Category: Malaysia

Of Nangoi and Prince, can we tell the difference?

This blog have opined once or twice before of The Unprincely Prince. I have made it known among my circle of friends that I’m not fond of royalties who have lost the true meaning of being a royalty, even with so many bedtime stories, fairytales and legendary tales telling us how a good King, Liege, Sultan best play his or her role. If there’s one thing to learn from History, it’s that we need to learn from them, especially the mistakes we did. More on this history lesson later.

Recently, The Unprincely Prince was again in the news, and it’s all for the wrong reason of course. There was a video clip of a football fan asking him to change Mora (JDT football coach), The Unprincely Prince answered, “Better to change the PM rather than Mora”.

As this blog shared previously, if a prince decides to step down from his throne and no longer behaves like a prince, be prepared to be clobbered. History have shown again and again what will happen to an Unprincely Prince, so as fairytales and bedtime stories. The world as a whole have somehow slowly but surely stopped believing that a King’s blood and a peasant’s blood is not the same. So whenever someone who believes his blood is so much more special than the rest of the people, not behaving the way he’s supposed to behave, then he is no longer special in any way.

Back to The Unprincely Prince, since the video have made its way across the internet, it’s just a matter of time for it to be used as fodder for those people who’s hungry to see the Malays and the Royalties go against each other. The Unprincely Prince having a special kind of blood flowing in his veins should’ve anticipated this and not be the fodder that he’s about to be soon. Hence a question was asked to Dr. Mahathir our PM about this video starring The Unprincely Prince. This time, Dr. Mahathir no longer minced his words, watch the video below.

Give it to The Good Doctor to say things that cuts you into a thousand pieces. The fact that he used the word “nangoi” (a word we Kedahan use to refer to small kids, or kids who not yet know anything much, tells us that The Unprincely Prince is almost nothing to him. To Dr. Mahathir, The Unprincely Prince is nothing but a kid, whose balls have not even dropped yet.

What is more important, Dr Mahathir showed that The Unprincely Prince failed to understand and probably refused to accept that Malaysian have chosen Dr. Mahathir over his own choice in GE14. Dr Mahathir reminded him that even The Unprincely Prince can’t change that. Only the Rakyat can change that.

Of course this started a chain of events where more spats occurred between The Unprincely Prince and the rest of the Rakyat with nothing special running their veins but peasant blood. The ever so spirited Syed Saddiq, Minister of Youth and Sports have chipped in as well with a couple tweets below.

He has a good point on the FAM though. I had high hopes when The Unprincely Prince was about to take over FAM from the rut that they are in under the care of the Pahang royalties. However, after about a year, with so many drama unfolding, he quit FAM. I still remember feeling so stupid at the time, I had put my faith on another spoilt royalty who, through my eyes, values his wealth and possessions more than anything else. And that, as what spoiled kids always do (I know because I spoiled my kids too) they quit something when they just can’t wrap their head around them, usually with a bit of a tantrum. They don’t have the will and courage to continue with it and go through all the hard work. Spoiled kid can’t understand that money can’t buy everything.


Of course someone else chipped in as well, Rais Yatim, one of the old guards who I fancies whenever he speaks Malay, oh so eloquently. He didn’t quite minced his words as well. Look at his tweet below.

The fact that he used the phrase “…ikut selera anak raja saja. Nanti hurhara rakyat.” is pretty damning. He practically told off The Unprincely Prince to not wave the Prince Card around according to his whim and fancy or it’ll be chaos. On top of that, he’s basically telling The Unprincely Prince off again when he said “Tolong Waras”. It is basically a gentleman‘s way of telling The Unprincely Prince “You are too crazy la, Don’t be so crazy can or not?”

Lastly, I’d like you my dear readers to read this PIECE by Dato’ Kadir Jasin for some history lesson. It is important that we all learn from history because history tends to repeat itself. It’s all in our hands ladies and gentlemen. Be it to change Mora the coach, change the PM, or even change our stars so we all stand as equals. Like the old days, back in the kampung, in my teens, whenever we want to go have a swim at the abandoned lombong near our house. We would make sure no budak-budak nangoi followed us or it’ll be chaos.

Thanks and peace be unto us 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.

To Pay or Not To Pay…

I’ve been fascinated by the phrase To be, or not to be”, it says so much and yet so little, that’s William Shakespeare indeed.

Recently The Star reported Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, our newly appointed Khazanah MD said, “The government is not the sole decision-maker in whether toll rates should be reduced or maintained as it also depended on the stakeholders”. He continued, “They will not simply dishonour the contract. No government can break those contract. You can read the full news HERE.

 

shahril epf
Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan. He was the CEO of EPF since 2013 before moving to EPF.

Naturally, I wanted to know who these stakeholders are, so I straight away googled the owner of PLUS. In my head, questions flying around, “Khazanah can’t even negotiate with them? They are the cronies of previous government or something like that?”

So the first Google search result for the phrase “plus highway shareholders” returned THIS. it’s another article in The Star back in September 2017. Apparently there are only two shareholder for PLUS Malaysia Bhd, UEM Group 51% and EPF 49%.

So in my head, God damn you UEM, you won’t agree to at least reduce the tolls? Who owns you, I want to know!

So I googled “UEM Group Shareholder”, lo and behold, the first search result returned UEM website with the sentence “UEM Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia.”

Then it hit me, “The stakeholders” here are EPF, then UEM and in turn Khazanah of whom he Shahril himself is the MD. Is this another case of “Najib, mintak dekat Najib, Najib kata boleh, dan bagi dekat Najib” as popularised by our Dear Mat Sabu. Although this time it’s Shahril instead of Najib.

A guy who helmed EPF, and now Khazanah, spouting out nonsense like that. Is he taking us for ride? Just because one is of Oxford and Cambridge educated, it surely doesn’t mean one is full of wisdom. To me, in this regard, he’s a load of bulls. There’s no stakeholder this and that, what it takes is just the will to make it happen. That’s all, no need to spin here and there Datuk Khazanah MD.

And people still wonder why I despise most of the top people at GLC so much.

Adios, and peace be unto all of you.

The Prince and the Youngster

This article on our youngest minister really hit me hard. Here’s a guy who shared on his twitter page, his experience working with the person he really admires, and out of nowhere, our regal prince came and took a jibe at the young minister.

The Prince and the Youngster.

I can’t help but surmise that our prince just could let our dear Tun get all the attention and admiration he deserves. In the past, our prince had also took a jibe at Tun before GE14, not forgetting to mention the conflict our dear Tun had with his late grandfather.

He also said “Don’t change the boat if the engine is not broken, don’t even change the skipper but allow HM The Sultan of Johor and I to work with the skipper”. We all know what he meant by this.

Rewinding a little further back, our prince’s JDT Facebook Page has also been saying things that are unpatriotic and unbecoming of a Malaysian. I have said my piece in a Facebook posting I made on 31 August. and not long after that, the good prince complained that he and his father are being monitored on social media, and I’ve said my piece as well.

And today, here we are again, saying my good piece for the good prince, yet again. My prince, one’s age is not the absolute measure for wisdom or stupidity. Looking at the young minister, he is already a full cabinet minister. On the other hand, many, many years ago, I was still trying to figure out what to do with my life after I got married at 25.

After the stories of Tun’s wonderful UN speech, we have several people coming out sharing similar experience with Tun, on him being ‘a master at his own work’ validating our young minister’s ‘claim’. You can check them HERE and HERE.

I can’t but feel something is off when our good prince is in the news for all the wrong reasons this year. Perhaps something can be learned HERE.

Daulat Tuanku. Peace be unto all of you.