Category: Malay

Malay Businesses are doing Far Better Than The Chinese

I just got back from my home state Kedah. Over the weekend we went up north to my second wife’s hometown in Alor Setar and Jitra. With MCO and whatnot, it’s been a while since we were back in Kedah.

An amazing photo of Jalan Raja Post Office in Alor Setar. Just a 5-minute walk from Pekan Rabu.

Growing up in Sungai Petani in the 80s and 90s, you get to see Penang progressed from where they were to northern economic powerhouse.

Of course growing up in the good old Kedah with 76% of the population are of rural Malays, spending more than a decade in government school with 90% of my friends being Malays, one tend to filter one’s view through a kinda racially-driven lens.

Growing up, we were made to believe that the Chinese took all the lands, buildings and whatnot in Penang and drove the Malays out of Tanjung, towards Balik Pulau. The Malays sold their lands to the Chinese as the Chinese made them an offer they can’t refuse.

I remember back in the day, I asked some of the elders around me, how come the Chinese can afford to offer the Malays that much money for their land?

The answer was simple, “Depa kapiaq takdak agama, depa menega boleh menipu. Kita Islam tak boleh menipu. Depa boleh rasuah sini sana, kita tak boleh. Sebab tu depa kaya pastu beli abih semua.”. Loosely translated to, “They (The Chinese) don’t believe in Islam so they can lie and cheat in doing business. We Muslims can’t lie and cheat. They can bribe here and there, we can’t. That’s how they get to be so rich and bought everything up.”

“Depa kapiaq takdak agama, depa menega boleh menipu. Kita Islam tak boleh menipu. Depa boleh rasuah sini sana, kita tak boleh. Sebab tu depa kaya, pastu beli abih semua”

I believed we Malays have caught up to the Chinese. We are now as good as them if not better, than the Chinese when it comes to running a business. Don’t believe me? Let me share with you some of the amazing success stories I’ve read in the news lately.

A business with people at the heart of it.

Let’s start with the proud folks from down south. Knowing that Malaysia is growing rapidly and in need of cheap labours, several high ranking government officials and high ranking uniformed officials banded together and started a business to smuggle Indonesian migrant. These astonishingly innovative businessmen and businesswomen are of course all Malays. Chief among them is the Asst’ Director of Immigration Department, a Malay lady, her right hand man, a Malay; Construction worker, a Malay as well; ferry ticket agent, also a Malay; and a security guard, you guessed it right, a Malay as well.

The poor Myanmar refugees can’t pay to be smuggled in so these Malay businesspersons, can’t make money that way. Hence they don’t really care about the Myanmar refugees lah. But the Indonesian can pay them good money, so they smuggled them in by the truckloads. These people smuggled into the country definitely helped the economy to grow. How else would we build the roads, houses and buildings? Of course they are taking valuable jobs for Malaysians in the country but the we the Malays make money in smuggling them so it’s okay lah. With the Myanmar, we can’t make any money. So this is better lah.

I’m pretty proud of them, they have successfully helped to grow Johor and supported the businesses there with cheap foreign labour by smuggling human beings into our country. This really is an import export enterprise here. Importing and exporting people that is.

Hidup Melayu! Long Live Malays!

A business with our children at the heart of it.

The second case, is close to all our hearts. It involves our kids and our schools. The schools has always been a Malay friendly industry. Canteen provider are mostly Malays. Security guard suppliers, Malays. Stationeries, Malays. Teachers, mostly Malays, Headmasters/Mistress, Malays. Officers in PPD and Ministry, mostly Malays as well.

So when I read in the papers that ‘Boarding schools supplied with food items past expiry dates, no expiry dates, no halal certification, non approved food supplies, dirty kitchen based on the recent Auditor General report’, I can only imagine that our Malay teachers, headmasters, assistant headmasters at government religious schools, technical, vocational, residential schools are doing a mighty fine job in inspecting and supervising the kitchen, stocks and purchasing from great suppliers. Let’s list down some of the innovations introduced by these contractors and school administrators that have catapulted the Malays to the forefront:

  1. 30% of the schools have expired food items more than 1.5 years past.
  2. 71% of the schools have food items that’s not certified halal by JAKIM.
  3. 55% of the schools have unapproved brand of food items.
  4. 21% of the schools have expired food items more than 1.5 years past.
  5. 30% of the schools have dirty kitchens.
Just a photo of a nicely cooked and arranged food in a canteen. Definitely not a photo of the non-halal certified, expired and non-approved food cooked in dirty kitchens.

And the suppliers to these government religious schools, boarding schools and other schools are mostly Malays as well. So these Malays business man are definitely upping the game to be on the same level as the cheating and lying Chinese businessman who aren’t Muslims. I’m incredibly proud of my Malay brethren here.

Especially when these brethren of mine are teachers and headmasters/headmistress and school administrators. Kudos to the Malay suppliers as well. They definitely got the contract after dealing the said Malay Headmasters, Teachers, PPD and Ministry Officers and probably a few Division Heads of a certain political party. They are definitely people with super strong fibre optics cables. They are not people like you and me ladies and gentlemen. They are folks with connections to those in power.

In any case, they are really doing a mighty find job of educating our kids on the way to run an enterprise and get rich faster. May our brights kids who are eating non-halal certified, non approved and expired food cooked in dirty kitchen get all the blessings and barakah from the teachers and school administrators.

Hidup Melayu! Long live Malays!

A business that is definitely made in heaven up above.

The last one is the most successful of the three examples I’m sharing. It is none other than the business ran by our Mama-san. The business of “makan atas angin” or “Ali baba”. This is where the Malays excel way better than the Chinese. In fact, it’s probably the only industry where 100% of ownership of all “makan atas angin” businesses belong to the Malays.

Based on the ongoing trial involving the ever lovely Kak Mah, the court was told that Kak Mah “makan atas angin” RM5,000,000, while her aide RM500,000 for helping a company secured a RM1.25 billion diesel solar hybrid project. Court was also told that the company has been paid RM63 million in July 2017 to start the project but nothing had been done since then.

A Malay consultant between Kak Mah and the company also “makan atas angin” RM1,000,000. He was promised another RM10,000,000 by the company director (Saudi Abang Samsurijal, Malay?). Court was also told that, Kak Mah demanded 15% or RM187,500,000 worth of “makanan atas angin” to help the company secure the project to supply solar hybrid energy to 369 schools (Awwww, it’s for the lovely schools AGAIN. They really do love schools) in Sarawak. Then the aide to Kak Mah, an amazingly talented business negotiator named Rizal, also demanded more “makanan atas angin” of RM 25,000,000 in instalments of RM5,000,00 a year, over 5 years.

These are some incredible state-of-the-art business deal techniques employed by Mama-san and Co. Great negotiation skills to get better deals, even Trump who wrote the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal”, could not have closed the deal the same way Mama-San, the aide and the consultant did.

Not only do these towering Malays did better than the Chinese, they did better than Trump!

Back in the 50s, P. Ramlee has us in stitches with the famous scene below:

Now Kak Mah gave us the sequel,

  • RM5,000,000 untuk aku
  • RM500,000 untuk engkau
  • RM63,000,000 untuk engkau dan tak payah buat apa-apa
  • RM1,000,000 aku terima
  • RM10,000,000 engkau janji
  • RM5,000,000 engkau bayar dulu
  • RM500,000 aku bagi dulu
  • 15% atau RM187.5 million aku mintak
  • RM25,000,000 engkau mintak
  • Nah beg penuh dengan RM1,500,000 untuk engkau
  • Nah rasuah untuk aku RM5,000,000
  • Amik ni 10-15% bayaran untuk engkau
  • Eh…“Actually it is a commission but it is not nice to say that…” untuk aku
  • Eh…“Actually it is a commission but it is not nice to say that…” untuk engkau

If it’s not commission, it’s political donation. Donation for what? Untuk kerajaan isle la.

Hidup Melayu! Long live Malays.

The Malay businesses have progressed to a new level that has far surpassed the Chinese. Not just the Chinese but the west and Jews themselves can’t do things like these. This is the art of the deal! I’m incredibly proud to be a Malay.

Peace be unto all.

To Continue the Fight or Put Nation’s Interest Above All Else?

I was driving home from our escapades to the countryside farm together with my better half’s school mates. Their group of probably around 10 close-knit friends since they were teenagers. The almost always have two gatherings a year, one during Hari Raya and another to spend the night somewhere talking about the good old days. Although they are friends of my better half, they have been so nice to me that they have included me in their group to talk about stuff. Throughout the years, it now felt like I was there in the same school with them back in the 90’s.

Among the group, we have one guy whom I actually have little respect back in the day (him as a politician) but now have enormous respect. As a friend, he’s the best you want to have around. Funny as hell, love to feed his friends with great food, love to gossip about old friends, always there if you need help, and never stingy when it comes to money. A great guy all around. Currently he’s a staunch supporter and is a personal aide of one of the President of a party in PH.

That Sunday morning was a power breakfast morning. We exchanged stories about the going on in PH. Stories from a few months ago, stories of what happened during the eventful PH Presidents Council Meeting where everybody came out agreeing that it’s up to Dr. Mahathir to decide when to step down as PM. The meeting was said to be a very very hot meeting. It was hot because of the pressure within PKR for Dr. Mahathir to step down and Bersatu being defensive about it. Stories from PH President Council meeting where Dr. Mahathir did not attend and they decided to have Anwar as PM. Stories when Dr. M again became PH choice of PM. Stories of how Muhyiddin and co orchestrated the play between PH parties. Fascinating stuff indeed. We all agreed that, if it’s not because of Bersatu and PKR camp just can’t seem to agree when Dr. M should step down, all of these could’ve been avoided, among other things lah.

My friend agreed that both sides were not of their right mind. The other parties in the coalition realised it as well. But politicians being politicians, they will still fight about it. True indeed, that I agree with him. They won’t be politicians if they aren’t fighting for power.

We can’t deny that there is still bad blood between Dr. Mahathir and Anwar camps dated since 1998, much more between the two gentlemen themselves. I personally am happy to see them reconcile their differences and can only hope they will really let bygones be bygones. But one can only hope. Deep down, both my friend and I agreed that there will forever be bad blood between them.

So where do I stand? he asked. I told him, I’m torn. On one had I feel PH needs to fight one last time when Parliament reconvened. PH have fought too hard to back down now. There are still a lot of things to be done and reforms made. Get enough numbers and motion for parliament to decide the next PM based on numbers of MP supporting the current PM. This is the easier way for PH to be the government again. PH already have 92, add Dr Mahathir, Warisan+Upko and lost Bersatu lot (Saddiq, Maszlee and etc), that’s 108. Just another 4-5 seats to close the deal. It’s the easiest way to win without a doubt.

If PH goes for snap election, PH would lose in a big way. I told him, the typical Malay folks would vote for PN in a heartbeat. Why? For Abata lah. That will be the raison d’etre for the typical Malays. Even now these Malay folks are jumping with joy since the two biggest Malay-based party joined ranks. Do you think by simply branding them “pengkhianat” will win them support? The typical Rakyat don’t see the party hoppers betraying their wish, they see it as the Malays coming together. They see two biggest Malay based parties who have been at war with each other for a long, long time, working together again for a better Malaysia. The typical Rakyat don’t see them betraying the people’s mandate because the mandate has always been for a better Malaysia and Islam. This may not necessarily how I see it, but it’s definitely how a typical Malay is seeing it. So yeah, if PH goes for snap election, PH would lose in a big way.

My barometer is simple, let’s look at some hard data, and some soft data. Hard data would be the results recent by elections. Let’s just take 2019 onwards. There has been 6 by-elections from 2019 onward. Four Parliament seats and two state seats. Of these six, PH lost five of them. Two of the lost seats were actually PH seats. These hard uncontestable data shows that PH is on a losing streak. PH were the government of the day. Promised millions of development projects for the constituencies and yet PH still lost 5 of these seats. People hate PH that much.

Tanjung Piai by election.

Soft data is easier. Look at social media timelines and WhatsApp group chatter. There are way too many talks of people hating PH and whatever it is that PH do. This is way different that the euphoria of 2018 where there were so many praise coming through the timelines. Remember Tabung Harapan? People actually give politicians money. Yeah, now you see it right? I will not get into the why because that’s for PH to find out and fix. They can read my previous posting if they need some pointers where to start looking.

So, to me, if PH wants to get the PM position and cabinet back, the best way to go is to get a vote of no confidence going in Parliament.

That’s on one hand. But I’m torn, remember?

On the other hand, this will put the country back into a state of disarray. We will then have another round of drama, u-turn, back stabbing and frog-hopping. More money and promises will be dished out and more under the table dealings will be dealt. This is so that they can secure the number of seats required. And it’s all to get that PM and cabinet power in their hands. This will happen in both camps.

The stock markets and economy will once again plunge into the abyss. Oil prices have already hit rock bottom with the largest one-day percentage decline since 1991. Ours is an oil-based economy, where some 30% of government revenue are oil related. A 25% reduction in oil prices means government may not have a huge chunk of that 30% revenue anymore. Coupled with our declining export in Palm Oil, which saw a 42% decline in palm oil shipment export values over the last five years, and of course the impact of Covid-19 across the world economy. We are in no position to be have our politicians fighting each other and forgetting about the nation and the impending multitude of issues.

Being different is beautiful.

We also have lots of local problems, we still have race relation issues to fix. There has been way too many Malay vs Chinese, India vs Malay, Semenanjung vs Sabah/Sarawak, Islam vs Non-muslims situations. Even within Islam, Sunni vs Syiah, Wahabbi vs whatever that is not Wahabbi and so many other. I don’t have to link them. I would hate myself for linking them.

Is another power struggle the answer? That is why I’m torn. That was why I stated in my last posting that these leaders need to put away their differences and find a workable solution. I meant Unity government. Work together to solve immediate problems. It’s not that hard.

Should we have another power tussle? Is this the best for the country at the moment?

Thank god I’m not a politician. I don’t have to burden myself with these decisions. However, we can’t really trust the politicians to make decisions that will put the country first and foremost right? They always put themselves first right? Quite a conundrum we are in.

I’ll leave you guys there. Think hard and then tell your representative what you think they should do. Think really hard.

A friend once told me, “Politik ni kena tamak dan gamak” (In politics, we must be greedy and have what it takes to do something that might be bad). Another good friend (which I really need to connect back with) told me this saying from China “If you wait by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemies come floating down”.

Peace be unto all.

Oh Royalties, Politicians, Religions and Racist Parasite; Where the Bull ‘Art’ Thou?

Editors Note: It’s a long one this round. Please bear with me.

We all know by now that for the first time in Academy Award History, a non English movie won the most coveted award Best Picture. Not only that, it won arguably second most coveted award Best Direction as well. Altogether, it won 4 Oscars (the physical award itself, the gold bald standing guy, is nicknamed Oscar) including Best International Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

It also won Golden Globe Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language award, BAFTA Best Screenplay (Original) and Best Film Not in the English Language, SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement and many more awards from the world’s film industry. To date, the total awards have reached 202 Awards in various categories. It’s such an achievement.

Bong Jun Ho with his Oscars.

Personally, I love Parasite. I’ve watched 7 out of the 9 nominations for Best Picture and in my non-academic and non-expert opinion, it deserves the Award. They are all great films but Parasite is indeed on top of the heap.

Not everybody agrees with Parasite being a great movie though. Flipping through social media timelines and talking to friends, many believed 1917, Joker, Marriage Story or the Irishman should’ve won instead. Many saw Parasite as something you can get easily on TV3’s Cerekarama slot. Not even good enough for a proper film. Just a telemovie.

I don’t know much about Malaysian movies to be completely honest. I do however have a few favourite Malaysian Directors. They are P. Ramlee, Mamat Khalid, Yasmin Ahmad and Aziz M. Osman. That’s all I will say about Malaysian film industry.

This creation of Mamat Khalid really hit me hard. I love it so much.

The Politics Surrounding Our Arts

On the politics surrounding our art however, I have much to say. Let’s start with the big elephant in the room. Censorship. This has been the bane of art and freedom of expression in Malaysia since forever. I still remember in my younger days when Malaysian can no longer appreciate ghost movies just because someone in FINAS/Jakim/Cabinet believed watching ghost movies can somehow cause Muslim’s to distort their belief in God. This is a load of bulls

I’m sure those who lived through the 80’s and 90’s remember the time when we can no longer enjoy those great Chinese ghost movies from the 80s. I was too young to understand politics back then but to have ghosts stories banned is still something that I feel was unwarranted.

The great Lam Ching-Ying as the One Eyebrow Priest. He was in so good in many of these Hong Kong horror movies that everybody in school wanted to be him back in the day. We all wanted to either be him or Jackie Chan.

Fortunately today we no longer have that ban in effect. Since the ban was uplifted we had an explosion of creativity with all those Blok 404, Kem 505 and more recently with Hantu Kak Limah franchise.

Ghost stories is a part of our culture here in Malaysia. Ever since we were a small kid, our parents would tell us, “Haaa! Pi la kat situ, ada hantuuu”. During slumber parties we exchanged ghost stories with our friends. During our days in boarding school we heard lots of ghost stories, some even dated back during Japanese occupation of Malaya. Everybody must’ve heard of Hantu Jepun (Japanese Ghost) in the form of dead Japanese soldiers marching down the street. We have all sorts of ghosts. These ghosts in our culture is very charming and interesting to me.

Hantu Pocong, one of the many types of ghosts in Malay culture.

It’s not so much the ghosts that fascinates me but it’s more of the expression of creativity. How one sees horror, how one interpret these ghosts and how it interacts with our daily lives. How much they influence the way we lives. From there we would have the Pawangs, the Bomohs, the good and the bad. It’s nothing more than an expression of art.

People would ask, what if people really believe in ghosts and bomohs and pawang Shaik? Well, we have been having ghosts movies and stories since the beginning of time. If we were to compare current situation to say 50 or 100 years ago, we actually have less and less people believing in them. Is it because we have less ghost movies in cinemas and TV?

No, it’s because of the advancement in technology. We now have lights, camera, and all sort of technological advancements. So much so that ghosts are finding it hard to exists. That’s why. We are more educated. We now realised it’s not what it is. No amount of movies will change our mind. And we certainly don’t need someone in Finas/Jakim or Cabinet to protect us from these ghosts movies.

The Royalties, Politicians, Ulama and Race censorship

The second part of censorship, which has a bigger impact on our lives, is of those people who have a higher status or caste in our lives. God forbid if we do a story, movie, book or even painting on the politicians, royalties, ulama and race.

These four topics are off limits even today. There are so many ways we can express ourselves with these four topics and from there everybody can learn a thing or two. Unfortunately, nobody can come close to these four topics. Till today have not seen much art concerning some of the more pivotal times in politics, be it during Malayan Union times when the people opposed what has been agreed and approved by the Royalties and British nor the more recent stuff like Memali. I hope we will one day have a movie with Malayan Union and the royalties as the central theme.

Similarly, God forbid if we ever make movies on corrupt politicians of yesteryear or even of today. Some of these stories we hear could really make it big in the movies. Some of the big corruption and abuse of power cases would’ve made some darn good movies. If you complained about our film industry not making enough money, these are the stuff that will make the money rains.

Then we have the issue of equality among the people of different races. There has been many work of arts regarding the conflict between the black and white in Hollywood. Stuff like blacxploitation and black power. Change it to Malay, Chinese, Indian. Heck, we should have more coming out from Sabah and Sarawak fighting for their rights to be equal on all field. All of these are off limits it seemed.

Why are these topics off limits?

One has to wonder, why are these off limits? Politicians keep saying we are not there yet as a society. We, the rakyat, apparently, can’t handle it yet. We apparently will start killing off each other if we have all of the above topics be made movies the way we want it.

Are we really that weak that we can’t handle any of these stuff? Let’s take a look at some of the more contemporary art that may help to tells us whether we can handle it or not.

First up, Drama Band performance during AJL. It has a spin on social and political commentary touching on Najib and Rosmah and their handbags, PU Abu and the issue of him leaving his wife while she’s still pregnant with his child. Dai’e Farhan who got married with his second wife in Makkah and lastly all the people who love/hate the above folks.

The public were up in arms about the show. Furious! TV3 took down the Band’s performance on their YouTube channel. Censored. Saying they are checking with MCMC if this is in their performance is against the code or not. Just tell the truth that you don’t want to piss off your lords Najib and Rosmah please. This is just a load of bull.

Next, we have these art pieces by Ahmad Fuad Osman. Apparently National Art Gallery (Balai Seni Negara) removes 4 pieces of art that portrays Anwar Ibrahim in it. Ahmad Fuad learned that National Art Gallery justified its decision based on the complaint of a single board member who found the works obscene and political. One person of power didn’t like what he sees and he removes them. Censored. Again, this is a load of bull.

One of the four art pieces taken down. This is entitled ‘Missing’.

Fortunately, Deputy Minister of Arts, Tourism and Culture have instructed NAG to reinstate those art pieces.

Next, who can forget the shitstorm that Fahmi Reza had to go through for the infamous Clown poster of Najib. He was expressing his politically charged opinion of what a clown Najib is. That is all. And yet the shitstorm he has to go through is crazy. Censored. A load of bull indeed.

On the subject of race, we have Engku Iman excellent experimentation on labeling our beloved Lee Chooong Wei as Jaguh and/or Pendatang. This is an excellent piece of art experimentation and how it makes us think and react. Quite a few folks were taken aback by her experiment. Why were you taken aback? Triggered? And she was called out on it. It’s a load of bull.

One of the few local authors and writers I like, Dr. Faizal Musa or his pseudonym Faisal Tehrani. He has written several books and many of his books has been banned by Jakim on the basis of having Shia elements. He has denied it multiple times but you know lah. Censored. It’s all a load of bull.

Lastly, the drama caused by a movie made by the wealthy businesswoman Sajat while she was in Mekah performing umrah. The whole nation went apeshit. Everybody talks about her. I don’t need to share more as the whole nation just went totally apeshit and I’m sure you got to see it all unfold as well. People were and still are so angry because she has apparently insulted Islam, Mekah and the whole ritual of umrah all in one fell swoop. Everybody was asking for Sajat to be taken out of Mekah. And they succeeded. Sajat Banned. Censored. It’s a load of bull indeed.

Apparently the politicians are correct. The Rakyat can’t handle it.

Let’s prove we can handle it

It’s up to us, the Rakyat, to be able to be clear-minded and be open. Many believes to be open is a western thing, hence not a good thing. Being open is often labelled as liberal and it carries this negative connotation with it. What many ulama have said is Liberal Islam is bad. I’m not sure if there is such a thing as ‘Liberal Islam’. Islam is Islam, there shouldn’t be anything else right?

Now to me, Liberal is a good word. To me, liberal means the notion or idea of liberty and equality. Anas Zubedy have written about how Liberal in Islam is a good thing. Go read it. The point is, we need to encourage others to be able to listen better and be emphatic to others. Encourage others to explore and discover their potential.

What if the art insult YOU Shaik?

What if that piece of Art is an insult to you Shaik? Would you just listen and be emphatic still Shaik? Well, I got a simple answer for that. Islam teaches us how to handle insult. It’s very easy to follow.

The Quran tells us how to handle insult in 33:48.

And incline not to the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Disregard their noxious talk, and put thy trust in Allah. Allah is sufficient as Trustee

Quran 33:48

So easy right? We just need to disregard their noxious talk. We just need to ignore their insult. It’s so easy, we basically just need to DO NOTHING. Just a simple nothing. Ignore them. It can’t get any easier than this. Literally do nothing.

Then what do we do?

The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend

Quran 41:34

It’s so easy, repel, push away, reply the bad deed with a good deed. If you do this, you and the person who insults you will become good friends. When someone insults us, we shouldn’t go and kick him in the balls. We shouldn’t scold him/her. We also of course shouldn’t jail the person. Those are not a good deed. We just need to reply the insult with good deeds. Very easy to do as well.

This is exactly where the problem lies

The problem lies with us the Rakyat. Quran tells us to ignore the insults. Quran tells us to repel bad deed with good deeds. However we continue to not ignore the insults and use more bad deeds to repel bad deeds. We continue to care about the insult and throw some more insult back to them, ban, scold, get angry, hit them, or worse threatened to kill the person who insulted us through their words, movies, paintings, comics and whatever form of art they use.

Let’s all learn to ignore these insult and repel bad deeds with good deeds. Rise above enmity and insult. Go back to what the Quran says.

So the next time you read a comic, or watch a movie, or see someone performed some form of arts in a manner that insults you, your religion, your mom, your family, your whatever lah. Remember, to ignore them and reply the bad deeds with good deeds.

Take a look these non-believers, non-muslims. They actually do what the Quran says and see how it results in something great.

It’s great to see what Allah says works on everybody be they muslims or non-muslims. But we, decided not to do what Allah have said. That ladies and gentlemen, is where all bullshit is.

Peace be unto all.

Editors note: If you made it here, a big big thank you. I apologise for the super long one this round. I’ll try to keep it shorter next time.

China Eats Bat while We Muslims Do What!? Not So Different Eh?

I really need to get better at being inspired to write. Currently, I only am inspired or motivated to write whenever I find something that irks me. Things that make me anxious and frustrated. I’m now irked with this small-ish issue, hence I’m writing a little bit about it.

Since the recent outbreak of Novel Corona virus. Much have been talked about the fake news, false news, I-told-you-so-because-I’m-a-know-it-all-rich-boy news. I don’t have anything more to say on the issue except maybe on the last bit but that’s in another post. The guy needs a separate post just for him.

What I to share today is just how easy it is, we Muslims, find fault in others but not in ourselves. We then call them out to show that we are better than them. This is typical of Muslims in who live in a Muslim majority countries. Like us in Malaysia or the folks in the Middle East. Since I’m Malaysian, let’s talk about ourselves. As Malaysian Muslims it’s our duty to always look at ourselves and see how can we be better. Before looking at others and telling the how can they be better.

Let me start by sharing what Muslims in Malaysia has been saying to the Chinese regarding Corona Virus.

These are just a glance of what folks are sharing on social media. It’s typical among humans to compare between themselves and show that they are different or better than others. We like to show other people that we are indeed better. To always try to spot the differences and try to one up each other. We do it all the time, we probably just didn’t realise it.

This is a bad practice. At least, in the grand scheme of uniting the people. This practice divides us. I like to bring some balance and show to all that we Muslims aren’t any different. Once we know that we are not that different, then the magic happens. Let me share with you that we too, are similar to the Chinese in consuming stuff that cause harm to our body. But we choose to only point our fingers to non-Muslims.

Let me take you back to 2014, There was an outbreak of Mers-Cov, causing what was know at the time Middle East respiratory syndrome. It partly shares the same name with the more recent Wuhan Corona Virus outbreak. Both have the word Corona in it. I’m not a virologist, so I’m not going into the similarities and differences in detail. Suffice to say that the one from Middle East have were transmitted through contacts with camels and later through humans albeit with low possibilities. Mers-Cov have a mortality rate of about 35%. This means 35 deaths in 100 cases of MERS-Cov. In Contrast, Wuhan Corona Virus mortality rate as of 30 Jan is just under 3%. Of course this will change as time passes.

What irks me is that we Muslims have the same habit of consuming stuff that harms us. And we also believe that it’d do great for our health. Science have proven that it’s dangerous but yet we still do it.

A few friends of mine who just came back from their Umrah trip shared their experience in drinking Camel’s urine. You heard it right, Camel urine. More specifically Susu Tarik Kencing Unta. Camel urine mixed with camel milk. I’m not kidding. Here is a video about it.

Where does this come from? It came from a Hadith. It’s an authentic hadith and not a weak one. To confirm this you can find it on Federal Territory Mufti Page. Let me quote a few lines from the page.

Terdapat dua pandangan ulama’ dalam hal ini. Pendapat yang pertama, bahawa air kencing unta bukanlah najis di sisi Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad dan sebahagian salaf. Pendapat ini juga disokong sebahagian ulama mazhab al-Syafie seperti Ibn Munzir, Ibn Hibban dan lain-lain.

Pendapat yang kedua mengatakan air kencing unta adalah najis. Ini adalah pendapat Imam al-Syafie sendiri dan jumhur ulama’. Lihat Fath al-Bari (1/338).

Taken from muftiwp.gov.my

It is very interesting that ulama from Mazhab al-Syafie went against the opinion of Imam Syafie itself. This proves that one can go against or disagree with one’s Ustaz or Imam without much scientific proof.

The page above continues and I quote:

Air kencing unta ini dipercayai mempunyai kelebihan yang banyak sepertimana dibuktikan dalam kisah kumpulan arab badwi berdasarkan hadis yang dinyatakan.

Selain daripada bukti yang disebut di dalam hadith, terdapat banyak kes-kes yang membuktikan air kencing unta ini mampu merawat penyakit. Air kencing unta ini dikatakan mengandungi kalsium yang tinggi. Lihat al-sunnah al-Muthaharah (79), al-Tib al-arabi (1/278) al-I’jaz al-Ilmi fi Sunnah Nabawiyah (833)

Taken from muftiwp.gov.my

So, the Fatwa said you can drink it if it’s for treatment. We are not that much different from the Chinese in China. They believe that eating some of the weirder stuff are to treat themselves, or to make them healthier and with more vigor. You can google why are some of them eating those weird stuff like snakes, certain types of bats and whatever other weird stuff.

I am writing say that it’s not helping to point out that just how ‘kafir’ the Chinese are just because they eat those things. That is bordering gloating. Gloating is to dwell on one’s own success or another’s misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure. Nothing good can come out of this. It’s not going to help the situation. Gloating is bordering insult. Don’t insult other people belief or be ready to have them insult your own religion.

Quran 6:108

And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.

Dan janganlah kamu cerca benda-benda yang mereka sembah yang lain dari Allah, kerana mereka kelak, akan mencerca Allah secara melampaui batas dengan ketiadaan pengetahuan. Demikianlah Kami memperelokkan pada pandangan tiap-tiap umat akan amal perbuatan mereka, kemudian kepada Tuhan merekalah tempat kembali mereka, lalu Ia menerangkan kepada mereka apa yang mereka telah lakukan.

Quran 6:108

As much as the Chinese have some things we consider to be weird, we too have the weird things we do day-in and day-out. Not all of China do the stuff we find weird. So stop all these holier-than-thou acts and let’s pray for ALL to be safe and take precautions to stop this Wuhan Corona virus outbreak from spreading further.

Peace be unto all.

The Malays and Our Dignity to be Stupid

2020 starts of with a bang on the news front. It gave me a great sense of pride for the wild things the Malays have somehow achieved within just weeks of the year 2020. No other race in Malaysia can come close. Not the Chinese whom common knowledge have pegged them as the Race of businessmen and owns most of the wealth in Malaysia. Even the Indians can’t top the Malays in this area, even though we all know that The Indian and Singhs are the doctors and lawyers of Malaysia.

Malays have finally grasped the epitome of achievement in upholding our dignity to be stupid with all our might. To be exact, the leaders of the Malays. Since the Malays elect and continuously support these leaders, by proxy, they are of the same quality. Mind you I am a Malay as well. It’s the box I tick every time I fill a form that asks for my race at the very least.

Dengkil assemblyman Adhif Syan Abdullah said he has never denied being arrested by the police during a raid at a private party.

Let me present my case. First, PPBM Dengkil Assemblyman who was caught together with a group of men and women having a wild party fueled drugs and gambling. Social media was buzzing at full capacity when the news hit the public. He was caught red handed however, he denied it. On the same day later, he then claimed he was among those in the party. He claimed to be “at the wrong place and at the wrong time”. Yup, blaming the situation. Blaming the police for being there and caught him. Blaming the drugs for existing. It just baffled me to say something like that. He’s just bereft of accountability.

Where is his dignity of being the leader of Armada Selangor? And Syed Saddiq should’ve just sack him and the lot instead of just suspending them. He admitted to be there, allegedly involved with drugs, gambling, women and drugs. Just bloody sack him and ask him to resign from holding any post other than being the Assemblyman and be done with him. But then again it’s politics, once can just get away with it oh so easily. Bro Syed, if by any chance you read this, don’t be like the very politicians you despise.

YB Ostard Dato’ Haji Mohd Amar. Deputy MB of Kelantan who equates himself and the rest of the 14 new Mercedes ‘owners’ to be of the same level as Prophet Muhammad.

Just not two weeks before the above happens, we have the Deputy Menteri Besar of Kelantan making excuses and equating their misplaced priorities with Prophet Muhammad’s Camels.

The Menteri Besar nonchalantly said it was well within their rights. Their cars are old and ageing and costs a lot of money to maintain. So buying a not one but 14 Mercedes is to save money. He also dared to make fun of the Viva. They are too good to be in a Perodua Viva. This is a classic. This is why I don’t believe Ulama adalah pewaris Nabi.

It’s not about whether you have the right to buy them. Whether you can afford it or not. It’s about what are your state’s priority in spending money. It’s about your need versus your rakyat’s need. What are your priorities my dear Menteri Besar? If you can’t decide between these, then you are not fit to be leaders. I’m always fascinated with these PAS leaders and more fascinated with their hardcore followers. They claimed to be well versed in both Islam and Politics but time and again it’s proven that they aren’t really that well versed in both.

Additionally as usual, these Tuan Guru, Ustaz, Ulamak equate themselves to the Prophet. So selfishly telling everyone that they of the same level as our Prophet. This is totally unacceptable in my book. However to their supporters, it’s the righteous way to justify themselves. It’s in the books of the every politician in Malaysia to make use of Islam to justify they are right. Even in the case of buying truckloads of Mercedes. This is so stupid that even the kafirs are laughing as just how stupid Islam works out to be. And the Pas leaders have the dignity to do this. That is why he received this zero dignity award from me.

Najib looking confused with whatever that is going on in his SRC case.

Politicians with stupid statement as an excuse is no stranger to us. Even our Ex PM were not spared with this No Dignity Disease. In the ongoing court battle, he has been quoted, “Suprised to see RM42 Million in his account but didn’t return it”. He was also quoted, “I’ve spent millions but I didn’t know that the money belongs to SRC”. Most recently he was also quoted saying “He can’t readily verify his signature”. There are way many more things Najib said that is baffling to my ears. Let’s not forget the now infamous audio clips where “He basically begged a foreign Royal Highness to backdate a loan to clear his son’s name”.

Najib’s Darling there. Can’t take my eye’s off of her so some reason.

As you probably know, Najib used the sanctity of Islam to prove his innocence as well. It’s typical of a Muslim to “sumpah” that he’s innocence. We all know that there’s no such thing as “sumpah Laknat” in Islamic law. Federal Territory Mufti said the same thing. To me, the only value in Sumpah Laknat is the one where P. Ramleed did with his “Sumpah makan sate 30 cucuk”. This was way better and way more meaningful than Najib’s.

As usual the Malay folks gobbled it up as the gospel truth. Some even defended Najib’s action and spoke against the Mufti. So easy to play-up the Malays nowadays, just use the race and the religion card. Najib should head the list of the award but I’ll let it slide because I’m pretty sure we get to see more of his antics later. He’s of course the President of GTB (Geng Takut Bini). So it’s kinda guaranteed that we will see more.

2020 just started and we have a shitstorm of stupidity all in the same month. Where is our dignity my dear malay politicians? Where is our dignity my dear malay supporters of these politicians. If you love and support your malay politicians, tell all and sundry that they are wrong. Tell everyone that it’s not acceptable. Show the politicians that you have the dignity. Don’t be so blind to their antics and let them play you like a fool. That is if you have the real Malay dignity. Not the dignity to be stupid.

Peace be upon you.

Don’t Kill the Messenger

I’ve written down my thoughts of the recent closure of Utusan Malaysia operations and the papers.

Spent a while thinking of the title of this posting. It’s rather harsh and it kinda not what I really want to say. But alas, that will do for now. 

Back in the day, probably in the 90’s, my favourite newspaper was Mingguan Malaysia. The Sunday edition of Utusan Malaysia (literally translated to Malaysian Courier/Messenger). There was a time when I look forward to Sundays, where I’d have a chance to read the ‘Wawancara’ or interview of the week. It’s usually two sometimes three pages long. I’d read every sentence written and re-read them. That’s where I developed my love for Q&A or interview sessions. Till today, the part I love the most in any magazine I picked up would be interviews with a particular person of interest to me. I’d buy a full blown magazine to just read a 2-3 pages of interview that interests me. I just love reading about how one thought process works in their head, in doing or coming out with something. 

I love to understand the thought process behind some of the policies introduced by the government and the current situations faced by the person of interest feature in Mingguan Malaysia. Many a time, you can see how much one’s filter or views of certain situations, shaped their thought process and action towards it. It kinda opens you mind and let you experience this paradigm shift of your own views or opinions. Suddenly you realised that you weren’t so RIGHT or, there are more than one ways to see or do things other that YOUR ways.

My second favourite section was of course “bisik-bisik by Awang Selamat. I just love the writing style. A bit of sarcasm, with a dash of criticism on various topics of interest. They are just short snippets of what Awang thinks on current issues. Some are sarcastic in nature, some are straight up finger pointings, some are just mild criticisms and some are just opinions on matters of interest. It’s a great place to catch up on some topics, that the editors fancy. Sort of like twitter posting nowadays, a short and sweet take on issues. Sometimes it’s a thread that takes up several tweets, sometimes it’s just a single paragraph. Love it. 

A look at the Bisik-Bisik by Awang Selamat.

After a while, probably around 2006 or so, I started to find Utusan a little unbearable. Too many politicians doing and saying stupid things at the time and Utusan no longer make it a point to write about them. Back in the days they would write about it in the Awang Selamat column or in some of the guests writer column. I always look forward to it because I know we can depend on the paper to fight for us the Rakyat and tell these politicians off. But alas, it seldom happened around that period onwards.

I may be too young to remember or perhaps its the nostalgia that is clouding my mind, but, I still remember moments where I read Awang Selamat calling out some of the politicians doing or saying something stupid. At least, in a sarcastic manner so as not to cause them any trouble. But that was no longer the case, if I remember correctly, it was probably around Pak Lah’s time.

The other thing about Utusan, they was so behind the curve in their adoption of the News-on-the-Internet stuff. I still remember their website was slow to load, still using frames, and whatever janky web tools that were probably 5-10 years behind the curve. What made it worse was, probably only a few years ago, before they got their ‘new’ website, they would load a full desktop page on a mobile device. Be it a phone or a tablet, the same full desktop website would load and it took literally 5-10 seconds for the whole thing to load. A big turn off if we want to read an article that probably will only take 5-10 seconds to read or skimmed through. Coupled that with a clickbait-ty headlines, you’d be cursing the moment you realised the article was a shitty one. It was that bad.

On social media front, I still follow Utusan on Facebook, and here’s the other part they failed to take advantage of. There are almost nothing else other then posts showing snippets of the news and a link to the article on their website. That’s it. Occasionally you’d see Senyum Kambing posting. They had zero social media personality and strategy. Almost zero interaction with the readers or followers of the page.

Yes, this is how Utusan posts on Facebook. Don’t get me started what they do with Twitter.

I love Utusan. Wait, maybe I should say, I used to love Utusan. I felt Utusan was really a newspaper I’m really proud to be a reader of. But, after they no longer have these opinion pieces, interviews, Awang Selamat takes on stuff that matters and news stories that matters, to folks like me, I no longer felt proud…for many many years. And since Utusan never really cared about their younger or more technology savvy readers, where most of these readers only spent their time online and on social media, I kinda stopped caring about them as well.

To me, Utusan no longer represent the modern Malays, the Rakyat that wanted to be informed, that wanted to stay ahead what’s happening and serves the interest of the readers.

A few months ago, there was a campaign to buy start buying Utusan again so that it can be saved. I did not do anything at all. It needs to be save by it’s masters, not us the readers that it betrays. Unless the masters of Utusan cares and let Utusan be Utusan, it is more suited to be left for dead instead. Utusan in it’s current state is not worth saving. Even with all the history behind it, it’s better if all of it dies. Let it be a reminder to never stray from the mission that it sets to be. Utusan needs to apologise for straying too far away, it needs to start serving its readers again rather than its masters.

Corporations that failed their customers need to apologise sincerely and starts to work towards being better and win the trust of their customers. They can’t take it for granted. Look at Domino’s Pizza Turnaround, this has been a textbook case study around the world on how a corporation can really turned-around a failing business. Listen to what customers have to say, internalise and understand it, acknowledge it, then pledge to be better. It’s very simple.

I sure hope Syed Mokhtar and his team can make it NSTP group the papers that we the Rakyat can be proud of, not just papers to be given free to schools and government offices. Syed Mokhtar have also been buying shares of Utusan via his proxies, I hope he’ll make Utusan a better newspaper as well. One that serves the readers. As for Utusan, you can stay dead if you don’t change because, nobody wants to save you, even your masters didn’t save you. Yup, your masters left you to die, really, they left you for dead. Don’t get angry at me, I’m just the messenger, sending you this message. Don’t kill the messenger.

Peace be unto all.

p/s: I knew the title will deliver at the end.

p/p/s: Edited the part relating to Syed Mokhtar to clarify the shares he’s buying or have been holding for a few years.

Being Critical, Being Objective and Calling a Spade A Spade

I’m been busy the last few weeks, only managed to catch up on news the last few days.

This one catches my interest. I have long since wanted to write on this topic. The news was on our Education Minister, Maszlee Malik. There are several articles on this (See HERE, HERE, for video see HERE) and he said the following:

“Matriculation is just a road to university, just like a diploma, STPM and so on. But the matriculation programme gives the chance for the poor to advance their studies at the pre-university level.

“If we want to change, if we say in ‘Malaysia Baru’ there is no need for a quota system and so on, then we must also make sure job opportunities are not denied to bumiputera just because they don’t know Mandarin,” he said to a round of applause. 

“We should not look at such issues in isolation – we harp on (the quota system in) matriculation without considering that people are being denied jobs because they don’t know Mandarin, for instance. 

“If we can make do without all that, if we can give equal and business opportunities, then we can talk about being fair to all.”

Education Minister Maszlee Malik with students of SJK (T) Sungai Ara in Penang. (Photo: Bernama)

These two have nothing in common. First of all, matriculation program is a government program. Together with it comes the quota policy.

How can a quota policy by the government be linked to what the ignorance private sector (the ignorant and possibly racist employer) do? Is this particular government policy a result of what the ignorant private sector is doing? It’s like, the government decided to raise the interest rate due the the increased number of blue-coloured car on the road. These two have nothing in common.

Maszlee needs to be more objectives. Don’t mix being objective and being emotional about the situation. He was right in the beginning to state the reason why matriculation program was setup. It’s due to the imbalance in university enrolment of bumi and non-bumi students in science scream courses. He should just stop there and it’s enough to both get the non-bumi to understand and the bumi to give him a round of applause.

Secondly, he shouldn’t be doing the immature tit-for-tat move. Those are kids stuff. Is he the type of person who can’t think and only know how to react impulsively. You racist? Ok lah, I pun racist lah. You pukul eh? Ok, I pun pukul la. You kick me? Ok then I kick you la. You stab me? Ok then I stab you back lah.

These are kids stuff. People who can’t think objectively will react emotionally. We can’t have people who can’t use their head properly be our ministers. We had enough of that back in the days.

If we really want to have a New Malaysia or Malaysia Baru, we should abolish the policy favouring bumi versus non-bumi and have a new policy that favours the less able or the B40 instead.

If we really think about it, who are the B40? What is the racial distribution of B40? The answer will be the same, the majority will be the Bumis. Huge majority will be the Bumis. Don’t believe me? Check the statistics for yourselves. Let me share some, HERE and HERE. You can get more, just google and read them up.

A diagram showing breakdown of the B40, M40 and T20. Taken from http://www.dosm.gov.my

We all know which race is the poorest, we all know who are the farmers, fishermen, low level government servants, low level policemen/women, low level army/navy/airforce officers. In case you don’t know, a good 80-90 percent of them are Bumi. So it goes without saying that the policy based on income level benefits the Malays and Bumi the most. If together with the Bumis we have 10-20 percent non-Bumis, it’s all good for unity right? All of our less able Malaysian get taken care off. ALL of them, ALL of the less able be it Malay or otherwise, ALL of them Malaysian . That’s good. That’s the ideal situation. It can’t get any better than this.

Here’s another reason why we shouldn’t have a race-based education policy, take the example of MARA scholarship, or MRSM or Sekolah Berasrama Penuh (SBP) enrolment. Since the BN days, these are places reserved for majority of the Bumi. The problem is, not many of the enrolments are from B40 families. It became the places reserved for the Malay elites. These people are probably already in the higher M40 and T20 and yet still get a place in the above places. It’s been abused to no end.

The famous MCKK. One of the many Sekolah Berasrama Penuh.

Nobody stopped them because it’s not against the policy. The policy is for the Malays and Bumi right? They are Malays and Bumis, so nothing is wrong right? Wrong!

We have heard so many stories of the rich Malay elites getting MARA scholarship and getting into SBP/MRSM. It’s disheartening that nowadays we still see only 70% of MRSM enrolments and 50% of SBP enrolments are from B40 group (See HERE). We should either have more from B40 or use the surplus budget to spend on other things for B40. Not spend for non B40 or those Malay elites who can afford all manner of things already.

Now if we do it based on income levels, the Malay elites can no longer enrol in the above program. So we will end up with more budget per students or we can include more from the less able or less stellar result to be enrolled. Give them special care to better educate them and we will end up with more bright people in the country. So, let’s do away with race based education policy. Let’s do it based on income level. Let’s start to do the good things and good things will come to us. It’s what Allah have said in the Quran.

If we spend our wealth in the way of Allah, we will get more and more. Spending for the wrong Malays, who isn’t supposed to be there in the first place isn’t called spending in the Way of Allah.

We need to spend the money wisely, if it’s for the poor or B40 groups then let’s do it as such and Allah will give us more to spend.

We need to always be objective, even more so as leaders. So Maszlee as the Minister of Education has to be objective in this part. As much as I’m a supporter of PH, I need and I want to be critical. When you love something, you always want the best for it. So you tend to be critical of it. I believe Maszlee should be more objective and not make that stupid comparison. He’s wrong to make that comparison and unbecoming of a Minister. So, I am calling a spade, a spade. Nothing more, nothing less.

Peace be unto all.

Iqra’ – Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand

Had this sudden impulse to write again. Just like exercising, it’s so hard to start but once you got it going, it felt so good and you would want to do it again. Also, reading and writing is actually exercise, for the mind. Our very own Dr. Mahathir said it. It’s the very reason I started this blog.

Earlier today I read an article on PPSMI, our good Doctor is on it again.

Screenshot 2019-04-08 at 21.13.01.png

Huzzah! PPSMI is back. I was disappointed when it was withdrawn and now that it’s back perhaps my kids can savour Math and Science in English.

In the article the good Doctor made another interesting comment.

Mahathir was asked in the interview what he would have done if he were the education minister, a post he stepped back from due to Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto pledge barring the prime minister from holding other portfolios.

“We need to teach science and mathematics in English. The idea that the Malays cannot learn in English is stupid. It’s not true at all.

“I am a Malay, I can speak reasonable English. Why can’t other people?” he said.

Here’s a guy from a kampung and yet he is able to speak English so well. Add to that, my English isn’t that good but I can tell you that being able to read and speak reasonable English, have enabled me to learn from so many sources and earned me interview spots and great jobs. And I am from Kedah, among the poorest state in Malaysia. So I believe in PPSMI and really am glad it’s back.

Our good Doctor made another a MORE interesting comment.

Mahathir, who served as education minister from 1974 to 1977, also told NST that while schools should provide religious and moral education, it should not be at the expense of other subjects.

“With regard to religious education, we believe schools should provide religious education, but it should not encroach on the teaching of other subjects.

“We find that in the curriculum, so much (time) is given to religious education at the expense of other subjects – science and mathematics,” he said.

Now, let me give a little bit of a preamble, I’m a product of our national school. I believe I did okay up till now, so in that sense, I trusted our school system and decided that it’s okay to send our kids to national school. We were planning to send our kids to a private school but in the end, decided against it (my wallet was so relieved, I was told). So yeah, I trusted our school system. That is till I read the above comment by Dr. Mahathir.

I quickly called my daughter Alia, Primary 6 now, and asked her to read to me her weekly class schedule and total up the hours per week spent on each subject. Here’s the breakdown in hours:

Screenshot 2019-04-08 at 21.30.59.png

Pendidikan Islam, Tasmik and Bahasa Arab altogether take 5.5 hours a week. Let’s break it down. Pendidikan Islam 3 hours, Bahasa Arab 1.5 hours and Tasmik 1 hour. I did a bit of google and found out that Tasmik is basically reciting Al-Quran. And yeah, I was clueless what Tasmik was before this.  Here’s the objective of Tasmik as taken from the link I found above.

  • 3.1 Murid dapat membaca al Quran dengan bertajwid.
  • 3.2 Murid dapat mengkhatamkan bacaan al-Quran 30 juzuk.

It’s just that, able to recite (not read) the Quran. Recite the Quran and that’s it. 1 hour a week. Half the time allocated to learn Science.

Then, we have another 1.5 hours for Bahasa Arab, officially it’s allocated for Bahasa Tambahan but somehow my daughter’s school only have Bahasa Arab to choose from. What did she get from Bahasa Arab? You guys can probably guessed it, almost nothing. If any of you guys have a kid in primary school, talk to them, find out what have they learned and how that will help in shaping their future. Combine Bahasa Arab and Tasmik and it’s 2.5 hours. More than Science, more than Sejarah and just half an hour short to equal Math. Personally, it’s way too much time allocated for those two things.

We also send our kids for Quran recital class outside of school and that’s another 1-2 hours weekly. I know many parents send their kids to Kelas Agama outside of school for several hours a week. It’s our responsibility as parents. If we can’t or are not capable to do it, get someone to help us teach them that outside of school. It’s not the school’s responsibility. It’s ours.

It should not take the time in school, that is much better spent to learn Math, Science, Accounting, Commerce and many other subjects, a typical parent can’t teach. A typical parent can’t for the life of them teach their son complex math or science stuff. That’s why there are schools, trained teachers and a fully developed curriculum. So let’s not let these subject time taken by things that we can teach them ourselves and should not even be in school official hours.

Finally, since we are on the subject of reciting the Quran, I implore all muslim parents out there, go a step further. Don’t stop at teaching our kids to recite the Quran, go on a step further and teach them to READ the Quran. READ and UNDERSTAND it. Read it in a language that you and the kids can understand. Be it in Malay or in English. It’s so much more meaningful to READ and UNDERSTAND it.

And for us, read it like you would read a book. Read it to understand it. Learn it, study it and make sense of it.  Not just recite and sing it along and not understanding a word of it.

Quran has been forgotten by many muslims. It has been relegated to a book we singalong with. Open it up weekly, singalong the notes and later close it. That’s all it has become nowadays. It’s so true. Think about it. When was the last time we read a surah and understand it? How often we open it up and search for something to guide us? When was the last time we open it up and learn about a topic that is of interest to us? What does the Quran say about that topic?

We read the hadith in a language we understand but not the Quran? Why is that? Which one is firman Allah? Hadith or the Quran? And yet we relegate it to just a singalong book.

I leave you guys at that and end this article with the title of this article, Albert Einstein said it, “Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand”. Let’s change it up, “Any Fool Can Recite. The Point is to Understand”

Peace be unto all of you.

TH – Great Minds Think Alike…No?

It has been while since I scribbled stuff on this blog. Been busy, I put off writing stuff in favour of doing something else. It’s bad though, very bad, considering I have a long list of things to write about.

So what happened since then? PH government doing a very bad job, some of the ministers are downright ‘tin losing’ (empty cans, made a loud noise but otherwise empty on the inside) and the state of our politics have been made worse with many of the folks on my Facebook Newsfeeds talking about nothing but ‘Melayu tu, Cina ni’ and Islam tu, kapiaq ni’. It’s super depressing, we can’t seemed to get past this divisive nature of race  and religion politics. Remember people, we can do race politics without the divisive nature of it. But alas, people are not logical, we are psychological.

Alright, back to the topic at hand, Tabung Haji. The just announced ‘hibah’ (gift of money to depositors) to be exact. Historically, 2018 was the lowest, by a mile, at 1.25%. A lot has been said about why 2018 hibah was pretty poor, go and read them up. What it all boils down to, TH’s asset and liability position only allowed them to give that much.

HIBAH-TH-2018_0

For those who are a little behind on TH asset and liability situation and the related transfer of its asset (about RM20 billion) to an SPV can read up on it HERE. Pretty well written and can be easily understood by most I believe.

What I wanted to touch on is THIS Facebook posting by Ely. I do not know her personally, however seeing a few of my friends quoting the article and commenting on TH, I was then inspired to write again. A big thank you to Ely Raziah.

So to start with, Ely, right of the bat, attacked all accountants, finance and banking folks. among the words written includes ‘jumud’, too much adhering to guidelines, can’t see the big picture and close minded. She then also knocked on these accountants for being too black and white, and not seeing the greys. And the thing that really made me want to write this reply is, these accountants are too much into ‘technicalities’.

Okay let’s stop there, I don’t want to regurgitate too much or else I’ll literally start to vomit. She keeps on talking about technicalities stopping us to see the big picture. She wants us to ignore the technicalities because the big picture or end goal is much more important. End goal of enriching the economy of the muslims is what she’s alluding to.

Let us be clear, technicalities that she’s referring to is what we call standard or guidelines or rules. Imagining not playing a game according to the rules. Yes, the goal of a football match is to score a goal, imagine when we have a team who suddenly use their hands to carry the ball into the goal area and claim a win. When asked, oh don’t talk about the technicalities, it’s important we know the big picture objective. It’s to win right? So we won lah.

A more real and grounded example, imagine someone selling you a car but not wanting to tell you the year it was made. When asked, “Ahhh those are technicalities, the big picture is you want to buy a car right? The mileage you don’t need to care lah, it’s technicalities. just buy this good car!”. So what do you think? It’s fun if we are on the side of the car seller lah.

This situation of ignoring the technicalities or closing one eye on the technicalities is what destroying us. It’s the least Islamic thing to do. Especially when we do it to achieve our goals. The end never justifies the means (Matlamat tidak menghalalkan cara). It’s the most unIslamic things to do. Talk about man-made, this is exactly it. Ikut suka mak bapak nak buat apa is the most Malay and Malaysian thing and it’s not Islamic at all. We can’t change the rules just because we wanted to do something.

Just because we want to put a few billion ringgit into the muslim economy this Ramadhan we change the rules? Just because we want to build a few masjid we change the rules? just because we want to increase the amount that goes to zakat we change the rules?

Rules are there for a reason, changing it and not following it as and when we like, kinda defeat the purpose for it to be there in the first place. No one wants to play a game where the rules change as and when the players like, especially when only one side can change the rules as they like, especially when that side changes the rules silently. It’s almost the same as cheating! and it’s a slippery slope to be on.

Lastly, another issue with Melayu, when something is wrong, just swept it under the carpet or under the table. This is public’s money, not your children’s money and certainly not your children exam result. It’s not similar to the analogy that Ely made about the parent and child.

So it’s not something that can be done under table. Get our head screwed right, all government bodies out there are to be scrutinised by the people. If something is wrong, it’s better if it’s out there, and if something is so good and right, it’s also better if it’s outside there.

So yeah, it is not a case of ‘how one approaches the issue’. It’s about declaring hibah the right way according to the rules. If the government wants to give the Muslim’s community economy a few billions ringgit, do it the right way. There are many ways it can be done but obviously not by cheating on the rules of TH. Remember, the end does not justify the means, no matter how noble the end goal is.

And please don’t equate TH and KLSE as the kids of the government. Now it kinda made sense why she hates the finance people so much. She probably doesn’t understand it much. Let’s hope she will one day understand how it works.

Sorry Ely, in this case our minds don’t think alike and it’s probably because I use my brain while you use your heart.

Peace be unto you and all.