Don’t Kill the Messenger

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

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

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

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

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

A look at the Bisik-Bisik by Awang Selamat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace be unto all.

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

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

Black Pants, Birds and how it all disappeared.

As you have probably known by now, I find the Unprincely Prince so fascinating the I’ve written about him a few times. Not so much of his cars, or football team or his other worldly possession, but rather his princely demeanour or lack thereof.

Recently my brother sent over a screenshot of the Unprincely Prince Instagram story. Here’s a screenshot of it courtesy of the Internet.

This is the Instagram Story that started it all. Kinda legendary.

It tells us of the history behind the palace’s garb. It also tells us just how exclusive they are and not to be worn by anyone else. It also tells us that they are the eagles and the rest of the worlds are just sparrows. It also tells us that many people don’t like Johor Palace and that many folks are saying lots of nasty stuff about them. Then it also tells us that he believes that many people are copying their styles and that many people wants to be be like the King. And lastly, it also tells us that the lowlife be just that, lowlife. Know your place lowlife, you should shouldn’t dream any taller than the lowly grass.

There’s a lot to unpack there. Like A LOT. The beauty of it though, the collective wisdom of Malaysian people as a whole have somehow came together to tell the Johor Palace that the Pipits can really flock together and agree on a common ground that would make the eagles scared shitless and disappear. So in today’s post, I’ll be sharing some of the stuff that I came across on the Internet and together with it I’ll review these rather exquisite postings.

First up is another tweet from the the Unprincely Prince.

Yup, there it is. Blamed the late Sultan instead of owning it.

As what is typical of a princes in many bedtime stories, they are usually so very full of themselves and doesn’t seem to understand the concept of accountability or ownership. As in this case, after he was called on it, he blamed it on the late Sultan Iskandar. How very predictable this Unprincely Prince is, really living up to his name. A leader would gladly own up his shit, but not him, he “passed the buck” to his late grandfather. And then, in the classic shoot-you-back-move he also blamed others for being ‘too triggered with his post’. What’s not to like isn’t it? Well, perhaps you’ll like the next one better.

Tweet captured by my brother as well. He’s a big fan of his shenanigans.

So at the height of the hullabaloo that he has created, he tweeted the above. In this tweet he elaborated and proved (rather unsuccessfully, do read on to know why) that Johor is the trend setter and that people are copying or at least following Johor in many aspect.

What tickled me was he started the tweet with ‘1 thing you can’t you can’t deny’ and ended it with, ‘well, I know I’m good all over and the best and the number one and everything else super, BUUUUUT you guys also special lah, semua special gitew kaaaannn’. We all know that the last bit was as condescending as condescending can be. But what’s more funny and really tickled my funny bone was his opening statement. That “one thing you can deny” bit. It turned out, that one thing was denied “en masse”. Here it is in all its glory.

I can’t fathom just how clueless the Unprincely Prince can be. Did he not know that our IC number state designation is in alphabetical order? We all know this when it was first introduced. I am from Kedah, I remember asking this question to my teacher back then how come Kedah is number two, we should be number one! (Yeah kids always like that, we always want to be number one, I wonder which other grown up nagoi like that, can’t really put a pin on it 🙂 ). Just like that, his tweet got denied so hard. Sorry my dear Unprincely Prince.

Okay lah, maybe this is blown out of proportion by the Internet. As we all know, the Internet have this habit of blowing up stuff out of proportion. Also, maybe it’s true that it’s not him that is imposing these crazy belief, maybe it’s true that it was his late grandfather. However, the next tweet by a fellow Johorian kinda sealed the deal that his grandfather wasn’t to be blamed entirely as well.

So this guy was asked to not wear his raya outfit should he wants to attend the open house. To be specific he was asked to take off his sampin because he was wearing it together with a pair of black pants and a Teluk Belanga. I asked him who told him to take it off, he said it was the JMF (Johor Military Force). This can’t get any crazier than this. And here I thought that it’s just his grandfather doing as he said, apparently it’s still going on today lah. On to the next one.

Since we are talking about being first an all, I’d like to remind everyone that Johor was also well known to be among the first to agree in supporting the British through Malayan Union. Johor Palace have agreed on the basis of friendship in establishing the Malayan Union. Unlike other Sultanate who were coerced to agree lest they lose their position. You guys can read all our history books on this but let me hook you with with a refresher HERE. Here’s an excerpt.

Sungguhpun tugas MacMichael dilihat berjalan lancar, namun pada hakikatnya ia bukanlah suatu tugas yang mudah. Hanya Johor dan Selangor sahaja bersetuju menandatangani perjanjian tersebut tanpa banyak bantahan atas dasar setia kawan. Manakala di Negeri-Negeri Melayu lain seperti Perak, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan dan Perlis, MacMichael terpaksa menggunakan kaedah ugutan sama ada tidak mengiktiraf baginda sebagai Sultan ataupun menggantikan baginda dengan calon Sultan yang baru. Sementara di Pahang, Kelantan, dan Terengganu MacMichael turut menerima tentangan daripada para baginda tetapi tentangan tersebut tidaklah begitu kuat. Oleh itu, laporan Willan ternyata tidak menepati harapan MacMichael

Well, yes, Johor Palace was in love with the Brits back then. So in love that they are willing to sell our motherland to outsiders. In the end, the rest of the Rakyat banded together and opposed Malayan Union, the very thing that the Sultans have signed. Go figure guys, the rakyat do know better than the Sultans. It has been proven then, it on this matter, it’s being proven again.

Now, obviously I’m not the only person who knows his history, many others did to. Just do a quick search for “Malayan union” on Twitter and you’ll get a bunch of tweets mentioning the same. Here’s a screenshot of the search.

A simple search on twitter will show you just how many remembers what Johor Palace did during the signing of Malayan Union.

I’m from Kedah and we have our own Sultan and Palace too. So I’d like to share something that I stumbled upon while all these is happening.

A rather good find on this. Writing on this topic made me learn about things I would never learned by myself.

It turned out that Kedah Palace’s uniform for its biduanda is kinda like that infamous Johor Palace Royal garb. It’s rather surprising, the same black pants, sampin and Baju Melayu combination. Although its Baju Melayu is with Cekak Musang instead of Teluk Belanga. To Kedah Palace, that garb is only suitable for the biduanda, not the Royals, just the biduanda. Good find Mr Khalid Ismath, it shows no matter how high an eagle may fly, there will always be something else that can fly higher. This teaches us to always be humble as we don’t always know what lurks above us. And since we are on the subject of the black pants, sampin and Baju Melayu, here’s another gem I found on the Internet.

I can’t credit this to anyone as I don’t know where it came from. Do tell me should you know so I can credit it properly.

The above tweet shows that all these talking about palace garb, helang and pipit, and whatever else it entails, are just jokes to him. What I hope is he didn’t find the Johor Palace a joke to him as well. If indeed he finds that the Johor Palace is a joke, there’s only one person to be blamed and that’s our very own bedtime stories Unprincely Prince.

It’s telling that after all the endless pipit tweets, and postings on social media ridiculing the whole thing, the Unprincely Prince finally realised that he has opened a can of worms that he found from his own backyard. Since then, he has deleted almost all of the above tweets. I wanted to link to his tweets instead of screenshots of his tweets, however they are not there anymore. The tweets by the Unprincely Prince have totally disappeared. I guess the collective wisdom of the Pipit can really make the Helang disappeared with its tail between its leg. The Pipit do have this immense power that no one can challenge, not even the Eagle, should the pipit all band together that is. So let’s continue to band together and show to the eagles, parrots, vultures or even the pterodactyl that they can never be above us. Let’s show them that the best place to be, is among us, living together in harmony.

Peace be unto all.

It’s That Time of the Year Again

Selamat Hari Raya to everyone. It’s a day to be with family and friends. If you are working today, we are forever in your debt.

Those enjoying the Hari Raya, enjoy the company and the food. Be careful and watch what we eat. We have all heard how Hari Raya have brought together with it gout, high blood pressure, diabetes and the likes. We are what we eat people say.

To those travelling, always be safe and make sure we all have enough rest before starting our travel. Remember to rest if you get tired and don’t force yourself to drive while tired or sleepy.

I’d like to wish everyone a safe and joyous Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Peace be unto all.

Of Labu Sayong and Sabu’s Ayoyo

The day was going along well. I had a few glasses of plain water from our trusty labu sayong. It kept the water cool and clean. I much prefer that rather than Coway or Cukoo. It has that signature taste you can’t get anywhere else. So to get he best of both world, I have the Coway feeding the water to the labu sayong and I’d drink it off of that. Although nowadays I’ve been having a bit of a problem, ants. I’d find ants in and around the cap edges. I guess they love that signature taste as well. If this keeps up, I’ll probably skip the labu sayong and drink from Coway filters directly.

Typcal Labu Sayong on the table. The water inside is cool and have this distinct taste I like.

After the drink, I got ready for office and head off. The traffic to the office was super smooth. The day was A-OK and thinking that Raya is just a day away, it’s looking like an oh-so-happy day ahead.

It went south pretty quickly after that, the few WhatsApp groups I am a member of suddenly starts giving out multiple notifications. I was thinking something bad must have happened, probably on the same level as the recent shooting in Christchurch.

Scrolling through the endless chat, I realised it’s something far worse than that. It’s what I’ve been fearing all this while, our Defence Minister, Mohamad Sabu or his rather his street name, Mat Sabu, speaking at an international forum. I’ve always thought he’s more suitable to be taking care of a more local issues than international ones. Probably because he’s so close to the ground and can really feel what the public is feeling. But alas, what I’ve feared have happened, so let me put it here so we can unpack it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz9pBXGc4-I

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. It’s his English. Now we all know English is our second language. We can’t write or speak it as fluent as our mother tongue. Going through my articles, you can see thousands of grammatical errors, wrong choice of words and whatnot. Having said that, his advisers or his aides, if they really are his advisers that is, should’ve advised him to just speak in plain Bahasa Malayu and use a translator instead. There’s no shame in that. We see countless great world leaders do it. The gender mistakes, the helter skelter English, and the humiliation can be altogether avoided. In fact, he can be seen as a proud Malaysian who insisted to use Bahasa Malaysia as it’s our national language.

I find it odd that his aides and advisers didn’t insist that he speaks in Bahasa. His forte isn’t speaking to such crowds at the IISS Asia Security Summit Shangri-La dialog. He’s a local man who commands a very good oratory skill speaking to the common folks, not to foreigners. The foreigners can’t understand his rather peculiar choice of words that the local folks finds captivating. The fader and mader, soft way and hard way, saluting him/her, these are words and phrases only locals can connect. If any of the dearest Mat Sabu advisers or aides are reading this. You guys failed miserably on this. You guys better take a good look at these turn of events, realise your mistakes and learn from it. And if you are reading this Bro Rafizal, it’s because I love you as a friend, him as a person and wants PH to succeed that I write this up.

Mohamad Sabu and his aides. looks like a lovely group of people.

Now that the elephant in the room is out of the way, let’s unpack some of the things he said. First off he sent his utmost regards to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The choice of words again was rather peculiar but we’ve gone through that already. What really ticks me off was his comment that we share our border with China. That’s a factual error. He’s either jet lagged or just plain confused with his facts.

40th Prime Minister of New Zealand. She the world’s youngest female head of government having taken office at the age of 37.

Prior to that, he mentioned the kidnappings in and around Sabah waters. Paraphrasing, “We reduced the kidnappings as we works closely with Indonesia and Thailand”. Again, it could be the jet lag or it could be that he just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Why Thailand when the topic is Abu Sayyaf and the Mindanao province? Probably the topic he’s covering that day is too hard for his to study by himself. He did say that he’s not a university graduate and in fact, he’s a dropout. I’m not one who dis folks without a university degree. Some of the greatest minds are university drop out. In my line of work, we thrive with folks who never set foot in a university. But they are all expert in their field, and my dear Mat Sabu, you just doesn’t look and act like one.

You can’t take it too easy. You can’t just pretend to do it. You really have to do it proper. We had dozens of pretenders back in the day under BN. We also had Ali Baba who only knows how to swindle money back in the day. We had celebrities who only want to be famous back in the day. You have to do your homework, you have to burn the midnight oil and get it up to snuff, you have to get your people to read up and tell you how it’s going that day. People that can do the job, not just some guy who don’t even know where Thailand’s border is. You just have to buck the hell up and own this shit.

On the China bigger ships, it doesn’t matter if China, US, Russia or the damn aliens from Planet Zargon69 have bigger ships, bigger planes or bigger cojones. What matters is that we have the biggest, baddest, meanest muthatrucking soldiers, navy, paskal and etc. Just say that lah at least, make our lads land ladies in the force feels proud la sikit. If Mat Sabu can’t even realise that, he surely isn’t assisted by his aides and advisers.

Clearly his aides and advisers are not up to the standard that he requires. We have seen so many leaders fell because he surrounds himself with people who only serve to make him feels good rather than to make him proper good.

Finally, if he can’t wrap his head around the topics, if he can’t pick and choose aides and advisers that really works for him, if he can’t detect that his aides are just plain useless, it’s his damn fault. The buck stops with him. It’s what leaders are made of, buck that stops on their table. He needs to own the damn decision and be ultimately responsible for the screw up his aides and advisers did as his own screw ups.

33rd US President harry S. Truman kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in the Oval Office.

If he and the advisers are still on their high horses and ignore what the public think of them, then face the downfall very very soon. He might face the same fate as my labu sayong, just because of the ants feeding off the signature taste of the water, I’d throw the whole thing out. So please Mat Sabu, don’t go ayoyo again on us.

Thanks and peace be unto all.

Growing Old With You…

I’ve been thinking what I should do for the coming 14th anniversary of our marriage. Will it be the obligatory bouquet of flowers, the typical present (a handbag, show, phone, car and etc) and coupled with a nice dinner, or should it be another round of what I normally do, give my wife a nice big hug and tell her how much I love her after coming back from work.

Thinking about it, I think perhaps it’s more appropriate if I were to write about growing old with her.

Before I start, a friend of my wife told her that my writing on Mother’s Day didn’t mention her at all. Well, that’s because the queen of my life deserve a post of her own. The top two ladies in my life deserve a post of their own. Not shared between the two of them. And as always, my queen understood that. She told her friend, it’s Mother’s Day, so it was dedicated to his mother. Little that she know, a post is waiting for her.

When did I first met her…let’s see, it was probably around Apr/May 1998, in ITM Machang, Kelantan. We were going through Minggu Wawasan Siswa. Sort of an orientation week for all freshmen in ITM. The girls were separated from the boys. The only time we can see the opposite sex was when we were gathered in the main hall.

Aerial view of UiTM Kelantan in Machang. The place where I met the person I’ll be growing old with.

That was when I first saw her. She’s up on the stage, standing among the rest of the ladies that made up Class of 98. That was when I kinda got my first ever proper crush. Not a crush similar to the one I had on Meg Ryan, but a proper crush. She was probably 10-20 meters away from me up on the stage. You can’t really see her but there’s something in her eyes that drawn me to her. You could say she taught me the feeling of having a proper crush on the opposite sex.

Look at her, how could an eighteen years old not have a crush on Meg ryan in You’ve Got Mail

Five months in, we got to know each other pretty well. She’s the super friendly type while I’m the introvert type. We were on a bus going back to Kedah just after the first semester ended. We were together with a few more of our friends from up north. As the stars and planets aligned and our fate intertwined, the bus broke down and we were stranded somewhere in the middle of East-West highway near Gerik. With nothing else to do while we waited for the first light (and the replacement bus), we spent the night and the following morning talking to each other on the bus. It’s here she taught me how to talk to a lady properly and act like a gentleman keeping all 5-6 of us safe and helping each other.

We were stranded along the East-West Highway between Gerik and Jeli back in 1998, no smart phones, no internet. We only had each other company.

About a year later, we became closer together. She got a boyfriend of her own at the time. I always believed that I got a chance if she’s not yet engaged or married. I subscribed to this “best man wins” philosophy at the time. As she later realised, having me trying to be nice to her and trying to win her heart, probably made her situation with the boyfriend very difficult. She later told me that, it’ll never happen between us and to stop doing what I’m doing. She’s got a boyfriend and she chose him instead. Aaannnddd, that’s when she taught me how to face the horrors of rejection, sadness and bitterness.

Interestingly enough, the next few years were a period where I would look at her from far and keep the feelings to myself. We remained friends throughout and as luck (though I believed it to be my charming personality winning her over in the long run instead of luck. haha) would have it, the relationship with her boyfriend didn’t work out. It was then that I learned from her the true meaning of “playing the long game”.

Around 2001, we were studying in UiTM Arau, I learned another thing from her, that’s driving a car. Believe it or not, I got my driving skills from her nd no one else. We would be spending our afternoon and evening together in her car, around the beautiful streets of Arau, Perlis. She would let me drive her around, teaching me how to drive properly. To this day, she continues to correct me and scold me whenever I didn’t drive the way she taught me. Yup, imagine having this strict JPJ Officer next to you throughout your life, forever and ever and ever and ever, while you are driving. Aren’t I lucky? Lucky right? Right? Right? Anyone? Someone?

Typical scenery driving around Arau Perlis. I wish I have a photo of this scenery just before harvesting season. It’s oh-so-romantic as my wife would say.

Sometime in May 2014, both of us were in Kuala Lumpur, living the Malaysian dream of working in the heart of the city, I received a call from her, told me her mom and dad are in town. They would like to have lunch with me. I still remember my spider-sense were tingling when I heard that. But being in love, it has blind-sided me and I ignored it. I accepted the invitation and met with them in a restaurant somewhere near Jelatek. It was then I was asked the big question. Her mom (she’s one of the kindest human being I’ve ever know, al-Fatihah…) asked me, “So, you guys have been friends since the days in Kelantan. I believe it’s time to make it official. Don’t you think?” And that’s where I learned from her, not to ever, ever, ever, ever let myself ignore my spider-sense when it’s tingling. Hah!

Spider-sense is tingling!

On 3 June 2005 (3/6/5. 365…how can I forgot the date lah my dear) , we tied the knot. It was the happiest day in my life. Despite all the screw ups that happened throughout our wedding receptions, the thought of “I will now be able to grow old with her”, made me the happiest man alive on that day. It was then she taught me that a song doesn’t have to be popular to be your song.

So here it is Intan Suhara, it’s been some time since I sang this song for you. It wasn’t that great when I sang it to you back in the day and it sure won’t be great today. I was never the artistic one, it’s always been you. So I’ll let Adam Sandler have the honour to do it.

Happy Anniversary Intan. Thank you for all the love, kindness, support and most importantly, thank you for all the life lessons Alia, Danial, Ayra and of course, yours truly have learned from you.

Being Critical, Being Objective and Calling a Spade A Spade

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace be unto all.

The Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Valkyrie, Pepper, Peggy, Aunt May of My Life

This may be a little late, but as my Mother knows me best, I’m always late in everything, really, in literally everything when it comes to my Mom. She on the other hand, is always on time, on point, on the mark and on top of everything that she needs to be. She’s the Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Pepper, Peggy, Aunt May, Gamora, JJ, Nebula and all other Avengers, all rolled into one Super Mom, my own Super Mom.

That’s Bajunid’s Clan there, it’s the whole lot of us with some of my Aunt’s family thrown in. My Mom sits in the middle. That’s the Avengers in disguise there.

Just how super is she? For starters, she was the designated driver of our family for the longest time as our Yed (we call our father Yed) can’t drive a car till he was probably over 40 years old. So my Super Mom was the one who drove us all over Malaysia. Yup, she’s that super.

The earliest memory of my mom (We call her Mama) that I can remember was probably back when I was in kindergarten, a bit hazy though. I remember she was the one that sent and picked me up daily. At the time we were all in Dungun, Terengganu. She would drive our Toyota Corolla, with plate number TC1122 if I remember correctly. I’m not sure, it’s kinda hard to remember. I was only in kindy at the time. But Toyota was the first car manufacturer I know and the only driver was Mama.

Toyota Corolla 1978: If my memory serves me correctly, this was our car model and make back in the day. She was the sole driver for our family for many many years.

Fast forward a little bit, I was in Standard 1. I joined a school field trip to Kuala Lumpur with my brother. Being the only kid from Standard 1 joining a standard 5 and 6 field trip, I remember Mama was very worried letting me go. I can remember her worried face as she dropped us at the school that day. I remember she was telling my brother to take care of me. Though I can’t remember her telling me to be careful and be safe. Perhaps she knows I can take care of myself. Or perhaps did tell me to be careful, but you know me, I probably ignored it. It probably went into my left ear and went out immediately through my right ear. I can still remember her worried face looking at the bus and me as the bus drove off from the school compound.

Fast forward to 1990, she was super strong in going through her pregnancy carrying my youngest brother in her womb, all alone, as Yed just passed away a few months back. She was without her husband and carried my brother for probably 6 months. I can’t imagine what’s going through her head at the time. Having Yed just passed away, with her being pregnant and needing to take care of the four of us. It’s probably similar to the time Aunt May got to know Uncle Ben just passed and she needs to take care of Peter alone. But for Mama, needing to deal with being pregnant, taking care of 4 Peter Parkers, all still schooling, only 4 gajillions times harder I guess.
It would drive me nuts if it happened to me, but not Mama. She took it like a Champ. Super Mom with Super Strength indeed.

Mama and our youngest brother, she carried him alone for probably close to six months. That’s the very definition of super.

Fast forward a few years later, probably when I was in Form 2, the most rebellious period of my life. I just got back from a day out in the woods, we skipped school and stayed in a nearby woods, smoking tons of cigarettes , gambling and playing cards among the five or six of us. Later that evening, as I arrived home at about half past six, nobody was home…”weird”, I said to myself. A few moments later Mama arrived, and the first thing she asked was “Fikri pi mana tadi?”. Being the rebellious person I was at the time, confidently, I answered “Baru balik dari sekolah la”. PEDEPAAAANNNNNNNGGGG! a big snap slap full of anger and love all rolled into one, landed on my face. I got a few more slap afterwards whilst still trying to lie my way through it. That’s the Gamora in Mama bitch-slapping Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy.

I couldn’t believe it, the place is still there. That’s the are where we used to have our hideout. The woods is no longer there though. Just an empty plot of land now.

Fast forward to form 5, a post-rehabilitation period of my life, I like to believe I was a better person compared to a few years prior. If there was a time where the looks on Mama’s face is so very happy/soothing/proud, I believe it was at that time. I can still remember the look, I don’t think I can ever forget it. It was a few months after SPM, I was working in KFC as cashier back in Sungai Petani, Kedah. It was lunch rush time, there were probably 5-6 customers queuing in front of me. I then noticed Mama was also in the line queuing, she looked at me squarely, with a big BIG smile on her face. The kind of smile you can only see once in a lifetime. Her piercing stare went straight through my eyes, I even felt the smile piercing stare. As she inched closer, waiting for her turn to be at the counter, her smile got bigger and bigger. I swear, she smiled so big, it can fill the whole floor of KFC, her smile’s aura lah. By the time she reached the counter, she said “Mama dah tengok result SPM Fikri, nak tau tak?”. By then I know the reason she smiled oh-so-wide. For those wondering, she worked as a school clerk, so she have access to SPM results a day or two earlier than the public lah. Even then, she asked for my permission first if I wanted to know now or later when I’m with my friends together at school with the rest of public. That’s the Aunt May in Mama, even though she knew I was Spider-Man, she kept it to herself and be proud of it on the inside and not spoil it for me. Remember don’t spoil Avengers: End Game. Mama knew not to spoil way back then already.

That’s the KFC where I saw Mama’s biggest smile ever.

I have a bunch of other stories to tell, all of which are about the Super heroic feats in Mama. She’s my everything. I on the other hand, have not been a good son, I would always be too busy working, playing my video games and whatever else that I do. Always forgot to call her from time to time. I haven’t been able to ‘balik kampung’ as often as I wanted to. And I thank Allah that we have Internet Banking so I can automate the money transfer to Mama. If it were up to me I would probably forgot about that too. Like I said, I am not the best son Mama could have. There is a lot of things I need to do better, talk more often, see more often, make her happy more often and do many other things more often.

On this Mother’s Day, I would like to wish Mama, a big huge Happy Mother’s Day. You are the Avengers all rolled into one super duper awesome package for me and all of us Bajunids.

Thanks for indulging me, reading through this post about Mama. See you guys on the other side.

Peace be unto all.

You Gotta Go Fast…You Gotta Spread Love Not Hate

As prescribed by my doctor, to live longer with my rather delicate heart, I need to read less national and world news; read more books and watch less movies to take my mind off things that would made me feel restless. Also to meditate, that helps a lot too.

So, about the movies, when Sonic the Hedgehog movie was announced I was super excited. Being a kid who grew up with a Sega Mega drive. Sonic is THE mascot not only for the console but for Sega itself.

Sega Mega Drive Box for Japan Market

I remember buying this Mega Drive console with my ‘hard earned’ duit raya at the age of 12. It was probably 300 or 400 hundred bucks at the time. I’m sure I didn’t have enough but somehow my mom chipped in I guess. Things our mom would do for us is unbelievable.

So, back to the Sonic Movie. Being a Sonic and Sega fan, I am so happy about it of course. Who wouldn’t right? People are never logical, we are psychological so we tend to be nostalgicaboutw things we love when are are kids.

But, the whole of the internet isn’t happy at all. Sonic has always been compared to Mario. Partly because of the consoles rivalry between Nintendo and Sega back in the days. Nintendo fans would shit on Sega and vice versa. Nintendo continued their success in the console and games industry, while Sega stopped their console business and focused solely on games. It broke my heart, a large part of it.

Since the movie trailer been released, the internet has showered it with…yup, you guessed it right…HATE. You can see hate after hate after hate after hate after hate being thrown at Sonic movie trailer.

Then I saw this photo uploaded by one of IGN editors.

There is so much hate across the internet for a simple movie about Sonic. The movie is not for them in the first place. The movie is probably aimed for kids!

Yup..Slow down games and movie critics.

We love to spread hate more than spreading love. Even a good movie like the recent Avengers: End Game. Article after articles came out talking about just how many plot holes are there in the movie. I won’t spoil them here though.

It’s always fun to hate stuff. It’s always easier to hate stuff. People can easily relate to hatred so it gets shared and spread faster.

The point is, we love to spread hate and we love to spread it fast. Look at your Facebook timelines, out of 10 posts, there will be 4 that are about how much we should hate the Chinese, the christians, hindus, non-muslims and so many other groups.

We see the death of Adib being used to stokes the fire or racial hatred against the Indians and religious hatred against the Hindus. Blood has to be paid by blood being posted and shared and reshared.

We see the issue of an independent muslim preacher being arrested being used to stokes the fires of religious hatred. We see the ICERD ratification being branded as against the Monarch and thus against Islam and the Malays as whole. There are points to ponder and details to listen to, but it should be about stoking the fires of hatred agains one another.

What we actually seeing is people being used on both sides of the divide, be it Malay, Chinese, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus or any other group. We forgot that we are never logical, we are psychological. We forgot that we are easily manipulated by either side of the divide if we became too emotionally invested. Politicians prey on the people who are easily influenced.

We must all realised that politicians are always, always working doubly hard for MONEY and POWER or POWER and MONEY only. They are always chasing these two things and these two things only.

RELIGION and RACE are the platform that these politicians use to achieve money and power. Until the Rakyat understands this, the power will never be in Rakyat’s hand. It will stay in their hands and forever the rakyat will be fooled.

So let’s not be macai on both sides of the divide. Let’s think more and read more and spread love. Not hate.

Thanks and peace unto all of you.

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.