Malaysia Rants

I'm kidding. Now we don't have racial violence in our country.

Everyone's living as one. The sun is shining. The people are frolicking around and skipping out for their lunches at some bistro or fast food joint.

Mixing and mingling without a worry or care.

DAP and UMNO didn't hold victory marches in Selangor, so everything's fine.

No more "Melayu balik kampung" being screamed in the streets, no more "Cina balik China" being yelled as well. Except in Parliament by Noh Omar last year.

When someone asks me what I know about May 13th, I tell them what I've come to understand from the many, many political books I've read. There's a mention in most of them, one being the memoirs of Tun Dr. Ismail.

If anything, 13th May 1969 in Malaysia is a bitter reminder that racism and race based political movements can and will lead to violence, especially if the economic gap between these races goes unattended.

Let's pray it does not happen once more. But then again, we now have HINDRAF bringing up the same agendas...

That is, after all, what Jeff Ooi is so pleased to mention in his blog. I mean, sure, if you can afford to pay a starting minister USD$1.27 million, surely he won't be corrupt any more.

If you can pay a Prime Minister USD$2.53 million, then it would obviously drive him into being impartial. Or would it?

What about nepotism and cronyism? Are these impeded by staunch capitalism?

I mean, think about it.

Our dearly beloved Prime Minister has a son-in-law working as a politician under his party. You don't think there's any favoritism whatsoever?

What about our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Lower Education being cousins? Don't think that they'd put both party's interests ahead of others?

We all know some government funds went to bail out a certain ex-Prime Minister's sons blunder during the 1998 recession period. We even know that the government had to buy back Pantai Holding shares from Singapore because a certain ex-Prime Minister's son sold them off, even when they were supposed to be maintained as a Bumiputera held company.

Blood is thicker than water, or in this case, the ink that's used to print paper.

And they're back at it again.

In today's The Star, page 12- PAS wants KL mayor to cancel Stefani's gig.

"This concert does no good to Malaysians except invite youngsters to enjoy themselves, mix around too freely, get drunk and commit sins", said Kamaruzaman Mohamad. Asked if he had seen any of her concerts, he said he had not, but had seen her pictures on the Internet and advertisements on television and they were indecent.

Dear Pas Youth Exco Members / Kamaruzaman Mohamad,
Yes, her outfits might seem 'indecent' to you, but look around you dear sir- out fellow muslims are far more 'indecent' then Gwen Stefani could be. Have you listened to her music? All her songs are pop, pure candy pop- nothing vulgar, offensive, nothing rude or crude, what so ever. Have you watched Akon dry humping a 14 year old on stage? Now he, my dear sir, should be banned, at least there's a basis to why he should. But Gwen Stefani? On what basis?

And another thing, the concert will be held in a brightly lit stadium, who the hell would get drunk or commit 'sins' in a damn stadium? Do you expect people to bring in whiskey and coke and sing along to 'Hollaback Girl'? Do you expect guys and girls to start stripping and fornacate on the stadium floors while "Rich Girls" play in the background?

How can you pass judgment and automatically want to ban something without even knowing what you're banning in the first place, and why?

The concert is on TUESDAY. TUESDAY, and they pull this bullshit on Saturday.

Bugger...there wasn't any summon tickets on the windscreen and i duly pay all parking tickets and they still send me 4 summons???

scam or what? MBPJ got to buck up! The change of Perbandaran to Bandaraya is nothing if they do not buck up!

Full details here

Was reading through The Weekend Paper about the bigger bookshops getting riled up that the hypermarkets are selling the new Harry Potter book for RM40 less, at an apparent loss.

One of the quotes I found highly hilarious was the one by a representitive from MPH Bookstores, saying that 'it isn't about the profit, it's about integrity, and the consumers will be dissapointed that such a work of art is sold cheap'. (or something along those lines, I can't quite recall).

Please lah. No consumer in his or her right mind would say no to a discount. I, for one, was more then willing to go to Carrefour to get my copy if that meant saving RM40- a pretty substantial amount of money for a person like me. A book is a book, it's not like the one being sold in the hypermarkets is printed on recycled newspaper or contained less pages, it's the same damn copy. So to those bigger shops, stop kidding yourselves when you say its about 'integrity' when everybody clearly knows it's all about profits in this business!

Fucking selfish people, all they care about is their profits- its nothing about the public and what they want, it's about them and their profits. Now they are claiming a 'boycott' as to not sell the books anymore, until the hypermarkets stop selling them cheap. So the hypermarkets are selling it cheaper, I say good on them, for cheapskates like me wouldn't mind saving RM40 anyday. 

Fans of Harry Potter would still buy the book- even if it's not RM69.90, so why are these big bookstores making such a big fuss anyway?

Indeed, thats the lesson learnt, that I've learnt as not to be so easily fooled. Its strange that we need something to 'happen' in order to learn from it. For those home owners or people who reside with their parents, always be aware of 'rogue' contractors who just claim to be doing something for the benefit of your home but ends up ripping you off.

A few weeks ago, the SYABAS (Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor) truck came to dig a hole under the front driveway tarmac. The objective is to repair a leakage of water pipes. It'll be another few weeks before the SYABAS people come back to retar the front driveway. Only just yesterday, I was disturbed from doing household chores when a group of 'contractors' claim that our house driveway needs to be retarred all for the cost of RM350 (pls confirm if THIS is the exact market price).

Without thinking too much, I agreed. A very dumb move actually, because;

1. I did not ascertain whether they WERE sent by SYABAS (you need proof of legalities such as warrants/service orders etc)
2. If they were sent by SYABAS, it would have contacted the house owners first before attempting such repairs.
3. I wasn't the true home owner.

I don't know what prompted me to agree. So lets just say that assumptions are very very dangerous when dealing with total strangers. Now before I go on, I shall be mentioning some racial stereotypes which might offend some people here, so please bear with me.

Mum came home shortly later as the work was carried out in the evening. After it was finished, the 'rogue contractors' whom are Indian promptly demanded RM350 for the work done. Mum thought that if it was work done by SYABAS it shouldn't be charged at all. Thats when I realised that these 'contractors' are not even connected to SYABAS at all.

Then came a climatic verbal stand off scene where the 'contractors' argued that upon the 'agreement' (to which I dumbly agreed to without proper proof) that they should be payed for the work they've done. Mum said fine, they have done the work already but without proper consent and no proper legalities; they are just looking for quick money at the expense of others. A verbal ping pong match ensues and Mum gave a good fight back (while I, meek with sheer guilt stood a distance away).

"Now you tell me that you've done this and you're not even from SYABAS without proper documents. Why should I pay you? But yes you've done the work already, I can't even say anything else. You think I don't know? You just want to make a quick buck!!"

"Come on Auntie, the work we've done is proper and upon agreement from this person here..."

*motions towards me*

"He doesn't know anything because he thought you're from SYABAS and also he is not even the true house owner, I am the one you should be dealing with"

"So now how? Payment must be given. So RM350."

"Nope, RM150 is all that I can give you. Besides the last person who did this a few months ago didn't do a good job and look at the state before, the tarmac has holes in it after a few thunderstorms"

"Are you sure is that all?"

"I'm very sure that RM150 is all that I have on me and nothing else"

"Like this, I'll settle for RM200, I have a mother who has recently passed away"

"With regards to your passed on ones, I understand but then again, you can say whatever you want. But still $50 more is like extortion"

*hands out RM150*

"The money is here. You want it or not? Otherwise, I'll just walk back inside and close the door without paying. If you're not happy and want to do 'something' to my house, I know it is already you. Otherwise, just take out the tarmac again as if you've never done anything at all"

*he promptly takes the money and walks off without a huff*

"Son, take down the registration number, this will be reported"

After they have left, Mum gave me an A-Bomb earful (which the entire neighbourhood would've well listened on to within 1km distance) on well....you know what is already bound to be said. Besides, it was full of Cantonese expletives so I won't go further.

But yeah, it truly made me look like a naive bitch. Lesson learnt. Hard.

So now I'm a lost soul, according to Dr. Nik Aziz, for not voting for PAS. Apparently, it is wrong not to vote for people who go around with a camcorder recording people who are making out.

Apparently, not voting for people who believe that Muslims shouldn't join in in wishing the other races and cultures in this country on their religious and cultural holidays makes you a lost soul.

Apparently, people who agree with the mufti of Perlis in the call to stop religious policing are also lost souls.

Do I have to make it clearer?

Dearest Dr. Nik Aziz,

I would vote for PAS if their members would stop trying to enforce the laws of one's religion unto a whole population. I would vote for PAS if their members weren't the ones who prayed that Hezbullah bullets would hit their targets, during Friday prayers! I would vote for PAS if they weren't the ones who harassed Malik Imtiaz Sarwar for doing his duty in arguing the case for Azalina @ Lina Joy.

I would've kept PAS in mind, but then you guys decided to hold a victory gathering when the verdict was announced in her case, and proclaimed that it was a victory for Islam.

How is it that you can call such a victory when you haven't even won her back, but instead have driven her further away?

How can you call yourselves open to non-Muslims, when your members cannot even wish them salam without almost choking on their words?

How can you call yourselves the rightful choice for a well-run federal government, when you can't even run one state?

How can you say that you respect women, but then allow one of your elected representatives to call divorced women "gatal"?!

So please. I may not be the most well read Islamic scholar, or a white-robed serban wearing individual, but I know this. The hypocrisy among your own ranks is what is stopping you from ever winning an election.

The fear you instill with the need to implement an Islamic state without giving the details of such to other races is what has been the cause of your losses, time and time again. The call for Muslims to vote for you or be branded as lost souls is just what we had expected from a group of conservatives who cannot open their hearts and minds to accept and embrace youths in their many different beliefs and cultures.

And for all of that, you will not have my vote. Even if my soul is lost to you, at least my conscience is clear.

I see schools not only as the place to educate students with the knowledge of the world, but also as the place that nurtures students to care for the world as well as care for others, regardless of income, race nor religion.

I see them as the ones to encourage a healthy lifestyle, to allow students to use their facilities, to maintain these facilities for future generations, and not simply let the roof leak, unlike our current elected national senators.

It is a place where the students learn what is accepted and not accepted in terms of speech in formal occasions, such as parliamentary proceedings,once again, unlike our some of our current elected national senators.

So inside this entry I post two letters. One for the teachers, and one for the students.

Dearest teachers,

Schools are neutral ground on the issues of religion, social issues and politics.

Therefore, teachers have no right to refer to students who choose not to wear a headscarf as a slut or a whore.

Schools are also not a place to distribute fliers for your tuition classes at RM60 a month.

Schools are definitely not the place for you to criticize your students on their stances concerning homosexuality, abortion, or anything else they believe in.

You may have a discussion on it, but you are not to simply call a student a monkey just because he believes in the theory of evolution. This is just as ridiculous as America viewing all Muslims as terrorists.

However, as educators, you are not there to be the judge, nor the jury, and never the executioner. You are to keep an open mind and an open heart in discussing the nature of these student's beliefs, and leave the question with an open end, letting the students contemplate the conclusion.

Do not be afraid to discuss current social issues with your students. With the world now at their fingertips through the electronic media as well as the newspapers, there are no longer excuses for students not to be informed of what is happening around them.

Teachers, please understand that the olden day belief of how students should respect teachers just because they are teachers are long gone. In today's world you have to have mutual respect between all of you. You have to fight to keep it every single day that you come into that front gate.

The students ability to have interest in schools are no longer as simple as they were before. Students of the current world can no longer put aside their lives at home and bring a separate person to school. Therefore, teachers should learn to see the personal problems that are now affecting the student's studies to their parents.

This may be a lot to ask from all of you, but this is the world as now, and this is what is expected to encourage the students to love knowledge, and not simply see it as a means to an end. That, is the teachers duty.

Dearest students,

Schools are a place for you to learn, not just the mental aspect, but also the physical, emotional and aptitude aspects of life.

It is a time to build new relationships with others who may be foreign to you, by finding things in common and accepting that which is not. Learn to respect those around you the way you wish them to respect you. It is not wrong to inquire about other's beliefs and cultures. However, it is wrong to tell them that what they believe in is wrong and ludicrous.

It is a place for you to learn the rights and wrongs which your parents, probably busy earning enough to send you to school, may have yet had the time to bring forward at the dinner table or on the weekends, which is perhaps the only time they get to see you.

It is a place for you to understand the basic knowledge of the affects of your actions and your lifestyle choices. Choices in issues such as sex and abortion, homosexuality, global warming, smoking, drinking, drugs and even parenthood.

What you throw into a drain today, could lead to a flooding of the neighborhood.

What you consider as safe sex using condoms, which are only 85 percent effective, could lead to an abortion, an early marriage, parents ostracized by the community, or even early parenthood.

It is a place for you to discover your potential and your interests, and to develop them. You may be the next Afdlin Shauki, or Mahathir Mohamad, or the next Rudy and JJ (even if I can't stand them myself), or the next Marina Mahathir.

The possibilities are endless and unique for each and every one of you. Therefore, use these teen years to discover and build up the basics of your future.

It's funny how we want to succeed as a country as equal to other asian countries, but we don't even address the small details. How do we succeed if we don't fix the smaller things or screw up on the bigger ones?

Everytime it rains, it floods. And it's not even progressive rain, slight drizzles and it's like Malaysia stops functioning. It's not enough that drains clog up and roads overflow with murky water, astro will then decide to stop functioning, and of course streamyx goes slow- itu pun if we're lucky it doesn't go off terus.

Geram!

As much as I love our Alternative Front, bringing up personal issues from the opponent's leaders which have no connection whatsoever in the administration of the country, or even the district, is uncalled for.

In this case, the PKR's insistence of bringing up the case of bringing up the case of Altantuya Sharibuu.

Altantuya Sharibuu was a Mongolian model who was murdered in Malaysia. The reason her case is considered a conspiracy is based on the way she was killed, in which she was murdered, a C4 explosive pack was shoved into her, and she was blown up to bits in the middle of an oil palm plantation.

What's even more interesting is the fact that 2 policemen were charged with her murder, and a close friend of our Deputy Prime Minister, Razak Baginda, was also charged for the murder.

During the court room drama that ensued, Razak Baginda testified that Altantuya was blackmailing him. Furthermore, during a court session, Razak Baginda's wife went hysterical and shouted that "her husband is a good man, and has no intentions of becoming Prime Minister".

Now, this put a lot of heat on our DPM, Najib Tun Razak.

Then came a conspiracy theory that Altantuya was the translator for our DPM to negotiate the purchase of submarines in France, and that she was blackmailing to release the information of the transaction. This is an alleged conspiracy, in which nothing has been proven.

And yet, the exiled leader of the PKR, finds this as his main agenda in the by election of Ijok, which made no sense to me.

There were so many other issues to bring up:

• The government has yet to discuss the calculation of the Bumiputera equity percentage, which they said they would reveal to the public and have yet to do so.
• The amount of money going into the compensation of the companies involved in the Customs complex in Johor. Who's paying it?
• Look into health, education, social ills in Ijok. These are all issues to be dealt with.
• Samy Vellu signing the toll concessionaire agreements which allowed for increases in toll rates.
• The stabilization of the current oil and diesel prices which have not been brought down, even after the price of petrol has gone down since then.
• The amount of money saved from the petrol subsidy was supposedly used for the improvement of public transportation. Has Ijok seen such improvements?
• Of the education and welfare amount dedicated from the government, has Ijok been given it's fair share of such?

There are a million and one issues to be brought up. I can see no reason why PKR went on a witch hunt to go and attack our DPM. It's ridiculous.

This is gonna be a very frank discussion over matters which are close to my heart. So, bigots, stay out.

It's funny how on the 26 May 2004, i've written about this issue of Racial Intergration before...looks and feel like dejavu...

That is an easy way for the DG of National Unity and Intergration Department to say, as i qoute from the newspaper:

"Most "probable" reason some teenagers did not have friends of different races because of the "enviroment they are in, especially in schools".

he also said:

" He said parents’ tendency to send their children to vernacular schools instead of national schools meant students lacked the opportunity to mingle and interact with their peers from other races. "

Read More Here

a few days ago i watched 'An Inconvenient Truth'. initially it was because i love Sugizo too much, he raved about it in his blog some half a year ago so the shallow me wanted to watch it for his sake. i totally forgot about it until i saw the advertisement on the newspaper right on its Malaysian release date on the 15th of March. why it came here so late? i don't know. another thing that baffles me is that only two cinemas are showing it; TGV KLCC and Cathay Cineplex in Damansara.

so what's the movie about anyway, and who's in it? well, it's about global warming, and the protagonist is... Al Gore! the movie centres on him giving a global warming show to an audience, also shown are clips of him travelling to all over the world to deliver the show, plus how he deals with the issue personally. his talk is funny and engaging and the facts are so true (he collects them from scientists) that we cannot deny that global warming is happening and we are the main cause of it. earth temperature rises because we increase the amount of carbon dioxide on the earth by burning fuels and clearings forests. the Katrina hurricane? heat wave? flood? melting glaciers? animal extinction? all these are because of global warming.

so how do we reduce global warming? for a start... recycle! personally, i'm ashamed 'cos i only recycle once in a while and refuse plastic bags while shopping whenever i can, but i never thought of doing anything else until i watched the movie! walk more, use energy efficient electrical appliances, use less hot water, plant a tree, etc... you can view all the actions you can take at http://www.climatecrisis.org. if we continue being ignorant and selfish, thinking that why should we recycle/ walk/etc when the others don't, we may lose the earth a lot faster than when it is supposed to (in the movie, less than 10 years from now). one more thing, forwarding messages that the last day of the earth a.k.a. kiamat is expected in a certain year etc etc does not help if you don't do anything to reduce global warming. our action may be small, but if we all do it together, we CAN reduce global warming.

so what started as a silly obsession with an artist turned into an awakening for me. i just want all of you who read this to think of what we've done to make the earth a better living place. most of my friends are Muslims. i am a Muslim. we are commanded by Allah to be the khalifah on the earth and preserve it, but do we really care about the earth? Mr Gore may be hated by Malaysians for his derogatory speech here back then, but that does not stop him from being an environmentalist, he knows he has a duty as a human being and he fulfills it. imo, no one has to be religious to be a good human, and vice versa. think for yourself. again, log on to http://www.climatecrisis.com and join the virtual global warming march at http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/.

At around 3am I was driving at the highway from Hartamas towards the LDP. Mind you, my car was fast enough to be at the slow lane of the highway. The drive was really relaxing till this fast and furious driver decided to show up.

This waja suddenly turned behind me going God knows how many km/perhour. If there was a slower lane- trust me- it would have been my pick of the hour. Sure I would have gone to the middle lane if the the distance between my car and the car ahead were not too close. 

But ofcourse the fast and the furious waja did his stunts by cutting into the middle lane (therefore the waja was beside me) and then decided to cut into my lane while my car was beside it. Yes, I jam break on time with not only using breaks but hand breaks. The car in the middle lane was too shock that it honk at the car that was behind and then at the side of it.

To add more to the stunt the waja too had to sudden break- which ended up with a few screeching tyres from other cars behind it (including me) hoping we wont end up sardined.  And all that because it wanted to park its car infront of an immobile tow car at the side of the road. 

I flicked my finger when I passed the waja only to find out it was a police car. Like how could I not know? Easy. It didn't use the siren- neither did it go through the EMPTY (fast) right lane. 

And if he was a bloody rempit doing the stunts he did- I evilly would just drive him flat on the road rather than having my life killed over a low life cop.

the caption, "berkhidmat untuk negara" is way off the list it sounds more like, "berkhidmat seperti rempit".

I feel like telling the police man, "Kalau itu bukan rempit tapi anak haram.. What does that makes you?" 

My mother and I went shopping last night in a departmental store.

We headed towards the winter clothing section, to look for a nice parka for me. We saw a couple that we liked, so I grabbed one and tried it on, while my mother was holding the other one.

Okay before I go on, you have to know that I'm a Malay-looking Malay-Chinese, albeit a 'banana', while my mother's Malay (but she speaks and understands Hokkien and Mandarin). All the store assistants were Chinese.

The winter section was deserted, and we were the only customers browsing through the area, but I was puzzled because none of the four assistants approached us. They were speaking amongst themselves, and the next thing I knew, my mum was furiously telling them off.

Turns out that they were saying something like "Oh, look, look, they took two! They'll definitely make a purchase (laughs) good.. we don't need to work so hard already"

What the hell? What kind of attitude is that? Just because we looked highly interested in the items, and looked ready to buy them doesnt mean that they should stop serving us customers...Wait, not stop serving, more like not bothering to at ALL.
It's not like the place was PACKED with customers anyway, that they're SOOOOOOOO overworked...heck, they were just lazing around, chatting with each other...

Such lazy cretins!

My friend had a very stressful day and all she wanted to do was just chill in the car and have some solitude. So she illegelally parked her car at the road side. Both of us start igniting our ciggarrates when two policemen caught us in the act and questioned us what we were doing inside.

And then they wanted to see the contents in our bags. My friend passed her bag to the policeman to dig in. He found a tampon in her bag. Astonishedly, he held the tampon at the torchlight.

Policeman: Apa bende ni? (What is this?)
My friend: Tampon la.
Policeman: Tampon tuh apa bende? (What is a tampon?) *Still holding on it*
My friend:  bwahahahahahaha
Me: Perempuan ada haid, guna tampon la bang..  (girls who have menstruation uses tampon la)
Policeman: Hah!! keciknya!! (Hah!! So small!!) *and drops it on the car disgustedly*

Anyways, the policemen informed my friend and I that for aslong as the driver isn't holding any Malaysian or International Driving license- they are not allowed to drive. Plus we pay monthly license for rm30+ for a year... yet the non-malaysians pays way less than us for a way longer term. NOT FAIR!!

"Islam is the official religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation."

The time for Onn Jaafar’s idea has come

When it comes to ideas based on politics, I can't blame the press for being late. Especially when it involves the ruling coalition and the fact that all mainstream newspapers are owned by the government.

Freedom of the press? What the hell is that?

The idea brought forth by Onn Jaafar, grandfather of the keris weilding nutcase known as Hishamuddin Hussein, was the unification of all races under one party, instead of a coalition. I'm sure most of us must have thought along the lines of "that's a great idea" or "wow! that's something we should consider".

But this was far from what the Malays did. They stood along the lines of

"Why should we fight for the Chinese/Indians? Fuck you!"

So Onn Jaafar left and started a multi-racial party, that failed because, well, Malaysians were racists back then. Back then refers to 1951. We achieved our independence in 1957.

This year, Malaysia is about to reach it's 50th Anniversary as a nation.

Yet, the nation is more divided along the lines of race as it was when I was 13, and the people are all unhappy because of issues mainly along the lines of government policies on race, religion, education and economics.

Happy 50th year of Independence from the British, Malaysia. So, when exactly will we be free of bias and prejudice based on rank, race and religion?

Branding our youth with this apathy label because they don’t get actively involved in politics or social issues is no different then calling all of them slackers for earning a low pay or posers for enjoying both indie and pop music at the same time. It’s ridiculous and it has to stop right now.

Just because today’s youth do not go out marching on the street, carrying pickets or banners and burning flags does not show apathy. Personally, it shows me that the youth are actually smart enough not to want a file on their lives opened by our country’s Special Branch. Plus, it shows that they know there are alternative routes to the road of making a difference in the world.