Revisitting Makkatul Mukkarramah.

 Sun 26.2.2023 (5 Sya'ban 1444).

Praise the Lord, in 2 days time I'll be leaving for Madinah, and after 4 days, for Makkah, for the 2nd time after about 40 years. I'm with the wife, joining No. 3 Son and his family for the "Umrah & Ziarah", insya'allah.

My first visit for the hajj  was about 40 years ago. I was not quite 39 and went alone because No. 3 Son was only about a year old. We didn't want to leave him with strangers for 40 days. Now it's his wish that we join him for this Little Pilgrimmage. It'll be for 12 days.

There have been tremendous changes in Makkah and Madinah, of course, and I'm looking forward to seeing them. The costs have also seen tremendous increases. That's to be expected. But No. 3 Son insists that his mother must come, so here I am. I think it sets him back about 80 K. My 1983 visit only cost me 5 K. 

Yesterday we had a small prayer meeting in Seremban as a way of announcing the holy trip to our immediate family members. So I took the opportunity to let everybody know who's financing us. I added my thanks, and also added that hopefully the budget set aside would also include some "pocket money"!

Joke aside, I'm grateful to God that an offspring has answered the call for the Holy visit. I have never reminded the children about this "rukun". I pray that  the realisation happens. But I have given all 4 of them the basic lessons of Islam when in primary school. In fact Kak Zah, our old neighbour in Damansara Utama, calls this No. 3 Son "usataz", because the religious school is near her place, and he always attended the afternoon classes in baju melayu, like an ustaz.

I've attempted to immerse myself, this last month, in the spirit of the holy visit. Old phamplets have been re-read, old prayers pored over and the translations jotted down. My age says this would be a final visit. I hope to at least experience the sense of piety I know is not easy to evoke. 

I answer your Call, O God, I answer your Call. All Praise, Joy and Governance are yours. Nothing shares your Will.

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Abdul Manan bin Abas: Honourable bearer of The Military Cross.

 Tues. 23.2.2023.

The citation says:

"During a period of 6 days, the platoon commanded by this young Malay Officer entirely eliminated the Sempalit branch of the Communist Terrorist organisation. 2 terrorists were captured. A District Committee Member was killed by a Section Commander and Lieutenant Manan while on patrol, and the remaining 2 surrendered.

A week later, Lieutenant Manan led his platoon with a surrendered terrorist in an endeavour to capture 2 terrorists, one of whom was particularly wanted alive by the Police. Lieutenant Manan approached the bushes and called them to surrender, but they ran away. Lieutenant Manan chased one of them for 250 yards, and caught up with him, forcing him to surrender. The terrorist was armed with a knife and a grenade. Both this action, and the one in which the Sempalit Terrorist organisation was eliminated, were really fine examples of fighting spirit and determination."

The recommendation was by Lieut. Col. F.F. Laugher, the Commanding Officer of the 6th. Battalion of the Malay Regiment, endorsed by the General Officer Commanding, Malaya, Lieut. General G. K. Bourne, and approved by the Commander-in-Chief Far East Land Forces in Singapore. 

Kuala Selangor-born Lieutenant Abdul Manan bin Abas, Army number 2402, of the 6th. Battalion of the Malay Regiment, aged 31, received the highly coveted and rare Military Cross in 1954. 

This year Major (R) Abdul Manan will be 100. God Bless him.

After the interview in his house in Zoo View, Ulu Kelang, yesterday, I said by now the Malaysian Armed Forces library ought to already have a book on Major Abdul Manan. If not, this should be written now. The 2 hours spent listening to this very lucid Ol' Warrior didn't do justice to the exploits of the man. The three of us on this mission of collecting valuable interviews from a number of FMC alumni would certainly  put this gem of a piece right there in a prominent section of the proposed book. But it would not do justice to Major Abdul Manan. A book solely about him must be published.

The years have taken their toll on the old soldier, that's obvious, of course. But his memory is excellent, and the words were gushing out of him with hardly any prompting. With what he has achieved in his military career, it would be a big loss if someone doesn't tap the history of the Malaysian army he has stored in his memory. The armed exploits of the "emergency" days alone merit recording for lessons to be learnt, not for the Armed Forces College only, but for the general population as well.

Manan went to Sandhurst, too, for heaven's sake. That's no small achievement. And he returned home, not just with his military diploma, but also an Irish wife.  We met the wife and 2 English-looking sons, too.  Now that calls for a full and different story.

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S'pore wedding, Police matters, traffic woes.

 Sun Feb. 12, 2023.

February seems a busy month, suddenly. There was a wedding to attend. Then the KP Police asked to sort out the gun licencing matters now, rather than in June, the normal schedule all these 27 years I've had the .22 rifle. And in between was the one-day political meeting at the Royale Chulan, rushing to Tabung Haji KL to collect the passports for the Singapore trip, and some frantic search for SingDollars and Saudi Riyals. As if that wasn't enough, I had to reluctantly look for a doctor (on a Sunday) for the bad case of cough & cold since returning from Singapore.

My late brother-in-law married a Singaporean. One of their daughters came all the way from Singapore last month just to personally invite us to her daughter's wedding. It was a gesture we couldn't possibly ignore. So we got Bal & Kamil to pick us for the 3-day trip. There was no point in rushing 500 miles south and back all in one day. We thought the traffic alone would tire us. And we were right.

I can't remember when was the last time I crossed the causeway. There was a time that, staying with a cousin in Larkin, JB, I even sneaked alone across to Woodlands, still in my sarong after breakfast, just to buy a few cans of tinned fruit. These were half the price in Malaysia, then. But this was when the exchange was 1:1 ha ha. Ya, that long ago ! The immigration was a breeze.

This time it was different. The que. The wait. The boot check. The papers' scrutiny. The front-car passport foul-up (both ways - in and out of Singapore) that took nearly 20 minutes. And the uniformed Immigration officers even managed to talk about the weekend and tv among themselves (we could hear them) while holding up their work. Luckily Kamil's "waze" remained connected, so finding Jalan Ubi, the venue, was no problem. Except, on reaching the building, we found the "entry" blocked with cones, and Kamil simply took the "out" lane into the parking area. Not so simple, man. This is Sin-cha-poh!. The security came after us and gave a lecture. Luckily, it ended there.

Wani's daughter that got married is a stewardess with SIA. The husband is an engineer. Another neice in Seremban is also a stewardess - with MAS. Ai's late first wife, too, was a stewardess. This seems a family thing. 

Kamil's "waze" wasn't on, on the return journey - no internet, no local SIM card. "Just follow PIE" one of the Singapore relatives said. Well, "pie" didn't taste good, because we were obviously going round and round. Kamil stopped at a bus stop and got that Indian boy to share his "waze", and we eventually made it across the causeway.

It was very wet, our entire stay in JB and Singapore. So there was no shopping. Some money saved there. But the hotel was good, and Mizi asked to stop-over in Keluang, and that made the whole trip ok. Plus I got SaudiRiyal 200 from Mizi from his recent Umrah.

Mizi's m.i.l. prepared a spread worthy of royalty. If Kamil didn't fulfil the promise to stop over, it would have been sinful. Her lunch AND tea (simultaneous) preparation must have taken some effort. I was sick and couldn't do justice to the great meal presented. Even so, I managed to put away much more than I'd expected. There was fish, and lobsters, and condiments and veggies. Then the tea and cakes and fruits. And then, would you believe it, there was durian, ordered on the spot! I don't think Idah can outdo Mizi's m.i.l. Not with her finest of china (Idah's weak point !)

The KP Police wrote. I needed to register for target practice as part of the gun licence renewal. So that's 2 trips to KP - to register, and to shoot at the Senaling shooting range. On the shooting date I got Jimikoling to buy me breakfast at 8 am in the stalls in front of his house. It does not end there. In June I have to go to the Terachi Police Station to get the actual licence issued. And in the meantime, next week I have to get the letter from the Agriculture Department in Jempol regarding my 12-gauge shotgun application. You see, for reasons of their own, the KP Police wants all rifles to be replaced with 12-gauge shotguns. I wonder why.

Late last month No. 3 Son collected our passports to give to the TH Travel from LTH for visa-issue for Umrah. Since we had to go to Singapore, I had to "borrow" the passports. So very early Thursday morning I drove to KL, anticipating heavy traffic. I set on "waze". Traffic was so heavy, waze took me to Universiti Pertanian grounds, its housing estate, through Kompleks Sukan Negara, Jalan Kuchai lama and God know where, and finally arrived at Tabung Haji KL 2.5 hours later ! Returning to Seremban on waze again, I was taken to Jalan Cheras, Bukit Dukung, Kajang-Semenyih. Rinching, Sg. Jai, Mantin and Temiang - a return route I took for the first time in my 78 years ! It must have been the heavy PLUS traffic. It was 15 minutes shorter than the Seremban-KL trip. Whew!

Happily, returning the passports on Tuesday, after the Thaipusam holiday, was less traumatic. Waze took me on the normal PLUS route and it was less than 2 hours each way. I must renew my commuter card for Senior Citizens. RM 9 return. 3 hours total.