I was in Ipoh yesterday, Thursday 13th. November, for golf, and then dinner at a hotel with Najib as g.o.h. I returned to Seremban this afternoon, Friday, opting to jamak-kathar my zohor & asr solat instead of the Friday Jumaat, and paid the price here & now instead of the hereafter !
Before the dinner, I'd already told Dato' Ismail and Pak Ya that Dollah , the original g.o.h. won't come, for obvious reasons, and that Ali Rustam was sure to come, seeing as to how the fight for the Timbalan President UMNO post is now three-cornered, and maybe he fancy his chances. I was right on both counts.
When the MC mentioned Najib's name, the loud applause was to be expected. When Ali's name was mentioned before Muhyiddin's ( who also came, which I did not expect it ) because he's a Chief Minister and a YAB, he smiled broadly when he got the applause. The smile lost some dazzle when Muhyiddin received a louder applause, and it was Muhyiddin's turn to smile broadly. I think that's was a fair indication. I don't see Ali beating Muhyiddin for 3 good reasons: he's an ADUN and unless he goes for a bye-election, cannot assume the DPMship; he's not a good speaker, and is worse in English; he's digging deep into an apparently deep pocket for the long haul, and this time he may be caught.
In comparison, the Wanita Rafidah-Sharizat duel is interesting for 2 good reasons. One is the committment and egocentricity of Rafidah, against the hopes of the next-generation Wanita. The other is the ambivalence of Sharizat who is wary of her chances, made more nervous by her loss to upstart Nurul Izzah in the last GE. This is compounded by the adamant Kamalia running for Deputy no matter what. Kamalia is the old veteran ( but of Sharizat's generation ) who can count on Rafidah, and that would be formidable. Also Sharizat is viewed as Dollah's supporter and that could be a liability, although Rafidah's popularity among UMNO members have never been high. Sharizat is now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If she goes for Ketua, she may lose. If she goes for Deputy, she may also lose.
My penalty for "tuanging" Jumaat today came this way.
I stopped at the Sg. Buluh Jejantas R&R for refreshments. As I stepped away from my car, the occupants from a car behind mine motioned to me, shouting out something I could not make out. I thought why should I bother, but maybe they need some info I can easily give, no bother.
When I approached the driver's side, the guy on the passenger's side said in clearly heavy "Arabic" accent something about the availability of halal food and money-changing, showing his fat wallet with clearly foreign currencies. Then he came out of the car to my side and asked to see what a Malaysian note look like. At that moment it didn't strike me as odd, since obviously he's already in Malaysia, and in fact is already driving around the country. But at that time this didn't come to mind. I took out my wallet and was about to show him a 10 RM note, when he pointed to my 50 notes, and actually pulled them out of my wallet ! Now I suddenly remembered Madrid 1989 ! This is "de je vu", I thought. At Madrid airport two well-dressed men approached me, knowing from my appearance, of course, that I was a tourist, asking to change 1 US100 bill. I said I didn't have change, and they said if I could kindly check. So I took out my wallet and showed them my own US100 bills. Similiarly, the money was taken right off my hand and the guy began to count them. By then I was already taken aback and grabbed his wrist, but he said don't worry, don't worry, and I was looking intensely at the money in his hands. I didn't see him actually taking anything, and he returned them and walked away. I became suspicious and sat and carefully counted my money. It's my habit to write down how many pieces of the different denominations of the currencies that I take with me when travelling. So I discovered 3 US100 bills missing !
Now this incident today I said to myself, my God, is the same thing happening to me again? So I counted my money. Now, I distinctly remember taking RM1,000 with me to Ipoh. I also remember that the only cash expenditure I had made to that point was RM150 for the golf, and less that RM30 for other small purchases. So what do you think? I had lost RM200, in 4 RM50 bills.
So whoever reads this blog, the one thing I advise is to watch out for this con. I was told later that this has happened here before.
The other thing is, don't "tuang" your solat Jumaat.
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2 comments:
When I went for my Haj last year one of the stoning days was a Friday. But the Saudi authorities cancelled the Friday prayers at all mosques in Mina. It was for a good reason. They did not want people to crush and possibly kill each other just for Solat Jumaat.
So don't regret if you 'tuang' a Friday prayer if you have agood reason.
Never know an old hand like you can be conned, that also coming from the same method that you were conned before. Anyway like the chinese saying goes "siew choy mmm chut tai choy mmm yap" meaning a small loss will bring great gain - you know what I mean.
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