It's Wednesday 30th. December, one more day before 2010. Tiong Meng said this morning was his last golf round for the year. I'll play one more day, tomorrow.
I came back from Kuantan last night. We stopped at Low Yat to find a replacement for Dekna's stolen lap top. Petrol cost me RM 174 for the two-way trip. Seri Malayasia Kuantan charged me RM 170 for one night. Dekna paid for the toll, and we ate at Bangtai's - one dinner on 28th., and lunch on 29th. before we drove back.
Yusni's National Service Camp seems to be doing well. Kuantan seems to be doing well, too. The traffic jams were incredible, though. I can't remember such a mess when I was working and covering Pahang 20 years ago.
We found a semi-detached house for RM 580 in Tanjung Lumpur. I couldn't believe it is that expensive. We took it anyway, because it seems a nice house in an apparently nice area, and Bangtai is only on the other side of the housing area. Faraha will join Dekna in March.
The politics.
Everybody is an expert. Me, my wife and the three boys (minus Dekna ), everybody I talk to at the golf club, and everybody I talk to outside it talk politics. Those supposedly managing the politics, too, only talk it. They're hopeless, thus the onging mess.
The BN is turning on its head. Past BN Presidents who are dead and buried must be turning in their graves. One surviving BN President forced another who succeeded him out of office. If the present one is not careful he might very well follow suit.
Component Parties are in deep shit, too. Party leaders are being asked to go but all refusing to do so. Even the opposition pact is having their own share of excessive politicking and the accompanying mudslinging.
There's a BN whip in Parliament, but probably the whip should be used on him with some vigour. C'mon, man. BN nearly lost the vote on the budget. If the pact had won it, they could have used their number to overturn the government and really turn the running of the country inside out.
Everyone of us who voted in 2008 should demand an explanation from our MPs about where they were that night. We put them in Parliament not so that they can enjoy themselves elswhere.
Only old Mahathir dares to criticise the leadership. Whether his points are valid or not is a separate issue, but are the others merely dumb followers ?
They can obviously lay it on thick on people like Mahathir when they can ( the loudmouth Nazri was told to shut up), but all seem to keep their own counsel on the strange decisions by the government. Najib will suffer the same predicament that afflicted Dollah, if the rest of the crowd behave like cattle. Najib says "One Malaysia !" and everybody shouts after him "One Malaysia !". I wonder if everyone understands the message. Just like Islam Hadari before.
The opposition pact is suffering from their unexpected success at the last elections. They were as surprised as the rest of us that they won in five states. They were never prepared to run anything, much less run a state government. They can't even run their own affairs at the moment. Most of their candidates who won were not even properly vetted, and now they and all of us are seeing the quality, or mostly lack of it thereof.
The economy.
In the midst of all these, as they say, "who's minding the store ?".
Has the economy recovered after the capitalist meltdown ? The US says it hasn't, and it's bigger and and has deeper pockets. Those Malaysian experts who say we are recovering may not believe their own words, or shouldn't.
Communism is gone. Capitalism as we know it is also probably gone. Paper wealth should be discarded, and true values of factors of production should be recognized. The first step ought to be to replace the greenback as a major international measurement. The gold dinar voiced by Mahathir years ago merit examination. It wasn't his original idea, but he lent voice to it. We should seriously study and implement it. Greed should not rule the market as it does if left alone. Fair distribution as espoused by the syariah is the answer. Only a government can control that.
The akhlak.
The real mark of civilisation is "akhlak". It's the moral standard that's ordained by the syariah that offers the answer to the decline in the guidance of human behaviour for upholding the welfare and public well-being of the human race. Regardless of creed and religion. The Quran specifically mentions the freedom of choice of religion, and respect for different beliefs, contrary to the current ill-founded commentaries about Islamic fundamentalism. Fundamentalism refers to the true teaching, not the extreme practices of Islam. Akhlak would, in a very small example, restrain the tired bus driver from attempting to answer only to his greed for more trips, rather than seek rest, and render safety the overwhelming desire for caring for his passangers. Akhlak also should cause the leaders of the greatest country of the world to give fair assessment of the unfair conditions of the Palestinian one-sided armed conflict.
I hope 2010 would fare better than 2009.
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