Category: Malaysia

I Felt So Insulted.

I recently stumbled upon someone I admired for a long time and one of my favourite comedy heroes. The funny and lovable Harith Iskander. 

I have always been a big fan of him. Attended his Netflix Special show in person (see if you can spot me in the show). I once got fired back when I was 19 years old. I was working as a banquet waiter. It was a corporate event in a room full of engineers at Palace of the Golden Horses. Harith was the stand up comic for night. He nailed it so hard that I neglected to do my job. Mesmerised by his funny jokes, I just stood there and enjoyed the performance all the way to the end. By the time the whole event ended, my supervisor told me, “Don’t bother coming to work tomorrow. You are fired”. But it was worth it to see Harith live for the first time ever in my life.

Recently, he got in a bit of a spat with the general public. To be blunt, I don’t find that it’s his fault at all. He made one funny joke about coffee. He also used a pretty “on point” word that somehow involved in a controversy about nothing. 

Here’s the funny joke in question. 

There are so many layers in this joke. But the message went over the head of soo many people. 

For me, that posting have some of the funniest jabs at things we can all relate to. The jabs..

  • Subtle but pretty obvious jab about the hullabaloo that is halal ham sandwich found at my Alma Mater where a non religions and racial issue is turned into one, 
  • A not so subtle jab at the ever so fragile religious scholar (should it be scholar or something else since they are so fragile when it comes to their ‘Iman’), 
  • A pretty on point jab to the politicians and politician wannabe who’s job is more often to make police report on trivial matters than to work on the big and important stuff for nation building, 
  • Lastly, a pretty cool jab on the ever Islamic Kopi Jantan, Kopi Songkok, Kopi Angguk, Kopi Malam, Kopi Abang Yes and many more Ham Sap type Kopi lah. These are what the Malay Muslims really love to have, if not why do we have so many of them?

I’ll comment on the whole halal ham sandwich situation separately. They involved some of the rather typical stupid politician type. It’s now stuck at my Editor (read: wife). When I can convince her that I won’t be thrown in jail for posting my comment, I’ll publish it.

Coming back to the topic at hand. We have this Shahrol Shiro guy, who is a fellow funny guy himself. He should have known that the number one rule of comedy is nothing is off limits. Especially joking about those in power like our politicians or the government. Especially on those in power. Who are ever so crazy in dividing our nation. Splitting the Rakyat between the right and left rather than uniting us.

But he, likened himself to be a politician. Kununnya, working for the public. Made such a big hullabaloo of the whole thing. Why is he making this such a big hullabaloo? For the simple reason of using social media for political clout, more like a religious and personal opportunism. I mean look at this follow up video he recorded. See that songkok next to him. That’s the trick lah. Songkok must be there in plain view.

He can hide it behind “I’m protecting Islam from being insulted” statement. But we all know that is a load of bulls. 

A load of bulls Shaik? Really? So you are saying protecting Islam from insults is a load of bulls?

My dear friends, here’s what the Quran said about protecting Islam from being insulted. I’ve provided several translations from some of those I typically read through to better understand verses from the Quran.

Quran 3:186

 You ˹believers˺ will surely be tested in your wealth and yourselves,1 and you will certainly hear many hurtful words from those who were given the Scripture before you and ˹from˺ the polytheists. But if you are patient and mindful ˹of Allah˺—surely this is a resolve to aspire to.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

Ye shall certainly be tried and tested in your possessions and in your personal selves; and ye shall certainly Hear much that will grieve you, from those who received the Book before you and from those who worship many gods. But if ye persevere patiently, and guard against evil,-then that will be a determining factor in all affairs.

A. Yusuf Ali

Demi sesungguhnya, kamu akan diuji pada harta benda dan diri kamu. Dan demi sesungguhnya, kamu akan mendengar dari orang-orang yang telah diberikan Kitab dahulu daripada kamu dan orang-orang yang musyrik: banyak (tuduhan-tuduhan dan cacian) yang menyakitkan hati. Dalam pada itu, jika kamu bersabar dan bertaqwa maka sesungguhnya yang demikian itu adalah dari perkara-perkara yang dikehendaki diambil berat (melakukannya).

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

In essence, we will be tested with a loads of insults that will hurt our feelings. The word Azan in the verse means hurtful things or insults. But we must persevere patiently because that is the resolve that we must aspire to. Because that is what matters most and what Allah wanted us to do when we felt insulted. We just need to be patient and be reminded of Allah.

We aren’t supposed to go and insult others back or go make police report for the insult.

Another one…

Quran 2:262

Those who spend their wealth in the cause of Allah and do not follow their charity with reminders of their generosity or hurtful words—they will get their reward from their Lord, and there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. 

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

Those who spend their substance in the cause of Allah, and follow not up their gifts with reminders of their generosity or with injury,-for them their reward is with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

A. Yusuf Ali

Orang-orang yang membelanjakan hartanya pada jalan (ugama) Allah, kemudian mereka tidak mengiringi apa yang mereka belanjakan itu dengan perkataan membangkit-bangkit (pemberiannya), dan tidak pula menyinggung atau menyakiti (pihak yang diberi), mereka beroleh pahala di sisi Tuhan mereka, dan tidak ada kebimbangan (dari berlakunya kejadian yang tidak baik) terhadap mereka, dan mereka pula tidak akan berdukacita.

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

This is Quran telling us, don’t keep telling and reminding people about your generosity when you give them charity. And don’t go and insult (the word Azan again) the people when you give them charity. 

Example, we all probably have watched a lot of dramas where someone throw some money to the face of some poor guy. And then, he insulted the poor guy “Tu la, mati tak mahu, dah hidup ni nyusahkan orang. Amik duit ni pastu pi mampos”. We can’t do this folks. We can’t insult those we we give charity to.

What else does the Quran says about being insulted?

Quran 3:111

They can never inflict harm on you, except a little annoyance. But if they meet you in battle, they will flee and they will have no helpers.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

They will do you no harm, barring a trifling annoyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help shall they get.

A. Yusuf Ali

Mereka (kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani) tidak sekali-kali akan membahayakan kamu, kecuali menyakiti (perasaan kamu dengan ejekan dan tuduhan yang tidak berasas). Dan jika mereka memerangi kamu, mereka akan berpaling lari membelakangkan kamu (kalah dengan sehina-hinanya); sesudah itu mereka tidak akan mencapai kemenangan.

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

Here, Quran clearly stated that an insult is nothing dangerous. It’s just a trifling or small annoyances, sakit hati hang sikit ja. Tak sakit lebih2 pun. Sikit2 ja. Takdak physical violence pun.

Quran never said that Islam is insulted when people say bad things about it. And again, Quran never said “Go make police report whenever someone is insulting you or Islam”.

I would like to stress again, an insult can never harm you if you are a mature person. A mature person understands what an insult is. They are just words with the intention to make us react the way they want us to react. You reacting immaturely, impatiently, and not persevering through the insult is the one in the wrong based on what’s in the Quran.

Grow up please.

But Shaik, what else can I do other than being patient? That can’t be all there is to it? Just be patient? There are so many things being thrown on the internet, YouTube and TikTok saying bad things about Islam. It can’t be that we just need to be patient and let it happen like that only? 

Ok lah, let’s read one more verse from the Quran. The answers are there if we read. We just need to read. Baca. Baca bagi paham. Don’t just read complete with tajwid mendayu2 but not understanding anything. Read to understand.

Quran 33:48

Do not yield to the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Overlook their annoyances, and put your trust in Allah. For Allah is sufficient as a Trustee of Affairs.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

And obey not (the behests) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in Allah. For enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.

A. Yusuf Ali

Dan janganlah engkau menurut kehendak orang-orang kafir dan orang-orang munafik dan janganlah engkau hiraukan usikan dan celaan mereka, serta berserahlah kepada Allah (memelihara keadaanmu); dan cukuplah Allah menjadi Pelindung (yang menyelamatkanmu).

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

Here, again Quran telling us to just ignore the hurtful talk of the unbelievers and the munafikun. Especially the munafikun I believe. Pakai songkok kopiah semua, but did not do what the Quran says. And the munafikun just continue to divide the Rakyat with stupid race and religion division tactics.

Not enough that we need to ignore, overlook, hiraukan their hurtful words and insults. We ALSO need put the trust that Allah will be sufficient in disposing our affairs and protect us.

This is not the first time I write about Islam being insulted and we ourselves feeling insulted. I’ve written about this before way back on 13 February 2020, Almost exactly 5 years ago. There is a nice video about how to handle insult at the end of that blogpost I made 5 years ago. Still very relevant today.

History tends to repeat itself. Don’t let the bad things happens again. Especially due to our own stupidity. Where we are not mature enough to handle insult. Or when we listen to and follows what the disbelievers and the munafikun wants us to do. Especially when what they want to do is to further divide the Rakyat even further.

Have a great weekend folks. Peace be unto all.

Paternalism Failing and Children Who ‘Rotan’ the Negligent ‘Abah’

Two odd months ago I deleted all social media apps on my phone. Back then according to the Screen Time App on my phone, I spent wasted on average 2+ hours a day on social media. Fortunately, I’ve successfully got rid the habit of scrolling through my social media feed. Nowadays, I no longer have the urge to scroll through my social media feed. Alhamdullilah.

Unfortunately, with Covid-19 making a resurgent, I have no choice but to start scrolling on my social media feed again. Information seemed to travel faster on social media rather than the mainstream media. You tend to get the news straight from the horses’ mouth. Yeap, I meant it both literally and figuratively. Be it the horses such as the YBs and the ministers. Or official outlets such as the KKM, media and journalists.

Fortunately, we have one of the best things happened to us during this rather panicked-stricken time. Being the good samaritan I am, I’d like to share it with you.

It’s is the story of our Prime Minister Muhyiddin. He claimed that he is the Abah that we never asked for, but the Abah that cared for us. I never liked the idea of anyone acknowledging oneself as Abah. It’s fine if I looked up to you as my Abah. But it’s a whole different thing if you start looking down on everyone of us, and think of yourself as our Abah. We have had a Prime Minister who’s been on the job for 22 years and he never once claimed to be our Abah, our Atok (grandfather) or even our Tok Nek (Great-grandfather).

Imagine if someone at your office goes around and starts referring to himself as Abah. Isn’t it weird? To top it off, he thinks he knows what’s best for you. Yikes!

Having at this as our news headline is shockingly stupid.

Muhyidding did this officially mind you! Several times in his PC on Covid-19, he referred to himself as ‘Abah’. The most recent PC on Covid-19, Muhyiddin again referred to himself as Abah when he said “Maaflah jika abah ini mula menggunakan rotan” (loosely translated as “Sorry if this father need to start caning”). It’s the ultimate ‘vomit blood’ (a term my good mentor used to say when she just couldn’t stand someone’s cringy-ness).

I actually disliked this ‘Abah’ thing right from the start. This is a gross Machiavellian nature of Muhyiddin and his propaganda factory. There’s a reason why I dislike hate this. This is straight up, a feature of government paternalism. I’m not against of all forms for paternalism government but I am against of what Muhyiddin is doing with this ‘Abah’ thing. There are specific reasons why I hate his usage of “Abah”.

Why I hate Muhyiddin referring to himself as Abah

Portraying himself as the father and everyone else as infantile children.
This entails several unintended (in this case, definitely intended by him and his propaganda team) consequences. Chiefly, it portrays everyone else as infantile children, and he himself is the one and only person who’s an adult. And as children go, we don’t know enough and him as the parent, know best. This is an insult to the us, the Rakyat as a whole. Especially when the Rakyat thinks it’s the politician who created most of the mess that we have today. Remember the stupid Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities? The facepalm Kedah Exco? The decision to not enforce mandatory quarantine by Ismail Yaakob even when the experts said otherwise? Or the gross incompetence in following SOP by our Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli even when he’s preaching for folks to follow SOP. It’s no wonder he received the short end of the stick from the the people.

So who’s the children creating all of these mess now? Muhyiddin and his Pak Long, Pak Ngah and whatever Pak? or us the Rakyat? It certainly looks to me that the politicians are the one behaving like children and created a bunch of the mess we have today.

Politicians behaving like children is normal. When Abah acting like an adult for all the wrong reasons, we need to call it out lah.

Trying to nullify disagreement and opposition
Malaysians have deep values in respecting elders. Especially our father, mother as well as our uncles and aunts. When Muhyiddin starts to refer to himself as Abah, little by little we will all succumb to his manipulative ploy to make the public see him as the ‘Abah’ to all of us. And us being strong in our Asian values, ‘we can’t oppose him as he’s our father’. The more people accept him as Abah, the harder will any dissent be, because the dissenters will be deemed as going against the general public. So much so, it’ll soon be taboo to say anything bad about our dear Abah. Soon, we can’t even comment negatively, because it’ll be deemed impolite to say anything not nice about him. And soon enough, we need to prostrate to the Supreme Leader Muhyiddin! Yes, that’s a sarcastic sentence. I need to stress it because People seemed to have lost the art of enjoying sarcasm and parody these days.

All hail to Supreme Leader Abah Muhyiddin.
I’m not alone in this

It is encouraging to see that I’m not alone in this situation. I’m not the only one who’s fed up of all this manipulative endearing Abah ploy by Muhyidding and his propaganda machine. Immediately after his most recent infamous Covid-19 PC, a throng of netizen expressed their anger, disappointment, laughter, of which all of them are definitely not positive towards Muhyiddin’s Abah ploy. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Some media outlets even used it as a headline for their news story and tweet. Check out this Awani quote tweet and the comments on Awani Facebook post of the same story. You’ll see just how fed-up the people are with Muhyiddin’s Abah manipulative antics. Even Twitter is trending with #MuhyiddinOut and #KlusterMenteri.

Don’t let Politicians decide who our Abah is

You Mr. Politician, will forever behave like a kid, so don’t pretend you are like a father to us. Just look at the daily parliamentary sitting to have a taste of their children behaviour. Even my youngest daughter kindergarten class is not this childish and she’s only 4 years old. Muhyiddin should stop degrading the word ‘Abah’ by associating himself with it. Just be Abah to your own kids, not the Rakyat.

Only us, the Rakyat, have the right to hold someone high up there, and honour them the with word ‘Abah’, ‘Bapa’ and the likes. Do not let the politicians take this away from us. We are the one who decides who our ‘Abah’ is in politics.

Till next time. Be safe and remember our SOP for Covid-19. It’s getting worse by the minute, thanks to our politicians behaving like children and not following the SOP.

Peace be unto all.

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.

To Snap or not to Snap.

Thanos wouldn’t ask this question, he would just snapped and be done with it. However, we need to think about it. Or the Avengers will come and kick our collective asses.

Based on what our Interim PM said yesterday, “The King has asked all MPs to make a statement… in front of him. The result is that he can’t find anyone with a distinct majority. Since there isn’t a distinct majority, he says the right forum would be the Dewan Rakyat”.

This is very astute of our King. He understands that the power belongs to the people. This is one of the many reasons why I love our current King. He’s a people person who doesn’t think he’s a know-it-all, clairvoyant and above the people like some other royalties. He believes that the people have elected these representatives to represent them, and that they are the best group people to decide on the next step. A true example of the saying “Raja dan Rakyat berpisah tiada”. Meaning the ruler and the subjects are inseparable. The King knows that we the people have chosen our representative for each of our constituency. So he let these representative decides.

Our King, Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin of Pahang wants the people to decide.

Unfortunately, our representatives are at an impasse. Who should be PM and lead them. One minute it was Dr. Mahathir, then it wasn’t, then it was Anwar. Then we hear Hishamuddin Tun Hussin, and now we hear it’s may be Muhyiddin though I think that is just Mahathir saying it as an example. I don’t believe that is what he wants. Why would he want’s someone who betrayed him? Knowing Dr. Mahathir, he probably wanted it for himself. Whoever it is, the impasse is, who should be PM?

You hear these politicians talks about, this is what the rakyat wants lah, they want this PM lah, and that PM lah, this mandate lah, and that mandate, this manifesto and that manifesto lah, this party lah and that party lah. This is all what they, the politicians want.

In actual fact, many of the manifestos and promises have now become secondary. We are now facing a much more immediate problem that needs fixing. It may have overtaken many other promises that was made more than 2 years ago.

Our economy is tanking

We now have a tanking economy, Stock market is at a 10-year low. Our 2019 GDP growth was at 10-year low. BNM even had to unexpectedly announce a cut in interest rate recently. Crude oil prices are at a one year low. The list go on and on. When this happens, everybody loses and we the rakyat lose more the the politicians and the rich people. Jobs creation halted, people loses jobs, purchasing power weakened, more shops will lose sales, means more jobs lost. The cycle is vicious.

The tanking economy is now made worse with the impending epidemic of Covid-19. It’s not yet an epidemic, just at pandemic level now. However, with Japan closing their school through March, North Korean is following suit by extending school break, and the latest even Saudi have halts pilgramage over Covid-19. What all these point to is a bigger negative impact on our economy. IMF will downgrade global growth. This is like a double whammy for our economy, or as the saying goes, “it never rains but it pours”. I like it more in Malay, “Dah jatuh ditimpa tangga, dan terpalit tahi ayam”, the “terpalit tahi ayam” is me adding on to it.

We will need the best people to steer the ship through these dark waters. We will need to be working together in getting through these dry spell. This is above party politics, this should be a bi-partisan issue that everybody agrees above anything else. Yes, even above who should be PM. If the person can’t steer us through this, then he better not be PM. Let the leaders think who is the person. Use this one thing that we all can agree upon to decide who’s the best person.

What if we can’t decide and we go for snap election?

What if Thanos snaps and we have a snap election? Let’s hypothetically entertain this idea. First of all, it will probably cost upwards of 800 million ringgit. That’s almost a billion. These are money that our government doesn’t have. Heck, even the recently announced Covid-19 stimulus package have already put a dent to the projected fiscal deficit from 3.2% to 3.4%. This isn’t even including political parties spending several hundred millions to fund the snap elections. More money down the drain. Do you really want this my dear leaders and readers?

Azhar Harun (Art), our Election Committee Chairman.

How fast can the EC organise the snap election? I reckon between 1.5 to 2 months including a 1-2 weeks campaign period. This means the country will be without a fully functioning government for another 2-3 months throughout this dangerous waters that we are going through. You really want this my dear leaders and readers?

And assuming we have this snap election, this effectively means we will have two full months of campaigning. The politicians are desperate for power, things will get ugly. Race relation in Malaysia is worsening. Think of what 2-month long of desperate campaigning will do to us? Think of just how much race and religion fanning sentiments will be thrown all over the place. Do we really want this my dear leaders and readers?

People are also fed up will all these politicking, back-door government, power tussle and the likes. A snap election may very well have the lowest turnout ever. Politicians will display their worst due to desperation, people will get more fed up, and may ended up not voting. Do we really want this my dear readers and leaders?

What I’m proposing is, all parties must work out theirdifferences. Put the immediate and real problems ahead of your ego, your vengeance, you hatred and whatever it is that is clouding your better judgment. Put the well being of the people going through the dark waters first.

Use these few days before the parliament sitting on March 2, and work out your differences. Present to the King a workable solution that will not end up in a snap election. Show to the people that you, the elected representative, knows better. That you will put the country and the people well being ahead of your own self.

This is what I implore you the readers, to tell your representative. This is what I implore you the leaders to do. This is what I, the rakyat wants.

Peace be unto all.

The Promise is Fulfilled. Dr M Resigned and Gave Way for Anwar to be the next PM. Or has he?

Several friends asked why hasn’t I written anything on Pakatan Nasional (now known as Perikatan Nasional as what has been mentioned by LGE in DAP press conference). I have actually written a long one but decided not to publish it. Why? because I felt that people aren’t ready, and also perhaps partly because I felt I’m not ready. But after what has happened yesterday, I felt I may want to get it out there as a sign of support to Dr. Mahathir. What was the point of the article? Well, the gist of it is that I myself am not really a fan of all-powerful-all-Malay coalition.

I’ve, all my life, lived in a home where I have a Chinese family home next to us, and in front of my home I have another Chinese home. Not even five doors away I’d have an Indian family living and somewhere along my street, I’d have a Singh, Mamak, Malays families. I’m fortunate enough that, when I bought my first and only home more than a decade ago, I know beforehand, that the unit will have a Chinese owner next to it. The salesman said people usually wants to know that detail. Damn right we want to know, because we want to live in a multi-racial neighbourhood. I told my wife that let’s get this unit, it will be perfect for our kids.

Even in my career, I’m blessed to have great non-Malay bosses, superiors and colleague. One non-malay lady was such a great person that I decided to call her Mummy. Till today, I still address her as Mum or Mummy. I’ve been blessed to have both Malays and and Non-malays helping me to be better as a person in my life. So to have one all-powerful-all-malay political entity is not something I want to be looking forward, much less be a part of. I’d like to have an all-powerful-multiracial political entity that cares for the all Rakyat in fairness.

If you don’t love the fact that we are all different people. There must be something wrong with you.

Now that the question of Perikatan Nasional is out of the way, let’s move on to the big elephant in the room.

We have a slew of big-ass news yesterday. First, the good Doctor have resigned as the Prime Minister. He apparently has also resigned as the Chairman of Bersatu. Then we have Bersatu leaving Pakatan Harapan but still supporting Dr. Mahathir as PM. Add to the mix, Azmin, Zuraida and some PKR leaders were kicked out of PKR. A total of 11 PKR Mps is now an independent bloc not affiliated with PH. And by the end of the day yesterday, we have the King declared that he accepted Mahathir’s resignation and that he also wanted Dr. Mahathir to be the interim PM while we all figure out who will be the next PM.

So let us break this down.

  • Bersatu left PH together with 26 MPs
  • Azmin, Zuraida and 9 other MPs left PH
  • PH reduced to 92 seats (minus 26 Bersatu and 11 Azmin bloc)
  • Perikatan Nasional or Opposition is the same with 83 seats
  • Independent bloc have 47 seats (26 Bersatu, 9 Warisan, 1 Upko and 11 Azmin)
  • Important to note that DAP, Amanah, Bersatu, Warisan, Upko and Azmin still supports Dr. Mahathir as PM.
  • Dr. Mahathir Resigns as PM
  • King wanted Dr. Mahathir to be interim PM
  • DAP, Amanah, Bersatu, Warisan, Upko and Azmin still wants Dr. Mahathir to be the PM even after he resigned.

The big thing that wasn’t discussed or mentioned a lot yesterday is the fact that Dr. Mahathir has fulfilled his promise to let go of his position as the Perdana Menteri Sementara under Pakatan Harapan Manifesto. He has done his part. Through and through. He clearly resigned and king accepted. He has fulfilled his promise as a Prime-Minister-in-waiting under Pakatan Harapan Manifesto.

Anwar Ibrahim can, today, go to the King and said that he has enough support from 112 MPs or more for him to become PM. Nobody is stopping him to do this.

Yesterday that Anwar stated “I am satisfied with his stance that we must give priority to the continuation of the reform agenda”. Anwar didn’t mention that he will go to the King to seek and discuss his succession and 112 MPs supporting him

As for DAP, they have clearly stated that they will continue to support Tun M as the PM. Amanah also did the same. Mat Sabu still wants Dr. M to continue to be the PM even after the resignation.

Mohamad Sabu. I like him. No, I really like him. I do. No, I actually do like him!

So, in one fell swoop, the good Doctor have TOLD OFF, all of those PKR and DAP, Umno and whoever else that have questioned his willingness to resign and let Anwar be the PM. He did resign and fulfilled his promise. It’s a masterclass stroke

We have seen before so many people asking for Mahathir’s transition date. Be it from PKR, DAP, Umno, PAS. So many lah. So now, all of you lot have your answers. Dr. Mahathir have resigned and fulfilled his promised under Pakatan Harapan to be the Prime Minister in waiting. Oh and Lim Kit Siang can still be in politics since Dr. Mahathir did quit and give way to Anwar. It’s just that Anwar didn’t have the balls (or seats) to go and see the King about it.

So what happens next? Assuming Dr. Mahathir still have the support of Bersatu, Amanah, DAP, Azmin and Pas. And since the Sheraton-gate, probably Perikatan Nasional supports Dr. Mahathir as well.

This effectively means Dr. Mahathir can be the PM again. This time it won’t be under the mandate of Pakatan Rakyat PM in waiting. This time he can be the PM based on a new mandate from Bersatu, Amanah, DAP, Warisan, Perikatan and whoever else that supports him. This time he can be a more effective PM because he wont’ be asked to resign or pass the baton to Anwar or anyone else anymore. He is then free to govern however he sees fit. Which is what I personally wants.

I’m so blessed to have seen this happen in my lifetime. He is the good Doctor indeed.

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.

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.

When Bapak Maszlee Keeps Missing the Trees for the Forest

Sometimes we get hung up on the finer points that we tend to miss the big picture. Many people tend to do this constantly. Me included. There are many reasons why this is the case but chief among them are the fact that there are too many things to do or to fix at any given time considering the VUCA state that we are in now. We then to get caught up in the whirlwind of things.

In the case of Bapak Maszlee the chief of the issue to me is the 3-page jawi subject. My apologies, it’s not even a subject but a passing remark for the Standard 4 BM subject. Just how long throughout a year of schooling will teachers be spending on three pages of a text book? Would it be one whole period? or half a period? Two period perhaps? And yet the whole nation is up in arms about it.

For completeness sake, let’s take a look at the proposed three pages of Jawi in Standard 4 textbook.

It really is nothing much isn’t it? Don’t you guys agree?

My eldest daughter and my son can read and write Jawi and they are still in Primary school. They aren’t great but they aren’t very bad either. They are doing fine even before all this hullabaloo. With these 3 extra pages on Jawi in the standard 4 textbook and probably 1-2 period spent on it, will it make them Malays, Chinese Indian, Iran, Kadazan and other ethics more Malaysian? At the end of the day, the only take away is “it’s Jawi writing”.

Today, if you were to google ‘Subjek Jawi’, you’d see endless links to opinions and debates about it. This article will definitely add to it. The more you delve into it, the more you will see that it’s dividing the very fabric of our unity. You’ll start to see that it has resulted in people being downright racist and bringing in religion into the matter. Let’s take a look at a few examples here.

With just people refusing to have a 3-page jawi in the textbook, they are immediately labeled as Communists. We see the Malays turned it into a religion. issue. And some even told these Chinese folks to go back to China. Would this sort of language makes people want to learn Jawi?

Personally, I am fine to have it included in the syllabus.I’m not against it and I’m not for it. I’m just indifferent. It won’t make or break anything for me. Make that what you want of me, you can label me with anything you want. Go ahead.

The original proclamation of Malaysia in Malay written in Jawi script.

This would’ve been a better topic to discuss about Jawi in my humble opinion. But then again I’m not an expert in Bahasa Melayu for Standard four.

What I am so angry about is that we treat Jawi as an Islamic script. Let us be clear, it’s not an Islamic script at all. It’s as Islamic as Rumi, or any other script out there. Jawi alphabet is not the even same as the per Arabic alphabet. There’s an additional 5 letters in Jawi in case you forgot about that. Have you read erotica in Jawi from the 40s and 50s? I remember reading some of it back when I was in primary schools. Friends passed around erotica in jawi, It’s almost like an amulet or “tangkal”, yellowish piece of ancient paper folded with Jawi writings on it. So yeah, nothing Islamic about that. Have you seen this add beer add in Jawi?

This is the problem with the Malays. We believe we own things and it’s exclusive to us. This country belongs to the Malays and Malays alone. The rest can get the hell out if you don’t like it. And whatever we owns are automatically Islam or Islamic. Bribery kinda now have Islamic version of it and working together with non muslims now becomes Tahaluf Siyasi. And now suddenly Jawi is the language of Islam. If it’s really is that, why are you lot only making a big noise out of it now? Why not back in 1950’s?

In case you forgot all about it, it was Asas 50 back in 1956 through 3rd Malay Language Congress (Kongres Bahasa ke-3) that proposed the Malay language be used in the roman or Rumi script. Asas 50 was made up of journalists, writers and teachers of the Malay language. These are the folks who hold up Bahasa Melayu up so high in their heart more than any of you guys and myself included. They love the language so much that they put up a proposal to romanise the Malay language.

You want to know why? It for one single reason and one single reason only. In a memorandum by Asraf and Usman Awang (Memorandum Mengenai Tulisan Rumi Untuk Bahasa Melayu: Disusun Oleh Asraf dan Usman Awang):

Bangsa-bangsa asing dapat mempelajari bahasa Melayu lebih mudah melalui tulisan Rumi, bukan saja kerana tulisan Rumi sudah menjadi tulisan yang universal atau diketahui di seluruh dunia umumnya, tetapi juga kerana buku-buku pelajaran sastera bahasa Melayu serta buku pengetahuan lainnya mengenai bahasa Melayu dapat dengan lebih mudah ditulis untuk orang asing dengan tulisan Rumi daripada dengan tulisan Jawi.

Memorandum Mengenai Tulisan Rumi Untuk Bahasa Melayu: Disusun Oleh Asraf dan Usman Awang

It’s for this very reason that it was introduced to be romanised back in the 50s. And on 14 December 1959, Parliament have stated that both Jawi and Roman script of Bahasa Melayu are both accepted.

Today, we have people of various ethnicity can speak and write in Malay easily as it’s romanised. Now we want to go back to the 1050’s? Okay, I understand, fashion come and go right? Nowadays people wear ‘tengkolok’ or ‘tanjak’ a Malay headgear for men, it used to only be back in the day. So fashion do comes back in style. So yeah, don’t forget that it was the Malays who wanted to throw away Jawi. It’s very common for Malays to forget. Remember Boikot McD? Remember the more recent BMF? Of you forgot about it already? Ya, Melayu Mudah Lupa.

Now Jawi have become a national education issue and have somehow become the last straw for the Minister of Education to resign. It has divided the nation once again since 1956 memorandum. If we really are going have this rather time consuming and all encompassing discussions about our education system. If we really want to have a discussion that will probably divide the nation then why not do it proper? Why not take on the subject of One School System, No SRJK (C), no SRJK (T), no Sekolah Agama Rakyat, No Sekolah Tahfiz, no any other types of school except National school? Mother tongue language, Arabic, French, KAFA, Tahfiz, Usuludin or whatever else can be electives and taken up after official school hours. Debate on this and divide the nation on this instead of a 3-pages of Jawi that is not worth dividing the nation at all. This is a subject I don’t mind to divide the nation with. Not the 3-page Jawi non-issue.

With this Jawi issue, Mazlee let the bigger objectives of him being the Head of MOE be gone with the wind. Personally I think he had the toughest job right after PM and MoF. I don’t envy him and I think nobody in their right mind would envy him. It’s a tough position. He needs to get his head clear of the main objectives and keep that as the big rocks. Is Jawi his big rocks? Should it be front and centre every time Minister Maszlee comes up? Or should something else be front and centre? That’s the issue I have with him.

He not all bad, really. He did several right things right. He was the first among the ministers to share his ministry report card. Having said that, I personally think report card is rubbish. Anyone trained in KPI reporting will see that sort of KPI reporting is rubbish but I’ll give him the credit that he was the first to published it. He has the right mindset and the big balls to do it.

Summary of the KPI shared by MOE

He said all the right things on Cikgu Duka Lara (Teachers who are separated from their spouses as a result of being posted to different states are not only suffering mentally and physically but also financially). He started the ball rolling and made it all public. On top of that he also made inroads on reducing administrative works for teachers.

He made sure schools that are in dire needs for improvements get a big allocation in the budget. I remember cheering about it when it was announced by MoF in the budget.

As a first timer he did better than many other ministers out there. Many of whom who didn’t even break the news stratosphere because he/she did nothing at all. He did his best and Dong Zhong agrees with me. It’s unfortunate that the Jawi issue is overblown and costs him and us the situation we are in now.

With this resignation I expect other ministers who performed worse than Maszlee to resign as well. Dr. Mahathir proved that he’d doesn’t mind dropping a minister from Bersatu. So I’d expect Anwar Ibrahim, LGE, Mohd Sabu and others to also drop non performing ministers.

It’s important that the head of a family be true to the main objectives and goals. Don’t be caught in the whirlwind of things that’s not paramount to the objectives. It’s like this friend of mine, recently he contacted me through WhatsApp. He was telling me about this argument he and his wife were in on which school bag to buy for their standard 6 kid. The kid wanted an Barbie bag, but the Mom wanted to buy a Smiggle bag. It costs roughly about the same with Smiggle only slightly higher. Mom’s point is that it’s on sale. It’s usually much more expensive, not to mention it’s of good quality. Dad said his kid wanted Barbie and that’s what important.

I then replied the Bapak, “Bapaknye, you guys arguing about this bag…Have you guys bought all other things? The text book? The stationary? Uniforms? Got him a good tuition centre already? What about his extra curricular? Belum eh? Don’t miss the trees for the forest please Tuan.”

Peace be unto you.

RM278 monthly for retirement sounds good?

Recently I saw a friend of mine quit his job to take care of his ailing father. He had a pretty stable job. Probably brought back a good RM7-RM8 thousands a month with his job then. He’s the sole breadwinner. He will be going back to Batu Pahat Johor to live with his father. He will be taking his wife and his 2 sons with him. His father was too old to be living alone and his father just don’t want to live with him in Selangor. It’s not our culture to send old people to old folks home hence as a good son he is, he moved his home to Batu Pahat and lives with his dad. He earned a living by driving for Grab while doing some odd jobs here and there.

This situation is not at all uncommon. We find there’s more and more people living with their mom and dad. And this doesn’t look like it will change any time soon. According to the data shared by Employee Provident Funds, on average contributors who are aged between 50-54 only have RM200 thousands in their account. What’s worse, 67% of these folks have less than RM50 thousands in their accounts. The rich have so much money it inflated EPF average number for that age bracket. That’s very very worrying.

Table from 2018 EPF Annual Report. It’s scary looking at them.

Let’s assume that many of these old folks will indeed retire with RM50 thousands in the bank. Let’s further assume that these vintage folks will continue to live for another 15 years as Malaysia’s life expectancy is indeed 75 years old.

What can RM50 thousands give you over 15 years? That’s about RM278 a month. How much does a pensioner needs to live nowadays? This is what EPF shared.

That’s right folks, for a vintage couple, they need about RM3,100 or RM1,500 per person in a month. Probably more if they live in Klang Valley, Penang or JB. In 5-10 years, those in the age bracket with about RM50 thousands in their EPF account vintage folks will retire with only RM278 monthly income. That is if they don’t spend it at one go for umrah or pay up their housing or personal loan upfront. Even if we have double of that amount, RM1000 a month is not a lot.

Why am I sharing this? Because, where we are headed at our current rate, it’ll be way way worse than this. Lots of the folks in their 30s and 40s are still paying for student debt (PTPTN), fresh graduates have upwards of RM40 thousand in student loan alone. Most will have taken personal loan for marriage (I took out RM15 thousands loan for my marriage back in 2005. Then there’s car loan and credit card outstanding balances and many other loans probably.

We may ended up not having anything saved for out retirement. If we are part of the 67% of people that have less than RM50 thousands in our accounts by the time we are 50 years old then we need a miracle to be able to retire comfortably.

Remember that current adults and later our kids will not have it easy either. Even now people in their twenties are having a hard time to make enough money for themselves. Fresh graduates are doing menial jobs and paid at just slightly above minimum wage of RM1400. These are salary for folks working in fast food joints and restaurants. They don’t even have enough for themselves. More than 60% of graduates are unemployed in the first year after graduation. In total there are more than 500,000 adults are unemployed in the country. We don’t need statistics to tell us if these are younger folks or older folks.

So let’s be better prepared with our finances to better take care of our parents. Be better to prepare our kids so they fared better in the economy. Be prepared so we retired comfortably and won’t burden our parents nor our kids nor their kids.

If we aren’t prepared, we will be living with our kids later, together with their kids and their kids’ kid all in the same home. Singapore folks seemed to be ready and way ahead of us for this, for better or worse.

Peace be unto all.