So, it's Trump again.

 Wed 6.11.2024.

So, in spite of, or maybe because of, all that Trump and his supporters have done, Americans have reelected the man. Mind you, Trump and his supporters have done hell of a lot, and it's the whole lot of the Bad and the Ugly. I don't see much of any Good.

Or is it because of the alternative staring at the Americans in their faces - that Kamaldevi Harris woman ? They're not ready for an Indian (not Red Indian - the real India Indian) woman, maybe.

I would have given Kamala a chance before she belatedly became a candidate, after the Democratic Party finally forced Biden to drop out. But actually she lost my sympathy as soon as she became the Vice President, when she made that unqualified support statement for Israel. And she did stop over at Singapore, but paid scant notice to neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia. So that was that.

The Trump antics right from his first Presidency to the Capitol attack instigated by him threw me off the man. How can a leader of the Western World behave publicly like that? It's just insane.

We'll see how Trump leads USA for the second time.

Maybe Trump and the US deserve each other.

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Asset mismanagement.

 Tuesday 29.10.2024

I've made statements in public, and written numerous times, and spoke about it in speeches made over my career - about the mismanagement of our assets in this country. Building public facilities and developing natural resources have not gone to waste in my Malaysia. Sadly, managing them for future use is a total loss for both the authorities and the general population.

A stark case in point is the current news on the action against the "blue tents" on the Telok Kemang picnic beach in PD.

Back in 1995 I spoke in the State Assembly, no less, about the disregard for the beautiful beaches of Telok Kemang by the Government of that time. Greedy investors had managed to get the approval to build hotels right onto the water edges at the beach.  Complete with sewer outlets right where bathers would swim. 

I said then that the beach was our God-given asset. PD beaches were the few sandy and mud-free spots on the Peninsula's West Coast.  Kelang is muddy, with the mangroves right up the Perak coastline. We should respect this gift and treasure it. 

Instead there was the uninformed government permitting the human construction right on this treasure. I pointed out that this doesn't happen in Phuket. Today Phuket is a well-known resort island, when PD was already a resort town a long time ago when Phuket was still a rubber-plantation and tin-mining island. Of course in the West and the US they wouldn't dare touch their valuable natural assets.

The beautiful PD beaches should remain natural and uncluttered for generations to continue to enjoy. All construction, as in Phuket, should be on the leeward side. There's plenty of land there. Why build on the treasure ? The stupidity of the uninformed minds in the government at that time must have been unimaginable.

Right now PD is not yet a total loss. But it soon will be if something right and something drastic is not immediately done to remedy all this. Already the natural nice spaces have been cut down, and the peace and quiet largely lost. But these can be reversed. Still.

The "blue tents" are recent happenings, showing the government's illogically insensitive behaviour still remaining, in spite of all these complains, like mine, that must have been heard. People have written in the papers about their concern. They have brought up their complains in all kinds of places. I spoke in the State Assembly, for heaven's sake !

I repeat here: Malaysia can build like all other world builders. But maintenance escapes Malaysia. Maintenance of constructions, maintenance of natural resources - all seem foreign. Just look around.

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Recount.

Tuesday 24.9.2024

Eddin's passing at 7 last Friday morning, conveyed to me by the Cikgu who used to be the mosque's secretary,  caught me by surprise. Eddin was a Deputy Minister from KP. I didn't realize it then that in fact the sad news was already in my phone's whatsapp,  But it got me to thinking.

I moved into this housing estate in Seremban in the middle of 1995. I'd just made a  life-changing job-change decision, and needed to move into town, from Damansara Utama, where I'd been for 17 years. So now I've been here for nearly 30 years.

TDS is the first housing estate in the Ampangan area within the old Municipality. Seremban is a "Bandar Raya" now, and I'm sure there have been geographical and legal changes. The point is, TDS is small, maybe with about 200 original houses, from the terraced, the semi-detached, to the bungalow-type. It started as "Fortune Garden" maybe in the 70's. Now as the renamed TDS there have been added houses. But all are single-storied. Except for Ustaz Ahmad's illegally modified 2 storey bungalow just behind my house. "Illegal" because the ustaz said so to me himself. He never tried to get the necessary permission for the alteration from the authorities.

I counted yesterday, one by one, as I'd known them, 65 residents of TDS who have passed away since the day I moved here. That's more than 2 per year. It made me feel very mortal, indeed. 

This brought me to the Russo-Ukraine War raging still since February 2022. And the t-shirted president says it's drawing close. He hopes, I might add.

As I'd commented elsewhere earlier, it's to its interest for Ukraine to request a coming to the table with Russia. The 23-month War is being cruelly  prolonged by US and its Western European allies, to the delight of the arms manufacturers, of course.  Russian arms are pitted against US-European arms. Even the soldiers are non-Ukrainians. Russia has a population of 145 million,  4 times more than  Ukraine's 38 million. Russia's wealth  is more than 6 times that of Ukraine's.  As Putin insists, the "special operations" of February 2022 was forced by Western Europe's actions in Ukraine against Russia's "political integrity".

Right here in NS, especially in KP, this new, but old, sore deviant Islamic group criminal activity uproar has been exposed by the Police investigations. This was the old Arqam that was banned. When these people are banished, they don't disappear. The just find new hideouts, new operations.  This makes me feel truly mortal.

I can only recount.

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Another forced golf break.

Thurs 19.9.2024.

This morning's four-some was my first golf game in exactly 50 days. It was another forced break. And that, too, nearly didn't happen.

It had been my, maybe, 5th motorcycle accident, in 59 years of riding, on Friday, 2.8.2024. That's 1 every 10 years. Not a terrible record, owning  7 bikes in total.  So  5 accidents out of 7 is even a better statistics. The 7 include the kapchais, from the  90 cc (1965 Honda BN 3950) to  750-cc (1993 Kawasaki Vulcan Cruiser - WCR 6000). And the fastest I went, with the 1992 Honda CBR 600 Sports (BDP 600), on the Tg. Malim highway, was 260 kph ! 

This last one was on my current ride - a Yamaha NVX 155 scooter, (SD 198 T) bought by No. 3 Son about 2 years ago. Another m/c rider was involved, at the Istana Hinggap round-about. I only had scratches, as did the other bloke. But the heavy scooter landed on my left foot. The swelling lasted right until last week. Thus the forced break. The doctor just asked me to buy some rub-on.

It nearly didn't happen because Tokzaha didn't say one way or another when I whatsapped him about the Thursday suggested date. Until Wednesday night. The Tokzaha-Toksleman-me late exchanges finally settled for "on as planned"  - this morning.

"Bus" Chong (he owns a bus company) greeted me at the car park when I arrived before 7 this morning. Later NYK joined us. We got to talking about our golf. We agreed that it's one activity we should try to continue doing. We spoke about a number of friends who stopped, and soon they were gone forever.

My swing felt awkward after the break. So I just slowed the backswing. That's what some people say should be done. It seemed to work. Then I remembered to keep the "pendulum" - having the back swing the same as the follow-through. This is also one of the advice. It worked, too. So I guess having to relearn is one way of finding your old game. In the end I only lost one ball, in the wager, after the full 18 holes. But I lost 2 balls in the rough, in total. Not too bad, lah.

The good news, really, was finding, on the notice board, my latest official handicap of 22. All the while it was hanging around 15. That was too much to carry at my age. Even Ameng has been on 22 for sometime. We used to play every week at the same handicap (12) years ago, and it was always "ding-dong" between us.

The break also allowed me to watch more golf on tv. The South Koreans and the Thai girls are really doing well, playing world-class golf, even grabbing between them the World No. 1 ranking once in a while. Which is more than I can say for our Malaysian girls, and even less for the boys. What's the secret, I wonder. I mean we're fellow Asians, physically. The South Korean New Zealander girl even won the Gold at the Paris Olympics.

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Another wedding, but inexplicably delayed.

 Sunday 15.9.2024.

The reception at the bride's place was some months ago. It's family (on the missus's side) but I didn't attend because of an unavoidable meeting with me as the Secretary. Nobody asked why the delay in this reciprocal function. If there was conception from that earlier reception, it would have shown yesterday. But the tiny bride looked all of her slim self.

Like my previous anecdote, this was one of these "wedding venues" so popular now among the Malays in the Klang Valley. It's ok, but they have to figure out the logistics. And the fixtures.

The logistics: we left the highway into the Gamuda hinterland, through to the Bkt. Kemunting/Shah Alam backwoods, and the short-cut suggested by Waze was rough, to say the least.  I was reliefed Hanif decided to take the standard way back to Seremban for the return trip. But then we hit the typical Malaysian holiday drivers. It was past Magrib when we reached the gates of the house.

The fixtures: the event-manager only followed the host's instructions. So instead of the crowd paying attention to the actual ceremony, they just dug into the food while talking and laughing, giving nary a glance to the stage. It didn't help that the couple chose black, and the groom in slippers.

Then for lucheon, they put the bride's brother and sisters with spouses on the shared stage. Brother and sisters ? There was Pa' Anjang, Pa' E, Mak Idah sitting in the crowd.

So much effort was put into making the tasty "wajid", and I thought that would feature in the "menyembah" ceremony. But it didn't happen.

And, not the least, the place wasn't air-conditioned. This alone would have been enough reason for me to reject the venue.

I just took my leave without meeting the hosts. I had my "Zohor" at the tiny "surau" and went to Dekna's car, already filled with the rest of the group from Seremban.

We stopped at the Arab restaurant in Bkt. Jalil before departing for Seremban. I did my "Magrib" at the S2 surau near the Greenstreet home housing before we stopped for take-away satay and finally driving home.

I could have gone to Basit Abai's "kenduri".

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One of these "wedding villages".

 Sat 31.8.2024.

Yesterday was the second relative's wedding ceremony we were more or less obliged to attend in one week's span. "Obliged" because it's family. "More or less" because the obligation remains, whatever we decided.

These days they go for these wedding village thing. Fine. Mostly the function would be professionally managed, the more elaborate the more expensive, of course.

This one was no different in that "management" part from last weekend's. But if I were to grade them, last time the party gets top marks. Yesterday's fails.

The preparations of the venues compared well. The surrounding sceneries were basically different but in each case nice. Last week it was urban, in spite of the pretty lake. Yesterday it was forestry, but beautifully set. Last week we had to be ferried by golf-carts because of the limited parking against the distant walk demanded. Yesterday - the same parking woes, but there were a couple of MPV's made available to take guests from their parking spots to the hall. Luckily for us, Dekna gave her car's number earlier, and we were given one of the few parking spaces close to the place.

The failure by me is the choice of location. And the running of events.

The wedded couple is from KL. That's like the other side of the country. Because of the traffic woes. And to make bad worse, we were  stuck in a dead jam just 3 km from site because of a serious and fatal road accident. There were police cars spotted, but not a single one of the policemen came out to control the lock-jam on the narrow, winding and under-repair road to Ulu Langat. There are countless places nearer to their houses that pose less traffic problems. We left Seremban at 5. It's just 60 km. We finally squeezed into the tight parking spot at 7.15. That's about 30 kph all the way ! It just robbed me of the mood.

Then there was the event-management.

This was supposed to be a Malay wedding.  

There was a poor show of a "light show"introduction - I didn't see the theme. Certainly it wasn't Merdeka Day fireworks. 

The bridal entrance was accompanied by some guttural noises instead of the more appropriate salutations to the Holy Prophet. 

And instead of the cake-cutting and feeding of traditional modern weddings, the couple were playing with each other's shoes in a parlour game  of sorts.  A more modern wedding ?

And the MC just got drowned by bad acoustics . The unwalled hall just wasn't helpful with the use of insufficiently powered  p.a.

To top everything, the guests wandered around, unattended, helping themselves to unidentified culinary that wasn't the tastiest I'd come across, especially the mutton, and limited desserts.

I remarked to Ai "Chi oledi" when we were in the toilet "why only two for the whole hall of about 300 people ?"

This was a very young bridal couple from two broken families. For their sakes, I pray theirs would be a more lasting union, though marrying too young won't help. Both bride and groom's parents divorced when they were still at school.

We reached home at precisely 12 midnight. That was a good 7-hour outing - I mean the time-lapse, not the outing proper. At least Adik and Jujai made it, so 3 out of the 4 cousins attended Usop's second kenduri for her 2 children. Even arwah Bangtai's family, except for two, made it all the way from Kuantan, as did Aza & Fadil, all the way from "Ganu Kite".

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Jimi's last daughter's wedding.

Sun 25.8.2024

Jimi "Bok" (ask Malik Daim about the nickname) held his 3rd and youngest daughter's wedding at "The Boathouse by the Lake", Ampang, KL yesterday. On his request, I came for the aqad nikah in the morning, and stayed and attended the reception in the evening, both at the same venue.  Also on his request, I prepared the short speech for him, which he mostly used, except for some modifications. 

We left Seremban at 6.45 am, yesterday, and returned and reached home this morning at about 9.30 am. Thankfully, Dekna loaned her MPV, and Bok paid for the room at the Flamingo Hotel for last night.

As usual, we arrived at the aqad nikah venue at 9 am, well before everybody else. I'd made allowance for the traffic, coming, but not a single accident was seen, and we arrived at the Flamingo well ahead of time. That was fortunate, because I made the circles around the place thrice, first going around the Datuk Keramat u turn, then the Risda Hq side road, and finally the congested Jalan Awan Chinese housing area, before deciding to actually enter the Flamingo barricade. The Boathouse is inside the Hotel grounds. In spite of the road run-around, we had to cool our heels for a good 30 minutes before the first white-dressed participant showed her face.

I had time to do my thing, and Idah hers, at the non-functional staff washroom on the ground floor. The guest wash room, much more superior as expected, is at the front, we found out later.

The whole full event, from the morning session to the evening culminating function, came out excellent, by my reckoning. This was a full sit-down affair, very much the long lost practice of yesteryears. Nowadays people want to be more practical, and guests come when and as they please, often leaving the main event - the wedding couple's arrival - almost like an afterthought.

The solemn sitting-down feast gave way to a more robust sing-and-dance affair. Which all present enjoyed. And two professional singers were even added to the scene, including the nationally acclaimed Datuk Jamal Abdillah. They even pulled the celebrated couple to take take part, and they did, with obvious enjoyment.

It so happened that I was talking to someone at the morning event, saying that when Bok stayed at my parents' house when he was doing his SPM, we called him "Jamal Abdillah" because the singer was making his name at that time, and Bok looked like him. I didn't know that Jamal Abdillah would actually be one of the guest artistes that evening.

By design, the whole crowd was selective, because of the venue's physical constraints, or maybe the crowd size was the factor on the choice of the venue. But the event was well-planned and everything turned out well, I thought.

Bok generously booked a room at the hotel that saved me the late trip returning to Seremban. So we got sufficient rest, and took our time to take the provided breakfast this morning, before taking the highway back home. But not before 2 traffic snarls because of what appeared to be nasty accidents causing 2 huge jams on the PLUS highway.

Conen & Calit came, as also Dekma and Yan. The seating was numbered because of the RSVP, so Dekma and Yan disappeared somewhere, and I never saw them again that evening. Conen left very early, before desserts, and Calit soon after. We stayed almost to the end, because we were staying back.

Several ex Felda staff were there, including Zainal Ujud, Azizan, Rusdi, Husain Menggong and others whose names escaped me. It's been  35 years, man. Samad the ex ADUN waved to me from the nearby table, and when I pointed him out to Bok, he went to the table and they embraced. So, he didn't realise Samad was already there.

The Machang MP related to the groom was introduced to me in the morning session. We spoke a bit about local politics. In the end he took my number. I told him I wouldn't mind giving him some suggestions about how the BERSATU top management can improve preparations for the next GE.

Bok staged a good wedding for his youngest child. I hope they have a good life together.

A sad addendum to this beautiful event was the tragic news that Dr. Onny, who sat with us, conveyed to me: of Mutalib's passing this morning, at home in KL.  I learned later that he died in his sleep. He'd complained to Kak Lang Noi, his wife, about a chest pain, that morning. He was brought back for burial in his kampong, Sawah Lebar. Al Fatihah.

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