While we are still in the fever of fuel prices(at least that's what i think), i would like to share a conversation i just had with my father over the dinner table just now. My dad was saying that there's gonna be many people who will get rich...n get rich fast. And yeah, its because of the fuel price hike that occurred recently.
The government will be giving a rebate of RM625 to those who own a low c.c. car, which basically means those with tiny, economic cars are going to receive Rm625. That's why you can see that smile on the faces on drivers of Kancils, MyVi's and etc. Good for them.
However they aren't the only ones who are smiling because of the rebates. Car dealers have come up with a brilliant scheme to loot of the government by buying a shit load of second hand, low c.c. cars which are in the same condition as those cars we see in Mtv's Pimp My Ride before they get "pimped", for dirt cheap prices(I'm talking about Rm300 to Rm450 per car). Lets say a car dealer grabs 1000 units of such cars. Cost: RM300,000 to RM450,000 and they leave those cars in a junk yard and get it scrapped but continue paying road tax for them. Hence when they pay the road tax, they get that sweet rebate of RM650 per ride. So that would come up to RM650,000 for those 1000 cars. This would mean that they could collect a rough profit of RM150,000 to RM300,000. Not too shabby aye...hahah.
This just makes me laugh. Its not only the government who's looking for ways to pick off the tax-payers money but even the tax-payer has ways to loot of the tax-payer's money...a somewhat entertaining scenario i would say.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
2-70...the number on EVERY Malaysian's lips
This might be the shortest post i'm gonna come up with thus far cuz well much of what that needs to be said on the petrol price issue has already been over-said.
"RM2.70 for petrol....die liao.....price of petrol go up, kenot do this...kenot do that....lifestyle all have to change.... haiyooo stupid government ar!!"
Those are the words that have been in almost every conversation i hear around me. Everybody freaking out on the fuel price increment...lol. I mean seriously i laugh at such comments. Moreover comments like " Wei u can't be driving just anywhere u like ar....the price of petrol go up very high already...u have to change your lifestyle..." and "shit..price of petrol increase means everything else also increase....everything gonna be expensive dy.." Those would be the words of a typical Malaysian when such a thing happens in our country.
We Malaysians are very tolerant and accommodating people. We change our lifestyles according to the situation around us. But as for me...i dismay at such an attitude. I mean c'mon, why should we let those goons,the executives of this country, put this burden upon us, the people? Why should we suffer the consequences of a mismanaged gold mine?Let me clarify. Malaysia is a net exporter when it comes to petroleum so when the price of oil in the global market goes up so should the revenue acquired from selling our precious petrol. But what do we have now?....An increase in the already expensive(comparatively to other petrol exporting countries) price of petrol. This has bullshit written all over it. Most Malaysians even know that the increment in the price of petrol is due to the mismanagement our most prized natural resource,petrol(i don't think i need to explain how our petrol has been mismanaged).
But all we Malaysian are doing is complain, curse, cut corners and compromise on a lifestyle which we should be freely enjoying. I wonder, why can't we stand and stop those who are ruling our country from dictating our lifestyles by placing upon us the burden of overpriced petrol. A fine example would be Europe. Those countries have what seems to be every reason to increase the price of petrol but yet the people would not stand for it and hence causing their governments to yield to them. we on the other hand yield to what the government has imposed on us but at the same time complain and curse....pshaw!!Shut the hell up man....if u really have a problem bring it forward or else just LIVE WITH IT!!! That's what a free world is all about. That's what democracy stands for. The power of the people to demand the government to yield instead of being pushed around and exploited. I don't think i can say anymore...we,the people, need to reattach our balls and get the government to hear our voices. It is no use to just talk about how ridiculous it is that our prices of petrol are unbelievably higher than the other petrol exporting countries when we do nothing to stop those who impose such a price of petrol on us. Sheesh i thought we were better that that.
"RM2.70 for petrol....die liao.....price of petrol go up, kenot do this...kenot do that....lifestyle all have to change.... haiyooo stupid government ar!!"
Those are the words that have been in almost every conversation i hear around me. Everybody freaking out on the fuel price increment...lol. I mean seriously i laugh at such comments. Moreover comments like " Wei u can't be driving just anywhere u like ar....the price of petrol go up very high already...u have to change your lifestyle..." and "shit..price of petrol increase means everything else also increase....everything gonna be expensive dy.." Those would be the words of a typical Malaysian when such a thing happens in our country.
We Malaysians are very tolerant and accommodating people. We change our lifestyles according to the situation around us. But as for me...i dismay at such an attitude. I mean c'mon, why should we let those goons,the executives of this country, put this burden upon us, the people? Why should we suffer the consequences of a mismanaged gold mine?Let me clarify. Malaysia is a net exporter when it comes to petroleum so when the price of oil in the global market goes up so should the revenue acquired from selling our precious petrol. But what do we have now?....An increase in the already expensive(comparatively to other petrol exporting countries) price of petrol. This has bullshit written all over it. Most Malaysians even know that the increment in the price of petrol is due to the mismanagement our most prized natural resource,petrol(i don't think i need to explain how our petrol has been mismanaged).
But all we Malaysian are doing is complain, curse, cut corners and compromise on a lifestyle which we should be freely enjoying. I wonder, why can't we stand and stop those who are ruling our country from dictating our lifestyles by placing upon us the burden of overpriced petrol. A fine example would be Europe. Those countries have what seems to be every reason to increase the price of petrol but yet the people would not stand for it and hence causing their governments to yield to them. we on the other hand yield to what the government has imposed on us but at the same time complain and curse....pshaw!!Shut the hell up man....if u really have a problem bring it forward or else just LIVE WITH IT!!! That's what a free world is all about. That's what democracy stands for. The power of the people to demand the government to yield instead of being pushed around and exploited. I don't think i can say anymore...we,the people, need to reattach our balls and get the government to hear our voices. It is no use to just talk about how ridiculous it is that our prices of petrol are unbelievably higher than the other petrol exporting countries when we do nothing to stop those who impose such a price of petrol on us. Sheesh i thought we were better that that.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Observing from a peep-hole
War and chaos was, is, and until the beginning of the end, will be the climate between Israel and nearly every other region in the Middle East. Many in Malaysia(particularly Muslims) tend to hate the Jews, claiming that they are persecuting the Muslims in Middle East(mainly the Palestinians) by causing all the war and turbulence over there. This hate against the Jews have led to our government to stop not only Jews to step into this country but for us to freely, without any red-tape, enter Israel. For Israel is the homeland of the Jews and we as Malaysians can't go there, even more if you're a Muslim cuz (to the Muslims here) it is a form of apostasy to walk in the land of the Jews. Aiyo!!! Doesn't all this drama sound absurd and over zealous?Lets perform a biopsy on the basis of this hate against Israel and the Jews.
The war between Israel and Palestine....It has set aflame in many Muslims in Malaysia a hate for the Jews just because the Israelis are dropping bombs into Palestine and not letting the Palestinians live in peace in the land which people here think should belong to them. Many of us feel that there is injustice there and the plight to capture Jerusalem has seen Israel doing very unjustified deeds against the Palestinians. So.... who do we blame? THE JEWS!!! Am i not right? I mean to most ppl here.... Israel=Jews and Palestine=Muslims and this war is a war between the Jews and Muslims....right? My brothers...WAKE UP!!! It is not so! The war between Israel and Palestine is purely a struggle for land. Its a fight to capture Jerusalem not because the Jews want a hold on the city neither is it because the Muslims want to have the city in their hands. It is because Israel and Palestine want it. Period. The whole idea about the Jews are killing the Muslims and Muslims killing the Jews there is folly. War is both Israel and Palestinian's economy. They can't go without war(the situation is more corrupt than we think). Now i'm not saying that because its a war for land that the whole fray is justified...no. I'm just saying that we should have a proper perspective on the situation there to keep us from making assumptions and brewing unfounded hate against the wrong things. One can't say for sure that most of the population of Israel is Jewish neither can one say that most of the population of Palestine is Muslim. Both have their fair share of Jews, Muslims and Christians(yes, MANY Palestinians are Christians and Jews).
Another good example would be the Hezbollah frenzy in Lebanon some time back. If you don't remember, there was some chaos in the beautiful country Lebanon due to a clash between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The ppl here went crazy saying that " The goes the Jews again..killing more Muslims in Lebanon!" and it was also at that time when i was aware that there were people here who are the extreme opposite of what i've been describing so far in this article saying "I support Israel if they bomb the Muslims in Palestine or in Lebanon...in fact i'm gonna donate some money to them to continue their war"...now hold on to that for a moment, i'll get to that later. About the previous statement, it reminded me about a conversation that my father told me about when he was in a conversation with two political figures, one a local minister and the other was a minister from Dubai(both Muslim). The Malaysian minister asked the minister from Dubai, " What do you think about the foolish Jews from Israel bombing our Muslim brothers in Lebanon?". So the minister from Dubai replied "Seems to me the only fool is you. It is not a matter of Jews from Israel bombing Muslims in Lebanon." . He later explained that Hezbollah is a party of radical Muslims in Lebanon who were disturbing the peace in Lebanon(Lebanon is also doesn't have a majority of Muslim population...half of the Lebanese are Christians) . The Hezbollah are like the Abu Sayaff or the Jemaah Islamiah in this region and the Lebanese government was having a hard time keeping them at bay. So they called for the aid of the Israeli military. Now the news reports showed much collateral damage by the Israeli military when in Lebanon but why is this so? The Hezbollah were hiding their arms and ammunition in schools and hospitals and used them as their bunkers and hide-outs. This gave the Israeli military a terrible time wiping the Hezbollah out and hence the collateral.
Moving back to the statement which i told to keep in mind, the(fucked-up) man who said that is NO different from the others who blindly hate the Jews for the Middle Eastern pandemonium. Both characters don't understand that this is no war between the Jews and Muslims. It is purely a political war between Israel and the others. Thus if anyone is to be blamed for this, its the politicians and governments who refuse to end the violence in the Middle East and not faith!! The local media has led many of us to think that it is a war of faith when its not. And those who buy those scenarios are observing the situation from a peephole, missing out on the bigger issues at play. So please i urge all Malaysians to get our perspectives right and stop living in this world of religion-ism. Stop thinking that Jews=Israel and Muslim= All the other Middle Eastern countries cuz its absolutely WRONG. Its the same as saying that Caucasian=Christian. I don't know how we can come up with such equations but i know that its about time we brake these social inferences and get out perspectives right.
p/s
there is an interesting (pretty outdated) article by Helen Ang which touches on the Caucasian=Christian issue. Its entitled Holy smoke! They're Godless in the West
The war between Israel and Palestine....It has set aflame in many Muslims in Malaysia a hate for the Jews just because the Israelis are dropping bombs into Palestine and not letting the Palestinians live in peace in the land which people here think should belong to them. Many of us feel that there is injustice there and the plight to capture Jerusalem has seen Israel doing very unjustified deeds against the Palestinians. So.... who do we blame? THE JEWS!!! Am i not right? I mean to most ppl here.... Israel=Jews and Palestine=Muslims and this war is a war between the Jews and Muslims....right? My brothers...WAKE UP!!! It is not so! The war between Israel and Palestine is purely a struggle for land. Its a fight to capture Jerusalem not because the Jews want a hold on the city neither is it because the Muslims want to have the city in their hands. It is because Israel and Palestine want it. Period. The whole idea about the Jews are killing the Muslims and Muslims killing the Jews there is folly. War is both Israel and Palestinian's economy. They can't go without war(the situation is more corrupt than we think). Now i'm not saying that because its a war for land that the whole fray is justified...no. I'm just saying that we should have a proper perspective on the situation there to keep us from making assumptions and brewing unfounded hate against the wrong things. One can't say for sure that most of the population of Israel is Jewish neither can one say that most of the population of Palestine is Muslim. Both have their fair share of Jews, Muslims and Christians(yes, MANY Palestinians are Christians and Jews).
Another good example would be the Hezbollah frenzy in Lebanon some time back. If you don't remember, there was some chaos in the beautiful country Lebanon due to a clash between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The ppl here went crazy saying that " The goes the Jews again..killing more Muslims in Lebanon!" and it was also at that time when i was aware that there were people here who are the extreme opposite of what i've been describing so far in this article saying "I support Israel if they bomb the Muslims in Palestine or in Lebanon...in fact i'm gonna donate some money to them to continue their war"...now hold on to that for a moment, i'll get to that later. About the previous statement, it reminded me about a conversation that my father told me about when he was in a conversation with two political figures, one a local minister and the other was a minister from Dubai(both Muslim). The Malaysian minister asked the minister from Dubai, " What do you think about the foolish Jews from Israel bombing our Muslim brothers in Lebanon?". So the minister from Dubai replied "Seems to me the only fool is you. It is not a matter of Jews from Israel bombing Muslims in Lebanon." . He later explained that Hezbollah is a party of radical Muslims in Lebanon who were disturbing the peace in Lebanon(Lebanon is also doesn't have a majority of Muslim population...half of the Lebanese are Christians) . The Hezbollah are like the Abu Sayaff or the Jemaah Islamiah in this region and the Lebanese government was having a hard time keeping them at bay. So they called for the aid of the Israeli military. Now the news reports showed much collateral damage by the Israeli military when in Lebanon but why is this so? The Hezbollah were hiding their arms and ammunition in schools and hospitals and used them as their bunkers and hide-outs. This gave the Israeli military a terrible time wiping the Hezbollah out and hence the collateral.
Moving back to the statement which i told to keep in mind, the(fucked-up) man who said that is NO different from the others who blindly hate the Jews for the Middle Eastern pandemonium. Both characters don't understand that this is no war between the Jews and Muslims. It is purely a political war between Israel and the others. Thus if anyone is to be blamed for this, its the politicians and governments who refuse to end the violence in the Middle East and not faith!! The local media has led many of us to think that it is a war of faith when its not. And those who buy those scenarios are observing the situation from a peephole, missing out on the bigger issues at play. So please i urge all Malaysians to get our perspectives right and stop living in this world of religion-ism. Stop thinking that Jews=Israel and Muslim= All the other Middle Eastern countries cuz its absolutely WRONG. Its the same as saying that Caucasian=Christian. I don't know how we can come up with such equations but i know that its about time we brake these social inferences and get out perspectives right.
p/s
there is an interesting (pretty outdated) article by Helen Ang which touches on the Caucasian=Christian issue. Its entitled Holy smoke! They're Godless in the West
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
We don't need identity
Sad to say, many if not most Malaysians don't realize that an Identity Card is not a norm in nearly the rest of the world...especially Europe. In fact, it is abolished in the rest of the free world but almost all Malaysians feel that MyKads are a must for the sake of order and coordination. We think its for a better, more efficient system which we hope would lead to our convenience. Sure we may say that helping the government keep record of civilians and making crime fighting a less difficult ordeal are few of the benefits of I.C.'s. What we do not realize is that it is at the same time an exploitation of our human rights, not to mention its potential to invade the sanctity of our private lives (but i'm not going to touch on that now). The government of Malaysia indeed had a very good reason for the implementation of the identity card. It was introduced to eradicate Communists in Malaysia. I guessed it did play a part in aiding the government's efforts to completely wipe Communism out, although i don't know exactly how the I.C. helped fight the communist guerrilla warfare at that time. It has already been declared that Malaysia is free of communist guerrilla for some time now but the identity card still remains in the system. We have been told that it is necessary to have the I.C.'s for the convenience of all and for the greater good.
The question now is, why do the rest of the world refuse to enforce identity cards? Wouldn't it benefit them the same way the I.C.'s benefit us? If it indeed improves the system, why not? To answer these questions we need to look back at history. It was during the pandemonium times of World War 2 and the Nazi's had control in almost all of Europe. They then enforced the use of an identity card upon the civilians of Nazi-controlled Europe. It was a form of a ration card its ultimate purpose was to separate the Jews and the other ethnic groups who suffered the wrath of the Nazi's during the Holocaust. The identity cards were a major tool in the Holocaust and it became a symbol of persecution and segregation. Thus its clear that identity cards do lubricate government machinery in their administrative tasks. The Nazi's needed something to help systematically separate ethnic and religious groups in Europe and the I.C.'s proved to be effective.
Lets also look into the civil war/genocide that took place in Rwanda more than a decade ago. It was a bloody feud between 2 apparently ethnic groups who were the Hutu's and Tutsi's. During their Belgian occupation, the Rwandans were separated into these 2 groups mostly according to their wealth(number of cows) and the length of their nose. German colonists thought the prominent nose of some of the Rwandans were evidence that they may be genetically linked to the Europeans and hence they (who at that time having the Aryan superiority mind-frame) considered the Rwandans who were richer and had more prominent noses to be superior than the blunt nosed, less wealthy Rwandans. So the colonists decided to divide the prominent nosed Rwandans to be Tutsis and the blunt nosed Rwandans to be Hutu's(yes they actually measured their noses) and they did so by issuing identity cards to the Rwandans. So every Rwandan had a "Hutu" or "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. The Tutsis enjoyed speciality by the European colonists but when the Europeans left, the leadership of the country was taken over by the Hutus. This gave a chance for the Hutus to take "revenge" on their apparently "superior" brothers, the Tutsis. Of course like always, it was the Hutu politicians who sparked the fray of killing the Tutsis and sooner than later, it grew into a genocide. Hutu militants massacred those who had the "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. We can see that the identity card turns out to be an instrument of segregation among the people of Rwanda and indeed the Belgian colonist are to a certain extend responsible for the bloodshed in Rwanda.
Isn't it now clear why identity cards are an abomination in the free world? It was the tool of segregation and genocide as history has clearly revealed. If I'm not mistaken, Malaysia and Singapore are the only 2 countries which makes the identity card mandatory. If we notice, the MyKad we carry states the bearer's religion(non-Muslim or Muslim). If bearer is Muslim, "Muslim" will be printed on the card below the bearer's picture but that space will be void if the bearer is non-Muslim. Also, but i don't really remember, we are required to write our race in the MyKad application form. I've been trying to find a copy of the JPN.KP01 form which is the form to be filled when someone applies for a MyKad for the first time but i can't find it on Google.
Now please don't get me wrong....of course I'm not saying that the government intends to bring about an ethnic cleansing or what not. But why have the MyKad in the first place? So that the system can be more efficient?..Bullocks! Countries like USA and Japan don't have identity cards...are they suffering inefficiency? In fact, shameful to say, Malaysia lacks efficiency in many administrative areas hence the Mykad doesn't seem to be serving its supposed purpose. There are tonnes of other ways to identify a person. We have passports, credit cards, driving licenses, and etc. The I.C. is not the ONLY way a person is acquire so called "identity". I end saying that we should abolish the MyKad. It may not be harmful to Malaysians but I don't see a reason besides segregation that we are required to hold a MyKad.
*If you would like to know more about the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide, i recommend watching Schindler's List or Hotel Rwanda.
The question now is, why do the rest of the world refuse to enforce identity cards? Wouldn't it benefit them the same way the I.C.'s benefit us? If it indeed improves the system, why not? To answer these questions we need to look back at history. It was during the pandemonium times of World War 2 and the Nazi's had control in almost all of Europe. They then enforced the use of an identity card upon the civilians of Nazi-controlled Europe. It was a form of a ration card its ultimate purpose was to separate the Jews and the other ethnic groups who suffered the wrath of the Nazi's during the Holocaust. The identity cards were a major tool in the Holocaust and it became a symbol of persecution and segregation. Thus its clear that identity cards do lubricate government machinery in their administrative tasks. The Nazi's needed something to help systematically separate ethnic and religious groups in Europe and the I.C.'s proved to be effective.
Lets also look into the civil war/genocide that took place in Rwanda more than a decade ago. It was a bloody feud between 2 apparently ethnic groups who were the Hutu's and Tutsi's. During their Belgian occupation, the Rwandans were separated into these 2 groups mostly according to their wealth(number of cows) and the length of their nose. German colonists thought the prominent nose of some of the Rwandans were evidence that they may be genetically linked to the Europeans and hence they (who at that time having the Aryan superiority mind-frame) considered the Rwandans who were richer and had more prominent noses to be superior than the blunt nosed, less wealthy Rwandans. So the colonists decided to divide the prominent nosed Rwandans to be Tutsis and the blunt nosed Rwandans to be Hutu's(yes they actually measured their noses) and they did so by issuing identity cards to the Rwandans. So every Rwandan had a "Hutu" or "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. The Tutsis enjoyed speciality by the European colonists but when the Europeans left, the leadership of the country was taken over by the Hutus. This gave a chance for the Hutus to take "revenge" on their apparently "superior" brothers, the Tutsis. Of course like always, it was the Hutu politicians who sparked the fray of killing the Tutsis and sooner than later, it grew into a genocide. Hutu militants massacred those who had the "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. We can see that the identity card turns out to be an instrument of segregation among the people of Rwanda and indeed the Belgian colonist are to a certain extend responsible for the bloodshed in Rwanda.
Isn't it now clear why identity cards are an abomination in the free world? It was the tool of segregation and genocide as history has clearly revealed. If I'm not mistaken, Malaysia and Singapore are the only 2 countries which makes the identity card mandatory. If we notice, the MyKad we carry states the bearer's religion(non-Muslim or Muslim). If bearer is Muslim, "Muslim" will be printed on the card below the bearer's picture but that space will be void if the bearer is non-Muslim. Also, but i don't really remember, we are required to write our race in the MyKad application form. I've been trying to find a copy of the JPN.KP01 form which is the form to be filled when someone applies for a MyKad for the first time but i can't find it on Google.
Now please don't get me wrong....of course I'm not saying that the government intends to bring about an ethnic cleansing or what not. But why have the MyKad in the first place? So that the system can be more efficient?..Bullocks! Countries like USA and Japan don't have identity cards...are they suffering inefficiency? In fact, shameful to say, Malaysia lacks efficiency in many administrative areas hence the Mykad doesn't seem to be serving its supposed purpose. There are tonnes of other ways to identify a person. We have passports, credit cards, driving licenses, and etc. The I.C. is not the ONLY way a person is acquire so called "identity". I end saying that we should abolish the MyKad. It may not be harmful to Malaysians but I don't see a reason besides segregation that we are required to hold a MyKad.
*If you would like to know more about the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide, i recommend watching Schindler's List or Hotel Rwanda.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Politicians are dogs but they are our dogs
If you were to read on the recent events taking place in the parliament and basically the general situation of political Malaysia(if you get your daily dose of news from the local main stream media...then i have to say that YOU R A FOOL...cuz you've been fooled), you would've notice that the bomb strapped around our current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is ticking and its no long wait until we get to watch him blow himself up. Of course when he leaves, someone will come and take his place, and the air is blazing with two names; they are Anwar Ibrahim and Tengku Razaleigh(Ku Li). I'll spare the details on their plans and what are the doing to bring down the PM but i would rather take a look on how it might affect the country(this is purely my opinion and if you think otherwise then please just leave a comment or better yet start a blog...that also applies to all my previous and future posts).
Now Anwar Ibrahim, a man of radical change and reformation, has a chance to finally be on the paramount of his career and yes he is doing all he can to grab that chance. What if he comes into power? Well, firstly the whole cabinet will be changed(duhh!) and maybe...just maybe.. he might start to walk the walk by applying meritocracy and what not to appoint cabinet ministers. That might result in lets say...an eligible finance minister who happens to be Chinese and an experienced deputy finance minister from PAS, or a notable education minister who happens to be an Indian or also maybe a just deputy prime minister who happens to be Kadazan. And after he's done with the cabinet, who knows he will star abolishing tamil and chinese schools so that every student will be under a standard education system. Now thats what i call a reform. Of course, the situations i mentioned earlier were just examples and i am not saying that he is planning to do so but think about it, if he and his allies such as DAP were fighting for fairness, racial equality and meritocracy, then changes like the ones i mentioned earlier could possibly happen. But how will we Malaysians embrace such a change? I think, if not all, then most of the Malaysians won't take it positively. As i've written in the previous post and as what RPK said in the Ugly Malaysian article, Malaysians are racists. For example, The Chinese and Indians would be elated when they see their kin holding major portfolios in the cabinet but they will go against the abolishing of chinese and tamil schools because they feel that their heritage is threatened(i won't start talking about these chinese and tamil school issue unless i need to)..HAHA!! And then we might have the UMNO bitches barking away about Ketuanan Melayu and call Anwar a traitor and blablabla. Eventually it might end with poor Anwar frustrated and getting a kick in his ass by the rakyat...once again history might repeat itself(aiya...that time when Anwar got kicked off our shores...do u know why mahatir did that to him?). Sure some of us may laugh at it and say that it won't happen cuz we are more matured now and the racism issue is not an issue anymore. That's great if it ACTUALLY isn't a issue anymore but the depressing truth is that there are still too many fools out there with the old primitive mentality in their brain and as the saying goes, You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Looking at the opposition parties, one would actually find that PAS has the most experience in governing and they also have the most prudent financial plans. This can be proven by looking at their track record in Kelantan. They have managed to run Kelantan on the dimes and pennies that the federal government grants to the state. After considering this, do you think DAP will allow PAS to have their way to run this country...at least the financial aspect of it? Even if they want to, the wouldn't or couldn't. Why....because the DAP supporters might feel betrayed and might call DAP sell outs or weak. Just witness how DAP reacted during the nomination of Perak CM or the songkok issue. Kudos to them for apologizing and eventually cooperating but we can't say the mentality is once and for all eliminated.
My point here, is that we may vote a visionary or a party of change and justice into our government but the politician can't do anything if we don't support their views. We must understand that politicians are where they are because we put them there. So all that they do needs to be appeasing the masses or else the people will be upset and fire the politician hence the politician, whether he or she likes it or not, has to do what the people demand although it may be detrimental to the people. That's what democracy is all about...a simple case of employee(politician) and employer(the rakyat).
If we want change, we must change and automatically, to appease us, the politicians will need to change things for us cuz their livelihood is on the line if they don't. It is a powerful concept and we need to be wise to harness and use it for our good. It might take a whole generation or more to pass before Malaysians can change but until then, this will be an itch unscratchable to all of us who dream of a better nation.
Now Anwar Ibrahim, a man of radical change and reformation, has a chance to finally be on the paramount of his career and yes he is doing all he can to grab that chance. What if he comes into power? Well, firstly the whole cabinet will be changed(duhh!) and maybe...just maybe.. he might start to walk the walk by applying meritocracy and what not to appoint cabinet ministers. That might result in lets say...an eligible finance minister who happens to be Chinese and an experienced deputy finance minister from PAS, or a notable education minister who happens to be an Indian or also maybe a just deputy prime minister who happens to be Kadazan. And after he's done with the cabinet, who knows he will star abolishing tamil and chinese schools so that every student will be under a standard education system. Now thats what i call a reform. Of course, the situations i mentioned earlier were just examples and i am not saying that he is planning to do so but think about it, if he and his allies such as DAP were fighting for fairness, racial equality and meritocracy, then changes like the ones i mentioned earlier could possibly happen. But how will we Malaysians embrace such a change? I think, if not all, then most of the Malaysians won't take it positively. As i've written in the previous post and as what RPK said in the Ugly Malaysian article, Malaysians are racists. For example, The Chinese and Indians would be elated when they see their kin holding major portfolios in the cabinet but they will go against the abolishing of chinese and tamil schools because they feel that their heritage is threatened(i won't start talking about these chinese and tamil school issue unless i need to)..HAHA!! And then we might have the UMNO bitches barking away about Ketuanan Melayu and call Anwar a traitor and blablabla. Eventually it might end with poor Anwar frustrated and getting a kick in his ass by the rakyat...once again history might repeat itself(aiya...that time when Anwar got kicked off our shores...do u know why mahatir did that to him?). Sure some of us may laugh at it and say that it won't happen cuz we are more matured now and the racism issue is not an issue anymore. That's great if it ACTUALLY isn't a issue anymore but the depressing truth is that there are still too many fools out there with the old primitive mentality in their brain and as the saying goes, You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Looking at the opposition parties, one would actually find that PAS has the most experience in governing and they also have the most prudent financial plans. This can be proven by looking at their track record in Kelantan. They have managed to run Kelantan on the dimes and pennies that the federal government grants to the state. After considering this, do you think DAP will allow PAS to have their way to run this country...at least the financial aspect of it? Even if they want to, the wouldn't or couldn't. Why....because the DAP supporters might feel betrayed and might call DAP sell outs or weak. Just witness how DAP reacted during the nomination of Perak CM or the songkok issue. Kudos to them for apologizing and eventually cooperating but we can't say the mentality is once and for all eliminated.
My point here, is that we may vote a visionary or a party of change and justice into our government but the politician can't do anything if we don't support their views. We must understand that politicians are where they are because we put them there. So all that they do needs to be appeasing the masses or else the people will be upset and fire the politician hence the politician, whether he or she likes it or not, has to do what the people demand although it may be detrimental to the people. That's what democracy is all about...a simple case of employee(politician) and employer(the rakyat).
If we want change, we must change and automatically, to appease us, the politicians will need to change things for us cuz their livelihood is on the line if they don't. It is a powerful concept and we need to be wise to harness and use it for our good. It might take a whole generation or more to pass before Malaysians can change but until then, this will be an itch unscratchable to all of us who dream of a better nation.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
R-A-C-I-S-M is not how we spell cronyism
Racism, racism, racism,....a never-ending feud between ethnic groups. It has been an issue not only locally but globally. The worst part is that it seems there is no solution to cease ethnocentric mentalities amongst a people.
But lets leave the rest of the world aside and lets focus on my beloved country, Malaysia. Indeed we can be assured that we don't have ethnic tensions as serious as countries in Africa and Europe, places like Bosnia and South Africa. Nonetheless, we do have racial friction, especially politically, in Malaysia. After the not-so-recent elections, i personally had the conception that racial issues would be the last thing to worry about since we have a "colorful" racial representation in the opposition camp. But it wasn't exactly so when we see what happened during the nominations of CM's and EXCO members of the opposition controlled states(of course the BN controlled states had no less turmoil trying to settle those matters in their states). The main stream media has obviously taken advantage of the so called "inexperienced" opposition CM's and sadly there were times when they conceded. For a bigger picture of what i'm talking about read the articles in these RPK's articles A storm in a songkok, Compromise works both ways, Small things please small minds, and May 13? What May 13?. Yes, thankfully the CM's and EXCO members of Perak, Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan have been settled.
Nevertheless, i have this urge in me to give my 2 cents worth on this whole racism issue in Malaysia. What actually caused the ethnic fray in this country? Before our nation was a sovereign one, the colonist were using their divide and conquer methods not only to keep the colonized within their grasp but also to keep unwanted friction between ethnic groups in this diverse country. The latter though sounded more like an excuse to me. Anyways, when they left, we were lead by the government of the people.... democracy...so to speak. But somewhere along the way, Malaysia fell into an enormous social ditch. The May13th incident. That incident is history now...so lets conduct an autopsy on it. What caused it? (Shamefully, i did horribly for my high school history and yes i know its hypocritical to talk about history when i am supposed know about it but bear with me a while.) BN lost Kuala Lumpur, their stronghold, to opposition party DAP. Keep in mind that at that time, ruling party represented Malays and the opposition represented non-Malays. So now the politicians forged a brilliant plan to weaken the people's confidence on the opposition...how? Stir up racial conflicts! They blew a minor situation, which had NO racial implication, out of proportion and BOOM we had Malays chopping the Chinese and Chinese "chin-chang" ing the Malays. The blood-shed took a huge toll on Malaysians as a whole and every Malaysian was somehow scarred from what happen on May the 13th. But this was good for the ruling party because people were afraid that the May13th ghost might resurrect itself and haunt Malaysia once again if they voted for the opposition. So now we can understand the sheer shock on the BN party members' faces after hearing the 2008 election results(They didn't think they were gonna loose so badly mah). Again in this year, BN tried using its old tricks on Malaysians again. With the mainstream media kissing up the the asses of the BN ministers, they started to twist many things around trying to conjure up the flame that was burning during the May 13th massacre. Thank God that the people now have learned to embrace the wind's of change and not fall for the propaganda of the mainstream media.
Now the May13th incident is not a big issue anymore....and to a certain extend it is a non-issue, so what has caused the racism plague, although not as lethal before, to endure in Malaysia even until today? BN for as long as we can remember has been holding the title of being the sole government and political voice in this country. The opposition seemed to be non-existing parties that had no say in anything. That would mean that BN was king and could dictate anything at its whim and fancy. So they came up with something called the NEP. The rise of that policy brought unsatisfactory feelings to the non-Bumi's of the country. The deception though was when all the non-Bumi's thought that the Bumi's were enjoying wealth and opportunities that this country has to offer. Well, they were wrong. The truth was, NEP was exploited by the cronies and family members of people in power and it so happens that they were all Bumi's. So what happens to the rest of the Bumi's? They sit around thinking that the policy is on their side and later find that they are in the same ditch as everyone else. And to keep their mouths shut, the politicians compensate by giving more scholarships to their children and the other small stuff while the "big guns" and those affiliated to them enjoy the wealth and comfort of lords. To make matters worse those not-so-lucky Bumi's have non-Bumi's screaming "Injustice!" to their faces. The Bumi's on the other hand were making matters worse by lashing back at the non-Bumi's. So now the politicians go "weeee!" we have a spark! Now all we gotta do is put in some fuel and have another more subtle racial inferno. We can clearly see them " keeping the flame" when their youths were pulling out keris' and telling non-Bumi's to "go back home".
Looking at it now, i feel that the dissatisfaction between non-Bumi's and Bumi's seem to be deliberately driven by the megalomaniac politicians of this nation. I remember when i went for a political talk by Lim Kit Siang (an opposition political figure) , at a point he hailed " The Chinese are marginalized!" and it was followed by a loud cheer by the audience. Then he said " The Indians are marginalized!" and that too was followed by a cheer just as loud as the previous one, then he said " Even the Malays are marginalized!" yes it was also followed by a cheer but there was a clear hesitation in the crowd almost to say that the crowd wasn't to sure but since Kit Siang said it lets just cheer anyway. See that's the problem, the people don't know that our enemy are those politicians up there who sit and plot ways to divide the people so that they can conquer us and keep us in their grasp and they are the ones we should be pissed off at. Not a Bumi or a non-Bumi.
Yes, the people to a certain have extend realized this and made a move by giving a kick in BN's ass during the election. Nonetheless, a reformation for the good of all Malaysians can't take place if we don't change our perceptions. Scratching this itch may be something too hard to accept by most. Hence we wait for the day when a generation void of racial divide rises to lead this country. Until then this itch remains unscratchable.
Added:24-03-2008,10.09pm
A Racist Heritage? This is another article touching on the racism issue. Its written by Haris Ibrahim there's a link to his blog The People's Parliament in the link list on the right side of my blog.
Added: 22-03-2008,11.32pm
p.s. This is a must read article by my favorite blogger out there. Its amazing how he puts this issue in perspective The Ugly Malaysian by Raja Petra Kamarudin.
But lets leave the rest of the world aside and lets focus on my beloved country, Malaysia. Indeed we can be assured that we don't have ethnic tensions as serious as countries in Africa and Europe, places like Bosnia and South Africa. Nonetheless, we do have racial friction, especially politically, in Malaysia. After the not-so-recent elections, i personally had the conception that racial issues would be the last thing to worry about since we have a "colorful" racial representation in the opposition camp. But it wasn't exactly so when we see what happened during the nominations of CM's and EXCO members of the opposition controlled states(of course the BN controlled states had no less turmoil trying to settle those matters in their states). The main stream media has obviously taken advantage of the so called "inexperienced" opposition CM's and sadly there were times when they conceded. For a bigger picture of what i'm talking about read the articles in these RPK's articles A storm in a songkok, Compromise works both ways, Small things please small minds, and May 13? What May 13?. Yes, thankfully the CM's and EXCO members of Perak, Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan have been settled.
Nevertheless, i have this urge in me to give my 2 cents worth on this whole racism issue in Malaysia. What actually caused the ethnic fray in this country? Before our nation was a sovereign one, the colonist were using their divide and conquer methods not only to keep the colonized within their grasp but also to keep unwanted friction between ethnic groups in this diverse country. The latter though sounded more like an excuse to me. Anyways, when they left, we were lead by the government of the people.... democracy...so to speak. But somewhere along the way, Malaysia fell into an enormous social ditch. The May13th incident. That incident is history now...so lets conduct an autopsy on it. What caused it? (Shamefully, i did horribly for my high school history and yes i know its hypocritical to talk about history when i am supposed know about it but bear with me a while.) BN lost Kuala Lumpur, their stronghold, to opposition party DAP. Keep in mind that at that time, ruling party represented Malays and the opposition represented non-Malays. So now the politicians forged a brilliant plan to weaken the people's confidence on the opposition...how? Stir up racial conflicts! They blew a minor situation, which had NO racial implication, out of proportion and BOOM we had Malays chopping the Chinese and Chinese "chin-chang" ing the Malays. The blood-shed took a huge toll on Malaysians as a whole and every Malaysian was somehow scarred from what happen on May the 13th. But this was good for the ruling party because people were afraid that the May13th ghost might resurrect itself and haunt Malaysia once again if they voted for the opposition. So now we can understand the sheer shock on the BN party members' faces after hearing the 2008 election results(They didn't think they were gonna loose so badly mah). Again in this year, BN tried using its old tricks on Malaysians again. With the mainstream media kissing up the the asses of the BN ministers, they started to twist many things around trying to conjure up the flame that was burning during the May 13th massacre. Thank God that the people now have learned to embrace the wind's of change and not fall for the propaganda of the mainstream media.
Now the May13th incident is not a big issue anymore....and to a certain extend it is a non-issue, so what has caused the racism plague, although not as lethal before, to endure in Malaysia even until today? BN for as long as we can remember has been holding the title of being the sole government and political voice in this country. The opposition seemed to be non-existing parties that had no say in anything. That would mean that BN was king and could dictate anything at its whim and fancy. So they came up with something called the NEP. The rise of that policy brought unsatisfactory feelings to the non-Bumi's of the country. The deception though was when all the non-Bumi's thought that the Bumi's were enjoying wealth and opportunities that this country has to offer. Well, they were wrong. The truth was, NEP was exploited by the cronies and family members of people in power and it so happens that they were all Bumi's. So what happens to the rest of the Bumi's? They sit around thinking that the policy is on their side and later find that they are in the same ditch as everyone else. And to keep their mouths shut, the politicians compensate by giving more scholarships to their children and the other small stuff while the "big guns" and those affiliated to them enjoy the wealth and comfort of lords. To make matters worse those not-so-lucky Bumi's have non-Bumi's screaming "Injustice!" to their faces. The Bumi's on the other hand were making matters worse by lashing back at the non-Bumi's. So now the politicians go "weeee!" we have a spark! Now all we gotta do is put in some fuel and have another more subtle racial inferno. We can clearly see them " keeping the flame" when their youths were pulling out keris' and telling non-Bumi's to "go back home".
Looking at it now, i feel that the dissatisfaction between non-Bumi's and Bumi's seem to be deliberately driven by the megalomaniac politicians of this nation. I remember when i went for a political talk by Lim Kit Siang (an opposition political figure) , at a point he hailed " The Chinese are marginalized!" and it was followed by a loud cheer by the audience. Then he said " The Indians are marginalized!" and that too was followed by a cheer just as loud as the previous one, then he said " Even the Malays are marginalized!" yes it was also followed by a cheer but there was a clear hesitation in the crowd almost to say that the crowd wasn't to sure but since Kit Siang said it lets just cheer anyway. See that's the problem, the people don't know that our enemy are those politicians up there who sit and plot ways to divide the people so that they can conquer us and keep us in their grasp and they are the ones we should be pissed off at. Not a Bumi or a non-Bumi.
Yes, the people to a certain have extend realized this and made a move by giving a kick in BN's ass during the election. Nonetheless, a reformation for the good of all Malaysians can't take place if we don't change our perceptions. Scratching this itch may be something too hard to accept by most. Hence we wait for the day when a generation void of racial divide rises to lead this country. Until then this itch remains unscratchable.
Added:24-03-2008,10.09pm
A Racist Heritage? This is another article touching on the racism issue. Its written by Haris Ibrahim there's a link to his blog The People's Parliament in the link list on the right side of my blog.
Added: 22-03-2008,11.32pm
p.s. This is a must read article by my favorite blogger out there. Its amazing how he puts this issue in perspective The Ugly Malaysian by Raja Petra Kamarudin.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
No better than ass-wipes
Don't we all need it...money? To some, its one of the only things in life which we love and need at the same time.To the rest it is something that we most definitely need but it wouldn't be any harm if we had more of it. To me...its no better than ass wipes.
What is money in the first place. How did it come about?...the way i look at it, it is value we put on everything that we can possibly evaluate. It is absolutely virtual. Although to most ppl it is as concrete as it can be but i beg to differ. Money has value because we put value on it. It is us humans who came up with a plan to reserve gold and distribute its value on highly sophisticated printed papers so that everyone can have a share of the gold. But why do we even do that in the first place? What good comes out of it?
Some time back i engaged in a debate with my mother(actually it turned out to be more of an argument as it went) about how money has destroyed us as humans. I mean think about it. ALL the decadence that we witness has one way or another to do with money. Off course one may say that it is not money itself that has destroyed us but it is the greed of acquiring it that has caused such a decay. But wouldn't the absence of money stop this chaos altogether? A pretty obvious example would be poverty. Lets take Darfur for instance. There are people there who are suffering as hell because the guy who lives in the city has too much to eat. In a wider scope one would find that the reason a man is suffering of poverty is because the other has acquired too much of money that in actual fact the economic balance of the people as a whole has tipped off. Simply put, the only reason there's the poor is because there is the rich or even those who are living comfortably like us. So can a man still be blamed for providing for himself a comfortable life? The need for money for every individual collectively sums up to the lack of providence for another man. Hence it has turned to be a dog-eat-dog world and it doesn't take a greedy man to deprive another man.So we can say that it is possible that the very need for money can cause depravity and not only the greed or the love of money.
But i say, why don't we just RID OURSELVES OF MONEY!! That's right kill the very idea of money. Wouldn't life be sweeter without the burden of money? Won't we be able to enjoy life the way we should with the absence of money? We don't realize that our childhood was a blissful time because we had no care of money or acquiring it. The very machinery of education is built for the sake of acquiring money. The distasteful pressures on getting educated and the need to have a so called "good" job is nothing but the drive to acquire money. A man would have a more satisfying life if most of his life he didn't have to worry about making money.My mum said that i'm just a fool rambling about abolishing the "very thing that makes the world go round". "It will never happen...people won't let go of it", she said.
So why won't people get rid of it? The very next day in college i brought this topic up while chatting with a good friend of mine. Summarizing our conversation, we reached a conclusion that ppl won't kill the idea of money simply because we are the most khiasu beings on earth. The very reason why ppl strive, risk their lives or even do something inhumane to acquire money is to ultimately be on top of his fellow man. Lets face it. Most, if not all, can't resist being better off than the other guy. We would need to be able to accept EVERYONE is at the same level if money was to be abolished. The sad truth is not everyone is willing to accept that.
Everyone as equals....i'm sure most of you would recognize that phrase. It is the very backbone of Communism. I admire Karl Marx for coming up with such a utopia but cursed are those in history who propagated and in turn distorted his vision, such as Hitler and the Soviet Union. It is clear evidence that man just can't live as equals. It is a bitter truth but the truth nonetheless. Man is corrupt.
Me being an annoying defiant creature still can't bear the existence of currency and money but killing that idea is easier said than done. Thus till that beautiful day comes when man can finally forget about money...it remains an unscratchable itch.
What is money in the first place. How did it come about?...the way i look at it, it is value we put on everything that we can possibly evaluate. It is absolutely virtual. Although to most ppl it is as concrete as it can be but i beg to differ. Money has value because we put value on it. It is us humans who came up with a plan to reserve gold and distribute its value on highly sophisticated printed papers so that everyone can have a share of the gold. But why do we even do that in the first place? What good comes out of it?
Some time back i engaged in a debate with my mother(actually it turned out to be more of an argument as it went) about how money has destroyed us as humans. I mean think about it. ALL the decadence that we witness has one way or another to do with money. Off course one may say that it is not money itself that has destroyed us but it is the greed of acquiring it that has caused such a decay. But wouldn't the absence of money stop this chaos altogether? A pretty obvious example would be poverty. Lets take Darfur for instance. There are people there who are suffering as hell because the guy who lives in the city has too much to eat. In a wider scope one would find that the reason a man is suffering of poverty is because the other has acquired too much of money that in actual fact the economic balance of the people as a whole has tipped off. Simply put, the only reason there's the poor is because there is the rich or even those who are living comfortably like us. So can a man still be blamed for providing for himself a comfortable life? The need for money for every individual collectively sums up to the lack of providence for another man. Hence it has turned to be a dog-eat-dog world and it doesn't take a greedy man to deprive another man.So we can say that it is possible that the very need for money can cause depravity and not only the greed or the love of money.
But i say, why don't we just RID OURSELVES OF MONEY!! That's right kill the very idea of money. Wouldn't life be sweeter without the burden of money? Won't we be able to enjoy life the way we should with the absence of money? We don't realize that our childhood was a blissful time because we had no care of money or acquiring it. The very machinery of education is built for the sake of acquiring money. The distasteful pressures on getting educated and the need to have a so called "good" job is nothing but the drive to acquire money. A man would have a more satisfying life if most of his life he didn't have to worry about making money.My mum said that i'm just a fool rambling about abolishing the "very thing that makes the world go round". "It will never happen...people won't let go of it", she said.
So why won't people get rid of it? The very next day in college i brought this topic up while chatting with a good friend of mine. Summarizing our conversation, we reached a conclusion that ppl won't kill the idea of money simply because we are the most khiasu beings on earth. The very reason why ppl strive, risk their lives or even do something inhumane to acquire money is to ultimately be on top of his fellow man. Lets face it. Most, if not all, can't resist being better off than the other guy. We would need to be able to accept EVERYONE is at the same level if money was to be abolished. The sad truth is not everyone is willing to accept that.
Everyone as equals....i'm sure most of you would recognize that phrase. It is the very backbone of Communism. I admire Karl Marx for coming up with such a utopia but cursed are those in history who propagated and in turn distorted his vision, such as Hitler and the Soviet Union. It is clear evidence that man just can't live as equals. It is a bitter truth but the truth nonetheless. Man is corrupt.
Me being an annoying defiant creature still can't bear the existence of currency and money but killing that idea is easier said than done. Thus till that beautiful day comes when man can finally forget about money...it remains an unscratchable itch.
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