Tun Dr Mahathir Got It Far Worse.

People are saying all kinds of bad things about Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Some people pun his name as Bodowi. Which I think is too much. I hope Mr Abdullah can take all this. He must know that people said worse things about Tun Dr Mahathir. They called him names I wouldn't want to write here on account I don't like to repeat what people said about one of the brightest minds in the world who happen to be a Malay. They were angry with him that they didn't wanna see the fact that Tun was probably the best PM in the whole wide world. He did a lot for the country but to a lot of people, that wasn't good enough. The Malays considered Tun anti-Islam because to a Malay you are not a Muslim if you are not a PAS member. In fact it was the Malays who hated him more than the non-Malays that I find it uneasy because they allowed hatred to take over them not to see the good thing in people like Tun. I guess they are too good even for themselves that they consider themselves the most likely candidate to go to Heaven. I reckon they consider themselves a far better genius than the real genius since they got all the answers how to run this country.

They call Tun names that made me sad that fellow Muslims could have that much hatred inside their heart to call him Fir'aun. And they made fun of him by spelling his name Mahafir'aun. And they Photoshopped his pictures so they could laugh silly at the man who had helped bring a lot of good things to them. But they got a lot of hatred for the man in their heart that whatever Tun did was not good enough for them. They wanted him out. They wanted him dead. They conducted Solat Hajat at the Masjid or Surau, pleading to Allah to help them fulfil their wish. They hated him as if he was the worst guy who had ever lived.

And the non-Malays, after having witneseed for themselves how much the Malays hated Tun, came out in the open to say even worse things about him. And the Malay, having seen the non-Malays were with them on this issue, clapped and cheered, sang and danced. They wanted Tun dead and not mention in the history book. They didn't wanna see the good things Tun had done to raise the country so every Malaysian could say with pride to a foreigner; I am Malaysian. When Tun was in power, I was in Oslo. A guy had never heard of Malaysia but he heard of Dr Mahathir and there I was, a thousand miles from home, feeling like a million buck because I had me a Malay as the Prime Minister who put that much pride in me even though I had never met him in real life, and he too had never met me in person. But still, I could feel Tun was right there, standing behind me like a big guy, smiling down on me, whispering to me so the Norwegians could hear him; That's all right, son. Nothing to be afraid of. They are no more human than you and me, son. Go get 'em tiger! (No, the phrase Malaysia Boleh hadn't been invented yet at that time.)

Haven't the Malays learnt anything not to let hatred rule them over? Haven't Islam taught them not to allow this to cloud our judgement? I guess not. They are too good for us. They are the candidates for Heaven. And to most of them this country isn't Islamic enough. All because of Tun.

And now it's Mr Abdullah Badawi's turn. I hope you stay strong, sir. We've never met. Maybe we will never meet. But I hope you stay strong because unlike Tun, you don't come across to me as a fighter. A warrior. Tun is different. He's a fighter. A ball of fire ready to blow anyone who gets in his way. He's a warrior. He's the kind I'd like to be with when the kitchen is on fire. He's the kinda guy I wanna be with when there's only two of us standing against a million. He's the kinda of guy I wanna have as a partner to do battle armed only with a piece of stick against an army armed with the most powerful rifle in the world. He's the kinda guy I wanna have as the Prime Minister.

In this life, it helps to see the good thing in a person. It's fun to see the bad thing in a person because it makes us feel superior than the other guy. I have seen enough and heard enough to come to the conclusion that Muslims can hate their fellow Muslims more than the non-Muslims do in a life time. And only Malays can hate their brothers more than anyone else on earth. I saw it during Tun's time. And now I see it again with Mr Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Hatred is a dangerous thing. It can make you not see the big picture. That's not a surprise. The Malays are inclined to forgetfulness, and shortsightedness. It's a curse that won't break loose because we don't want to try to break free from it. We have learnt nothing from anything that has happened and I reckon we're gonna keep going this way until it is too late for us to learn anything at all. Or until it's too late to realise that the guy we've just killed is our own brother.

Lim Kit Siang For Prime Minister.

After winning big time in the next General Election, I may bet my toe that the first thing the Opposition is gonna do is to make it legal for every Malaysian to organize street rally. The Opposition knows better that this is basic democratic right of every citizen of this blessed country.

The Opposition is also gonna make sure that the election is clean. Don't worry about it, they know what to do, how to go about it to make this a reality for you and me. And since the Opposition has been the voice for the minority, you can bet your left toe that the Opposition is gonna listen to every little complaint you've got against the majority. For example, if you find it offensive that Muslims should slaughter the cows during Hari Raya Haji. No problem. All you've gotta do is go to any of the complaint centres that the Opposition will have set up once they take over the country. You can file your complain there and in a blink of an eye, the Opposition is gonna tell the Muslim to stop slaughtering the cows because it is offensive to a group of people. Same thing for example if you find it offensive that a steak house should advertise marked down prices of sirloin or rib eye or t-bone. All you've gotta do is complain and the Opposition will close down all the steak houses. Same thing if you find it offensive that McDonald or Burger King should serve burgers made of beef patties. File your complaint you won't find a single McDonald or Burger King to offend you for the rest of your life in this country. And we will dance to a happy tune singin', oh what a lovely country this is, oh what a wonderful country this is, thanks to the Opposition, long live Lim Kit Siang, may mothers give birth to more Lim Kit Siang, halejujah.

Same thing if you find for example the morning call to prayer, the morning Azan from the mosques, disturbing and offensive that it robs you of a nice sleep. File your complaints, people. And in the blink of an eye, the Opposition is gonna solve that problem for you and they're gonna make it illegal for mosques to install loud speakers to call the Azan.

Same thing if you find it offensive that people prod their bodies with iron rods, meat hooks, nails, javelin and take to the street dancing and singing. File your complaint and there won't be any show like that ever again on the street.

Same thing if you find the dragon dance noisy. File the complaint and the Opposition will have it solved for you.

The Opposition can solve all your problems and so what are you waiting for. Vote them in. Vote them in now.

And the Opposition is gonna tell the riot police to provide every one participating in the street rally with a rally pack containing, mineral water, orange juice, ponstan, whistle, roses, Belgium chocolate, karipap, and three-in-one teh tarik. The Opposition is gonna open the tender to everyone to supply this pack. Anyone can submit their tender. Anyone. Vote for the Opposition, they know better that there is no such thing as rights colliding with one another to cause friction. And you can bet your whole head that the Opposition is not gonna ask you to exercise tolerance anymore because we've had enough of tolerance under the UMNO/BN gomen. After all, rights don't go hand in hand with tolerance. Equal rights for every body. That's the way to go to a better Malaysia. Vote for the Opposition. Don't think. Just vote.

So far the Opposition hasn't made any promises about how they are gonna make right all the wrong things the BN gomen has done us in. Up to this point, the Opposition has made little effort to explain the plan they've worked out to make every Malay, Chinese, Indian and Bangsa Malaysia in particular happy and proud to be the lucky citizen of this blessed country. So far members of the Opposition have been the favorites among foreign news network for an interview. And they have used the opportunity to call a spade a spade and this has gotten us a lot of attention from people interested to know more about the bad things the UMNO/BN gomen is guilty of.

So far the Opposition has got us convinced that we'd better vote them in if we wanna see a better Malaysia where every one's equal and everyone is gonna get the same share of the giant economic pie. The pie that has been selfishly eaten among UMNO/BN folks that it has made a lot of people angry and frustrated that they have to come to this i.e putting Lim Kit Siang as Prime Minister because the guy knows more about how to run this country than the whole bunch of UMNO goons put together. Yea, the Opposition has got us convinced that this country is going straight down to hell if we don't vote them in in the next general election. The future is in the Opposition. It's the best bet there is and we'd better do the right thing.

P.S And the Opposition will never put anyone under ISA. As a matter of fact the first thing they'd do when they take over the country is abolish it once and for all.

I Used To Google You.

Once or twice. Maybe more, I Googled your name to see if I could trace you so I could write you a letter and send it by airmail post. I thought I'd write about how things have been good to me with my being in business and all. I'd write about general things that don't mean much to me but I'd write them anyway because I gotta paint you a picture that I'm doing all right on my own. I'd write about how I've been in and out of a relationship but never gotten anywhere near to starting a new life with someone new.

And I'd write a full paragraph how I wish we could get back together again because no matter how much I hate to admit it to myself I can't find a single reason why I shouldn't love you. I'd write about staring at a computer for hours hoping that I'd find you but do you realise how many Catherine there are in the world that I've figured there is no way I could get lucky to track you down via Google.

I'd write about the trips I took to Auckland two years after the divorce. I'd write about being in Auckland all alone in the hotel room hoping I could talk to you on the phone to tell you how sorry I was to let you go.

And I'd write about places I've been. I'd write about life in the desert in Saudi Arabia. And the good times I had with friends on the rig in the middle of South China Sea. I'd write about the money I spent. I'd write about Tehran and Sudan. I'd write about the North Sea, Oslo and the Norwegian friends. I'd write about what made me decide to give up Meat Science and jumped into oil. I'd write about friends I helped to start a restaurant. I'd write about how I got conned by friends. I'd write about the barroom brawls and being in jail, half the time not knowing what got me there in the first place. I'd write about the things that could make you see how my life turned upside down since the day we kissed for the last time trying hard not to cry because all the crying had been done and all that was left was to say, see ya, kiddo.

I'd write about things that don't mean much to you. But I'd write in a single line that I still love you.

Journey - Don't Stop Believin'

Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Video sent by jpdc11

That's Steve Perry in tight jeans. This reminds of her except in my case, it was a small town boy livin' in his lonely dream, took a midnite plane going anywhere. And she was a city girl from Melbourne. We fell in love. We married. We fought. We went on our separate ways. And now I miss her. Why am I feelin' so sentimental all of a sudden. Gotta find me a woman to marry, preferably this weekend.

A Comment By A Visitor Called RUYOM.

I'm not sure if it is illegal to reproduce this here, but I find this piece an excellent read to be left unnoticed in the comment box. It is posted by a visitor called Ruyom. I don't believe he has visited me before but I thank you Mr Ruyom. Thank you for visiting and thank you for putting this in my blog. It can make us understand better the Indian community which we take for granted that we forgot to lend our hand when they needed help. To my friends Sathia, Thiru, Vira, Kunil, Veenu, Sashi, Yoges, Kana, Ravi, Indran, Rao, Haridas, Madhi, Maniam, Prema and Sothi, you know me better.

Written by Mr Ruyom, reproduced by Bergen (approval from Mr Ruyom is pending. I'm taking a chance that he'd approve my action. Otherwise I may have to go to jail for this. Not that I've never been there before.)

The Indian protest in Kuala Lumpur has been a great success because it made a very loud noise. But the Indian protesters forgot to shout Daulat Tuanku. Instead they showed allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II by carrying placards that had Queen Elizabeth’s picture. Others also carried pictures of Mahatma Ghandi. According to the NST, Hindraf legal adviser P. Uthayakumar said that they would 'get a second bite at the cherry' when they go to London in mid-January to present a memorandum to the Queen of England. But the Queen is reported to suffer constipation and some flatulence during cold winter months like January – a predicament inherited from her ancestors who avoided the privy in winter because they had no internal plumbing. She may not be disposed to receive Uthayakumar. But there is some confusion. The NST reports: "We don't want to rely on Indian-based parties anymore. We want to go directly to Umno because it is they who hold power," said the lawyer who was in the midst of the illegal gathering yesterday. So is it Queen Elizabeth or UMNO? Unfortunately for the Indian community, all roads to UMNO go through Samy Vellu’s office. This appeal to Queen Elizabeth and Mahatma Ghandi is a mistake. The banners scream 'We are Malaysians'. To the other Malaysians, it seems to be that the protesters are Indian Hindus first and Malaysians second. The ethnic, religious identity is pushed forward. The name ‘Hindraf’ is also exclusive. It excludes Indians who are Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. Why call it Hindu Rights Action Front? Why not just Indian Rights Action Front (INDRAF)? Why associate with religion? This is what some NGOs said - the Hindu Indians are making a mistake of projecting a narrow Hindu image. However, the grievances and the protest by the Indian Hindus is real and justified.The BN Gomen's failure to uplift the Indians is real. It is a big failure. The BN Gomen does not really care for them. UMNO says they want to be the payung for all Malaysians. This is a lie. They are the least bothered about the fate of the Indians. Uthayakumar’s idea that he wants to go directly to UMNO may earn him a Datukship, but the Indians will not get anything else. Hindu Tamils are now treated like fourth class citizens by the BN Gomen. Parties like MIC and PPP just get by on handouts for their community. The Tamils can be ignored by the UMNO boys. Why should the UMNO boys respect the Indians? While the Hindraf was protesting on Jalan Ampang, Nallakaruppan was hosting the founding of his new Indian political party called Malaysian Indian United Party (or Muniandy) at the Istana Hotel. In his speech, Nallakaruppan pledged allegiance to the BN. He said that the Muniandy party would support all the BN’s policies. Just a few months ago he was dancing on stage with Anwar Ibrahim in Ijok, hoping to be Keadilan’s candidate against the BN at the by-election. But since Anwar dropped him in favour of a Malay, Nallakaruppan is now dancing to the UMNO-BN tune. The Indians cannot depend on the BN Gomen or anyone else to uplift them. They have no choice but to uplift themselves. Like the Chinese, any community (including the Malays) that does not depend on the BN Gomen will become richer and more successful. This is because the BN Gomen itself does not have any idea how to uplift the people. This is a Gomen that is groping in the dark. The blind cannot lead anyone to light. They cannot see.Historically, the majority of Indians came here as very poor people. But the Indians in India and Malaysia are not one uniform body. Indians are a small minority in Malaysia – making up less than 10% of the population. Numerically they are becoming even more irrelevant. But this small minority is divided into so many sub-minorities almost all of whom are far richer and better off than the Tamil Hindus – the largest Indian group who were also the people protesting on Sunday. The Sindhi and Gujerati Hindus are business oriented. They may not even acknowledge that Tamil Hindus are human. In their belief the Tamils are children of Hanuman, the dark-skinned monkey god who helped their white-skinned god Ram rescue their white-skinned princess Sita Devi from the clutches of the dark-skinned Ravan. Then we have the Ceylon Tamils. An irate Indian Tamil woman once said that the Ceylon Tamils in Malaysia are ashamed to say that they are also Indians or Tamils. So in official application forms where they must state their race, they put themselves under ‘Lain-Lain’ or Others, not as Indians. Few people may be aware of this but the Ceylon Tamils are by far the most successful racial group in Malaysia, whose per capita incomes may be higher than the Chinese, Gujeratis, Mamaks, etc. There are more millionaires per thousand people among Ceylon Tamils than any other race in Malaysia. The richest man in Malaysia is a Ceylon Tamil billionaire known as Ananda Krishnan.There are the Sikhs who have their own axes to grind against the Hindus. The Sikhs have also done very well in Malaysia. They may have started as jagas and susu lembu sellers but now they are among the best doctors and lawyers in the country. Money lending is still their forte. In a nutshell, they are doing much better than the Tamil Hindus. Then there are the RSS sympathizers in Malaysia. RSS stands for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the Hindu extremist who murdered Mahatma Ghandi in 1948, was a member of the RSS. The RSS in India is led by Brahmins whose main purpose is to preserve the Hindu caste system and thereby preserve their positions. They do not look kindly at Mahatma Ghandi and none of them will have a picture of Ghandi in their homes, let alone hoist Ghandi’s picture at a public rally. There is very little love lost between all these Indians. There are extremely very few intra-Hindu Indian marriages. It is almost impossible to see a Ceylon Hindu marry an Indian Hindu or a Gujerati marry a Telugu. You will not find any of the RSS Brahmins marrying any of the Hindraf people. It just does not happen. On the other hand, in Malaysia, there are thousands of marriages between Malays and Indians of all types and castes. This Sunday, 9th December, a extraordinarily beautiful and quite rich Malay woman is marrying a Hindu Tamil (who of course had to convert). The wedding will be held at a major hotel and will be reported in the Malay media. The Indian media will never cover such an event. The RSS sympathizers did not support the Hindraf protest. Instead, they released a statement to the media that said: “the MIC and the Government had helped to fund, build, repair as well as settle relocation and land issues for temples nationwide.” In other words: what is there to complain about? There are enough temples. Caste and inter-Indian race differences are great. The discrimination and prejudices within the Indians is greater than from without. But that does not really affect the bread and butter issues that were the main reason for the protest on Sunday. It is also mind-boggling that many Hindu success stories have come to a tragic end through outright murder. All too often Indians suffer violence at the hands of fellow Indians. This is not unlike the case with the African Americans and Mexican Americans who suffer tragic violence at the hands of their own people. In Penang recently, a well known and very senior Tamil Hindu lawyer by the name of Annamalai was brutally stabbed to death by two Indians, most likely hired killers, in broad daylight. I knew Mr Annamalai who was over 60 years old and was a polite and gentle man. The killers have not been caught and neither is the motive known. A few years ago, a young Hindu woman who owned three beauty salons in Klang was also brutally murdered by Indians. After being beaten and stabbed, her body was repeatedly run over by her own Pajero. The crazed intensity of the violence against her was unimaginable. Again, her killers were not found and neither was the reason for her murder known. Earlier to that, a young Tamil Hindu geologist who ran a very succesful geological services company in Bukit Mertajam was killed by Indians. His head was cracked open by an axe. His killers were never caught and neither was the reason for his murder known. These were among the cream of their society in their own neighbourhoods - Indians who had come up in life through hard work and against much odds. They all suffered violent death at the hands of Indians. It could be any number of reasons why they were killed but often it is pure jealousy by Indians against fellow Indians. It is okay if a Chinese or Malay is succesful, but when an Indian makes good, any number of other Indians may become extremely jealous. And if there is even a hint of an insult or injury, real or imagined, it may be enough to trigger murderous action. So the Indians do not need extra enemies from outside to keep them down. They can be their own worst enemies. First of all, the Indians must realise that holding up posters of Ghandi or Queen Elizabeth is brain dead. It would have been better if they held up posters of the great Tamil hero Veerapandian Kattaboman. But since no one knows what Veerapandian Kattaboman looked like, they could have even held up posters of the great Tamil movie hero MG Ramachandran or MGR who once portrayed Veerapandian Kattaboman in a Tamil movie. But why Ghandi and why on earth Queen Elizabeth II? This only proves that the Indian Tamils may have their feet planted here, but not all their thoughts are fully settled here.The time for pussyfooting and endless talk is over. Indians must 'bite the bullet' and take decisive and practical action to help themselves. Since all the protests have been made, it is now up to the Indians to put forward what they really want to do. Do not expect the Barisan Nasional or the UMNO boys to help you. They do not even know how to help themselves. After 50 years they do not even realize the main problem that is holding the Malays down – their religion and their total disregard of the English language. So how are they going to figure out what are the real issues facing the Indians? Even if they want to help the Indians they will not know what to do.Some simple-minded Indians have suggested that the Indians be exempted from all university racial quotas. This is a beginning but it does not solve the problem of the poor Tamils in the estates and the rural areas. The MIC has set up the Tafe College, taken over private law and accounting colleges (Vanto Academy) and set up medical schools yet the plight of the Tamil Hindus in the estates and rural areas has not changed much. In Semeling in Kedah (in the Merbok constituency), the MIC has built the most modern medical campus not only in Malaysia but maybe in the whole of Asia, Europe and the US. Please Google 'AIMST'. One minute you are driving through oil palm plantations then suddenly you turn a corner and almost run into a group of huge UFO spaceship type buildings rising out of the oil palms - this is the Asian Institute of Medical Science and Technology. Yet only the guards and gardeners at the AIMST are Indians from the surrounding rubber and oil palm estates in Semeling. Most of the Indian students at AIMST are from well to do Indian families from outside Kedah who can afford the almost RM300,000 fees at this private medical school. Increasingly now, more Chinese students are also enrolling at AIMST. So even if all the protests work and the Barisan Nasional Gomen offers Indians unlimited entry into universities, it is the children of educated, urban, west coast Indians who are going to gain admission. The Ceylon Tamils, the urban Tamils, Punjabis, Gujeratis, Tamil Muslims, etc., will take advantage of the opportunities. The Indians from the rural areas and the estates are never going to make it, or at least not any time soon. Dont believe me? Here is my proof. Before the NEP, before 1970, it was status quo. The playing field was 'more' level then. Or was it ? The Ceylon Tamils monopolised senior Gomen jobs, teaching jobs, doctors, lawyers, etc. The Telugus were mandors at the estates while the Tamils were the labourers. The Sindhis and Gujeratis monopolised the textiles business. The Mamaks ran the sundry shops. The Tamil Hindus were at the lowest rung of the ladder. Who really cared for them? But that was the 'level' playing field available at that time. It is by sheer effort and perseverance that many of the Tamil Hindus have come up in life to become the Uthayakumars and the Selvams of today. But these are so few, the exceptions.So even if the BN Gomen completely opened up all the university opportunities to Indians it is the minority within the minority ie the Ceylon Tamils, the Gujeratis, the Punjabis, the Tamil Muslims, etc., who are going to take full advantage of these opportunities. The majority Indian Hindus in the estates are going to end up no better than before. The solution seems obvious enough. The Indians must demand that Indian Hindus from the estates and the rural areas must be given super priorities at university entrance. This has been done for the past 37 years in Malaysia where poor Malay children from the rural schools and rural areas are given preferences over urban kids. So, if an Indian Hindu child from the estates has lesser grades than a child from the urban centres, the rural Indian child must be treated differently. But will the Indian community agree to this? How many of the urban-living Hindraf protesters from Sunday will agree to this idea?The Indians must also demand for a 100% Government-funded special boarding school system where poor Indian Hindu children from the estates and rural areas are provided free schooling and board from Forms 1 till 5 and beyond. If the Malay kampongs were not conducive for Malay children to become the sons and daughters of the NEP, neither are the estates conducive to make successes out of Indian children. It is just not going to happen. There are exceptions where estate children have gone to earn PhDs but lets cut the crap, okay? We are not concerned with exceptional cases. We want to democratize opportunities for the Indian poor in the estates, the vast majority who are not exceptional but just ordinary poor people. There is a catch though. These Indian boarding schools must be taught by Malay and Chinese teachers only. The students must be weaned away from the negative, crude and pessimistic attitudes and language of the estates. Indian teachers may unwittingly delay this process. Lastly, these boarding schools for Indians must be located in largely Malay localities like in the East Coast states. They must be totally isolated from their estate environments and learn to fit into a more Malay and Malaysian environment. This way, if they have to protest again, they will not hold up pictures of Ghandi or Queen Elizabeth. They may learn to hold up posters of Sultan Muzaffar Shah, Hang Kasthuri, Hang Lekir, Tun Ali, Abdullah Munshi, and so on who were all Tamils. As for the other poor Indian Hindus, the Indian community must demand that the Gomen provide them unlimited entry into all the vocational training institutes, especially the Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara or IKBN, plus the MARA Skills Institutes. Surprisingly, it is Nazri Aziz as Minister in charge of MARA who has opened some MARA Skills Institutes to Indians.The Indian community must also demand Gomen-funded housing for all poor Indians, those in the estates and rural areas as well as in the urban areas. They can either rent or buy these houses from the Gomen through any number of rent-own schemes, etc. The housing must not be the cheapo, two-room, one-bathroom type pigeon holes. They must be decent-sized houses with at least three sleeping rooms and two bathrooms. Even if they cost a bit more, the housing must be comfortable. Safe and comfortable housing is important to break the poverty cycle and bring Indian Hindus into the mainstream of our society.Indians must also demand access to the Amanah Saham investment fund. Not the Amanah Saham Nasional that is open to all races and is priced at market prices but the RM1.00 per share Amanah Saham Bumiputra where your RM1.00 per share is guaranteed by the Gomen. Then, all the Banks’ special Amanah Saham financing packages (since the RM1.00 per share is guaranteed by the Gomen) that are available to bumiputras will also be made available to Indians. This will be a major help to the Indian community. Then here are more important but even more difficult things that the Indian community must do. They must listen to Mr SM Idris of the Consumers Association of Penang who has been campaigning all his life to abolish toddy shops on the estates. Indians and drinking must part company because it has been proven time and time again that Indians and alchohol do not mix well. Ban alchohol on the estates and the Indian community will save a lot of heartache. There must be an end to Tamil schools in the country. Tamil is a great language. It has a long history and is a beautiful poetic language. But Tamil will keep the Hindus in the poverty cycle in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Tamil will make you poor. Believe me on this one. Ban Tamil schools and send all the Tamil kids to Gomen schools or Chinese schools.Then, more importantly, to curb gangsterism, completely ban all Tamil movies, especially through Vanavil and other TV stations. They are absolutely brain-dead and a bad influence on already brain-dead Indian youngsters. Tamil movies are of zero cultural and moral value. Unfortunately Indian Hindus can riot (they did) to buy tickets for Rajni’s latest movie ‘Boss’. It was another useless Tamil movie that cannot win an award even at the Blind Movie Producers Awards. Endless fighting, beating, crying, killing, dancing, singing, marrying, seducing are the staple of brain-dead Tamil movies which have a strong and significant impact on the Indian population. Two Tamil movie actors, MG Ramachandran and Jayalalitha, have been elected as Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu just because of their movie acting. (No you cannot compare them to Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzenegger). Large numbers of Indians know more about Indian politics than what is happening in Malaysia. They may not know the names of Malaysian Cabinet Ministers but they will know the names of Indian Chief Ministers and other Indian politicians. This shows that, after 150 years, many of the Indians have not fully grafted their roots to the local conditions. This must change. The Indians are ready to migrate to Australia (or to the Queen of England’s kampong) and sing Waltzing Matilda in English to earn Australian citizenship. Why not remain in Malaysia and learn to speak Malay properly? Finally, the Indian Hindus, all of them, including the RSS, the Punjabis, the Gujeratis, the Brahmins and the estate Indians, must get together and propose to the Barisan Nasional Gomen to pass laws that make it illegal and a crime to practice any kind of caste system in Malaysia. This means that all Hindu temples must be open to all Hindus, irrespective of caste. Any Hindu, and not just a Brahmin, can become a priest at the Hindu temples. The RSS will definitely not agree to this suggestion. The RSS is the vanguard of the caste system and seeks to protect the position of the Brahmins. More than the BN Gomen, more than the conditions in the estates, more than Tamil schooling or Tamil movies, the caste system is the single most backward and degrading force that holds back all Indians. Whether Sindhis, Gujeratis, Punjabis, Tamils, Telugus, RSS, etc., they are all negatively affected by the really stupid and false caste system. Get rid of the caste system and the Indians will bloom to become a great people.And the Indians in Malaysia definitely do not need 17,000 temples for three million Hindus. What for? Each temple needs a Brahmin priest, a commitee and it spreads more religious prejudice and anger. The same with suraus and mosques. Why do we need so many mosques. Over the past 15 years thousands of suraus and mosques have been built. Each one now has its imam, committee, etc. Each one is spreading religous prejudices. We do not need so many mosques or Hindu temples. Enough is enough. Only the RSS and PAS boys are interested in temples and mosques because they can control the temples and mosques. Temples and mosques bring in money. The more temples there are, the more money accrues to the brahmins. But this initiative can only come from the Indians. The Malays and the Gomen will not even know where to begin on this one. They have no idea of the caste system. So the Indians cannot expect any help in this area from the Gomen. It is the Indians who must move this initiative. There will be plenty of resistance from the RSS and gang but you must all get together and kick this caste sucker into the sea. Otherwise it is all a complete waste of time. The Indians must be the inheritors of Thiru Valluvar, Bagat Singh, Ranjit Singh and Bharatiyar. They were real heroes. Ghandi was confused. Godse was a nut.

Democracy Is A Funny Concept.

You gotta have volume. That's the concept behind this-thing-called-Democracy. Maybe you know better who started this-thing-called-Democracy because I am not too sure if it was the Greek or the Three Stooges who first came up with what seemed like a simple method to choose a leader.

It could have been mooted by four guys who got nothing better to do other than sit around a fire every evening to talk about women. One of them may have said something like; Let's go hunt crocodiles down the river. One guy says; I wanna sleep. The other two say; we wanna stay here. But the first guy is good at talking that he paints a vivid picture of what they can do with crocodile skin. He says; We can all look dashing in crocodile-skin pair of pants, jacket, belts, wallet, eye patch, boots, not to mention Crocs for casual wear. With this, we can all look good to the women that we can just walk into any bar and the women are gonna go; ooohh look at those four men in crocs. You'd be taken by this too if you were in the group sitting around the fire talking about women on end.

And so they take a vote. In the end two guys vote to go along with the first guy to hunt crocodile down the river, leaving the guy who doesn't wanna go no choice but to follow along because it's gonna look stupid sitting by the fire all by himself.

And so off they go to hunt crocodiles down the river. I'm sure you can imagine that it's the three guys who gotta do all the hunting and diving into the murky water while the first guy (the one who came up with the idea of hunting for the crocs) sits by the bank under a shady tree shouting orders to hurry up because it's getting dark and he has to go to an important meeting.

There's no need to go on with the story because you know as well as I do that it contains stuff dramas are made of such as; conspiracy, deceit, betrayal, corruption, half truth, vote tampering, court-room drama and street rallies.

But on second thought, I gotta go on with the story in order to give you the full implication of this-thing-called-Democracy.

The three guys can take on the guy sitting by the bank under a shady tree but they can't do that on account that they have made the agreement to follow the guy's vision and mission for three consecutive summers before they can review the voting process all over again.

When the time to review the process comes around after three consecutive summers, the first guy has made a tremendous progress networking with people outside his tribe that it would be a mistake to vote him out and put a new guy in. The perceived insecurity is so real that the three guys look at each other and say, Let's give him three more consecutive summers and then we vote him out.

And it goes on and on. That's Democracy. First the majority vote for one guy. And then that guy rules you over like a dictator and there's nothing you can do about it. Of course you'd say; Let's get him off next round. But you know this is easier said than done because you don't wanna take a chance on a new guy because you know as well as I do, given the chance the new guy is gonna do the things the old does because you know as well as I do politicians come from the same mother.

Democracy is a funny concept. You give the power to one guy so he can rule you over. You do that willingly because otherwise you don't have a reason to blog about it or walk about it. Otherwise you don't have the reason to be sprayed or tear gassed by the people whose salary is paid for by the tax you pay to the big guy in Bahagian Kutipan Cukai.

You vote. And then you complain for five years. You vote again and then you complain again. It goes on and on. And that, my friend, is this-thing-called-Democracy. Isn't it gorgeous?

Russia went down because they tried to play with Democracy without understanding how it really works. And now they are no longer the force to be reckoned with in Olympic games. China knows Democracy is not too good for its own people because to rule a country like China you need total control, not freedom. India and the Philippines are very democratic but look where it got them after all these years. Malaysia has its own brand of Democracy. You decide.

Go Ahead Lie To Yourself.

Maybe there is a guy who is completely not racist but I reckon in a lot of ways we all are and there's no point denying it. We should be frank with ourselves to accept the fact that everyone is racist depending on the time of day it is, or depending on his/her personal experience in dealing with a guy from a different race. If you've been robbed, beaten and raped by an Eskimo, I believe you are gonna stereotype all Eskimos are robbers, rapists, hideous, ugly, and not very tall. You'd probably going to draft, if you happen to be an important guy in the government, policies that discriminate Eskimos because of what an Eskimo did to you. That's just the way it is. Everyone of us is racist one way or another and there's no need for us to lie to ourselves anymore.

You won't have me believe in a million years that there is such a thing as a guy who is completely not racist who can accept people as they are and not have that nagging feeling inside his heart that his is a better race than the one picking up the garbage, or working under the mid-day sun paving the road, or driving a boss' car to send his daughter to Taekwondo class or piano class, or some place in Bukit Kiara to learn how to ride a horse.

Maybe there is such a guy but I haven't met him. Of course people say this all the time; I'm open-minded, I'm not racist, I read a lot of books, hey I love that theater or opera, or hey I know that Chef, or I can sympathize with their struggle, yea there is no such thing as democracy in this country and yak yak yak. But you know they are lying to themselves blind. Even the most liberal-minded white guy in the world will say something like; black is not too good for the interior theme of this club, what say you, old sport?

We gotta learn to live with ethnocentrism and the sooner we accept the fact that this is not going to go away, at least not in our time, the better it is for us to understand why people do the thing they do, and why certain policy favors one guy and alienates the other. Of course the level of discriminatory practices vary from one country to another, depending on how deep rooted the hatred the guy at the top has toward the guy below him. Before you go shoot me for trying to suggest that every guy at the bottom should know his place and that he's gotta accept whatever the guy on top has got coming for him, lemme just say this. ONE: there's a limit to how much a guy on the lower rung of the ethnic ladder can take the discriminatory practices the guy on top has in store. TWO; there is a limit to how much the guy on the upper rung of the ethnic ladder can take the demands made by the guy on the lower rung to be as equal as possible in terms of social status, citizenship, economic opportunities and others I don't quite know how to describe, or to list them all out.

This is what we gotta deal with. Maybe you wanna blame the universe for being born to a certain race and not the other like white American, white Briton, white Australian, white New Zealander, or a Brahmin. The truth is you can change your name but I'd like to see if you can change your race. Of course you can put on an Apache war suit, live like an Apache, marry an Apache, die like one but people are gonna write on your tombstone something like; here's lies a crazy Semang who worked so hard t'be an Apache but he died tryin' with his eyes open and mouth gaping for a bit more air so he can keep on tryin'.

We should not try to be someone we are not. If you are an Inuit then rest assured that it's best that you stick to your genetic hereditary because nature has that all planned out for you. You are gonna eat, drink, sleep, walk, laugh, cry and die the way an Inuit is supposed to die due to diabetes, hypertension, stress and too much TV not enough exercise.

I've been in circumstances where I was a minority countless times. In fact in most cases I was the only Malay, or Asian in an-all Caucasian work environment. Yes, the whites are as racist as they can be. I trust this doesn't come as a big surprise to you, unless of course you have this crazy notion that the whites are liberal and open-minded towards non-whites. And I am racist too. I consider them lazy, drink too much beer, prone to fist fight and have too much sex. Of course this is not true. And they consider me, due to my being Malay, lazy, stupid, religious, emotional, stingy and doesn't know how to have fun. Of course this is not true. I knew my place and I knew what I should do. And so I worked four times harder just to be on equal footing with them. And learn new skills as quick as I can. Sleep less. Learn more. Keep fit and not fall sick. Don't smoke. When I got into a fight I made sure I go for a kill so they knew that I wasn't afraid to die and that death is not a big deal to a crazy Malay guy like me. And I got their respect. And I respect them for being honest to give me the respect I deserve. And we became true friends.

I'm not sure exactly how the Malays, the Indians, the Chinese, the Ibans, the Kadazans and others are going to finally come together as Malaysians. Maybe this is never gonna happen because every one of us is racist - depending on who is on top of the ethnic ladder. For now the Malays are the majority in this country and so they've got the upper hand. But don't let this fool you into believing that the Malay in the country isn't being discriminated against by their own kind. You see, racism or favoritism exists even among the race itself.

We're only humans. No, violence isn't the answer because violence will lead to more violence. You slash someone today and that some one's brother is gonna come after you with a gang and you too are gonna go after him with your gang. It goes on and on.

I don't have the answers. Do you?

It Doesn't Take Much To Make A Malay To See Blood.

Someone in UMNO or PAS must have prayed to ALLAH with humility and sincerity that help came down from the sky in a guy called P.Uthayakumar. I'm sorry for Sub-Inspector Chew from Dang Wangi Police Station who took a brick to the head that got him in a lot of pain. There's a picture of him in the Star and I know people are gonna say, ohhh that picture was Photoshopped. I hope you are doing all right, sir. Maybe you've heard the news that the Uthaya guy walked from the court today because they forgot to attach something he said in Tamil. But that's OK. A Malay saw him on TV looking jubilant like a champion now that the government didn't get him. He's a smart guy so he must be thinking the Malay Islamic Government is nothing but a bunch of stupid Muslim Malays who don't even know how to charge people properly.

He won. But I'm not too sure about what UMNO is gonna do to re-arrange the allocation of Indian seats in the next general election. Afterall UMNO has gotta listen to the Malays who will have read the letter this Uthaya wrote and the Malays are gonna stand behind UMNO like never before. And this is before the full gerak gempur machinery is set in motion to every kampong and daerah through Kemas' in its program prihatin rakyat, gotong royong, program anak angkat, ceramah, kenduri kendara, majlis penyerahan hak tanah, pemberian biasiswa, pembinaan masjid, jembatan dan sebagainya demi kesejahteraan rakyat. I reckon UMNO doesn't have to use kain batik, kain pelikat and basikal this time. No need to. All they need is this letter. It's enough to stoke the fire inside a Malay to see blood.

Thank you, Mr P.Uthayakumar. Most probably the letter is already being distributed to all the masjid and surau and the content might even be dealt with at length in a Friday khutbah.

HINDRAF
Hindu Rights Action Force
No. 135-3-A, Jalan Toman 7,
Kemayan Square,
70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
Malaysia. Tel : 06-7672995/6
Fax: 06-7672997 Email waytha@hotmail.com

15.11.2007
The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of the United Kindom
10 Downing Street, Fax: +442079250918
London, URGENT
SW1A 2AA

Dear Sirs,

RE: 1. COMMONWEALTH ETHNIC INDIAN PEACE LOVING SUBJECTS IN MALAYSIA PERSECUTED BY GOVERNMENT BACKED ISLAMIC EXTREMIST VIOLENT ARMED TERRORIST WHO LAUNCHED A PRE DAWN VIOLENT ARMED ATTACK AND DESTROYED THE KG JAWA MARIAMAN HINDU TEMPLE AT 4.00 A.M THIS MORNING (15.11.2007).

2. APPEAL FOR U.K TO MOVE EMERGENCY U.N RESOLUTION CONDEMNING “ETHNIC CLEANSING” IN MALAYSIA.

3. APPEAL TO REFER MALAYSIA TO THE WORLD COURT AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR CRIMES AGAINST IT’S OWN ETHNIC MINORITY INDIANS.

We refer to the above critical matters in Malaysia but which generally gets the least attention locally even by the Opposition parties, NGO’s, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission and the media for this community is generally regarded as politically insignificant, do not draw local or international funding and are deemed not pressworthy. To the contrary the Malaysian government has successfully projected itself to the world as a modern Islamic thinking country which is not true.

The ethnic minority Indians in Malaysia were brought in to Malaysia by the British some 200 over years ago. Since independence in 1957 the Malaysian Indians have been permanently colonialised by the Islamic fundamentalist and Malay chauvinists UMNO led Malaysian government.

Among the recent atrocities committed by this government are as follows:-

1.100 over Indians were slashed and killed by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government in the Kampung Medan mini genocide. Despite numerous appeals, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission has refused to hold a Public Inquiry. The UMNO controlled Malaysian courts struck off a victim’s public interest civil suit for a Public Inquiry to be held without even the said UMNO controlled government having to file in their defence. The UMNO controlled Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police refused to investigate and / or initiate an inquest into the death of at least six Indians in this tragedy despite.

2. Every week one person at average is killed in a shot to kill policy and in every 2 weeks one person is killed in police custody. About 60% of these victims are Indians though they form only 8% of the Malaysian population.

3. In every three weeks one Hindu temple is demolished in Malaysia.

The latest being the demolishment of the Mariaman temple in Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Selangor early this morning (15.11.2007) and the next being the (Mutaiya) Hindu temple in Sungai Petani scheduled for the 29.11.2007.

A violent armed pre down attack at 4.00a.m this morning was launched by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government backed by about 600 police, riot police, Islamic extremist and armed terrorists which completely destroyed this temple.

In an attack two weeks ago, uniformed police, riot police and city Council officers hurled rocks and attacked unarmed Hindu devotees with knives, sticks and iron rods.

At least 20 Hindu devotees were seriously injured and 19 arrested including 4 of their United Kingdom trained lawyers in direct violation of Article 5 (Right to life) Article 8 (Equality) Article 11 (Freedom of Religion) Section 295 (defiling a place of worship), Section 296 (disturbing a religious assembly), 298A(causing racial disharmony) and Section 441(criminal trespass) of the Malaysian Penal Code.

These authorities are plagued by an above the law mindset and in fact liberally take the law into their own hands. These atrocities however does not happen to almost all Islamic places of worship. Please visit http://www.policewatchmalaysia.com/ for further and better particulars.

4. State sponsored direct discrimination against the Indians in Public University intakes, Indian (Tamil) Schools, skills training institutes, civil service and private sector job opportunities, business and license opportunities and in almost all other aspects of daily life.

Despite our hundreds of letters, appeals and pleas to the Malaysian King and Sultans, the Prime Minister, Attorney General, Inspector General of Police, Ministers, Chief Ministers and the latest being our letters to the Prime Minister dated 29.10.2007 and 30.10.2007 and to the Attorney General dated 1.11.2007 the Malaysian authorities are only proceeding with greater ferocity and with impunity with very little regard for the Federal Constitution and laws of Malaysia. So please help us.

CONCLUSION

We fear that this peace loving Indian community of Tamil origin having been pushed to the corner and the persecution getting worse by the day may be forced to into terrorism in a matter of time as what has happened to the Sri Lankan Tamils.

APPEAL

On our part we are committed to a peaceful and lawful struggle and pray and appeal that the Government of the United Kingdom:-

1. Moves an emergency United Nations resolution condemning these state sponsored atrocities and persecutions of Malaysian Indians in Malaysia.

2. Refers Malaysia to the World Court and the International Criminal Court for Crimes against it’s own ethnic minority Indians

Thank You,

Yours Faithfully

P.Uthayakumar
Legal Adviser

The Sunday Rally.

It's difficult for a Malay to feel for those who took to the street today to voice out their displeasure with the British government for bringing their ancestors here to work as laborers in rubber estates. It is even more difficult for a Malay not to feel offended by those who blamed the Malay Islamic government for the kinda thing they've gotta take being the minority in a country like Malaya, or Malaysia, whichever is applicable in this case.

It's difficult for a Malay to keep to himself the anger that has been brewing inside since the talk of this rally started a few days ago before it ended in a face off with the police. It's difficult, but a Malay isn't about to do something about it that will leave a lot of people sorry for starting this whole thing. Maybe people have figured to themselves that it's okay to push things to the limit because a Malay is known for his tolerance. In fact people can step on a Malay head the way you'd step a rotten orange on the pavement and you can bet your left toe that a Malay won't do nothing other than smile sheepishly as if he's posing for a portrait for a National Geographic photographer.

It's difficult for a Malay not to believe that people are not going to attack him when they got a chance now that people have came out in the open to show their hatred for him in ways people have never spoken or shown before. It's difficult but a Malay isn't gonna do anything about it that could get people into trouble for starting this whole thing in the first place.

It's difficult for a Malay to understand why there are Malays willing to walk along with the people in the Sunday rally just because they consider themselves liberal minded folk who feel for every one's suffering like that Gandhi guy whose picture the people in the Sunday rally carry around like talisman. Don't they know any better that nothing they do will ever wash the fact that they are Malay and the people hate them just the same.

It's difficult for a Malay to believe that all this walk will solve a lot of problems now that everyone can walk, and now that everyone can fly. It's difficult for a Malay to believe that the people have been truly marginalized when it's the Lingam guy who fixes things in the government while all a Malay can do is follow the case in the newspapers thinking, what a powerful person this Lingam guy has become and if the people have been marginalized as they claim to be then how come there are so many lawyers from this section of the citizen that a Malay is under the impression that the people are doing all right.

It's difficult for a Malay to understand what's the fuss of the Sunday rally is all about when any guy can make money cutting grass and save the money and not blow it on cheap liquor and gambling and not go home to beat up the missus to a pulp.

A Malay doesn't have it easy for being one in a country like Malaya or Malaysia. He has to work hard too and save money for the future. He doesn't get help from the government like a thousand ringgit a month just for being a Malay. A Malay used to complain that the Indonesians are taking over the country. A Malay used to worry that he won't have a place to stay if the Indonesians keep taking up the job a Malay doesn't wanna do. And then one day a Malay realized that there's no point complaining and it dawned on a Malay that there's nothing degrading taking up menial jobs to make ends meet. And then one day a Malay realized that he can't afford to spend too much money on entertainment. He gotta save because the government isn't gonna give him money just because his name is Abu Salleh bin Hassan, or just because he is a Malay. And the government doesn't stop to think twice about destroying a surau and the government has never considered it an insensitive act that would make a Malay to run amok with a parang.

And now a Malay is waiting who's next gonna walk. Maybe the people who the British brought in to work in the tin mine. All of a sudden it is clear that the people in this country hate the Malays. They'd kill the Malay first thing if they had the chance.

Maybe a Malay should get together with his Malay brothers and sisters to organize a walk and hand a memorandum to the British consulate to voice their displeasure with the colonial government for bringing these people to the country and for giving the Malay so much problem. The Malays should convince the British government to take this people back to where they came from since it is obvious that they don't like living in this country and they hate the Malays. In fact a Malay should unite to ask the British government to return every non-Malay who doesn't like this country back to where he or she came from. The people who walked in the Sunday rally made a big mistake that won't be easy to make it all right again.

Time to stick together like never before because things are not the same anymore now that a Malay knows who he is up against.

POLICE ACTION: I think the cops are very gentle with the people at the Sunday rally. I know for a fact that the cops are not too gentle with Malay demonstrators. I know this for fact because I've had experience. I believe the cops should not have used water canons and tear gas. I believe the cops should have used live bullets.

They're Gettin' Pretty Good At Walkin'

These last few months people have taken their displeasure to the street more often than I have lamb curry that I'm beginning to believe the government should just let these people do all the walking they need to work up the anger or disappointment in them. That way they'd be too busy doing the walking that they have no time to do the thinking how to make this country a better place the way they have always perceived it according to all the theories and solutions they think they've gotten them all figured out. If these people think they are smarter than everyone in the government then I believe the government should just let them think so and since they are so smart to do the walking to disrupt traffic in the city, I'd say give them all the space in the world so they can do all their walkin' and talkin' and writin' and bloggin' and shoutin' in a dedicated place like the Bukit Jalil Stadium. Who knows, the government can even turn this into a money making event, bringing in all the tourists from all over the world to watch them do all the walkin' about in the stadium. The government can even charge the tourist something like RM5.oo per person and allocate RM1.00 for the mineral water for all those kind enough to do the walkin' for the government. After a few years, the government can award this people with a medal in recognition for all the walkin' and shoutin' and makin' faces for the pictures to be inserted in the blogs dedicated to the art of protesting, Malaysian bloggers style, that is.

I know I've got good ideas. I've been doing a lot of reading, that's why I'm smarter now to know any better that most of those who've got nothing nice to say about the government are very good at writing anti-government entries in their blogs but you can bet your left ear that the are completely at sea when it comes to practical things like how to run a country.

Like PAS when it took over Trengganu after having won the state from BN. PAS is pretty good at complainin' and sayin' they knew better how to run a state according to the Islamic principles since they've masterd all the kitabs and sirah how the khalifahs administered their charge. And since every PAS high-profile politician is waris ulamak, they figured they are the best person to cleanse Trengganu from the sins of the BN government. They figured they could turn Trengganu into a model Islamic state. They got their chance but blew it after a few days when things started to go haywire. They couldn't figure how to come up with a workable and efficient schedule to collect garbage that the state was in complete mess during their time. In theory, yes, they yak yak giving you the impression they know a lot but when it comes to going down to the floor, the practical things, they are as clueless as a goat with amnesia. That's the problem with people who talk too much. Or write too much. Or read too much.

There are anti-government blogs that I used to admire for the things you don't find in mainstream newspapers. But after a year of reading these I'm beginning to doubt about the picture they paint of the country. All I've gotta do is go down to one of the malls in the city to see for myself if the country is in deep trouble as they say it is in the blogs.

What is more interesting is, a lot of these blogs are owned by people who used to hold high-profile jobs in the government. Some of them were politicians from the ruling party. But after having fell out with the management of the day, these people turned radical and controversial as if they've just discovered the word. I ask myself, why these people did nothing, say nothing and saw nothing when they were on the payroll. Now all of a sudden they see things as if they just discovered vision after being a blind for a good 20 years or so getting good salary in the government-controlled newspapers. I don't take these type of vermin seriously. They are good for the source of entertainment but I wouldn't want them to take over the country.

Newspaper editors, politicians, journalists and all sorts of people run these blogs. Gosh, your days are over, mate. There's a high-profile newspaper guy who owns a blog writing about all the bad things the government is doing but I remember him well. He took on Anwar Ibrahim as if the poor guy was the worst creature ever lived. And now that he's outta job, he's singing a different tune. Why don't you think of something more productive to do like running a can manufacturing business. Or if you don't have enough capital, you can start small selling nasi lemak by the roadside. And if the authorities come to dismantle your stall there's always the walkin' and shoutin' to do every other weekend.

Boney M - Ma Baker (1977)

Boney M - Ma Baker (1977)
Video sent by Discodandan

Boney M - Ma Baker (1977)

Great song, one mean kinda dancin' like you've never seen before. Simple times with simple things that worked for me. No worries. Blue jeans, white t-shirt and Adidas sneakers. And the t-shirt, make that Fruits of The Loom.

People I meet.

No need to call him Tan Sri even though he is as real a Tan Sri can be as the lemon butter sauce on your salmon. I am not all that comfortable with this informality but I reckon it's much better this way than going about the classroom with Tan Sri this, Tan Sri that, here's your term paper Tan Sri, or, see ya in the library in 3 minutes, Tan Sri. And so I call him, hey big guy! He's all right with this. In fact I'd like to have me believe that he likes that very much. And so I go, hey big guy, do you have my pen? Or, awww, big guy, this is an out-dated PowerBook G4. One of these days I'm gonna say, c'mon, big guy, why don't you make a couple of phone calls to some people in the government so they can give me million-dollar contracts tomorrow, eh?

I'd like to have you believe that I'm joking but I am not actually. Especially about the million dollar contract part even though I know this is the least likely thing to ever happen to my uneventful life I am currently leading as a student of a university set amidst the verdant and undulating hills of Gombak.

There is a lady in her late 60s in our group. She's as spirited as a pony, going about the campus from one class to another pursuing a masters degree in Islamic Civilization. I know of her from the articles about her in high-profile magazines I used to read long long time ago, probably on the plane or in the hotel lobby somewhere in Abu Dhabi, or was it Riyadh. Maybe Christchurch. I can't remember.

I meet a lot of interesting people now that I can't help but to look at myself in the mirror in the morning to see if I will ever be someone I'm trying to be, or will I end up looking at the man in the mirror thinking, do I have the brain for all this?

procol harum whiter shade of pale

procol harum whiter shade of pale
Video sent by iowaluder

His has gotta be the only name like that: Procol Harum. I'm still trying to figure out what is the song's all about. Is it about Vietnam war? I just like the solo on the Hammond keyboard. Sarah Brightman and Annie Lennox sing this too but it's not the same as the original

Feelin' Like An Intellectual.

Don't ask me when was the last time I've read this many books in my life that this whole thing is making me feel as if I am an intellectual ever ready to disagree with anything I can think of in a conversation with campus folks who's got glasses thicker than magnifying glass. I know I got things under control. In fact I believe no one knows better than me how dangerous this little knowledge can do to myself if I don''t keep things in check. Who knows I might end up like one of those intellectuals who disagree with everything people say that in the end they've got no friends to turn to when they need a 20 sen coin to pull off a trolley at Carrefour.

Which is why I've stopped reading for a while. I'm taking a break from reading for a few hours to give myself a perspective that the world doesn't evolve around books alone. Neither does the world evolve around how smart you think you are, or how much knowledge you think you've got in your head just because you've read all the thick books in the library. I know better and I ain't gonna lie to myself that I may have read a lot of books thicker than a piece of brick but damned if I know the meaning of the big words they've got written in them. In fact I'm starting to have the impression that people who wrote those thick books are quite troublesome to the world since they can't explain their thinking in simple sentences so people like me can understand better what in the world they are trying to say.

I haven't yet the skill to skim the layers and layers of big sentences with equally big words to get to the real thing so I can just go home and say, oh this guy's hungry and all he wants is a sandwich and coffee. But instead, the guy writes something like this:

The form in which his life-story comes to us is intensively mediated: through his own fame and astute sense of publicity, his meticulously rearranged autobiographies, the accretion of subsequent commentary, and the inflections lent by his combative attitude to life.

I tried telling myself to keep going, don't give up. Try to understand. Check the dictionary. But after checking the dictionary for more than 29 times to finish up a page, I said to myself; maybe this ain't the kinda life you wanna to pursue, mate. Maybe you're meant for the grease and diesel and saltwater and oil rig and not this diabolical thing you think you can handle called, intellectual. But I know better. I don't wanna go back to the rig. I've had enough of that kinda life. I don't wanna deal with fire no more. All I wanna do is to learn a thing or two so I can be as smart as everyone else around me. Like those people who can express their opinion with words that work so well with what they're thinking.

I'm going back to my books.

Barry manilow - could it be magic (1993)

Barry manilow - could it be magic (1993)
Video sent by barrysgirl

This is a contemporary version of the classic. You're gonna like it, especially the middle part.

Abba - One Of Us

Abba - One Of Us
Video sent by ABBA

Abba - One Of Us
Pop - (C) 1981 Polar Music International AB
Universal Music Division Polydor

Think Western Act Local.

If the broom is meant to send the message that you'd-better-clean-up-your-act, Dato Khir guy must be thinking in English to come up with the idea of presenting it to those who deserved such an honor. There's no way you could have missed the message if you do the thinking in English just like Dato Khir guy had done.

But if you happen to be doing your thinking in Bahasa Melayu, you will no doubt come to the conclusion that Dato Khir guy has no respect for you that he doesn't have to think twice how you'd feel as a Malay to receive a broom as a present in an official ceremony with press photographers going snap! snap! snap! to take your picture and run it in the national newspapers.

Maybe the Malays like Dato Khir guy have come of age to finally leave behind the suffocating Malay adat resam, the baggage some will have you believe that has locked the Malays in their tempurung the last couple of centuries. Maybe Dato Khir guy is the embodiment of Melayu Glokal. The new breed of Malays who don't take offence to the silly nuances of the adat resam that have prevented the Malays from moving forward to catch up with the rest of the advanced races in the world.

It could also be a game with a sinister meaning that Dato Khir guy is playing now that the open season of politicking has started to pick up. Ordinary folks are going to remember the broom like they have never remembered it before. The broom is going to be Selangor's main political visual that will get the folks all excited to say; oh what a good Menteri Besar Dato Khir guy is, he has cleaned up all the corruption practices in the state that it would be a sin if we don't vote for the party he is representing.

Of course no one is questioning who's paying for the overseas trips as the incentive for those who have carried out their duty in collecting money from the people in the form of quit rents and stuff like that. Chances are they're going to watch belly dancing cruising down the Nile in a boat.

Wasn't it the broom that started the 13 May when the non-Malays went around the city in the open truck brandishing the brooms to send the clear message to the Malays that they were about to be swept back to the kampong where they had came from? If this is indeed the game Dato Khir guy is playing, so that the Malays can be reminded in a subtle way of the consequences of giving your vote to the other side then I believe he is the most cunning Malay politician in Selangor.

It's the open season for politicking. It's the time to read between the lines. Of course, I could be guilty of over-reacting to an innocent broom.

Simon Says...

TV3 had a brief coverage on the quarrel between Lim Kit Siang and Nazri in the parliament today. Nazri says, BN is going to win big. You may think he's bluffing but I know he knows something we don't. I got a feeling he and his gang have figured out a way how to win big in the next general election. I reckon that's why he and the gang are not all that excited about 40,000 people marching up the Istana Negara to hand in a memorandum to the agong even though the agong guy is out riding a horse in Terengganu.

Najib says BN can bring triple the size of the Saturday crowd. So he and his gang aren't all that excited about 40,000 people running up and down Jalan Pudu being chased by the cops in riot gear and water canon the size of a giant penis.

After the marching is done, people in high places are saying things that you and I should read between the line. This is the time people make a mistake of talking too much, just like the Zam guy but he's different. He doesn't speak English.

So far only the top guys are saying things. The guys in the lower rung ain't saying anything yet. They'll say something soon but so far they're playing which-way-the-wind-is-blowing. The president of the Backbenchers' club has said something but you can't take that Raja guy seriously. He is in the same category with the Kinabatangan and Gading clowns. They are the first class act, Laurel and Hardy. Just like Laurel and Hardy they never fail to keep me amused with their bucolic humor

The non-Malay ministers aren't saying anything yet. Maybe they've worked out a schedule among themselves who should say what and when so that this march by 40,000 strong rakyat in yellow can be exploited until the very eve of the General Election, a grim reminder to the kampong folks what a terrible traffic jam the march has caused and what a shame it has been for the country now that the whole world has put us in the same class as Myanmar and Pakistan. Ish ish ish ini bukan budaya kita, tuan puan sekalian, adik kakak, saudara-saudari sekelian. Ini budaya asing. Kita yang lemah lembut dengan adat ketimuran perlulah bertindak mengikut perlembagaan. Kita ada proses pengundian yang adil dan saksama. Ini telah diiktiraf oleh badan-badan pengundian dunia.

Simon says, take this kain batik and kain pelikat and basikal for your kids. Simon says don't listen to AlJazeera, they are liars just like CNN or BBC. Simon says listen to RTM 1, it's the best channel. It has won more awards than Hollywood will ever got. Ini saluran Infotainment anda. Zam says, I coined that word up myself, he...he...he...am I good or what. Simon says, DBP shut up! After that DBP has never been the same again. Some people said DBP has gone mad, running around in circle chanting, murtabakkan bahasa melayu, murtabakkan murtabakkan.

Simon is going to say a lot of things and the people are going to do exactly what Simon says. This is Simon country and Simon can do anything he wants and the people are going to watch in silence. Simon is gonna say, let's have a rally. Simon is gonna pay good money for you to go. Simon is gonna put you on an air-conditioned bus to get you there. Simon gonna feed you nice quality food to eat. Better food than what Zakaria Md Deros served at his open house where 60,000 people turned up to eat, drink and be merry. After that the people had a chance to tour his nice house which is bigger than MPSJ building. This is Simon's country. Simon has lots of money. Simon says, sit! You sit. Simon knows better; no money no talk. Got money let's walk.

This is Simon country. You do what Simon says. You don't do what Simon doesn't say. Simon doesn't say you can come together in a crowd of 40,000. You go against Simon you're gonna pay. Simon has been winning in all the general elections that Simon doesn't know how to lose in a game and since this is the way things are gonna be, someone else will have to do the losing and the dying.

This Ain't My Show.

A cellphone goes off in the middle of a class. The guy gets up to walk out of the classroom to take the call. He comes back on. The cellphone goes off again. In my mind I'm turning the chairs and tables into a pile high as a three-story building. In my mind he's dead. I punched his nose with a back fist and delivered the front kick to his chest, aiming at his solar-plexus with the ball of my feet. But this ain't my show. It ain't my movie. The guy is still alive. And he's talking outside the classroom. We can hear him clear as a surat-khabar-lama truck on Sunday.

One and a half hour into the class his cellphone goes off again. That got me to look him in the eye to say, I think you'd better switch that off, man. He didn't like what he had just heard. And so he gave me the look. I got the look only mother could love and since I don't know who my mother is I gave him the look too. But he never looked my way after that which is not too good because I suddenly got the urge to have a fight with someone like him.

Oxymoron.

It took me a while to find out what oxymoron really mean but frankly, I had figured what it's all about long before I looked up its meaning in a dictionary. No, I wasn't playing Scrabble on-line or one of those mind games learned people usually play. You know I don't have the brain for that kinda thing but it didn't take me long to put two and two together to know any better that oxymoron simply means: a snake in a dog's body. Or more precisely; a politician in a businessman's body. Or a businessman in a politician's body depending on how much money is involved.

As it is, I am an oxymoron in the making. If I decide to go into politics, that is. For now I am an oxy on account of my involvement in the world of business. I've chosen the first part of the word to fit my description because it sounds better than -moron. And if you bear with me, it means better too.

It's an open secret that politicians are generally morons. There's a whole bunch of them in the city right now having the supreme time of their life in a council that meets every now and then to discuss the fate of the Malays, where the Malays should be going, now that a Malay has gone to space and back. Every one knows that these spineless morons are as clueless as a goat with amnesia as to where everybody should be going. After all, they have misled the Malays for a good five decades and seven already.

Oxy is different than moron. An oxy doesn't necessarily refer to men or women engaged in some kind of business although this is generally the case. It may refer to a full-bodied ox, full of flesh and looking ohhh so oxy, or sexy in bovine street talk. It's a hundred times better than -moron, I tell you that. Unless otherwise stated oxy, however, isn't the same as oxlike.

How's that so, you may ask. I'm in the middle of cooking something so I am not about to explain this whole thing to you in a fashion that would make me come across as an academic who has read way too much for his own good. Besides, this is no time to be academic. Not when I'm listening to Boney M, ABBA and Tina Charles back to back. Of course it's different if I'm listening to people like Jethro Tull, Bob Dylan or Pink Floyd. But I don't. I like simple music with no message or concept. Music that doesn't try to change the world just because there's way too many wars, or corruption or that the world has had enough of oxymorons shouting themselves coarse in the throat that the Malays must change their ways if they ever want to get anywhere. Wherever that is.

Now, what was it that I started to write about? Sorry, my fish is cooking nicely in the aluminum wrapper, and I should start on the citrus sauce. And you know that a sauce like that needs constant stirring. Excuse me, I gotta fix dinner for one. Wish you could join me but would you have dinner with an oxy? If you don't mind Boney M, that is.

Tina Charles - I Love To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance)

Tina Charles - I Love To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance)
Video sent by Camelboy1

Tina Charles - I Love To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance)

Label: Columbia

Country: US

Released: 1976

Genre: Funk / Soul

Style: Disco

Tina Charles - You set my heart on fire

Tina Charles - You set my heart on fire
Video sent by capitainfunkk

CAPTAINFUNK ON THE RADIO (samedi 23h www.radiobeton.com)