生缅甸风灾和四川大地震时，我们华人对后者的捐款额要远远大于前者，我们难道就没有资格称自己为‘中华民族’吗？”

当我来到北大的图书馆文学图书时，看着满目的“美国文学”、“印度文学”。。。。。。当我看到“新加坡文学”，而没看到“马来西亚文学”时，我更感到十分凄凉，以至于讽刺。我们浴血抗战，创建了一套完整的中文教育体系，有完整的“马华文学”，而这一切在中华文化的发源地------中国是得不到承认的。反倒是曾经废除过南大的新加坡，由于其更为强大的国势，反而被认为是在海外完整地传承了中华文化的国家。

“尴尬”之处就在于此：努力地捍卫中华文化，不为马来西亚政府承认，亦不为世人所知，里外不是人。这就是马来西亚华人第一种存在：尴尬的存在。

第二、独立的存在

独立的存在，另一个说法是孤立的存在。“马来西亚华人”这个词儿意味着：我们是马来西亚人，但不是马来人（中国朋友最大的误会~囧）；我们是华人，但不是中国人。于是，一种特殊的群体和文化产生了，独立于世界之林。

我们跟其他马来西亚人（例如马来人、印度人）的差别很明显，黄皮肤在一片黑色的人海之中额外显眼，不同的语言、不同的文化。但是，在日常生活中我们相处得十分融洽-------马来人其实真的是很好相处的，什么种族冲突全是政府搞出来的-------整个群体都受到马来族极大的影响，这就铸成了我们好多的共同点，而与他们的这些共同点恰恰就是我们和中国人的相异之处。

最明显的差异就是口头表达。首先是口音，我朋友总说：“看你的时候一点都不像外国人，但你一说话我们就马上知道了。”在辩论赛场上时，我的一口马来腔更是显得极为突兀。所谓马来西亚口音，大概就是广东腔+福建腔，翘舌少、轻声较少（个人认为）、没有儿化、语调趋平。其次是词汇，以中文词汇为主体，再加上各种方言、马来语、英语的词汇，各种语气词“啦”、“咯”、“哄”层出不穷。大家有兴趣的话，可以去百度打“马来西亚VS中国”，马上就能找到许多具体的例子。

但是，我以为：更深层的差距不在嘴巴，而在脑子里。有一次，中文系的徐艺峰师兄领着我们留学生辩论队讨论一个辩题，他最感叹的就是：“如果是跟中国学生讨论，第三个衡量标准一定是‘何者更有利于社会主义的建设’。”看看中国同学的课就知道，什么思修、毛概、邓小平思想、军事理论，这些似乎都离我们的生活很远很远。冷战时期资本主义阵营和社会主义阵营的分家就决定了我们意识形态上的不同。

撇开这个问题不谈，即使同样都继承了中华文化，两地的继承也是有所不同的。在这里，大部分的人都信仰“无神论”。但是，我们那里好多人都还信仰观十八罗汉、观音娘娘、关公、济公、齐天大圣等，不一而足。不止大量的神庙，我们还保留了大量的宗祠、会馆，并且还在华人社区发挥着一定的作用。由于我对中国的现代化进程还算有一定的了解，以上这些还不足以让我惊讶，真正让我吃惊的是中国风气的开放。校内校外，情侣相拥亲吻的情况无所不在，这还真不是我想象中的中国。当然，我们那里也有很开放的人，但是可以肯定的是：马来西亚的华人普遍上要比中国人保守得多（嗯~至少跟我的家乡相比）。

此外，许多大马华人一致公认的是：中国学生真的很多“学术牛人”，大体上比我们那儿的人要勤劳的多。中国人多竞争大，我所认识的每位同学一个个都是从高考的腥风血雨中杀出来的英雄豪杰，他们那股永不言倦的冲劲着实让我们折服。相较而言，马来西亚人则比较慵懒，更倾向于做自己喜欢的事、享受自己的人生。因此，我们玩起来比较放浪形骸，比较不顾形象，大声吵、大声笑、大声闹。

既不是马来人，也不是中国人，我们仿佛就是另一种程度上的混血儿，所以或许我们有点孤单。但是，这或许就是我们独特的优势：既传承了悠久的中华文化，又成长在一个相对宽松自由的舆论环境，想法更自由、更多元。所以，即使我们这个群体在世界上似乎很孤立，但如果让我有机会选择，我仍然愿意出生在马来西亚，当马来西亚的华人。

第三、悲壮的存在

“宝剑锋自磨砺出，梅花香自苦寒来”，这一句俗语在马来西亚人身上得到绝佳的体现。在过去，马来人、华人、印度人曾经联手争取了国家的独立；但是，随着马来人逐渐独掌大权（再注：对马来人的抨击仅限政治人物），华人、印度人的地位也日渐衰弱。首先，马来语成了唯一的官方语言。再来，马来西亚教育的最终目标定为：“使马来语成为唯一的教学媒介语”。

但是，最大的转折点是六、七十年代的“五·一三事件”。由于华人比较刻苦耐劳，比其他的民族来得富有，无形中造成了民族间的矛盾。出于权力斗争的目的，政治人物鼓动马来人屠杀华人。于是，第二任首相敦拉萨借此宣布国家进入“紧急状态”，顺势上台，颁布了一系列不平等的法令。在经济上，每家公司都至少要雇用 30%的土著（其实就是马来人和其他极少部分的少数民族）；在教育上，大学也实施固打制，要保留一定的份额给土著。此外，对中文教育的打压更是变本加厉，影响力最大的就是改制事件，即不以马来语为主要教学媒介语的政府中学都领不到政府一分钱的津贴。

打压归打压，但是马来西亚华人依然在暴风雨中茁壮成长。如第一篇所述，我们发展出了一套完整的中文教育，各领域人才辈出。大家熟知的梁静茹、曹格、光良皆是马来西亚华人；大家现在人手一支的U盘是马来西亚的潘建忠发明的；在华语辩论界上，马来西亚以其犀利的辩风在世界上占有一席之地；如今，马来西亚的十大首富中也大部分是华人。

但是，从这里我们可以看到一些很可悲的现实。大马华人自己创办的独立中学培养了无数英才那又怎样？全世界大部分高等学府都承认我们的统考文凭时，唯有马来西亚政府不承认！马来亚大学在辩坛创出赫赫威名那又怎样？在政府控制下的马来亚大学还曾经试图禁止马大的辩手参赛！梁静茹、潘建忠等辈就更加可悲了，许多人都以为他们是台湾人！潘建忠自己就说过：“如果我留在马来西亚，不可能会有今天的成就。”因为在马来西亚，华人发展的空间有限，报国无门又无法自我实现，不出国发展还能怎样？

于是，马来西亚的华人成长是成长了，可是那跟政府什么毛关系都没有。因为我们政府很慷慨，在全世界都在争夺人才时，我们政府眼看马来西亚出现人才外流的滚滚洪流仍然可以视而不见！在马来西亚大力提倡向外吸纳人才时，去看看，有多少马来西亚的人才在新加坡工作！有一次，我们国家的首相到新加坡访问，探访一间医院时，竟然有一半以上的人用马来语跟他致敬！这是何等的讽刺！

我原本把第三篇命名为“令人骄傲的存在”，可是后来改成了“悲壮”。的确，我们有很傲人的成就。可是，在我们有心报效祖国时，却只能被不公平的政策拒之国门。马来西亚那么一块宝地，没有天灾、资源丰富、文化多样，又居于世界要冲，如果真的有英明的政府，摇身变为世界强国绝非难事！反观新加坡，没有什么自然资源，又是弹丸之地，可是，现在我们只有眼睁睁看着自己的国家成了新加坡的腹地，眼看着从马来西亚分离出去的新加坡一天比一天强大！这种感觉真的很复杂，真的很难以言喻！
谓之“悲壮”，我想应该甚为贴切。

Criminal bullying of the poor into Islam

2010-08-09T17:48:00.000+08:00

Helen Ang
Aug 5, 10
12:50pm

Share 0Malaysia is aiming for yet another world record. We may have had a 15-month-old Indian baby ostensibly able to recite in Arabic the kalimah syahadah or affirmation of faith - 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger'.

Yesterday the Penang High Court denied S Banggarma's application to quash her so-called conversion to Islam. Below are the dates as to Malaysia's possible claim for an unparalleled child prodigy:

•Aug 1982: Banggarma's date of birth
•Nov 1983: Conversion (I) to Islam in Pahang*
•?? Placed in Ramakrishna orphanage
•1987 or 1990? Moved to Taman Bakti orphanage
•Dec 1989: Conversion (II) to Islam in Penang
* disputed

Banggarma is a 28-year-old homemaker challenging the validity of the conversion certificate made out in her name. The authorities have put forward a claim that Banggarma's parents converted themselves and their children to Islam in November 1983 in Rompin, Pahang. Yesterday, the court pronounced itself satisfied that this was indeed the case.

On the other hand, Banggarma is holding Perkim officer Raimi Abdullah responsible for her conversion after he took her away from Ramakrishna orphanage. She has named him as well as Perkim president Mahathir Mohamad as defendants in her suit.

Welfare department director-general Meme Zainal Rashid stated that Banggarma was placed in a home (Rumah Kanak-Kanak Taman Bakti in Kepala Batas, Penang) from March 1990 by court order “after she was found wandering aimlessly in Sungai Petani, Kedah”. This claim is disputed by Banggarma who believes that she was transferred to the home in 1987 together with her siblings.

Banggarma's lawyer has produced her conversion certificate. The inference is that it does not make sense for an individual to be converted twice. Hence, her infant conversion alleged by the Penang Islamic Religious Council is questionable.

Furthermore any conversion at the ages of eight and/or one-plus was clearly neither of Banggarma's own free will.

Making 1Malaysia 1Islam

In fact, Banggarma's 1989 conversion looks to be ethically fraudulent. What kind of sick, twisted mind did the Muslim zealots have who tricked a child into it?

Banggarma has refuted the claim by the Penang Islamic Religious Council that it was her father who converted to Islam in 1983. She was reported in the Star (Nov 25, 2009) as saying: “Three of my siblings were placed in the welfare home along with me and we all have conversion certificates dated Dec 28, 1989. How could my father have converted us in 1983 when my sister was not even born?”

Thus the contention by Penang Islamic Religious Council president Shabudin Yahaya that the later certificate was to “reconfirm Banggarma's [earlier] conversion” sounds dubious.

One would also ask Shabudin whether the function of a government-run orphanage is to protect children or to proselytise to them.

However, it appears that Mashitah Ibrahim, deputy minister in charge of Islamic affairs, has already addressed this very issue last year. She was quoted in The Sun (Nov 22, 2009) as commending the orphanage for taking the initiative to preach on Islam. In the context of Banggarma's conversion, Mashitah said it was the responsibility of the orphanage to then bring up the child according to true Islamic teachings.

It is obvious that Banggarma's guardians failed dismally in the task. Banggarma has declared that she will battle to the end to profess her Hindu faith. “I was born a Hindu so I will die a Hindu.”

It is a basket-case country that insists on handcuffing someone under such circumstances to Islam. And they want to throw away the key too; Banggarma has been told that she must seek remedy in the Syariah Court.

Aside from leaving Banggarma in legal limbo, the state has also deprived her children of their father's name in their birth certificates as well as made it impossible for Banggarma and S. Sockalingam to register their marriage.

Force-feeding bitter medicine

The Little Mullah Napoleons have been rampaging like a many-headed hydra. Malaysians, particularly the non-Muslims, have been too timid all this while to subdue the creature.

Some Bangsa Malaysia First-ers - in their asinine desire to be seen as politically correct and endearing multiculturalists - have shouted down the alarm bells ringing out the untrammelled Islamisation of our country.

Islam is forced on the weak and the vulnerable. The child Banggarma recalled how she attended Muslim prayer sessions along with the other children in the home.

Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar (right) cited an episode in 2007 where a 17-year-old Hindu youth studying in a residential vocational school was “pressured and brainwashed” to convert to Islam.

Bernama reported last November that Jakim, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department, placed 200 officers in orang asli settlements nationwide to “educate” the fringe community on Islam. Jakim is an agency under the Prime Minister's Department (PMD).

Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong revealed that according to federal budget estimates, PMD has a total budgetary outlay of RM12.1 billion for this year alone. Its minister Nazri Aziz told Parliament in reply to a question that PMD presently has a staff of 43,544 after hiring 25,332 people last year.

Given the huge numbers on their payroll and PMD's generous cash flow, the 200 Jakim officers sent to preach to the orang asli is peanuts in terms of expenditure - ultimately borne by the hapless taxpayer. For more details on the other Islamic agencies and statutory bodies under PMD, please refer my earlier Malaysiakini articles (see listing on top right of page).

On how the bureaucracy uses NEP-like means and methods to coax and coerce the minorities into embracing Islam, read my latest CPI article 'Enforcing NEP on minority religions'.

This is M'sia today

A recent Merdeka Center survey of voters to gauge public attitudes is sobering for its illumination on the religious values held by Malaysians. The centre's mid-July findings were drawn from 3,141 adult respondents. These were representative of Malaysia's ethnic ratio and interviewed between January and April 2010.

Below is my summary of segments of the report:

Merdeka Center found 13 percent of the electorate to be True Believers, of which 82 percent, quite naturally, think hudud should be implemented. It may surprise you somewhat that 67 percent of them are urban dwellers.

The second cluster (15 percent of the electorate) is the Accommodative Working Class of whom many are civil servants; 83 percent say religion is very important; 81% disapprove of co-habitation before marriage.

The third cluster (57 percent non-bumiputera) is the Disgruntled White Collar Worker. They are pro-Pakatan; 33 percent say religion is not important while 43 percent believe it all right for a couple to live together without any intention of getting married.

The fourth cluster is the Insecure Underclass (82 percent bumiputera/46 percent rural). Half the Malays in this group think “the non-Malays are trying to take over the country”; 74 percent agree to hudud.

The fifth cluster is the Pro-establishment Working Class (17 percent of the electorate/98 percent bumiputera). Religion is very important to them and a whopping 96 percent identify themselves according to faith affiliation. They support Malay unity under Umno.

The sixth cluster, the Partisan Underclass (13 percent of the electorate), has high trust in the BN/Umno government. Their education is 73 percent secondary school level and below; 87 percent say religion is important and one has to be religious to be moral.

The seventh and final cluster is the Disenchanted Bystanders (16 percent of the electorate/55 percent non-bumiputera). Politically they “lean slightly” to Pakatan; 73 percent feel they are unfairly treated (presumably by the system); 30 percent are of the opinion that religion is not important among the non-Malays.

One might take the Merdeka Center survey results to imply that Malaysia has overall become a highly religious country. Those who are less religiously inclined or less observant of faith rituals are in the minority.

If you - who are few - disagree with the treatment meted out to Banggarma, you'd better stop sitting on your hands and pretending to 'hear no evil, speak no evil'. Burying your head in the sand doesn't mean trouble won't come find you for something or other, sometime or other.

Enforcing NEP on minority religions

2010-08-09T17:43:00.002+08:00

Written by Helen Ang
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 19:20

A football analogy of religion in Malaysia will be this:

The Ketuanan Melayu-Islam (KMI) team has on the pitch 11 players. The opposing team, the Minorities, fields 5 players – this ratio follows the Ibrahim Ali formula of 67% bumiputera representation, albeit appropriating the Christian native and pribumi animist share.

The referee is the KMI team manager, and the linesmen, the KMI club president and treasurer.

The goalmouth on the KMI side is 8 yards wide and goalpost 8 feet high. On the Minorities side, the corresponding dimensions are 30% extra at 10.5 yards/10.5 feet, thereby giving KMI strikers an advantage in chances for scoring. Furthermore, the Minorities goalkeeper is permitted to keep goal with only one hand.

Before kick-off, a ‘let’ is given by handicapping the Minorities three goals. The duration of play is 30 minutes each half, reduced by a quarter of an hour in keeping with NEP affirmative action.

If after the final whistle the scorecard still shows the Minorities ahead, the match will automatically go into extra time. If KMI fails to equalize despite the extended play, they will be accorded five penalty kicks. And if KMI still proceeds to lose despite the rules of the game deliberately crippling their opponent, the KMI fans will riot and burn down the stadium.

Does the football hooliganism allusion have any basis? The Shah Alam cow-head oafs and the church arson indicate, yes. The fact that the Mazu ‘Goddess of the Sea’ statue cannot be erected in Kudat, Sabah shows there is no level playing field.

Without any fair play, the conduct of the game then hinges on ‘toleration’, that is, the extent to which fundamentalist Muslims can tolerate the notion of pluralism in the matter of religious verities. Reciprocally, at what point would Muslim insistence on Islam as the sole divine truth make life too intolerable for the dhimmi?

Reaching breaking point

If I were to do some storekeeping, what’s ‘mine’ as non-Malay, non-Muslim is very scant. Small roadside shrines constructed under trees, faux churches in shoplots or looking like factory buildings and YMCA complexes (the rebuilt and recent completed Metro Tabernacle church is one example), temples in terrace houses. What’s ‘yours’ is magnificent and everywhere.

Not only do ‘you’ get free public expression of Islam, you also receive overflowing public funds. I needn’t delve into details; it’s not like most people don’t already know.

To further my football analogy, let’s take the junior league. One aspect of our religious NEP is the restriction on non-Muslim fellowship in schools. Conversely, there is no restriction on Kelab Islam.

Banning non-Muslim religious societies is like forbidding the stepchildren from being taught football and depriving them of footie practice in the school field.

While other religions are kept off the timetable, Islamic Studies is an integral component of the syllabus. It is mandatory for Malay students to take the paper in public exams.

In some schools, doa (Muslim prayer) is recited weekly during assembly. However, if a Christian, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist prayer were ever recited in a gathering where Malay pupils are present, there will be uproar.

In some former mission schools (now become national school), crosses and icons of Virgin Mary and other saints have been removed by the new principals. And perhaps chapels closed down too. There have been incidents of teachers confiscating crucifixes and other religious symbols worn by pupils.

Why do you think that more than 90 percent of Chinese parents see no choice but to shield their children from the sekolah kebangsaan system? If I were a mother, I would never wish to subject my vulnerable child to a bellicose environment where my race, and the traditions and faith beliefs I’ve imparted to my son or daughter are disparaged.

In national school, even should my offspring be lucky enough to dodge any active proselytization, there is not escaping the Islamized climate that favours one party and discriminates against the other.

If you try to tell a Malay about another religion other than the one he was born into, you are guilty of a crime punishable with jail. Christian literature is required by law to carry a disclaimer ‘for non-Muslims only’. The Muslim is perfectly free to persuade you that his religion is best. You’re hard pressed to rebut, particularly when – for instance – the bible cannot be published and printed in the national language locally.

When you try bringing imported religious material through customs, these Christian CDs and bibles in Bahasa Indonesia are confiscated. Books on comparative religion are banned, even Karen Armstrong’s innocuous ‘The History of God’.

Where are we headed?

Circulars issued by the Education Departments and directives interpreted (if not further extended in scope) by Little Napoleons result in the alienation of non-Muslim pupils. Were the controversies in the Klang High School, and other schools in other states merely isolated episodes? I’m more inclined to see a determined NEP pattern arising from the powerful institutional forces of Islam at work.

There have been children who were converted during their schooldays. The Susie Teoh case was one that made legal history. Susie was formally instructed in Islam without the knowledge and consent of her father. The authorities made her a ward of the state until she was almost of age to legally convert to Islam. Another case is S Banggarma converted as in child in an orphanage.

Ahmed Burhan Tee Abdullah, who is the younger brother of controversial Utusan columnist Ridhuan Tee, gave an illuminating account of his introduction to Islam in a ‘Bicara Agama’ column of the same newspaper. There was no compulsion insofar as Burhan was concerned; it was his own heart’s desire.

Nonetheless, some points crop up in hearing Burhan’s narrative. He recalled how the ustaz in his school was able to answer “clearly and logically” the questions posed by him as a child whereas to his disappointment, Mr and Mrs Tee failed to satisfactorily explain the significance of religious rituals inherited and practiced by the Chinese.

Granted we are not acquainted with the Tee family faith practices. But taking a more general view, can you fault Chinese or Indian or Orang Asli for not being able to provide adequate spiritual guidance to their children when they themselves are religiously oppressed by the state?

On the one hand, Islamisation pervades every cubic inch of air we breathe in Malaysia.

On the other hand, other religions are suppressed. One infamous incident occurred in 2004 at Christmas where the Selangor Sultan and assorted cabinet ministers were invited guests. At this official function, hymns mentioning Jesus could not be sung.

A person like Lina Joy cannot safely reside in Malaysia. A youth bearing the name Ali bin Bakar on his Mykad made front page news in a national paper because he is Buddhist – such a shocking, sensational revelation!

Those who can among the minorities have elected to emigrate rather than challenge the NEP. The pro-Malay policy that was to have ended in 1990 is prolonged under various guises and set to continue into the distant future.

It will be the same for religion. NEP yielded Ketuanan Melayu; NEP phase II yields Ketuanan Islam. For its poster boy, Ridhuan Tee is the face. But look too at the state sanctioned structures and processes that facilitate the creation of such a convert.

Converts are even paid money by the state when they embrace Islam. When a ‘victory’ or human souls are won by NEP-like means, how honorable is that?

Race hatred a factor in "May 13"

2010-06-17T21:26:00.002+08:00

Helen Ang
Jun 17, 10
2:45pm

This photograph (below, right) of the PAS muktamar last weekend shows Malay men stepping on the Star of David. Now how would you feel if it were the cross or crescent? The event organizer deliberately etched the religious symbol of Judaism on the floor so that those present could not avoid trampling on it.

Two weeks ago at an anti-Israel protest, the demonstrators chanted 'Allahu akhbar' and 'Khaibar ya Yahud' (the Arabian Jews were subjugated when Khaibar was conquered), marching from Kampung Baru. Sidenote: Prime real estate slated for development, Kg Baru will remain "100 percent bumiputera" as its landowners strongly object to non-Malays investing in this area located in the heart of KL.

Another popular rally cry by the Malays is 'Yahudi laknatullah' or accursed Jews. Then there was that brilliant idea of a nationwide 'Teach children to hate Israel' campaign in schools, mooted by Hishamuddin Hussein back when he was education minister.

If you read Malay media and Malay blogosphere, you'd be acquainted with the fevered pitch of race hate exhibited against Jews.

Yet even in English, media coverage is lopsidedly anti-Israel. On June 7 alone, The Star online carried nine articles that made it proudly deserving of the tagline 'The Palestinian People's Paper'. A day earlier on June 6, it published not one, not two but three! opinion-editorials excoriating the Jewish state – I wrote about that piece of top brass initiative in my CPI article 'Umno heroes and Star spear Israel'.

The frenzy of race hate in cyberspace is patent each time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares up and Malaysian blogs start bashing Israel. "MM, most of the time, you only posted international news about Gaza and Palestinians here, very few others. I bet your whole world spin around that tiny land?" one reader calling himself 'Joseph' wrote in Marina Mahathir's blog last Dec 30, directing his comment at her.

However the hatred manifested is not confined to anti-Jewish sentiments. In some of the Malay-ultra blogs, expressions of hate are targeted at Chinese and Indians. The common denominator of these blogs is that they all have Che Det (Mahathir Mohamad's blog) on their blogroll.

'Mahathiracism' speech

The May 13 death toll was predominantly Chinese, hacked to pieces. Malays were the aggressors armed with parangs.

It is a monumental task to untangle distortion about the massacre because the ketuanan melayu hegemony tightly controls official storylines permitted public airing. However, through studying the coverage of Gaza as a present-day comparison, we can get an inkling of the one-sidedness on what content the Malaysian public is encouraged or allowed access to.

It is fair to assume that a lot of information has been obscured, withheld or doctored, be it about Israel, Palestine or May 13.

In such a vacuum and hedging on our absence of knowledge, Mahathir Mohamad (left) in his 'Gertak' speech attempted to turn the Malays into May 13 victims – instead of the perpetrators that they were – by calling the bloodletting a "class war".

It is not to say that the economics of class struggle as well as the politics of divide-and-rule did not play a part in precipitating the outbreak of racial violence.

What I'm saying is Mahathir's motives are suspect since he has never been a socialist icon like Ahmad Boestamam, Pak Sako and the like. His posturing now as a champion of the working class rings hollow, especially when Umno was led by the elites just as its Alliance partner MCA had the reputation as a towkay party.

A major factor for the mass killings to have happened – really, it takes the utmost extremism for a man, or a mob to beat a victim till he bleeds to death – is that the Chinese were nothing short of hated by the Kg Baru amoks.

And lately, loathing again has been fanned after the opposition made great strides in the 2008 general election, similar to May 13 occurring after opposition gains in the 1969 GE.

This suspicion of minorities is egged on by stereotyping. Mahathir wrote in 1970's 'Malay Dilemma': "The Jews, for example, are not merely hook-nosed but understand money instinctively. … And the Chinese are not just almond-eyed people, but are also inherently good businessmen."

His keynote address in Terengganu on Monday is a facsimile of the Dilemma screed. After 40 years, Mahathir is still repeating his sly insinuation that Chinese, as a race and collective, were filthy rich in the 1960s.

While the above is disingenuous, it becomes quite dangerous for him to be trotting out accusations that Chinese today are still robbing the riches of Tanah Melayu. The gist of Mahathir's continual agitprop bodes ill for peace and stability, particularly if Malaysia were to go bankrupt in a few years and prompting social unrest.

'Gertak' is to intimidate

The ketuanan melayu demagoguery conveniently ignores the fact that prior to 1969, British suppression of the communist insurgency saw 1.2 million Chinese resettled in more than 500 New Villages which were little more than shantytowns fenced behind barbed wire.

How could those one million-plus Chinese villagers in the peninsula – out of a population totalling only 10.5 million in 1969 including Sabah and Sarawak – be considered prosperous in such huge numbers as to provoke the 'rich Chinese-poor Malay' class war that Mahathir invokes?

Lest it be forgotten, the Chinese came to this land as coolies. The dictionary does not define 'coolie' as millionaire. A great number of the community remained the underclass eking out a meagre living.

But even before the ex-premier's devotees turned up at the stadium for their dose of vintage 'Mahathiracism', the Gertak gathering already started from a lie. Its organizer Razali Idris claimed he chose the acronym Gertak meaning 'bridge' [sic] for his group Gerakan Kebangkitan Rakyat because it "embodied all that they stood for", i.e. "to connect" the races and foster harmony.

Oi! Jangan nak tipu lah. In the Terengganu dialect, bridge is 'getok'. The pronunciation of 'getok' is quite distinguishable from 'gertak'. And Gertak itself was a mono-racial rally scheduled for May 13 – a date picked by Mahathir himself.

The intent to intimidate was clear from the outset, and framing the event as 'Malay uprising' does not leave room for doubt. The identical 'Melayu bangkit' battlecry was a front-page banner headline not too long ago in Utusan Malaysia, and unmistakably to incite.

Everyone bumi except Chinese

At the Gertak occasion also, Mahathir as head of the Perdana Global Peace Foundation was presented the proceeds from the Fly2Gaza drive, totalling more than RM120,000. Interesting isn't it, that the Malay supremacist showboating just had to tie in with the Malaysian Muslims' pet cause?

The Kuala Terengganu (KT) venue of Gertak (right) may have something to do with the lukewarm response the event received.

Terengganu is 95 percent Malay in population. There were no May 13 tensions there or in its East Coast cousin Kelantan which has a similar demographic. May 13 happened not in the Malay heartland but in Kuala Lumpur where the populace was racially half-half.

By the same token, the Kg Medan racial clash would not have happened in KT or Kota Bharu because the minorities there are not significant enough to be a threat or to cause friction. This could be the reason why Mahathir when in Terengganu (that has only 2.6% Chinese) failed to draw the crowd the organisers wanted.

Adding to that, the Gertak gathering was held in the morning of a working day during World Cup season – which football fans have waited four years for. The turnout might be a different story another time, another place though … say, in Kg Baru.

The institutional basis of this country that makes it almost a point of honour to discriminate against Chinese and Indians rests on racism, period.

Make no bones about this selectivity in discrimination as Malaysians of Siamese and Portuguese descent are inexplicably categorized bumiputera, although Article 153 of the federal constitution denotes the 'special position' as referring to Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

'Bumiputera' is a coined word facilitating the suppression of Chinese and Indians. I'm just surprised that some women rights sub-committee from political groups like Kimma (comprising wannabe princes and princesses of the soil) has not yet campaigned for the use of 'bumiputeri'.

Will minorities be made increasingly syariah-compliant

2010-06-09T23:19:00.003+08:00

Helen Ang
Friday, 28 May 2010 09:45

Today is Wesak.

Last week the country was told about a Chinese Muslim Faizal Wong Abdullah who wanted to return to Buddhism – a religion of depleting numbers in Malaysia.

Faizal Wong had filed an application in March to renounce Islam. It’s not surprising though that Wong had converted as the proselytization drive is intense.

Being a civil servant, Wong was in a predominantly Malay-Muslim working environment. Looking at the organization chart of RTM (below), as one example of a state agency, we can get an idea of the racial composition in the civil service.

Out of the 40 top people in RTM, only one is of Chinese ethnicity and he is Rashid Woon Abdullah.

Here’s another example of the same phenomenon. “On the University of Malaya’s ‘Expert Page’ which details the researchers and thereby essentially the academic staff of the university, of 1,240 persons listed, only 20 Chinese names are included, eight of whom also have Islamic names” – found Dr Geoff Wade in his Asia Research Institute paper ‘The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia’.

The substantial number of converts to Islam could be due to peer influence as in Faizal Wong’s case, the many active missionary bodies, the Islamization of our public sphere and space, the Islamic programmes constantly broadcast in Mandarin and Tamil by RTM, or even the shenanigans of our National Registration Department.

Rigorously applying syariah

An academic studying political Islam in Southeast Asia and Malaysia, Prof. Gordon P. Means, observed that “[b]y 1970, nearly all the state governments had revised their Islamic laws to provide for more vigorous enforcement of Syariah law with increased penalties for violations in matters of personal behaviour and public deportment”.1

Nowadays the enforcement of Islamic law has become comparatively stricter still.

Apart from model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno whose caning sentence for drinking beer was commuted after intercession by the Pahang sultan, another Malay was arrested for the same offence last month. The Pahang Syariah Court sentenced cook Mohamad Sabri Zulkepli to a year’s jail and six strokes of the cane for imbibing liquor in a mall.

But should the enforcement of Islamic mores concern Malaysians of other faiths as well?

Under Section 19 (2) of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act, those found guilty of abetting the sale of alcohol can face a jail term of three years and/or a RM5,000 fine. It is unclear what happens presently if the beer seller or pub owner is a non-Muslim.

It is rumoured that the federal authorities may do something to streamline our civil and Islamic laws that are mired in a seeming overlap of jurisdictions. In the event of which, the lacuna indicated above – where a Muslim is punished and a non-Muslim escapes charge – might possibly be addressed during the procedure.

The late Zaitun Mohamed Kasim, a civil society activist, commented: “In addition to [conversion and child custody cases], notions of proper gender/sexual/moral conduct that are founded on orthodox notions of Islamic understanding’ have increasingly become applied to Malaysia’s significant non-Muslim minorities”.2

Zaitun told a symposium in 2007, “To give but two examples of this: non-Muslim couples have been charged under municipal laws for holding hands in public. In one prominent case, an elderly married American couple, who were holidaying in [Langkawi] Malaysia, were asked in their hotel room to demonstrate to Malaysian Islamic authorities that they were married.”

Fatwas can become law

Another area of concern is how the issuance of fatwa has been turned into a state matter and granted “the exceptional status” as a source of lawmaking.

There is no requirement for religious edicts to be tabled in Parliament or the state legislature for approval. All it needs is for a fatwa to be gazetted, and then for it to become law, is that it is approved by the state Islamic religious council and the sultan.

“This is not a new development as the state authorities had fatwa-making powers under most of the State Administration of Islamic Law Enactments that have been in force for several decades,” noted Prof. Mohammad Kamali Hashim.3

“The issue took a new turn, however, during the 1990s when legislation on fatwa went a step further to declare it an offence for ‘any person who gives, propagates or disseminates any opinion contrary to any fatwa’ in force,” Prof. Kamali further wrote.

Although he cited Section 9 of the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment of Johor, this legislation has equivalent provisions in most of the other states, c.f. Article 9 on “contempt and defiance of religious authorities” under the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997 .

Do recall that in November 2008, the National Fatwa Council issued a prohibition against yoga if the practice included haram chanting – an element of Hindu worship. A month earlier in October, the council also issued a fatwa against pengkid (tomboys).

[Sidenote: In 2007, a transsexual Ayu was detained by officials from Malacca’s Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JAIM) for committing the offence of “men dressing up as women in public space” under Section 72 of the Malacca Syariah Offences Enactment.]

If the prohibition against yoga is gazetted, then it will become a religious law on the statute book and carrying the corresponding penalties. Some of the states have indicated that they are considering or in the process of gazetting it.

One wonders too if the case for yoga is analogous to that for beer, i.e. if the yoga instructor or proprietor of the health centre/gym is a non-Muslim, would he nonetheless be punished for aiding and abetting the offence?

Apostasy is a serious crime

State Muslim laws in Malaysia allow for deviationism and apostasy to be prosecuted in court with criminal sanctions of a maximum of three years or a fine up to RM5,000 or whipping up to six strokes or a combination of these.

There are also laws in the states under various articles providing for rehabilitation to restore the faith of lapsed Muslims. Or those that the state declares to be Muslim like the young Indian woman M. Revathi who became a cause celebre not too long ago.

An Ayah Pin follower Kamariah Ali was convicted on charges of apostasy under Section 7 of the Syariah Criminal Offence Enactment (Takzir) Terengganu and sentenced to a jail term of two years in March 2008.

Hudud laws passed in Terengganu and Kelantan prescribe death for apostasy, although they have thus far never been implemented. 4

Former International Islamic University law lecturer Salbiah Ahmad asks: “A question may be posed to our High Court in adjudicating freedoms under the constitution: should Article 11 privilege the Sunni school or recognize the reality of diversity of beliefs and practices among Malaysians who still choose to be called Muslims”? 5

Adding another perspective, Syed Husin Ali cites clause (4) of the same Article 11 to point out that “The constitution does not allow others to induce Malays to leave Islam; the consequences are serious when a Malay leaves his religion, even of his own volition”.6

The federal constitution was promulgated in 1957 when Muslims were synonymous with Malays. The situation has since then changed significantly where Muslims are not only Malays but are to be found among Indians, Orang Asli, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak and Chinese too.

So now Faizal Wong is caught in a predicament of his own making; he embraced Islam out of choice as a mature adult.

For an oblique comparison, Buddhists are predominantly if not almost all Chinese in the country, although all Chinese need not necessarily be Buddhist. And even those Chinese here who style themselves Buddhists might be more accurately said to be practicing some mix of Taoism, Confucianism, ancestral worship and polytheism.

There is no such eclecticism for the Malay – at least not in the eyes of the religious authorities – despite what Salbiah may say on actual diversity of beliefs and practices among those who nominally call themselves Muslims.

Only 1Islam in M’sia

The state through a slew of laws strives to make Malays monolithic in faith instead. Article 160 of the Federal Constitution defines ‘Malay’ as a person who professes Islam – a stipulation which technically renders ‘un-Malay’ a person such as Lina Joy.

Malaysia follows the Shafii mazhab of Sunni Islam – a school predominant in Indonesia, Brunei, and in Southeast Asia generally. On the other hand, Shi’ite Islam is prohibited in the country, and its followers have been detained under ISA in the past. 7

State Islamic law enactments adhere to Sunni jurisprudence and the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) is among the federal agencies responsible for its implementation.

Jakim enforces faith (akidah) conceptualized along the principles of ahli Sunnah wal Jamaah. Other beliefs outside the one officially sanctioned are proscribed, e.g., the Al-Arqam movement is banned. The Ahmadiyah community in Selangor numbering some 2,000 individuals is also on the Jakim blacklist as a deviant organization or teaching.8

In 2002, Jakim published a pamphlet‘Malaysia adalah sebuah Negara Islam’ in response to then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi affirming that Malaysia had attained Islamic state status. In it, Jakim director-general Mohamad Shahir Abdullah listed what he said was a series of proofs that the country is indeed Islamic. 9

According to statistics from the 2000 census, Muslims make up 60.8 percent of the population.10 Our next census – an exercise conducted every 10 years – will be carried out this July-August. It is expected that Muslims as a population ratio will rise further in percentage point.

All Muslims automatically fall under syariah law, which is being accorded a wider reach and coverage over ever more areas, what with the relentless Islamization that is taking place. Hence, even when some quarters are futilely contending whether Malaysia is secular or an Islamic state, the facts on the ground already bespeaks two-thirds of the country’s population.

********************

Citations
1. Gordon P. Means, ‘Political Islam in Southeast Asia’, Petaling Jaya: SIRD, 2009.
2. Zaitun Mohamed Kasim, “Religious Fundamentalisms in Muslim Societies” in ‘Selected Papers on Religious Fundamentalisms and their Impact on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’, Kuala Lumpur: Arrow, 2008.
3. Mohammad Kamali Hashim, ‘An Introduction to Shariah’, Kuala Lumpur: Ilmiah Publishers, 2006.
4. After PAS enacted hudud and qisas in 1993, Zaid Ibrahim petitioned the courts on the basis that Kelantan and Terengganu had contravened the federal constitution because criminal laws cannot be enacted by the state legislative assembly. Only Parliament has the legal capacity to enact criminal laws, and thus Zaid challenged if the actions of the two states were valid. (Zaid Ibrahim, ‘Saya Pun Melayu’, Petaling Jaya: ZI Publications, 2009).
5. Salbiah Ahmad, ‘Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia’, Petaling Jaya: SIRD, 2007.
6. Syed Husin Ali, ‘The Malays – Their Problems and Future’, Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2008.
7. ‘Malaysia Human Rights Report 2008’, Petaling Jaya: Suaram Komunikasi, 2009.
8. Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim), Bahagian Penyelidikan
9. ‘Religion under Siege? Lina Joy, the Islamic State and Freedom of Faith’, Kuala Lumpur: Kinibooks, 2008.
10. Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2000, Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Your children's future in an Islamic State

2010-06-09T23:02:00.001+08:00

Helen Ang
Jun 3, 10
3:56pm

Malaysian involvement in the Gaza flotilla and Malaysia's response to the Israeli military operation against the pro-Palestinian activists both unite Umno, PAS and PKR in a cause beloved of the Muslim world.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad (left) and his Perdana Global Peace Organisation had raised over 300,000 euros to buy three boats for the Gaza expedition, reported the Perdana website. Six of the flotilla's Malaysian participants sailed to Gaza under the aegis of Perdana.

Some readers have wondered aloud about the lack of a similar national outrage to the atrocities committed in Myanmar, Sudan and Sri Lanka.

There is no mystery as it is quite natural that the Muslim brotherhood should be more concerned about the fate of their brethren. It is only the zealous proponents of universal brotherhood who mistakenly believe that this inclination of the ummah may be something unnatural.

"We are all one race, the human race" is a slogan to sell the idea that the various races on the planet should love each other. But perhaps what "we're all human" merely does is to remind us that we're not chimpanzees.

The inconvenient truth is that we are indeed various races and of various religions, and Malaysia is an ethnically fractured society where churches have been firebombed and Hindu idols destroyed.

As the passionate reactions to the Palestinian conflict have shown time and again, Malaysia is greatly sympathetic to Palestinian Muslims while vastly indifferent to Burmese Buddhists, Sudanese Christians and Sri Lankan Hindus.

The reason why is straightforward - Islam is the most defining characteristic of this land; two-thirds of the population are Muslim and ultimately everyone is free to pick and choose the cause closest to their heart. Malaysia does not vary from the rest of the Organisation of Islamic Countries in our close alignment with Palestine.

Notably, three successive prime ministers have declared Malaysia to be an Islamic state - and thus meriting our leading role in the OIC - although Najib Abdul Razak's declaration is more precisely that Malaysia has never been a secular country.

Islamising the country

The Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) asserts that Malaysia is a 'negara Islam' in a pamphlet issued in 2002. Jakim director-general Mohamad Shahir Abdullah was following up on the Islamic state affirmation by then prime minister Mahathir and his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In the Jakim statement, Mohamad Shahir listed what he said was a series of proofs that the country is Islamic. Read it - it's in Bahasa Malaysia.

There are few voices today insisting that Malaysia is secular. Even Karpal Singh (right) who famously said "over my dead body" about the Islamic state status has been ominously silent of late.

Whereas the secretary-general of Karpal's DAP party, Lim Guan Eng, is loudly trumpeting the emulation by Penang of the governance of Caliph Umar Abdul Aziz. On May 20, Lim had been scheduled to officiate the opening of a surau in the state secretariat building Komtar, much to the chagrin of some in Umno Youth.

I'm more inclined to agree with the assessment of the three prime ministers past and present that Malaysia is somewhat an Islamic state since Islam is everywhere and anytime in the country. Or if we're yet to fully attain the Islamic state aspiration, there are many Muslims who see no reason why we should not.

For details on Islam as a state function, please read my articles 'Will minorities be made increasingly syariah-compliant?' published by the Centre for Policy Initiatives, and 'Rukunegara: M'sia not quite secular' on the variety of state Islamic agencies including those in the PM's department.

Funding spread of Islam

More and more concepts from Islam have been made familiar to us - Hadhari by ex-premier Abdullah, Amar Maa'ruf Nahi Mungkar by the Penang Pakatan state government, Raudhatul Sakinah in Putrajaya and it would seem Najib is making a foray into Islam Wasatiyyah branding.

More and more words of Arabic origin have crept into our common usage such as muzakarah, muhasabah and mujahadah, not to mention terms like takaful, sukuk and riba, now that several more financial institutions are offering Islamic banking and not just restricted to Bank Islam and Bank Muamalat.

Another indicator of the level of Islamisation is the Tudung Index.

Even the highest echelons of the church have at last publicly conceded the deep reach of Islam, in this particular case, into the pockets of the state treasury.

The remarkable pastoral letter recently penned by Bishop Hwa Yung, chairman of the Methodist church's council of presidents, contained the following pertinent observation:

"Indeed the problem in our country is that most of the money for religious bodies is usually given to one particular religious community, with relatively much smaller proportions given to other communities."

The tremendous disproportion in terms of allocation to the different religious communities can be explained by Article 12(2) of the federal constitution. It says: "... it shall be lawful for the federation or a state to establish or maintain or assist in establishing or maintaining Islamic institutions or provide or assist in providing instruction in the religion of Islam and incur such expenditure as may be necessary for the purpose".

It is the enabling mechanism for the government to disburse financial assistance to mosques and for activities promoting Islam. Tellingly, the article clauses omit any reference to Christianity and other faiths in this regard.

Most are unaware of Article 12(2). Evidently, the people touting 'Malaysian First' are on the mistaken footing that the country does not make any distinction between its citizens. Malaysia most clearly distinguishes its citizenry one from another, and even coined the word 'bumiputera' for this purpose.

Islam impacting minorities

Yesterday Malaysiakini carried an article about convert Faris Syafi Abdullah who lamented the difficulties faced when one wishes to renounce Islam.

Another convert in the same boat is Faizal Wong Abdullah (right). I've written in greater detail about the trend of Chinese, especially those in the civil service, to embrace Islam, in my 'Syariah-compliant' article cited earlier.

In it, I also discussed the breadth and reach of syariah law, its rigorous application and how easily fatwa can be legislated to carry harsh penalties as well as the Malaysian authorities strenuously rendering the adherents of Islam a monolithic block.

As for the increasing number of Indian converts to Islam, there are the controversial issues surrounding this development.

It is not only PAS and Umno that have been ramping up the Islamisation process but the Raja-Raja Melayu flexing their muscles through political Islam too.

We're living in a country where to question the monarchy and 'special position' of the Malay (whose identity is conflated with Islam and whom the royals are constitutionally empowered to protect) is seditious and can land you in jail.

'1Malaysia' is Najib's propaganda. 'Malaysian First' is Lim Kit Siang's rhetoric. While denizens of Bangsar Malaysia (spelling deliberate to allude to the affluent suburb) may buy into 1Malaysia1st, the decision of the majority G1 Chinese to send their children to vernacular school speaks volumes of the latter's inherent skepticism.

G1 is the group to whom "Chinese education is part of their socio-cultural life and even their identity as a race" whereas the English-speaking, Western-oriented G2 category are "vocal, articulate, often Christian, and likely to be from a professional class" - ref. quotes attributed to the MCA think-tankers of Insap and Insap's G2 "thoroughbred" CEO, Fui K Soong.

Methinks the G2 doth protest too much. How can these Malaysian First-ers credibly reconcile their 'one united country' mantra in the face of the facts above?

Aside from Chinese, more Indian parents are enrolling their children in vernacular Tamil schools than before. The wariness of the minorities for national school and its attendant Malay environment will not be allayed so long as Islamism is a pervasive feature of the education system.

One Dispirited Malaysian

2010-06-09T22:58:00.001+08:00

Mariam Mokhtar
Jun 9, 10
2:11pm

The Youth and Sports deputy minister, Razali Ibrahim, said that Malaysians who belittled the country lacked a national spirit and prevented the country from becoming a developed nation. How very patronising of him to have such a low opinion of us.

He is wrong or in denial. Malaysians have a strong sense of national spirit and identity.

He compared us unfavourably with our neighbours, whom he considered more nationalistic, even with their anti-government protests.

He even claimed that kiasu was the “national spirit” of Singapore and the “secret to Singapore's success”. I was under the impression that Singapore's success was because of its strong leadership and long-term vision.

Razali (left) firmly believes that Malaysia's key to being a developed nation is by being kiasu. If only it were that easy – to be successful by riding rough-shod over people.

The only kiasu I see are our political masters and institutions like the police, who completely disregard the wishes of the people they should serve.

A 'victim' of kiasu despairs at the intolerable arrogance and pushy behaviour. It is neither an appealing trait nor a good example to emulate. In my eyes, success only comes through hard work and perseverance. Not through being kiasu.

Excelling with minimum effort

Take for instance the Malays. The previous National Economic Policy allowed Malays to excel in their studies or work performance with the minimum of effort.

Work was never valued. Responsibility was always someone else's. Sensitive topics were taken personally. And no serious attempt to integrate into the modern world, one where the woman was an equal, was made.

With this diet of false support and false hope, Malays were rendered weak and became intolerant of others. They did not know their own weaknesses and strengths. They became hostile to others who did not share their views. With little stimulation, they became mentally challenged.

They demanded rather than earned respect. They expected rather than encouraged people to behave. They dictated rather than engaged in discussions which displayed mental astuteness.

By contrast, non-Malays had to perform with what little they had. Success, when it came to them, tasted even sweeter.

Both the Malay and non-Malay started off from an unequal platform. The non-Malays persevered for success, would demand life-changing decisions which would also affect their immediate families. We are familiar with tales of houses being mortgaged or parents holding several jobs to pay off education loans.

For the Malays, whatever they did was a walkover. They were content with coasting along.

The devil is in the details

So, if Razali is serious about Malaysia becoming a developed nation, he must appreciate that the devil is in the details.

Most Malaysians are loyal, tolerant, hospitable, genteel and diplomatic. The genuine interaction of Malaysians can be acutely observed in overseas Malaysians, more so than in the false window-dressing found at the local '1Malaysia' rallies.

How does Razali expect the Chinese and Indians who make-up 40% of the population, the so-called pendatangs (immigrants), to feel patriotic?

If we are to become a developed nation, we will have to stamp out all corruption in the government and civil services.

Should we feign ignorance when things go disastrously wrong and no one is held accountable?

Should we ignore the cronyism, racism, religious intolerance, scandals, political conspiracies, kangaroo trials, a politicised police force, a tainted judiciary…?

Is Razali content with Malaysia's poor human rights record and that we have draconian laws to detain people without trial?

Malaysians are neither blind nor stupid. The country is bankrupt and we have been told to tighten our belts. Prices of many commodities are increasing. Rice, flour, oil and sugar are in short supply. Employers cannot find suitable workers. The unemployed cannot find suitable work.

Razali said that the '1Malaysia' concept to make the people and nation developed was under attack by some ungrateful Malaysians, saying “Will running down your own country make others respect us more?” He claimed that such an attitude would make other nations lose confidence in Malaysia.

Time for complacency over

Razali is wrong. Malaysians have only lost faith in their leaders. For 53 years, the masses have subsidised those at the top and believed their false rhetoric. The time for complacency is over.

He referred to the strong nationalism of the South Koreans, Japanese and Singaporeans, saying “This is what we are lacking,” and claimed that “….people in developed countries rarely talked bad about their own countries but would defend them.”

Wrong again. People in developed countries do talk bad about their own countries and especially their leaders.

Criticism leads to change, and the chance to progress. That these citizens can comment without censure is known as democracy. The countries he praised have despatched with all speed corrupt or incompetent officials and politicians, including prime ministers. Some did the honorable thing.

However, these countries have a good system of governance guided by their constitution. Their needs are addressed and their rights defended. The same can't be said for Malaysia.

The party is over!

2009-12-16T23:03:00.002+08:00

Mariam Mokhtar
16 December 2009

Malaysians are living in an Age of Denial and fast speeding into the Age of Desolation. I hesitate to say the Age of Despair, for despair suggests loss of hope.

And I have faith. Faith, in my fellow Malaysians, moved by a groundswell of anti-racism sentiment.

Over the past few years, the voice of racism has reached a crescendo. Our society does not dare utter the R word. And I blame politicians for not addressing this issue head on. Each expects the next wave of leaders to tackle it. They didn't or wouldn't. So, now we succumb to conflict and confusion.

Malaysia is supposed to be the bed-rock of multiculturalism. But the horrid slogan ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) is throttling the other soundbite - '1Malaysia'. I don't like the former and I dislike the latter even more.

Without qualifying ketuanan Melayu, the term is impotent. Similarly '1Malaysia' remains another empty slogan - sounds good, but lacks substance and definition.

Our politicians live in a world pretty much divorced from reality. For decades, they used the race card to divide and rule us. With lives to lead, careers to pursue and mouths to feed, we simply ignored them and carried on earning and living. But things have come to a head. Many working and middle-class Malaysians can no longer contain their disgust.

Ketuanan Melayu = Malay supremacy; 1Malaysia = national unity and ethnic tolerance. You can't insist on the latter while still persisting with the former. It is a contradiction in terms.

The world is getting smaller but not in the Malay universe. Other nations have dismantled their barriers for a more cohesive society, but we Malays are building our walls faster than we can mouth the words ketuanan Melayu. If we are not careful, we'll build our walls high enough and thick enough to hem ourselves in. Bricked up from the real world.

It is all a question of perception. The Malays are misguided if they are convinced by the fallacy of ketuanan Melayu. The politicians who expound this idea are self-serving.

They sell this idea to the poor and poverty-stricken Malay, saying that an equal and fair Malaysia will only encourage the non-Malays to remove what little wealth they have. Recipients of this news become petrified, and cling on firmer to the farcical ketuanan Melayu.

As for the privileged Malay, it would be financial suicide to forego the status, prestige and recognition he's accustomed to.

In reality, politicians are doing more harm to the ordinary Malay and all Malaysians. They only protect their own interests and the interests of those who pander to their wishes.

Cycle of discontent

The wealthy Malay probably constitutes only 3 percent of the Malay population. In relative terms, little, if any, wealth has filtered down to the ordinary Malay.

Gaudy mansions, fast cars, designer clothes, international schooling, holidays abroad, first-class travel, overseas properties, offshore bank accounts, private jets and helicopters are de rigueur for the wealthy Malay.

Of course, the poor Malay aspires to have all these and more. He assumes that the NEP has accorded the rich Malay his correct station in life and rightful place in society.

Can he be so gullible or naïve as to believe that corruption did not figure in any of these vulgar displays of wealth? Those at the top will never relinquish their position. At best, or when it suits them, they will appease those beneath them with a scattering of crumbs.

Thus, from the top and right down to the bottom-feeders, these people are content. But contentment breeds complacency. And complacency breeds contempt.

For every inch that the Malay is entitled to under the current rules, the non-Malay has had to fight for limited spaces in education, job opportunities and wealth creation..

Whilst the Malay has only to sit back and watch things land on his plate, his non-Malay counterpart has had to use his ingenuity to succeed.

Competition brings out the best in people and only the best get selected. But think of the others who are also able but are not chosen. They feel disillusioned and trapped in a system that is unjust and unfair. Disillusionment gives rise to discontentment, which in turn, raises discord..

For every argument that some errant politician makes about non-Malay Malaysians, patronisingly referred to as 'immigrants', the non-Malays feel immense betrayal.

No one doubts the allegiance of non-Malays to King and country. But when your sense of loyalty is questioned and tested, then those whose ideals are shattered will emigrate. Much talent has already been exported. It is Malaysia that suffers.. Malays too feel the pain of injustice and discrimination. Many have also jumped ship.

We need to strike a balance between a just and fair social system, economic growth and job creation. We cannot have one section of society maintaining a separate, inward-looking community that feels it is a cut above the rest of mainstream life and whose values are at conflict with it.

How can the marginalised be expected to inculcate a sense of pride in their national identity? Removing their dignity and worth, removes their sense of belonging. Is this the game plan then?

I fail to understand why our leaders refuse to acknowledge that mistakes have been made by others before them and also by themselves. Do they not comprehend that they too can be part of the solution?

There are signs that our politicians and certain institutions are strongly resisting change. They do not wish to inflame the hyperactive sensitivities of certain groups of people. But in doing so, they hold the rest of the country to ransom.

We need to get our country back on track - we need strong leaders. Not those who swan abroad on one pretext or another. We do not need international statesmen.

We need someone here and now, to address pressing domestic issues - maintaining good and harmonious race relations is no longer an optional matter for the majority group.

Education: A little dose of reality

2009-12-16T23:01:00.002+08:00

M H Harun
15 December 2009

I refer to the letters SPM Limit: Why Not Pick Japanese and French Too and SPM: 'History', 'Moral Education' Should Be Optional.

Many years ago in the University of Western Australia, Perth, a final year philosophy undergraduate was sitting for his final exam.

One of the questions asked was: 'What is bravery?'. Many students wrote pages and pages of elaboration citing theories and case studies but he only wrote two words: 'Bravery is.'

He raised his hand after the 15-minute compulsory minimum attempt time and left the examination hall. He scored an A. The others didn't.

Can this happen in Malaysia? Sorry, never in a 100 years. I was skimming through some sample STPM history papers the other day and was shocked to see that our A-level equivalent questions rewards memorisation instead of understanding.

Good questioning should apply the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy such as "discuss", "predict", or even "analyse". Learning history should be about reading between the lines.

In my opinion a good question would go: "Discuss the implications if the Malayan Communist Party succeeded in its struggle to gain independence from the British."

Answer should go like, "If the Malayan Communist Party succeeded in its struggle to gain independence from the British then this would end the era of the Malay sultanate as what had happened to the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi after World War II. Malaya would have become a republic".

Continue writing until you exhaust your capacity to answer intelligently.

In most cases our education syllabus is as good as those of developed nations but the assessment method especially examinations are somewhat disappointing.

For example, writing a formal letter is an essential communication skill and thus should not be an optional question in the Bahasa Malaysia and English papers. It should be an assignment that carries 10 percent weightage.

Remembering historical facts is good but it would be better to assess it in the form of a multiple choice test that carries 20 percent weightage. And I agree that some compulsory SPM subjects are not worth taking.

The ten SPM subject limit is a good move by the government. But students should have the liberty to choose which subjects he or she wants to take.

In my opinion, the only compulsory exam subject (to take) is Bahasa Malaysia. Students choose the other eight or nine subjects based on certain rules.

For example, you shouldn't take both Pendidikan Islam and Pendidikan Moral and you must take at least one mathematical subject.

Perhaps it is time the government reintroduce examination fees. If you want to take more subjects by all means take them. But you have to pay. That's one way of making sure that students don't overload unnecessarily.

As a teacher, I do not fancy the exam-oriented approach in our education system. I'm probably biased in this view but that's probably because I have been teaching indigenous kids for many years.

No matter how much effort I give, their exam results do not reflect my sacrifices and dedication throughout the whole year.

I was screaming my lungs out in frustration while driving home the day we obtained their UPSR transcripts. I tried to look at the positive; these people grow up to be excellent fishermen and farmers.

They barely have any criminal records. They are never arrogant. Some managed to gain employment in the public sector. My colleagues and I might have done something right somewhere.

You see the master product of our national education philosophy isn't that astronaut with pinup boy looks. And by far it's not those kids who took 10 extra SPM subjects and "coincidently" scored As in every one of them.

Success in school does not equate to success in life. And failure in school does not equate to failure in life.

Bumi varsity quota not racist, says Dr M

2009-12-14T22:36:00.003+08:00

Malaysiakini

14 December 2009

Keturunan Malaysia:

Please Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), no one is saying we should not help the "poor" but what we are saying is why at the expense of those who are more than well-qualified but have to unfairly suffer from the lack of a level-playing field. Most are poor too but their only sin is because they are not "sons and daughters of the soil".

Ahmad Kamal:

(1) Affirmative action policies are temporary special measures as a matter of principle. (2) It is quite difficult to justify continuous affirmative action for an ethnic grouping that constitutes a majority of the population. (3) Are Malays and natives of Sabah/Sarawak equal in their bumi rights?

Some years ago when Tun was in government, there are already views that Malay support to university places should be restructured in terms of private financial support and not government support per se. Get back to the drawing board please. The 13 general election is on the horizon.

Jbss:

Mahathir has conveniently forgotten that it was because of this racist policy that prevented good non-Malay students from entering state-run universities/institutions so more private institutions were forced to be set up to cater for the growing demand for places of learning in higher institutions and at great expense to the non-Malay students.

The demand for places in private institutions has grown so much and enrolment has multiplied, this old cunning fox now uses this as the basis for the 'apartheid' policy which has been in place for decades!

Rationalise it in whichever way you like, it is official discrimination, racist, apartheid-like because it deprives other citizens (based on their ethnic origin) of equal opportunities to enjoy education at state-run institutions of higher learning financed by the taxpayers' money.

Kee Thuan Chye:

Not all non-Malay parents can afford to send their children to private universities. Many are forced to work harder to earn the money to provide higher education for their children. This has been their unenviable lot especially from the time Mahathir took over as PM. It's easy for him to talk; he does not know first-hand the plight of non-Malay parents.

Kgan:

"Mahathir added that the extra attention and opportunities given to the bumiputeras did not mean that the other races were sidelined."

This is like saying that the apartheid system in South Africa did not marginalise blacks. Non-Malay parents have to save and scrimp to send their children to private universities because opportunities in public universities are so lacking for them. Even if they can get in, they are given less desirable courses. Is this discrimination or not?

Mahathir, you bloody racist, the time when you can spew out some rubbish and expect it to be accepted wholesale by a fawning press is over. If you can't say anything right, keep your mouth shut and save whatever dregs of your tainted legacy is still left.

Doc:

The issue of bumi quota in the public universities has not been such a hot topic as in the past. Public perception of public universities are to mass produce graduates where quantity is important not quality.

Non-bumis over the years have realised the importance of a good education. They save their earnings to put their children into good and reputable universities (locally or overseas) for two reasons. The first is in ensuring their children are better qualified and have the edge when entering the job market, thus earning a higher salary. The second is for migration purposes.

Louis:

TDM said that the bumis cannot afford fees in private institution. He must be joking. Why must a bumi want to spend his own money when he could easily get scholarships? I am very much poorer than many Malays, but I managed to put my children through tertiary education with my meagre income.

I have witnessed with my own eyes, bumiputeras driving Mercs, BMWs, Volvos and Honda Accord are using scholarships to put their children to universities. I bear no grudges if such scholarships are given to poor Malays in the kampung.

The irony is that it is those rich Malays who are manipulating the political system so that they will enjoy those privileges while hoodwinking the poor in the kampung to support them.

Multi Racial:

How could a former PM talk like this? If we want to help those weak in their study, this is not the way. You will only make thing worse for them. Unfortunately there are those Malays who can compete with non-Malays anytime and anywhere but are now seen as part of those who were helped by the government in their education.

The time has come for the government to put things right. All the mistakes done by past administration has to be stopped before it is too late. Focus on quality and not quantity. Focus on Malaysians, and not just one race.

Boonpou:

If there is a level-playing field, do you think the private universities in Malaysia would have such high non-Malay enrolments. Do you think non-Malay parents enjoy borrowing money from whichever sources to send their children to these private universities?

It is sad that a man of your age are still trapped, to borrow a phrase from the late Syed Hussein Alatas, in this "myth of the lazy natives [Malays]" mentality. Of course, we know that you are not entirely that stupid or have gone senile. All along you have capitalised on this myth to advance your own political career and racist agenda.

At the end of the day, how much longer could you indulge yourself in such immoral agenda? Most decent Malaysians are no longer haunted by this colonial myth. We do not need to have a Malaysian Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard in order to feel that we can think.

Foo Wy Len:

Dr M, please explain that to my daughter who has all As in her SPM, and yes, she is in a private university, and yes, every single sen is paid by me from my saving as a poor school teacher!

Colour of the Wind

2009-12-13T18:03:00.008+08:00

"Think you own whatever land you land on
Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
Think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You learn things you never knew
You never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry
to the blue corn moon?

or ask the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices
of the mountains?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
And the heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

Have you ever heard the wolf cry
to the blue corn moon?
or ask the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices
of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

How high does the sycamore grow
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry
To the blue corn moon
Or whether we are white or copper-skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
Need to paint with all the colours of the wind
You can own the Earth and still all you'll own is earth
Until you can paint with all the colors of the wind"

A song by Vanessa William

'Keling' - they helped make this country great

2009-12-13T00:26:00.001+08:00

Mohd Idris Hassan
11 December 2009

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Of noisy Indians and 'keling' blood: Utusan strikes again.

The attacking of fellow Malaysians by the mainstream media Utusan Malaysia because of their race is unwarranted and most uncalled for. I remember in the late forties when I was a little boy living in my hometown of Raub, Pahang.

I used to pass road gangs of Tamil labourers toiling in the midday's scorching sun from dawn till dusk. Armed with only picks and shovels, they would be hacking at solid rocks to carve out roads along the mountain side.

They had no proper attire, just a withered white towel tied in turban form on their heads. They would wrap rags around their spindly legs to prevent the hot molten tar from scalding them as they went about their chores.

Yet they had time to smile and wave at passing cars. They used to be referred to as 'coolies' and their slave-like living quarters as coolie lines. My late father used to tell us that most of the roads in Malaya at the turn of the century were built solely by Indian labour.

They toiled in the malaria-infested rubber estates, living with their families in filthy inhuman conditions. The white 'tuan' treated them like slaves and allowed them to indulge in drinking toddy to forget their woes .

Yet again it was the same coolies called 'toties' who serviced our bucket system latrines until the early sixties as there were no takers for this job from the other races. I have seen for myself these 'toties' cleaning the rubber tubs at a stream not far from my house with their bare hands.

In short, when there was any dirty, menial job to be done, it was this Tamil coolie, then often called by the derogatory term 'keling', that did it for us.

Now times have changed and their offsprings have made much progress in all fields and want to take their rightful place in our society .Let's not pour scorn on them and laugh away their pride.

As a soldier I know that many of my Indian/Tamil friends who fought and died for this country . They all are a part of those who stood by us during the good and bad times, they have helped make this country great.

A country which rightfully belongs to all Malaysians.

Let's talk about racism

2009-12-13T00:19:00.001+08:00

Sim Kwang Yang
12 December 2009

We all know that the politics of race has always been the bedrock of Malaysian political culture in the last six decades. The success of the early Alliance and then the Barisan Nasional coalitions comprising race-based parties was due in large part to the electorate's acceptance that Malaysian power-sharing was based on the negotiation between races.

Politicians and their parties fighting for the rights and interests of their race have been the ideological orthodoxy all these while. Nobody would think of calling any ministers or political parties 'racist”, because racism was perhaps deemed politically correct.

Things must have really changed when we witness in recent days the great Malay nationalist icon Dr Mahathir Mohamad and senior Umno cabinet minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz trading personal insults in public, calling each other “racist”.

All of a sudden, the terms “racist” and “racism” have become bad words, as they should be long ago. The question is: What makes a person a racist, and what is racism?

Wikipedia gives the following definition of racism:

“Racism is the belief that race is a primary determinant of man traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment.

“Racial discrimination typically points out taxonomic differences between different groups of people, although anyone may be discriminated against on an ethnic or cultural basis, independently of their somatic differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination.”

Earnest Gellner would argue that there are differences between the idea of “race” and “ethnicity”, the former emphasising on the mythical bond of blood ties and the latter relying on common cultural heritage. But that is another topic for another time.

Emergence of racism

Looking back in history, the first time that racism first assumed political significance must be when European powers encountered strange peoples from other cultures in far away lands at the beginning of empire building a few hundred years ago.

It also coincided with the beginning of the emergence of the modern nation-states and the fall of the old empires in the European continent.

The technologically and militarily superior Europeans were certain to be Eurocentric in their judgement of these so-called “barbaric, primitive, and pagan races” in Africa, North and South Americas, and finally Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Social Darwinism was already in vogue in Europe, with thinkers trying to apply the Darwinian theory of natural selection to human races and individuals, when the theory was originally used in reference to animal and plant species. Fortunately for our human species, this faulty theory is all but abandoned today.

Then, in late 19th century Europe, Dr Francis Galton practically invented the science of eugenics, the study of selective breeding so as to improve the human stock.

Eugenics gained a respectable following in the 20th century, and the core idea of the genes somehow determining the moral and intellectual character of the human individuals was accepted en masse by Hitler's Nazi ideology.

That is the underlying philosophy of racism - that some races are superior to others by virtue of their superior genes.

For fear that their superior German Aryan blood may be polluted by the inferior blood of the Jews and other minority groups, Hitler ordered his Final Solution that saw the genocide of six million people.

Partly because of the global guilt over the holocaust, the United Nations formed after World War Two made it a point to pass the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and made it morally incorrect for any nation or groups to persecute or discriminate anyone based on creed, religion or race.

But the political appeal of primordial tribalism was still too great to be resisted. As an instrument for mass mobilisation, as an anchor for personal identity, and as a mythical pointer to the collective destiny of the community, “race” hits at the nadir of our guts immediately.

After World War Two, the survival and glory of the race were the rallying cry of many groups in those former colonies of the Western imperial powers all over the world. They used the ready-made ideology for their brand new nationalism in Africa, Asia, and South America, alongside the revolutionary slogans of the communists.

Out of Africa II

It was thus that the early founding fathers of Malaysia were drawn into the power of racial equations, and Malaysian politics has always been racial since then.

The person who laid down the theoretical groundwork for the Malay nationalism as narrated by Umno is none other than Dr Mahathir Mohamad through his magnum opus 'The Malay Dilemma'.

In his article 'Racism: Towards Year Zero', Dr Kua Kia Soong has this to say about Dr M's theoretical work:

“Mahathir is obviously not familiar with the philosophy of the social sciences; otherwise he would have known that 'race' as a concept has been discredited in social science years now and any social scientist worth his/her salt would not dare to air such racial theories in respectable centres of learning.”

Kua is right of course. Not only is racism banished from the social science, it is also exiled to the margin in politics in developed liberal democracies, and ultra-right nationalist groups seldom get the public support to take government power.

The tenets and dogmas of racism have also lost much of their credibility because of the advance in the physical science, especially in the science of genetics.

Until today, there is no scientific proof that our genes have any determination over our intelligence, our moral character, or our mental capabilities. I would even posit that scientists will never succeed in this mission impossible as long as humankind cannot resolve Rene Descartes' bifurcation of the human individual into mind and matter.

In contrast, recent studies in genetics have shown that the genetical differences that determine the physical variations among the various races are negligible in our collective genome!

Two recent studies also show that all human races are descended from a small band of homo sapiens in the plains of Africa.

One study named Out of Africa II traced the footsteps of all humans to a small group of new human beings in Africa slightly more than one million years ago. Through archeological and other evidences, they trace human's migration over land bridges made possible by climate conditions from Africa to other parts of the world.

The other theory called the Eve Theory takes advantage of the fact that the chromosome materials are transferred unchanged from the mitochondria of the mother to the daughter. By studying and comparing the mitochondrial genes of all women all over the world, these scientists claimed that they can trace the ancestry of all human groups to one woman in Africa, whom they named Eve.

This is the latest paradigm concerning the origin of our human species.

It exists only in our minds

In short, “race' and “ethnicity” are cultural construct; they exist in our language and our mind only. They do not exist objectively like the sun or the moon, or like the living species called homo sapiens.

That is not to say that the terms “race” and 'ethnicity” have no meanings and should be discarded. They have rich meaning in our cultural history, and have allowed us to build up a beautifully diverse depository of cultural and historical narratives that form our collective human civilisation.

But as the ideological basis for political action, the temporary success of racism and racial politics is exceeded only by their intellectual and theoretical poverty. They may prevail for a while, but in the long run, racial prejudices and racial hatred will not be able to stand the test of historical time.

The sooner Malaysian politicians, community leaders, public intellectuals, commentators and opinion makers veer away from racist and racial conversation, the better it is for the democratic future of all Malaysians.

After all, we are all brothers and sisters of one human race.

Forum speakers flay 'Ketuanan Melayu'

2009-12-13T00:15:00.002+08:00

Aidila Razak
12 December 2009

The concept of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) and the Social Contract is a political ploy used by the ruling coalition to remain in power, argued DAP vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim.

“If there is such a thing as a Malaysian social contract, it is one that has nothing to do with (Malay) privileges but instead outlines the government's responsibility to protect its people,” he told an audience of about 80 people at the Annexe Gallery in Kuala Lumpur today.

Abdul Aziz were one of four speakers at a 90-minute forum alongside UKM social scientist and Sisters in Islam stalwart Noraini Othman, Malaysian history expert Clive Kessler and Petaling Jaya city councillor Richard Yeoh.

The forum entitled 'The Myth of Malay Supremacy' was organised by Research for Social Advancement (Refsa), which is also headed by Yeoh.

According to Abdul Aziz, what people perceive as the social contract is actually an understanding by the country's founding fathers that to “live together, we must work together”.

“Our founding fathers were men of liberal ideas and never thought of special privileges for Malays,” he said.

Abdul Aziz also noted that Malaysia, as a nation, is still a work in progress as the country has yet to find its own identity due to non-inclusive policies.

“There is only a reasonable chance for everyone to have a common Malaysian identity if we all feel fairly included by the policies which govern us… not when people feel that Malaysia is largely a Malay-centric place,” he said.

1Malaysia concept 'vague'

When asked if the 1Malaysia concept addresses the issue of a shared identity, Abdul Aziz said the idea championed by Najib Razak is very vague and that even the prime minister has failed to explain.

Tunku said that DAP's 'Malaysian Malaysia' is one that “does not discriminate nor endorses the torturing of its citizens.”

He however added that while the phrase has been used heavily by DAP, it has been his personal belief even before he joined the party last year.

Tunku also said that the Malaysian Malaysia concept when it was first introduced by then People's Action Party leader Lee Kuan Yew in the 1960s, there was still a lot of distrust among the various ethnic communities due to vast economic disparity.

This is a view shared by Noraini, who said that the concept is appropriate now as there is a large proportion of middle-class Malaysians who are “ready… to be a part of a nation as equal citizens.”

She conceded however that there is still a psychological barrier, in which many Malays still feel they are not ready to let go of their crutches.

This is a vicious cycle where people are kept in a sort of feudal captive mindset,” she said.

Noraini, who is the co-author of the book 'Sharing the Nation', added that the very concept of Ketuanan Melayu make her cringe as it evokes “notions of enslavement”.

In Malay classical terms, the word 'ketuanan' implies lordship over captives, which is a pre-feudal concept that is out of sync in 1957, 1963 and today,” she said.

Like Abdul Aziz, she warned against falling into the “trap” of Ketuanan Melayu, which she deemed as a “political project.”

Origins of Ketuanan Melayu

According to Yeoh, the term 'Ketuanan Melayu' first came about in a speech by former aide to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad, who in 1989 said that Malays should be dominant in political leadership.

"It was a fairly benign speech and most of us have no problem with it, but it has been to mean Malay supremacy by some Umno leaders who don't necessarily know what it means,” he said.

He also said that the term should also be taken in context, as it came at a time when Umno was "at the throes of dispute” with Tunku Razaleigh Hamzah actively challenging Mahathir's leadership.

Yeoh added that the constitution only provides for special privileges for Malays in areas which already existed prior to independence, and that no new special preferences were to be added.

He contended that such affirmative policies may have actually weighed the Malay community down.

“Malays would achieve all that they have achieved, and maybe even more, without this divisive term that is Ketuanan Melayu,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kessler added that what the country is currently experiencing is the third dispensation of the Merdeka agreement made by the founding fathers, the first of which came in 1969 and the third in 1972 with the New Economic Policy.

“(The second dispensation) began to die in 1999… but continued to live on unnaturally from 2004 when the government thought all was forgiven, until what happened in (the) 2008 (general election),” he said.

It is therefore the hope, he said, that this third wave will “embody the spirit of the Merdeka agreement”, which had the purpose of developing an “inclusive and pluralistic” nation.

Indeed, Klesser argued that the second deputy prime minister, Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman had once said that “the unnatural continuation of (affirmative policies in aid of the Malays) would be an affront to Malay dignity.”

Home Ministry virtually encouraging tragedy to happen

2009-12-11T19:35:00.005+08:00

Richard Teo
8 December 2009

Racist Remarks by Utusan
Any other mainstream media writing what has been written by Utusan Malaysia would have lost their licence to publish a long time ago. For some time now they have been writing inflammatory articles to incite the Malays to riot and perhaps cause another mayhem similar to the one that happened on May 13 1969.

But this Umno-controlled media seems to have a carte blanche right to publish articles that are seditious and inflammatory and yet does not even receive a warning from the Home Ministry.

This ploy to incite the Malays to hate the non-Malays on the one hand and to preach the '1Malaysia' concept to the non-Malays on the other hand is a desperate strategy by Umno to unite the Malays against the perceived threats of the non-Malays while subtlety reaching to the non-Malays with their rhetorical concept of a '1Malaysia' merely for electoral support.

One cannot imagine that Utusan Malaysia could have taken the bold step to write its inflammatory articles without the tacit support and agreement from the Home Ministry.

By condoning and allowing Utusan Malaysia a free rein to publish racist and inflammatory articles, the Home Ministry must bear full responsibility should any untoward accident occur as a result of their publications.

An impartial and responsible Home Ministry would have nipped in the bud this wanton act of sedition rather than allowing it to continue inciting hatred . By allowing Utusan Malaysia to continue fanning racial hatred through its publications, the Home Ministry is virtually encouraging a tragedy to happen.

The Legend of Dr. Mahathir
And looking back at Dr Mahathir Mohamad's 22 years of tenure at the helm of the nation, it is not difficult to comprehend why we lost so much money through looting by his family and his cronies.

His favourite moneymaking trick was to launch mega-projects and privatisation of government companies. His many mega-projects were fronts to dish out negotiated tenders to his children and cronies whereby sweet deals were quoted with price many times its actual value.

The more projects he launched and the more expensive the projects, the higher and better the profits which were accrued by the beneficiaries. And when his son's venture in the shipping business failed, he unhesitatingly used a government vehicle - the Malaysian International Shiping Corporation (MISC) - to bail his son out.

Bank Bumiputra which was a government-owned bank gave millions of unsecured loans to Mahathir's cronies and in the end all of them ended up as non-performing loans (NPL). In the end Petronas' oil money was used to bail out the bank. Similar bail-outs were later repeated for MAS, Bank Rakyat, Perwaja Steel and countless other GLCs.

His lack of business acumen saw the country lose heavily when he tried to corner the world tin market. It was conservatively estimated that his brief foray in the speculation on the tin market cost the nation a loss of RM20 billion.

There are still a lot of Malaysians who are foolishly ignorant of Mahathir's woeful tenure. He was not only a corrupt dictator who would not brook any dissent but he was also a racist too. Many of the instituitions which were created during his tenure had racist overtones. The Mara colleges (MRSM), UiTM and Biro Tatanegara were all his creations.

They all had one thing in common - they all catered for only one race with the exception of Mara colleges (*only matriculation course but not university courses) which later opened its door to allow a 10% non-bumi entry. The rest all had a racist agenda.

In short, time and history will not judge Mahathir favourably. His 22-year tenure saw the crumbling of all our government institutions which were once the pride of Asia. The judiciary, the attorney-general's department, the police force, the ACA, the civil service and virtually every instituition which was the cornerstone of a democracy became subservient to the executive.

Not only did they lost their independence and became servant and slave to the executive but they also lost whatever shred of integrity that they had.

It would not be wrong to credit Mahathir as the PM who destroyed the very fabric of Malaysia's democratic institutions which till today still bear the 'hallmarks' of his imprints.

How racist are we all really?

2009-12-11T16:40:00.004+08:00

By P. GUNASEGARAM
11 December 2009

The answer to and the reasons for that will provide real clues to what we should do to reduce racism in our midst.

THAT tirade and tiff between former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, does little to illuminate things in the ongoing debate about whether to change the curriculum of the Biro Tata Negara (National Civics Bureau) courses.

But their ongoing conversation – if you could call it that – over the media does provide some clues as to the underlying problems over those so-called “unity courses” that NCB has been conducting over the years.

In his typical style, Mahathir attempted to turn the tables on Nazri, who had called him a racist in response to Mahathir’s comments that the contents for the NCB course are, well, suitable for all Malaysians.

Malaysian politics have been rather racial right from the start. The three parties in the original Alliance which gained independence represented the Malays, Chinese and Indians, with Umno being the most dominant.

After the race riots of May 1969, the politics of race became much, much more pronounced especially with Umno’s attempts to redress the imbalance against Malays by drastic measures. It was that which laid the basis for those NCB courses, which often had the agenda of raising awareness of Malay rights, often to the exclusion of Malaysian ones.

It was, according to some of those who attended these courses, rather racial if not racist and while there were some non-Malays who attended these courses, the composition was predominantly Malay and dealt mostly with Malay rather than Malaysian issues.

There could have been yet another agenda. Umno derives its power from Malays and it was necessary for it to continuously court that from the Malays. There is little doubt that the NCB courses were used for this as well. If Umno’s coalition partners did not object, it was because Umno was dominant.

But things are changing. An increasing number of Malaysians are realising the dangers of racial division and lack of unity and feel the need to do something about it – something that will make all Malaysians feel they belong.

Somewhere along the line, we must realise that fighting for Malay rights (or Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Orang Asli etc rights) does not ever make us more nationalistic — fighting for Malaysian rights does. There is no such thing as a Malay nationalist just as there is no such thing as a Chinese or any other but a Malaysian nationalist.

The day we all realise that, that is the day we will start thinking of ourselves as Malaysians first before anything else. That’s not an easy mindset to build because you have to destroy first the false edifices of more than half a century which extolled championing the rights of individual races.

History teaches us that all of us were at some time or other “pendatang” – it’s a question of when. Even the orang asli came here from elsewhere. Science tells us that we may have all descended from the African Eve tens of thousands of years ago.

And genetics tells us without a doubt that there is no inherent difference in our genes that makes us different in terms of intelligence or ability from anyone else.

Under our skin, our language, our religion and our culture we are much more similar than most of us realise. Education should make us realise all these beyond a shadow of a doubt.

When these are the true lessons that we choose to impart to our children, the process of integration becomes so much easier – we simply point out to them that we re basically the same and that our differences are artificial and perfectly surmountable.

You can debate about how much to help Malays and other disadvantaged communities and how you should go about this so that there is maximum benefit to the community as a whole instead of privileged groups and individuals.

But you should not have to debate about whether you or I or the other is more Malaysian. You are either Malaysian or you are not. The Constitution provides for only one class of citizenship. Measures put in there for the sake of social redress don’t count in terms of citizenship. Period.
A complete revamp of not just the NCB course is necessary but a dire need to change the entire way we look at race and Malaysians. We must emphasise national aspirations and de-emphasise racial ones. We must treat Malaysians equally.

If we help all disadvantaged Malaysians we automatically help disadvantaged communities more. That should be the basic thrust of policy — to help all Malaysians irrespective of race so that eventually race matters little and racism dies.

P. Gunasegaram believes in this quote from Freidrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Of noisy Indians and 'keling' blood: Utusan strikes again

2009-12-10T18:07:00.003+08:00

Abdul Rahim Sabri
10 Dec 2009

The Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia has once again trampled on racial sensitivities, earning it another two more police reports.

The reports were filed by MIC Youth's racial integration bureau chief MT Padmanathan and PKR Batu Youth member V Ravindran with the Sentul police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Both parties were incensed by a column published yesterday under the heading 'Alkishah India di India dan India di Malaysia' (The tale of Indians in India and Indians in Malaysia).

Among others, the writer Zaini Hassan said Indians in India and Malaysia are "loudmouthed and always making noise."

He then zeroed in on DAP MP M Kulasegaran for 'making noise' over the special privileges accorded to the Malays.

Zaini penned: "Dia tahukah apa yang dia cakap? Tapi yang pasti kenyataannya itu cukup sensitif dan akan membuat kumpulan lain marah. Tapi seperti biasa orang Melayu marahnya tidak lama."

(Is he aware of what he is saying? One thing is for certain, his statement is very sensitive and will anger others. But as usual the anger of the Malays will not last for long).

"Tak apalah. Orang Melayu tidak seperti orang India, walaupun ada juga Melayu yang darah keturunan keling (DKK), tapi darah Melayu yang lembut banyak menguasai mereka."

(Never mind. The Malays are not like Indians, although some of them have 'keling' blood, but the 'soft' Malay blood in them is more overwhelming).

Noisy...that is their culture

In the article, Zaini also related his experience in visiting India recently, where he witnessed the hustle and bustle of the densely-populated nation.

"India tetap India. Orang India ialah masyarakat yang begitu unik. Jika kita sering tengok wayang Tamil atau Hindi, itulah budaya mereka. Kecoh, kecoh dan kecoh."

(India is India. The Indians are unique. If we watch Tamil or Hindi movies, that is their culture, noisy, noisy and noisy).

"Namun, kita di Malaysia pun ada orang India. Kecohnya pun lebih kurang sama. Mereka ini rata-ratanya terdiri daripada ahli-ahli profesional, peguam dan kini menjadi ahli politik."

(There are also Indians in Malaysia, and the noisiness is about the same. These are the professionals, lawyers and now politicians.)

Last year, Zaini had also attacked DAP MP Teresa Kok, whom he accused of ordering a mosque to lower the volume of its Azan prayers.

The issue had even led to her brief detention under the Internal Security Act.

Kok, who denied the allegation, subsequently filed a suit against the writer.

Public apology sought

In his police report, Padmanathan said the article contained elements that degraded the Indian community.

"Utusan Malaysia has crossed the line. Such statements not only ridicule the Indians, but have the potential of stirring racial unrest," he said, adding that Indian Malaysians are enraged by this.

Padmanathan urged the writer to publicly apologise to the Indian community here.

Meanwhile, Ravindran stated in his police report that the article reeked of racism and went against the 1Malaysia concept espoused by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Also present was DAP's Teluk Intan parliamentarian M Manogaran.

This morning, Human Resources Minister and MIC vice-president Dr S Subramaniam also criticised the daily for using offensive words.
Hindu Sangam also upset

In another development, Malaysia Hindu Sangam president RS Mohan Shan also urged Utusan Malaysia to apologise over its insensitive report.

"We want a public apology," he said.

He also countered Zaini's statement that Indians here were troublemakers.

"We are not troublemakers. We are willing to work with anyone. Zaini is the troublemaker," he said.

Mohan also defended Kulasegaran as a legislator who was defending the rights of the Indian community.

"You cannot consider him as a troublemaker. He and the rest of the Indian legislators were only defending our rights."

Small case, sick joke

2009-12-09T20:36:00.004+08:00

Dean Johns
9 Dec 2009

Try as I do every week to poke fun at the antics of Malaysia's clownish Umno/BN government and its cronies, I confess that, as my old blogger buddy Ktemoc recently pointed out, I sometimes lose my sense of humour. Like this week, for example.
However hard I strain to see the funny or 'punny' side of outgoing MACC chief commissioner Ahmad Said's comment that "Teoh Beng Hock's case is nothing. It's a very small case", I'm afraid I can't raise so much as a ghost of a smile.

In fact the best I can manage is a snort of contempt. As if it wasn't shameful enough to serve as the figurehead of Umno/BN's latest fake corruption-fighting body, Said has further personally and professionally disgraced himself with this crass attempt to make light of a case of suspected murder by his MACC henchmen.

At least I'm not alone in my failure to get a giggle from this gruesome remark. Lim Kit Siang, for example, blogged that Said's statement was "heartless and grossly insensitive", especially following his earlier and equally outrageous comment that "if people investigated could not withstand the pressure and jumped from the building, there was nothing that MACC could do".

Said might well be jumping early from his job, and laughing all the way into prosperous retirement, but if he lives long enough the joke could eventually be on him. Come the day that enough of the Malaysian people stop choosing to see the Umno/BN regime as some harmless national and international joke, and finally vote or force it out of office, chances are the nation will finally get a government that's serious about investigating and prosecuting 'small' cases of political homicide.

And as every law officer should know, there's no statute of limitations in cases of murder, or any amnesty either, for that matter, and this applies not just to the actual killers but also to their accomplices and accessories.

So for those of us who get a chuckle out of seeing politically-protected criminals getting their just desserts, there's a touch of gallows humour in the prospect of someday seeing some Umno/BN murder suspects go on trial.
'Small' cases, indeed

I'll personally die laughing the day that the 'small' case of Teoh Beng Hock's killing case is opened for genuine investigation followed by the trial of genuine suspects in front of a genuine court.

Ditto the small case of Altantuya Shaariibuu about which the elusive private investigator P Balasubramaniam, aka Bala, is still making "frivolous" allegations against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
And then, of course, there are countless cases to be made against members of the 'royal' Malaysian police concerning suspicious deaths in 'shoot-outs' and in custody.

But of course the eventual outcome won't be as jolly as the one I'm envisaging, as the moment a respectable government looks like gaining office in Malaysia, all the Umno/BN goons with the guiltiest consciences will use their ill-gotten gains to fund their getaways to greener pastures.
Meanwhile, the grim comedy grinds inexorably on, as horribly hilarious as ever, with Najib endlessly repeating his ridiculous 1Malaysia slogan and the irrepressible Dr Mahathir regularly stealing the limelight with his customary madcap remarks.

The latest inspiration for Dr M-style drollery, it seems, has been somebody's suggestion that Australia be asked to supervise the conduct of future Malaysian elections.
While no doubt well-intended, and motivated by a well-founded distrust of Malaysia's Umno/BN-biased Electoral Commission, I must say that I'm with the Mahathir in considering this idea ludicrous. Not, as the good doctor typically does, on racial grounds, but for purely practical reasons.

Intervention in any nation's internal affairs is a job for the United Nations, not for Australia or any other individual country. And in any case, Australia has enough problems keeping tabs on its own crooks and opportunists, especially those in property development with friends and contacts in state and local government, without taking responsibility for anyone else's.

The best Australia can do, in my opinion, is to welcome as many Malaysian migrants, students and visitors as possible, for as long as they're happy to stay here. Which brings me to one thing about Umno/BN that I've recently found at least mildly amusing: Najib's call for Malaysian expatriates to return home and help build a better nation.

I asked a young student I know whether he planned to move back when he finished his course, and he was so shocked, taken aback and lost for words he just laughed. Thereby expressing how a great many fellow overseas Malaysians must feel about repatriating to the kind of place where law-and-order and justice are a standing joke, the press is a pack of lies and evasions, and organisations like Biro Tata Negara (BTN) are paid with public money to promote racial division and distrust.

However, as much as I sympathise with Malaysians, including my wife and daughter, who wouldn't go back to live there if you paid them, I think it's a terrible pity. Because many of those who have returned, or have chosen to stay despite everything, may well prove the nation's salvation.

If serious journalists like Steven Gan and Prem Chandran hadn't come back, for example, there would be no honest alternative to the laughable 'mainstream' media. And if all the opposition politicians, bloggers, activists and other serious opponents of the joke Umno/BN government hadn't either come back or stayed put all along, Malaysia would be in an even more desperately derisory state than it is now.

A situation that's admittedly hard to imagine when the government's such a basket-case that its so-called 'anti-corruption' commission can get away with calling the death of a suspect in his officers' custody a 'small case'.

But I fancy that more Malaysians are, like me and my old mate Ktemoc, finding it increasingly difficult to see the funny side. And looking forward more than ever to the eventual day when we all enjoy the last laugh on the jokers of Umno/BN.

BTN: Divisive, racist, politically-motivated

2009-12-07T13:40:00.010+08:00

Mariam Mohktar
5 Dec 2009

For me, the seeds of poison were planted decades ago.

Just before I went overseas to study, I was sent for ‘orientation’ at a Mara hostel to ostensibly prepare myself for life abroad.

That weekend was a blur, and I recall four things:

1) Blocked toilets and flooded communal bathrooms.
2) Basic food, thus a friend’s sister dropped off much needed rations of chocolates and ‘kacang’.
3) How to wash your ‘smalls’ (underwear) in a cold country and have them dry by the next morning.
4) We assembled in small groups for out-of-door talks, in the school grounds. We were told that the Malays were the most supreme race in the world, we were God’s chosen few, that the others were insignificant. We were warned about certain elements in our society and abroad, determined to undermine Malay excellence.

It was never meant to be a question-and-answer session and the lecturer omitted to qualify his contentious and contemptuous statements.

Just like my peers, my mind was focused on going overseas. In essence, we simply 'switched off'. Moreover, we hardly experienced any racial issues at our convent school.

Did I come out of that orientation a better person? Did I pick up new skills and ideas? Of the four things, the first two are just facets of Malaysian life; the third has been extremely practical, whilst the fourth left me disturbed and has lain fallow, until now.

After reading about the BTN (Biro Tatanegara or National Civics Bureau), I fear that much venom has been perpetuated. I may also have unwittingly experienced the inception of the BTN.

Ties have eroded
I am reminded by my grandparents and parents that after the last of the midnight chimes had heralded the arrival of Aug 31, 1957, everyone was ecstatic. It was a stirring moment.

Malays grasped the hands of Chinese, Indians embraced Malays. With ‘Merdeka’, Malaysians felt energised.

Fast forward to present-day Malaysia and the scene is stupefying. Malays eye the non-Malays with contempt and derision, whilst the non-Malays are consumed with frustration and resentment. A never-ending nightmare.

The ties that cemented us 52 years ago have eroded. Instead of acting as one, our differences have been emphasised; our similarities have all but diminished.

The new slogan, 1Malaysia, is a vain attempt to patch-up our differences. There is little point in using this sticking plaster to mend a wound that is deep and suppurating.

If we are instructed to be ‘one’, then something is wrong. If we are drilled to behave in a particular way, to be seen to be united, then this is a veiled and tacit acknowledgment that all is not well.

Somewhere after independence, we lost our focus. We took our eye off the ball.

We allowed ourselves to be massaged and manipulated into submissiveness by those who purported to lead us, but who have done us much damage - physically, spiritually, morally, financially, emotionally.

We are now a bunch of apathetic people who have to be led by the nose, who grumble only in private but hide any dissent in public. We are cowed into inactivity, resigned to our fate.

Why do we allow racism, corruption or inequality, practices which are unacceptable in the wider world, to prosper here? Why do we accept that when something goes wrong, no one is made accountable? Why is there a poor system of checks and balances? What happened to leadership by example?

The silent majority
The BTN is alleged to be divisive, racist and politically-motivated. The public is outraged; but politicians seem blind to these facts.

The deputy prime minister and the women, family and community development minister both deny the allegations. But what do ministers from the other component parties of BN say? Their silence speaks volumes.

Some ministers claim that the courses instil patriotism and are harmless. In their view, segregating participants into specific groups of race and ethnicity, followed by humiliation, is considered not divisive. They may need to reassess their values.

Others say that the BTN is being revamped. Or upgraded. Or changed. Whatever. The truth is, the BTN runs counter to the ideals of a united Malaysia. It is time we dispensed with our politicians’ knee-jerk reactions in their pathetic efforts to ameliorate the breakdown in public confidence.

How can the Umno information chief assume the role of BTN programme head? This is a conflict of interest. How does he isolate his political affiliations? He cannot possibly assume neutrality.

I have not experienced the BTN programme and hope that I never will.

When questions with political and religious undertones are incorporated, that is reason enough for the BTN to cease to operate and function.

When non-Malay Malaysians are chastised for their ‘immigrant’ status and are condescendingly told to be grateful to the Malays, that is wrong.

When only the contributions of the Malays are recognised for bringing peace and prosperity to the nation, that is positively abhorrent.

When Malays are warned not to mingle with non-Malays, when only Muslims are to be respected, that is despicable.

It is a mockery that 1Malaysia has boiled down to mean 'belonging to only one race'. And the shocking thing is that many Western-educated middle class Malays believe it.

Like the vines of our jungles, the BTN is strangling the ideals, aspirations and uniqueness of all Malaysian peoples.

I have been accused of being a traitor to my race, and religion just because I state what is obviously unfair, undemocratic and lacking in morals and principles.

I suspect they disapprove of me, mostly because I am a woman and a Malay, and dare to speak up about prickly issues. But I admire these people. At least, they are willing to express their views, however vile they may be. Unlike, the silent majority.

For these are the ones I appeal to, and who I wish would make a stand and do more to champion change, if only for the good and love and future of our nation.

In the final analysis, ‘1’ more person, might make all the difference

Attack of the killer kleptoids

2009-12-07T13:19:00.006+08:00

Dean Johns
2 Dec 2009

Trying to make sense of the political scenario in Malaysia is always a surreal experience. But at times it all seems so far-fetched and flat-out fantastic that I think I must have lost the plot.

Or else that I've actually been asleep all this time, trapped in some bizarre nightmare based on replays of all those hair-raising old Hollywood horror movies I used to frighten myself silly by sitting through.

At times like these I get desperate for some kind of reality check. So you can imagine how grateful I feel to the likes of Barry Wain, with his new biography of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for reassuring me that the doctor isn't some scary childhood movie memory or figment of my fevered imagination, but is actually, if incredibly, the former long-time prime minister of Malaysia.

And that the Frankenstein monster the doctor created isn't just some filmic fable, but a real-life political machine that's still rampaging around the country wreaking havoc wherever it goes and indulging its insatiable appetite by devouring whatever it can get its hands on.

If you'd believe Barry Wain, and why wouldn't you, as long as he works for neither the Malaysian nor Singapore mainstream press, the BN machine has swallowed RM100 billion of Malaysians' money in the past 25 of its 52 years in power.

And according to Time magazine, economist Daniel Lian of Morgan Stanley Singpore estimates it's consumed about three times the amount estimated by Wain, or US$100 billion.

Here, in case you missed them, are a few highlights of this saga of monumental theft, fraud and embezzlement:
· Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) swindle: US$1 billion.
· Bank Negara foreign-exchange fiasco: RM20 billion.
· Extra BMF bailouts: US$600 million.
· Perwaja Steel bankruptcy: US$ 800 million.
· Maminco tin market manipulation: US$500 million.
· Bank Islam non-performing loans scam: RM2.2 billion.
· Highway concessionaire bailouts: RM38.5 billion.
· Mirzan Mahathir's MISC rescue: RM600 million.
· Port Klang Free Zone scandal: RM12 billion

If that's not enough plundered billions to make you bilious, don't worry. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Or should I make that ‘heistberg'? Whatever, it's a considerable quantity of loot for a government to steal from its citizens.

Heart-breaking human cost

How the Malaysian people have tolerated being robbed on such an epic scale for so long I can't begin to guess. Why so many millions of them never stopped voting for the doctor or his successors, or never chased any of them, King Kong-like, up to the top of the Twin Towers to his downfall and doom is a total mystery.

Unless, of course, that like me they've been assuming that the whole thing was so unbelievable that it must be just a movie, and gone on scoffing their popcorn and kuaci as though the horror would eventually end and they could safely return from this harsh reel world to an altogether happier real one.

Or maybe they were thinking that, as long it was only money the monster was after, they'd be safe if they let it have its fill, and that with luck they might score their share of any small change that happened to slip through its fingers.

What they failed to realise, however, is that the BN money-chomping monster's been in league all along with those other fixtures of this long-running Malaysian fright-flick, the werewolves of the police and MACC, the body-snatchers of the internal security ministry, the vampires of commerce, contracting and the civil service, and the droids of the mainstream media.

With a monster cast this creepy to contend with, it's no wonder so many otherwise potentially sentient citizens have been turned into such political and ethical zombies.

With the watchdogs of the law at their throats, thousands of blood-suckers with their fangs in their necks and hundreds of make-believe journalists busy blinding their eyes, deafening their ears and dumbing their minds, some people are bound to get somewhat confused.

Which brings us to the fact that the tragedy is not so much the amount of money, land and other public property that BN and its minions have stolen and continue to steal but the heart-breaking human cost of it all.

The financial toll taken by the police, MACC and judiciary in corruption is chicken-feed compared with the priceless protections and trust that they've stolen from the people, not to mention the countless lives they've stolen from ‘suspects' in staged ‘shootouts' and ‘questioning' in custody.

Revenge of the voters

The billions looted and squandered by the government and its cronies are nothing compared with the human rights, educations, opportunities, hopes, dreams and futures they've stolen from Malaysians born on the ‘wrong' side of the screen that the ideologues of BN have erected between the races and religions on which to play their wayang kulit of 1Malaysia.

And now, having skinned the Malaysians alive in every conceivable fashion from financial to spiritual, they've had the hide to introduce a goods and services tax, thus adding even more to the swag of oil and tax revenues that BN has traditionally siphoned-off from behind the impenetrable screen of the official secrets act.

They're also, I see, still paying Najib Abdul Razak's airfare and considerable expenses to go around the world robbing Malaysia of even more of its Mahathir-ravaged international reputation with remarks like his recent one in New York that "Malaysia's message of reforms and transformation must be told to foreign investors".

Who does he think he's kidding about Malaysia as long as it's still business as usual for him and his gang of BN bandits? Doesn't he realise that embassies and high commissions report the truth back to their home governments?

And that trade commissioners and reputable global financial media keep investors informed of the larcenies of national governments like Malaysia's?

Sometimes I think Najib's recited his script so often he's started to almost believe it himself.

I certainly hope so. Because the more over-confident that he and his coalition cronies become that their ‘Attack of the Killer Kleptoids' production is set to run permanently, the more shocked they'll be by its inevitable sequel, ‘Revenge of the Voters from Hell'

Sad road to Seetha's suicide

2009-12-06T20:06:00.007+08:00

HELEN ANG is a Malaysiakini columnist. Below is her article in Malaysiakini

I wrote the article below before news broke of Seetha's passing. May she rest in peace. My prayers for her.

Words cannot hope to convey the plight of R Seetha (photo) who is in critical condition after her suicide bid. Mine are hopelessly inadequate and I can only offer them in sympathy hearing that Seetha might die. Ingesting paraquat like she did causes liver, lung, heart or kidney failure within several days that can result in death.

In 2006, another young Indian woman M Sanggita took her four children to Sungei Gadut near Seremban to wait for the train to Singapore. The family was not going for a holiday but to their deaths.

Can you imagine such a state of mind where having the train run over you seems better than living? Sanggita, 30, and two of her children were killed that July day lying across the railway tracks.

“There is no use for all of us to live. I pity my kids. They have no future here. Let us be with God,” pleaded Sanggita in her suicide note.

She lamented that she could find no solace. “If given the opportunity, we would all come back as angels to help those in need,” the note ended. Like Sanggita, Seetha lived also in Negri Sembilan and perhaps angels did watch over her four children. Thankfully, they will – we're hopeful – pull through after sipping the weed killer given by their mother.

Some people have called for Seetha to be charged with attempted murder.

It's been reported that Seetha promised her children that if they drank the poison, they could meet their youngest uncle again who had been gunned down by police. I don't think Seetha had it in mind to brutally kill her children – certainly not in the same way that police had done her brother Surendran.

Doubtless, I cannot claim to fathom what was going through her mind that tipped her over the edge. But neither can those condemning her imagine what Seetha has had to endure in her short life thus far. From the story fragments that have come to public knowledge, we can at best speculate.

A closed Tamil society

Seetha's husband M Manimaran said his wife had told him that she wanted to see the departed Surendran and be with him.
Her father R Rampathy (far left) in his police report had said: “Seetha terlalu sayang kepada Surendran. Dia selalu nangis di hadapan gambar Surendran yang meninggal.”

The picture they paint is one of a woman consumed by inconsolable grief. For most of us, we lose our loved ones to old age or they succumb to natural causes. For the Tamil underclass like Seetha, death can visit a male sibling in a hail of bullets or occurring in the police lock-up. This comes about due to the chronic socio-economic deprivation of the community.

So, no, those comfortable armchair critics of Seetha can't even begin to comprehend her anguish and the perennial dark cloud hanging when one is mired in poverty. Her father is a security guard; her husband a lorry driver. Both are low status and low pay jobs.

Seetha is a housewife; her mother is a housewife. A feminine shroud encloses homemakers in the still highly patriarchal Tamil society. The women's limited life experience may not have allowed them to acquire the coping mechanisms that our 'survival of the fittest' advocates, preaching fortitude, would like to think everyone else should possess.

The defeatist proletariat, denied access to empowering education, does not enjoy the buffer zone that better-off Malaysians have when it comes to confronting adversity and despair. Not just the shock of violent, sudden death but the depression that daily dampens their dispiriting environment.

Worlds apart, chasm between

A poor family earns a combined income of under RM1,092 monthly. This amount is all that a household – usually calculated as a unit comprising five members – has at their disposal to cover all expenditure including housing, utilities, food, schooling expenses and transport.

On the other hand, an affluent young couple may spend more than a thousand ringgit a month on milk powder alone for two young children, what with the price of things skyrocketing nowadays.

I've given the example above of two sets of people whose finances are at opposite ends. Wouldn't their thinking norms be very different too? Seetha's critics simply have no inkling of the facets of her world.

Do you know how many percent of Indians earn only around a thousand ringgit? The answer is 108,000 households ... five years ago (certainly more poor people today). These 540,000 souls make up the bottom 30% of the 1.8 million total Indian population, according to the Social Strategic Foundation report of April 2005.

More data: From the Household Income Survey 2004 by the Economic Planning Unit and Department of Statistics. On the incidence of urban poverty, Bumiputera register 4.1%, Chinese 0.4% and Indian 2.4%.

Now compare with their respective population ratio that same year: Bumiputera was 61%, Chinese 24% and Indian 7% out of 25.6 million Malaysians. Indians who comprised a mere 7% of this country in 2004 showed a disproportionately high poverty rate in stark contrast to Chinese and Malays.

“You are on your own. Don't hold out your hand because nothing will fall into it.” This quote is attributed to long overstaying MIC president Samy Vellu in the book 'The Malaysian Indians' by Muzafar Desmond Tate.

Heck, not only are the poor Indians refused help, even what little they had was taken away from them.

Rendered jobless and homeless

In 1980, plantation workers still accounted for over half of the entire Indian community, wrote Muzafar. What has been happening since then is that the plantations have been fragmented and their workers evicted from the labourer quarters.

The Putrajaya mega-project dislodged estate workers too (Golden Hope plantations among them) and in Mahathirville's 4,580 hectares, there is no room for the Indians; you don't see them in this shiny new administrative capital.

Rubber estates like Golden Hope, Guthrie, Sime Darby and Boustead had been colonial enterprises.

Then, government agencies like Pemodalan Nasional Berhad took over Sime Darby (today merged with Guthrie and Golden Hope) while Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera acquired a controlling equity interest in Boustead. Now owned by government-linked Malays and managed by Malays, these corporations are developing the previously plantation land into lucrative real estate properties and new townships.

Oh well, too bad for the hapless Indians. Its displaced young generation drift to urban settlements and create slums.

As mentioned earlier, about 7% of the Malaysian general population is Indian but in their making up 16.1% of squatters, the ratio is double, not proportional. It's hardly surprising that the Indian quota for low-cost rented accommodation with KL City Hall is always exhausted.

Meanwhile in Penang, a report submitted to the state government by the Socio-economic and Environmental Research Institute (Seri) in November 1998 revealed deplorable housing conditions.

Five percent of the survey respondents lived in containers while in Sungai Tiram, the majority of respondents lived in shacks which used to provide shelter for animals before. Ten years down the road, Penang kindly gave Indians the Kg Buah Pala saga.

The poverty trap led Surendran to his fateful meeting with destiny and trigger-happy cops. Seetha is the collateral damage. Can't their circumstances and they too be considered hostage to the Indian condition?

Uthaya vows to bring body to Parliament

Human Rights Party pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar has intimated that should she die, he will bring her body to Parliament to drive home the point that police shootings of racially profiled and so-called 'suspects' must stop.

Uthaya's threat recalls the self-immolation or suicide by fire, of Buddhist monks to protest the Vietnamese regime in the 1960s.
Perhaps it will take a drastic measure like a frail, pretty corpse brought outside Parliament under the glare of international media attention to finally open Malaysia's eyes. A deliberately neglected community is at the end of its tether, if only you knew.

Do you remember the unforgettable Hindraf rally images of Indians passively allowing themselves be drenched by chemical-laced water fired by the FRU cannons? How would an ordinary robust individual react in the same circumstances? You'd run.
So how did a swathe of marginalized Malaysians come to such pass that they squat wet in the street like martyrs with nothing else to lose?

Some have slammed Seetha for attempting to take her own life. Can these censorious people please try to plumb the question that plagued one who deserves only our compassion: 'What's there to live for?'

Vernacular schools not the ones causing disunity

2009-12-06T19:49:00.013+08:00

Norman Fernandez
4 Dec 2009

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Single stream schools a thorny issue.

Recently, Prof Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim proposed a restructuring of the national education system, including the implementation of a single stream to ensure attainment of the goals of a '1Malaysia'. As often the case, vernacular schools and principally Chinese schools have been singled out as being the root cause for polarisation and the lack of national unity. However, to fault vernacular schools for the cause for polarisation and disunity is premised on multiple fallacies.

Many urge the government to follow in the footsteps of Singapore which has abolished vernacular schools. However, they conveniently forget that in Malaysia, vernacular education is a right guaranteed by constitution and by acts of Parliament. Vernacular education is part of the social contract.

That right ought not to be questioned and the right to vernacular education is the right of the non-Malays and cannot be compromised. Thus, to call for abolishment or to call for a single stream is uncalled for.

Those who continuously fault the vernacular schools ought to be reminded that it is the desire and wish of every parent to see their children mix, study and play with children of other races. After all, the parents themselves were often the products of national schools where students of different races and religions studied, played and interacted together and forged friendship which extended long after they left school.

What those calling for single stream education and proponents for abolishing vernacular schools fail to admit is that vernacular schools in the past were not necessarily the schools of first choice for the non-Malays. Non-Malay parents sent their children to English-medium schools simply because the education was in English.

The schools had good teachers and English-medium schools provided school-leavers better career opportunities. In fact, Chinese schools such as Han Chiang High School in Penang were on the verge of closing down because of falling attendance and in the 70s, had to depend on students from Indonesia and Thailand to survive. Now the reverse has happened.

According to statistics, Chinese parents who send their children to national schools have fallen from around 50% in the 1970s to about 6% in 2006. The media has reported that 9 out of 10 Chinese send their children to Chinese vernacular schools. Today, there are approximately 630,000 students studying in 1,288 Chinese primary schools. Those blaming vernacular schools and particularly Chinese schools ought to know that there are almost 60,000 non-Chinese students studying in Chinese schools and a substantial proportion of these students are Malays.

Even more alarming is that Tamil parents and particularly Tamil professionals who were educated in national schools are now beating a path to the Tamil schools. Today, approximately 100,142 students study in 523 Tamil schools despite the fact that many Tamil schools lack the facilities national schools or Chinese schools have.

With Chinese and Indian parents abandoning national schools for vernacular schools, the national schools - not by choice - have taken on the image of 'sekolah Melayu'. Those advocating single stream never bother to ask why have the non-Malays abandoned national schools and they are no more the schools of first choice.

Rightfully those advocating single-stream education or proposing the closure of vernacular schools ought to ask the parents of the 60,000 non-Malay students (a substantial proportion of them being Malays) studying in Chinese schools, why did they as Malays abandon the national schools which have better facilities and teachers and students of same race and religion.

Why did they instead choose to send their children to Chinese vernacular schools where their children are a minority and will be exposed to Chinese culture, Chinese religious beliefs and having to eat in the school canteen which is more likely to serve food which may not be 'halal'.

Malay parents, seeing the benefits of a Chinese education, are also the abandoning national schools for Chinese schools. If Chinese schools are indeed the root cause of disunity then questions must be asked why the Malays are beginning to see Chinese schools as schools of first choice.

Instead, they repeat the decade old polemic blaming vernacular schools for causing racial polarisation and disunity. Further, they also conveniently choose to ignore that there are also schools which are exclusively for a single race, religious schools for a particular religion, universities catering to a single race and universities with religious orientation of a single religion. Are not the existence of these schools and universities equally divisive?

What logical justification is there to call for single-stream education in primary schools and then allow divisive secondary and tertiary education?

Malaysia is unique with its multiracial, multi-cultural and multi-religious population. The role of a school is not only to create a learning atmosphere. In Malaysia, schools have an added responsibility in that it ought to be a place where students are taught to value and celebrate diversity.

Students should be taught to acknowledge and respect each other's culture, language and religion and to be imbibed with a sense that each other's cultural, language and religious diversities are part and parcel of our national heritage and that this uniqueness should be treasured and protected by all. Schools must inculcate multi-racialism, multi-culturalism and multi-religionism. The question is whether the national schools are doing this.

The character of national schools have changed and they have become overtly and overwhelmingly Malay-Muslim. Malay-Muslim centred actions and policies have caused the exodus of non-Malays from the national schools.

School administrators and the principals in some national schools have turned the school and the school's culture's into one dominantly of Malay-Muslim. While great effort is taken to continuously remind the non-Malay students about respecting Malay cultural mores and religious sensitivities, the same is not done when it comes to non-Malay cultural and religious sensitivities. Even worse, they are blatantly indifferent to the sensitivities of the non-Malays.

Here is a letter which appeared in a news portal where a parent wrote: 'In my children's Sekolah Kebangssan school, the Hari Raya holidays are stretched to well over a week to accommodate the Malays. Replacement classes are planned months ahead and notification letters are sent out very early. However, when it comes to Chinese New Year, not a single extra day is given - not even for the kids who have to travel to make it to their hometowns. Mind you, Malays make up roughly 50% of the student population.'

Razak Baginda who was then the executive director of Malaysian Strategic Research Centre is quoted in the International Herald Tribune on June 7, 2005 as saying that his 'daughter complained that the religious teachers are the culprits. They inculcate very negative views of the other religions. They are always have a 'them and us' attitude that is very destructive.'

This is merely one example. Many non-Malay parents also complain that while the school has religious and religious activities for Muslims students, it is a near impossibility to have the same for the non-Malay-non-Muslim students. In some schools, classes are segregated according to race and religion giving 'time-table convenience' as an excuse. Some schools even forbid their students from wearing shorts for physical education.

Thus, it was not a surprise when in 2002, the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed, without mincing his words, said that the national school system had been hijacked by obscurantists interested in Islamic practices that emphasise form over substance.

To add to the changing landscape of national schools, is a perception problem. Many parents lament that the standard of teaching in national schools has deteriorated. A lecturer at the teacher's training college in Johor Baru once lamented about the quality of the trainee teachers.

According to him, many of these trainee teachers hardly have a passion for teaching and that teacher-training was their last choice after having failed to secure a place in the universities or other colleges.

Thus, the attraction to teaching is simply its perks - half-day sessions, five-day week and the long term breaks and more importantly, job security. Many have the perception that in the national schools, many of the teachers seem to be disinterested and unmotivated and some instead are more interested in moulding the children for the hereafter.

Rightly or wrongly, many believe that vernacular schools and particularly the Chinese vernacular schools have dedicated teachers with a reputation for quality, rigour and working their students hard. Could this be the reason why more than 60,000 non-Chinese students now study in Chinese schools ?

I believe the exodus in such droves from the national schools to the vernacular schools would not have happened had the government been farsighted and been quick to arrest the problem. Why did the government wait until almost 90% of the non-Malay students abandon the national schools before recognising that there was a problem

Surely the government ought to have known about the overzealous school administrators with their own agenda and about teachers who permeate ill-feelings and racism? The government must have known about the gradual Malay-nisation of these schools. There have been cases of non-Malay students who were racially abused to the extent of being called 'monkeys'. Such teachers rightfully out to have been dismissed with criminal action initiated. Instead, they were sent for 'counseling'.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has rightly pointed out that any move to a single-stream education would require a big paradigm shift and it will only happen if the people are ready to make a change and if the society is not ready, the government will carry on with the existing system.

That paradigm shift, I believe must come from the government. If only the government can walk the talk of a '1Malaysia', take the necessary steps to overhaul the standard of national schools, enhance the quality and standard of teaching, ensure that schools are free from zealots and racists, employ teachers and administrators who truly subscribe to multi-culturalism and multi-religionism, make the teaching of vernacular education mandatory and recreate the atmosphere of yesteryears (ie, pre- Merdeka), it is possible that the national schools could regain their past glory and their rightful place

身体自然修补时间

2009-07-16T22:07:00.010+08:00

12 个时辰的经络运用
晚上9点- 凌晨3点：一定要休息
晚上9点-晚上11点：免疫系统运作的时间
晚上11点-凌晨1点：骨髓造血的时间
凌晨1点-凌晨3点：肝脏修复的时间
凌晨3点-凌晨5点：呼吸系统运作的时间
凌晨4点：脉搏最弱，心脏最慢的时候（危险四点钟）
凌晨5点-早上7点：大肠蠕动最旺盛的时间（早餐时间）
早上7点-早上9点：胃最活跃的时间
早上9点-早上11点：脾脏活跃时间
下午1点-下午3点：小肠运作时间（午餐最好在下午1点前）
下午3点-下午5点：膀胱运作时间(肾脏和膀胱不好的人，这段时间喝 500此次水）
晚上7点- 晚上9点：心脏与神经系统活跃时间

让人怀念的歌- 鲁冰花

2009-06-28T12:59:00.007+08:00

《鲁冰花》
一首跨时代的名曲
在你我心中回荡着
勾起了咱们的回忆
惦念起了故乡风景
思念着家乡老人们
夜夜想起妈妈的话　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
《鲁冰花》
荡气回肠回荡耳际
小时嬉戏追逐的画面
小时歌唱追剧的影像
婆婆公公的遗容
浮现眼帘
夜夜想起妈妈的话　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
《鲁冰花》
是我们献给阿公阿麻的道别曲
愿他俩携手上路　　一路好走
叔叔姑姑的回忆倒影数十年
昔日枯黄的影片历历在目
回忆故人泪珠夺眶而出
啊～　啊～　妈妈的心呀鲁冰花
啊～　啊～　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
长大了　
外出工作了
昔日家乡的回忆
渐行渐远　淡忘退色
啊～　啊～　妈妈的心呀鲁冰花
啊～　啊～　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
夜半
窗外的夜空格外明亮
家家户户灯火闪烁着
高挂的星星不再明亮
四周耸立的钢骨大厦
明月变得无比的矮小
窗外
格外的寂寞冷淡
没有了
旷阔大地无私的拥抱　
青葱树木露水的滋润
人情味变得稀薄了　
大家不再对望彼岸
你我仿佛陌生人似的

收音机传来了鲁冰花
心里顿时感触良多．．．．．．
我知道　半夜的星星会唱歌
想家的夜晚　它就这样和我一唱一和
我知道　午后的清风会唱歌
童年的蝉声　它总是跟风一唱一和
当手中握住繁华　心情却变得荒芜
才发现世上　一切都会变卦
当青春剩下日记　乌丝就要变成白发
不变的只有那首歌　在心中来回的唱
天上的星星不说话　地上的娃娃想妈妈
天上的眼睛眨呀眨　妈妈的心呀鲁冰花
家乡的茶园开满花　妈妈的心肝在天涯
夜夜想起妈妈的话　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
啊～　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
天上的星星不说话　地上的娃娃想妈妈
天上的眼睛眨呀眨　妈妈的心呀鲁冰花
家乡的茶园开满花　妈妈的心肝在天涯
夜夜想起妈妈的话　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
夜夜想起妈妈的话　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花
啊～　啊～　妈妈的心呀鲁冰花
啊～　啊～　闪闪的泪光鲁冰花

命运！

2009-06-21T23:01:00.001+08:00

命运！
命运！
你相信人的命运早已注定了吗
当我们出身时
我们人生的旅程似乎早有了谱

人家说
佛家相信
“人定胜天”
运固然定了曲
但命却掌握在自己的手里
只要努力并能成功
事实真是如此吗？
也许这只是少数吧！

我不信命运的主宰
我不信无形力量的威力
但种种的事迹与预言
却不让我不屈服于命运
命运的力量
命运的威力
命运的主宰

原来
这世界上真有其人
能预知你的未来
掌握你的运程剖析你的性格
看透你的一生
原来
我并不是自己生命的决策者
而是上天小小的一颗棋子
那么地渺小那么地无助
命运我信了！

Life of Work

2009-05-30T23:40:00.006+08:00

Exam has gone! Convo trip to Vietnam-China has accomplished...
And it's now the time for a new life!
A life differs from what I've gone through this far...
A milestone which will stretch for the entire life- that is WORK!

To work! Yes, it's exciting if MONEY pops out in our mind immediately... Jumping happily!
Yet the excitement will only last for a moment... As I wonder how to sustain the life with such penny???

To work! Employment contract- from 8am to 5pm- a normal routine?
In reality i wonder how many people are able to go home at FIVE sharp? Except for the lucky group -government servants! 8pm should be the normal routine instead... i bet!

To work! To work! And to work...
Where should our wonderful life lie?
When the time out for sport, movie, limteh, chit-chatting and facebooking diminishes??? Whilst the pressure of work escalates and relationship of mankind turns complicated!!!!

Am i too pessimistic of work? of life particularly?
Maybe not b'cos this is my experiences in the past...

Wish! I wish I'd enjoy the life! the life of work!!!
Lets WORK be part of my life rather than a mere obligation...

New Farmosa Restaurant

2009-03-29T12:00:00.017+08:00

These are the food I've had together with my buddies

during the recent Chinese New Year

It is Taiwanese-oriented cuisines

and I think you shouldn't miss it out

1st: Lou Shang

A must for Chinese New Year celebration

It brings us greater prosperity in the year ahead

2nd: Ba-Bao Duck
This is a mixture of some tasteful vegetables

with the steamed-duck

3rd: Slices of Chicken
It's looked normal yet the taste is not bad

4rd: Yang-Sheng TauFu
Look at it- I think you cannot resist to have a try ler!

5th: Double Plates
A combination of fish and pork.

6th: Bamboo Rice
A dish that you shouldn't miss out too!

7th: Yummy-yummy Yam
This is my favourite of all.
It's served hot but later was dipped into cold water
to make it crunchy
A good choice for dessert

For all these cuisines just drop by

NEW FORMOSA RESTURANT

新宝岛餐厅

46, Jlan SS2/24, 47300 Petaling Jaya

03-7729 0000/ 019-335 3574

(This article is not for advertisement purpose)

清明节。思故人。（三）

2009-03-29T01:14:00.016+08:00

时间过得好快呀

清明节又来了

依旧

大家回家扫墓去

回家。扫墓

念的不就是在天之灵的

公公婆婆吗？

愿大家幸福快乐

Pendrive and Condom

2009-02-10T16:34:00.008+08:00

AIDS is a pandemic incurable disease
Transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse
Vaginal Sex! Anal Sex! Oral sex!
The body fluid is the culprit!

Pendrive is storage card of information
Connected to computer
Transferring the data from one end to the other

Virus! Virus!
Stormed into my computer
Through the connection of pendrive

Avira! AVG! Norton!
Are of no cure
The virus invaded into my body
Attacking my body resistance
Hacking my privacy
Wiping off my information

Condom!

I need you
Why
There is condom for dreadful AIDS
But not
Condom for pendrive?
To shield against the transmission of virus

The infectious pendrive
Like wildfire of AIDS
Spread through computers and laptops
Once it gets in touch with the hole

The penetration
One-in One–out
Into USB
Intermittently
Diffuses the viruses
one to ten
ten to hundreds
hundreds to thousands
Incessantly

Condom
Can curb AIDS
Yet
There is no condom for pendrive

Can someone invent condom for pendrive?
Like this On top of this

To get rid of any transmission of Trojan Horse

Then
More frequently
We can go in-and-out
Without further fear and hesitation
With the aid of condom

We
Just need a sheath covering the head of pendrive Before we plug pendrive into our computer!

解剖关闭马大华人熟食档

2009-01-05T20:56:00.003+08:00

一月四日（星期日）马大第十二宿舍校长召开了华裔生会议。在此会议中，校长以蜻蜓点水的方式带过了华人熟食档的课题，由始至终只说这纯属程序的问题。直到对答环节时，在学生们连珠炮的反问下，事情的来龙去脉才一一浮出水面。综合全部的问问答答，我得到了以下的结论。

简单论述，前华人老板Uncle Lim 是向马来业主租借其档口售卖华人的食物。所以当马来业主被令结束营业时，Uncle Lim自然也就无法继业了。以此逻辑，这似乎合情合理。但其问题就在于为何这马来业主又会忽然间被令停业呢？原来他是以“阿里巴巴”的方式转售经营权给Uncle Lim。早知如此，为何Uncle Lim又不自己投标，宁愿以更高的价钱购买经营权，而又落到如今关门大吉的下场，何苦呢？

此问题的根源并非纯属程序的失误，也非宗教Halal 的课题所致。追根究底，就是“种族特权”的因素。根据政府相关的政策，开办熟食档者须符合三个条件：（-）享有“土著”地位、（二）肉类须附有Halal的印证、（三）食物卫生清洁。以 Uncle Lim的个案为例，无论他如何努力，他最终也只能符合第二和第三的条件。冥冥中注定，身为大马华裔，他永远都不可能符合第一个条例。换句话说，他是不可能以自己华裔的身份申请到马大饮食业的准证。马来业主被喝令停业也就是因为他转让经营权给“华人”吧！如此一来，华裔的身份似乎就是个累赘，妨碍了他申请马大饮食业的执照。华裔身份何罪之有呢？　

其实饮食业执照更新的课题只是芝麻小事，在公平竞争下无法继业的案例比比皆是，何足挂齿。但此事却闹得满城风雨，从小小的马大校内课题走向国内新闻，这正说明我们关心的不仅仅是马大华裔生的三餐温饱，而更重要的是我们华裔是否被边缘化了呢？我们少数民族的权力是否也被尊重。以关闭马大唯一华人饮食档的档案为例，这不就印证了种族狭隘的思维模式吗？以“肤色”来审查饮食准证的得标者。此事的偏差并不能完全归咎于马大一方，追根究底，这不就是当今政府拟定的政策吗！大马财政部规定政府学校的建筑工程或物品添购合约一律只能分发予土著公司，因为这涉及政府的金钱。华小前阵子被令只能向土著公司添购练习簿不也就是个活例子吗？

总括而言，政府的金钱只能惠及土著，非土著是不能分一杯羹的。这导致了很多“阿里巴巴式”的买卖案件出现，尤其以土地买卖案件为甚。毕竟，身为非土著，我们也得生活呀！Uncle Lim只不过是这“种族政策”下的一个小小牺牲者。毋庸置疑，这并非单独的案件，而是整个种族政策下的冰山一角而已。　

虽然华人熟食档于一月五日（星期一）重开了，但物是人非，档主已是位马来老板了。之前不是说重开华人料理吗？为何如今的菜色与味道却是马来风味？选择也寥寥无几？终究我们看不出，也吃不出这些就是华人料理。学生们深感错愕及不满，因为之前华丽的承诺根本无法兑现，最终只是个空头支票。

依我见，即使华人的料理配套是保留了，问题的症结依旧存在，既是只有土著才能经营政府大学的饮食业。为此，我衷心希望身为华基政党的马华和民政能为我们护航，说服国阵政府摒弃如此荒谬的种族保护政策。在大马，种族偏差的政策数不胜数，也许开放政府大学饮食业可以是个起步，好让非马来主导的饮食档口也能百花齐放。

纵观国内大事，关闭马大华人饮食档也许只是小事一桩，但它掀起得涟漪可不小。它不仅仅是食物料理的课题，而涉及了当今政府行政偏差的大隐忧。在薄利微弱的饮食业也设有如此种族考量的限制的确贻笑大方，太落伍了吧！愿大马民族能在2009年共同迈向更包容、尊重及思想开放的未来。

写于：2009年1月5日（星期一）

关闭马大华人熟食档

2009-01-05T20:50:00.005+08:00

最近马大华人熟食档的课题日日见报，闹得满城风雨，但终究无解决方案。马青总团教育局主任张盛闻、马大亲学生阵线协调员吴汉坤及马大学生会代表沈启业同学都各发表了事情的来龙去脉。无论事情的问题出自于宗教的狭隘思维抑或招标程序的疏忽，摆在眼前的事实就是在即将来临的新学期马大唯一的华人熟食档无法继业了。

我此刻的心情是沉重的，毕竟它陪伴了我两年的时间。Uncle Lim的食物价廉物美，四道肉菜、白饭与茶水一律只收RM3，而且选择多样化。晚餐更备有面食煮炒，其鸡饭和云吞面更是招牌菜色。当百物上涨之际，此档口始终维持原价，为学生减轻了不少经济负担。在情在理，其关闭怎不叫人惋惜呢？

更为重要的是，它是百年马大唯一的华人熟食档。届时，华人美食将销声匿迹，并为众多华裔生带来生活的不便，尤其是不习惯马来煎炸及辛辣食物的学生。一、二年级的大学生是不允许携带交通工具的，为此这些学生该如何到校外打包食物呢，尤以住宿在校内的学生为甚。马大也有不少的中国籍国际学生，如果能备有华人饮食料理，这也将为他们提供一个舒适的环境。

撇开情感这一怀，追根究底，为什么唯一的华人熟食档会被喝令停业呢？吴沈二位同学各有说法。但奇怪的是，如果有如吴同学所说这是档主的招标失误，那为何几个月前，马大第十二宿舍就已传出校方要关闭华人食档的消息？更谣传这是因为其它档口的施压，表面以Halal 因素为由投诉校方，实际上则是商业嫉妒。也许这只是个流言蜚语，毫无根据，但这巧合无法不令人想入非非，到底这事件的背后是否存在着种族与宗教的因素和支配。如果真的只是纯属技术问题，那就较容易办了；校方必能撇开官方形式，以学生利益为主，重开华人熟食档，终究Uncle Lim是最高的投标者。但如果整件事件涉及隐喻的考量，技术问题实属伎俩或借口，那可是烫手山芋。

还有一星期就是新学期了，当务之急就是解决此问题，还马大一间华人熟食档，为莘莘学子解决三餐的温饱。诚如沈同学所说，这也是一个良机要求校方开放食堂条例，让多元化的美食在马大飘香。愿在来临的2009年，马大能逐渐摒弃种族与宗教的思维枷锁，迈向更开放、更民主的校风。“思想开放”不也就是马大十大中心价值之一吗？

写于：2008年12月25日（星期四）

《无聊》

2008-12-11T17:07:00.006+08:00

时光的确飞逝了。当年龄二加一、二加二、不断地往上攀升时，压力总随之倍增。脸上未留下岁月的痕迹，但无奈与彷徨却呼之欲出。盼又盼长假的到来，脑海里浮现了无数的计划；但当它到来时，自己却软了个胫骨儿。懒得动动脑筋、扭扭脖子、动动身体，老是饭来张口，衣来伸手，大少爷似的，趴在沙发享受就是乐趣！这个坏习惯依旧不改。心理总是内疚的，但力不从心。反之，看戏、吃饭、睡觉，成了假期大计，以猪为友。。。腰又肥了一圈！为何？为何？就是‘懒’一个字吧。真不知将来如何成就大业？如何出人头地？也许就是假期吧，偷个懒也无所谓。逃避时，理由总是数之不尽。长这么大了，还如此淘气、幼稚似的，的确令人心灰意冷。

原来没有目标的人生是如此无奈、彷徨的。。。。。。

MALACCA’S CARI-CARI MAKAN TRIP

2008-11-29T21:10:00.017+08:00

STOP 1: CHICKEN RICE BALL Dude, these are not fish balls.
They all are CHICKEN RICE BALLS.
Rice is granulated with the aroma of pandan leaves and a slight savour of chicken. Main course: White Steamed-Chicken with Soy Sauce
This is one of the best chicken meats I’ve ever had. The meat is tender and smooth. I prefer not to have it with chilli sauce because it would destroy the nature taste of the steamed-chicken.

There are many identical chicken rice shops in the town.
My clue to you is- get the one named:- Though you may also want to try others. Why not?

STOP 2: CENDOL & AIS KACANG
Within the distance, you can also find other popular local dishes, especially the one which can quench your thirst under the (Malacca’s extremely) hot weather. CENDOL
The Gula Melaka and Santan on top of it are really tasteful.
AIS KACANG
Ais-kacang is coated with Gula Melaka and extra ingredients especially the crunchy peanuts. Personally I prefer ‘Ais Kacang’ than Cendol.

To combine with Ais Kacang or Cendol, you may want to order other dishes like: ASAM LAKSA!
Or a plate of fried YongTauFo!!!

These all can be acquired under one roof:-

STOP 3: ALA-KAMPUNG SEAFOOD
Do you find it really hard to get some good yet affordable seafood in KL?
No worry- Malacca does offer you a variety of seafood at night, ranging from: Fried Sotong (Cutterfish)- The best of all! Butter Prawn!! Grilled Prawn in Stick Spicy Sambal Fish.

STOP 4: SATAY-CELUP
You should also try this unique Satay-Celup if you never attempt it before. Satay-Celup with various choices of food.

STOP 5: MORNING’S DIM-SUM

STOP 6: FOOD-TO-GO
Before a “Good-Bye” bid to Malacca, just grab some snacks home.
You should not miss:-

The Pineapple Tart Tan Kim Hock’s Dodol
And also Tan Kim Hock’s Sago cookies.

STOP 7: SEREMBAN’S SIEW POW
If you’re on your way home from Malacca to KL, have a stop-over in Seremban for the famous:- Siew Pow Crispy Egg-Tart

At last,
Congratulation to Malacca being awarded:

MY BELOVED GRANDMOM

2008-11-27T16:25:00.006+08:00

IN MEMORY OF MY BELOVED GRANDMOM
(1933 – 2008)

This is the 100th day
You’ve left us apart
Though we are distant in space
Our heart will forever be with You
My Beloved Grandmom
Eng Chuan

《My Heart Will Go On》
<<心系于您>>

Every night in my dreams 在每个夜晚的梦里
I see you, I feel you 我看见您，我感应到您
That is how I know you go on. 我感觉到您的延续、您的存在
Far across the distance 虽然两地相隔
and spaces between us 时空之隔
You have come to show you go on. 您已悄悄来到我的身旁

Near, far, wherever you are 千山万水，无论您身在何方
I believe that the heart does go on 我相信您我的心将永不止息
Once more, you opened the door 再一次，您摊开了门
And you're here in my heart, 您就在我的心窗里
and my heart will go on and on. 我的心将永远、永远系念您

Love can touch us one time 爱，感动了我们
and last for a lifetime 持续一生

And never let go till we've gone. 永不止息，永不磨灭
Love was when I loved you, 爱，就当我深爱着您时
one true time I hold you, 当我拥抱着您的那一刻
In my life we'll always go on. 一生一世，我们永不分离

Near, far, wherever you are 千山万水，无论您身在何方
I believe that the heart does go on 我相信您我的心将永不止息
Once more, you opened the door 再一次，您摊开了门
And you're here in my heart, 您就在我的心窗里
and my heart will go on and on. 我的心将永远、永远系念您

You're here, there's nothing I fear 您在我身旁，我无所畏惧
And I know that my heart will go on. 我知道我的心将永远惦念您
We'll stay, forever this way 我俩就这样相依到永远
You are safe in my heart 您早已烙印在我的心坎里
and my heart will go on and on. 我的心将永远、永远将记载着您

[A song of Celine Dion]

MALAYSIA’S LANDMARKS

2008-11-26T17:03:00.009+08:00

MEASAT 1996’

MEASAT refers to Malaysia East Asia Satellite, which was launched in 1996 for the broadcasting and communication services. It is an ideal medium to link Malaysians internally and to the East Asian Neighbours, opening the door to simultaneous transmissions of video, data and voice over a single line.

PRETRONAS TWIN TOWERS
Petronas Twin Towers, being at the height of 452 metres, was once before the tallest building in the world. It is situated in Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). It was first exposed to the world at large through the movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”.
KUALA LUMPUR TOWER
Kuala Lumpur Tower (421 metres height) was the third tallest telecommunication tower in the world when it was first built. It provides essential telecommunication, radio and broadcasting facilities for the city of Kuala Lumpur.

MY FIRST’ STAMP COLLECTION

2008-11-25T15:10:00.017+08:00

Stamp is a mini pictorial memory describing the pass events.
Apart from a mere stamp collection, I personally prefer to collect First Day Cover (FDC) which is issued and can only be purchased, as the name suggests, at the very first day of its issuance; and this is no doubt its precious part vis-à-vis a stamp.

MY FIRST’ 1st DAY COVER

This was my first 1st Day Cover presented by father in 1994. Since then it has aroused my interest on stamp-collecting.
Tunku Abdul Rahman is not only our Malaysian First Prime Minister; his memorial collection was also MY FIRST’ ever FDC.

MY FIRST’ STAMP ALBUM

My first stamp album in 1994.

This is a unique album for its six various series of stamps from six ASEAN countries: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand inside one mini album.

MY FIRST’ SINGAPORE 1st DAY COVER

It was the RAT- My first Singapore’s FDC.

Again this was presented by my Dad over my strong request. In fact it was extravagant to spend on this white elephant and yet, fortunately, Dad was willing to get me this ‘rat’ FDC.

MY FIRST’ PEWTER & NIOBIUM 1st DAY COVER

This is a niobium FDC: another sumptuous FDC as one piece of it cost more than RM100. 98’s economy crisis however did not prevent Dad from gettting me this special series though eventually he had got to burn the candles at both ends.

This is a pewter FDC cost around RM20 (in 1998).

MY FIRST’ COMMONWEALTH 1st DAY COVER

This was my first collection of Commonwealth Games in 1998. Special thanks to my elder sister who had brought home such a special edition.

MY FIRST’ HK 1st DAY COVER

Neither was it given by my father nor elder sister, it was in fact presented by my ex-housemate gratuitously when I was in Form 6. Without hers it was hardly in my collection any of these overseas stamps. This was my first HK’s collection.

MY FIRST TAIWAN 1st DAY COVER

Ten years after I first received the Commonwealth collection, this was another marvelous piece of FDC brought by my elder sister from Taiwan: The Legend of Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea.

MY FIRST’ 1ST DAY COVER FROM POS OFFICE (HEADQUARTER)

Having queued up for more than 45 minutes in front of the Pejabat Besar Pos Malaysia, eventually this was my first collection acquired personally from the headquarter on Merdeka Day (31st August) itself. It was indeed worthwhile for the great exposure to meet up with a flock of profesional stamp enthusiatics therein: an eye-opener.

凌晨五点钟（II）

2008-11-13T14:38:00.000+08:00

凌晨五点钟
为考试而起深埋苦读
热腾腾的可可麦片
温暖了心中的冷寂
缓冲了考试的压力
这就是考试的乐趣

小时
生活贫苦
凌晨五点钟
离开被窝乘着摩多
打包50¢的鸡饭
跟随妈妈割胶去
生火驱蚊赤手取汁
溪水嬉戏兵贼追逐
胶园里的回忆是美好的

小时
与青梅足马
躺卧在高楼
伸展双臂望着夜空
切盼着流星雨的莅临
等待是漫长的
凌晨五点钟
瞬间夜空一片缤纷耀眼
流星雨
一道又一道的
稀里哗啦从空而降
红色的黄色的蓝带青色的
七彩缤纷的流星
点缀此刻的夜空
灿烂了童年回忆

生活营
凌晨五点钟
木鱼声引嵚声
唤起大家做早课
诵经念佛回向众生
庄严的释迦殿
传来了古老的梵音
净化了人心
点燃了希望

平日
凌晨五点钟
我依旧卷卧在被单里
编织着梦幻故事
我是你的SUPERMAN
你是我的HONEY PIE
手牵手我们共筑城堡
心连心我们恩爱如滨
美梦好酒尽在凌晨五点钟

凌晨五点钟
最美的时辰
雕琢了童年的回忆
嬉戏胶园许愿流星
聆听古老的圣音
凌晨五点钟
美梦编织的黄金时分
考试背书的辛酸时段
但
我就是爱它
凌晨五点钟

凌晨五点钟

2008-11-12T15:48:00.007+08:00

一堆一堆如山高的书布满了桌面
零乱的文具杂乱的纸张
时间一分一秒地飞逝
心脏随着嘀嗒声跳动着
此时此刻正是凌晨五点
还有六句钟就得应考了

翻阅着书本背诵着笔记
双眸凝视着笔录
脑子里反复地思考
一页又一页
单元接单元
专注反复地咀嚼要点

凌晨五点的上空
即寒冷即宁静
也很孤寂
人人都入眠了
唯独星星月亮
我与书本

一杯热腾腾的可可麦片
手里握着
温暖了心中的寒冷
充填了心中的寂寞
陪我度过五时的晨空
幸福漾溢着心里

幸福
没有外来的干扰
没有无谓的诱惑
没有多余的杂音
享受着
宇宙间的宁静
夜空里的灿烂
大地上的晨露
深深一呼
烦恼拋到九霄云后
深深一吸
好轻松好自在
人生真美真美呀

清真寺的晨唤
划破了夜间的孤单
远处传来的一道圣音
点缀了五时的晨空
鸟鸣声鸡啼声
忽忽悠悠伴随着

依旧
手里捧着笔记
埋头苦干地爬字
万籁俱寂的五时陪伴着我
这是一种幸福
一个我憧憬的生活
无忧即无虑
自我沉思自我取悦
好豪爽好豪放
大地的爱

凌晨五点钟
晨读不再沉闷
考试不再压力
我享受
享受
这样的考试生活
这是一种乐趣乎

BALANCE is the key!

2008-10-09T19:51:00.006+08:00

In reply to the comment on “Open-mindedness or to drop out”.

Thank for your advice. Appreciate that. However, what I meant for all this while is that apart from enhancing our grasp of Chinese language, which should not be a problem for Chinese-educated people, we should meanwhile learn to open our arms to receive new things from the world outside, including new languages and new cultures though they might sometimes seem to be contradicting with our own. (Receive doesn't mean accept in totality).

Experience told me that if we are too persisting in CHINESE alone, we'll then be struggling in this multiracial country, not because of the smattering of other languages but mostly it is due to the misunderstanding arising out from the different cultures and backgrounds, as we can't mingle well with the rest.

That's my intent to urge my Chinese-educated friends to get ready, or even to take proactive steps to get ourselves accustomed to new cultures, including, at the very least, those relating to English and Malays. And definitely it's of NO harm- as I mentioned earlier- it's not a zero sum game that when your understanding to Malay cultures is getting better, your love and faith towards Chinese will deteriorate.

To understand the ideas I canvassed better, it's advised that you should read my three previous blogs written in Chinese language, which are “文化冲击”，“太CHINESE了!”and “谢谢你，中文”。 "文化冲击”described how my life was, being too Chinese-oriented, in the circle of life in Malaysia (though the descriptions might be a bit exaggerated.)

In fact my love to CHINESE is immortal. This can be seen in two other blogs named “太CHINESE了!” (which expressed my disappointment towards those who both abhors and despises Chinese language and the likes) and “谢谢你，中文” (as depicting how my loves to Chinese was formed). After all Mandarin or Chinese is my mother tongue- the language which I used to speak, listen and write from the very moment I was born to this world.

But again, my emphasis is: BALANCE is the key!

The taste of the food is in its spices and the spice of life is in its VARIETY.

反思《钱不够用2》

2008-10-08T21:44:00.003+08:00

（I）
记得当初我养儿，我儿今又养孙儿
我儿饿我由他饿，莫叫孙子饿我儿
父母的伟大重如泰山
父母的恩惠情似深海
今生今世我们磨齿难忘

在医院里
我们总看见《孝顺的父母》很多
不分昼夜、无微不至地照料着子女
《孝顺的儿女》似乎且寥寥无几
病久床前无孝子
真是可怜天下父母心

（II）
没有水，鱼儿就不能游
没有太阳，月亮就不会亮
没有花香，就没有蝴蝶飞舞
没有蓝天，鸟儿就不会自由地飞翔

没有父母，哪来今天的我们？
没有父母，哪来今天的家庭温暖
没有父母，哪来今天的荣华富贵
没有父母，也许你我早已是个孤儿了

（III）
回家感觉真好
我的家就是我的城堡
每一砖一瓦用爱创造
家里人的微笑是我的财宝
等回家才知道自己真的很重要

如果双手能为家人而粗糙
那是多么荣耀、多么骄傲
您为我把饭烧，我为您打扫
啊！回家的感觉实在真的太好
哪，今天你回家探望父母了吗？

（改编于书籍、短讯、歌词）

Open-mindedness or to drop out!

2008-10-08T21:34:00.011+08:00

“一间房，两张床，两种语言，两个思想，两个不同的世界。
一个根，两个文化，多重冲击。”
“One Room, Two Beds, Two Languages, Two Thinking, Two Diverse Worlds;
One Root, Two Cultures with Multiple Crisscrosses”

IN summing up the three current blogs relating to Chinese language, I hold no hesitation to say that being a Malaysian Chinese I’m proud for being able to master my mother tongue since young.

In the first blog, it was mentioned that I preferred English and Bahasa than Mandarin in my secondary school, mostly because my command of Mandarin was rather poor as compared to other peers at the time and hence I never knew how to appreciate the latter. The scenario however was totally changed when I first stepped out from my hometown to further my study in PJ. My love and appreciation towards Mandarin were escalating when I was first assigned to tutor some students, including non-Chinese to learn elementary Mandarin and, worth to mention, I was really touched by their enthusiasm to stay back after school solely to brush up Mandarin; therefore, in comparison, I am really grateful as I was bestowed the opportunity to learn my mother tongue since young. In fact this wasn’t their fault either (for not learning Mandarin) because the final say was with their parents. From my observation, they really hoped to master the language, not of the rising powers and mounting influences of China in today’s world, but it is because Mandarin has become a common language among local Chinese community.

Be that as it may, as mentioned in the subsequent blogs entitled “Too Chinese!” and “Crashes between Cultures”, it’s to be reminded that we shouldn’t feel over-complacent by the fact that we know Mandarin. Because the reality is, at least in Malaysia, no matter how good your Mandarin and Bahasa is, English is still the most important and useful tool in our daily life. Be clear, I refer, not only to the language itself but also the 'cultures’ related to and derived from English, including the musics, movies, books and thinking. There are plenty of differences between Chinese-educated and English-educated people, albeit we all are Chinese, particularly in the ways how we perceive things, as we’ve been exposed to two different languages and cultures altogether, e.g. via newspapers and TV programmes, when we were still young.

In my opinion it’s really hard, or it might be a miracle, to require the English-educated’s to change; and hence WHY NOT we Chinese-educated people learn to get used to them, for engaging into their ways of life, learning English language and also other related cultures thereof, then only we’re able to be in the same wavelength with them and understand them better.

This HOWEVER doesn’t mean (emphasis added) we surrender to their superiority; instead we’re flexible and elastic that we can master, accept and embrace both the Chinese and English cultures with open arms. We cannot cope with these disparities arising from the crashes between two different influences UNLESS AND UNTIL we open up our mind to adopt new things, new cultures, new languages and new mindsets while at the same time we uphold our root, viz to learn Mandarin and preserve our culture. It’s accentuated that learning English and other cultures is not a zero-game that by learning and accepting them would dilute our Chineseness!!!

Open-mindedness is the key to success, so let’s us open up our mind, for not only reading Chinese books, watching Chinese movies, listening Chinese music, but also those of the ENGLISH and MALAY at the same time. Friends, we should not live under the cocoon of Chinese world only, too, we should widen our horizon to see and meet the world outside.

I’m now ‘struggling’ for that; or should I call it ‘striving’ instead? The process is never easy but we have to JiaYou (加油) & JiaBaJingr (加把劲儿).

Last word to mention, for my English-educated friends, you guys need to buck up as well because English is no longer the only passport or panacea in today’s flat world and in fact it’s never rugi to learn one more language and comprehend one more culture, particularly if it’s your root and origin.

And it’s inappropriate to name English-educated Chinese ‘Banana’ because some of them are not much less 'Chinese’ than us though they never learn Mandarin before; conversely some might be much ‘Chinese’ (than us) in term of preserving the traditions and cultures. Yet, I don’t deny there exist some who are much like an Englishman, apathy to their own root and origin. Nevertheless the fact is we all come from the same family though differ in some aspects of life, for which the derogatory metaphor ‘Banana’ should then be discarded.

文化的冲击

2008-10-01T00:45:00.006+08:00

虽然身上流溢着同样的血液，共享相同的饮食与生活习惯，同是龙的传人、炎黄子孙，但因生长于不同的家庭环境，接受不同的语文教育与文化熏陶，这激荡出了不同的思维方式，酝酿出不同的主见观念。这也就是中文与英文背景的文化冲击。

漫漫四年的大学生涯，首两年的室友为华校生，后两年为英校生。在生活上，大家依旧过着华人的生活习惯，享用同样的中华美食，庆祝相同的华人节庆，但思想的偏向与兴趣的倾向却截然不同。一个熟读孔子老子，一个热爱莎士比亚；一个观看中国中央电视台，一个收看美国有线电视新闻网；一个追捧港剧台戏，一个酷爱好莱坞剧作；一个阅读《神雕侠侣》，一个翻阅《Lord of the Rings》；一个心系祖国大陆，一个情怀欧美大国；两者间的切入点、分析角度迥然不同，相差十万八千里。

一个生活在英文社群的华校毕业生，好比离水的鱼，无法畅所欲言、自我伸展、自我发挥，英雄无用武之地，虎落平阳被犬欺似的。在这里，没人能了解中华文化的奥妙，没人能体悟象形文字的美，更没人能和你一唱一合，夫唱妻随似的。我高谈中国英雄人物，他独唱英美百年伟人；我弹琴论画，他独跳嘻哈；我高谈中国百年奥运，他论述中国人权、提倡抵制奥运；我谴责美国横行霸道、目中无人，他赞扬美国自由开放、人人平等。我独自追看《家好月圆》反刍《钱不够用2》，他独守电脑迷恋《Prison Break》享受《Mamma Mia》。一间房，两张床，两种语言，两个思想，两个不同的世界。我挺胸昂唱《我是中国人》，他耸肩甩臀《Touch My Body》哟！哟！哟！

一个根，两个文化，多重冲击。我坚信母语乃民族的灵魂，他且以自己流利的ABC为傲。当华校生遇见英校生，我们不再说自己熟悉的方言，讲自己的母语；反道之，英语成了我们的共同语言。

太CHINESE了！

2008-09-30T20:03:00.008+08:00

“太CHINESE了！”
此话飘过耳际时，你有何感觉呢？
是贬或是褒，大家心中有数。

华校生常被讥讽
用华语腔说国语
以方言调讲英语
S与Z，混淆不清
L与R，舌头结巴

更笑
咱们成天投诉
华校不够、师资不足、设备不全
老调重弹又重唱
脑子里老是华文教育
太CHINESE了

抗拒英语数理科
挺独中援白校
推动华教运动
维护中华文化
似乎等同
语言沙文主义
自我独化自我隔离
墨守陈规食古不化
太CHINESE了

终日
阅读华语报章
收听华语新闻
哼唱华语乐曲
观看华语电影
样样华语为主
实在太太CHINESE 了

这是马来西亚
不是中国大陆
政治人物常如此喝道
直指我们太CHINESE 了
妨碍各族交流
阻碍国民团结

原来这都是CHINESE惹的祸！

谢谢你，中文！

2008-09-30T04:20:00.003+08:00

记得小时，老师常说我的中文超烂的。更常自责：为何他人总能下笔如有神，自己却这么逊色呢？好无奈。。。。。。久而久之，对于中文，我更提不起根儿的兴趣了。UPSR与PMR考试，中文都是我的致命伤；我耿耿于怀，我讨厌中文，所以干脆就不读（中四的中文）了！况且很多人都是如此的，SPM 的中文太难了。我是这么想的。

庆幸的是，在老师与家人的鼓励下，我还是把中五的中文读完了！

我感恩，我感谢，自己曾受过１１年正统的中文教育；至少我能说，能读，也能写（中文），更能了解中华文化的精髓；如今还能以中文－自己的母语－写部落格。

2008年五月，自己的首个部落格诞生了。在这里，我能畅所欲言，抒发心情，表达阔论，好自由，好舒服也！我享受这样的生活，至少我能以文字记载自己的回忆，以文字抒发自己的情感，以文字让自己沉思，回想并探索自己心里深处的回音。。。。。。

中文，谢谢你；因为你，我开始了自我寻觅的旅程。。。。。。　

花儿的美

2008-09-25T16:04:00.010+08:00

花儿的美
非言语能形容也！
非笔墨能描述乎！

当它盛开时，
仿佛看见了新生命的诞辰
感应到新生命蓬勃的朝气

花儿散发出
闪闪亮丽的光辉
五彩缤纷的色彩
照射着大地的温床
射影出万物的灵气
衬托着自然界的美

蝴蝶旋绕着花儿
翩翩起舞採蜜筑屋
花粉儿。。。
随风飘撒随蝶散播
落地生根开枝散叶
朵朵盛开花香扑鼻

花儿与蝴蝶
天生为友
互助互补相依为命
为大地孕育出一代又一代的新希望
为自然界奉献出自己的绵力
成就世界的延续

Please leave us a school field!

2008-09-18T18:19:00.029+08:00

Again and again….. The tragedy never ends...

Fire station becomes used-car workshop, surau becomes car showroom and secondary school was turned into apartment complex… and… and untold land tragedies are lingering!

I feel very despair to learn that the previous Selangor government had arbitrarily converted public land into private commercial land. In fact what gets on my nerves is that ‘nepotism’ is the root cause of all! People were (and are) deprived of the right to enjoy the public amenities as a result of that unscrupulous uses of land and needless to say, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Recently in the same vein, sad to say, Pahang government had proposed to convert a public area which was supposed to be reserved as a school field for SJK(C) Triang 1 into blocks of new commercial buildings. Inevitably, such decision had triggered an overwhelming objection from the local community, to whom this public land should be made for the education purpose.

Since 2002 efforts had been put in to make that a reality and from time to time favourable promises had always been heard from the relevant authority. Yet, in 2008, the hope of the people was completely dashed and vanished when the state government decided to embark on a joint-venture commercial project with a private developer on that area.

A fray between the parties was sparked off and it became escalating when a peace demonstration was initiated to urge the government to review its decision. Unfortunately kung-fu show artistically took place when a gang of rogues (representing the developer) stepped in and disrupted the unarmed crowd with parang, rotan and baseball bats; and eventually being one of organizers, Ketua Kampung was assaulted by these barbarians, ironically inside the police station.

All in all, I’m wondering WHY? Why commercial development prevails against education? Again, this is the fault of NEPOTISM! It was said that (you can choose to disbelieve) the developer stands in a close relationship with Pahang Chief Minister. After all, being a considerate government, public interests (education) should not be sacrificed in the name of commercial development per se.

Apart from striving for maximum profits, the developer should not forget its social responsibility either; without the piece of land which is adjacent to the primary school the developer can still look for other suitable location elsewhere while this might not be possible for the school.

It is hoped that Pahang government would promptly call a halt to this commercial project and vouchsafe our children a green field. These pupils are our country’s future bones and pillars and they richly deserve a green lung to have a breath of fresh air.

“Please leave us a school field.” This is the voice of our children.

“SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT!”

哀莫大于心死。。。

2008-09-13T23:46:00.021+08:00

此时此刻的国家领袖

黑白不分，颠倒是非
抹煞人权，沾污道德准绳
搞得国家乌烟瘴气，愁云惨雾，藏垢纳污

助长马来回教极端主义
维护流氓土匪
封杀正义之士
赏罚不分
的确人神共愤

哀莫大于心死
朽木不可雕也
唯求一个全新的政府
为我们带来新希望
新未来！

我们需要新政府!!!

拉惹柏特拉、郭素沁、陈云清

2008年9月12日永远会记载您们对国家民主与自由的贡献

报纸与我

2008-09-13T02:48:00.007+08:00

报纸
曾是我的精神粮食
我的生活精神脊柱
没报日子是
多么的苦涩多么的纳闷
也许只有爱报人才能深深地体会

星洲日报我的挚爱我从小至大的依归
太阳报免费独立劲爆英文报的清流
南洋商报星报新海峡时报也各具特色
唯独马来前锋报
一个鼓吹种族主义令人发指的报章

每日我都得花上两小时
慢慢地咀嚼其内容
政治体育娱乐财经
逐一翻阅逐一分析
缺一不可
‘有杀过无放过’
哪怕考试时阅报始终不可免

报纸
增加了我的生活常识
增添了我的生活乐趣
给人心旷神怡的感觉
这叫我如何抗拒它呢

更笑不阅报人
无知不长进漠视时事
自己洋洋得意似的好了不起
然而如今
自己已不再热衷于阅报
没报的日子也不再苦恼

欺诈抢劫强奸谋杀
早已司空见惯
政治里的
尔虞我诈明争暗斗
马来回教极端主义
更令人
混淆头疼心碎
是非颠倒断章取义
诽谤诬赖阴谋
比比皆是
不看也罢！

负面新闻充斥了整个版面
荼毒大家的思想
影响大家的情绪
打击大家的信心
何必日日夜夜阅报
自讨苦吃呢？

不阅报
不是无知而是智慧
不是逃避而是选择
不是漠不关心而是极度关心
原来不阅报
也可以是这么轻松自在的!

编后记：
报章的水平正反映着国家整个社群的人文水平
检验着我国的教育素质，测量着我们的未来。
如果报业依旧无法摆脱政治的枷锁、种族的色彩
那我们的未来该何去何从呢？

MERDEKA!

2008-08-28T22:16:00.013+08:00

What’s the meaning of Merdeka (Independence)?

When the racist slurs, colour discriminations and religion suppressions are still rampant in Malaysia, I couldn’t see the point to celebrate the 51st Merdeka in this coming week.

The parade of people wearing the multi-racial costumes, dancing multi-cultural performances, singing multi-languages songs is just a mere ‘show’ to the foreigners that we are harmonious and united.

From the bottom of the heart
Are we united?

When the education system, economy policies and government regulations are still race-and-religion-orientated, please don’t ever proudly pronounce that we all are MALAYSIANS because not all Malaysians are being respected inasmuch as the minorities are always segregated and marginalized in all aspects of lives!

Education! WHY are there different education systems and examinations for different races?
Economy! WHY are the government tenders only reserved to a certain group of races?
Religion! WHY are other religions bound to succumb to one religion?

WHY? WHY? WHY?
Why do we still need to live under such a polarized society when it’s already 51st Merdeka?

MERDEKA
is not an independent Merdeka
if we are yet to free from racial segregation and religious discrimination!!!

累了，就歇吧！

2008-08-28T22:13:00.005+08:00

婆婆，您累了吗？
累了，就歇吧！

鸟儿翱翔上空飞久了就得停歇
汽车遨游天下开久了就得停驶
洋船乘风破浪航远了也得停泊
台钟嘀嗒作响也有停摆的一天

这些年来
您不辞劳苦地奉献
您用您的双手
一草一木一分一毫
默默地耕耘
默默地养儿育女
为陈家开枝散叶

您坚持
每日为我们打点三餐
您坚持
保持最传统的中华文化
您坚持
每逢佳节回家过节的礼俗
您的坚持我们的团圆
您的坚持我们的合融
大家同住在一个屋檐下

您是我们的支柱
大家心牵系着您
您的叮咛我们的慰问
您的笑容我们的欣慰
您的坚韧我们的楷模
您为我们打造了幸福美满的大家庭
您为我们付出了您的一生

75年的风风雨雨您走过了
75年的惊涛骇浪您划过了
75年的喜忧哀乐您尝尽了
婆婆，您累了吗？
累了，就歇吧！

前方的路
不再黯然无光
这一路上
明灯指引前方
菩萨加持护航
公公相护在旁
婆婆
我们祝福您
这一路上好走

孙（上）
2008年8月24日
早晨6时32分

You Are My Super Lady!

2008-08-10T18:50:00.009+08:00

婆婆
您近来还好吗？
自从开学以后
我就忙得没时间回家看望您了

最近
听说您的身体不适
腹部一直拉扯地疼痛
医生们都说这是无碍的
无碍！我们感到欣慰

辗辗转转了好些日子
您终于无法再承受了
8月3日您入院了
您挨了一刀 8月5日
在手术室外等候的我们
期盼着您的康复
婆婆！加油喔！

至今
您依然未离开过加护病房
身体状况
起起伏伏时好时坏未见起色
大家的心跳随着您的心脉在波动
时而喜悦时而忧愁
您的一举一动
牵动着大家的心绪
心连心
我们都是一家人

叔叔姑姑
不分昼夜轮流守护着您
照料着您
期盼着您的康复
一同回家共度今年的中秋

8月7日
我首次踏入了加护病房
望着病卧在床的您
我愣呆了！
我哑口无言！
眼前的您
脸颊深陷面容苍白
只能仗着仪器延续呼吸
病魔把您折腾得好苦好苦呀！

坚持
凭着意志力
您使劲一口一口地深呼吸
床后的仪器隆隆作响
随着您急促的呼吸跳动着
您挣扎着
您的嘴唇不停地颤抖着
您秉着坚韧不懈的精神
苦苦与病魔相搏　
您是我的SUPER LADY!

听见我的哝哝细语
您睁开了眼眸
您看见了我泪盈于睫
我知道您有说不尽的千言万语
我。。。我。。。　
我的心里好疼呀！
我该如何帮助您？
如何安抚您的心情呢？
好无奈。。。好彷徨无助　
抽抽噎噎
哽噎声荡漾着心田
谁能容忍如此的众生之苦呢？

婆婆
这75年来
不管外面风雨多大　您都安然度过了
不管命运如何坎坷　您依然屹立不倒
“You Are My Super Lady!”

我坚信
您必能早日康复
观世音菩萨必会佑护您
我们期盼再见到您昔日的微笑
一个温馨幸福的微笑
一个给人希望的微笑
婆婆　
加油喔！我们等着您

（2008年8月9日）

忙 + 盲 + 茫 = 亡

2008-07-26T02:42:00.021+08:00

忙
为何而忙
为谁而忙
功课朋友活动家人金钱
忙忙忙

无谓的忙　既是盲
因忙而忙　也是盲
毫无目标的忙
茫茫然然的忙
都是因忙所以而盲
盲盲盲

人生
为何总是为他人而忙
盲目跟随盲目服从
随波逐流
自己却盲忙

对于未来
不知为何而忙而盲
所以
茫无头绪　前途茫茫
忙盲茫

不用心而忙既是亡
不用观而盲所以亡
前途茫茫注定是亡
忙 + 盲 + 茫 = 亡

********************
人生短暂
为何我们总是得
活在他人的眼里？活在他人的背影？
跟随他人的步伐而前进？
跟随他人的安排而起舞？
自己内心的主见、意识、知觉
去了哪？

扪心自问
这是我们憧憬的生活吗？
为何总是得活在主流的圈子？
见风使舵随波逐流？
因而忙盲！

茫茫人生
我们才是自己的主人自己的决策者
时间的长短该由自己来决定
生活的细节该由自己来策划
生命是否精彩
权利落在咱们的手里
不要因为金钱而忙而盲忘了家人朋友
不要因为活动而忙而盲忽略功课学业
不要因为工作而忙而盲抛弃生活健康

人生
不知为何而忙而忙
好比茫茫大海中迷失的小船
好累好苦
心智焦脆
前途黯然
到头来也许一无所有
所以我们要做自己的主人
不要盲目地忙而盲忙

Cough-Fever-Flu

2008-07-18T18:44:00.006+08:00

Sick
I’m sick
Cough Fever Flu
All along with me for days
Still
I’m not recovered yet
Though medicine taken
***
It’s painful
It’s suffering
Not of the bitter pills
But
I’m
Physically exhausted
Mentally prostrated

***
No strength for work
No mood for play
Bouts of lethargy and depression
I’m listless
Lackadaisical for study
Though entangled with tutorials

***

那一夜，你走了！

2008-07-18T18:36:00.009+08:00

7月8日我的生日
7月10日你的忌日
我该高兴还是悲伤呢？
怎么当我还在庆生时
你却走了？

接到你的恶讯我愣呆了
我不知所措
我飞驰赶往医院
但你已不再微笑
眼眸不再朝我望
你走了走了

大家沉默在外等候
我走往舅母的身旁
她对我说
“威哲，你的二舅走了，他走了”
舅母哭了她哭了
我无言以对
我揉抱着她
她倚着我的肩旁又哭了
此时无声胜有声
体温是最好的关怀
言语不再重要

我眼红了我眼湿了
谁能容忍至亲离世？
看着舅母我心碎了
她彷徨无助
无语问苍天

阿姨姐姐也哭了
她们不知该如何转告乡亲父老们
这不叫她们太残忍了吗？

噩讯转开了

大家知晓了
唯独你的爸爸和妈妈
大家不忍心不忍心
白头人送黑头人
如何开得了口？

你的儿子挺住了
挺住了！
虽心如刀割
他们忍着悲痛
为你打理一切后事
虽年纪轻轻
他们很勇敢
他们很懂事
他们长大了
这是你的福气
二舅，你该感到欣慰！

今日的夜晚很冷！
今日的夜空不再灿烂
星星月亮不再闪烁
你离开了医院
回家了！
回家了！

一路上好走!二舅

2008-07-15T20:58:00.011+08:00

离离合合、合合离离
是人生必经的里程碑
哪怕你多么的不舍得
终究你得接受
无常的定律
生、老、病、死
的自然法则

生命的诞辰
是万物相继灯火的源头
生命的结束
只是娑婆世界的小总结
另一个世界的延续

你的心灵
早已归西方极乐净土所有
你的爱心
早已滋润了你所挚爱的人
你的功劳
早已回馈了整个社会
你用
你的一生
为这世界添上了色彩

谁说
平平淡淡的人生
是无价值的？
谁说
平平庸庸的人生
是空洞的？
谁说
只有大富大贵的人生
才是成功的典范？

人生
只要活得
开心、满足、自在
对得起天地良心
哪怕只有短暂的
四十八载
你的这一生也就没白兜了

你的毅力
早已战胜了病魔
你的坚持
让我们看到了曙光
你的笑容与开朗
更让我们感到窝心

中四那年
我携着背囊到外工作
落脚于你家
每每深夜十二时放工
你总会在客厅里阅报
似有似无地等着我归来
对于夜归人
这是一种
温暖与安慰一个安全感
你的关心与呵护
早已烙印在我的心坎里

对于家人
你更是百分百的
好儿子好丈夫好爸爸好舅舅
孝亲敬老扶老携幼
你样样都做到了
但
一声不哼就撒手人间
没有任何遗言
留下的只有
你年迈的父母
守护你的妻儿

以及
惦念你的兄弟姐妹和侄子外甥们

无论前方多么
崎岖不平荆棘载途
相信我们
从今以后
我们比谁都会更加爱护自己
阳光总在风雨后
柳暗花明又一村
你毋须为我们操心

晓来谁染霜林醉？总是离人泪
你这一路上再也
没有病魔没有灾难没有痛苦
西方极乐世界就在前方
安息吧！
我敬爱的二舅
一路上好走
我们祝福你

外甥
2008年7月11日（星期五）
凌晨1时45分

清明时。思故人

2008-06-02T22:43:00.018+08:00

(I)
清明时节雨纷纷　　路上行人欲断魂
借问酒家何处有？牧童遥指杏花村

小时
常闻这是冥人的共同忌日
天会下着绵绵细雨　微风轻轻拂着脸颊
墓旁生鬼火　　
在夜空中缓缓升起
夜人打着灯笼
闯墓探亲　探险　探胆
惊心动魄的清明故事娓娓道来。。。
既毛骨悚然　即趣味无穷
给清明增添了神秘的色彩

如今
清明已不再令人生畏
昔日阴森恐惧的面纱已不复在
公公离世后
清明已成了我家的年度旅游活动
一伙五十几人　　十部汽车
浩浩荡荡往墓山驶去。。。

(II)
1　2　3
你一张　我一叠
大家边看ASTRO　边折冥钱贴冥纸
十万　百万　千万
上亿的冥钱正一叠一叠地铸成
再添上一张MASTERCARD和CHEQUE
就万无一失了！
心里念的不就是九泉之下的公公吗？
安息　安心　享福　享乐
华人的孝义道义尽显在此中

北下　南上
大家回家了
回家看婆婆访亲人　
聚在厅里叙旧一番
你一句华语　
我一道福建乡音
大家
团团圆圆　合合融融
呵呵哈哈　喧三道四
客厅里好不热闹！
散发着一股温馨的家庭气息
婆婆的慈容更让我们感到欣慰

岁月划过了婆婆的青春
每道脸上的痕迹
正述说着她背后一段又一段的故事
含辛茹苦养育十一个儿女们的伟绩

墙边挂着
一副公公的图像
一个好像大伯公的遗容
永远在天堂守护着我们
他的笑容依旧清晰地烙印在我们的心坎里
阿公　　我们永远都会记得你的　　永远

小时
你常带我到对面的茶餐厅limteh
热腾腾的teh西盛上时
你总会帮我把关
把奶茶盛在小碟里
口往碟面　轻轻地吹一吹
热气消失了
才让我饮用
再来一片roti-gia和半熟蛋
你的贴心与用心
我是感受到的

大家
聚集在客厅里
依旧
说三道四　说长道短
说东道西　说黑道白
折着冥纸；
一叠一叠的冥钱纸币
一箱一箱的金银财宝
堆聚在客厅
原来
明天就是清明节了！

(III)
鸡啼声鸟鸣声
点缀着五时半的早晨
天刚破晓
晨曦徐徐升起
晨光熹微　　划破黑夜
阵阵凉风扑面而来
大伙人
眼眸半睁半拢地
撑着半眠半醒的身子
乘车开往墓山

今日的早晨
有别以往
嚷嚷往往的汽车
不约而同
往墓山匍匐前进

远处眺望
微微尘烟　　旋绕上空
早晨的墓山
早已万家灯明
闪烁在这常年阴沉沉的墓地
与昔日人烟稀少的常景迥然不同
标志着清明节的到来

半山
车停了一会儿
叔叔们往大伯公庙上香敬拜
答谢土地神灵常年守陵护墓
随即
洋车继续赶路了。。。

陵墓前
杂草丛生　　灰土层层
扫　扫　扫
洗　洗　洗
刷　刷　刷
铡草　洗地　粉刷
陵前墓后　
焕然一新
大家齐心扫墓去

水果　生菜　粽子
琳琅满目的贡祭品
拜祭孝敬在天之灵的公公
一根香
一个敬意　一个祈福　一个思念

大家就地而席
与公公一同享受美食
和谐　团圆　
温馨的家庭气氛
温润着大家的心扉
让人不禁深叹：
原来
知足就是常乐　团圆就是幸福
这是一个
别开生面　
独树一格的聚餐会

冥钱灵纸　点燃烧化
熏熏烟火　旋绕上升
弥漫着这早晨的清明上空
清明的陵墓
不再孤单寂寞　寂然无声
大人小孩的
欢笑声　吵嚷声　迭声四起
公公的微笑在天空俯视着我们
我们的心弦牢牢地惦念他老人

1　2　3　Konica
大家来张全家福
化　化　化
齐齐高举右手。。。
发　发　发
大家一起来化(发)财呀！
扫墓的同时　
也不忘生钱发财
典型的中华文化显露无遗
这是咱们家的自助旅游团
清明的一日游记

(IV)
毕之　打道回府
神坛上
蔬菜　生果　烧猪　白斩鸡
供奉众神灵　祖先　公公
即不是初一　
也非十五
原来
今天就是清明节

********************************
篇后记
对于现今的都市人
清明
也许只是个传统的节庆
或许也是个包袱、一个累赘
一个毫无意义的节日
总有人如此抱怨：
“为何得耗时回乡祭拜？回乡烧香扫墓？”
“人都不再了！何苦呢？”

是的
清明节
也许只是个传统节日
一个纯属祭拜的日子
一个耗时费力的日子
一个笃信神灵的日子

同时
清明节
也可以是个团圆聚集的日子
一个家庭成员叙旧的日子
一个联系你我感情的日子
一个回家探亲的日子
一个家庭旅游的日子
一个惦念故人的日子
一个孝亲敬老的日子
一个体现中华文化的日子

一个节庆的意义
不在于它的历史背景有多深远多伟大
而是
我们以什么样的心态
去了解去体验去珍惜
并履行它

醉翁之意不在酒
在乎山水之间也
清明的意义
不应只停留在烧香祭祖
我们更应
关心身旁的亲人
“多久我们没问候对方了”
“多久我们没谈笑风生了”
“多久我们没同桌进餐了”

清明节
可以墨守成规
也可以多姿多彩
你选着了哪个呢？

哦依哦。。。泰山波情裤！！！

2008-05-27T21:28:00.027+08:00

儿时，树是我的家
这棵茁壮茂密的树是我童年的游乐天堂
双脚踩在树枝上
赤着上身双手依着嘴边合拢
高吼着：哦依哦！泰山波情裤（没穿裤）。。。
吼声在上空回荡着
想像着自己是电影中的泰山
好不威风也！

没错
我就是村里的小泰山Tarzan！
威风凛凛八面玲珑呼风唤雨似的
时而穿梭在大树蹦蹦跳
时而在小溪里抓小鱼蟾蜍
时而爬上椰树变老膏(猴子)采椰子

儿时的时光是这么的
无忧无虑逍遥自在
哼着嚷嚷上口的童谣
“白浪涛涛我不怕掌起舵儿往前划
撒网下水把鱼打捕条大鱼笑哈哈”
“一根紫竹直苗苗送给宝宝做管箫”

悦耳的音乐在耳边回荡着
又勾起了幕幕的童年回忆
“拉拉拉历当Pong 出手指跳飞机捉迷藏
a, e, i, o, u 点指兵兵飞鞋 diang Guli(玻璃弹珠)
跳绳 masak-masak 单脚跳打陀螺玩风筝”
数之不尽的玩意儿。。。
每个游戏正述说着每一段
不同的故事不同的人物跨越不同的时光
编制着大家共同的集体回忆

风声雨声鸟鸣声
声声入耳
呐喊声欢呼声哭泣声
声声弥漫着上空
时而也来个打架鱼打架鸟豹虎相斗
时而也来个人兽大斗
好不乐乎！
泰山头上动土不知量力
鹅与狗曾是我的手下败将
但却被黑黄蜂蜇得蹦蹦跳
一处《斗兽棋》的游戏正实地地上演着

耸立的大树清晰的溪水
鸟儿的鸣声
池里鱼儿与蟾蜍的交响曲
点缀着这明媚的直凉村景
灿烂了我们朴实的童年

哦依哦！泰山波情裤。。。
顿时间划破了这宁静的小镇
孩儿们的欢笑声又此起彼落
这不就是我的童年吗？

*************************

篇后记

是呀，现在长大了！思想不再单纯，环境也不允许我们再懵懂。压力、责任接踵而来。。。金钱、学业、工作、感情、思想上的寄托。。。样样繁重的事务牵引我们步步远离童年的快乐；但欣慰的是这是一个永不磨灭的回忆，一个属于我们乡下的集体记忆，一个无人、无物能剥夺的专利。哪怕往后的日子再艰辛、崎岖，童年的回忆已深深地烙印在我们的心坎里，点缀了我们的生命，灿烂了我们的人生。至少我们比他人还幸运、幸福，拥有一个美好无缺的童年。。。我们不是很庆幸吧？

It shakes the world: Sichuan!

2008-05-27T20:25:00.009+08:00

The pictures have been flashing through my eyesight again. Buildings of schools had been ruined in vain; the cheers of joyful children have no longer been heard, nor their sounds of reading aloud. Substituted were the cries of desperate parents, spiralling in the air, touching the chord of our heart. Today no longer can they walk home together- as yet their love one are still underneath- the game of hide-and-seek is just started…

The darkness has never defeated the spirit of the children underneath. They sang the songs together, they motivated each others, and they made promises to be out altogether. Names were called from time to time to awake the others. Strength of determination had been generated for the survivorship… they believed every cloud must have a silver lining…

“Naughty boys, it shall be the time home. The game is ended. Dinner is ready…” Yet, after days and nights some are out and some are not; some are found intact, some are mutilated but most of them, have ever since never answered any calls by their parents and friends. Some are to hibernate on the ground for ever and ever. Rainbow does not necessarily appear after the pouring. Effort does not necessarily bear fruits. But we believe the seeds of LOVE have been planted in the heart of everyone. Desperation, grief and laments have been transformed into hope, strength and motivation heading for a better future.

Not only had the lands of Sichuan been convulsed the heart of mankind too had been trembled. The moving pictures flash through my mind again. This time it is with the overwhelming heroic stories: the catastrophe is ruthless but our heart is compassionate. Acted on instinct teachers and parents had sacrificed themselves to save the lives of the children- body as a shelter to protect the safety of the children- at the critical moment. “Baby, if you’re alive, remember mom always love you.” This phone message has been spread worldwide via the TV and internet- indicating how great and sacred the love of a mother is. Though hands were broken a 3-year old boy had arduously lifted his hand up to pay salute to the soldiers salvaging him from the ruins. Even dogs, had shown its mercy to save the life of a 60-year-old lady. They had accompanied the trapped lady for more than 196 hours until the rescuers came (who had discovered her following the direction of the barks). Surprisingly the lady was not the owner of the two dogs!

It is proven that men, by instinct, are mercy, compassionate and loving. Naturally, we care not only for ourselves but also the people around us, including a mere stranger. A natural disaster has united our hearts as one, fight tooth and nail to salvage the lives of others whom we do not even recognize; but why can’t we solve the (man-made) wars and terrorist attacks in a civilized manner? In a win-win situation? Where is our first instinct and consciousness when it comes to disputes? Has it been submerged by the self-interests? We can’t change the reality of natural disasters but manslaughter is within our control!

Let us pay homage and tribute to the victims and Samaritans in this earthquake. They will always be remembered both in the history and our hearts… “My friends, keep on walking, the light is just in front…”