Hope

Let us hope and pray for the peaceful public gathering that is going to be held this afternoon to go and end well and smoothly.

I am expecting that there will at least be miniature scale mayhem given the response from the police and the opposing bodies to the gathering, but I hope the rakyat will do all they could to ultimately keep their cools and put their focus on the solitary goal that brings them there at the Dataran Merdeka whilst giving little or no attention at all to attempted provocation.

We have lived to see too much errs and frauds in the country, let us hope that today will mark the beginning of the end of all this agony.

Remembering October 27, 1987

It is the time of the year again when all we need to do is sit back and recall the history. Look back at past mistakes, and see the path we have led ourselves to after the tragedy.

Twenty years back, on October 27, 1987, the nation was rocked by the second-largest ISA swoop in its history in a tragedy majority recall as Operasi Lalang. Some say it was a painful, unjust culmination for those merely asking for fairness. I do not think I have anything to say; I was not even born yet twenty years back. But it fails to stop from reminding me again of the draconian law still prevailing in our backyard, the ISA.

My genuine respect and admiration to all you survivors of Kamunting Detention Camp, whose willpower to continue to live far outweigh the hefty tribulations they had been through. They may have erred in the past, but the worse is for us to turn into a bunch of vain fellows who only choose see the downside of things, refusing to forgive and give those victims a second chance. To those who are still in, it is my fervent hope that their release is imminent.

Taking Inspiration From the Angkasawan

So it is now official: we have successfully sent a man to space. For a brief moment when the spacecraft was about to take-off, the whole nation united, gathering prayers and all to this new Malaysian hero who does not only put himself into another chapter of the nation’s grand history, but also orchestrates the notion of nothing is impossible and gives every reason to all of us to start believing. Never mind the political divides or differences in opinion that have long surmounted among the community, or the saga behind this space project or continuing qualms whether it is worth spending that amount of money just so we could ‘stand a few inches taller’ as quoted by our DPM; the main thing at this very moment is that everyone could not say a word of how proud they are for being the countrymen of Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, and Dr. Faiz for that matter.

Carving a new path in a totally unfamiliar field is never easy, especially when it deals with shouldering a country’s hope and pride. You fall, and the whole nation crumbles. To divert from normal, relatively easier lives they were living previously to a new one which offered nothing but uncertainty at the beginning meanwhile is not something everyone would be willing to do and requires the greatest of determination out of men. Yeah, some might put it down to passion- you have been dreaming it since childhood and when it really does come, things just clicked and went on from there smoothly- but passion alone without sheer willpower and never-say-die attitude carries men to nowhere. More than three years from the day the country was set abuzz by the announcement of this Angkasawan Project, and from then on lives have been all about hard work for these heroes of ours. For these reasons, I must say that both Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar and Dr Faiz deserve a bow low and high regard from the entire people of the nation.

Things will not stop right after this 8-day period when Dr. Muszaphar comes back proudly having staked the country’s name in the world’s eye; in fact it might be just a dawn of a new age ahead. The whole agenda does not only revolve around a three-year space project or joining the elite group of 32 countries with space experience or anything like that, but beyond that this episode serves to open up a new kind of possibility for all of us, especially the children. Those who have given up ambition to be an astronaut or any of its kind and have since replaced it with a more realistic one will now find a new reason to revive their original hope. Running on a parallel line, those fretting to venture into a new ground in life have now found a new source of inspiration as a result of this incredible space story. The road ahead may still be topsy-turvy, no easier, but with a reformed spirit and soul we believe that the only way to go is forward.

Borrowing a famous line from Neil Armstrong with a bit of alteration; ‘It is a small step for Dr. Shekih Muszaphar and Dr. Faiz, but a huge leap for Malaysians.’

Perjuangan Belum Selesai

Let us take one brief moment to give a halt to our festivity mood of the 50th Merdeka just for a little while, take a deep breath, and try to grasp the connotation brought by these verses word by word, and sentence by sentence;

“Perjuangan Belum Selesai”

Sesungguhnya tidak ada yang lebih menyayat hati
Dari melihat bangsaku dijajah
Tidak ada yang lebih menyedihkan
dari membiarkan bangsaku dihina
Air mata tiada ertinya
Sejarah silam tiada maknanya
Sekiranya bangsa tercinta terpinggir
Dipersenda dan dilupakan

Bukan kecil langkah wira bangsa
Para pejuang kemerdekaan
Bagi menegakkan kemuliaan
Dan darjat bangsa
Selangkah bererti mara
Mengharung sejuta dugaan
Biarkan bertatih
asalkan langkah itu yakin dan cermat
bagi memastikan negara
merdeka dan bangsa terpelihara
air mata sengsara
mengiringi setiap langkah bapa-bapa kita

Tugas kita bukan kecil
Kerana mengisi kemerdekaan
Rupanya lebih sukar dari bermandi
Keringat dan darah menuntutnya
Lagi pula apalah ertinya kemerdekaan
Kalau bangsaku asyik mengia
Dan menidakkan,
Mengangguk dan membenarkan,
Kerana sekalipun bangganya negara
kerana makmur dan mewahnya
bangsaku masih melata
dan meminta-minta di negaranya sendiri

Bukan kecil tugas kita
Meneruskan perjuangan kemerdekaan kita
Kerana rupanya selain memerdekakan,
Mengisi kemerdekaan jauh lebih sengsara

Bangsaku bukan kecil hati dan jiwanya
Bukankah sejak zaman berzaman
Mereka menjadi pelaut, pengembara
Malah penakluk terkemuka?
Bukankah mereka sudah mengembangkan sayap
Menjadi pedagang dan peniaga
Selain menjadi ulama dan ilmuwan terbilang
Bukankah bangsaku pernah mengharung
Samudera menjajah dunia yang tak dikenal
Bukankah mereka pernah menjadi
wira serantau
Yang tidak mengenal erti takut dan kematian

Tugas kita belum selesai rupanya
Bagi memartabat dan memuliakan bangsa
kerana hanya bangsa yang berjayaakan sentiasa dihormati
Rupanya masih jauh dan berliku jalan kita
Bukan sekadar memerdeka dan mengisinya
tetapi mengangkat darjat dan kemuliaan
buat selama-lamanya
Hari ini, jalan ini pasti semakin berliku
Kerana masa depan belum menjanjikan syurga
Bagi mereka yang lemah dan mudah kecewa

Perjuangan kita belum selesai
Kerana hanya yang cekal dan tabah
Dapat membina mercu tanda
Bangsanya yang berjaya.

- Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (Malam Puisi Utusan, 4 Mei
1996)

Get A Life NameWee!

This chap has certainly gone too far!

Freedom of speech never means you can simply insult other people’s race and religion. Surely there is a much better way to air out dissatisfaction. The fact that he posted this video while we are on the verge of celebrating our 50th year of nationhood really boils me.

Please, leave your comment on the video people if you really love our country, our religion. The bitter history of May 13 will definitely be repeated if we let things like this to go on.

To NameWee: Go get a life!

Politics and Sports Do Not Mix

It seems that after every round of flop in our sporting field, an immediate wave of change is sent in the hope of rectifying the root of the problem. Foreign coaches brought in, foreign coaches kicked out. We need you back, local experts. What happened to your team idiot? You, pack your stuff, out. Back off senior players, let us give this bunch of youths a chance to shine. And so on and so forth. The latest, which perhaps is the biggest, most shocking decision ever made in a decade, is shoving off political leaders from playing their hands in the managerial matters of sporting bodies. Quite obviously the idea was formulated in the wake of yet another disappointing slump of our national football in the recently concluded Asian Cup, with such a poor display that qualified us to be labeled as the only non-competitive team in the tournament by a prominent daily newspaper in Australia. The question being, why didn’t we show those sporting team managers cum political figures the exit door long, long before, before the little bruise that we had could turn into an incurable illness?

Malaysians from every part of generation have long questioned the credibility of these parliament dwellers in getting involved in our professional sporting bodies, let alone being the most influential figure in them. Apart from the suspicious lots who argue that these leaders are merely carrying political agendas in stepping up the managerial ladder of those bodies, the others who politely accept their integrity remain doubtful over their ability to bear the huge responsibility of leading a globally-acknowledged sporting body. Blame not the doubters, as we recognize the hard work needed in running such bodies which strive to continually produce top-notch athletes.

Recent headlines on this issue came as a laughing cause for me especially when you think about how easy those figures decided to pen down letters of resign upon listening to nationwide call for them to do so. From a logical point of view, I see that no one should be you willing to give off their top-notch position in those bodies if they love them so much, or if they are indeed committed in working with the sporting bodies. Because what happened is the opposite, my conclusion is pretty simple; they indeed did not enjoy being a member of such bodies let alone committing themselves in full swing, and perhaps it is not too much if I choose to concur with public view that says they indeed have unique agenda being in such position. Of course I am not aiming the whole bunch of those leaders by saying this. In every situation, I believe that there must be a good apple amongst the rotten ones. Unluckily the latter had gone overboard thus posing serious threat to the good few.

We cringed, cried in agony upon watching Hafiz Hashim fell shamefully in the hand of Lin Dan on the badminton arena. But little did we know that the Chinese fellow is a successful product of the system in China, where promising youths at the early age of eight, nine-year-old are brought into the sports school that exist in every province. I mean every province. Now, how big is China? We, on the other hand have only two nationwide. The similar case happened to Yao Ming, the first Chinese basketball player to shine in the NBA whose unusual height was traced two generations back, before he was even born. And we continue to wince when it was the football team’s turn to lose 1-5 to the mighty country. Of course the comparison I have made is unfair, but what I have in mind is that we need great people to come with this kind of idea in order to improve the quality of our sports. Like most of you, I believe that these people are definitely not politicians. Not intending to belittle them, but after all, what can you expect from a man who runs the floor of the parliament in the morning when what we are talking about is finding quality athletes? Quite simply the two cases do not run on a parallel ground.

Of course things are far from resolved even after those leaders give up their seats. The quest for success is not a short-term one; one cannot expect to shoot a bow and get immediate result. Act early, and make amend on things along the way. What we need right now is past athletes to come back and lead. In this matter, an article in The Star last week provided ample reasons and justifications why such step is deemed instrumental if we are to look forward for a brighter future of our sports scene, one of which includes a look at the international football governing body in FIFA which is piloted by none other than the game’s legends. On the local scene, the appointment of Marina Chin as the new head of Bukit Jalil Sports School is seen as an excellent early move to realize our dream, at least for me.

Plagiarising Samy

This is way too much.

We cast our votes, put our trust in them, and this is what they did to us. Just when we thought things would not go any worse, it does.

I do not know you guys, but only recently did I discover this daunting truth. Well, remember that I blogged about Samy Vellu’s tribute poem to Pak Lah in conjunction with the latter’s marriage sometime ago? The thing is that poem is a sheer work of plagiarism, full stop. Terrible, right? This was first revealed by Malaysiakini, from a letter sent by a reader which can be viewed here. I might be late in getting to know this, but hey, they always say that it is better late than never, and I guess to be an ignorant is as bad as not knowing it at all.

I remember as an 18-year-old learning how bad a crime plagiarism is in writing, and that we are so inclined to plagiarise sans proper guidance and knowledge. Nevertheless after awhile, once we get used to it, avoiding plagiarism comes naturally and in fact coming out with our own sentences word by word and not merely sticking with another person’s entire work is not that hard. This makes me wonder why in the first place our Samy Vellu did such a stupefyingly silly, shameful act. At the very least, he could always change the words from the original piece a little bit, and that is not difficult, is it?

Anyway, joke has it that at least he knows how to use a couple of functions on a PC; copy and paste. Come to think about it, I reckon it is not too much to wonder if all those paperwork on new highway plan or toll hike and all were also plagiarised, who knows?

Your New Source of Independent News

Are you looking for a neutral kind of arguments for the hotly-debated issues in the motherland, and found that those given by mainstream media are either limited or one-sided? Keen to listen to public reviews and open debates on those issues or any other daily occurrence in Malaysia? Or simply looking for a fresh reading material? Then MalaysiaToday is definitely your answer.

Some of you might already be familiar with this site, but for me it is kind of new. I found this site by accident while browsing through the net in search of some additional information on some public-eyed issue in the home country recently when I stumbled upon this blog, and have put it on my list of daily readings ever since. Dubbed as ‘your source of independent news’, at first I found it rather interesting that this site is single-handedly managed by a chap by the name of Raja Petra Kamaruddin. Much later I found out that he has some assistants helping him out. Other details of Raja Petra are still somewhat vague for me, but I learnt that he was once detained under ISA, while some of his previous works are quite prominent albeit a little confusing. Also, the fact that caught me by surprise is that Raja Petra is an old boy of my alma mater, MCKK though he went to Victoria Institution later in his secondary academic stage.

MalaysiaToday is not all about him though; in fact one part of the site deals with the collection of materials from around the blogosphere, where anyone’s article can be there. Now, this is why I told you this is an excellent, if not perfect place to seek for unbiased disputes on national issues. From Raja Petra’s writing, I can also tell that he is not a one-sided observer; most of the time he makes his stand on a certain point clear and the rest, it is up to the readers to judge. The appealing part is always at the end of each article, where the public is given a chance to throw in their opinions, which most of time concludes with raging, albeit controlled disagreements between the commenter. Apart from that, this site also consists of public columns by four independent writers, whose names are anonymous to many but in fact are big names in writing fields, including Raja Petra himself. Two out of four columns are written in Malay language for the record. On a more personal note, I found Hishamuddin Rais’ column on this site as a pleasant replacement to the one he also has in the Off the Edge magazine, which was made as my monthly reading back then in Malaysia. The only difference is that, he writes in English in that magazine.

So brush off the thought of sticking merely to the mainstream media, and instead get yourself updated with current news from the motherland from MalaysiaToday as well from now on. Just click on the image above, and immediately you will be brought to the new realm of independent news.

On Pak Lah's Marriage

This is interesting.

Fresh from being scolded to ‘stop blaming others, just do it,’ by the boss in the shape of Pak Lah, Samy Vellu, in the wake of public announcement of the boss getting married again, decided to write down a poem in tribute of him.

Merely a proof of loyalty, or another conspiracy theory?

Anyway, my genuine wish for a marriage made in heaven goes to the Mr. Prime Minister. In the words of Am, he is indeed ‘a man who needs someone to look after him’, so let us hope that his new partner will in a way help to lessen the burden in the size of a nation on his shoulder, and that the marriage will act as perfect thrust for him in running the country and bringing it to greater heights.

Media Disgrace

I was examining through stacks of articles on thecicak when I came across this one. It was not the whole story that bedazzled me, only a tiny part of it. Apparently, Malaysian media does it again. Exaggerating stories. The only thing that they are very good at. Remember kes parang, fellow budak koleq?

Media says..

“Bunyi tembakan begitu kuat dan bertalu-talu. Hujan peluru itu terlalu hampir dengan saya"

The actual victim says..

"'Hujan peluru' was nowhere near me"

That is certainly not all. Browse through the world wide web yourself for the whole story and you will see.

I am in no good shape to write, and the media frenzy was not the only thing that bothers me. Have a go at this other disturbing article from Malaysiakini, which I posted on on The Class of 2005's blog.

A Speaking Snapshot

Picture speaks a thousand words, so the saying goes. This picture I posted here definitely does! Some of you might have already recognized it; the snapshot was taken during the fracas-filled nomination day of Ijok by-election. And no I was not there, I stumbled upon the snapshot from a personal blog and simply decided to re-publish it here.

I must admit that I was not a fanatic follower of Malaysian politics, I like the idea of being a mere casual observant I guess, but somehow this Ijok by-election really catches my attention.

Do not get the wrong idea of me lining up in support of the opposition party by looking at this picture anyway. Again, I state here that I am only an observant. I judge this picture from a balanced perspective, that those people in the snapshot are human beings after all. Perhaps there were also some from the opposition party displaying the same shameful act that I simply missed out.

And yes, I stress it again. This kind of act is plain shameful.