Wednesday, September 22, 2010

K.P.HARRIS, R.I.P.

23.9.2010.

I had barely finished my last posting when Ati, my sister, called, informing me of Pak Cik Aris' passing. 

We moved to Tanjong Malim in 1950. Not all of my siblings were born yet, of course. Dad was posted to Sultan Idris Training College (now Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris) to teach. We stayed for 6 years. 

Tg. Malim carries a lot of memories for me. I was 6, and this was my first schooling days, first at the Sekolah Latihan Tanjong Malim, the Malay school that served as the training school for the trainee teachers who were the students of S.I.T.C., and after standard 4, for two years at the Special Malay Class I & II, at the Methodist English School just across the road from the S.I.T.C. padang. 

I remember the celebrations at the town padang for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (we were still a British Colony).

I also remember the "Emergency", the euphimism applied for the period of the jungle (and once in a while urban) warfare waged by the British Administration against the armed communist terrorists. As it happened, Tg. Malim gained notoriety for that ambush on the D.O.'s armed party that went up to repair the sabotaged town reservoir that resulted in the 14 government dead and a public rebuke by General Templer. 

And then there was Pak Cik Aris. 

How dad got him to come I'll now never find out. But he didn't come with us from the very beginning. That was "Lebai." Lebai was one of dad's pupils at the Kuala Pilah Malay School where he taught before the Tg. Malim posting. He had finished Standard 6, the highest class for all the Malay schools at that time. After Standard 6, except for the fortunate few who were very clever, very connected or very rich (often all three), everybody went to look for work. Mostly they became government clerks, or policemen, or soldiers.

Lebai, at dad's invitation, followed us to Tg. Malim, eventually to help him set up our own private mini photo studio, my father's surprising interest, and later, side-income. 

After a short while Pak Cik Aris came.  Later, Pak Cik Chup, mom's first cousin, Yusof Awang (also called Usop Pokeh) also came.   He didn't stay long. Pak Cik Chup married  late in life to a satay seller at the Malay Bazaar, and they later moved to Kg. Datuk Harun on the old Kelang Road.  Pak Cik Chup  is buried there. But this merits another story.

When Lebai left us after less than a year to join the army (what else), Pak Cik Aris filled up the assisstant photographer's position that eventually outlasted our own Tg. Malim stay. When dad got reassigned back to Kuala Pilah in 1956, Pak Cik Aris, having found a vocation he had become fond of, chose to remain behind. And until only a few years ago, Tanjong Malim was his home. 

Right from those early days, Pak Cik Aris had chosen his trade name, "K.P. Haris" - coining his real name with the initials of his original home town - Kuala Pilah. Through the years he lived on his camera work. When dad set up his mini-studio he did the developing work himself, plus all the art work when he did the Raya cards thing. Pak Cik Aris learned the developing as well, but when we left Tg. Malim he stopped developing his photos himself and concentrated only on snapping the shots only. Apparently sufficient income was earned by him to survive almost his entire lifetime on this taking of photos of the endless batches of SITC students who got through the college gates every three years.

Pak Cik never married. Once in a few years he'd suddenly appear in Kuala Pilah and visited us. When I was at MU he sent word about the death of Pak Cik Jaya through another undergraduate, which showed that he kept track of me. When I started working , my work sometimes took me to Tg. Malim, and I used to look for him when time permitted. Mostly I failed, but a few times I met him. He was staying at the same old surau in the College grounds. He used to keep an extra "kain pelikat" under the mimbar of the town mosque. So I know he kept his daily solat. 

A few years ago he came back to KP, "for good", he said at that time. He moved to Mak Cik Putih's house, a relative of his. Mak Cik Putih's late son, a doctor, even gave him an electric-powered bicycle, which he rode around Kuala Pilah town with glee. And there I thought he'd spend the rest of his days.

I learned with sadness to-day that Pak Cik chose not to put his roots down here after all. Apparently he became difficult in his old set ways. I believe Mak Cik Putih and her family had opened their home to him like family that he was.  He had settled in at first. But he became restless and wanted to be on his own again, and back in Tanjong Malim in particular. So they obligingly sent him back to Tanjong Malim. He stayed for about a year.  Then he fell sick and was hospitalised. They fetched him, but he didn't want to come back to Mak Cik Putih's house. The old folks homes in Negeri were full, but they found one in Melaka that accepted him.

Recently, he fell sick again. And last night he was gone. He died at the hospital in Melaka. They brought back the remains to Kuala Pilah this morning. It was bathed and put in the burial shroud at the Bukit Temensu surau, which is in fact built on the land owned by Mak Cik Putih's late father, donated (wakaf) for the surau. About 30 of us stood and prayed before the body. 

It was sad for me to see the lonely Pak Cik Aris, who came to us in Tanjong Malim alone, stayed back there alone, and finally died all alone. 

He was at least 86, just slightly younger than my late mother when she died.  Mom had a soft spot for him, although I remember one time she scolded him over something quite trivial.  In the last years of her life, I knew she still used to give him some money whenever he made one of those infrequent surprise visits. She would have cried for him. Sadly, I see no tears to-day. 

Goodbye, K.P. Haris. 

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Idah going for the Hajj.

23.9.2010.

So, at the ripe (right?) age of 60, my wife will leave for Madinah and thence Mekah on or around 15th. October (Tabung Haji reserves the right to change this, as usual), that is in 22 days' time. 

This is the 5th Pillar of Islam ("arkan al din" - rukun Islam), and it should be her final religious obligation in her lifetime. I had always wanted to do the hajj before the age of 40.  I  managed to fulfill that "target" in 1983, one year ahead of time. But I went alone, and now she's going alone. 

I went alone because the 3rd boy, Memi, was only 1, and the other 2 were still small and at school. Anyway, she wasn't "ready". She says she is now. 

She's going alone without me because I feel that I had undertaken my 1983 trip with full spiritual satisfaction, having immersed myself mentally and physically in the preparations for it. 

I have been taught that this is the most "physical" of the compulsory  ibadah. I had to take care of my body so that I could perform the haj undistracted by ill-health, as I witnessed happened to many of my relatives. In fact Hamdan, a friend who went on the same trip, of my own age, was sick during part of the pilgrimage and had to be carried on a stretcher to do his "tawaf" and "sai". So, for about 45 days prior to leaving for the Holy Land, I jogged every evening for about 3 km to build up my stamina.

On my mental preparation, I joined my friends for the standard "kursus haji" and other related "ceramahs", but finally decided to read up more on the concept of the haj, and concluded that, other than the surahs from the Quran that I had already learned by heart from small, I should pray to God in the language that I know, Malay.  I can truely say what I really want to, with sincerity, knowing God Knows, anyway. And, thankfully, except for the cough that everybody had, I was in good health throughout, and I felt I was able to offer my humble supplications in intimate terms to my God. 

As I had expected, it was hard physically. But perhaps because I was prepared for it, I was able to endure the heat, the extreme crowding of all the places of worship, the 8-hour bus trip (standing !) from the Plains of Arafat through Muzdalifah to Mina, where the casting of the stones at the 3 pillars (jamrah) were performed, and even enjoyed the food throughout the entire stay. I performed the "tawaf" and the "sai", in spite of coming in the second last flight from KL, with relative ease, even when the jemaah in the Holy Mosque was at its peak of about 2 million, it being Haji Akbar that year, and me coming for Haji "Ifrad" - coming direct to Mekah in full "ihram" for 8 full days right through "tahlul" after Mina. Perhaps, among other things, doing the haj when one is younger and stronger  contributes.

Idah is in fairly good health for her age, the aching joints not counting. The slight hypertension she has is being controlled with prescription, and continuously, and I mean continuously ( the bp gadget makes a constant beeping sound ) checking the bp herself. She won't be alone because she's with several close friends like Imar and Mai, and some family members. And she has done the umrah before. So, I think she'll be all right. 

Dekna  has given her a brand new mobile phone so she could keep in touch, and all four kids will give her sufficient cash for her personal expenses, and that should also be ok, too. 

So I won't "naik haji" this time. But when she comes back I'll "naik hajjah !". 

We'll also give her a doa selamat on the 9th. and all send her off to the departure centre on the 15th. I'll wait out the 42 or so days alone here in Seremban, for her safe return. I pray that she remains in God's Safekeeping, and fulfil a virtous journey, Amin. 

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Friday, September 17, 2010

UMNO & PERKASA according to Najib.

18.9.2010.

Mainstream media today, 18th, September carry Najib's less than equivocal statement about UMNO and PERKASA not being at odds with each other. The fact that he has, again, to make this sort of statement, carries significance beyond the obvious. Obviously Najib has to say something to pour some oil over troubled water. His "1 Malaysia" stands confronted by PERKASA in all sorts of way. But obviously also, the Malay voice PERKASA clearly carries cannot be dealt with by Najib in a confrontational manner. That would be a disaster, and he better believe it, no matter what his advisers say to the contrary. 

The accepted need to refocus on racial issues in multiracial Malaysia is undeniable. But this has come about by the increasing stridence in the non-Malay complaints against special Malay rights which have been there all along. While the non-Malay voice has increased in tenor and frequency, the Malays have retaliated by saying basically the same things about their special rights duly legislated all this time.

The increase in racialism is within the non-Malay voice. Up until the current fracas, the multi-racial surface of Malaysian politics had given a calm external demeanour, if not internal quiescence. The multi-racial family was somehow or other a working one. The imbalanced economic distribution of income, with its related sectoral and racial segregation imposed by historical design, was being gradually righted, and the wealth of the nation was being spread, at least superficially, more evenly among the major racial groups.

In depth, in fact, the Chinese businessmen and the Indian professionals have prospered more than the Malay administrators and government servants, and padi planters. All this was not necessarily in spite of the much maligned New Economic Policy, but in fact because of it. For how was the Malay administrator, or the Malay government servant, now with better income because of the Government policies, to spend that income but to go to his Chinese tradesmen for the goods , and the Indian professionals for the services, that make for the better quality of life aspired to ? 

This talk of scholarships for Malay students, and Government jobs for Malay graduates need an objective examination. Look at the number of Malay students attending universities and colleges, at home and abroad. Compare that with the number of non-Malay students in similiar situation. Look at the number of jobs available nationawide, both inside Government agencies and out of them. Without the scholarships the Malay students, already minuscule in comparison, would probably drop to nothing at all in abolute numbers. Without the hold out of government employment, how many would be given the same opportunity by the private businesses? 

If there are now claims of government discrimination for scholarships and jobs, how widespread is the real discrimination by private business toward the Malays ? The need is to move forward, not backward. 

Affirmative action has been good for the whole country because it was addressed at the historical mistakes of the colonial past. The progress that has been made the last half-century, however small, must not be negated by the spread of lies supplanting historical truth, for the sake of sounding liberated. What good is liberty if it means political tragedy ? 

And tragedy will be repeated by history, if national leaders give more importance to rethoric rather than the reality that exists for this small, troubled nation. UMNO was set up to fight for Malay rights, but not at the expense of the other races that make up the national population. Keeping the special rights of the Malays was the agreement struck by the nation's forefathers. It does not mean the downtrodding of the non-Malays. It has never been that way, and the proof is around us. Incidents and individual contradictions don't nullify the bigger picture, for they are the frailties of life. 

The noble effort must persevere. The balancing act continues. Najib has no choice. We all have no choice. 

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Thoughts in Syawal.

16.9.2010.

The month of Syawal came 6 days ago. The celebrations continue. The young 'uns are determined that the 30 days of fasting is balanced with at least 30 days of feasting. Ah, to be young and single-minded!  

The first of Syawal went the usual way, with the morning Eid il Fitri prayers at our surau ( I'm chairman, still ) followed with the lemang, rendang, kueh-mueh etc everybody contributed. In fact everything started the night before when we went around for the "takbir" from house to house. We broke up by street groupings, otherwise we'd have to do about 200 house. This year our group had 2 new additions - Adik & Calit. We did 10 houses and finished the last one before midnight.

After the Eid il Fitri prayers we were back in the house, and the children and those with their own brood came around for "salam Raya" and exchanges of money packets. My wife and I stayed home, but the rest went to their uncles' houses nearby.

For one whole month I kept clear of all political and similiar news, so now I was catching up with all the news breaks and the sensational stories that the local media carry. My word ! - the multiple murders, the racial mudslinging, the UMNO internal quarrels, and the natural disasters in and out of the country ! 

The multiple murders remind me of the murder of the Pahang State Assemblyman by Mona Fendi and her men many years ago. It was said that Mona wouldn't have committed so brazen a murder if not for the fact that she'd done it at least once before in Klang. Because it involved a nonentity, the first case didn't attract public attention, and she found that "this is easy, and I can do this again".

Similiarly this Susilawati case appears to me, after the additional facts reported, that it's a case of "I'd gotten away with it easily before, I can do this again", also.

A few celebrity UMNO leaders are condemning PERKASA, while other leaders, including its President, are not quite taking similiar lines. It's not helpful to the majority of ordinary members who have shown sympathy to the message that PERKASA is carrying, one that everybody thought UMNO itself should be carrying. There's confusion, and that's no good for Najib. PERKASA, like DONG ZONG and the banned HINDRAF, is an NGO, not a political party. But the movement is clearly politically motivated, and what's implicated cannot be ignored. Notwithstanding the rights of the Chinese and the Indians, the special rights of the Malays, already ensconsed in the Federal Constitution , are the vital mainstays of a racially stable Malaysia , which in turn is a prerequisite for the future of this country as an economic entity of any worth. I don't think the Malays will negotiate from any other starting point.

The BN-concocted formula for at least a superficial peaceful multi-racial political co-existence is being dismantled by the forces that were unleashed by the glaring weaknesses of the Dollah regime. Fortunately, that incredibly confused leadership was cut short, but the damage was already done. The lid to the pandora box was opened. An alternative formula to civility has to be found, and real quick, or you can say good bye to "1 Malaysia" and whatever good that that still not totally accepted slogan was meant to achieve.

Najib says he's very proud of the groundwork of nation-building laid by his father, and rightly so. And this country owes a great deal to the man for the high road that it has taken. But Najib has to be very careful, so that he doesn't become tragically the son who buries the noble work of the famously tireless father. 

Najib has to listen to the right advice, and to steer away from the politics of the insidious. The good and tested leaders are still around, and good and tested ideas need not be wasted by casting aside for new and untested ones, just so that a new "look" is achieved. Changing politics need not mean changing political values, like changing shirts. The wisdom of the ages and of wise men past is not nullified just because a new turn of phrase and a new voice has been found. Soothsayers and sychophants are the bane of leadership. 

Least of all, but no less harmful, Najib shouldn't get distracted by personal vendattas, and dissuaded by petty acrimony around him. We rejoice in our good health and fortune. But we should appreciate life more when we hear many others, far away, who are less fortunate. They suffer from hunger and ill-health because of the frailty of their state economy, and the fury of their climate and weather, and we should feel sorry. 

So, in the spirit of the Celebration of the Grace, we should pray for compassion for mankind. 

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Thoughts in Ramadan.

9.9.2010.

To-day is the last day of my 65th. Ramadan, though clearly it does not mean that same number of months of fasting. It seems appropriate that the news on the proposed burning of the Quran by a Christian pastor in the US "to commemorate" the 9/11 aircrafts attacks of the NY WTC has caught my attention, and I share my thoughts here.

The Quran has had desecretions right from the times of the Righteous Caliphs who compiled the Surahs down to the present day. So this burning of whatever number of copies of Quran is not by itself disasterous , much less fatal, to the Quran. The Word of God, as Muslims believe the Quran to be, surely cannot be destroyed by the physical act of burning printed copies of it, any more than the content of the Bible can be erased in like manner.

The teachings of the Quran is to-day held absolute by almost a third of mankind who profess by it, and many more who respect its message. These are the numbers that must be obliterated from the face of the earth  for the Quran to be erased from the knowledge of man. 

The contents of the Quran have been propounded for more than 1,400 years, and its principles tested and practised, with success, throughout the world. The Quran mentions the frailties of man, and human history bears  ample examples of them. The Quran puts a high value to life of any form, and condems unreasonable killing of any kind. 

What the perpetrators of 9/11 did was not from the tenets of the Quran. Christianity and Judaism have as many examples of crimes committed in the name of religion as Islam.  In as much as the terrosist act of a Christian Northern Irishman in recent times cannot cast total condemnation upon Christianity, nor can it be said that some misguided acts by Muslim individuals, ipso facto, have the sympathy of the Muslim community. 

Instead of burning copies of the Quran, as many as possible should be distributed among the non-believers, so that they can try and find out what it really says. If they are true believers of their own God, they should find the content of the Quran not abhorrent to their own religion, because the Quran disallows forcing religious belief, but says to each group is its own belief .

Notwithstanding the  popular Western perception to-day, Islam signify peace, tolerence and the "middle way." The facts of history bear proof also that Muslim communities from the days of the Prophet Muhammad to the  long reign of the Ottomans have been more tolerent of the Jews and other religious groups than  contemporary European states. 

Are we our brother's keepers ? Do we answer for the misguidance of our kin ? The fabric of society is surely many textured, and the spectrum of mankind many hued. That is why all the religious scriptures of the world, as does the Quran, teach man to " enjoin the good and forbid the wrong".  And how surprisingly similiar their injunctions are. 

The pastor in the news clearly is not even following his own religious teaching. 

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