The old man and his legacy.

24.6.2014.

Looks like the old man is the only one with the balls to call out on  royalty. Whatever deficiency our local brand of government suffers, listening to its detractors, the rule of law is clear about political power - win an election or shut up.

His No. 3 predecessor picked him to be his deputy, but he took much longer than usual in making that choice. He said  "I hope I have nade the right choice". It wasn't a joyful day. There were more favoured sons. Certainly he regretted it after he left, because eventually he turned away from the old Party altogether in disgust. That's on record. 

No. 6 had better start showing some "chutzpah", to use the Jewish slang, or risks being "chutney", to use the Indian one.

I cry for old, bold days of summer. But then we have one eternal summer here to simmer in.

I'm thankful for the old man and his legacy.

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Iraq.

16.6.2014.

The contentious debate about the "legality" of the Western-led Iraqi War of 2003 will not disappear even as the new civil war  erupts  in the poor country. Even as Western-concocted terms such as "jihadist" are being liberally and falsely used, the continuous harangue on bad things associated with Muslim peoples deserves absolutely no  merit.  

Concocting was not difficult in the decision-making  by the US, with  its European allies, to get an excuse to wage a unilateral and  one-sided war against Saddam Husin and his imagined WMD.   It didn't matter that the poor bloke was useful to the US  during the war on Iran. All armed Islamic states must be cut to size when the opportunity is there. Thus Egypt, Iran and Turkey are on the short list.  In the meantime Western media can be depended to continue highlighting isolated stories of "honour" killings, repressed hidden musical talent, and the limiting of youth's  taste for Western culture, to show to the world how bad Islam is. It stoked the unrest in the Arabian states, and when it became violent, neatly labelled it "the Arab Spring."

Iraq was civilised long before the Europeans landed in the Americas. Bagdad was a city of learning two thousand years before George Washington led the rebellion against England. The multi-cultured fabric of the Islamic world is simplistically  lumped as "Sunni-Shia".

For eight years the US-led occupation of Iraq successfully repressed and bottled-up the different internal needs of the ancient state. When it finally abandoned Iraq in 2011, no one should be surprised what's happening now is happening.  

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Ambam.

15.6.2014.

Ambam helped mom mainly with the washing, but probably also with this and that. Her brother, Ayin, used to keep mom company when everyone else was  away. I remember her as the chubby girl from Bukit Temensu who came each morning to the house. But was it from the Residential Area days or only from the Tebat Kering days? That I can't remember. 

Her father was Manaf, the chain-saw man - because I always saw him cycling to work with a big chain-saw strapped to his bicycle. In later years he started to come to the surau. In those early days he was the thick, strong guy who came back from work and at about magrib time would  cycle back to town for probably his teh tarik nights out with his friends. And he was strong. Once mom asked him to cut down an old coconut tree stump, and he did it all by himself. He dug around the roots, and then physically pulled out the whole stump.

Although Ambam was the hired house help, we treated her like family, just like we treated an earlier help, Sawa's younger sister whose name escapes me now. She had since died from some liver problem. She was a smoker, not a common Malay habit among the ladies in the kampong, and mom used to ask us to buy a pack of "rokok tembak" - the common brand - ready before she came to the house each morning.

So when Ati smsed me last week about an invitation from Ambam for her daughter's wedding, I arranged with Calit to attend. Ati didn't attend because she has "kayap", and Conen went to Sawah Lebar for another kenduri. But Mushitok was there with wife Yah and son  Rizal, who passed me rm 20, but not before Yah spotted it, ha ha.

Ambam said she's 65 now. Wow, that was a long time ago, this episode in our lives. She said she worked with a private company, an estate or something, until retirement, and is now on SOCSO. Unfortunately, she's now using a wheelchair to move about. She says her legs are now no good. I didn't want to ask more.

We missed the housing estate at first, driving past it to Batu Kikir. We got directions and  turned back. Surprisingly most of the guests were female. But I met Amat Kancil, Conen's classmate. I remember him driving his "motokar kasut". I can't remember the Japanese model, but it was shoe-shaped with a curtailed rear, like a "kasut". He was with his wife, and has 16 grandchildren now ! "You got married early" I said.

Ambam's father, who's from Melaka,  had died and is buried in Jalan Melang. But her mother was sick and brought back to Klebang, her place of origin, by Ambam's sister who was a nurse and working in Melaka. The mother, Besah, died  and was buried there. Ambam's 13 siblings are all over the place, all married and settled down with families of their own, except for Salleh. He fell with bad company and has lost contact with the family. Ayin said he was with Amat Bisu initially. That was where it all started to go wrong. But Amat Bisu has come back to Melang, but there's no Salleh. 

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Malay politics.

9.6.2014.

I'm refering to a few news articles in recent days - MAS's continuing losses, YTL's couch  criticism, Johor's palace intrigue, GST's bad publicity, and UMNO's affirmative action. The substance for these isn't new. The spin is. And all relate to Malay politics.

UMNO was born out of the Malays' demand for a say in their own government of the day. Having secured political power since Independence, UMNO has survived both external and internal threats to its dominance right through 13 General Elections. Sure, the last two saw its position being cut down spectacularly, but the basic Malay support has  given UMNO continued control at the polls. Remarkably, the obvious loss of a solid Malay backing didn't destroy enough Malay support for it to be toppled from power.

The internet and all the media have put the political battle in Malaysia  in a totally new and volatile environment. Fact and fiction have never been more blurred. And the damage more instantaneous. The key now is who gets to exploit the new media more. 

The GLCs are supposed to help the Malays/Bumiputra gain position in the economy. But if the GLCs lose money, how can that  be ? Airlines all over the world have lost money before. But the airline industry is here to stay.  Lost operators have remodelled. Airlines became leaner and meaner.  MAS should learn from this.

YTL can talk now. Could it, would it, before ?  Talk is cheap. Gratitude isn't. 

Johor answers to the same constitution as the rest of the country. Getting close to the "Constituional" monarchy doesn't mean folding before it. UMNO fought for the continued and  proper  position of the Malay Rajas, but the elected government calls the shot. Any member of a royal household who wants to weild political power must stand for election, pure and simple.

If only three  countries in the world cannot implement GST, then they must lack something everyone else has. Balls.

You can't rationalise history. It's  a done deal. This is "Tanah Melayu". But the Malays have never rejected "outsiders". They have benefitted from the growth of the economy because of immigrant enterprise and labour. And the immigrants have benefitted, and have become responsible citizens. They made a choice to come.  They were enterprising,  and because of the enterpreneurship, the  country has progressed, and the Malays appreciate that. And they should.  "Affirmative action" is about giving room at the dining table, not stealing from Ah Chong  to pay  Ahmad. And  the table has grown.  Let's move forward  from there.

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Getting back to blogging.

7.6.2014.

I know it's been a while. So much has happened.. I've kept notes, but just couldn't pull myself to the old pc. So here goes.

Wafa came to our lives in a rather roundabout  way.

Dekna  was only a week past her seventh month pregnancy when on Saturday 26th. April, around 3.30 in the wee hours of the morning she had a "leakage" and was admitted to a private hospital close to the in-laws' place. The gynaecologist only came to attend at about 8.30, and when Dekna  still had her problem, the hospital gave up on her "because of equiptment shortage" and she was referred to the Government Tuanku Jaafar Hospital that night. That's a private hospital for you.

Sunday morning the attending gynaecologist here decided that there was a risk of respiratory stress and the hospital's ventilators were all being used.  The next available was at Sultan Ibrahim Hospital in JB. A hospital ambulance with an accompanying doctor and a nurse took Dekna  there, leaving at about 12 noon. I followed in Haniff's car with Idah, who was crying. Dekna  was calm when she was pushed in her trolley into the ambulance.

Upon reaching SIH at about 4 p.m. Dekna  was pushed straight into the labour room for "screening", the pushed into the OT, because by then she was completely "dry" and the baby had to be delivered by caeserian birth.

That was how Wafa came into our world, all 1.6  kg of her. She wailed and that was a good sign - no breathing problem. In fact in the end the ventilator wasn't necessary.

Wafa was in the ICU, however, because she was premature. She stayed for 19 days in hospital. On discharge after weighing 1.92 kg, the stipulated weight, everybody who was in JB came home to Seremban on Thursday 15th. May. Now she's fast putting on weight, feeding and sleeping as well as to be expected. Only the brand new parents are learning the hard way how much sacrifice is required in child care - and that's just to mention only sleep.

Then there was the Veteran UMNO AGM in KL.

We didn't get PWTC as was much lauded before. The veterans were the first members to have contributed in more ways than one to the construction of PWTC. But even with ample notice and  the the supposed attendance of the PM, and a total number of  659 delegates, there was no room available in any of the "Dewans".

So off we trooped to the Regency Hotel in Jalan Raja Alang, in front of the infamous Chow Kit Road pasar. The conference hall wasn't too bad,  but obviously it's no PWTC. As for the rest of the place, I think it's not out of place it being at the Chow Kit Road area, if you get my drift.

Anyway, I got to be elected into the Central Committee for the 2013-2016 term. Actually it was a "no contest". There were 25 candidates for 25 posts.  But at least I got to deliver a "motion" that was duly passed.

The only side note was Ustaz Ahmad & wife with me and Jamaluddin were made to wait from 6 p.m. till 8.30 p.m. at a workshop nearby. A  broken left rear door of Ustaz Ahmad's Proton Perdana had to be fixed.

Next was the MUBARAK AGM in Kuantan.

This time the delegates were much smaller, only 141, but the hotel was much, much classier - the Zenith. The whole show was sponsored by the Pahang State Government for about  RM 300,000.

The food was excellent.

Finally the Telok Intan bye-election.

To me it was a surprise win for Gerakan and  BN. But a win is a win.

Now let's see what happened.

In the 13th GE, Mah Siew Keong of Gerakan ( it's the same guy ) obtained 20,000 votes and lost to the late Seah Leong Peng of DAP who got 27,000,  a majority of more than 7,000 with 900 spoilt votes. This time around Mah got the same number of votes - 20,000 - and beat newcomer and female  Malay youngster Dyana who got exactly 19,919 votes. The majority was  238. There were more spoilt votes -  about 500. These  spoilt votes are everywhere ! It simply meant that  7,000 Chinese voters thought that DAP cannot lose and didn't bother to  vote.

Maybe the MCA President got it right this time. The win could be described as a flash in the pan. But there's a lesson somewhere. 

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