Category: Self Development

Let’s Think It Is Enough

Editor’s Note: It’s been some time so as you may have guessed, this will be a long one. Perhaps my long time friend Mat Not will be able to draw this whole for the challenged readers.

I don’t comment much on politics nowadays. It seemed there’s already so much going one where the country’s government changed hands, state governments changed hands, more than 70 ministers and deputy ministers get appointed, more than enough politicians get appointed to professional positions, people with political connection gets away from being charged, motion of no confidence, and so many more politicking.

With this much politicking going on, we can pretty much ignore the calling for less politicking since the leaders in the country are pretty much ignoring the call as well. Nothing is further than the truth when it comes to the Malay saying, ‘Abah borek, anak rintk’, right?

At this point, I think that ‘enough is enough’. Let’s all follow ‘Abah’ footsteps and let’s all all ignore the call to stop politicking. Just like ‘Abah’, the right way to go is “ALL IN” and make the change you wanna make.

Okay Abah, let’s all follow your footsteps in igoring the calling to stop politicking.

One thing that apparently is not enough and really grabbed by attention is how most Malaysians reacted to the issue of refugees from Myanmar. Granted this is an old topic but the solution is something that is apparently new to everyone. Pray to read on till it’s the part where we talk about solution to the problem.

The hatred seeps in.

A huge majority of Malaysian, and to my surprise, even the Malay Muslims reacted the same. I expected differently from my Muslims brethren since majority of the displaced refugees are fellow Muslims. Majority of the general public felt that the Myanmar Refugees, The Rohingyas to be specific, overstayed their welcome. More than that, many felt that it’s better to kick them all out of the country and let them be somewhere else. Here are some example what the netizens are saying.

This guy got 14.4K likes. You can look at the replies of the tweet above and see how racists we can be even to folks of the same religion. To illustrate, let’s change some words,

Aku dulu kesian la jugak dengan Melayu ni cam oh shit miskin kesian depa ni. Tapi bila duduk KL, bersepah Melayu curi Obike la curi pokok orang la, mintak sedekah lepastu bila orang tak bagi dia maki dalam bahasa dia(ini jadi kat aku) dia siap ludah lagi. Jadi? Makanya?

Let’s take a look at another one. This is a story that make the rounds in WhatsApp groups and Facebook postings.

Dulu ada satu orang tua pernah bagi tahu saya, ada 3 bangsa dalam dunia ni yang takkan ada negara sampai bila-bila

1. Bani Israel
2. Gipsi
3. Rohingya

Rohingya ni bangsa tak ada maruah, tak ada harga diri. Apa yang jadi pada diri mereka sekarang adalah balasan kerana lari dari perang. Mereka pernah lari tinggalkan raja dan ulama mereka di Bangladesh, mencari kesenangan hidup di Burma. Tergamak buat macam tu. Lepas tu Burma bagi senjata suruh lawan musuh, mereka jual senjata. Mereka pernah jadi talibarut British lawan Burma. Sebab tu orang Burma (nama baru Myanmar) berdendam.

Kita orang Melayu mana pernah buat macam tu kat raja kita. Apa yang kita nikmati hari ni mungkin balasan baik dari Allah atas pengorbanan tok nenek kita yang tak pernah lari dari perang walaupun asik kalah.

Bermula dari serangan Chola, Siam, Burma, Portugis, Belanda, Inggeris, Jepun, Komunis, militan Sulu, terbaru virus Covid 19, kita tak pernah lari. Kita lawan walaupun ada polis dan askar kita terkorban.

Tak macam Rohingya, sikit-sikit lari, sikit-sikit lari..

Bayangkan lah di Langkawi nuu.. orang kita bagi rumah atas bukit kat Rohingya ni, dibakarnya rumah tu, taknak, takde standard katanya. Dia orang demand nak duk rumah taman ada aircond. Mujur jauh, kalau depan muka saya, memang saya terajang tang muka tak kira jantan betina, tua muda.

– copy paste –

You guys can do the same exercise, change some words and replace it with Melayu. See if it sounds racist.

Apparently Rohingya is now at the same level of the Israelies. They hated the Rohingyas so much that they grouped the Rohingyas together with Israelies. Oh my…That’s one way to rile up the Malay Muslims. They immediately gobbled it up. It’s so easy to get under the skin of the Malays.

Remember when this was making the rounds. That is why now no Mulsims consume any of these products. Eh…Wait, did the Muslims really boycott these brands?

I’m also mildly entertained by the fact that the story above conveniently forget about our own history as a nation. With Malayan Union, we go against the what the Sultans and Rajas have decided. Of course we make it nicer by telling everyone that we are protecting the royalties lah. When in fact, we didn’t like what the royalties was doing and we were going against them.

Talk about “bangsa takdak maruah”, the Malays are well know to be running RM2 Alibaba businesses, well known to be oh-so-easy in accepting bribes. But I guess when the Malays are doing it it’s not an issue. We Malays give and accept bribe in full dignity. It’s so full of dignity that we call it ‘sedeqah’. We runs RM2 Alibaba businesses proudly without any shred of shame. But the Rohingyas…they are a shameful bunch.

Not Hatred but it’s the limited resources

Now, In my ‘debates’ or ‘discussions’ with my fellow friends on the topic, they denied they are being racist. They flat out denied. Okay, let’s agree to disagree there. So I asked why are you so hung up about helping the Rohingyas? They claimed it’s about resources. Our country have limited resources, those resources must be spent on Malaysian instead of the refugees.

The first of the resources the Rohingya Haters claimed is limited is Job Vacancies. One of the request from the refugees is to be given some form or permit to work here in Malaysia so they can get some form of income. Rohingya haters claimed that we have limited jobs hence we shouldn’t offer these jobs to them. So many Malaysian have yet to secured any employment so why are we giving these jobs to them. More so during this Covid-19 period. We shouldn’t give them things that even we ourselves don’t have enough. That’s what the Rohingya haters are saying.

Second example, money. Governments have limited amount of money. Hence if we spend the monies on the Rohingyas, there would be less money for the Malaysian people. Government doesn’t even have enough for us Malaysian, so again, we should not give them things that even we ourselves don’t have enough. That’s what the Rohingya haters are saying

Then a good friend of mine said this;

Minta kat ayah sendiri x dapat… Pas2 dengar cerita ayah jiran sebelah baik… Try pi minta.. dapat la plak… Nak buat camna dpt ayah baik… Syukur la… Harap2 ayah ingat/bantu anak sendiri dulu… 😁

Harap2 ayah x bagi ayam panggang jugak la… Nant tersalah anggap plak anak sendiri… Anak pun manusia jugak… Ramai plak tu… Susah jadi ayah ni… Kena adil..

Some folks claimed that it’s a matter of resources and not race.

Many of the Rohingya haters felt that they themselves didn’t get enough from the government so why should the government give to others than Malaysian?

That is the crux of the matter. We always feel that we don’t have enough of something, everything, anything. Mind you the people that I debated/discussed with are people who are educate and have university degrees, own house(s), families, a stable and good jobs/businesses, have a good future waiting for them and their kids, and clearly are in the M40 and a bunch of them are in T20.

Yet compared to the Rohingyas who only have the clothes on their back, no home, not even a rented home, no education for them and their kids, no jobs, no country to go back to and worst of all, no future for their kids.

These haters feel that they still deserve more compared to the Rohingyas. They still feel they don’t have enough things yet especially compared to the Rohingyas. They still feel that they must get what they wanted first before giving to the Rohingyas.

Among the most viral and verified demand of the Rohingyas was the letter by MERHROM. It’s mainly revolves around them wanted to earn a living in Malaysia with proper permit and with proper insurance paid by the employer along with lower treatment charge at government hospitals. You can see the scanned letters here. I purposely linked it to a website that echos the Rohingya haters so you can see just how bad these website that promote hatred against Rohingyas.

The real problem

Now that’s a long intro to come to a point that I want to make. We need to change our minds from this ‘scarcity mentality’ to ‘abundance mentality’.

Let’s try to understand the two mentalities. First up is Abundance Mentality. This is a state of mind that believes ‘there is more than enough’. And because there is ‘more than enough’ we can all enjoy the what we’ve been given by Allah. Since we can all enjoy it, we can all win. It’s Win-Win for the both of us.

The second one, the bad mentality that we want to lose is ‘Scarcity Mentality‘. They believe that ‘we only have so much of this pie‘. ‘If you take some, there will be less for me‘. So in their mind, they will lose if they give it away, or if they other party get some, the other party wins. It’s a Win-Lose or Lose-Win situation.

The scarcity mentality is what these Rohingya haters really believed in. They believed that we don’t have enough on this world. And that God didn’t give them enough to live on this world so they can’t share. If they share this wealth, they will lose out.

Let’s examine what Islam says about these two states of mind. Let’s look at Quran 2:268

Syaitan itu menjanjikan (menakut-nakutkan) kamu dengan kemiskinan dan kepapaan (jika kamu bersedekah atau menderma), dan ia menyuruh kamu melakukan perbuatan yang keji (bersifat bakhil kedekut); sedang Allah menjanjikan kamu (dengan) keampunan daripadaNya serta kelebihan kurniaNya. Dan (ingatlah), Allah Maha Luas limpah rahmatNya, lagi sentiasa Meliputi PengetahuanNya.

Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing

Quran 2:268

Here the Quran likened scarcity mentality as the devil’s tricks or threat. It causes us to feel jealous, hate, anger and pettiness. The Quran condemns these feelings as the trick of the devil.

In the example of the Rohingyas haters I shared above, they are jealous of Rohingyas to get a work permit? Pettiness of the Rohingyas to get more affordable hospital treatments? Just how much hatred are in your heart my dear friends? You have a job, you have a house and a family. You have a country that loves you and takes care of you. None of the Rohingyas have these. Will we lose our work permit? Will you lose your homes? Will you lose your country? Do you feel threatened? by the devil? and you succumbed?

In the same sentence, Quran highlights the abundance mentality through His bounties and forgiveness. The Quran promises abundance if we’give’ and ‘share’ His wealth. Not if you ‘keep’ and ‘hoard His pie just for you’. Here the Quran stresses that we should discard the scarcity mentality and adopt the abundance mentality so that we received God’s forgiveness and unlimited bounties.

For comparison sake, Let me also share what the Bible says about the same abundance mentality.

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back

Luke 6:38

Even the Christians preach the same thing. Give and you will get God’s unlimited bounties.

The solution

I don’t want to talk about the isolated cases where the Rohingyas, were found to steal, rob and behaving in a bad manner. These occurrences do not represent the whole of the Rohingyas. Moreover, these are the symtoms of a larger problems. If there are those who break the law, take them to task. It doesn’t matter if they are the Rohingyas, Malays, Chinese, Indians or even the Martians. Take them to task. we have the police to take care of these issues. Don’t use this as an excuse to succumb to the trick of the devil.

My dear friends, you all pray 5 times a day, you all say your prayers. Some of are are teachers, headmasters, business owners, government servants, and some of you even lead the prayers at your congregation and yet you easily succumb to this simple trick of the devil. Don’t talk and preach the devil’s trick. Stop.

Start talking about giving more to the Rohingyas because they need it more than us. Then don’t stop there, give more to those in need no matter if they are the Rohingyas, Malays, Chinese, Indian, Caucasian, heck even if they are the Romulans. And in turn, you will get Allah forgiveness and his bounties. Quran guarantees it.

Please read up more on Abundance and Scarcity Mindset. I love what Stephen Covey wrote in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people’. It changed my world when I first read it during my college years. Let’s hope it’ll do the same to you.

Peace be unto all.

Yup, even the Romulans.

Why, How Can We Be Grateful and the Three Things I am Grateful for in 2019

Looking back at the 17 blogposts I have written this year, there’s not much gratitude found in them. There are a few thrown in here and there. Some are big and bold writeup of gratitudes, some are just bits and bops. I’m a little disappointed with myself in this regard. I set out to make the world better but probably ended up with a bunch of frustrated criticism in my writing. I can blame the world for making me feeling angry, disappointed, frustrated with the people or situation but in the end these are just excuses. I’m thinking…let’s end 2019 with being grateful.

Research have shown that our brain and body works better when we are in a positive state. We need to be positive in everything, even in death. We have all heard of the phrase ‘she/he is now in a better place’ or ‘Allah loves him more’ at every funeral right? That is putting death in a positive way isn’t it?

We can be easily be more positive by being grateful. Being grateful literally makes our brain positively better. Saying our gratitude out loud and writing down our gratitude make our brain ‘workout’ to be more positive. Think of an athlete working out to build muscles, the same principle applies here only that it build neural sensitivity to positiveness.

Being grateful is vital in making us stronger and more resilient to stress. In today’s world, stress is almost everywhere. Read the newspaper, stressed with the news. Drive to work, stressed with the traffic. Take the train, stressed with the sardine packed situation. Arrived at the office, stressed with our boss and co-workers. My wife arrived home, stressed with me spending more time with my second wife.

There are simple ways to rewire our brain to be grateful. But before that, let’s understand what gratitude is. Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines gratitude as the state of being grateful. Grateful means appreciative of benefits received. We sometimes think so hard for big and bold things to be grateful of when there are so many little things in life that we can be grateful of as well.

This includes me as well. I wanted to write things I’m grateful of in 2019 but I kinda struggled to find the things I’m grateful of. That’s when I got reminded of being grateful to the little things and also this book. This is what sparks this write up.

Onwards with the 5 ways to practice being more grateful and slowly but surely rewires our brain to be more positive. I should do it more and I believe so should everyone else.

  1. Practice sharing with loved ones
    • Share your gratitudes with loved ones daily. Best is to do it at the dinner table. Or it could also be just before you go to sleep. Try your best to share your gratitudes for the day, it can’t be from the day before or last week. It has to be from the day. It must also be uniquely yours, can’t be the same as your wife/husband or kids. Take turns, and you start first.
    • It’s also better at night because being grateful just before going to sleep will help us to sleep better.
  1. Practice Journaling
    • Writing down really works well with our brain. Ever heard your teacher or lecturer said don’t just listen to the lecture but also take notes? That’s because writing down further strengthen the brain neural activity. Furthermore it also involves physical object and thus further strengthening the neural activities of our brain.
    • Just write down three things you are grateful of before you go to sleep every day and that is it.
    • With your phone, it’s makes it THAT so much easier to write down three gratitude daily. We all know you scroll through your social media feed just before going to sleep, now replace it with writing down the things you are grateful of for the day.
  1. Practice mindfulness
    • Mindfulness is so very simple, it means: slow down.
    • I’m guilty of this as well. I want everything fast and now. In playing my video games, almost always I have this ‘min maxing’ mindset. To maximise everything in minimum time.
    • We tend to be doing it in real life as well right? Some wants to be millionaire before 40. Some wants to be in office on time and rushes through the traffic.
    • Mindfulness is to notice ourselves in a hurried state, and let it go away. Just let it go away and relax. A few minutes late won’t kill us. Tomorrow be out of home earlier and not be late anymore.
    • On the way to work, take notice of the birds, the trees, the clouds, the flowers planted by nature and also by humans. Once you got out of the car, look at the nature around us. Mindfulness is literally about asking you to stop and smell the roses.
    • Life is too short to be missing out on all of these, be grateful and let’s appreciate these little things.
    • Eckhart Tolle the author of “The power of Now” said it best, Nature never rushes, and yet everything gets done.
  1. Practice Stoicism
    • This is my second personal favourite.
    • Buy the new iPhone 11 Pro and the pleasure of owning it will wear off pretty quickly. The feeling will be completely gone by the time iPhone 12 comes out.
    • Same with buying a new car. Try driving an old 10 or 15 years old car instead of your 5 years old car and you’ll be thankful of your current car.
    • I still drive our trusty 11 years old Proton Persona to work every day. On the weekend I’d drive my wife’s newer car and that made me appreciate it so much more.
    • Make it a habit to live a simple life. This will help to make us think more of the pleasures in life that we take for granted. Take a simple meal that only a minimum wage person with a family of five can afford and the next Nasi Goreng USA Special will be the best meal you have ever had. Take the bus or walk somewhere instead of driving and you will be grateful you can afford a Proton. Sleep on the floor for a week and you’ll be grateful you have a RM150 foam mattress instead of a ten thousand ringgit latex mattress.
    • We all probably have a lot of comforts and life pleasures, even the little ones. Try to live without them and it will teach us to not take them for granted. We will actually be grateful for them instead of thinking to replace them with newer and better things.
  1. Practice to combine gratitude and forgiveness
    • This is my number one favourite of the five. This is the ultimate workout for our brain. We all experienced stress, anger and hurt. It may have manifested or it may have not and are buried inside us without us knowing. These stress, anger and hurt are probably caused by someone.
    • Write down these stress, or anger or hurt that we are feeling. Feel them, feel them hard.
    • Once you felt it hard, find a way how have this stress, anger or hurt have made you a better person. Find a way how you may have benefited from it in a way.
    • Then let the the stress, anger and hurt got away or melt away. Let the negativity go.
    • A good example I can share, my previous job is so very stressful. You think of the most stressful situation you have ever been in. Got it? Now multiple it by a million, that was how stressful I was. Not only that, I was also angered and hurt many times while working there. However, without all that stress, anger and hurt, I wouldn’t have learned how to cope with hard situations, I wouldn’t have had the best experience in my entire career, I wouldn’t have had some of the more fulfilling achievements, I wouldn’t have paid off several of my debts. Lastly, I wouldn’t have been the person I am today without all that stress, anger and hurt upon me. I let it go, let it melt away and it’s the best feeling ever.

I hope the above 5 ways to be more grateful will help you to live your life better and now I’d like to share the top three things I’m grateful in 2019.

My mom and the rest of the clan.

My mother is now 65 years old and she is fit as a fiddle. She still cooks for us when we are back in SP. She’d also pack for us food should someone is heading to KL and told him/her to pass the packed food to us. She would call me whenever I forgot to call her (and I almost always forget to all her). Until today she tries her best to not cause us trouble whether financially or emotionally. More than that, she was worried for me when I quit my job earlier this year. If there’s one thing I’m grateful in this year it’s this.

Second would of course are all the great games that I played this year. It’s been so overwhelmingly great. I played so many good games it’s sucks so much of my productive time that I feels so guilty. It has taken away time when I can read more, work more, spend more time with my wife and family more and do whatever more things I can do but instead I played these video games. And for that I am grateful.

This is probably 5% of the total team whom I have had the pleasure of working with. Thank you to all 100% of them.

Lastly, thanks the two great folks at my work place. First is the folks at my previous workplace for an experience of a lifetime. From my first day there, up to the very last day, it has been nothing but great stuff. You all know who you are and I’m forever in your debt for an experience of learning and contributing of a lifetime. Second is to the folks at my new workplace, I’m grateful for the chance given to me and the trust placed in me to be part of the great team there.

That’s all folks. Thank you for all your reads and comment here or personally or on my social media pages. See you in the next decade that is tomorrow. Have another great year in 2020.

Peace be unto you.

Thinking and Writing

So after close to a year not having my laptop in working condition, I now have it fixed. It was suffering from a logic board malfunction. After spending a good amount of money, I managed to get it working again. I love this MacBook, bought it back in 2012. It’s still very good at doing its thing. Getting a new one will cost me close to RM10K. I don’t think I should be spending that kind of money for a laptop.

Earlier today, I watched our dear Tun M talk on Asia Society, he was asked a question that probably get ask almost every single time he is interviewed. The host was in awe of Tun’s stamina and his great health so he asked where did such health come from.

Tun, reply in the simplest way, we need to be active all the time. Both physically and mentally. What strikes me was when he specifically mentioned READING (nothing new here, we all know he’s a avid reader), THINKING and WRITING.

Thinking and writing is what really made me go “Huh! I know this, this is not the first time I heard this. It was the very reason why I was inspired to write back in the days”.

So, armed with the trusty laptop that has served me since 2012, I started to write again. Not really a heavy hitting post, but just something to get it moving. What do you do before starting a full workout? Just a simple warm-up, right?

Going forward I’ll try to write at least 2-3 times a week. Mostly a commentary of things happening around us. You have got to exercise at least 2-3 times a week right?

So, till we meet again…soon-ish…a certain prince has caught my attention recently.

Peace be unto you.