Utter rubbish!

I can't believe I stayed up all night only to be served with an utterly rubbish display by Liverpool last night.

If only I knew it was going to be that bad, I would have continued with my much needed sleep.

But expecting something good and a worth-watching display, especially after heartening displays against Man City and Arsenal, I requested Syafiq to wake me up for the game. And came 4.00 am, my son duly obliged.

So here I am feeling groggy and sleepy but wide awake on a public holiday.

Really spoils the holiday.

The Gaza Holocaust 2009: history repeated

They say that “history repeats itself”. And so it has.

Witness the recent Gaza Holocaust. The grandchildren of the holocaust survivors from World War II are doing onto the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany.

Just look at the pictures below.

Ironic isn't it?

The question that begs to be answered is this: why do the Palestinians have to pay for what happened to the Jews during World War II?

Beats me. Can anyone figure?



Building walls and fences to keep people in prisons







Checkpoints everywhere to not allow the people their basic freedom and movement





Arrests and harassments







Destruction of homes and livelihoods



Killing of innocent civilians, including children

Un-Happy New Year

While people the world over rejoice at the coming of a new year, at least 300 Palestinians, including dozens of innocent civilians, have been killed and about 1,600 injured by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

That is the cost (thus far) of the Israeli warplane and helicopter gunship attacks on Gaza.

But the figure could well increase. For Israel's military have been moving soldiers, tanks and armoured personnel carriers to Gaza's edge raising concerns that the aerial assault will be followed by a ground offensive.

Yes. The Palestinians are at the whims and fancies of the Israeli regime. The lost of Palestinian lives, it seems, means nothing whatsoever. They are as cheap – if not cheaper – than the price of a goat.

Sure, the Palestinians fire rockets into southern Israel. But then what do you expect of a people who have been driven off their homeland to create that new state of Israel, and then subjected to constant persecution and tight control all their lives?

And what is the odd one or two miserly missiles into Israel, as compared to the firepower and high-handed bullying that have been continuously ‘meted out’ to the Palestinians?

Israelis love to remind the world of the Holocaust that they suffered during the World War II. Ironically, now, it is they who are driving another people off their ancestral farmland, diverting water sources, bombarding their homes bringing death and destruction.

All, without a hint of neither guilt nor remorse. How easy they forget.

But who do we turn to? The OIC is muted. The Arab nations are still squabbling as to how to react.

The US? Well, the deafening silence of President-elect Obama says it all, doesn’t it? Looks like its business as usual on the international front for the US. “Change we can believe in”? I doubt it. I’m having second thoughts, and feeling rather gloomy on this first day of 2009.

Nevertheless, have a good day everyone.

Where are we heading politically?

Only in Malaysia.

Yes. Another accolade for Malaysia. Only this time, for the wrong reasons.

In which other country would you get a prominent political leader being accused of sodomising somebody? Heck, not once, but twice already now!

And if that is not enough. Another highly placed politician and his wife gets to be accused of being involved in the murder of a foreign woman. By blowing her to pieces, mind you.

So, who says Malaysia is a boring nation with no sensational news value?

Even in the land of gun-slinging cowboys you won't get anything as juicy and dramatic as this.

As a rakyat, what bothers me is that all these political posturings - with accusations and counter-accusations using statutory declarations - are a distraction to nation building and management of the economy.

The oil price is rising and rising. And from what I heard, the cost of electricity is to follow suit. The inflation rate will go up to an all-time high of 6 to 7% according to Tan Sri Zeti, the Governor of Bank Negara.

Enough is enough, politicians!

If you are not interested, nor fit enough to lead anymore, then let go.

Spare the rakyat of all this sandiwara.

And let's not turn Malaysia into a laughing-stock.

Oil price hike - the big one

So, it has happened. The much talked about (and dreaded) oil price hike is finally here with us.

And what a whopping big hike it was, too!

Before this, oil price increases had been by only a few sen. 5 sen. 10 sen, at the most. Even then it had still caused grumblings among the rakyat. For, prices of goods and commodities would duly increase too.

But to increase by 78 sen per litre? Now that is unprecedented. Not to mention irresponsible and reckless, if I may add.

Lest we forget, we are an oil producing nation. And the national petroleum company is making profits by the billions of ringgit! I did not say this myself. The government claimed so.

Therefore, something is amiss here. Why do we have to hike our prices to be closer to those of our neighbours up north and down south?

Surely we are different. We must be different. They don’t have oil fields. They don’t have a big oil firm which is consistently listed as one of the most profitable corporate entities in the world.

The quantum of increase means that the rakyat are in for a shock.

First, their disposable income will greatly be reduced.

Then, there is the attendant after-effect of oil price hike: inflation.

As prices of goods and services start to rise, the real value of their income will be shrunk further.

For big-salaried ministers and filthy-rich corporate big shots this is, of course, nothing to lose sleep over. But to ordinary people – lowly-paid civil servants and the kampong folks – their quality of life shall be grossly, adversely affected.

The policy-makers. Didn’t they think of these groups of people?

Meanwhile car owners have to start considering ditching their cars. Fat chance, if we know Malaysians well. They love their rides too much to do that. In any case, the alternative – our public transport systems – are still not up to the mark.

Alternatively, maybe we should switch to gas to power our vehicles – NGV. Now that’s a much more acceptable proposition. NGV is not only cheaper, but also environmentally-friendly.

Blame it on Telekom Malaysia

When I arrived back from Sydney last Saturday, I had so much on my mind to write about my trip Down Under. Alas, when I reached home, I was duly told by the Mem Besar that the PC's modem had gone kaput!

A report was made to Telekom Malaysia (TM) and I was told in a business-like tone that "you will be promptly served within two working days, sir, that's our client's charter".

Well, what do you know. It is only seven days later that they sent around the technician. And even that was only after twelve follow-up calls to the customer service centre.

The excuse given: "we ran out of modems". Can you believe it? Can you accept that coming from TM, a giant of a corporate entity which is supposed to be making Malaysia proud worldwide and earning profits in the billion?

But then, now that I've got my modem, I don't have any excuse not to write do I?

So, write I shall. This ranting is just for starter.

UNESCO brouhaha

The Education Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, was elected to the Unesco Executive Board on 25 October 2007. And the brouhaha it caused among the local media was nothing short of spectacular.

If they had it their way, they’d have you believe that Hishamuddin Hussein was elected as the Secretary-General of the United Nations. And to top it up, his election was touted as “membuktikan negara mempunyai produk pendidikan yang diiktiraf dunia”, whatever that means…

Alas, the brouhaha is just that – a clamour arising for no good reason.

Firstly, there’s nothing much special about being elected to the Executive Board. Hishamuddin is just one of fifty-eight (58) elected members. Others include representatives from minor-league nations such as Niger, Albania, Cuba, Jamaica, Mongolia, Pakistan, and El Salvador.

Secondly, the sloganeering “produk pendidikan yang diiktiraf dunia” does seem to ring hollow, doesn’t it? What does it really mean? What international recognition are we talking about – if any?

After fifty years of Merdeka, what have we got to show in terms of education advancement?

Our children continue to be subjected to endless “experimentation” as a result of the politicization of the education system.

Just look at the policy on the use of English as a medium of instruction.

As our politicians stumble and muddle through it to suit their political interests, our poor younger generations are slowly but surely being turned into a confused lot – not to mention possessing poor language skills.

As a result, while the Malay students can’t even construct a single sentence in English without being littered with grammatical errors, the non-Malays would shy away from using the National language at the slightest of opportunity. This certainly does not augur well for our future unity as a nation.

To say that this is a sad situation would be an understatement.

I say this because it is at the schooling age that our children have the biggest opportunity to interact closely and make close friends with people of all races without any of the inhibitions and prejudices that we adults might, unfortunately, posses.

It is also here that they can get exposed to the cultures and way of life of other ethnic groups. Oh, what a fertile ground for nurturing and instilling the concept of muhibbah, isn’t it?

And from my personal experience, bonds of friendship developed over that period are the most meaningful and long-lasting.

Too bad our politicians are more interested in getting elected to the Unesco Executive Board in far-away Paris, rather than focusing on real and more pressing issues back home.

NS: they never learn, do they?

Another serious misfortune has befallen on one of our National Service trainees. This time, a death.

The death of Mohd Rafi Ameer a trainee at the Cheneh Cemerlang camp in Kemaman last Saturday is said to be the twentieth since the National Service was started by the government.

I can just hear the defensive mode of the people in charge getting into overdrive here: “death occurs everywhere”… “the safety and interests of trainees are always on the top of our mind”…“some trainees do not properly declare the sickness that they have” etc. etc.

The truth is, we parents are being taken for a ride – and sometimes even – taken for fools, I might add.

And I’m talking from experience, here. For, my daughter Sakinah went through an ordeal herself at the National Service camp in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. It was an experience which made me feel betrayed, and one which moved me to write to Malaysiakini in March of this year.

You see, when I encouraged her to go I was confident that she would be well taken care of. After all, these are teenagers we’re talking about. Hardly the G.I. Joes or Janes. But nothing could be farther from the truth – well, at least not at that Pasir Puteh camp, anyway.

The dinning hall was so filthy that the local authority had it sealed (as in closed down!). The equipments for training were next to non-existent.

But the saddest part is, a trainee girl from Cheras (staying not far from our place, actually) died in a bathroom. Whatever happened to her that fateful night, nobody really knows until today. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s being conveniently forgotten.

Please buck-up, the powers that be. You are gambling with the lives and safety of our children! Would you do the same with your children?

A slap on the wrist for bloggers

I started blogging in February of this year in order to record my thoughts, express my views and feelings, and – maybe, share my thoughts with anyone who would care to read the blog. Pretty innocent stuff, blogging, I thought to myself.

But a few months ago we saw two bloggers being slapped with law suits. Last week another one was summoned to have his statements recorded after a police report was made against him.

Whoa...what’s happening here?

The worldwide trend is plain and crystal clear for all to see. The number of blogs as of May this year was 60 million – and growing at a quickening pace. According to the blog tracker, Technorati, some 75,000 blogs are created daily. That means on average one new blog is created every second of every day!

Individuals, business people, politicians are blogging, the world over. It’s an excellent medium for expressing views, and an equally good source of information.

Despite of this, Malaysian bloggers are really getting a slap on the wrist, and that's putting it mildly. It’s like we are going backwards in the IT age (the Multimedia Super Corridor notwithstanding). The urge by certain quarters for us to move on and drop our so called “third world mentality” therefore rings hollow. Shame on you.

After 50 years of Merdeka, is this all we've got to show?

As a society, maturity, sadly, eludes us. Sloganeering and hypocrisy rules, OK!

Selamat Menyambut 50 Tahun Kemerdekaan, Malaysia (read: how I feel pity for you).

The minister talks sense

Politicians are well known for their empty rhetoric and sensationalizing of issues to gain political mileage. After all, it is their bread and butter.

But at least the Natural Resources and Environment Minister has managed to talk some sense when he laments that most Malaysian houses are built based on Western designs, i.e. to retain heat, instead of giving due attention to tackling local needs and practicalities in response to local climatic conditions (Houses here based on western designs, NST, 4 May 2007).

He goes on to blame the problem on our architects being trained in the west.

Now, that’s a food for thought!

I think there is some truth in it – to a point. After 50 years of Merdeka (independence), it is high time our professionals and academicians develop some degree of independence in terms of research & development, as well as, applied knowledge.