Tudya!

The Freak Show

2011-12-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

rarities, oddities, defects and such. Like human physical, the mankind emotion is full of them

There is a notion amongstmoviegoers. “I want to go to cinemas and have a good time” Good time can comein several pleasant combination; a short line of ques, problem-free ticket purchase online, agreat company of friends and loved ones and warm popcorns that are notpre-packed and left to cool down along the counter. In short, a good time atcinema is a movie that does not tire your brain digesting it. It as easy as “happilyliving ever after” or “good triumph over evil”

Amongst the actor, they aremore likely to take up good, positive and protagonist characters onto theirportfolio. It poses fewer challenges. A good character does a stoic sympatheticface, It attracts good karma and garners admiration by fans. Noactors/actresses badly want a prostitute, pimp or gambler role on the silverscreen. Bad, for most actors is the third entity in love triangle, but not tosuch badassery of mentioned above roles. Off camera, there is no fear of livingand being associated with bad character they brought. Its play safe.

Amongst the director theywant to do an easy-to-digest movie. Like baby food, movies should be fluid andquick to pass the throat and into stomach, so that the next can be fed more andmore and more. Directors dislike( in my words, failed ) to articulatecharacters in a subliminal way – so a gangster must obviously spoken “ lu, gua, lu, gua “ and a businessmanmust have emphasis on scene where they chaired meetings and discuss aboutselling stocks and arranging meeting with fictitious Mr.Yamamoto from Japan.

Producers choose to fund “feelgood” movie. At this time of writing, feel good movies can assert itself as escapismcum fairy tale. Like the recurring theme of poor god-loving tudung girl marrying a filthy rich manbut along the way, a jealous girl tries to wreck the relationship and you’llshed a few tears before the epic ending. Suggestive titles like Dhia, Levender,Elysa, April, Qaseh and a whole lot of contemporary feminine names pulls younggirls with identity clout to say “hey, this film is like a mirror to my life!Lets watch it!” adds the variety to this subgenre.

Sponsors are more likely tocontribute their merchandise/product to movies that convey positive messages init. Besides, what would a product be any good if they pour sponsorship uponactors which played the role of a , say… a pimp, a gambler or a prostitute. On abright side, even though it made them look more pimpy and first classprostitute respectively, still, a no-go. Definitely, a clothing company wouldn’twant people saying “ Yeah! This is what a pimp/hoes/hustler use “

Is Malaysian films thatFUBAR ?

I got that skeptical lookfrom my father. “ What a bad film title!? “, he hasn’t watched Malay evenMalaysian movies since forever. He is a keen movie goer. The recent title was Dream House starring Daniel Craig, whichis a lukewarm Hollywood product (I admit,I watched it too). I persuaded furtherto convince him to watch this film, I even said it had artistic flavors ofarwah Yasmin Ahmad – Plus, Syafie Naswip is amongst the cast, " Syafie Nas what...? "my father againgave me the skeptical and uncertainty look. Even the versatile late filmmakercannot leverage the film that it’s no typical Malay movie made by someoneawarded Professor Madya.

I do not even have assurancethat the film would be good, I only relied on scarcely available movie reviews.I defy the old saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’, im utterly convincedby the film poster which is plain minimalistic but well thought out ( comingfrom architecture background, less is absolutely more )

Finally he let himself in,the whole family watched the movie at a cinema in Seberang Prai. We remainedseated for the next 100 minutes, thus, exiting the cinema, we did not say much.Until at one moment my dad mentioned one of the strings of praise for the movie“ Watching Fauzi Nawawi playing apimp is likeable! He really knows how to act! ”

Along the way back to SungaiPetani, he kept non-verbatim mentioning lines from the movie like “minta berkat” ( a scene where ShaheizySam being cynical to his new boss ) “ Ad! Jahanam kereta aku “ ( again Amscolded his brother spontaneously went on fire inside confinement of a wreckSaga )“ Anak kalau kecil kecil memangcomel, bila dah besar, baru tau “ ( Am confronts Hawa after she refuses tosell her father-less baby to a syndicate), we laughed calling back the fragmentsof the film scene that still vividly runs in our mind.

On serious note, he praisedthe humanity aspect which is portrayed by Ad, the character which regularly visitsan old prostitute and believed (or might have) been his mother. The theme and portrayalof the modus operand of human trafficking. The heavy subject which became thespotlight, and the intricate, scene by scene that unwrap the storyline verydelightfully albeit with a help of thinking until the ending credits ( bet, whowould like to do thinking inside a cinema? A library is probably the betterplace to do so ) .

My Malay-cinemaphobic dadgives 8 out of 10 rating for Songlap. Thats impressive. Isn’t that eye opening for him?

Leaving Normalcy At The Door

Songlap is a movie that willnever eclipse, even, matched the collection made by Osman Alis Ombak Rindu also playing along currently.Judging by the attendees of the cinema that day (Saturday) , Songlap might notrecover their filming budget of RM1.5 million. But Songlap successfullydistanced itself from other archetypical Malay (yes, im tired of using the wordtypical ) as a brave realist sociocritique movie. It did more than distance,but joins a niche distinct class of its own following the footsteps of Perempuan Jalang dan … )

On socioritique alone, afilm cannot fascinate. Songlap cannot achieve this without a combination of chemicallycompatible cast, intuition-defying storytelling , witty scripts and daringfilming methods. Front lined by triple-S ( Shaheizy, Syafie and Sara Ali ), these actors really packed a punch to provide consistent drive force to the film. Shaheizy Sam which I startedto notify how startling his acting when he played a blind man in a teledrama years ago, never disappoints. Sam move to neverlet ( or he got tired )‘Metrowealth’ encapsulate him and sucking him dry onrecurring stagnant themes , is definitely a smart move. What recurring theme?Well, a hint, In Songlap, his character, Am, owns a car to spin around Yipee!Syafie Naswip acting has found new leash of life after the departure of YasminAhmad. Sara Ali ,an architecture degree holder in real life, effectively plays the moodypost-natal mother of child born out of wedlock

Secondary ensemble, includesNormah Damanhuri which played an old hoes and takes rm30 per half hour of feelgood session, he is accompanied with Chipun,a pimp that would woo men and women to visit his red lit little ‘happy house’,he is brilliantly played by Fauzi Nawawi. Eliza Wong played Mama, a women thatruns the baby mill house and his strings of Chinese staff that forgeddocuments through Photoshop CS5, cooks and manage the house. Omar Abdullah plays a father thatshamelessly raped his daughters ( yes, raped two daughter to get thatanimalistic libido done )

Intuition defying is bestdescribed when audience actually nodded or bemoans oh! and ah! at certain importantjuncture of the story. I was led to believe the story would be going somewhere,but as the seam connects, it turns out to be the other way around. Yet it stillfloats and maintains my keen to follow-on till finishing, nothing ofthe misleading crap that makes you want to walk out of cinema.

Finding dark and tightcorners in KL for filming to realize the sinful nature of the film theme is a technicalchallenge. In Songlap there are no Japanese sport cars burning its rubbers onDataran Merdeka or exploding upon crash, the focus of cinematographer is simply human emotions – and to capture thedynamics of human emotion from stressed, to fear, to hopelessness, to theexpensive 'I-don’t-know what to say’ face is priceless. Added doing scenesduring night time? Clearly a humongous challenge there. No wonder even Professor Madya like to do daytime sceneand having comedian-actor ensemble to do….., what else…., comedies, because that’sthe challenges befitting the title ProfessorMadya.

Effendee Mazlan and FarizaAzlina Isahak are penggiat seni that haveclosed the 2011 chapter of Malaysian film industry with an eye opener, forthose who chooses to still take the dreamboat washed by ombaks and gelora, that’s their choice. We cannotline them up and force them to watch something as realist as SONGLAP. Life isnot all about sugar, SONGLAP hits me like a freak show, A freak show would haveweird human oddities, defects and abnormalities for display – oddly enough SONGLAP had drawn similar projectionof the ugly heads of whats life and how people got through it, felt as good asreading Shahnon Ahmad Ranjau SepanjangJalan, A.Samad Said Salina andAbdullah Hussein IMAM .

I did walkout of cinema hall feeling good after all.

The Atelier #1: Scaling Back and Staying Relevant in Architecture

2011-09-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to 'The Atélier', aseries of blog entry I specially made for thoughts on architecture. On thispilot entry, I shall describe in layman terms the harsh reality architecture asa career. And the vast possibility when architecture embodied as a 'spirit'.Nothing spooky okay.

Welcome to architecture. A careerwhere its participant would aim for the stars. If you doesn’t come from anarchitecture background, names like Mies Van Der Rohe, Rem Koolhaas, Santiago Calatravaand Antonio Gaudi would sprung series of mental imagery of buildings you commonlysee in magazines or places you have visited before. By the way, thosearchitects are some of legends which had carved their names in the architectureconstellation – something like sailors do when compass doesn’t exist. We lookup to them when we are lost, but it seems most of us never admitted we areforever lost

But times have changed, andas the architecture field gets crowded, your chance to carve a name in theconstellation becomes faded. The architecture field has not become a field ofpassion, but extreme competition, client demands, cut costs and dog eats dogcannibalistic scene. Architects would work to extreme hours next to nothing,sight of blankets and toothbrush at workplace is nothing uncommon. It paysbarely pays your bills and emerging architects overtook you from behindfleecing your clients with further ridiculously lower prices for such valuabledesign advisory you had your neurons spark for with the help of caffeine.

Present economic volatilityhad construction industry halted or slowed down to a snail pace. Malaysia is nomore in its glorious boom seen in mid 80s. Construction is guaranteed the firstto be affected and even get out of the clout. I fondly remembers my lecturersaying “ a sign of healthy economy is shown through the construction industry “.Even so, when times are good, your client would never forgets the discountsgiven when you scrambled for living during hard times, so, the struggle becomesa vicious cycle and balancing act on a tight rope of karma and luck.

Architecture firms are gettingmuch more like hypermarkets. Only big firms seems to cut the deal and moppedthe floor clean, if they employ you, they pay you real cheap, you are taxed forbeing in a well-known firms. While thesmaller firms folds or survives on unique idiosyncrasies that majority ofpeople wouldn’t seen it necessary.

But amidst the frustrationthe real world doesn’t give a F of your superb green design or poetic aestheticlight-coming-through-a-froghole features, there is no need to throw off thehat. Architecture is a versatile knowledge. It lets you swerve and maneuverwith plenty of room keeping your mental faculty occupied and your hard earnedcollege credits relevant. Architecture spirit simply doesn’t quit on us. It’s amatter of we quitting on them.

Alternative careers forarchitects are endless. I always picture Architecture as an accumulation ofseveral branches from the tree of knowledge. We learn to articulate our ideas (mostly bullshitting thou ), so we are naturally public speakers and happilyaccept offers to give any fiery speeches at a rally. We learn how to sketch, sowe can utilize that and illustrate wonderful things ( and probably gets intosomeone pants, I mean, their pockets). We calculate things, our calculusmastery is somehow superior, few notches behind engineers, but, yah, stillcommendable. We learn to read people minds, we learn to understand the currenttrends and most importantly - we design.

Identity by design

Design is always somethingwhich people disregard. Nissan, as a case, had suppressed its car designers inturn for cut costs with awful plastic and interior upholstery selection. Nissannearly went bankrupt when Charles Ghosn, the new CEO, had given designers morefreedom in designing and material selection and Nissan fortunes began to turn.

Apple Inc. the makers ofiMac, iPod, iPhone and other i-whatever-devices had similar blunt decision todisregard design. Before Steve Jobs were at the helm, a corporate trainedleader was at the top, telling designers to forgo their wet dreams and instead orderingmanufacturer to boost up production. Their products failed to sell and had beenstockpiling like an old junk. Apple was at terminal stage when Old Steve Jobstook over.

Steve Jobs, being aninnovator at heart recognizes design as part of product and subsequently, companyidentity. In 1998, we saw the candy colored iMacs, from then on; Apple designhas been simply stunning and refreshing. The rest is history.

The rooms are there for us,there are people who attentively listens and humanely considers what we do toan extent that doesn’t diminish our creative flair. The Architecture spirit isnever confined to the design-follows-budget stigma. Architects like HijjasKasturi who had come to great heights locally finds time in to designing watches,lifts and yatches. Why such figure wants to scale back to designing petty stuffthat people rarely use? Has he lost his prestige?

Nah, IHMO, Its because thespirit of architecture roams everywhere, architects can wake up at 4 in themorning and went to the drawing table just to sketch an eclectic space inside ahome. Nobody stops them, because ideas comes like a squall or gust and goesaway quickly.

Arkitek Kampung

Scaling back of our dreamsmeans we don’t have to murder our Architecture spirit. Instead of licking thefloors at big firms and envisioning to construct the next 300 floor towers, try looking at the communitylevel. Architecture can contribute a lot to the society by improving theexisting spaces. It doesn’t mean an excavated clear ground is always ourplayground, present spaces can be our canvas of creativity. May it be a kindergarten, taska, wet market, 4 footers, 6 footers or Sunday flee market, thesespaces desperate for an architect’s Midas touch.

Architecture also needsperception change with people unfamiliar with them. Parents expect us to designmultistory complex for a multinational companies whatsoever and laughing ourway to the bank with millions, while it seems viable ideally, the contrastingreality seeks architects to dedicate their energy in a different way. Incollege, I was though about simple installations, a panel or mirrors or just stringencompassed in-a-way to concentrate certain qualities of a site – the genius loci, blending and respectingwhat came earlier to the place - this is the next of architecture.

The imagery of heavy pile driver and noisybulldozer chasing like cats and mouse on-site should be applied with much moreopacity to it. Architecture now is no longer an all-out intrusion but a tacit intervention,just like Glenn Murcutt quote “Touching the earth lightly ”

Architects were also giventask to give a new leash of life onto old building. Cities like Malacca, Penangand KL has plenty of pre-merdeka buildingthat needs restoration to retain their beauty and historical value. There also mightbe a fine-tasted financier who would want to turn old walls into exciting placefor candlelight dinners. We, architects, can step up to the plate.

Architects can be abona-fide superhero. When crimes arise in densely populated cities, it’s the responsibilityof architects to help the society out. We change the existing landscape fromcrime prone to something safer and better for people. Little changes likestraightening of streets and installation of lamp posts make a huge difference!

In short, these hard times hadarchitects arrested for upward growth, but who cares, we grow sideways. We reconsiderand explore new possibilities and keep the architecture spirit (yes,architecture is a spirit, not profession ) relevant throughout times.

The Entrusted

2011-09-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Entrusted to the boarding centre, the cats were left for a week to starve and die. Now, we humans in Malaysia, how much longer can we entrust those we entrusted ?

Recent news headline sees a cat boarding centre had neglected their promise which had caused 13cats dead. They had shattered and infuriate many cat owners which had trusted them wholeheartedly to take care of their cats while they went on for festive holiday season in various parts of the nation. No words can describe how shaken these pet lovers had felt, in return, the alleged owners of the pet boarding service offered an apology citing they were shorthanded, plus, they wanted to sue pet owners responsible for breaking into their premises in order to rescue the distressed pets.

Between broken premises and broken promises. Which one has a higher magnitude? Don’t need to be shock with the outcome. Amidst the ruckus of pointing fingers and blame game, one direction had struck me: the tax collector

I recently found the wise words of Mohandas Gandhi: “One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals”. It is no less true in this case when we failed to provide good treatment onto animals, which are non-talking beings, it would imply mankind would simply treated as bad, or borderline bad, nothing beyond satisfactory, excellent would be farfetched – this is all cukup makan.

Difference between a ‘food’ and ‘real food’

Cukup makan mentality exists in bazaar Ramadhan. No, its not about the food portion where it is just too little. We petite Asians do not eat huge serving portions like fellow Arab, European or Americans. It’s a hurting to walk at the stalls seeing foods were prepared in reluctant and somewhat deceitful . Unethical business practice like putting too much ice instead of juices are widely spoken for years, but we had been a slave to cukup makan culture that we surrender and swallow after all these types of food. Going to bazaar ramadhan is akin to looking for a speck of diamonds in a teaspoon of sands – it takes both sides of brain to precisely calculate and abstractly judge. Well, some may argue food preference is something very subjective. But take a stranger to a bazaar, and let them pick the food randomly. There will be an undoubted sense that the poor stranger would end up forcing untasteful food down his/her throat rather than feeling satisfied.

The usual Malay response would not favor much the ‘customer first’ etymology taught in business school worldwide, instead we go the emotional way “ kalau nak sedap buatlah sendiri makanan yang nak makan tu”, while no one utter that, the action speaks louder than word, if hard proof is needed, then, look forth on food poisoning cases nationwide during Ramadhan. If I were to pass on a RM5 note on a meal, I expect it to be good, well prepared and tasty for my buka puasa. I do not expect anything bombastic with an exquisite garnishing or lavish content. I have idea how hotel food tastes like, and when I stepped to a bazaar ramadhan, I knew I wanted a real food which that suits my bujang and single status. (Yes, if I had a wife or girlfriend, I’ll asks her to cook )

My RM5 note is undervalued in bazaar ramadhan. My RM5 plastic tear-free note would compensate the worker time, energy and cover the basic material spend on those food. I entrusted them with my RM5, but its too little for them. Recycled oil, old vegetables, bland, half cooked, greasy - the seller don’t care “kalau engkau tak nak beli, ramai lagi datang nak beli “What I get is food. Edible but, its just a food. But I sought ‘real food’

Where can I find real food? I instead went to Carrefour and bought some lamb shoulder and grilled them to well-done tenderness, I bought pastas and made ala-carbonara and Alhamdulillah, I cooked a dozen time for both buka puasa and sahur I had this year. I got my ‘real food’, but there is a price to pay for that.

Robbed

If I’m shortchanged of my RM5 by reluctant bazaar ramadhan operators, how about those who pay taxes by the thousands ringgits per year. The citizens which entrusted other by the thousand ringgit. Do they feel shortchanged ( or worst, robbed? ). The answer is very apparent about what perception floating in the air regarding of our ‘tax collector’ and ‘how the money made use’.

Take for instance, tuition centres. We…pardon me, I mean.. tax collectors dedicate a lot on education expenditure every year. Indeed, when you travel around, many new schools are being built. existing schools is busy undergoing extension and erection of new blocks, with new classrooms comes new tables and chairs, new appliances, laptops and textbooks given out, likely iPad would be given out in near future. Teachers are being trained and re-trained annually without exhaustion and syllabus were being reviewed almost every time the minister responsible changes. Big words are being used like ‘transformasi’ ‘perubahan’ ‘anjakan’ ‘berprestasi tinggi’ ‘bestari’ etc, etc. which makes a lovely headlines

But parents still has the urgency to send their children to tuition centre because what their children get in school is considered ‘insufficient’. Although tuition centre doesn’t replace school as a prime avenue to get taught, tuition cannot be dismissed altogether. It seems school and tuition co-exists with an irony that tuition centre teachers mostly school teachers too.

Malaysian kids could claim valuable time doing outdoors, bonding with family or doing something outside-the-schema – but instead when the school system failed to address this, the classroom hours extended into the night, in the form of tuition; with 8pm to 10pm classes, weekends eats up by more tuition and further intensive tuition towards the last minute. It has been ingrained within the minds of parents nowadays, similar to the bazaar ramadhan eulogy, “ kalau mahu yang sedap, buatlah sendiri”. You get ‘education’ and shut up, be thankful of that. Forget ‘real education’ and whatever it meant.

You have to swallow that a school is not responsible for academic excellence, incapable on its own of turning a child into an all-rounder, and if so, they don’t mean to sculpt your children to become outstanding, superior or distinguishing –teachers are there not to seek your child talent and refine them, they have strict schedule to complete. Unless, if you want so, please do spend more that you have paid with your tax, send them to intensive tuition centres or private schools which uses special syllabuses.

Robbed Again

Security is another apparent area where we got robbed. Housing areas in Klang Valley and other big town had similar sight of one-man guardhouse with roadblocks, what they’ll do is asks for your MyKad number – a nuisance during rush hour or during festivities where your relatives comes over– then, after obtaining your ID, they’ll let you pass and bury themselves in the guardhouse equipped with a FM radio. These guards, usually Bangladeshis or Nepalese, need wages, their wages were not borne by the tax collector, instead, tax payer had to cough additional money to pay directly to these guard.

Additional money were spend installing trident grills and other scary contraception that block the drains and other openings from any walking and talking organism. Give and take no chance, and the next thing they realized is they are living in the safety of their own prison, surrounded by these intimidating hardscapes of walls, barriers, gates and roadblocks replacing the green lungs and landscape.

A minister holding this portfolio, previously responsible for the education, loves making statistical headlines in the news. Powerful and confidence-inducing words like ‘improvements’ ‘extra personnel’ ‘crime reduction’ ‘mobile stations’ litter the daily, when something tangible are much comforting rather than rhetoric. Acid splasher, raided mamak stalls and snatch thieves; these would put a dim to our days and days ahead.

Like Apple Inc. announcing new products in San Fran with Steve Jobs looking all casual. You all know how Steve Jobs would begin his presentation boasting about numbers. Millions, thousands, hundreds in pie charts, graphs, quotations. Once in six months or so, a convention hall is rented and open for public to announce these claims in a eventful ways . ‘improvements’ ‘extra personnel’ ‘crime reduction’ ‘mobile stations’ … sorry, the safety of our citizen is not a matter of Applesque reality distorting presentations. Serious change is needed.

Back to Gandhi wise words: “One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals”. Logic is animals couldn’t speak, and if they were given certain rights and protected properly, it’s a guarantee, humans can go beyond that. But what we have witnessed here, animals are left to rot by persons which had been entrusted, and humans sooner or later may fell to that state of despair where its fine to rot, a green light given by the people we entrust. Today, our level is borderline – cukup makan. and who cares, we are not aiming to be a great nation after all.

The Proton Saga

2011-08-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

remember when the first iPod was a little inferior mp3 player without a FM-tuner? Well, tables have turned biotches!

It bemuses me to see somewhere in July 2009 Proton releases a variant of second generation Proton Saga called Saga SE (Special Edition, I assume). I stumbled upon its printed ad where a man looks on to the readers. With his spiky Korean-esque hairstyle, beside him is the same man, with the same shirt and staring the same way at the readers only difference donning an overgrown shades. The punchline of this printed ad is “ Tampak Perbezaannya! “ ( which means noticeable difference )

Never mind, the differences. No doubt, It exists in a littlest form. Proton Saga SE prominent change was the black painted roof to mimic a panoramic roofed cars. And screamed “ Tampak Perbezaannya! “

Seems like Proton has thrown a blanket of sarcasm onto itself; akin to spitting in the air only to see the spit landed back in its face. Moving back in time, the first-generation Proton Saga has been a subject of discreet yet strong criticism, one thing is for sure: Proton likes selling 18 year old models. In a desperate bid to push old models for people to swallow, little cosmetics modifications were made. Such as brushed metal gearknobs, larger circumference air-cond vent for our warm tropical weather, futuristic designer dashboards, aggressive fog lights, and a more contemporary ‘Saga’ badge at the butt. The above mentioned ‘features’ lined up the Proton Saga catalogue to woo potential buyers. Other car manufacturer had their catalogue brimmed with real engineering-backed features that literally bubbles salesperson mouth with automotive knowledge to the bleeding edge, if I may say.

Of course, Its hard to build a car, or introduce practical automotive innovation nevertheless, to market it effectively. If making cars were such an easy business, people would have made it in their backyards. But the national carmaker messy line up of models seems like Proton is taking its shot in the dark of the vast vehicle market. Mid-sizes hatchback like Gen.2 has to share market spaces with Waja and Persona sedan. The Satria Neo two-doors compete with Savvy fighting for the young. They wanted to make utility vehicle (discontinued Arena a.k.a Jumbuck ),they had an executive vehicle ( Perdana ) they wanted to initiate in-house performance tuning arm ( R3 ) and they enrolled themselves in rallies of different categories all over the world. What is Proton trying to relay to us with all this?

It was the introduction of the MPV Exora that I began to realize that Proton could possibly reemerge as a small but significant car manufacturer in the world by targeting the value-seeking family-oriented motor transportation.

Sweet Spot Strategy

When AirAsia started offering low fares flight, we wondered how AirAsia is going to pay its pilot? Stewardess and its staffers? Initially we had a paradigm of air travel being reserved for the affluent. Not forgetting pilots and their handsome wages. Did they use fourth-hand aircraft that would split into two in mid-air? Did they pay drop-out pilots that lacked training? Do they use rethreaded aircraft tyres?

As time passes, we become comfortable and convinced with the word ‘now everyone can flies’. Travelling with airasia is casual slippers and Bermuda, undiscriminating, had turned a blind eye to the how-much-you-earn factor. Minus the frills yet people can still say ‘ tak adalah cikai sangat naik AirAsia’

At first MAS did not respond to this model. Perhaps they perceive the future of airtravel is a two layer strata of executive high-end experience and low-budget airlift. Advantage is never on AirAsia side, they were initially denied to some travel routes, had scarce aircraft and uses the cheaper less architecturally versatile LCCT which nobody would upload to Facebook.

But things turned out differently. MAS had a series of financial hiccups requiring several management shuffling and administration changes. They had to sell off their building in Jalan Raja Laut. On the other hand, Airasia thrives and continued to expand. Today, although not being told, by guesstimating, AirAsia could be several times bigger than MAS and would eat the latter any time.

Airasia must have figured out the sweet spot of air travelers. They delivered the basic services demanded and cut/lessen the icing off to offer a noticeable better deal than the national carrier. But vital to this success is to sell it in volumes. Very large volume.

In a scenario where great competition involves between two or more company, a strategy seems likely the light out of the dark tunnel. The sweet spot strategy. We all knew like AirAsia, Proton had little to less advantage in its side. Proton is ages behind to compete with the likes of Porsche with its vast hall of fame of automotive innovation starting from Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (whom designed tank turrets for breakfast). Nevertheless to challenge Subaru or Mitsubishi with their mean blazing fast all-wheel driven performance cars engineered gram by gram.

Proton should consider sweet spotting the car market. And by all means, Malaysian market if it’s feasible enough. Make a vehicle that people needed the most, design it wisely, price it nicely, dedicate their engineers to this model, update it frequently and push it with volume. One particular candidate is the second generation Saga. Particularly the Saga FL.

Why is the second-gen Saga is the best? Because Proton branded Saga as the ‘peoples car’ hence it suppose to behave like one. It is suitably sized for a young family of two kids with ample space for bags during balik kampung, equipped with adequate 1600cc of engine displacement that guzzle octane prudently, modestly designed to agitate a Kancil, reliability from wiper to electric windows and attractively priced. With these factors, Proton can push this single model in large volumes and probably crawl out of the red.

In fact, the amazing rollout of Saga FL had pushed Proton sales numbers over Perodua sales!

Proton doesn’t have to feel ashamed with lacking its in-house performance tuning arm. A miniscule of motor vehicle user would be such enthusiast to morph their vehicle into a mean machine of highway dominator. Proton can drop models that isn’t necessary to its aspiration making better returns.. If we assume Malaysian thirst for nimble city transporter, a ‘peoples car’, and a spacious large family vehicle ( plus, affordability applied to all subsequently ) then Savvy, Saga and Exora would be great to start off. Lacking of models? Roll out face-lifts say, every 8 months and replacement every 24months and people would flock Proton showroom like Apple store.

Make the entry generous

For almost every company, the entry level product is the eye opener. The closest approach for first impression. It’s a segment where car manufacturers can be generous to people who seek value, run for their money, bang for buck or whatever you may call it in marketing mumbo-jumbo. It’s usually much affordable product in the line-up. Think entry level for first time car buyers. Think Honda City, Think Toyota Vios, Think Mazda2. In order to create brand following, the entry level model is great place to start.

Proton offering comes in the form of Saga. Proton gave the production name of Saga as BLM or Base-line model, thus imply its target market segment. Currently on its second generation, the Saga FL (referring to facelift) bares a remarkable new facade. The introduction of Saga FLX proves that Proton commitment to lure this market segment. The FLX offers a real engineering-backed feature through the inclusion of CVT ( Continuous Variable Transmission ) Powertrain – which no other models had to offer, except the Mitsubishi Lancer-derived Inspira.

CVT, in laymen terms, offers a smoother transmission through variation of pulley diameter. In other words gear change is adjusted according to your driving style. If you’re hard pedaling a delay in gear shifts are made to deliver more powah. If you’re cruising, a different gear ratio is engaged to keep fuel consumption at minimum. Im glad, these are much more deserving automotive features rather than USB Ports, skirting or chrome-like lining on air-con vent holes. And that’s an X-factor of Saga FLX, a pleasant addition to the Proton entry level model.

Kudos to Proton, and if they are really aggressive to bring out more to Saga, they might have a winner model here. Roll it, wrap it and let the people say “Tak adalah cikai sangat Proton Saga”

The Brave New World

2011-06-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Cikgu Shidah, Milano Evans, 100 Apology Tweet and Rebecca Black – these are real people presented to you, they emerged and made a pass into your life. Internet life is fun and beneficial, but like real life they are risks involved and big brothers frantically watches you in ways creepier than you can never imagine.

I can’t help thinking about those people who instilled such high hopes doing broadcasting in the yesteryears, to break into the television world was such a tight and closed loop of beautifulpeople and rich man, you know the 1990s images of The Bold and Beautiful. Things definitely changed, people which had zero broadcasting backgrounds ( perhaps, without the ‘package’) however successfully broad casted their creative ideas, thoughts and showmanship with higher viewership- remember Cikgu Shidah and her rendition of Shakiras’ waka-waka?

Then we had come to the ‘Rebecca Black Effect’ that light heartedly proven to be a successful failure. Such failures were so epic that people celebrate them for whatever idiocy or despicability it embeds. Yet, her millions of view is a testament that people approves (if not really wanted) such things. People never felt vindicated by bleeding their eyes out of the television programming did to the masses once in their prime monopolistic moment – all they need to do in this internet era is press stop and move onto other videos, yeah, they can drop a comments too.

Few days back, the appearance of Milano Evans ( not her real name) puts a stroke of laughter in our life seeing a 14 year old girl blogged admitting she is not virgin anymore ( seriously, in a place like Malaysia). Luckily our community had long been/never been a Taliban mindset, her nose had been spared. Milano Evans put up a resistance of her admittance. Response ranges from supporting her staunch feminism and rights to control the usage of her reproductive organs to the way she liked it, to those who regarded her outspokenness is quite foolish when other girls would have lost their virginity but remained hush hush and some quarters had prayed to God so that she will be “shown the light”. Oh yeah, the baulk of commentators were swearing to do unworldly harms towards her. Me? I remained at the sidewalk as observer to this unraveling ruckus.

Then, there is the 100 tweet of apology story. It happened here. An activist, who tweets about a company HR policy being unfair towards his pregnant friend which were then working ewith that particular company. The company, BluInc Media, publisher of Malaysian Female magazine reached a settlement for him to write a hundred tweet apologizing to avoid defamation suit. He successfully reached 100 tweets within 3 days and gathered much support from the followers. With that, we ponder on what kind of law and order internet shall have? Can it become a beacon of truth which spreads fact which are sensitive for certain organization, such as his employer if they did do some unjust. Or would internet become an anarchist nation, with varying rules for each states? Who could rule and moderate internet? Why it should be moderated? Define Internet abuse? Does internet abuse exist? An endless circle of cat and rat games that extent to religion with fellow Muslim asking - when someone tweet they are in a mosque, does that constitute to ‘riak’? (doing of things for publicity)

Life on show, like its nobody business

As an architecture student, I firmly believe that value of properties would be indirectly set by the amount of foursquare check-ins. The more check-ins, the higher market value a property shall gain. This makes sense as they are reliable piece of data, highly accurate and happily contributed by the participant itself. Imagine you and me; we were a partner intended to open a café, we would very much seeking strategic location that could cater to as many potential customers as possible. We could just skimmed the data of where the people love to hang out. Forget the handing out of questionnaire in public spaces, just a waste of tree.

Or perhaps that café would only serve lunch. Then, I would skim the foursquare check-ins, I shall specifically look at which place the crowd would be during lunch time. Bam! There I have it, a spot for restaurant perfect for lunch seeking monsters.

This can be applied to anything specific. A gay bar, a hair saloon or a caviar selling al-fresco diner; these are target specific requirements. Where Gays usually hangs out? Where do caviar lover gather? To detect where are they heading to is impossible ( if breaking privacy law) unless, when they willingly check-in through mobile apps like foursquare –doing it willingly telling everyone where they are without breaking into somebody privy life ( did I just took the word from Mark Zuckerberg? )

But how do we know those people are Homosexual? High Income? Or vanity obsessed? Well, the dynamics of data collection through mobile apps is not rocket science or hypnotic magic. Gay people may openly admit their sexual orientation through social networks, even if they don’t, the pages they liked, the celebrities they followed and websites they visited, music they listens and movies they watched – these all combined can determine your gayness in some way.

You may ask does Google dedicate its staff to stalk 24/7 and determine gay people. No. These are what we called ‘algorithms’. When gay people, for instance (no discrimination intended), often visits particular websites which if many of them do, at a sustained rate, it creates a pattern. Other examples; book lovers would often watch movies that were adapted from books and drops by Google to read those reviews; while petrol heads watch automobile related reviews on YouTube – all of these searches are registered for each computer thus it provides a pattern, when Google knows you read too much books of a particular author or obsessed with cars of specific make, their advertisements were tuned according to your searches. Again, simple non-rocket science thing.

High Income people, how could you find them online? We used to judge them by the cars that they owned, but generally people are getting lesser on the road. There is a mobile apps which updates your Facebook profile with credit card purchase. Once you swiped the plastics the data is instantly uploaded and appears for your friends to envy: “John/Jane Doe had purchased a Zara Type X Jeans @ Pavilion KL at RMxxx.xx “, these are regarded as something fun for people who allowed them (for me its snobbish and showing off), yet, for Google it’s a valuable data. They encourage you to do so, these data of purchases you made through credit card will determine not only your affluence, but your purchase habit (and your low IQ and enthuastic show-offing). Google can sell these data to other jeans maker like Guess, or brands alike that you are willing to spend a bomb on jeans pants alone.

Relationship status, Credit card purchases and daily ranting, all can appear for public consumption anytime, anywhere. With all these, comes the issue of privacy. In a brave new world where people had happily exposes personal things akin to being in a birthday suit strolling along nude beach. We share too much on the net that it had no ceiling to all these. Of course, Internet is about volatility you change whenever you want when we enter different phases of life where you no longer want to be ‘nude’. But your old life of being carefree ‘nude’ still lingers in the internet realm. That’s when nasyid singer past life photos can leak and reveal their shocking past, which people dig this.

But, above all these paranoia of internet privacy, concerns of internet reputation and freedom of speech. Google, Facebook and Apple loves what we do on the internet right now. Sharing of information when you regard your life is akin to an hour of telefilm. The three tech giants skimmed through your internet behavior and status updates and iPhone SMS inbox to study you like you are a lab rat. When you think its nobody business to tell people what you eat, wear or whom you’re with – the three giants made your data as their business.

A week of foursquare check-ins is sufficient for them to create a pattern of your behavior and predict almost accurately where you would be next. Employer skimmed through profiles to screen possible workers, so they wouldn’t employ a chap like the one would defame its own HR department. The internet is a scary place to be in, if you know how things works inside them.

The Jins, Samprits and Toyol

2011-02-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah! Other than glorious food, Malaysia is glorious with ghost, spirits and trolls. They come to a cinema near you baby!

Before I left my high school, I decided to leave a memento in a shape of a Malay satire entitled ‘Bikin Celluloid’ . It’s a novel effort of telling a story through the eyes of Mr.Producer and his teams working on a film entitled ‘Cinta Semerah Marikh’. The crisis in the story lies in Mr.Producer who funded this movie expecting to see it all happens the way he ever wanted. He envisions a film that none has ever created and would left a ‘ding’ in the industry. Yet, the unsupportive Mr.Director has a different approach in mind to moviemaking. He’s not only getting the film to silverscreen, but does whatever it takes to create a film can make biggest profit. Mr.Producer noticed that his vision is hindered by a shortsighted Mr.Director who decided to use clichés of the market. In the end, Mr.Director singlehandedly altered many things and left Mr.Producer questioning himself when will the Malaysian Cinema would get sick of the same clichés and grasp the hunger for a change. Bikin Celluloid can

be read in the 2005 edition of ALIRAN annual school magazine.

Its been long years since it was released for public reading. Humbly, I admit being a bit shame to read my own sophomore literary works until this moment leaving Bikin Celloid somehow ‘orphaned’. The satire represent is a little voice inside the many of us to see change in the cliché of the post millennium Malaysian cinema landscape. From 2000 until 2005, in that span of years, movies were primarily about boys meet girl and soon fell lovesick people singing the blues of the heartbroken. Along the timespan did the government decided to open the floodgates for idiotic and intellectually cheap horror ghost stories. For sure it had appeal to the masses, because that’s the only choice of genre they’ve gotten. In short, Malaysian moviegoers were force fed with tahyuls. Plenty of jins, samprits and toyol were haunting the silverscreens raking millions, bringing production house, actors and studios back to life from the deadly plague of 1997 economic crisis which may have brought them down bitting the dust.

Producers, just as businessmen, would want to fund movie titles which market ‘demands’. Of course, any sane minded person who invested their hard earned money wants to see plentiful returns. Thus, the safest and guaranteed way to see money rolling back with multiplied amount would be a boy-meets-girl and falls in love cliché. Adds slapstick humor and the rolling back gets faster and reap better.

Bikin Celluloid takes readers to a realm that a visionary Mr.Producer alone is not enough. It takes a supportive crew. From the cameraman, make up artists, props man to the aunties which sweep the floor to anticipate the movie. In the end, the governing bodies should as well aid in the birth of exceptional non-comformist works into the Malaysian movie pool by giving . It all adds up that making a great movie is impossible without the right ecosystem. Mr.Producer is doomed and left speechless by the way his ideas had been hijacked.

Nam’ron

Nobody can give an insight better than the person who is in the industry itself. For Nam’ron, an old timer theater actor, quoted from his blog had deemed our film industry were born with umbilical cords still attached to the fantasy cliché. Not the Star Wars or Avatar type of fantasy. Its good versus evil. Its alim ulamak versus secular jahils and dark versus the light. We will never see those Silence of the Lambs or Shutter Island because it is difficult to swallow.

Nam’ron cleverly draws the parallel between ours and Indonesian sinetrons ( soap operas where a 25 year old son can have a 27 year old mom). He deemed himself as cheap actor, fulfilling side roles which requires minimal appearance. As minimum as possible, almost akin to extras or characters that need to appear less than a minute per episode.Our producers were bound by television networks which are obsessed with pretty face in skin tight jeans and mammary safely held by half-cup bras wrapped in MNG cottons. With their Brazilian keratin treated hair, they take lead roles, usually the good characters facing all these worldly challenges and emerged victorious at the end of the earthshattering clout.

While Namron puts it straight that the main antagonist is not his either, they cast the ugliest face, those which are quickest to hate. Namron never had the space for job, no matter how professional he is and active erstwhile in the theatre scene for many years, television networks are obsessed with pretty face – they don’t bother experience anyway. Namron kept himself in the theatre scene while making himself open for any cable television acting job.

In my opinion, this scramble for pretty face had indeed caused a furore and created bad apples within the pool of talents . That’s why recently we saw the creation of local Paris Hilton in the form of La-Lucah, with spotlight on, they do their bad things and gets the publicity they needed. Generally, stage actors, learned discipline and doing things correctly, shunning their emotions during work while understanding characters that are beyond their nature, they play characters that ordinary people cannot apprehend; A gay, a child from extra-maritial sex, a lesbian, a rapist, an atheist, a pagan and whatnots. Stage actors has panache about acting.

The television actors pledged their faces for certain cable networks and left trails of emotional outburst for paparazzi to pick it up as news materials. Television scripts are mundane fairytale type of things which can be plucked from standart3 textbook “ who-saved-a-cat-and-get-applauded-by-the-teacher-during assembly” kind of things; except the “who’s” is wearing a push-up bra and the teacher wears a tight kebaya. Of course, if possible, the television may have stipulated all the students gathering during the assembly should be hot hunky boys ala-Jacob of Twilight and cherry lips girl. Only one thing stops them. Cost.

This is when Namron jobs fits in. As a ‘cheap labor’ he does the acting when the budget had been eaten up for extremely ugly and extremely pretty cast. He described himself as neither of the one. Neither ugly or pretty. Just a patsy. An instrument, a screw out of the machine that operates on glamour and rating numbers and advertisements. Producers even had to negotiate with cable networks to explain the rational for Namrons involvement. Like I mentioned before, “Namron is in because there is no more money for super pretty and super uglies “.

There you go. Namron had exposed the inner working of our movie industry and expect no changes for at least a few decades.

The Ecosystem

When Namron portrayed the outlook as deplorable and undesirable, there are efforts going in the background to scavenge and work things out. I’ve seen Namron acting in ‘Gadoh’ and ‘Aku Tak Bodoh’, they deliver strong messages that has Namron being ‘gam’ ( another word for banned ), but none bothers Namron, no harm made on him, he lives, work, sleep and think like he does. Namron belonged to a whole new ecosystem, the ecosystem which is sick of the mainstream choking tahyul and boy-meets-girl clichés into the eyes of moviegoers. Namewee, Sharifah Amani to name a few, you won’t or rarely seen them on primetime television. They were long ‘gam-ed’. But that fact won’t squirt not a pee from them. They are safe within the ecosystem.

The ecosystem that im talking about consists of producers and directors that incept, adapt the ideas and gathers the resources. Screenwriters. Casting Agency. Props master. Actors, right down to the people who swept the floor. At the other end, there are moviegoers, those who chuck out their hard earned cash to watch movies, shows and works of these people. What binds this ecosystem is their like-mindedness. Hunger for a change.

Directors like Boris Boo of ‘Aku Tak Bodoh’ fascinates people on his insight of common reality among multicultural Malaysia. The extreme concerns amongst Malaysian onto their young eds. It breaks boundaries and makes us forget our ethnicity once engaged onto the movie. This all eloquently delivered in 120minutes of regret-free movietime. Production need not to replace the I’s in Boris name with 1Malaysia symbol, he is, in a refreshing unforcibly own way, Malaysian.

Mamat Khalid’s ‘ Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah’ is clearly a satire taking shots at Malaysia flood of tahyul mahyul movies. A versatile punches and jabs without being offensive towards the intended subject, Mamat Khalid bravely served some good ones to the political realities in Malaysia. Unmistakably, there’s a scene where Pak Jabit says “ kita boleh tukar parti, tak payah buat pilihanraya” ( referring to Perak State Assembly reps switching parties ) Amazingly, it attracts all lapisan masyarakat to watch it. May it be the ones that had been tied to tahyul mahyul for their silly ghosts and serious thinker for the subliminal jabs on current occurrences. And, Yes, Khalid’s “I” have not gotten replaced with 1Malaysia symbol either.

KRU Studios is setting itself apart with daring visual effects and movies with substantial contents. The studio heralded the true Malaysian striving spirit for exceptional quality for SFXs combined with KRU experienced music making, KRU Studios holds the synergy of making a memorable if not successful films. Realistic SFX coupled with good music scores would ring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in everybody’s mind. Everything is done here on our soil without the need rely on foreign expertise. Ah yes, ask anyone before those KRU brothers raised the benchmark, our SFXs were nothing near 1971 Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back. While most people whine and draw comparisons with directors who’d raised the white flag unable to fulfill such ludicrous demands, KRU Studios stood up to the challenge. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is what KRU Studios has in store for us, while its soundtrack; Sedetik Lebih by Anuar Zain is gaining heavy airplay the moment this blog’s written.

Continued with endless backing from movie goers, things seem to look alive again. Alternatives are now within reach. Finas squinted its eyes to see local movies flourish, it’s a matter to channel their resources to those who can really put a ‘ding’ on the industry. Skim Wajib Tayang puts a compulsory screening period on cinema operators to have at least two weeks of movie preview of local titles regardless of reception. Talented scriptwriters are eagerly waiting to show their talent and there are plenty of surprises in the bag for new, bold and daring actors.

Bikin Celluloid ends with Mr.Producer having a latte in a café, and it happens two complete strangers were clamoring for change. Mr.Producer had eavesdropped the conversation and left his two cents: “Maybe in the year 2020, we might see change” ( Mungkin kita dapat tengok perubahan tahun 2020 kot ).

The Abused Award

2011-01-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

AJL ended few weeks ago followed by echoes of dissatisfaction. It is still heard until today radiating with heat, heat and more packed heat.

The annual music award are mend to recognize music producer and composer adds a sense of academic in an industry which are known for stardom and glamour. In other words, AJL primarily recognize the person behind each tunes and notes regardless how alluring or handsome the singer is (which delivers the songas an artpiece). Having industry’s grandmaster in the shape of M.Nasir as chief judge clearly define the anugerah of all that mentioned above. It sets AJL apart from SMS based awards which is, after all the gimmicky of putting power into people hands, still had judges to sort things out.

Of course, the award had its share of criticism through voices that were unable to conform to the fact that the anugerah was given to a newcomer songstress, Ana Rafalli. There was a little commotion back during the night she was crowned winner; with the usual uneducated tantrum of throwing water bottles, tissue paper rolls and whatnots. While on the mainstage Ana was being showered with glimmering colourful confetti’s and brought back home a handsome amount of cash.

Many would have never heard of Ana Rafalli. Ana who? A sweet baju kurung totting girl who gained fame through the power of Youtube. Similar to the case of Marie Digby, she flamboyantly uploaded her crooning videos which eventually sparked the creative bulb inside of Aidid Alfian head to pick her up and morphed her into full time recording artist. In just a snap, she grabbed an anugerah- it shook the corridors of entertainment industry nationwide to witness such meteoric rise. In the after event interview, M.Nasir noted the frustrated reaction by some pockets of people, but as an old-timer in the field, no matter how properly things were done, not everybody are happy with it. The old timer even put a slight hint to his face: abaikan mereka ( just let them be – sore ).

Personally, there’s no issues with the decision putting her as a winner. Her efforts put to produce and compose the song on her own should be applauded; the award should gave her a kick start for a future all-rounder artist. We had enough of express-made pretty faced or jambu boy band delivering songs created by others. Surely M.Nasir has made a commendable choice.

Yet, the post-event interview also made M.Nasir tired due to some pressure put on him. Not that M.Nasir’s too handicap in making judgment ( remember Mawi? Who was the headmaster of AF? Who doesn’t like him during his heydays? ); M.Nasir had been the father figure or reference point to the industry, yet the entertainment industry cooperate agenda has its hand behind all handling out of awards. This is what pressuring and bothering M.Nasir.

Choke us with maximum exposure

If this starts to sound like a disgruntled dissident voices of blogging community, then you should think again; we shall look at a bigger picture of the anugerah. Who hold this anugerah? It was TV3, a private free-to-air television channel that had been running for 26years. In the past ten years, TV3 had made effort taking over other private free to air rival channel ntv7, in the process they had cultivated new channels such as 8tv and tv9; thus leaving the private television channels dominated by these oligarchy of channels..

These channels come together and collectively forms an umbrella group known as Media Prima, a conglomerate which owns a couple of other mass media medium such as dailies ( NST, Berita Harian ),radio station ( FlyFM, HotFM ) and physical advertisement space. These are very extensive media group that had its arm coiling onto different types of people all over the nation. Even the channel programming was arranged in a way to target different audiences, age, ethnic, income groups. For example we would never see TV3 and 8TV airing comedy simultaneously as this would split viewership amongst these channels. Even if they do air comedy simultaneously ( or whatsoever genre of movies) during similar time slot, it would be of different languages, each aiming to garner the viewer groups.

All this corporate strategy explains how AJL was given maximum exposure all throughout the free to air private channels across Malaysia. From interviews to cook shows ( or parenting shows); anything that wasn’t sponsored by other private companies; have had host reminding the audience about the pending anugerah. Radio station would pompously hold talk shows speculating the winners for the anugerah. Newspapers under Media Prima would have weekend center spread doing article about the anugerah like it’s an election result analysis. This intense publicity clout was done to create fever pitch anticipation ( honestly, the more you know about this mechanism, the less anticipation you had prior to AJL ). The whole Media Prima medias works seamlessly as mental conditioning tool.

It never ends swiftly; the anugerah would have be made like tsunami that leave its deep and lasting path. All Media Prima mediums would still throng the anugerah even when Stadium Bukit Jalil had been cleaned from tissue rolls messes due to Ana Raffali shocking victory. The next morning HotFM would untiringly play different songs from the anugerah; assuming its royalty free; they might rake clean profit from these airplays without knowing their audience had terribly wanted the audibly crispier sound of the studio version. The AJL recording of sound were a complete mess of noise unsuitable for airing on the FM, it would be a different story when previewed on television. This would carry on for weeks with the FM announcing that its an ‘exclusive’ previews like the deejay had to delve into some web filled archive room to collect the oh-so-exclusive-recordings.

Newspapers under the conglomerate would publish petty news during the entertainment event, like whose performance looked like illuminati advocate in subliminal form? and strings of other publicity hungry types of headlines. Winners of best performance were interviewed about how they execute their gimmicks ( surely, a report on Hafiz shot-on-stage can fill half a page )

Oh, not forgetting, channels of the conglomerate would squeeze every inch of the anugerah that can be made into full-duration content for their respective channels. They did whatever it takes including freezing or slowing down the motion and query what Cheryl Samad felt in the dressing room when evidently she had hosted the anugerah for ten straight years.

Can AJL be an event on its own rights? The corporate decision to ripping materials off from AJL had tarnished the anugerah to the extent of devaluing it. Can someone from the corporate table tell me does the cost saving synergy worth it?

Backdoor Award, the Anus.

All the frustration with Media Prima would have been worst if Astro do not exist in the industry. Nearly half of the artists competing during the anugerah night were of the highly popular show; Akademi Fantasia, the talent search reality show by Astro. Astro produces a stable of highly capable artist appealing to wide spectrum of audiences, far better than what Media Primas had able to produce through their desperate rollout of shameful and sometime last-minuitesque reality shows ( TV3s Mentor, LG MyStarz and Gangstarz; Ntv7s Audition; 8TV One-In-A-Million and Malaysian Idol )

Akademi Fantasia, although a clear ripped off idea of La-Academia from Venezuela; were executed nicely and Astro calmly never needed another reality talent search show. Akademi Fantasia has strong presence to wipe the floor clean and steal the thunder from Media Primas mediocre stable of six reality shows. Akademi Fantasia is on its 9^th run and still amongst the highest rated programs in Malaysia.

So those mediocre products, where can they be leveraged? Of course through long established anugerahs like the AJL, which untiringly build its reputation through 24 years of continuous awards. Now it had to be sold cheaply to help float drowning products of OIAM, Malaysian Idol and Mentor. Names like Faisal Tahir, Black, Tomok, Jaclyn Victor and if possible One Nation Emcees. Sadly names like Wana, Suki, Daniel had their artistic career neutered as it would be too ridiculous to award them first place in AJL.

It is clear that AJL are being abused to leverage ‘their’ artists. Its not too far to see that if Astro were never to exist in broadcast business today, we might see Black as the champion, Faisal Tahir as first runner up and Tomok as second runner up. It’s a purely corporate strategist that would chop off M.Nasir hand to cast his votes on Ana Raffali that night. People would be hurrying home from the award in a state of pandemonium to know that songs they hardly heard won the 24years running anugerah.

M.Nasir would have to appear on television with poker face and sell himself cheap to admit that Media Prima artist had intangible artistic quality although their song never received that heavy radio play deemed as measure of popularity.

Yet, the corporate intervention still has hearts to put first runner up to one of ‘their’ artist. Nevermind, maybe it’s hard to grasp the idea that their artist lacked the quality to compete with Akademi Fastasia huge stable of much popular and talented artists, not forgetting emerging independent artist like Yuna and Ana Raffali that owe no allegiance to neither Astro nor Media Prima. AJL had been abused to leverage one of ‘their’ artist; someday people might just question the credibility of AJL never hesitantly leaves AJL for another anugerah.

When that scenario comes true, AJL organizers cannot take that abaikan mereka treatment; they had to approach Price WaterHouseCoopers to count the weekly votes and scramble to bring back the credibility. Hell, when this abuse goes for a long time they might change the name to AJM ( Anugerah Juara Melodi ) or AJLB ( B for Baru ) or just Anu, reflecting the cockiness how this award is given.

The Garbage Talk

2010-10-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

What kind of promise Malaysia holds?

In Taiwan household dump are collected from doors to doors. These collectors, I assume, contractors paid by local municipal council; collects and measures the weight and house owners would be charged according to certain tariff set. In short, I assume there are no estates or apartment dumpster, instead, a dump collector in their jumpsuit uniform would come every alternate day and do their job. In a meanwhile, unit occupiers need to be ready with their packed garbage with coins to spare.

In a nutshell, this is a great idea. On paper it sparkled several positive chain effects, this includes the reduction of unnecessary garbage produced by each household; each household puts a tremendous effort to reduce wastage knowing the fact that they are paying for those unneeded stuff. They would be going to wet market and refusing polystyrene packaging or whatever sorts of wrapping, instead they relied on their own reusable market bags.

Any foodstuff bought was done in tactful moderation. Anything too much like an extra carton of milk would just be too heavy to be charged, being careful; things were bought in sufficient, if not too low, quantity. Plans were made if there were friends and family gatherings so that the resultant waste would be at bare minimal. Children were taught by their parents to eat until the plate is squeaky clean like those of dishwashers’ advertisement where rubbing finger against it would produce that imaginable ‘krrrrrieek!’ sound. So, another indirect advantage is kids in Taiwan are guaranteed to be safe from malnutrition with the No-Leftovers rule(unless they chose to be anorexic)

Apart from waste reduction, Taiwanese may be cracking to think creatively on how to recycle their garbage. Like one of Disney channels’ Art Attack where most paper or plastic based refusal were reincarnated and turned into wonders of purposeful or decorative items. Thus this all reduce the amount (importantly the total weight), imagine walking into Taiwanese residences to see flowers made from cake wrappers or coin holders made of cigarette boxes. Nice! Menthol smelling coins…mmmm….

Implementation Here

If we were to implement this Taiwanese pragmatism of charging household per weight, we honestly going to be swarmed by endless pessimism. We may gather all effective and wonderful ideas all around the world yet making it work here is no way easier than said. Thing look rosy in the papers; just like buying a furniture from IKEA where it looked very much stylish-modern uber high-income indie hipstep, yet, the moment you unpacked and assembled it in your living room; the furniture drowned into the monotonous 80s furniture and dull coloured wall with pre-historic chandelier hanging off the ceiling glimmering with non-energy efficient bulbs.

Endless of ideas tanked due to inefficient execution or bureaucratic resistance or we are just Malaysian. For instance the introduction of PUSPAKOM, an autonomous body with private-level efficiency to inspect/grade/report on motor vehicle safety level in Malaysia using fully computerized methods. Wow! I guess that whole sentence would blow the wind off to anybody face… wouldn’t it? Yet, PUSPAKOM currently are ridden with the disease ‘C’, unreliable and inefficient.

Not forgetting the EPF scheme so that enables each family to own personal computers through reductions. The implementation of back seat safety belt which kept getting delayed into the next millennium, toy safety grading system and recently announced grading of car workshops around Malaysia. As if we lived in a nation that moved backwards rather than approaching that vividly envisioned Wawasan 2020.

It would be something marvelous to hear echoes from a expatriates that sounded like: “ did you know, every toy in Malaysia is inspected for safety – even if its as small as lego bricks “ or “ did you know last week when I went to Malaysia, every car has got to have backseat seat belt even though it’s a friggin Kancil? “

When we start charging Malaysian households for the garbage they produce, the immediate effect would be more and more garbage being thrown on the streets or open area. Many people who barely make a living have yet to spare some cash and be responsible for their refuse. Its just throw and forget, something that had been hardwired since independence. Unlike Singapore,the tiny and micro-managable city state, here is like a Chrismas for litterbugs – we could have thrown cigarette buds to construction refusals without being caught.

Every citizen in a country that still trapped in low-income high-inflation syndrome( like us ) would have us investing tremendous amount of time devising various types and methods that would save them every ringgit and cent. Say, stealing of water supply, taking-off copper from high voltage electricity cable or taking routes around KL that has no tolls ( samseng one uses toll free road emergency lanes )No doubt, if Taiwanese garbage weighting were implemented here, there are household which would take it to the extreme with burning it. Thus providing a cheaper option to destroy household refusals and forget the kilograms of Carbon released into the atmosphere since its intangible.

There would be slim elite minority which is somewhat special type of homosapiens which is above the law. As you know, Malaysian social fabric are filled with fringes of above-law people ( Datuk, kawan Datuk and adik-beradik Datuk ), these people would have another set of standards which exclude them from paying the proposed garbage cost. They make as much dirt and waste and given the exclusion from paying.

Thus, the garbage collection, like taxi and timber, would be a multi-million industry where everybody wants a piece of the cake. Now, an issue would arise of whose adik-beradik or saudara Datuks shall get a wet bite of these contracts?

Bleak as it is. There is no other lowest period being a Malaysian than now. Worst, when you’re a teenage going to adult - the outside world seems and sounded very ridden with old things that takes more than my generation to replete and change. Its apparent my generation lives in a marvelous age of great ideas but never done. Its been a while since I abstain myself from talking about politics – so, I guess you might take this as just a concern from a citizen of this once promising country.

To make this place promising again, just like the days of Wawasan 2020, some may think we have the power to vote and change things for the better. But how well can we do? Its possible to change the incumbent government, would they be able to shun big cooperates which runs shoddy businesses like money laundering and curb ah long? Or developers and contractors who were starved from cheap outside labors when a ‘concerned’ government wanted these jobs taken by local workforces? These big companies are high rollers and could tip the favor to anything that benefit them. Ah! The competitive nature of capitalism.

Shall we go back to the days of Pharoah where absolute rule and slavery gets shit done? The Pyramid wouldn’t be standing without the Pharoah forcing hundreds of thousands hard labors to charge forward with tons of stones on their back. But we wouldn’t want to go back into these dark times.

Looking on the bright side, Taiwan does it well...why couldn't we? Someday, we’ll get things retooled and sorted out.

The Designer Babies

2010-05-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

Designer brands are within reach of most people, designer cars are probably harder to get; but what happens when designer babies are made available? Babies that are tailor made to its parents liking? Seriously, tell the geneticist you wanted an Audrey Hepburn with kuning langsat skin and singing voice.

While I was in primary school, there was a boy I knew named Bernard, I always met him at the football field since our lunch lasted for an hour and half, so we usually had football matches amongst friends. Bernard plays like a champion; he dribbles, passes and receives the ball like no other of us can do. I wasn’t in the same classroom, so I wasn’t sure about his studies, but his classmates told me Bernard is someone of an ‘A’-scooper, someone who grabs A like its nobody business, yet, his schoolbag is not bulky, very light enough for a cool sprint if Bernard misses a bus. Who is this Bernard? He did not talk much about himself. Occasionally, I heard plenty of girl having crushes over him (I’m not sure if they catfight over him). He is not too giraffe-like tall or rhino-like short, skin is tanned dark and friendly. He is a Chindian; the mixed parentage of Chinese and Indian. Like a fine specimen from outer space, Bernard became an instant renaissance man. Almost everyone went ga-ga about Chindian.

Simple biology thought us children inherit good genes from both its parents. Be it physically or mentally, from immunity from diseases to unique skin and hair pigmentation. Mastery of different language is a proven edge, this happens as a result of cross cultural parentage. Exceptions for talents and knowledge, since those are gained through experience. Yet, not all humans are created perfect; there are still imperfections which can be inherited by later generations.

I ‘am not a geneticist to tell you which genes is responsible for this and that, yet, I’am well aware that we are not far away from genetic engineering. Simple alterations can be made in near future to curb hereditiary diseases or deformities. Take, for example, me, I guess, I inherited my loud sneezing (due to sinus) from my father. You can tell how disgusted people responded to my achooos! And Im sure to tell you its such a disrespectful thing to do although it’s a euphoric sensation to sneeze in such way.

By the time im writing this, minor genetic alterations would needlessly be in final few stages before widespread implementation, perhaps less than a decade? I could walk to a geneticist and get that loudsneeze strain erased from my DNA before my children inherited them. This is important, before my generation would posthumously had to be given the surname ‘loudsneezer’ or something like that.

When What God Given is What You Should Keep

But what religion has to say about this? As Muslim, the novelty of saying ‘alhamdulillah’ no matter which odds we are in are recommended. Good or bad. There was a debacle that people with white/grey hair were not allowed to dye their hair; the concluded rational behind this is because ablution taken before prayers wouldn’t cover strains of hairs thus prayer is considered incomplete. Pity, my dad is now officially a ‘hantu uban’ with almost all of his head covering hair white. While its much comforting when other regard white hairs as a sign of hard-thinking. Am I going to have white hair before mid 30s?

Genetics had proven that most of our genes were inherited from our mothers’ side. Then, we can conclude that there is a bit science in Will.I.Am hits “I got it from my mama”, taking all the hearsays and cakap kedai kopi; we can get extra-judgemental by looking at our future mother-in-laws and how graceful as she gets older (careful, do not stare for too long). Then we will get the idea of how our best-half would get older. Will she be prettier? Will she ever runs out of collagen? Will she be crippled with diabetes? Or will we consider for ‘new branches’ when things get saggy and eyebaggy?

Thus, today, in the quest for beauty and perfection; we are in transition period between altering our appearance physically (long after birth) or genetically (long before birth). Expect one day, Muftis and Ustaz giving their thoughts about genetic modifications. Perhaps, they would converge and issue a fatwa or plenty of fatwas regarding genetic modifications; I bet there will be two sets, one the allowable and the other not-allowed. This wouldn’t be as sensational as decree on divorcing through SMS. Yet, it will be similar to BOTOX. To look even farther, lipsticks and blushers are considered haram as well. Those aforementioned are among the most superficial form of beauty enhancement elements. Never a single knife that cuts the skin or chemical that intrudes the bodily systems. Yet, widespread usage can be seen now.

Through the religion eyes, beauty is not something that is prohibited or elicit. Islam allowed women to dress beautifully to please the husband. One of the four major criterion seek by Muslim matrimony would be looks apart from Trust in One God, which is Allah (not to be mistaken with Kitab Injil Allahs’), Good family and appropriate amount of properties. Some may think this debacle (lipsticks and blushers) is necessary because its their mutual responsibility to guide the ummah to the right path, some, under guise of secularity or liberty refused to talk about this matter because it is too small, unconstructive and petty to talk over. For me, I ‘am drifted away from religion because of such debacle which sometimes can get ugly, they might create a facebook haters group (Kami membenci sekalian-sekalian). It wouldn’t be simple to drop this subject; you’ll get slapped with being too ignorant (jahil)

All this will drag on for some time before the public goes to a process of ‘normalization’. When too many accepted the notion using lipstick is fine, then, the debacle seems to become silenced. By then, our ear wouldn’t miss voices saying this normalization is a sign that the end of world is nearing (kiamat sudah dekat). This endless loop of debacle is what driven me far away from religion matters; yet not from God.

I suspected Muslim advocate natural beauty type through selected breeding. By looking at the criterion in regards with finding a good family; the demography is essentially a pool of genes in which a man has to seek the most suitable and caring mother to bore his children. And His Most Gracious Allah willingness to ascend too many of different races scattered all over the world, men would embark on an epic (whatever he may calls it) search.

Nazi Eugenics

In the month of May, almost everything seems to point out to military; especially the WW2. Yes, it no other than a commeration the Fall of Nazi. It was exactly on 9^th May when Berlin fell to Soviet troops, and officially German Nazi laid down its arms. Shortly after that, trial begins in Nuremberg where most generals were charged under crime against humanity so on and forth.

Ironically, selected breed is something which had been advocated by the Nazi regime. These are called Eugenics. It derived from Greek word; eu meaning good and genics meaning genes. During the time when DNA strain couldn’t be stripped apart and analyzed under the microscope, a crude method of selected breed is done in which includes segregating the good and bad ones. In Malaysia, reason for eugenics happens in non-science rationality (sometimes discriminating). These includes marriages between Syeds and Tengku. The higher strata of so-called Prophet Muhammad descendants and non-descendants. This were done to maintain somekind of ‘purity’. What kind of purity? Well, you should ask them who strictly abide to the purity ideals, they might have a strong reason to enlighten us the less-pure.

During WW2 German, rarities such as coloured eyes and twins are further experimented by Nazi Doctors. In the time when Germany suffered severe drop of population, twins are something which Nazi leaders look forward to ensure systemic growth of population. Not only the troops for the cause of war, but industrial workforce which proportionally grows according to increasing number of Germany foes. Efforts were also made to dispel unwanted ethnics such as the Jews, which Nazi regarded as ‘the other gifted race beside themselves, the Aryan’. Doctors during third-reich were instructed to do compulsory sterilization onto people who were inflicted with hereditary diseases such as epilepsy, mentally retard or physically retards. These are akin to preventive measures instead of curing the sick. These are all part of Eugenics which wanted an eventual improved pool of human genes. Those associations with Nazi had given Eugenics a bad face and became subject of debate among human rights activists and medicine practitioner.

Selected Breeding has been done on animals and even fruits. Poultry and livestock usually saw the benefits of selected breeding, for a simplistic childish example, a milk producing cow when breed with long-living cow may produce a milk producing long-live cow. In Malaysia, we had UPM specializing in research in these type of feat. The Durians we ate with all its funky name (D24, D12, Kucing Tidur and Udang Merah) are all selected breed of fruits with qualities beyond our understanding. Through genetic modifications, we enjoyed seedless grapes. The nation as a whole may grin in pride with its agricultural technology.

Debunking Eugenics

We call all dump this theory of Eugenics and start living ignorant of this good genes idea. Striding through life as it gives and take whatever it wants. It takes a huge leapt for all of us; all men shall drop their obsession for beautiful and pretty girl, narrow mindedly *ehem* assuming women wanted to look pretty just to attract men, all women shall then live without hassle for the need for vanity and countless make upping hours. It’s a whole new thing for most of us; teaching ourselves not to judge whichever is good or bad; while whole fundamental idea of God-given powerful mind is to differentiate between what’s good and bad.

Slimming centers all over the world would close down and cosmetics industry shall collapse. But, our quest for perfection had given those thoughts as some sort of madness that wouldn’t happen. Eugenics on the other hand would have taken generations to successfully achieve the good genes pool aim. After Eugenics, genetic engineering takes over to allow perfection to be imbued and deformities erased before birth. And a whole new dimension of manicure industry appears in a shape of genetic science where you talk to a geneticist about propagating a your children to have quick feet muscle like Zoe Deschanel

Bernard may be a true rare specimen (no offense, he is not a lab rat). A person which most, if not all, in my generation get awed and girls go ga-ga. An example of what selected breeding can produce (although his parents might meet by serendipity). Blessing of mixed parentage in the form of Chindian. That’s Bernard of my generation. Current generation is global citizen where US parents can adopt Cambodian kids, that’s apparently clear whom to look at.

The Bernard you’ll see in next generation shall be more detailed engineered. Altered to close-perfection from the granularity of cells, DNAs and genes. Behold! The designer baby.

The Mayhem of Media

2010-05-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players”. William Shakespeare almost completed that sentence. He might just left it hanging. Not until Joseph Goebbels perfected the sentence and complete the triad of stage, actors and the ‘missing’ director.

There was a time when people were crazy about furthering their studies in mass communication. Like IT and biotech that precede the hype, mass communication attain a special glamour of its own; it’s a gateway to the glitter and bright light. It’s a course as cool as living; a plain shirt and skinny jeans and you’re ready for class. No need for T-square of architecture students. Mass Communication students were dangling on hopes of someday being newscasters, hosts, interviewer and eventually getting to know big names or being PR face for notable figures of high place. Collaterally, absorb them to be part of the higher ones. Even so, if they never indeed make contact with big names, they had attain the skill to ‘make believe’, they’ll make your eyes sees the different, and the mind shall believe.

Does it sound rhetoric? Honestly there are no ill feelings towards mass communication. Whatever they do and convey to us, they’re just doing their job. Honestly, its not an easy task to convey a particular message to the masses, making sure its easily misunderstood…ehem… I mean understood. Even a good orator occasionally had that ‘shake’( gemuruh ) before, during or after their speech for a few hundred people, now, its about conveying message to hundredths of thousand people across different media and platform.

Since the main intent is to deliver message clearly, then. Who else would mass comm. student would look back and thank other than Joseph Goebbels, he, which I think lays the foundation and principle of mass communication.

To begin with, Joseph Goebbels is neither someone from the literature line nor a mass comm. figure, and if the ending matters, this man committed suicide on May 1 1945 (exactly sixty five years ago) near the ‘Wolfslair’ or the Hitlers Bunker somewhere in Berlin. He firmly believed in Hitlers ideal that it took his life, wife, Magda and six children with it – or else he would have surrendered and admit that he is only a mere ‘foot soldier’ following orders.

Even if victors of World War II had caught him, he would have the same fate as the other Nazi military leader. Certain death, hanged and witnessed by the public eyes, so he never given a second thought and took the suicide shot before Allied forces came and manhandled him.

But if Joseph Goebbels were to think again and think hard, he might not necessarily have to commit suicide. His captors might have captured him, punched him here and there, put him in a gunnysack and ship him to an unknown secret location in South America or depths of Africa with a table, chair, pen and paper. After all, the war after that was all about his specialty. Joseph Goebbels is the chief propaganda minister during the Third Reich.

Before I precede further, lets us clear our mind of the usual stigma/association when we mention the word ‘propaganda’. Does the word immediately smell stench, full of negative vibe filled with visions of evil that advocated lies and libel? Truth is, when we mention sex, some had pornography in mind, or something dastardly sinful beyond repenting. When sex, among its wide context referred to human reproduction activity. Propaganda belonged to the same hordes of misunderstood word that demanded our reexamination.

Propaganda is known as techniques of shaping others perception. Simply put, like a parents tried to convince their children that toy A is better than toy B when truth is, toy A is cheaper than brand B. It’s an art of convincing, which influence the next logical step of deciding. Much like a teenager in his/her social circle, when they intended to date someone and their social circle gave a negative feedback thus paralyzing the intention, this signaled that propaganda is running in the background.
Joseph Goebbels took his heads up had taken the role as director, giving ‘scripts’ (propaganda) to actors(people) and ensure them that everything will be fine, as long as they follow the script, yet the ending for this director ended tragically, the Nazi was destined to fall on May 1 1945 and victors of World War had embalmed him as one of most evil person.

After the smoke of World War II disappeared followed by brief grief for those who had perished; a new war is brewing. The threat of communism lurks in the east. Communism is not a type of monster that eat or rip human limbs off, it’s an ideology which subtly seep into mind and hearts of people. Asking people to seek total reform of the social structure, envisioning that it would be better this way than the other. Britain and United States saw this as an imminent threat especially to their economic interest. The capitalist endorses private ownership and these nations are profiteering well seeping labor and natural resources from colony states. Communism on the other hand seek nations to disallow private ownership of national equity, instead, nationalize them – make it belong to the people, or collectively, by the government.

It was during this time, the officers of propaganda minister brought into shores of United States in an effort to wage a war that needed no bullet, tanks, aircrafts or army. The propaganda war travels as quickly as any military equipment can ever achieve. And no territory was at stake, only our opinions and piece-of-mind were the battlefield. Yes, including you and me.

Propaganda Arts

In present day, social networking tool has become a propaganda apparatus for individuals. Its relatively quick and publicity is achieve at no cost. From the new item you have purchased or places you have visited; you can make them a widespread knowledge. It encourages everyone to emblazon their vision and shape others perception towards them; rich, classy, intellect or elite. For instance, a person may put up photos of them in clubs which eventually shape-up people option that they’re a socially acceptable person. A person may also put up photos of their involvement in sporting events, gala or any other theme; and the much inclined the person tends to show similarity of the many picture, the clearer it gets that profile owners tries to propagate their ‘branding’ onto you. In return, for pointing out the obvious, these people might prolly admit to such things, or simply felt outsmart, they deny such allegations and question our perception of being judgmental.

Joseph Goebbel, together with Dr. Joseph Mengele had firm believe that the Germans were the given race. With the firm believe of Eugenics (where bad genes should be purged, and couples with good genes should get married and produce as many kids as possible), they were keen to create an ideal German/Aryan race with all the men were as tall, physical and macho like Boris Becker or Michael Ballack and female were as curvy, voluptuous and blue-eyed like Gisele Bundchen or Diane Kruger. Yet, the Nazis believe of ethnic supremacy doesn’t come next to none. They also firmly believed the Jew were on par with them as a ‘given race’ thus a problem persist. Two kings cannot rule a single throne. This had become another reason for their systematic liquidation of Jews within Germany and annexed regions. Yet trying to convince the common about how Jews should be disposed were not as easy as walking into a crowd and start delivering a fiery speech. The Germans would have thought them as being crazy if they do so.

Then names like Leni Reifensthal and Hans Schweitzer make things easier to shape public opinion about what Germany can possibly achieve. The Jew almost dominated the Germany commerce had Nazi tirelessly shaping the opinion of German people that it is not good in the long term. Trying to soften this hard facts, arts were effectively employed so public opinion can be won. These propaganda posters gives strong message and precursors today poster method of conveying message to the masses. Motion art like Jud Süß (1940) delve back into history how a Jewish banker which had been entrusted by several European Kaiser and Dukes were later captured and admitted to several charges. The German Olympics were extensively documented to show the superiority of German race in sporting event compared to the rest of the world. All this were deemed right during the Nazi rule as means to uplift their spirit after the devastating and humiliating loss in World War I. Party assemblies were filmed to show how organization were committed to drive forward and prevail after the shock of first war. All this were downward negatively labeled by the victors of war until today.

Above, left; 1940 anti semitic movie poster, Jud Suss. Above, right; a German propaganda poster depicting an industrial worker with duck head, translation reads " Your responsibility is to remain silent, our enemy is listening", after World War I, Germany arms production and capacity were capped, and prior to WWII, German ramped up production of heavy mechines and weaponry. This was done silently.Bottom, Left; another propaganda poster, translation reads "The Guarantee of Germany Military Strength" featuring dark coat SA (sturmabteilung/ stormtrooper) men standing next to soldier

Attention Seeker

A television station in Malaysia once had this motto: Berita Terkini, Hiburan Sensasi ( which translated, Latest News, Sensational Entertainment ). This is no farther than the extension of propaganda and how it was decorated to look like a lamb rather than wolf. Without entertainment, crowd cannot be made or gathered, without it ears and eyes cannot be lend. Thus, entertainment is undoubtedly an important aspect to be accompanied with propaganda; may it be visually, audio or live action- it must exist - or else propaganda would pass by like slow breeze in the wind.

Being aware of that, it is not exceedingly difficult to rationalize the logic of the glamour associated with mass communication. It is important to seek as much attention as possible before making a statement – especially the one that needs to be known to many. How to grab attention? Is it as simple as banging a wine glass with dinner spoon? Entertainment is the key. Entertainment industry had always been lively through thick or thin. Millions of movies and songs being illegally downloaded yet new tunes and films keep coming, each time with bigger budget and much spectacular cinematic experience. Artists were complaining about dwindling sales and problematic divorce battle; yet many wanted to be rockstars (including the worst behaviours). This would implicate that entertainment trades were not just money and cari makan; instead, the subtle message that it had conveyed determine the success.

Obviously, songs and films doesn’t contain any cryptic message that make us do something weird, it’s the news program which came later or during commercial minutes which taps our attention. We have to admit that watching some of their teleseries are addictive, may it be the sultry porcelain-like hot actresses or hunky dudes with juicy abs; when the uninvited ‘we’ll come back after this messages’ appear you exhale with dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, commercial minutes don’t come with countdown timer and you shall remain seated staring at the idiot box. With attention and anticipation remained high; propaganda slips in taking advantage of your awareness. Wullah!

Propaganda has taken on a new platform. Even, if there is no commercial interruptions, there will always be follow-ups, drop down the internet and you’ll find data pool of that hunky dude or porcelain-skin sultry chick; they’ll always be links accompanied to other portal. You’ll end up drowning in a spiraling maze of multiple tabs. You’ll delve deeper into the private lives of these people you love to watch, what do they do? What do they eat? What are their values? The attitude they had? which in turn, translate into a form of idolization.

With idolization sets in place, you prepare to be an actor amongst the many actors in this world. With the world as the stage, and social networking tool as the publicity agent; ever ponder who is the director and script writer? Of course, above scenario is the simplest type of how external opinion shaping takes place. Some may had higher resilience might defy all this and remained confident wearing their skin, even if its dull or not porcelain-like or lacks six packs.

The Culprit

2010-04-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Humans – we are protein based life forms that can be crippled with diseases. In the teens, it’s not morbid to be in the know on diseases that know no age, no race or religion. I guess you might want to give a deep thought and start to appreciate life.

In my field of study, architecture put emphasis on many hygiene-preservation strategies. One of the simplest would be the good air flow, cross ventilation, penetration of sunlight and avoidance of water stagnation (sanitary). It is of architects partial responsibility to ensure a building inhabitant comfort, or else, a building would be rendered hostile and risks abandonment. During my lifetime, a few epidemic had struck and made headlines around the world; but never once these disease had caused my school to close down (only haze did give me an official day off, thank you!) . To name a few; Japanese Encipilitis, Coxsackie, SARS and recently the avian flu.

Yet still, today diseases are pretty much volatile. They evolve and strike without warning and human wages a war on enemy that goes deep inside of themselves. One of disease that I got carried away knowing them would be polio, an epidemic in the 1950s that did not eradicate human race whatsoever, but done a considerable damage to the person it inflict. Good news, polio today is classified as nearly eradicated disease, much like tuberculosis. The government had provided a compulsory vaccination scheme for all which covers pretty much known highly-contagious disease.

Polio generally puts a person motor function at risk. It’s a virus that’s attached to the spinal cord ‘literally’ eating the cords that’s responsible for the motor functions. Worst, Polio is a type of disease that is ‘kind’ enough to let its patient live. Mortality lays at one digit percentage paving way for polio patient which are rendered paralyzed to live until adulthood. Polio also goes by the name ‘infancy paralyses’ due to its affinity to inflict infant. Early civilization takes it lightly and thought it was club-foot disease; a birth deformation.

An infected kid doesn’t necessarily be an infant to contact this disease. They spread through oral fluid, like a boring Sunday afternoon when a person shared his ice cream with another person with overlap licks. After a few weeks, the person would develop the usual symptom when a body detects breach of different organism in body. Starting with mild fever.

Fever lasted on, and Polio would later shed its true face by weakening the motor function of lower limbs; feet and leg began to feel numb. At advance stages, muscle function of abdomen and chest were incapacitated resulting to patient having difficulties in breathing (since breathing works through contraction and expansion of a set of chest muscles). A lumbar puncture where fluid of the spine would be sampled and taken to lab, upon confirmation, patient would be placed in ward.

Loss control of hand, worst still, the muscle pain caused. Prolonged unused muscle resulted in degeneration, which is why most photographs had polio patient depicted with slightly off scale limbs which seems shrunken. Having legs farther apart or closely together due to muscle strain. The brain no longer signals it what to do. What is much devastating would be polio striking paralyzes its victim yet the sensory and cognitive nerve which runs parallel with motor spinal wasn’t inflicted by the virus. It seems the virus has got appetite for motor spine.

For cases of loss of lung muscle control, an industrial-like device was designed in the mid 1940s. With gauges, clunky and shaped like torpedo tubes; it’s the infamous ‘iron lung’. One of the scariest devices ever invented for human medical treatment. Patients would be put inside the machine with its head out in the normal environment. However the iron lung would put lower half of the limb in negative pressure situation. Allowing the chest cavity to expand and contract. This helped polio patient breath, only this time, ‘mechanically’.

Ego of a few men

‘There is no disease that has no cure, except for death’. As a Muslim, I’am on several occasion reminded of this saying. A word which should uplift the spirit of Muslims alike that God would allow anything to happen, yet still attains the ultimate and definite fate of it.

Two men came and somehow heed this call. Two American men by the name Robert E. Salk (pic,left) and Albert Sabin hurdled, and funnily fuelling doubt over each other vaccine . When the race initially started, worried parents across America were donating money as generously towards the cause so-called ‘March of Dimes’ (Dimes referring to a value of American denomination, akin to ten cents) Today, a dime in the United States commemorates Franklin D. Roosevelt. The coin had his apparition in honor of his effort founding the National Institute of Infantile Paralysis; the foundation of later re-named March-of-Dimes itself.

Robert Salk has got two jobs, while searching for an effective vaccine; he occasionally made radio speeches on radio reporting his vaccine tests on monkey. His remarkable pace of research coupled with funding by March of Dimes put the expected widespread usage of his vaccine to about a year or two. By 1952, parents were very eager as their children grow up in somewhat ‘hostile’ environment. Kids remained indoors as the disease is known to be highly infectious. His rival, Albert Sabin cast doubt on Robert Salk vaccine saying that a hastily produced vaccine might not provide immunization against polio; but instead enraged the spread of polio in a much dangerous evolved strain.

In his calculation, a viable polio vaccine can be released earliest, in the next decade putting it some when in first half of 1960s. Well, American people at that time had enough of polio. Its been a tiring battle since 1930, and they cannot tolerate another 10 years of vaccine research.

It was believed that improvement of sanitation across America during the late 1920 had resulted in humans naturally not producing enough immunity against such virus anymore. Strangely, in common sense, a hygienic condition avoided disease, but in long term, a clean environment had signaled our body to stand down from any threats. Due to that, polio became an epidemic in 1930 as America faces its Great Depression. One of prominent polio victim is Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the movie, Pearl Harbor you might see him wheelchair bound, that’s because he has polio. He was paralyzed waist down.

Robert Salk did not sulk, he conducted first test on November 1953 on 100,000 children, and to add confidence of his test subjects, he injected himself and his children as well. Albert Sabin once again retaliated that his comrade in the Polio battle might be in a verge of making biggest mistake in medical history. Robert Salk version of vaccine was in fact killed polio virus cultivated within monkey kidney. His vaccine intended to be injected intravenously, thus, triggering body response to create natural immune against the virus.

Albert Sabin has a different approach to polio vaccine. He did away with intravenous injection (good for children who fear needles). Instead his creation can be delivered orally (yes, you drink them! Clear liquid in small paper cups). His polio vaccine are live polio virus, but a weaker version (medical terminology; attenuated virus) which trigger the same bodily response as Robert Salk vaccine; production of natural immunity. It’s cheaper to manufacture, yet has stringent requirement for transport and storage as weaken live virus were prone to become ‘bad’ if anything is compromised. Albert Sabin took too much time and his quest to produce ‘ultimately safe’ virus. It was licensed in the United Stated in 1962. Exactly ten years after Robert Salk injected himself with his own version of vaccine. Overall its safer to use the injected ‘dead-virus’ version.

By 1954, Robert Salk openly tested his vaccine on 1 million children as mass test subjects. News announcement were made through the radio for test volunteer. Parents, amidst doubt thrown by Sabin, were eager to put their children in the first in-line to receive the injection. Yet, the effect is not immediate. All test subjects were monitored by National Institute of Health which created a special committee on live virus. Initially, some children developed allergies, some too an extent of being admitted into hospital.

In 1955, it was a happiest year for America and mankind as a whole. The first effective polio vaccine has been found. The report published shows test subjects developed 80-90% average immunity against all three type of polio (yes, polio has type A,B and C). Albert Sabin on the other hand did not rest on his laurel, his persuasion for his ‘Sabin-made’ vaccine carried on. Tests were still conducted while Salk vaccine is being widely adopted by medical institution. By 1962, seven years late, his vaccine is being licensed.

By 1986, The United States had declared Polio eradicated. Today, cases of polio had tremendously dropped to a few thousand worldwide. Malaysian receive their polio immunization through combination of three serial shots of injection (beginning 2nd month of birth) and oral administered for booster (if im not mistaken). Vaccination program in Malaysia includes protection against disease like (most notably) tetanus, TB, Hepatitis and Rubella. In a new wake of Malaysian teenagers getting sexually active, government had plans to administer anti-cervical cancer jabs for to all underage girls.

The Guerilla Style

2010-02-10T01:03:00.000-08:00

When news approaches you from vague sources saying that some product may contain non-halal material, how far would you go beyond skepticism? Its halal and haram at stake, ini serius!

Another day and another routine to check the e-mail inbox. Like usual, I went through mail which mostly notifications send by Facebook. I picked and deleted them to keep my inbox clean. From photo comments to tagged photos to friend requests, a whole bunch of them back to back all into the trash. Then, I stumbled upon a mail that is not from Facebook. It must be some forwarded e-mail. I usually deem forwarded mail as unpleasant, unoriginal or junk. It’s a way of lazy people to reach out during hari raya or new year, I rather not receive these messages and start aching my eye reading a lame crafted message which intended to look snazzy yet sleazy (remember? Sir lump mart harry raya? Saya baru pulang dari London? )

There is something different about this particular e-mail content. Indeed, it’s a forwarded message. As soon as I opened it, I had to scroll so many time as the content lays so far below. What filled the upper part of the mail was lists of e-mail addresses which the mail had been send to. Judging by the hundreds of mail addresses with all swanky names like famous footballer and anime superheroes, I assume the mail had been received by many recipients. Finally when I reached the content part, I began to realize, it is not a spam neither a link to a get-rich-quick scheme. I wasn’t infuriated, but felt compelled how we had to resort to guerilla tactic to point out certain message.

The mail I received that day contains several pictures of Old Town White Coffee, a local franchise which food themed on pre-independence big towns of Malaysia when eateries were prone to fire because they were made of wood. They serve local selections of black coffee, tea, nasi lemak and roti bakar. The accompanied statement pointed out that those food served are not halal and shouldn’t be consumed by fellow Muslims in Malaysia. Followed by pictures of retail packed instant noodles which labels had been blurted (libel laws?) having halal label but being sold at non-halal section.

I wouldn’t elaborate much on the mail I had received; I bet some of us had received such mail. I did not pay much attention, but I wonder no matter how much research or investigation done by the initial sender, does the Jabatan Kebajikan Agama Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) took notice of this issue? The initial sender mail claim may still remain as accusation/hearsay not until an official, fully recognized agency and professional body like JAKIM conduct test and verified the halal status . No matter good or bad the initial sender intend, this forwarded mail may smell, look and feels like one of old tantrums usually thrown by some unsatisfied consumer with somewhat hidden intent. I vividly remembers when KFC allegedly slaughtered its livestock in inappropriate manner against the syarak practice, did JAKIM issued any action against them?. Starbucks mixing some sort lard in their product to enhance the ‘creaminess’ of their beverages, did JAKIM put those beverages under their microscope? Dubious Yellow Mee and Sausage which are made of pork belly? Does that all belonged to quick foods for college students, don’t they?. Now, these tantrums had turned its face on locally established footstalls like Old town White Coffee. All those claims are frail and supported by statements like “my auntie/uncle is some high ranking who works with the officials, and confirmed its not halal” How can we take by word such claims?

Emasculated or hikmah?

Finding Halal food is a paramount importance among Muslim. Its compulsory .No matter what the reason is, we must avoid consuming them except in times where life is at risk (eg. you are trapped in some Pandora like island and the not any vegetation can be consumed, but the only thing present was a pork chop) I’m not being paid by Oldtown to write this kind of entry, but what are the odds me, as a muslim, taking this kind of mail beyond benefit of doubt? I have friends working in Oldtown and Starbucks, I did interviewed the latter and they responsibly claimed that they had to bare with the accusation. “Biasalah, benda macam tu memang selalu orang kata” said a former barista in my local Starbucks. But I did not further scrutinize him out of wonder if he knew any content contained any non-halal material. He is doing his job. The mixing products delivered to his Starbuck outlet then he prepared them according to instructions. His job is akin to taxi driver which provide services to ordinary patsy and hobos without knowing their intent, or lawyers who defend guilty person and won the case, thus making money out of it. There is always a hikmah in all of God arrangements.

Or should Malaysian Muslim consumer which lived in self proclaimed Islam state (Negara Islam) must practice caution like they were wandering tourist in Shanghai or Moscow? They were told to do their own homework carefully because halal food is not easy to find, and halal food had become so scarce that they need to buy live chickens and slaughtered them behind some bushes? Can JAKIM pounce into our consciousness us to do homework instead of relying onto them 100%. Would JAKIM scream at us telling that we take them for granted and it’s partly our job to determine the halal-ness of mass manufactured food.

This ultimately means, the initial sender of the mail may be a concerned muslim. Trying to pull all of us out of trouble and wrath of non-halal food. He is responsible and successfully chained that mail without threatening the receiver that their parents would be dead if they fail to resent within 20hours or so. Hurrah for the sender. But in an age of information freedom, internet is proven to be easily abused. The initial sender has got nothing to lose. He may just send it and relied on receiver fear/sentiment for the mail to gain momentum throughout the digital realm. Who wouldn’t freak out when a meal contains something non-halal, especially those restaurant that you can easily find at the corner of your neighborhood.

Who is this person to be taken by word? If he did quote by some mufti statement, would that lend some credibility? My family had some time upheld principle that we have reached a certain maturity where opinion must be shaped independently, not by mere one-two line statement by high-power people. Its clear that a collective body like JAKIM must play its active role by implementing stricter implementation. Set-up a website where we can confirm the halal status of manufactured foodstuff ( I know it had existed, but its unheard as whisper) . Create an iPhone application called ‘iHalal’ (or whatever Arabic sounding words) where people can have an instant access of the halal food reference. Make newspaper announcement displayed image of that product from all elevation and state that product is not halal. If possible, any company that uses fake halal label, make them apologize just like what Microsoft make some hardware company do when they were caught selling fake software.

But it seems JAKIM is emasculated, leaving words of non-halal product somewhat ‘sendimented’ below the streams of public knowledge. Worst, they had to be dispersed the guerilla-style. Shoot and hide. Maybe its true, the hastily constructed e-mail with disproportioned photos might be a brave truth from a mouth which had nothing to lose. On the other hand, JAKIM is a government agency, and the government had many many many interest to take care of. Starbucks? Which Malaysian corporate body that brought them in? Maybe its likely to be a hikmah behind all this.

The Things We Watch

2010-01-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

Cinema were once regarded as 'den of evil' for their gloomy and dark situations watchers are engaged in. But things changed, now, positive message can be spread through the dark rooms of cinemas.

I have to admit, I watched Avatar a little bit too late, precisely 16days after its release. There was a saying that film rolls had began to get loose the along the many times it’s been played. Assuming the firm rolls were loaded 5 times a day, I watched Avatar, presumably on the 80^th roll, which come to think of it, must be pretty suck. Yet, watching Avatar is nothing short of amazing.

Lately there have been strings of failure/lukewarm responses towards movie involving big budged, star driven, big name directors or 3d intensive movie. Zack Snyder failed to fascinate me with Watchmen after shining in 300. Inglorious Basterds never appeal or making it into some of Tarantinos’ greatest classics despite the director admission that this project took him years of delay, so to say, in order for it to fester, I mean develop. But, Avatar is a leap forward. James Cameron took the death leap venturing into new filmmaking technologies and with a total budget of 400million dollar to make the film. Industry analysts were eager if such super-ambitious film would tremble and shook the realm of filmscape.

James Cameron is like a seasonal sensation. Initially he does robot assassins from the future, then deep water beings, semi-documentary love-epic Titanic, He isn’t a champion of particular sub-genre, until today this director had made two of the biggest budget film in my lifetime, each outranking the other. First, the iconic Titanic, the love story between Jack and Rose on a destined-to-sink behemoth named you-know-what. Secondly, The Avatar, an alien civilization which ride six-legged horses with an uplink made through their ponytail infused with living fiber optics. I couldn’t help thinking telling my kids “when I was your age, these are the big-bombs of Hollywood”

Even, in the event of Avatar failure, Hollywood seems to have endless resources to develop sometimes reckless, unsellable, feeble and crappy titles. Alien versus Predator (both), Alvin and Chipmunks, Garfield are some of those lame films that can be dejected straight away into junkbin. Yet, they have sequel made for them which fared no less better or degraded from chronic to critically fatal. Hollywood either had an attitude of not learning from the past or hoping to do phoenix-rising stunt out of bombed-out film ashes. Or perhaps, the existence of elaborate Jewish propaganda apparatus within the Hollywood circles to make youngsters sway from their studies? Yipes!

On the local front

In Malaysia, the debut of Upin&Ipin Pengembaraan is a giant leap in local film industry. For the first time Malaysian began to open their sleepy eyes on the homefront creative industry. It fared off good with collection reaching approximately RM6 million, while the highest collection of 2009 were handed to ghastly mystic ethereal title: Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak at 6.1million. A record breaking collection which can eclipse several times Yasmin Ahmad Talentime collection of measly 0.6million. Afdlin Shaukis’ Papadom raked approximately 3.5million. But like Hollywood, we are engulfed in syndromes of making movies that are easily understandable where good triumph over evil naturally in a linear style.

There is never heavy substance injected into film plot which producers/director would risked their films becoming titles only available in archive somewhere in old government building blocks of Kuala Lumpur. Films like U Wei Shaaris ‘Buai Laju-laju’ (starring Betty Benafe and Eman Manan) and ‘Isteri, Perempuan dan …’ are mere study subjects for cinematography students when these are close/true reflections of life and social occurrence of Malaysia. TV serials are obsessed with teen wearing bright tights and fringe involved in family business that has millions in asset values around the globe. Don’t matter whether its shipping business, car sales, stock holdings, poultry or construction (any business that only involves filming within office compound), they all ended up in power struggle and infighting usually involving a single hot babe in the middle of crisis. Not until Jelatang came and dragged me in. With a strong cast, the series covered a subject which challenges the directors to create something original without reference from Hollywood: Sumbang Mahram (close proximity)

Surely, anybody can argue that Hollywood had released plenty takes on close proximity. Hollywood may made it into a comedy, where stepfather-daughter sex romp were done through curi-curi tulang. To avoid the knowledge of the mother. Hell, Hollywood can possibly portray the mother as a psychotic killing machine which overtime gathers momentum into murdering both stepfather and daughter before a heroic cop came and shot her in the arm. But jelatang took a path where a Muslim family with a Malay background which emphasizes on secrecy and decency. The close proximity festered amongst the family (involving daughter played by Intan Ladyana and younger-beefier stepfather played by Fezrul Khan ), a rebellious brother, a patient mother and concerned ex-husband accompanied with jealous new-wife. This all adds up. A problem ‘proportionalized’ according to local social scenario. Series ended with mother willingly accepting daughter’s sin with intention to quarantine the problem out of people knowledge. The mother is never ready for another divorce. The installment of this series is very highly anticipated.

Back in the days jabatan penapisan lifted sanction on ghost/mystic themed film, I was beleaguered thinking if jabatan would also lifted sanction against stories that would depict corruption/misused power among authorities. The Hindustan had long depicted rotan wielding cops becoming jaguh kampong and blackmailed villagers for protection money. This indeed a true reflection of Indian caste-based rampant corruption artistically ported inside their movies without cuts or whatsoever fear of foreign investors being chased off. Its relaxing to know that the film censorship board over there may regards this as creative freedom rather than feeling guilty as it would ‘tarnish’ the image of somebody/someone. Relax! The government had given their assurance that they do their job with upmost transparency, why fear fictuous movie on corruption?

Instead, jabatan agama had been ashamed. Their leniency had led to many ghost/mystic stories being made and released into theatres. All under the pretext of ‘watch and learn’. Earlier into these movies remarks were made that the shown movie was mend for pengajaran purpose, telling anyone who owns/petted a ghost shall receive a punishment akin to the movie. While the true driving force behind almost endless release of ghost/mystic film were not to educate people, but the cash load it brings. Upin&Ipin were just lucky to play with children power of persuasion. If not, the entire top ten film gross in Malaysia will surely owned by a bunch of ghost versus ustaz duel movies. This all translated to cari makan.

Above all, I strongly supported the linearization of our local movie industry. Our directors can prove their movies can become the alternatives to the many Hollywood titles that arrived to our shores. Our citizen is rich enough, even mat rempits can take their girlfriends for movie treat each weekends, if properly spend, can avoid the flux of our money to other country instead thrive the local cinema market. Added with relaxation on rulings and censorship, our creative industry is a bright furred bird never mends to be caged.

The Frailty of Politics

2009-12-31T06:12:00.000-08:00

Ever watched alien themed movies? They came and reign terror to the planet with their apocalyptic weapons and defeated by single human hero.

Aliens. They are beings that Hollywood ‘characterized’ to gain billions of dollars. In their movies, they came travelled light-years to planet earth inside their huge monolithic spacecraft. Once here, they unleashed several smaller craft and wreck havoc.Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day showed how ordinary human pilot found alien spacecraft vulnerabilities. In Spielberg’s’ War-Of-The-Worlds, the alien was struck with an unknown disease and went killed-in-action on their way to conquer earth. Tim Burton’s Mars Attack, a class-B movie that depicted brainy aliens getting irritated by a tune accidentally played by a blurry kid. Peter Jackson produced District9 took a different approach; he described the alien as refugee-seeking beings. They came here and seek refuge before humans find them too close for comfort. Then, the aliens were destined for one thing: Deportation to their home planet.

Luckily, Hollywood was never given the power of God. In which we shall never see those apocalyptic human-alien battle anywhere beyond silver screen. Fate seems a lovely couple with irony. Malaysia, a nation which majority consisted of Malay ethnic were amongst the poorest and least developed ethnic. This ethnic claimed that they are the indigenous, but their claims were many times disputed. Defenseless their claim are merely toyed around like a turkey in the wild drawing more shots each and every step it takes, alas without an effective deterrent actions. Favor never tip for Malays in a country where it ‘allegedly’ originates.

If they really grasp the pinnacle of economic dominance, they perhaps had highly resorted to District9 plot: Deportation. Yet, the nation balances with the existence of highly affluent and hard working Chinese. Small in quantity they thrived the economy, stir the growth and thrive the nation with progress. It was said that if buildings in Kuala Lumpur were to be plucked one by one, with the Chinese building singled out, Kuala Lumpur would be more or less bland as it was in circa 1880s.

Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein Onn revealed that it would take another 150years for the Malays to reach income parity with the Chinese. Today, each ringgit a Malays earn, equals to RM1.20 earned by Chinese. Proponents of colour-blind Malaysia seek to rebuke this debacle, after all, the money never lost to anyone else except our Bangsa Malaysia/Rakyat itself. Its not that hard to see they might replace incumbent government and abolishes jabatan perangkaan graft which categorizes its data according to races. Now, that’s a lighter work for jabatan perangkaan staffers without racial profiling.

As they will probably never be any data available regarding income number according to ethnic due to the holier-than-thou colour-blind ideal under the future coalition. Data can still be categorized according to states. Its never hard to see the obvious which cannot be forever swept under the rug, Malay-belt states ( Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu) shall have lower income per-capita. As usual, these states under the future coalition shall be held under the religion-centric PAS, the party which alleges itself as vanguard of Islam teaching in Malaysia. They embrace Islam wholeheartedly and vowed to transform Malaysia into an Islamic country. Imagine young girls walking in Pavilion being handcuffed by so-called ‘moral police’ with a warning ticket: Hey! Baju awak nipis sampai nampak coli.

Yet, the above mentioned scenario will not likely occur. PAS can keep that as wishful thinking as Wilayah Persekutuan itself would never wholly fell into their rule. The ever-changing and potent Klang Valley itself is teaming with Chinese. Businessmen, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Architects, Accountants, DVD-sellers. Their presence cannot be underestimated as they held the incredible spending power that incite economic activity. They pay better taxes. A region so volatile that each month you’ll see a new stretch of road branches out of somewhere. A region where citizen who don’t mind about their daughters or wife wearing an outfit too thin as what matters is they remain competitive in real-world agenda of surviving the concrete jungle. Areas which the incumbent National Front fielded MCA candidate instead of the domineering UMNO.

These big cities had long eyed assemblymen from ‘The Rockets’. A more independent and hard-hitting representative which is never to become a Yes Men. Above all, these area shall record higher income per-capita. Without much natural resources, they are driven by the fire of industries and services. Out shadowing the Malay belt states. City folks had long realized that did not get the value for what they paid for. They knew their money flowed into a pool which is never properly maintained, leaks everywhere.Here and there.

In the end of the day, Malaysia will get regional. The north and east-coast shall fell into the hands of PAS, thus enforcing strict moral policing and hand-chopping penalties. While, big thriving cities will be held by The Rockets/Malaysia Malaysian party. The demise of National Front will make clear the fog of confusion that these two parties will look for new enemy: like chickens in crowded barn, they started scratching among themselves.

The catalyst

Like a rebirth, Anwar has to be the luckiest man in Malaysian politics. Emphasizing in unjust treatment of him getting bared naked, kicked and punched selectively forgotten his pro-bumiputras, pro-affirmative action stance during his UMNO hey days, Anwar has been accepted into the opposition with open hearts. Meteoric rise from both polarity of politics, he had been the deputy prime minister for the government and now he sits on the other polar as the head of opposition. Although the rooms of parliament had been renovated several times, people would notice nothing more than Anwar bench switchover from one side to another.

A political scientist, Anwar formulated a catalytic cocktail that resulted Tok Gurus and Rocket taikos seated under one roof, delivering talks on the same stage. Now DAP-man can deliver speeches in places they can never imagined, the depths of kampongs near madrasah whereThanks to Anwar Ibrahim andhis inception of KeADILan (later known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat), he had started a party which serves more than just a flag to vote. They are the catalyst that made DAP and PAS possible to mix. Like oil and water, they refuse to mix no matter how hard you stir, but in chemistry, two element which hardly mixes can be softened through the presence of a third element: catalyst.

local folks used to play takraw in the late afternoon. PAS with their PAS-for-all scheme can never be successful without DAP-man inviting them over to big towns such as Ipoh, Kuching and Georgetown. When this happens, PAS-khalifahs were never seen as hand-choppers/shariah-enforcer with the glimpse of Rocket emblem on the stage.Anwar must have been an asset to the coalition he formulated. His hands-on experience and coming close with the government he is trying to tumble, made him an instant darling and valuable strategist. His ambitious ploy to take on Putrajaya on 16^th September 2008 had almost everyone grasping their breath in anticipation ofharapan baru. When all that comes is only statements put up on SuaraKeadilan.com.

Rising from the ashes of UMNO fracas, former politicians(some prominent, some not) came to join him. Zaid Ibrahim of UMNO and former Health Minister Chua Jui Meng of MCA. They all had been welcomed with garlands of flowers, certificate of rebirth into truth and justice. Intellectuals had stood by him, names like Chandra Mudzaffar. Now he is not regarded as intellectuals anymore; at least by PKR members.

The next torchbearers

Anyone who had been in-line with UMNO ideals of ethnic supremacy and nationalistic movement now had an option to follow the path of Anwar. Set for rebirth into a more liberal and free-thinking atmosphere, they too can own certificate of rebirth into truth and justice. Anwar had subscribed to political-portability (through cross-overs) when some UMNO members with inclination towards change and liberty were wooed into PKR. Names like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Anifah Aman, Tun Musa Hitam(perhaps) and a few others.

PAS ideals never actually appeal to most UMNO leavers. Their fight of vanguarding the religion is sacred and putting God as the foremost sight can be frighteningly patronizing, yet, as proven by Mahathir-era during the UMNO-PAS 98’ duel mirrored PAS as party of no-substance. Quality of their supporters can reflect the party itself; they talked about Siti Hasmah not wearing hijab,Rafidah not wearing hijab, and Ministers going to America but not performing Haj (indeed they went to America for diplomatic reason). On serious note, the issue of Hudud they brought up never wooed any interest by the Chinese.

Instead Mahathir pulled the right string. Rather telling Marina and Siti Hasmah to wear Hijab which can be done in minutes (failure to do this had some folks from the depth of PAS hardliner supporters infuriated) He dedicated most of his time to shaping up economy which was in turmoil. Thinking outside the box, Tun knew a weak Malay means a weaker Islam. Chinese never mind about Hudud or no-Hudud, they look for benefits of whoever had the best offering.

The Chinese saved UMNO in 1998 election, when Malay vote was split between PAS and UMNO. From that moment on, the term pengundi atas pagar (on-the-fence voters) was coined. In moments of critical, small number really counts.

Old Guards, New Mentality

With the creation of PKR, the argument is much solid, richer and mind-engaging. There is no more whose not wearing hijab issue, instead, they talked about widespread corruption and Malaysian university drop in ranking. They talked about displaced corporate governance and its eventualities of lowered FDI. They brought up issues of brain drain of Malaysian professionals and influx of low-skilled foreign workers into our workers pool. They invited people to think, categorizing each problem into different faculty instead of ‘kuatlah agama, kuatlah akhlak, kuatlah negara’ one-fits-all solution

Anwar kept telling the unsuspecting Malaysian about courage. Courage to uproot the incumbent government. Courage to change 50years of same rule. Courage to rise against inequality, oppression, discrimination plus a whole load of words that brought music to the ears. All packed into a single manifestation: harapan baru (new hope)

New is the new cool. Back to Hollywood, New and unheard studios that produces Slumdog Millionaire can rake more moolahs than big-name long-established studios. New actors brought vibe to movies. New American president is Barack Obama. He is black and its something new. Young people like me are exposed to a whole game-changing ‘news’.

UMNO can be saved if they take Anwar word-of-advice seriously: courage. Courage to quaver off its additional baggage of cronies. Courage to make professionals for its top ranks. Courage to admit its blunder and mistakes. Courage to dispose corrupt leaders. Because the consequences can be bad in short term, that is why Anwar used the word courage. It may take time to adapt. Like a boy who had been circumcised, it takes time to get used of the lighter load and the next thing, they’re a man.

Courage is the word used since things are better said than done. An UMNO leader maybe cursed for life, lost its constituents or come to political career full stop. Yet, they should expect ‘mentality-of-war’ where whoever loses in war shall be charged like criminals. They will be charged and secrets revealed. MACC would come to its sense of purpose when revealing fraud, graft, CBT and corruption worth hundreds of millions each, At the moment, MACC success in tackling RM5000 blacksheep cases seems to be a waste of taxpayer money. It takes tens of millions annually to run that commission.

In the wake of equality and same-field competition, UMNO leaders could heed calls for new mentality. Tun Musa Hitam once recalled the party should have drop off its alarmist strategy of telling Malays how awfully slow they are thus inciting inferior insecurity. UMNO should be bold and taken its first steps to unleash minds/talents that it had nurtured through NEP/Affirmative actions for the last few decades. Tun Musa Hitam wants UMNO to instill the mentality that speak: Malays are ready for the real world.

The question is; are we really ready? Experience rich but not yet battle hardened, it will be akin to releasing rookie private into the frontline of Omaha beach. An onslaught.

It really takes courage after all. For me, my naïve vision for the ideal UMNO would be a pool of Malay intelligentsia. From philosopher, economist, scientists, academicians and even dieticians (Dr.Mahathir once pointed out the Malay eating habit as one of the cause of the ethnic widespread malnutrition). Gathered under a single powerhouse, aiding the Malays in broader sense rather than helping only the cronies and target group with kepentingans (interests).

Government contract may still be able allocated towards bumiputra contractors. But, contractors has somewhat to be united under a single politic-free chamber of commerce. The chamber shall proceed to award the appropriate projects towards any contractor which had met its merit. Creating an atmosphere of competitiveness no-matter you’re son-in-laws or brother-in-laws of any kings or queens. Through this, UMNO shall break free from the cronyism image it had projected for quite some time. UMNO will be a mighty think tank which its lawmakers shall paint the underlying background; the rest, its up to the Malays to alleviate their standards within the land they claim theirs.

UMNO and its friends in the alliance can shift towards a new mentality. In these hard times, National Front occasionally calls for people to remember their good deed done for over half century. Yet, retelling old stories is never enough for most Malaysian which grew fond towards progress and development. Malaysian today is well exposed towards good governance and welfare. They travelled all over the world.

UMNO must allow young professionals to play active role within the party. Pemuda itself should become suara membangkang ( dissent voices ), so that senior leaders obliged to think twice of whatever they decide to do. Pemuda can replicate the ‘storm-from-all-sides’ situation, a situation which opposition would like government to be in. The hey days of UMNO and its undisputable sense-of-purpose were the time when the party had dissent voices so-called the ‘young turks’ in the form of Tun Mahathir Mohammad, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam.

Lacking of these dissent voices made UMNO a mundane party. Instead, party members can be punished for pointing out blatant mistake and naked truth.

Even if I were to rally my support to any political ideology in the event of National Front yet unforeseeable demise, PKR shall be the one. The party is the most viable torchbearers of Malays plight. In their forceful calls for equality and economic justice, the UMNO genes shall subliminally exist to continue supporting the ethnic left behind. PKR they are indeed the true faceless and colour-blind politics which fulfill Onn Jaafars dream. The free-for-all membershipallowed for a solid collective vocal reaching throughout the various social fabric of Malaysia. Unlike PAS with its Islamic-nation ambitions and deep-rooted ‘The Rockets’ character of over-my-dead-body/ultrakiasu.

Be kind, press rewind

Professor Ridhuan Tee once reminded Malays through the obviously bias daily publication, Utusan Melayu, that Malays should never be too complacent and happy with recent Malaysian Malaysia party top figures mentioning about governance in accordance to the khalifahs (caliphs). He warned that the party can go as far as fielding Malay candidates and putting Malays to helm some of its higher posts.

It is truly understandable in my short analysis of politics, Malaysian Malaysia party who seek to become colour blind and enforce economic justice are merely dominated by a single ethnic. Their act of putting other ethnic on higher ranks would just be periphery and decoration-purpose, probably part of a well coordinated effort in their long aim towards their ultimate goal. A party with a single-ethnic majority who does not have an upper hand in quantity, they play it safe by being kind.

They are kind to other ethnic majority of Malaysia. They showed compassion, care, respect and determination to protect the rights of this ethnic. Minority survival method had been mirrored by Dr. Bashar al-Assad the Syrian Premier. He belongs to Alawi sect of Shiites Muslim which counted less than 13% of Syrian population. Indeed, he maintained his authority and power though making friends with other ethnic/sects in Syria (Christian, Kurds, Druze, Ismaili, Yezidi etc. ), leaving 75% of Sunni Muslims of Syria off the power zone.

Its apparently clear, without being kind, a small number cannot amount any force to push themselves into helm of power. They’ll play nice for some time. Added with Anwar cooperation and seal of trust, a chunk of support had just been gained. Worst still, PAS utilized the unifying power of religion for the benefit of a coalition that half-heartedly listens to their aspiration. Together, with Anwar continuously mentioning ‘courage’, led this party to become menacingly brave to question other provisions made under the constitution for the Malays.

Its not shocking if they won the upper hand, they will redraft the constitution and rename it something that they’re obsessively into; like Perlembagaan Rakyat. They’ll make the day historic as if the current constitution were drafted by evil and tyrants. To show things were in the place where it should belong. Everything will be renamed with the word rakyat as suffix or prefix as a sign of transparency. Mahkamah Rayuan Rakyat, Gagasan Satu Rakyat, Suruhanjaya Rakyat Membasmi Rasuah, So on and so forth.

Thank You for reading The Frailty of Politics, this would probably be the last entry related to politics. Politics has always been the fuel that propelled Tudya! in the last few years, yet it’s a sensitive topic to discuss with most people try to avoid it. As a replacement, next Tudya entries will feature things that are more rational to my course of study: architecture. A dedicated segment called ‘Atelier’ will feature subject related to architecture currency local and abroad. Thank You for your support and keep visiting Tudya! Happy New Year 2010.

The Web of Knowledge

2009-12-24T08:15:00.001-08:00

Some may think, at tender age of 22, where do I build myself up to become very politically conscious? Some might silently lambast: Budak berhingus baru nak cakap pasal politik.

Its no shocking when people may admit they wanted to be forensics because CSI looked like a rugged job with applied intelligence. Some may want to become filmmaker after seeing how Amir Muhammad or Yasmin Ahmad led a cultured lifestyle surrounded by refreshingly creative people or DSLR wielding youngster venturing into photography because they’re simply impressed by graceful photograph. But one thing I believe about these great people that inspire others. The great things they had achieved today were not the first thought they had in mind, initially.

Datuk Lat, a local cartoonist famous for kampong boy admitted he never had ambitions of becoming a cartoonist. He was keen on becoming a trainman because it gave a sense of adventure going about here and there. Yet, he ended becoming a brilliant cartoonist, sensitive to his surrounding and supporter of ethnic integration.

My political consciousness never kicked in when I saw UMNO people walking into venues and project such a tremendously vibrant halo of influence. Never had I put myself in politic alter-ego as a result of disillusion due to UMNOs elitism and connection with istanas inner sanctum. Neither when my Pokok Sena Khidmat Negara comrades reffered me as ‘Datuk’ (since I was bald and I resembled Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein), and never did I become politic-conscious during the Reformasi uprising of 98’/99’

My knowledge of politics is never due to any family connections. Neither members are of silver spoon fed or related to the istanas. If I could trace back, I would see on my mother’s side, they are mostly from Penang and moved up to Southern Kedah taking jobs as government servants. I inherited the tastebuds of everything spicy through the mamak (Indian muslim) blood which might have flowed into me. On my father’s side which originates from as far as Northern Kedah, mostly rice farming or farming, they speak thick northern accent which I assume my Mongolian eyes were of the Siamese genome. None had been active in politics.

My father is a banker and he neither keeps books related to politics (not until recently). He subscribed to Utusan and stopped doing so since 2000 due to economic constraints. I wasn’t keen reader of Utusan either since its relatively huge size and limited cartoon section compared to those featured on The Star and Straits Times. No reading materials inside our home would have brought me into the realm of politic consciousness.

Neither statehood pride did bring me to become a keen analyst of politics. Even if I knew Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Malaysian first prime minister, amongst spear headers of the Malaysia formation hails from Kedah. Not forgetting, Tun Mahathir Mohammad that braved the uncertainties of politics for 22 years and had tons of admirers till today, that has not become the prime reason to persuade me into putting my line of sight into politics.

As of today, I had taken time pondering back into my past. This is due to some quarters which justified my interest of political subject was a result of mere disillusionment.Then; I would realize my path towards politics pointed towards the wonderful web of knowledge. I used to joke around with my housemates about the wrath of Wikipedia and their sets of hyperlinks. It made our little research on single subject of architecture a devastating procrastination routine. You would know how Wikipedia would take hours of time when we ‘accidentally’ clicked hyperlinks related to thesubject we originally wanted to study.

My precursor to politic interest began with something which is out of this world. As early as 1995, my interest at the time was for Astronomy. I gazed upon the stars during the night and wondered how the mechanism of universe worked. I read a lot about Neutron stars (a super dense star which rotates quickly to emit radio waves) and nebulas (packed gases masses that eventually give birth to stars). I remembered a few stars, Sirius A and B, the red supergiant Betelgeuse, The blue giant Polaris and a few stars named after Muslim scholars; Altair (probably Al-Tahir) and Aldebaran. On the other side, I was busy drawing cartoons, I fondly remember naming one of my female characters as ‘Andromeda’ - named after our neighboring galaxy. At primary school I joined the Astronomy Club which did nothing but meetings at certain intervals

After studying distant objects, I read about close objects, like our moon, sun and comets together about space probes that were sent to explore them. I knew about the US-made Pioneer space probes going to the outer extent of our solar system with a golden plaque depicting humans in their naked form. American Mariners went to Mars and heavy and bulky Russian Venera went to Venus. American Galileo and Cassini went to explore our gassy giants; Jupiter and Saturn respectively. Then, I knew something very peculiar about space exploration: They were initiated by either the Americans or Soviet Union (present day Russia); with little contribution by European Space Agency (ESA)

Then, I began to delve into human space exploration. I was introduced to the word space race. A series of space exploration achievement made by both Soviet and United States. It all started with Soviet simple yet significant foray into space through the launch of beach ball sized Sputnik in 1957. The US, shamed and time constrained launched Explorer which merely orbited the earth. Sputnik2 brought Laika into orbit but sadly the dog perished. Yet it provided vital information life support system in space which later paved way for Vostok1. The weird name spacecraft successfully transported Yuri Gagarin into orbit for a complete six rounds around earth in 1961. A few months later, in a hasty bid to show its capability, US Alan Shepherd was sent to space for a trans-America mission (his mission is actually venturing from East to West America, not orbiting). Vostok6 mission sees Valentina Tereshkova made into the first woman into space and finally Voskhod1 conducted the first spacewalk in 1965 completing a series of blow towards US lagged capability in space technology.

But that did not hinder United States from retooling its space program and intended to put the first man on the moon through Apollo mission. By 1968, the Soviets had been busy launching series of Zond/N1 test rockets, a humongous 24-engined rocket set to bring first communist citizen to the moon. On the other side, United States had prepared to test the-most-powerful-rocket-engine-in-the-world (should have been accompanied with drum rolls?) The Saturn-V engines. Only four of these needed thus reducing chances of failure in respect to Soviet smaller but numerous rocket engines. By July 1969, the US overtook Soviet in the space race by putting the first human on lunar surface. Soviet manned moon landing program crippled with technical faults and test-fire mishaps were put to an end months later without any men brought to the moon.

Soviet reluctantly admitted to a defeat in the space race. Yet, space race is only a small picture when in fact, its part of a larger scheme of things. Back on solid ground, United States and Soviet Union were involved in the brewing Cold War. The infamous Nikita Khrushchev “We will bury you” punch line had provoked both superpower intensify propaganda. The space race they indulged in is a showpiece to smaller nations that their ideologies are more dominant than the other. Imagine two men trying to win heart of a girl, its akin to The Illusionist as both were determine to proof they are better than the other, yet, they never got involved into fist to fist fight. Not because they were afraid, but its something in the dictionary of diplomacy called deterrence.

In deterrence (or détente), both Soviet and US had been stockpiling nuclear warheads. In event of whoever struck first, the latter is determined to retaliate with a larger magnitude of damage. Both superpowers knew this and decided to formulate MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) programs. They wanted to assure the survivability of their weapons in an event of full-scale nuclear war. This means nuclear delivery had been diversified, they can be launched from land, air and sea and nuclear weapons became ludicrously portable that they can be mobilized by foot infantry Although these two nation had capacity to annihilate the other, they had been patiently waiting for whomever to throw the stone first. As the rest of the world hold their breath in suspense. The Doomsday clock was introduced in the US. It’s a clock face showing 5 minutes into midnight, hypothecally means that humanity was in the brink of extinction.

Outside their geopolitical borders, Cold War showed its true face through Korean War. Its here when two superpower nations sold their weapon at dirt cheap price just to have it tested against foes military equipment. Soviet MIGs doing dogfights with American F/Hawk jets. American cruisers avoiding soviet-made torpedos. During Cold War, pledges of smaller nations were never to fall on deaf ear. Egypt seek Soviet help to build its Aswan dam as America refused to offer help. Germany was split into two due to incoherent ideologies. The peak of this war is when Soviet covertly transported nuclear missile to communist Cuba which lies few hundred miles to southeast US coast of Florida. I was crazy about Cuban missile crisis that I persuaded my father to buy a book on it, my father replied: Ini konflik zaman tok nenek, dah habis dah, lagi mau baca ka?

Series of Interest

On the other side, I remained physically passive – which is never a choice. As my thirst for knowledge kept spinning through series-of-interest (from astronomy to international relations), my appetite for sports had been shunned by my father attitude that could never accept interest is disposable.

He initially bought me a pair of football boots. Yet, as sports became seasonal among the kids, never in a year we played the same sport. But my father firm belief that I should remain dedicated to a single sport rather than hopping around had left me singled out as my friends move to another sport/activities. My father might have regard my voyeur of sports hoping as a wastage since I had yet to find my type of sport through exploration, thus, my interest in physical activity ended prematurely instead developing parallel with what I have gained through reading.

My father strongly disagree that interest is something disposable and replaced with something else. He perhaps had adapted the idea that a man found their interest through some sort of osmosis, which I myself am perplexed.

Imagine, if my interest in astronomy needed a specialized apparatus/gear instead of mere reading, I would have stuck there and would never move gain a single inch of access into other subject related to space exploration. Since then, I had pledged to myself to become more lenient to let my kids (if I had one) to indulge into ‘series-of-interest’ provided it is self-initiated and self-motivated. It’s the unavoidable human nature of trial and error.

Yet, it’s better late than never. Rather than bickering about the past, I shall make learning a lifelong process. Cold War led me read more about Malaysia taking side in the bloc (Malaysia declared its neutral, yet sided with the affluent West bloc), which later joined in the formation of created-to-doom SEATO and eventually a more peaceful allegiance of Mapfilindo (Malaysian, Philipines and Indonesian pact) which today matured into ASEAN. Years before cold war ended, glasnost was conducted to let Soviet become less secretive about its economy, military and relationship plans. Cold War ended with the collapse of Soviet Union,

Cold War made me read about communism and capitalism. And subsequently the usage of prefix ‘–ism’. A complicated term which I simply understood as differences in managing state wealth. Former, strictly lets the state own all resources and manages accordingly, while latter let private riches to trickle down the hands of citizen. My father famously termed capitalism as ‘you are hardworking, you’ll get rich’ while communism as ‘either hardworking or lazy, you’ll earn your wage/pay’.

I later read about socialism, the significance of proletariat and human responses towards power and rules. Eventually thrived my superficial interest in social sciences, thus this includes politics. Here I am today, 14 years entertaining my series-of-interest. Now where did my architecture interest branches out? I need another day to think about that.

The Thornberries

2009-12-19T23:38:00.000-08:00

There was a cruel joke that tells about Singapore buying Malaysian grown fruit at dirt cheap price

Once there, they repacked/rebadged the fruit and exported it, selling at a premium price especially to the European.Some quarters of European cherishes tropical fruit. It turns out this cruel joke is indeed true. Our fresh exports to Singapore has long been a golden opportunity for Singapore to turn it into fortune beyond what thought possible.

Realizing this, Malaysian ministry of agriculture under Muhyiddin Yassin made a swift effort to introduce the ‘Malaysia’s Best’ campaign. As far as my graphic memory can confirm, there is a logo created for it. This logo was mend to be like badges similar to what Intel would do on personal computers/notebooks that is embedded with their processors: Intel Inside!

Malaysian Best logo had a kampong man silhouette resembling a farmer holding a fruit basket with both hands . A cloth is wrapped around the farmers forehead telling people the time/manpower consumed caring a tropical fruit. Encircling the fruit farmer and his fruit produce is the ‘Malaysia’s Best’ itself encased in dark brown lettering and soil brown underlying colour. It seems like a pride waiting to happen and chart Malaysian name in international consumer preferred list. Like Caviar from Russian lakes, Diary products of New Zealand or high-grade chocolates of the Swiss, Malaysia is poised to be the origins of exotic tropical fruits soo yumilicious as hollywood would portray it in its island gateway movies.

Our dash of hope is gone as ‘Malaysia’s Best’ are nowhere to be seen today. If it had been famous elsewhere, word of buzz shall bounce and return to our shores. Neither that occur, we are shunned by the mysterious fate of the glad farmer with the pineapple in his hand. He must be lost or drowned in the waters where trade ship passes. Pity his pineapple.

Recently, if most of us can recall, there was a marketing campaign promoting wood products. It was simply named ‘Malaysian Wood’. The logo featured nothing fancy, just the marketing name itself in kindergarten writing style with a leaf growing out of an alphabet through some kind of lab-manifested scary photosynthesis process.

Its been months since Malaysian wood appeared on architecture digest and has even made it into airtime commercial for television. The multipurpose and highly-durable plus highly esthetic quality of our wood can create wonders, from little furniture, pond bridges, intricate carved doors to a big bungalow made of timber. Giving the same impression that Malaysia will mark itself in global map as exotic wood producer. Like Russia with caviar(and vodka), like swiss with its chocolates(and army knife).

Again, joke has surfaced that Singapore had, for decades, imported felled timber from us turning them into marvelous furniture and selling it to continental upper crust society for a fortune. How and why this had occur? Are we lacking in craft skills? Local school syllabus had greatly emphasizes on carving since secondary level, but we still lacked passionate carvers?

Complaints only, need solution?

Tiger Woods may be troubled with sex-scandals, but what had troubled ‘Malaysian Wood’?The lackluster in promoting our woods may lead this marketing campaign into another bomb initiative following the fate of Sekolah Kluster, PPSMI, backseat safety belt, insulated iceboxes, children toys safety classifications and not forgetting Malaysia’s Best. Timber can be another source of high income for the government and the nation as a whole. It’s a natural resource that is irreplaceable, so to say, we need to give it a special attention. Like our oil wells being systematically managed by PETRONAS, we need to centrally manage our wood as a valuable resource.

Ask an SPM student to prepare an essay of how to promote our fruit or wood industry, and they will nicely lists down brilliant suggestions. Their suggestions are so brilliant that they shall be awarded with A. Yet, almost all Malaysian citizen knew these ideas are of no value to the people above; they’ll be too much bureaucracy and interest to protect which halt the implementation those suggestions. There are people who were given import permit to bring in cheap fruits at huge quantities. There are people given the timber felling rights, these ‘sacred cows’ made Malaysia’s Best and Malaysian Wood campaign as mere showpiece to the public that the government is keen on promoting. Where else, God knows.

Earlier entries had me several times mentioning about spoilt kids wearing overgrown shades of Prada,Gucci and Dolces, those are not mere words of hatred thrown to those privileged kids. These kids Im referring to are of those gained comfort of life through other sufferings. Vegetable planters and fruit farmer’s cried foul knowing their produce are no more needed in the market which had been flooded with imported fruits and vegetables. Importers who pocket in big money. Importers kids who later would speed off through LDPs with their Volkswagen Golf GTIs while poking fun at his pretty girlfriend in the passenger seat. Since last year I had stopped using this ‘verbal tantrums’, yet Im compelled to use it again to refer to our planters/farmers sufferings.

Fans of statistics, numbers and figure would shake their head off reading my allegations. They want to see the tons and metrics of veges/fruit imported and gross consumption. This data may look fine and dandy, although without analytical research the real situation may show the reverse. Big planters sell their produce to Singapore. While appointed importers shall make up for the loss with cheap baulk produce. What’s left is small and medium scale planters succumbed to make into rapid streaming outgoing and incoming flux of commodities.

A party like UMNO should have taken note realizing majority of Malays is still doing agriculture. If they desperately need to repair their image, this is the time. Sadly, telling their ‘people’ to stop importing agriculture produce is no easy business. Its akin to pouring sand into the rice bowl of a few people while the massive number farmers/planters had long felt the sharp noise of sand laden rice. This kind of situation is what we call it is: favoritism.

Pertanian satu perniagaan. Perniagaan untuk orang atasan. Might as well play FarmVille on Facebook. Not forgetting, the cruel jokes of Malaysian Wood and Malaysia’s Best

The Altered Native

2009-12-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

There was a time when we hail American bands, brands and ideas as uber cool. While some may still subscribe to pax-americana, some begun to seek alternative ways and led an interesting life.

Its been a year since I initiated an effort to de-americanize my iTunes playlist. Not as a means to totally wipe all American songs from my playlist, neither a way to protests any foreign policy made by Uncle Sam. Nothing political, I’m just keen to reduce made-by-America tunes and instead turn my ears upon songs by different nations (sometimes in its indigenous language). As it turns out, music is universal. I personally met a person who had playlist packed with Korean songs, a true success of off-relying on American far-influential entertainment industry. Kudos

Our nation once had the ‘look-east-policy’ which seek to study ways of eastern countries like Japan achieve such as tremendous success par to the western nations. The policy made Japan as exemplary/ role-model nation. Rather than settling for conformity of looking up towards western nations. Yet, not all western countries are developed in such a domineering manner.

German is another nation which I personally regard as ‘a woman who maintained her honor after being gang raped’. I apologize, those words could not be more offensive, yet, it’s the most vivid word for me to describe German perseverance after the devastating war. Post World War II Germany had been divided into four sectors ruled by former military foes of Soviet, United States, France and Great Britain (that is how the gang rape derived from). Later years, Germany was still divided into two in the form of east and west. Until 1991 when Berlin Wall fell, the unification of Germany comes into full circle. Yet, small engineering marvels such as photography optics spell words like Carl Zeiss or Vario Tessar. Spark plugs that driven our cars are never too familiar with the word Bosch. Pencils and erasers, Steadler and Faber Castell. These are small things which not all nations had citizen committed in doing it.

As an architecture student, I’m acknowledged of German strings of brilliant architects whom owe a lot to modern architecture. A friend of mine who studied medicine recalled that medical apparatus such as scalpel, scissors and needle were mostly manufactured by German. The American could not be more thankful towards a former German military scientist, Von Braun and his research in rocket science that made stars and stripes proudly planted on the lunar surface.

Look Elsewhere

As for individuals, we can somehow seek different sources of influence for our lives. Maybe American brands, trends or bands used to drive us mad. If nations like Malaysia can ‘look east’. We can perhaps ‘look elsewhere’.

For instance, a man who once owned a Volvo, shall- for a long time- own a Volvo and seek to find another Volvo in his/her life. Why these brands can be so patronizing? Maybe, it had projected such qualities which only limited number of people can understand. It takes lots of thinking and judgment to appreciate a Volvo over the more prominent brands like BMW and Mercedes.

Obviously, BMWs and Mercedes, are brand commonly associated with luxury. Drop a bag of cash on ten common people on the street, eight of them shall hurrily go to these marquee showrooms. It takes a certain class and thinking divergence to appreciate a Volvo. And choose a Volvo. Let’s delve into the mind these people. Why Volvo when Beemers and Mercs can project much more ‘class’. Why? Why? And why?

The recent call to boycott all American and Israeli brands, I did not go all for it. Not because I did not pity neither I devaluate the struggle of my Muslim brothers in Palestine. I personally think the call for all this boycott is much more thrived by angst. It lacks ingenuity and much more towards a gimmick.. Safe to say, it rather brings more damage than good. Surely, in the end of the day these fiery boycotters shall fell back into the clasp of these ‘devil’ brands. Not to mention how vast American/Israeli conglomerate can exist in every inch of industries there is on earth. Our money shall somehow trickle into their pockets. I’ll be an instant darling if I blindly join the boycott, you know it feels good to be darling of a certain society heh?

Ingenuity only happens when someone like my fellow friend whom had her ears turned to Korean songs or a man who remained patronized to Volvo for as long as his lifetime. They had learn to naturally appreciate things that are non-American thus indirectly boycotted them. Their appreciation for non-American things were not done forcibly (just like the current government forcibly wants us to embody 1Malaysia ). These people does not expect to be a darling of society because they did not chose American products. They did not expect to be cool and tell people around them: “hey! I’m anti-America! Its easy to hate America! “.They had long found alternatives.

Nations like Sweden is one that achieved developed status with ethics and positive imagery. They never initiate war or disregard moral in its path to rapid development. Its achievement in the entertainment industry played pivotal roles which position where America is today. NSync and Backstreetboys undoubtedly had Swedish producers for their songs, virtually their brainchild had almost half of world teen population crushed during the boyband heydays. Britney also sang hits produced by the Swedes. ABBA was an alternative choice of 80s Discos, their expertise in weaving ‘electronica’ element is simply surreal at times. Robyn, The Cardigans, The Sounds, Royksopp(Norway) and Sigur Ros (Iceland) are worth while listening.

IKEA had brought affordable, practical and quality furniture. IKEA introduces policy which allowed exchange of products if we are not satisfied, currently no known local furniture seller does this (they instead punishes us for making incorrect choices) How generous. If Germans are keen into making imagery optics and spark plugs, Swedes had submitted themselves into making metal bearings. SKF is known as world’s largest bearing makers today. Small things, big pride.

Swedes military superiority is a result of nation innocence. The Swedish JAS39 ‘Gripen’ fighter aircraft are capable of landing on normal roads instead of dedicated airstrips. This is due to the fact of Sweden inevitable fear of being invaded by Soviet Union during the cold war (1950s till 1990). They feared Soviet superior number of troops can paralyze their country. Soviet forces can easily wipe Swedish airfields which had the latter exhaustively develop an aircraft than are capable landing on roads. Sweden perhaps can be easily granted NATO protection against such dreadful enemy. instead, Swedes took a path which is somehow reflect its true stance of sovereignty: neutrality.

I may sound unpatriotic, yet It’s sort of acceptable for me to meet people who have ‘altered’ natives. Simply because we doesn’t own ‘that’ attitude which can lead us to greater magnitude of success. Ever noticed some Malay families goes to an extent of calling themselves ‘ana’(me) and ‘anta’(you), might be due to the fact that our prophet was born there? I can never justify their ways. Some may subscribe themselves of listening to American bands, buying American brands and praising American Ideals, living the American dream because it seems pretty, I can never justify that too.

But those day of American idealogy imperialism had long declined, instead I began to ‘look elsewhere’, to nations to draw inspiration. Perhaps, my altered nativity would be Sweden? Those ‘ana-antas’ had Saudi Arabia as their altered natives? My Korean listening friend had Korea as her altered natives? Nevermind. As long as it’s not Uncle Sam.

I admit America stranglehold in our daily life, from entertainment, food & beverages and hawkish way of thinking is real and happening right now. But its not that hard leave them. The New World Order had us constantly exposed to them from the very beginning. It takes time to definitely say goodbye towards first-love. . Its always the first-love hard to get over.

The Allowance

2009-10-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Love conquers all. When fuel price rises, still the wheel has to spin to watch the apples of any men eye smile, giggles and shine.

There is in fact some ritual involved before a boy meets a girl during the regular basis dating. To turn this regular into something special, most boys had gone to certain extent to make the best memories out of it. I had friends that do hair treatment at studios morning before the evening meet up. I wash my car before having a special occasion, got the shirt ironed out when ironing would be next-to-never after getting out of the washer, trimming moustache when I intend to keep it like A.Samad Said length, researching for conversation subjects (because I rarely talks third party), checking out Google Maps to pick her up, checking food blogs (because franchise is boring) and the list can go on further.

Yes, we also emphasize on filling up a considerable amount of fuel so that we can have a meaningful conversation while the air conditioner is providing constant supply of cold breeze, giving us extra confidence if we do stumbled upon unwanted traffic jams. We never want a worst case scenario of calling up friends to load a few bucks of petrol to get our stalled vehicle moving in a middle of dusty and noisy KL traffic jams. Not forgetting the watching eyes of massive traffic jams. Extra worst, if we had to pay the taxi fare so that the girlfriend can make home safely.

Money isn’t a thing for lovers who live on a shoestring. Although times are not that good, with prices of everyday things driving us mad, there is no stopping for couples to get along together as many times as possible. I recently read some articles regarding low-cost dating that includes visiting public parks, dropping by pet stalls/SPCA and playing husband-wife looking for house in housing estates. Things that kept the sparkle lit.

Shift for a moment

With UMNO’s General Assembly coming close, we will once again witness massive amount of politician taking the stage and deliver their fiery and punchy speech regarding perjuangan. Some delivers witty and humorous talk about their thoughts leaving the perwakilan in stitches. We’ll see charismatic overseas student of foreign UMNO clubs coming down and sharing their views. I hope Tun Dr.Mahathir would deliver a piece of his mind especially in hard times like this. The fledging spirit of UMNO veterans who never lose faith brazing the thin or thick and finally (and thankfully) the young Puteri’s with their pink cheek and joyful smile in their neat baju kurungs.

The General Assembly is the moment which could become UMNO testing ground. Screaming setia! (faithful) bersatu! (united) and sedia berkorban! (ready to sacrifice) make no sense if its not tested. Like a Bangladeshis seller along Petaling Street who would go to the extent of momentarily burning their leather-based merchandise to authenticate its quality and durability, UMNO members too had to do this. Of course, when I suggest we should test UMNO members, it does not have to be burning them alive to see if they would die for UMNO, that would be counter-productive and silly.

The Assembly, like previously done, will be held at Putra World Trade center on 13th October till 16. All the invited perwakilan shall in some way or another bare all the costs of travelling down to the hall. There should not be any huluran (allowance) from any branch towards their member who wish to attend the assembly. When love conquers all, money isn’t a thing. When money isn’t a thing, Perwakilans from Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang would hurdle along the East Coast Highway to Karak highway to Genting and finally Gombak down to KL with their own money. Perwakilan from Kedah, Perlis and Perak would straddle for hours along PLUS highway bearing the cost with their hard earned money. Johorean, Malaccan and Negeris perwakilans would ride up north with every drop of fuel bore from their pocket money. Not forgetting, Sabah and Sarawakians UMNOs would fly in full heartedly with not a single cent comes from any sort of huluran.

If perwakilans felt this is too expensive for them to bare, they could pool their resources and rent a bus. Let them travel in one bus or vans where they can cement their relationship and reduce travelling costs. In Malay words ‘mengeratkan silaturahim’. The bus would not have to have UMNO emblem outside, it can be a rented bas kilang or bas persiaran.

Accomodation wise, party members of any ranks cannot be allocated/reserved with plenty-of-stars hotels scattered around KL. They can instead opt to stay at relatives houses to again mengeratkan silaturahim. Eventhough that particular member of relative is not actively involved in politics, it’s the best time to approach the rakyat. Brushing up the mesra rakyat skills which every UMNO members should have. Have breakfast with them, prayers with them instead breakfast in hotels which is all about glamour and class.

Even if PWTC can accommodate all perwakilan in its grand dining hall, save that catering money for better streamers for PRU-13 and let them eat at stalls around KL. Did UMNO know that if Kuala Lumpur weren’t a federal territory, Kuala Lumpur would have a DAP chief minister. Let the thousand perwakilans scattered around KL, thriving business for foodstalls, meeting new people and personally explain that UMNO is a party with a strong stance that never ever involved in any elaborate ploy to commit systematic genocide on other races living in Malaysia. That is just pure paranoia.

If UMNO starts to implement this, where no allowance money/huluran is given (directly or indirectly) we’ll see how many of the perwakilan becomes reluctant and lazy to come by. We will witness how attendees could significantly reduced and come to an inconvenient truth that UMNO is a party greased up by money and not love for the bangsa. They would prefer to come by in their big SUVs discussing with their cronies on what project to scoop if they had chance to meet Najib or Muhyiddin or the three vices.They would like to stay in big hotels near shopping complexes where their sons and daughters can go scoop some expensive item from contract money. This all could be the harmful thing that runs through UMNO perwakilan when comes to General Assembly and perhaps, this is wrong!

The high ranking UMNOs would be filthy rich by now and would be minimally affected if they were such actions. They still can afford Ritz Carlton with all the fancy optional of valet parking and fresh roses delivered at the doorstep every morning. But what these politicians would think when they were barely anyone in the hall as they speak? By now they should realize and differentiate the meaning of true and fake patrons of UMNO.

Do we need to be constantly reminded about the posters and newspapers that were printed before merdeka was bore out from our forefathers money? In times where the best job a Malay could attain at the time was government officers or teachers? How about them who travelled by walking and cycling to attend protests in tens of thousand in Alor Star and Kota Bharu? These are the spirits of true lovers where money isn’t a thing.

Sadly, this kind of activism is mostly shown by the opposing party members – surprisingly supporters too. We saw them bravely protesting on the streets, admitted to Kamunting and making statutory testimonials against big figures, making their small presence noticeable although for them this means a lot of trouble. So, why UMNO with huge amount of followers are seen quiet and inexperience in handling this kind of situation? Seriously, does missing huluran spells trouble?

For those who never expect/gets huluran and did make it into the dewan from start till finish, god bless you.

The Nostalgias

2009-09-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

Stadium Merdeka hold significant events of great importance to our beloved nation. But just like our wedding reception (if we do have), do we expect that dreamy all-white tent to stood there for a long time because that single wedding is a-time-of-our-life?

Once Kuala Lumpur mooted with the idea to erect a new, shining, all-modern stadium. A multi purpose sport facility that will hold big games and seats tens of thousand spectators. We have all the expertise, architects and engineers at disposal to work marvel on ideas that could tremendously alter the cityscape of Kuala Lumpur just like what Commonwealth did to Bukit Jalil. KL had the land allocations, amidst the high density city center, several acres of reserves may be available along the outskirts which someday shall be flooded with development as KL expanded.

One problem that lingered at that time is the lack of fund. The council had to spend millions per year in maintaining the city public amenities. Back then, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad has been approached to consult this matter. In his progressive ways of decision making, Tun suggested the land which stadium merdeka currently sits to be sold to any interested land developers in return for funds which can offset/fully cover the cost of a new stadium.

The suggestion was perhaps met with uncomfortable responses. Indeed, Tun got his share being painted as a person who downplayed the importance of merdeka (independence). The oldbuilding perhaps was considered sacred as Tunku Abdul Rahman taunted Merdeka! seven times which symbolically proclaimed the independence of Malaya on 31^st August 1957.

It is unbeknown what crazy ideas were going through the minds of the suggesting party, still, do they expect Tun to dig from Petronas deep pockets? No, the development plan was in fact in its first gears when Stadium Merdeka were handed over to UEM ( United Engineers Malaysia )Berhad. UEM even had proposed to redevelop the area into an extensively urban-planned clusters of office tower together with a splendor of shopping complex, retail units, amphitheatre, parks and ala-leisuremall entertainment center. Conceptual sketches (pic below) is a testament of UEM to tear down stadium merdeka and replace it with the ultra modern ‘Plaza Merdeka’

Nobody would have thought that if this 1-billion ringgit project took off, we would half-smilingly asked our KL dwelling relatives “mane awak beli baju ni? “, they’ll responded “ sayer beli di Plaza Merdeka jew “

A billion ringgit is considered by far a huge amount of money back then in 1998. The reason Plaza Merdeka did not come to realization is because the economic turmoil at the moment halted the progress beyond a couple of impressive conceptual sketches. Finally, UEM dropped off its plans to redevelop Stadium Merdeka in order to consolidate itself as it wobbles along the tightrope of economic uncertainties.PNB ( Permodalan Nasional Berhad ) had replaced UEM in the ownership of stadium merdeka. The Plaza Merdeka is surely ambitious and would become a one prestigious address for all, yet, PNB never had the financial capability to execute the project. From that moment, the decline of Stadium Merdeka had taken a nose dive as new, much modern and pleasant looking stadiums spurn elsewhere. Selangor FA had its own home with the monumental calm-like Stadium Shah Alam in 1999. Stadium Merdeka is plague with desertion and faces the threat of degradation as tropical sunlight are harsh and torrential rains punches hard on building structures.

A quick history of Stadium Merdeka provided a glimpse of how joyous this infant nation had prepped itself for independence. With too little money to spend, Tunku had ordered a special place to commemorate the merdeka which will hold thousand of fellow Malayans as witness. Tunku had envisioned a piazza/pavilion which citizen would eventually utilized to hold activities and meet

ing points. Thus, a British architect heed that call and proposed a lowly elevated hill to be excavated ( Picture Stadium Merdeka as a stadia carved out of a flatten hill ). This idea infact, saves cost and minimize the time taken. On top of all, it serves the purpose without any beams or columns falling off during Tunkus taunt of Merdeka!

A Leash of New Life.

In my 22years of age, I never stepped my foot to Stadium Merdeka. The closest that I got to the stadium would be the Monorail ride as it swiftly passes the Maharajalela station. For whatsoever reason, I had never felt the calling to bring myself in there. And, if you randomly ask 10 other young people they would not prefer to be there. Perhaps they would be there if Black Eyed Peas were to perform there, but the intention to be there would purely be the BEPs presence. The building mostly would fall into the category of semi-presence, worst, absent.

Stadium Merdeka witnessed plenty of sporting events and international artiste had sweat themselves out performing there ( which includes the late Michael Jackson, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance. In short, Stadium Merdeka is never that sport-stricken facility in terms of utilization. Thus, ongoing daily-basis activities such as mini-gig, creative craft sales, playact classes or public outcry corner can be held over there. Through this effort, StadiumMerdeka may save its grace and avoid desertion.

Breathing Stadium Merdeka a new life is no easy task, but whenever there’s a will, there will be a way. Arsenals’ Highbury Stadium had been gloriously transformed into The Highbury Square, a collection of high-class apartments flanked the football field which has turned into a modern garden. Bare in mind, the Highbury stadium itself is 93 years old when the rejuvenation project was initiated, nearly twice the age of our Stadium Merdeka. Arsene Wenger was invited to the launch of Highbury Square recently, as I can recall, he did not make any architectural remarks about the redevelopment. Only he felt saddened as the place vividly brought out the nostalgics he had while managing The Arsenal. Well, Wegner need not to feel sad, as the Highbury Square still retains resemblance of the stadium superstructure, only, the purpose had been changed. It’s a blessing that Wenger could recall those sweet memories rather than seeing the site being radically replaced by gigantic structures of alien shapes.

In the case of Stadium Merdeka, when a building lost its connection with its occupants, through eventually being left by the latter, than, that building is considered useless and fit to be replaced or adapted to a more useful purpose. Without downplaying the events deemed significant to Malaysia, the subsequent cost to maintain it could prove to be an ongoing financial burden. As usual, some taxpayer may do that usual ‘money is better off spent for the homeless/poor’ which requires the government to again review its stance on the stadium.

Perhaps, like Highbury Square, Stadium Merdeka can be transformed into a courtyard-styled park with each evening people would jog around its track, a lavishly landscaped park with interconnected ponds is possible. A vast corridor can be a welcoming sight with a few flamboyant artist can do a live shows or live painting. A few seats along the astaka can be retained and a small elevated platform would be erected for city folks to practice some freedom of speech. A small memorial can be made within the parameter where Tunku chanted Merdeka as future generation would come and learn. The stadium alone with the hype cannot do this, it is our responsibility to enhance its appeal.

Endless possibilities awaits our historic stadium. Heritage status granted upon Stadium Merdeka in 2003 alone does not mean total immunity from demolition. Its change or perish.

The Expo

2009-09-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Curtain falls as Ramadhan took off the stage. Hari Raya is finally here! We turned into a happy lot who enthuastically munch on our distinct traditional delicacies. But for how long?

On second day of puasa, I went to a friend of mine who supervises a bazaar ramadhan stall here in Bangsars’ Jalan Telawi. As usual, there are streams of people who wanted to grab their meal for berbuka. Not forgetting, others do not puasa (due to different religion or some other reason) who tagged along enjoying the wide selection of food and beverages offered by plethora of stalls over there. That’s fine, Its great to see the different faces of Malaysia wondering at the same bazaar looking for treats.

Everything from sotong bakar, nasi briyani and ayam berempah were present. Smoke billowing from ayam golek madu (honey grilled chicken) tickled my appertite. Sizzling Ikan bakar pre-wrapped with banana leaf whose tempting aroma rises from the frypan ignited a flood of acid inside my tummy. All this, occurred while the first hand of the clock is nowhere near six. Oh! How dreadful waiting can be especially on the second day of puasa.

At the corner end of bazaar, I stumbled upon the Chinese pasar held simultaneously connected through a series of stalls selling fake crocs sandals, potted flowers and China-made clothing bundle. I proceeded walking through the Chinese pasar which stall flanked to my left and right. There is nothing different from the bazaar as the amount of visitors are almost the same, as usual walking through the narrow walkways are painful when you had nothing to see. In terms of items traded, the Chinese market has got a few perishables such as fresh fruits, vegetables and fish (exception of meat), as I am well aware that the market is akin to pasar tani.

One thing that attracted me to walk further into the Chinese market is their inclusion of foodstuff. Earlier on, the bazaar had offered me a visual feast of meal. But this time around, the Chinese market had more to offer than the Malay dominated bazaar. A walk past middle-aged soya seller had me paused a moment along those narrow walkway, staring how the soya being poured into the individual plastic bags before being tied and sold. I know I’m not disillusioned by the many foods displayed that day, but I’m fascinated by the frothiness of the soya milk. Its one of those magic moments for soya lovers like me to grab and taste those thick fresh soya milk.

Of course, this blog entry is just too ridiculous to talk about thick soya milk and magic moments. I proceed and walk farther into the Chinese pasar which by now had my sight on Chinese apam balik. The seller is very generous to give more nuts and corn into the apams. The smell of roasted nuts just enough to drive me nuts, again, it made me walk past the stall very slow that it might had the person behind me grumbled inside their mind “ tengok mau, nak beli tak nak”

At the end of the Chinese pasar, there is one ;perhaps- long established stall that sells laksa which happens to provide seating for its patron. There were plenty of people enjoying their meal. Again the sight of the preparation of food is top notch as the equipment are clean and stills gleams when metal parts are susceptible to fungi growth especially near the bottom edges. I sighted none. Again, generous seller had the laksa kuah thick and much more wholesome ( why am I obsessed with thick gravy?), it seems the content is not compromised. Smiling faces across the three-quarter full stall is a testament that the laksa stall sells good food.

After elapsing a round, Im back to the bazaar ramadhan. Yes, indeed, they do have soya milk, apam balik and laksa( things alike ) here. Sold by Malay Muslim traders which undoubtedly sells halal food. But halal does not mean halai balai (parents use this northern jargon to refer half-heartedly done job). If I were a food critic, the Chinese pasar food offerings would have won and beaten the bazaar hands down. The Malay-dominated bazaar has got options but lacked that ommph! Imagine soya pouring like tap water. Thin and light that it would ran off your tongue without any traces of texture to devour? They even dare to lie when I ask: “ Kak, soya ni pekat ke?” “ Pekaattttt…..”

I should have uttered “ *insert your curse* “ to her face. Yes, all this hindered from happening, as ramadhan is better rewarded when we exercise patience. In short, Ramadhan is a gateway for these traders to exploit and extort money.

I am saddened by attitude of some of our Malay traders at the recent bazaar. They went ahead to sell their food as if to reach that ‘thousand-ringgit’ critical point and pay down-payment for a new car to show off during Hari Raya. We cherish our food and recipe regarded it as turun temurun yet we failed to appreciate it as much as our pride. Kuih Melaka had its core too small, that it come to a point that it wasn’t sufficient to soak my tongue with gula Melaka. An Ikan-bakar seller in Putrajaya bazaar sells half cooked fish which tasted pungent, I had to call off my buka puasa since the fish terribly looks, feels and tastes like an alien meat (you’ve seen predator in alien vs.predator? Picture those predator dreadlocks being chopped off and char-grilled ). This is what it meant by halai balai.

Malay traders must upgrade their food standards. Stop doing nasty jokes like telling people tap-water quality soya is thick to their standard when Chinese soya seller were capable preparing ‘melted-chocolate viscosity’ soya milk. Lard added soya milk might sound ridiculous to what these Chinese soya sellers could achieve, instead, the Malay soya sellers should start thinking instead of throwing tantrums and cast viciously wild doubts about the secret of soya thickness. It goes to the apam balik and laksa too.

Display of true passion

A bazaar ramadhan should have been a food exposition. Like car exposition where automobile companies feature prototype of their best technology and design their minds could ever produce, so does a bazaar ramadhan. It should have showcases the passion of our Malay traders towards their turun-temurun recipes, with their offerings of best-est and high standard that shall impress any living soul that visit the bazaar. Through these food expo, people from different background could have a taste and traders could tugged a few regulars that would bring in good money for the rest 11months or years to come, in the scenario of the traders had a premise. Even though if they do not have fixed premise, an excellent food will undoubtedly receive special orders that these traders could cater to.

As far as I have seen, some sellers are keen to take advantage of the many people that flocked the bazaar. There is clear indication of these sellers pushing for quantity rather than quality. Perhaps, for that down-payment for a new car? I spent average RM5 for each bazaar visit and I know this amount of money would not make a significant wealth to any traders out there. But, I expect the bazaar stall gave a bit of value stretching to that money. I know my decision is not impaired if I grabbed those thick, more texturized soya from the mid-aged Chinese soya seller. Do not rest on your laurels due to the fact that a Muslim like me MUST find halal food. Halal must include cleanliness, appropriateness of materials and quality.

Regardless of turun temurun or not, a shift can occur if the Malay traders fails to catch up. Chinese had daring ventures from making curries till nasi kandar. No doubt these are not their indigenous food but they can do it well. Come to think of it, we live in houses made by their contractors, worn shoes repaired by their cobblers, could the food that runs into our bloodline prepared by their hands? Its very possible, and it could be very soon.

When the rendangs I ate and soya I drink are from them. Do ask why I lost faith towards the ones made by ours. Sure, my RM5 would not make anybody poorer. Apalah sangat RM5 tu, ingat besar sangat duit banyak tu… Nak sedap-sedap buat sendirik la…..

Selamat Hari Raya 2009!

Part2: Floating Speck of No Origins

2009-08-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

A lecturer stated that Malaysia is merely “a melting pot where various races landed here and began their life” then I see a few heads nodding. The lecturer reinstated that Malaysia belonged to the orang aslis.

There must be a sense of pride when someone has to endow the idea that they indeed never belonged from anywhere and just landed here out of osmosis. Or is it just the fear of being regarded as chauvinist lingered the mind of this lecturer? Where is his sense of belonging? If Malaysia is a melting pot, is he ready to denounce Malaysian citizenship because only orang asli exclusively deserve them? Thus he shall float and wonder without knowing where his family tree originates. If Malaysia is a melting pot, maybe this kind of person might be better to find other melting pots? Say, Singapore?

It is rude to tell that Malaysia belonged to anybody. Malaysia definitely belonged to nobody, it is not run purely by somebody, or its economics regulated by somebody. In fact, the diverse background of Malaysia made it possible to achieve such degree of success added with the combined values found in South Asia and Indo-Sino, we had this sense of diversity far beyond the understanding of Western worlds.

Undeniably, there are nations which hosts to several ethnic groups. For instance Indonesia and its hundreds of ethnics with most forming their organizations in hope for their voices, concerns and demands are heard. These ethnics sometimes came out with demands which the pemerintah themselves had a hard time to think of. They include formation of their autonomous region and state assembly seats with elected representatives. Together with its own administrative capital. Same goes to India and its various ethnics which scattered from east to west, spanned from north to south. Deemed as the largest democracy in the world, just imagine what kind of manifesto had to be chartered when that nation of 800million population faces its election? Undoubtedly, there are still a few ethnics over there struggling to push for their own region and assembly hall for chosen policymakers.

That is why people like Mahatma Gandhi are heralded as the greatest leader in India. Many things can be learned from his pervasive and persuasive way. Through his soft spoken, humble and rounded spectacles gaze his mind had formulated a definitive way to unite all of mighty India and head out for independence from colonial British. He succeeded and became an idol, an icon too. Unfortunately, there are people who used his image to portray their struggle as noble and persistent yet never realized it’s causing more troubles and mockery towards the harmony.

We are currently facing a similar situation whereby we hosted multiple ethnic groups. The political rights granted to them, in exchange for special rights are deemed as never enough and breach of human rights for equality. Malay as majority ethnic can never establish themselves as the anchor ethnic as their political influence are slowly eradicated while badly losing in the economy sector. While numbers of Malay ethnic were high, leaders failed to quip them to become much more valuable to the nation, as what Mao sees its many population of China as an economic asset a few decades ago. Now, the opposition are ready to exploit this slow and painful effort to quip the Malays as liability. Whispering to unsuspecting ears that Malaysia is carrying dead elephant on its back when it could sprint ahead into fully developed high-income nation without the ‘loads’. We wondered why a speck of these ethnic can be ‘potent’ and impolite to an ethnic like Malays?

Respectfully adapt, it’s not racial genocide or forced assimilation

Imperial China had a respectable image as an empire that less likely to interfere with other domestic matter. Like their merchant which landed here a few centuries ago, beginning with their emissaries and other official representatives, they brought news of trading rather than conquering. When they needed spices from Malaya, they pointed out they needed spice in exchange for infamous Chinese tea or silk. Perhaps gold if the ruler insists.
The other way happens for European colonizing powers which came to Asia with their big guns and assertive advisors (opium for China), and we were enthralled by how disrespectful they invaded and bore out soil for valuable minerals to feed their thriving industries. They should have properly asked to trade with us instead.

When they had us, they would build rail tracks which we thought a novelty contribution to enhance our transportation system. Instead, their true intention is too speed-up transportation of tin and other precious metals out of our nation through coastal ports, which, stubbornly named to their liking too: “Port Swettenham, Port Dickson etc. etc.

The bygones, let’s not get nostalgic.

Whatever is past is past. Yet, it will be noted in our nation history and we retained some of the ports name. The reason why China and Western colonizing powers were brought fourth is the difference between the two of them. The failure of Western powers to adapt with the local atmosphere.

Some must say a speck of Malays must be having attitude problem and becoming sickly too nostalgic due to their refusal to drop claims about previous trade-offs and surviving without protectionist policies. For those who had willingly accept the ideals of all-equal, all-same Malaysia they must be enjoying million praises and jumped into the positively liberated Malays bandwagon which voices and presence were artificially boosted.

Indeed, there is occasional thoughts inside my mind about how would it be if all this claims of ketuanan melayu are dissolved and just not being nostalgic, lets just let Malaysia become what my lecturer pictured it to be: a melting pot . Why not Malays become all that flexible ethnic which absorbs other culture identity like tunang, hookah and shuffle and never let the tide of change stop coming in. Replacing old one as soon a new one is found.

The lost conscience

Now, in this whole new generation, if I put myself as a Chinese or an Indian, there might be sort of kecil hati when I’m born in Malaysia, lived here for all of my lifetime and pledges my taat setia (dedication) to this land every Monday morning yet I’m granted a status which is sort of sub-standard compared to this other superior race. Of course, when I reached the age when I’am eligible to vote, I’ll cast my vote to a party which would make life for me in Malaysia felt like home rather than foster homes. My generation is a fully Malaysian blood although I admit my forefathers came from other country had crossed the seas and straits just to settle here.

A time machine would have resurrected the rationality of those that had jumped into the Liberated-Malays bandwagon about the mutual understanding that glued us together. Let the liberated think twice about the economic-justice ideals and why we unable to run on pure democracy, the western nation paid dearly for this type of democracy. In short, show them liberals are not even close to new-cool or whatsoever, and the artificial appreciation by benefactor of ‘economic justice’ will show its true face. Bring them back to witness the signed treaty between the Malays and leaders of Indian and Chinese back then. It was not about who should put a leash on whom, instead, its about sacrifice and thankfulness. A conscience which had lost. Today, people can easily refute claims by saying “What Agreement? What Treaty? That’s just a textbook lie“ a threat which is unable to be credibly challenged. Why? Why does it become so inconvenient?

Fair vs equality

No DEB! Abolish them!

When heads are nodding, it translated to hopes of freer and equal society. Economic justice is the music to the ear nowadays, so do freedom of speech and human rights. There must be a coordinated effort by certain quarters to educate the young of Malaysia that ethnic identifier is merely a gimmick. There are parties that wanted to make Malaysia a ‘colour blind’ society. Rather than a united divergent society.

‘Colour blind’ ideals is something that wanted to devaluate cultural importance and giving back hands to racial diversity of Malaysia. They, who endow them, shall speak of racism free Malaysia. Blaming the incumbent ruling party as segregationist with its bumis and non-bumis policies, when it was initiated to sort out economic imbalances and income disparities. With their twisted words and veiled accusation, ethnic is a damaging notion which every man and woman in Malaysia should never subscribe.

It is true that religion has long been the cause of wars. Islam and Christians went to battle in endless crusades/jihads, some win and some lose. For hundreds of years they proved to be many casualties involved in these wars. All for reasons to uphold the principles and beliefs which participants of war held strong. For that, should humans be barred from believing a religion?
As the age of religion wars had ended, Today, we stumbled upon this calls for ethnic-less nation.

The perpetrator of ‘Colour blind’ Malaysia is trying to seek broader publicity. It appeases taste buds of the young where merit is given to those who qualified, since success knew neither race nor religion. An imaginary converged society and culture which had lost their sense of belonging. It’s a subject where laymen necessarily agrees without knowing to what extend does ‘colour blind’ shall influence their life. Correct me if I selectively judged this calls for ‘colour blind’

One-for-all, all-for-one

Some may opine UMNO leaders as disillusioned nationalist, paranoid ultras or wrong-cause politicians; yet, past presidents which subsequently become the prime minister of Malaysia had given lots of attention towards non-bumiputras. They introduced policies had evidently benefitted the non-bumis, let’s take a look at land developers, wholesalers and contractors.

From mechanics to metalwork and foundries, they raked millions in profits and their possibilities are endless. Yet the demographically dominant Malays continuously supporting them through elections had surely been their sign approval, even though some compromise may be seen disagreeable at times. Or is it a matter of us lacking of options?

Change or perish, that is what Muhyiddin Yasin had called forth towards members of UMNO. It’s a clear sign that most of these protectionist rulings shall be dropped and the vile whispers of ‘leaving the weak behind so we could sprint ahead’ may hold partial truth and reap real rewards.

From that on, we are on our own.

It’s a heartbreaking effort to clean UMNO up, de-worm itself from the corrupt, buckle up and sprint ahead to fulfill second generation Malays. Follow their tendency to perceive this land liberally and equally. Like electric cars that kicked off without much fanfare, yet, we knew someday it will conquer the road for its low-impact on the greens, UMNO have to slowly embrace sentiment of liberties and freeze its ‘nostalgics’ for the moment.

In the process of de-worming the party, many sacred cows victims of UMNO purge could cross over to the other side. As soon as they switched ship, quickly they were baptized miraculously turning them from corrupt to trustworthy. Crook to angels. Chauvinist to fair. The de-worming process could trigger an exodus of members switching sides. The existing members might become a little disgruntled since they were the zealous lot who threw cabbage, carrots and tomatoes towards these ex-UMNO political showmanship, and later they had to accept these people as one of their own with open arms and happy faces. How can they complain? Anwar was one of them, an unhappy UMNO man who claimed he had changed and brewed a recipe for harapan baru.

One has got to review its platform. Reform itself to become a mighty think tank, organization for Malay intelligentsia consisting figures in many aspects (tok gurus, literature, economist, medicine doctors, psychologist, technologist, engineers) The party should purge its money-making contract-lobbying member to form a chamber-of-commerce that publishes itself an ala-yellow-pages directory consisting bumiputra business man capable in various services. UMNO should survive through contributions of its members rather than members sucking the party coffers dry. This is what it mends to do before facing the consequences of losing, in Muhyiddins’ word: perish.

Does Pure Lineage exists?

Guess UMNO one big party for all. You would not believe that Tun Mahathir, Khir Toyo and others which are not from pure Malay lineage had fought to see Malays thrive. Just like activist who fought for nature or animal rights; they need not to be flora or fauna themselves; they fought for something that needed care. It is of no shock to realize that any sane-minded governing power should put an emphasis to help the many and the weak. The benefit shall trickled towards the less affluent and already affluent shall feel that value added service of quipped and polished Malays, thus attaining balance.

Although membership of UMNO were restricted to Malays, but the party itself seemed to run on ideology instead of the claimed racial politics. Anyone who subscribed to similar ideology can join the party, and it seems that Malays itself had somewhat became ‘glokalized’ (global+local) with some can proudly claim they came from Malay-Arab-Mat Salleh or Malay-Java-Netherlands or the infamous lash-it-all Melayu-Bugis, this all had blurred the lines between who is Malay and who is not Malay. It’s the time when we ushers the brand new Bangsa Malaysia, when each ethnic shall shed their prejudice that other ethnic shall outdo another ethnic and vying for a hostile takeover. UMNO leaders should never become terminally shocked due to ‘lost conscience’ of current generation non-bumiputras as they were born here, loved the nation. Perhaps leaders are too slow in quipping-up the Malays for the tough challenges they had foreseen. Polishes The Malays to brace themselves for the demands which has become apparently clear.

Part1 -Tripartite Hydra

2009-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

Once again it’s on. Looking back in time, PAS was telling all its supporters to ponder and think about this statement: Which is much more important, race or religion? Now a similar question arises; but in a different tone by broader range.

UMNO is fighting for the bumiputras. Do these bumiputras come from pure Malay linage? With all the mixed parentage of Zeiglers, Danishes and Karins does bumiputras exists?

It wasn’t much of a trivia. It’s a statement that emphasize that PAS was fighting on the right political platform. A holy path which nobody can deny or mock. If u deny any cause that is justified under the reason of God, you will be regarded as jahil (narrow minded) , zalim (unjust) or musyrik (imposter).

Our reasoning will be regarded paralyzed if we state that race is more important than religion. Na

turally religion comes before race. Yes, religion is important, in any way how can we deny it? Without any intention of cynical, we lived the five pillars of Islam and six pillars of Iman. The ‘one million dollar’ question is like a chain bomb; it comes with a plethora of other question like: Siapa yang akan menyelamat kita di dunia dan akhirat? Bangsa atau agama? ( Which of the two will save us? Your race or your faith? ) and Apakah malaikat soal bangsa kita apabila mati? ( Will they question your race when you are dead?) Yet, the question subtly referred to political preference between UMNO and PAS.

At the time, UMNO did not take that lightly, they responded and casuallyagreed that religion is the most vital part of anybody life which would made PAS smiling due to the credo. Yet, the idea of religion before race does not mean that someone has to be in PAS camp regarding it as the blessed political platform. With a billion over Muslims in the world in a state of instability and prejudice, we had to come to realization that binding medium of Muslims in

Malaysia shall be that of ethnicity.

Smaller, manageable units of Muslim society – that is the way of UMNO.

The UMNO affair with the second most accounted religion is breaking it down to smaller, manageable part. Just like how family institution (dad authority, mom approval) can contribute to

the success of the nation. Where is unity when this ‘breaking down’ happens? Though, Muslim brotherhood knows no geopolitical border, yet, Muslim seems to don bad face due to ethnic malfunction. Just like Saudi giving United States sponsorship to attack Iraq in 1991, an example of how brother spilt another brother blood. All of this due to ethnicity malfunctions; the Arabs failed to agree on commonality amongst themselves and allowed external influences to intervene.

It seems the idea of questioning race or religion first has backfired towards the other camp. UMNO starts questioning: What kind of sign tells us that UMNO way of fighting for religion through ethnic platform is invalid? God guarantees that each good deed done towards the sacred religion is being accounted, no matter how small it is. Did they mention deeds of PAS members received magnified values or triple bonus point? Worst, If UMNOs deed were deplorably unacceptable; they have got to be kafir? Don’t they?

Now, UMNO has to respond to the broader range of rakyat. PAS whom fundamental aim seeks to create Islam Statehood had join forces with unflinchingly outspoken ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ party to pose another one million dollar question: ‘Does Malay itself a race that is original or had become impure due to cross-breed? A hard rhetoric considering the fact that Tun Mahathir father himself is an Indian from Kerala. How did former Selangor MB Khir got his Toyo? There are some whom admitted that there is no such race as Malay; as they explained: “semua darah sudah campur, Melayu takdak“ This is a salvos of question seeking to refute the platform which UMNO stood now.

Probably, Im well aware about UMNO mechanics after the 8^th March political tsunami. They are trying to tell the rakyat that there are two different way of thinking within PAS members. The so-called modern, much versatile, coat donning, blackberry utilizing ‘Erdogan’ sect and the conservatism ulama (Muslim clerics) sect. There is no use breaking up PAS because in the end of the day, PAS can be the Malays only salvation. Weakening it now may result in a quickening of Malays downfall as the demographically dominant ethnic in Malaysia. Thus, quicken the transformation of Malaysia into republic and quelling Malay hopes to reside in cities pushing them back farther into the depths of outskirts. Making the wicked orchestration come to its fruitation.

As I see it, there’s big possibilities of this unflinchingly brave ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ party becoming the dominant entity amongst the Pakatan Rakyat. Dominant, not in the sense that they will sweep many seats, instead, dominant as they will hold key seats – the populous, more cultured urban folks. This is apparently true as what we saw in recent election. The rich states shall fall under their hands. PAS on the other hand, will get the votes of Malay belt states ( such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis ), which economic output were still based on agriculture. That’s fine, early in the days; both parties can harmoniously form an alliance government

Epicenter of Republic in the high-hopes of domino effect

Hence, when the Malaysian Malaysia party had an upper hand, with their dominant seat they shall allocate meager funding to masjids and suraus, PAS will somehow become infuriated, yet they powerlessly obey. A furious uproar from PAS grassroots leaders from the corners of kampongs and desa sends chills to the upper echelon of PAS. PAS higher council shall asks the Rockets.

The Malaysian Malaysia party shall pose trivial questions like “ How many of you are pure Muslims? Why I can see a few/lots of you drinking alcoholic beverages? Why not many of your female is not wearing Hijab since it’s compulsory? “,in a way to justify the need to lessen allocations, further sidelining the Malays. If a revolt starts, the Islamophobia messages will spread through the arms of information channels. Whatever cause PAS and its followers fought for is considered futile. Once Islamophobia were spread amongst city folks which will widen the gap, PAS have this image of recklessly backward thinking party which resorted to violence. While Rockets are sitting on their offices further suppressing PAS.

It is no harder to see, the ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ party will firstly play the racial card. We see them trying to create an ‘epicenter of republic’ in Perak, hoping the domino shall fall and rakyat realize that the grass is greener and laughter is filled with joy in Perak after the lost of Sultanate Intervention. They never succeed in doing so, yet they achieve a small degree of success giving tremors to Malaysian politics about their unwitting will to wipe the Sultanate in order for democracy to run smoothly according to their liking. Their action should be punished severely, neither; it is not a matter of faux pas and sensitivity of Malays (which they would gladly disregard, because their life run on the books of akta). This is a matter of Kings Prerogative and judgment when disputes occurred.

As co-belligerence, Is PAS ready to be backfired? Does PAS ready to be seen as a party that represents a group of people which are non-existent? Is PAS really ready for the prejudiced Islamophobic gaze? Just like today opposition trying to tell people that UMNO represents an ethnic group that is nonexistent. Like some says “darah sudah campur, Melayu takdak” Does God assurance that Islam is a religion that shall be forever dignified, so does this let PAS rest on its laurels? PAS for all this while never agreed to become minorities of UMNO, then, PAS are willing to let itself being overcast by a more horrid shadows.

Not bridging the gap

If today we lauded the ideas Malaysian without ethnic identifiers (with intention to irrationalize UMNO), who might guarantee the Rockets might barred their thrusters from blowing fire about Malaysian without religion? The Rockets shall held the book of akta in their hands, spit out to the faces of PAS delegates that how once they refuted kesetiaan kepada raja dan Negara, now they are gleefully refuting kepercayaan kepada tuhan. Remember PAS,any force exerted, it shall heed with the annoying Islamophobic gaze. The Islamophobic is an easily available prejudice weapon which The Rockets will never think twice to use, especially against its non-like-minded ally-PAS

Like UMNO people admitting they are plain mad being regarded as chauvinist. How do PAS delegates responded when they had extremist tag on their forehead?

For Malay belt states, they shall prepare themselves to be gazed as regions that breed terrorists. Be prepared as our beloved nation split into two regions between the angry north and dominant south peninsula. Malaysia at that moment shall have a bigger problem to deal with; not more of ethnic unity, but national unity. Something that had been tackled since the Tun Abdul Razak generation.

“Kau ingat ini negeri bapa kau punya? “ this is what the late Tunku Abdul Rahman gets when he arrived in Johor to collect signature of all Malay Rulers as a sign of unity which paved way to the formation of Persekutuan Tanah Melayu. Now that is shameful and hard to swallow, Yet, today there is a party within Malaysia itself, for the sake of democracy to run at its liking, wanted to re-introduce regionalized Malaysia. It’s no secret; their daring first steps would be to create an epicenter of republic. Countless times said, they regarded the Sultanate as Malay Achilles heel, and it’s a joy to throw acid at them.

This is how the Pakatan will play their games and ploy the road to victory: breaking apart Malaysia between the urbanites and non-urban. When they imposed their holier-than-thou so-called ‘economic justice’, they widened the gap between the affluent and poor. With their self-righteous principle that a nation cannot wait for those who are uncompetitive and poses liability they retracted special rights and bumiputra privileges. Does anyone have to re-explain the consequences of widened income gap? Never regard this as a vile threat; this orchestrated effort shall face a vain consequence.

Of course, some shall regard this entry as very prejudice and full of hatred. Butter thick with sinister and racism. Wanting to saw seed of angst. The ideas of ‘silent orchestration’ would just be a by-product of my extreme paranoia. I guess I’m just being vigil to the mesra rakyat solutions offered. Could they become a more effective alternative option for incumbent ruling National Front?

This reminded me of Hydra, a Greek mythology which tells about multiple headed dragon-like monster. What happens when Hydra with all three minds of its own start biting each other? Yet they existed on one body. By the fact, it doesn't take Hercules to slay this type of conflicting monster.

After all speculation, I guess, there is matter still left hanging here. How UMNO is going to respond a query regarding Malays are not being authentic anymore?

The Words of Our Fathers

2009-06-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Ayah as I call him, usually gives short advises that make my ear glow red, sometimes for weeks and months. They are simple words yet bear the deepest meaning. I call it ayat-ayat berapi

Ayah is magnificent. I could not imagine how he grew up from a poor, rice farming family in Tunjang, Kedah with many siblings and thrived to give me what I had now. From a kampong boy which television and radio were barely available to a car driving man. I fondly remember ayah telling me that his first car was a Mazda 323 he got somewhen when he was 27. On 29, he purchased a land along Jalan Telok Wan Jah, Alor Star and constructed our little house. At 30, he married my mom. I do not mind what car model he bought, I wondered how he has this striving spirit to jump out of his little box of slumber. I could not imagine myself fully funding to acquire such vehicle let alone erect a house out of the bare soil.

Being in Kampung akin to being in total slumber. Espescially when farming season comes only twice a year. Other times were filled with societal activities held together amongst the kampong folks. Paddy is a fragile plantation, too much water they die and lacking of water they dry. If you ever been to Kedah, there will be a place in Jitra (further north of Alor Star) which areas were named ‘Pida’. The British came here and colonized our nation just to become sunken amongst the vast paddy field in Kedah. Stubborn to adapt, they were hesitant to call those vast paddy field to its original name (Kg.Tuk Uban, Kg.Ketoi, Kg.Darat, etc.etc.), so they divided the sectors and name them according to irrigation feeder numbers. In turns, the locals just named it ‘Pida’ followed the numbers. My dad is in ‘Pida3’

It was here when dad told me that going to Pekan Alor Star makes him feel relieved. He fondly remembers Tun Mahathirs’ Klinik Maha since it is close to Pekan Rabu, yet he never went there for any sorts of treatment. It was in pekan when he remembers dancing with his fellow friends to ‘Black Magic Woman’ at a funfair, loud music seems to rattle ayahs heart. When it is closing to dusk, ayah will cycle back with his friends 30km north back to his home. A 45-minutes long journey through the long and winding earthen road.

Ayah past story is both inspiring and thoughtful. Let alone his present advises which are sometime mind boggling. Ayah imposed a strict ruling of ‘anti-sensationalizing’ in the house. He deemed people who talk ‘sensational’ things as cheap talk and flimsy minded. He advises my family that human is imperfect and any bad stories we heard about someone shall ends with us. He never wants us to be part of the chain of gossipers. I once mentioned that Sheikh Mudzaffar our first astronaut could probably be a gay. Ayah first smiled at me and mentioned: “He would have been the most successful gay on earth to become an astronaut”, then he looked at me in disgust. Yes,I realized I’m sensationalizing petty matters.

He banned me from reading Mastika for reasons of mysticism and invalid reading material, I stepped forward and defended my action solely stating the benefits of reading without considering the content. He banned us from reading tabloids like ‘Harian Metro’ which highlighted cheap stories, yet, my mom at times enjoyed fresh copies of Metros.

Ayah had passion for reading. For a young man like me, I cannot apprehend the sight of my dad reading 3 titles of newspapers during weekends back to back ( that is The Star, News Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia). Ayah had a huge collection of books which mainly focuses on economics matter. It is what he majors in University Malaya. In turn, his expertise in economics made me squeeze myself in tight corners as they will be loads of question to answer when I make claims. As every cents count for him.

Money Matters, Style and Informed Decision

Regarding money matters, my dad barred the family from entering the pyramid scheme ( he calls it Ponzi scheme), as a financial manager, he knew the scheme were deemed to collapse in matter of time. He tells me a story that a nation (somewhere in Africa or South America) had collapsed due to Ponzi scheme, becoming incapacitated and fell to bankruptcy. He tells me the story of Carlos Ghosn, the Operation Executive of Nissan which helped the company to turn its fortune during turbulent times. He emphasizes the importance of good management, damage control and win-win situations. He talks the importance of leadership in which at times, the usage of persuasion skill and force needed to be balanced.

Ayah once applauded the Bangladeshis in Malaysia because they dress sharp. They had high sense of style that a drop-by to grocery stall to make international calls had them wearing slack pants and well-ironed shirt. Their hairs were groomed to the max and never seen them wearing flip flops except for silky black official shoes. My dad even gave early approval if my sister wanted to marry that kind of machismo Bangladeshis. No problem, as my dad believed that what people wear reflects their personality. He keeps persuading me to tug in my shirt. Oh, humanity!

He always told me about the importance of ‘informed decision’, in which, whatever I shall have, I need to ensure it is the best I can possibly get. He enthuastically reminded my mom to purchase any item in limited quantity but the one that gives highest satisfaction level. Rather than having many of a single item but varies in satisfaction. Perhaps, this is one thing ayah and mama cannot agree for sometimes. Mama should have known that ayah ‘informed decision’ had resulted him to get married at an extreme age of 30 and never, till now, committed to polygamy.

Ayah personally commissioned me to survey specifications of LCD TVs deemed suitable for our home, and that was three years ago, until now, ayah still have not acquired any of them. I fully understood his action of waiting and see. It’s his nature. He objected family request for the subscription based Astro as he frantically mentioned “ Free to air channels is too much for us, why pay for Astro? “. This had been a subject of debate between me and one of my friends as he regarded this as ‘outrageous’ and added that ‘dalam hutan pun ada Asrto’ ( even in the jungle, there’s access to Astro)

I fondly remember washing my bicycle inside the house compound. On the sight of a few young girls cycling across the street, I whistled. The usual ‘boy-call-girls’ whistle. Without noticing ayah was behind me packing the garbage bag to throw it out. He quickly smacked the rubbish bag to my face and tell me “that’s not the right way to court a girl”, and yes, I got that disgusted gaze.
Until today, I wonder whether I can continue the legacy my dad had left us. There are tonnes of wisdom that are lost in time and I know there is few more wisdom within my dad thoughts that I have not yet know. But when shall he let me know? Only time will tell. Happy Fathers Day.

The Punchline

2009-06-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

1Malaysia. It still hasn’t capture either yours, mine and millions of other Malaysian attention. Why ah?

When Tun Mahathir took the prime minister seat in 1982, he mentioned the importance of three factor that needed to be brushed up by the government service and administrative arm as a whole: Bersih, Cekap, Amanah. (Clean,Skillful and Trustworthy )

In fact, there were earlier punchlines that were well understood by the people of Malaysia. They are not much of verbal lines that would become phenomenal like Raja Lawak “lu pikirlah sendiri” or Phua Chu Kangs “dun play play”, instead, they are like words of mementos. A promise or commitment that leaders made when curtain had just opened and people had their ears anticipating the first word from a leader. Tun Abdul Razak did mention about ‘ketahanan nasional’ (national resilience) which focuses of national stability through political stability. It is Ketahanan Nasional, other political party were invited to join Barisan Nasional for the benefit of whole nation.

Back to Mahathir’s era.

Bersih, Cekap, Amanah. It was the three things that kept echoing in people’s ear. People were expecting a paradigm jump in government service with this three words being kept murmured from mouths of Pak Cik in Kedai kopi and Mak Ciks when they had to grab their clothes from the drying post behind their homes. The introduction of nametags amongst administration staffers, usage of by-then hyper bulky computers, and mandatory punch cards were tangible testaments to the government commitment towards the those three factors.

It was in 1994 when I still see the tin plaque of “Bersih, Cekap, Amanah” hung along the cement floor, corrugated zinc shaded walkway of my previous school in Mentakab, Pahang. I was registering myself for primary school and honestly had nothing to look at as I was dragged by my parents to the class.

Then came the economic boom of the mid-1980s when Tun Mahathir once again created another line that somehow remained sticky in our mind. “Malaysia Boleh” is the new cool. It convinces Malaysian that we can somehow match what developed countries could do. They mass-produce vehicle, we had ability to mass produce, promote and sells our vehicle proudly carrying our brand name. They had iron and steel smelting complex, we had ours too in the form of Perwaja in Kulim and Kerteh. They had petroleum refineries, we had them too in Kerteh. “Malaysia Boleh” become the zealously chanted words when our athlete compete in any sporting competition.

Then, when all else looks bright and promising, we moved to ‘Wawasan 2020’ , a national aim to join the league of developed nation by the year 2020 soonest. It was the anticipation of 2020 when Twin tower spurned out together with the hosting of 1998 Commonwealth games, Formula1, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and finally the administrative capital of Putrajaya. Wonderful reason why young generation tends to look at Dr. Mahathir as an icon is because we used to write about Wawasan 2020 for BM karangan most of the time. When, we wrote those karangan, there were plenty of examples to write about. F1, KLCC, KLIA they all become the generic content (isi lazim) of our karangan. We were thought that our nation is reaching out to become a somewhat ‘shining star’ among the plenty of nations we seen in Geography. There are hundreds of nations out there!

It was the evil Western fascination of categorizing nations between ‘first worlds, third worlds’ that made us played their games to achieve that ‘first world’ status without ever knowing where the heck the second world had gone missing. Utusan even had daily countdown towards 2020 printed on the frontpage some when in 1998. It counted for 7000 over days over and I was giggling and pondering will Utusan give out free editions when the countdown finally reached its destination. Or a mega party?

Yes, that was some of famous utterance that ran out of Malaysian lips nearing the late 20th Century. In 2004, Tun Abdullah Badawi took over and his first lines that were adapted for mass-information were “ Cemerlang, Gemilang dan Terbilang” (Excellent, Glorious and Respected ). It did become famous for a moment because people favor for Pak Lah were somewhat high. Yet, as people woke up each morning, this utterance clearly had no meaning or whatsoever purpose. It serves as verbal impetus without any destiny or reward at the end of road, or at least had any tangible effect. It sure rhymes, but its merely becoming too subjective to what intend those three words could bring. Of course, the slightest idea would to improvise whatever available at the moment for the better. But did it happen? Where is the big-bang of Cemerlang, Gemilang and Terbilang? Did Pak Lah impose death penalty to those who came late for work? Did Pak Lah assembled all government servant and asks them to adjust their clock to a standard time?

Government agencies building began to display huge posters bearing “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang “, something that had given two unreasonable advantage; beautifying the agencies compound and adding pocket money for those contract banner printers. Yet, I had to admit, being in architecture line, I had noticed government graphic designers were weak in employing the most effective graphics. They were more likely conformed to the presets. Maybe those banners played a small part in government dissipation of information; yet, the government should have known that graphic played a significant impact to attract and persuade anyone. They leave a psych footprint just like McD with its golden arches and bright red, yellow writing theme.

It seems Suara Keadilan Online had better graphics – never downplayed the importance of graphic – even Procter&Gamble had spent enormous time and energy into changing the cover of its shampoo bottle in such short period. Why?

Most had gone bored and began to realize that Pak Lah maybe needed some time. Instead, the three rhyming words became mere gimmick as Pak Lah came out with another punchline; this time in a form of religion-centric calls for “Islam Hadhari”. The Islam Governing agency had given the task to inform the public on the concept of Islam Hadhari which until today puzzles me. What is this Islam Hadhari? I dare not to comment. Did the Pendidikan Islam syllabus were changed to accommodate another bab regarding Islam Hadhari? Did the SPM students were forced to elaborate in a 3000word karangan on Islam Hadhari? I would have failed by then as there will be no content to elaborate. Am I a bad muslim because I do not understand this ‘Islam Hadhari’? Wauallahualam.

Now, come Datuk Seri Najib and the ideals of 1Malaysia. But what are the gains and benefits of 1Malaysia has yet to be seen. Is it a concept that is too vague and subjective that a layman just couldn’t understand? Where is the big bang of 1Malaysia because the billion-repeated already-archaic word of perpaduan has become too lame that any given Sunday, hold a poster making competition, the kids will surely draw three main races in Malaysia holding hands. The theme of perpaduan hasn’t moved beyond that.

Lets not pollute 1Malaysia. Limit its usage and educate the public with its concept first. Kementerian Belia dan Sukan recently had initiated this SatuBelia (OneYouth, not to be mistaken with OneU in Damansara Utama), I’m compelled by how many ‘Ones’ will pop out within the cabinet ministers out there. If tourism ministry came out with OneDestination campaign, then, I lose faith with the bodek-ness and lack of ingenuity of these jet-setting well exposed ministers. At least Rais Yatim were rational enough when asked to comment why P.Ramlee movies were enjoyed by all races, he openly refused to refer to it as OneMalaysia concept because its apparently clear that P.Ramlee did not come from Najib Tun Razak generation. He is just himself. Unless, the government had some sort of time travelling machine to brief P.Ramlee about OneMalaysia. Different story lah.

The Flowers of May

2009-05-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

As usual, the month of May have brought me memoirs of Mayday and its connection of workers day, thus, its relation with proletariat, Stalinism and eclectic vision.

Communism; there is no sense of heroic to talk about it. But there is nothing wrong to be in the know. It is because, in 1991, the largest country that embraces had collapsed resulting in formation of Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and a bunch of other independent nations. If Soviet Union had triumphed, this ideology should have been perceived as the best thing. Today, our textbook talks about how ugly communism can be, restricting citizen from actively observe any religion.

Talking about socialism openly can make you dreaded unpopular, just like the case of Kassim Ahmad, a daring thinker whom openly stated that Hang Tuah is merely a blind follower of the Malacca Sultan. Instead Hang Jebat has a brain that calculates and rationalizes. A talk that would otherwise be a kedai kopi humor turned into a national controversy, with some parties suspecting Kassim of being mockingly subversive. Added that socialism comes naturally/almost spontaneously when absolute powers, per se, kings were brought down added more worries. Like a pure lime extract on fresh wound, it was in the 1970s that witnessed the tumultous period and uprising of the ‘normal people’ against monarchs and oligarchies.

Kassim Ahmad headed the PSRM ( Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia ) then, he was then detained under ISA, before being released under Tun Dr. Mahathir premiership. Compassion had softened this thinker heart when he accepted invitation to join UMNO in 1986. This, however, upsets fellow patrons PSRM he used to led. Kassim Ahmad quit active politics in 1992.

Nothing much was heard about him today. He ages 73 as of this year. He never received much scholastic limelight neither invitations to any thinking convention. Perhaps, Kassim Ahmad is a man born with right thinking, but at a wrong place. Only God knows where he will be in years to come. It serves a reminder to all thinkers that being in crossroads of ideologies can be a life changing decision.

On national front, socialism might seem taboo and lethal to the societal fabric, Soviet however had pioneered it with enthusiasm.

Beginning from the Bolshevik takeover ( October uprising ), they hustled to create an identity that would have made the rest of the world recognize them as stable, superior and ideal nation runs on an ultimate ideology. Soviets had visions that are beyond wild imagination which any of budding architects would like to have a peek at.

Soviet Union during its formative years (1930-1950’s), seems to be a land of high ambitions and eclectic visionaries. They wanted to craft a country that as if it existed on its own planet. Pride above any measure which today we antagonizes it as fools pride. Indeed, their geographical influence covers more than 25% of the available land on the face of earth. It is of no wonder if they wanted to transform their landscape into an exotic state the planet has ever seen.

Like Hitler had ordered Albert Speer to create a metropolis that symbolizes the greatness of third Reich, Stalin ordered engineers and architects of his time to construct monumental structures that would capture the imagination of anyone who visits formative Soviet. Both had one thing in common; they never materialized. Nazi German fell and Soviet was engulfed with ever changing leadership reprioritization.

Stalin had apparent feared that the capitalist nation would look more prosperous and progressive with their shiny glass and steel skyscrapers. He feared the Soviet would look too inferior in the eye of world citizens. He desired a perception of socialism on communism means prosperity.

Stalin started the so called seven sisters project, carpeting Moscow with huge landmarks. Summoned seven teams of engineers and architects that made suggestions, drafts and proposals that is subject to Stalin personal approval. One of them would be the scrapped ‘Palace of Soviets’ ( picture right ). Stalin was confident that he could initiate a homebrew design without references to the American counterparts.

Innovation starts deep within academic institution roots; like the Russian Higher Arts and Technical Studios, known to the Soviet as VHUTEMAS, started under the decree of Vladimir Lenin, the predecessor of Stalin. Lenin was quick to realize that measure of great nation also determined their ability to effectively design things. In Spartan-like Soviet Union, everyone would expect they would build more military academies. At VHUTEMAS, budding Soviet designers were though multiple disciplines regarding design and constructivist way of doing things, in accordance to visions of equality and how working-class triumph over absolute powers. Stalin was unhesitant to pick up among the pool of talents.

Timing was incorrect when pieces of metalwork’s originally mend for foundations were dismantled for fortification as Soviet was enduring war with advancing Germany during the time. Stalin was a powerful figure until his death in 1953. When Nikita Khrushchev took over the helm, he cancelled the project for reasons of ‘past grandiose in necessities’

For a large country like that, nothing is too small. The proposed constructivist buildings were many. Here we witnessed many eclectic designs that would recall how Jetsons cityscape would look like on earth. The Commissariat of Heavy Industry, 1934 ( picture left ), included here is an artist impression of the towering structure with a group of Tupolev ANT20 super-aircraft gracefully hovering in the sky, a teaser poster glorifying Soviet industries might and flagship engineering product. Both cease to exist.

Apart from that, other entries were seriously considered, including the ambitious, gigantic and imaginative Konstanstin Melnikov’s proposal of figures holding gear wheels symbolizing the proletariat struggle in moving and thriving Soviet machinery of industries. The stairs leading to this building is tall and beyond practicality for any sane man to use them ( picture below, red background ). This project remained on paper.

In areas of architecture, the Soviet Union had nothing much to prove apart from supremacist and politically motivated aim. In terms of technology, their building was constructed with materials that usually stick to its bare form. A brutal approach per se where concrete were never adorned with ornamentation. Their foundation are heavier and needed deeper excavation than those of Americans, albeit, consuming more materials and costing more money per meter square.

Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, effectively dissolved in 1992 resulting in the formation of new nation along the Eastern Bloc of Europe. Today, when you visit Eastern European nation, traces of Soviet Union can be seen through their buildings. Socialism is still evident in their political system, although not much of communism. The collapse of Soviet left pretty much to be learned.

History never sided with those who lose the war/struggle. Soviet cold war with the United States had shown us that when there are two great powers escalate, we may choose sides and mistake in pledging allegiance may result in bad consequences. Kassim Ahmad may be the one who had constituted great time thinking about the mechanics of socialism; pros and cons. He perhaps, went to Soviet Union to study socialism. Instead, capitalism triumphed. Cold war has long ended and perhaps, the remnants Soviet Union loyalist can ponder how hammer&sickle grasp imagination of people nowadays with Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, Mir space-station and the dog named Laika.

The Leverage

2009-04-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

We all have to admit it, our inability to become an ‘all rounder’ is just too frustrating, or much too sore to mention. So, perhaps, with much denying we resorted to leveraging the weak, towing it with our strength.

It is no shocker, we sees company like Apple tying its strong product like the infamous iPod to iTunes. In Apple website, it is made clear that these two products tightly integrate with each other forming a single entity of ‘iPod+iTunes’. Apple made virtually everyone in this planet that uses the iPod to also use the iTunes, thus leveraging the latter to a better and higher level. At first, I personally think that iTunes is a weak media player that wouldn’t become my preference, if not because of iPod.

Alternative software to load music into iPod is scarcely available. They are reluctantly supported by the music players, providing more trouble than solution. Until today many companies were trying to seek an anti-trust action against Apple Inc. for their monopoly in chaining iTunes with iPod

Geography wise, Putrajaya, when it was established as Malaysia administration centre had directly leveraged Puchong and Balakong ( now renamed to a subtly, and beautifully sound Seri Kembangan ) into a better place. Last time, these places just happens to be in the outskirts of urbanized Petaling Jaya/Subang and local council had just given up the land for landfills. Nowadays, concept housing estate spurn just like mushroom ( For example; Taman Equine, the concept of riding horse as your weekend activities ). Puchong has become a full fledge commercial center bustling with businesses and office building.

In real life, I witness people applying the same strategy, in order to maintain a clean and capable look. You may call it compensation or balancing-up; it all has the same mechanics of the strong tethered and trying to pull the weak into a much leveled field. We seek to make friend with popular, influential and outspoken people, in the sense, we might be endorsed by these people. The sayings of ‘friends forever’ being made motto of much people that I had stumbled upon are merely sayings that were picked up from Hollywood teleseries when indeed it boils down to popularity and influence.

Realistically, we all have to swallow it no matter how distasteful that we get lost without testifying to people an impressive list of ‘I know whom’

Sometimes, leveraging happens within social circle. It’s similar to doing a favor where a well-known person tries to bring another lesser known member to a better position. This is when the popular Malay saying of “ budak baru nak naik” applies. It’s a situation when a young person seems to become fascinated with the things surrounding him/her. As a result, they took a particular thing very seriously with much enthusiast.

Some even had resorted to ‘whatever happens, happens’ method where they struggled to be good in a single particular thing with the expectation that when they had reached the superb level, other aspect of life can be leveraged too. Such as trying luck in reality talent shows, where chances are there.On the other hand, parents reminded us that the only effective and reasonable leverage transporters are to graduate and finish our studies as quickly as possible. In short, social mobility where the leverage factor would be knowledge.

In politics, Tun Dr. Mahathir, which stills a fair amount of influence and followers, had leveraged the newly installed Prime Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak. Tun Dr. Mahathir had openly gave his endorsement towards him, and also his deputy, Muhyiddin Yasin. Datuk Najib, not to say weak, but had a gargantuan task of recovering the National Front from its trauma of political tsunami. Added with the much talked about the killing and exploding of Mongolian woman allegedly linked to him, it seems that Datuk Seri Najib had inherited so many problems. Whether he seeks it or not, a leveraging from renowned statesman like Mahathir seems to do as much as little to regain people trust.

In entertainment front, we see subscription based television channel had been doing heavy leveraging tactic. Overnight celebrities like Mawi were asked to act in lame dramas and host programmes, when he was originally auditioned for signing talent. He would become one of the overexposed faces that majority of the society never get bored to look at. When the company realized that he can such a great asset, they never hesitate to ‘perah habis’ before his fame flame lit out. This would be the finest example of how strong elements within an organization were mobilized to aid the weak elements. Well, nothing much can be said or done, after all, he is an entertainer.

Let’s move to the west. Movie studios across Hollywood tries to rope in established directors to direct movie title which they had rights upon. With superheroes movies are somewhat smeared with ‘boring and common’ label, studios which had purchased rights or made a joint agreement desperately needed to squeeze money from it, let alone, avoid loses. So they roped in established direction with intention to increase fanfare and leverage things up.

The reason I’m pointing this out is just to articulate matters that popped out of self-conscience. Whether it is wrong or right to tether ourselves so that the strong can pull us, that is not within my prerogative and broke neither any general rules nor principles. Possibly, if we are the influential person considering to do a big favor and tether someone else into the mainstage that we had enjoyed big audience, it is up to them too. In short, leveraging would be a subjective matter.

The Niche

2009-04-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

Proton had a well done job by releasing its first MPV, the Proton Exora. It hinted that proton need not to try hard to reach that high sales pitch if....

Even though our economy is seriously at risk of collapsing, the spending power of Malaysian never seems to deter by the current occurrence. Some say that we never dealt with money trading like what Singapore and United States did, instead, we run our economy the ol’skool style. Selling tangible items for money. That is why we remained resilient and steadfast in facing uncertain situations.

Talking about tangible item, there is nothing more satisfying for a family man getting a vehicle that moves his family comfortably, safely and economically. This kind of concern was shown by Proton Exora. These were the things running in their mind perhaps when the first lines were drawn to form its silhouette till the details of dashboards and cup holders.

Proton is of course, a national carmaker company which we either hate or like it. For nationalists Proton represented a national pride that showcases the nation possibilities and marvel of automotive engineering. The Perak Tanjung Malim production plant are hailed as one of the most latest car assembly line; if you have not seen it, then take a time and look at the Malaysian RM100 banknotes, Frankly, It is not easy to establish a car making company with its own platform, design studios and production facilities. Countries that had their own car company could only be hand counted during the inception of proton itself in 1983. That is why, when proton were brought into the United Kingdom some when around 1987, proton motto goes by “Japanese technology, Malaysian style “

Like other carmakers elsewhere, Proton had a long and painful teething period. Widely known, Proton has somehow become one of the most protected companies in Malaysia, its road down the carmaking business are full of thorns; starting from partnership with Mitsubishi which lets us improvise their design but refuses to share drivetrain engineering knowhow. Then, Proton turned to Renault, a French carmaker that we hoped to turn into sexy French maid and make Proton wishes come true; instead, Renault had thrown us dirty laundry to be cleaned off. They supplied us with engines that are barely reliable, as a result, Proton Tiara turned out to be troublesome car that sells cheaper than Vitara VR150 scooter for second hand.

Then, we turned our heads, back on Mitsubishi shoulder supplying us blocks of drivetrains without our engineers practically knowing what formulas were used by Japanese to achieve such reliable, compact and robust engines. Mitsubishi were not there for long, final batches of engines were fitted into the Proton Waja 1.6 ( The 1.8 variant were supplied by French Renault ), then, our engineers came out with purely homegrown CAMPRO engines which can be considered as excellent starting point. Then, Proton seek to synergize its production after realizing that lots of other carmakers began to merge and share platform. That is when the idea of ‘strategic partner’ first mooted.

It gave me a ray of hope when Proton strategically approached Volkswagen for talks of co-operation. Volkswagen is not a performance car company, but, it’s a legendary car company. It’s the living brainchild of Hitler ideas of personal mobility within the fatherland of Germany. Volkswagen can have the bragging rights of first successful mass produced vehicle through its Beetle. Volkswagen is a testament of German affinity for technical precision (have you saw Volkswagen Eos retract its hardtop? ), plus, Volkswagen had a successful track record of reviving troubled carmakers; for instance the incorporation of Czech Republic Skoda in 1990. The pale yellow Skoda Fabia that you may see on road actually shares the same floorplan as Volkswagen Polo, frankly

Yet, we failed to reach ultimatum for some unforeseen reason. I was daydreaming that Perdana would be sharing its base with the sleek, sexy Gisele Bunchen-esque Passat CC. Now, we’re back hunting for foreign partners.

History teaches us something

Renault, the French carmaker that we wished magically turn into a wickedly sexy French maid had been through thorns earlier than Proton had gone through. Their ‘saga’ started during the launch of 1982s’ Renault25, which Renault intended to fight head on with German marquees such as Mercedes Benz and BMW. Quite an ambitious aim to offer the world an alternative of French taste.
They were engulfed with quality problems and production flops. Equipment keeps falling off even though the power of this car is nothing short of 5-Series and E-classes. Luckily, the nationalistic French did check this car out, which in turn helped Renault to stay afloat in the executive market segment.

Renault felt that hope is still alive, and head on to release the Renault Safrane ( beautiful name indeed ) . That was in 1992 which year I recognizes car had a clean cut design that tries to reduce materials similar used inside homes; such as furniture look alike wood paneling and wall analogue clock. Again, the bad reputation of the previous car had lingered to this model.

French, usually dissed for their giving-up never really applied this attitude for Renault, when its third tryst resulted in the awkward looking Vel Satis (a term referring to Velocity Satisfaction). Anyone in the industrial design would like to read stories what kind of erotic and exotic images were playing in the car designer minds while blueprinting this vehicle. Must be the ‘avant-garde’ (ahead of time) attitude which French designers subscribed themselves to). The Vel Satis is still positioned as an alternative option for Beemers and Mercs, which had already earned distinctive reputation.

This time around, Renault did what Proton did, but with a different twist. Getting engines from Japanese is nothing short of reliable. They got their engines from Nissan, a company which were partially acquired sometime in 2000. They kicked Japanese MD and replaced it with Carlos Ghosn, a figure which my dad used to enthuastically tell when I was more interested in Digimon. His leadership skill helped to turn Nissan fortune around.

Proton relationship with Mitsubishi was just partnership. While Renault had purchased a portion of Nissan. When Renault acquired Nissan, it means less obstruction of engine-making know how transfers, for the benefit of mankind. Like you and me, we get fuel efficient and quicker cars. If you happen to see any Nissan Latios, then, from its design, you may quickly notice its unusual rear body wrap and slightly tall proportion, the car has reminiscence of Renault Vel Satis. I wonder if they had the same designers.

Vel Satis is eight years old at the moment this entry is written and has never seen any refreshes. Honestly, I’m excited to see what those ‘avant garde’ French designer going to come out this time around, but, nah, not much news on Vel Satis. It signifies Renault buried effort to compete with Beemer and Mercs, too far being an alternative, so where did Renault go when for the last eight years?

Instead of executive car market, Renault just went on to develop hot hatches. Cars like Clio and Megane seems to experience more development thus shedding more limelight on them. Renault knew after three trysts and a few decades of effort, they cannot achieve that ambitious aim to dethrone German marquee out of the ring, so they went to a lighter category which is the lightweight championship. Hot hatches really have lots of appeal for both young and old. In times where fuel price is very unstable, a hot hatch would be a cute, quick and efficient city transporter. You can park it easily without worrying much the rear would hit the concrete divider or you might want to trail another car as close as possible as hot hatch usually has shorter-spanned engine boot.

Renault instantly gained a reputation of making performance hot hatches. A reputation neither set or foreseen by the bosses last 15 years. A Blue Renault Megane had just passed me by a few months ago, and by its presence aura, I’m just impressed, until I can vividly remember till today. Not forgetting the red hot Renault Clio RS197 selling at price nearing Volkswagen Golf GT, which perhaps has got the same performance parity. Care for a chariot race with 197 French horses in-front of you?

This should give Proton an example that it wouldn’t be a handicapped carmaker if its product range lacked of four-door full sedan or two-door hatchbacks. It wouldn’t become a stumbling block if Proton lacked of its performance tuning division like R3. If that carmaker were mine, I would have dissolve R3 and dropped Gen.2, Satria Neo and Perdana. Instead a family-oriented, fuel saving cars like Savvy, Saga and particularly Exora will be farther developed and enhanced.

We all know, Proton wants to be the alternative carmaker for all categories of vehicle; minivans, sedans, hatches, entry-level, executives, but yet, if Proton can only compete for its price points, then, things can become really torture for customers that are forced to purchase a vehicle just because they are cheap but lacked certain necessities like ABS, fire extinguishers and airbags. I suggest Proton retreated to the value segment. Proton advertisement shall features users with their pets enjoying comfy smooth rides, or a mak cik going to surau for maghrib prayers signifying the practicality and fun. The dissolved R3 engineers shall be incorporated into researching for best shock absorbers that are suitable for Malaysian pot-hole rich roads, in the end of the day, Proton can have a reputation for silky smooth rides similar to what French Citroen had now with their unique Oleopneumatic suspension.

Although electric or hybrid engines are far out of reach, Proton can possibly make an outstanding fuel economic cars. Say, 5litres per 100kilometers? Sadly, we have sold MV Agusta due to bad management. Whatever is done is done, yet, if MV Agusta is still here, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad had predicted that the superbike company can produce small ‘potent’ engines to power supermini like Savvy. This make real sense, as Majlis Perbandaran contract workers responsible for grass cutting routine, had their backpacks powered by single cylinders engine (yes, they are wearing petrol consuming internal combustion engines on their back). Superbikes like Caviga had even powerful engines that may outrun Kancil if transplanted into four door compacts. Why not? Let Proton be known for low fuel guzzling car.

Performance is a subjective matter. If anyone is addictive to speed and burning petrol, they can get the Masseratis or Gumperts. When entering value segment, its mend for people who would want to spend their cash with prudence. It’s a balanced ratio of many features per ringgit. The Chinese preferred to purchase Honda City or Toyota Vios, most of them think they are economical, comfortable, spacious, low maintenance with reasonable resale values. If Proton had downsized its range, perhaps, they can gain more saving and concentrate researching to enhance Proton Saga. So that, the 3rd generation Saga would be the best competitors to next generation Vioses and Cities.

We surely wouldn’t want Proton to collapse or shamefully being eaten up by other company and seeing our contractors crying foul. Downsizing and retreating to the value segment would probably the next best thing to do. Let Savvy, Saga and Exora do the work to impress. The rest of ASEANS too would love comfy cars like them. Lets get back to the ol’skool way of doing business; selling something tangible.

When things seems to be better, Proton may just retain the family-movers image and establish a performance spin-off brand; like Lexus for Toyota. Perhaps Prestasi for Proton? Anybody seen a 250 Malaysian horses?

The Thought Reservation

2009-03-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Did you know it only cost RM2 to be a member of UMNO.

A relative of mine is a member of UMNO, and that is what he told me about the fees. Pay it, and I’m officially a Pemuda UMNO, the youth wing of Malaysia biggest political party.

Wait! I never filled any form or pay any fees as I do not know the privileges or advantage of being a Pemuda. But I have to bear in mind that UMNO should be seen as a platform to express struggle and plight of the Malays. Much Malay struggle has been seen with UMNO in the scene; from gaining independence, establishment of universities, setting-ups of MARA and pooling of ready-to-use funds for small entrepreneurs.

Do I have to sacrifice my RM2 to qualify myself in showing respect, love and faithfulness towards my nation and race? This is not a trivial question. Once you join UMNO, you are in the game, your fledging nationalistic spirit will be channeled towards things that matters. Your sweat soak the skin due to following orders from leaders that seems to felt how much Malays needed that helping hand. Our ancestors which may have their deepest trust in UMNO (some may choose SABERKAS? PKMM?) had walked several miles under the scorching hot sun just to assist the anti-Malayan Union poster printing. Our ancestors may have ridden the bicycle from deepest region of kampongs to attend rallies.

If we, the current generation of Malays failed to realize the importance of UMNO and keep it relevant, then, the previous generation tiring walk and bicycle rides may just be nothing but just plain tiring.

But that is 1950s. Time had moved on and we are now living in time of One Utama can make your leg feel numb. In a generation where Louis Vuiviton has opened its boutique in Kuala Lumpur and the word ‘Allah’ has been a subject of debate for Christian usage. Malaysia has become somewhat a safe and fun place to live. And regional nationalistic are things easily to disregard, dropped into the rubbish bin for something much more flexible like liberal thoughts. Do not get shocked, if gay rights advocate already existed in the heart of this populous and ever-urban Klang Valley. Today, people who speak about being idealist nationalistic are labeled as close-minded people. In the 1950, gay rights activist may have themselves killed and bodies thrown into the river.

Why thrown into river? Are Malays bunch of uncivilized lynching mob ruling society? One word, every man has its breaking point. Things like bumiputra concept and the Sultanate, if anyone within this crowded highway infested Klang Valley felt its cool and safe within the liberal-minded neighbourhood to point out it is the Malay Achilles heel and ploy to throw acid and cause hurt on it while laughing like a SpongeBob square pants; does it sound these people had bad intentions?

No. Under the pretext of equal rights and freedom, acids are allowed to be thrown at bumiputra concept and Sultanate. They might be regarded as heroes which life struggles awaits movie-adaptation by some indie mop-like haired director, when people like me may just be another homo of Utusan reading and TV3 watching man.

Truthfully, I would want to be a Pemuda UMNO and strengthen it from inside, but, what are the odds of me bringing something fruitful when money are the grease that keeps UMNO running? Its ashamed to be part of UMNO nowadays, its much more ashamed to leave UMNO when its weak.

I reserved my decision about Pemuda. If Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of incumbent oh-so-clean UMNO president is the role model of next generation Pemuda, perhaps he might just picked up too much negative vibe. Yet, its UMNO blessing to have Oxford graduate as one of its leaders. Opposition party, as usual, they talked about Khairy as being “man with right university, wrong mindset”

If UMNO is a taboo word for you, perhaps, we can talk something else.

A television channel usually gained its revenue through airtime advertisement. Now, they seem to diversify through initiation of websites and carnival. Yet, airtime advert seems to be their prime source of stable revenue.

The problem with free-to-air commercial television station is to keep their advertisement short. Audience would have complained or shift channel once there are too many advertisement to watch. Losing viewership rating means losing popularity thus having low penetration rate, chasing away prospect advertisers. TV station had to balance things out, with each year, rebranding themselves with announcement like “10% lesser advertisement” to entice audience. While, on the commercial side, the TV channel kept convincing prospect advertisers about innovative advertise-on-air, advertising through sponsorship, website advertising etc. etc.

If wastage, corrupt and marking-ups amongst UMNO itself has become very critical, rampant and beyond repair, perhaps, UMNO leadership should consider things like balancing up. Vote buying is of course non-existent for commercial TV station added with reliable no-stake owed audit body. Yet, political party like UMNO should have known that thing can get really tricky when too much money rolling within its members yet votes from rakyat showed that they are losing ‘viewership’

When too much money used to grease the party, UMNO member ‘vote-value’ may varies greatly to a rakyat ‘vote-value’. I might as well remain as an affiliation-free rakyat.

Come to think again, if free-to-air TV station made us wait with their commercial, why not we do the subscription-based channel like Astro? They reduce the ads by charging certain fees to its audience? Can UMNO ‘model’ itself to be less government contract-reliant by pooling resources from its 8 million over members? Just like Obama collect money from his supporters to fund his campaign?

Looking at our economic strength, and the caterpillar money-hungry mark-up champion member of parties (not all), it seems like UMNO is far-far away from being a ‘commercial-free’. UMNO still had to do that balancing act of grease money and winning favors in-tandem.

The Fuzzy Logic

2009-01-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

In this age of hybrids, metrosexuality and iMacs. We all wanted the best of two things.

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand what is fuzzy logic. If you were asked about your age? How would you answer to that? If you counted your age relative to months ,then, you wouldn’t be any older till the month comes. If

counted according to years, then you age have risen up a notch as we step into new year. Apparently both are logical answer.

In this new age, even facebook seems to understand people affinity towards fuzzy logic; with its status preferences showing options of single, in a relationship, married, engaged, In an open relationship or just plain confused. Imagine how boring it would be to see either SINGLE or TAKEN shown on our profile instead when we are neither. Today, we usher an era where we don’t just answer a query in binary manner of either a 0=YES or 1=NO. Alternatively, world is not only painted in black and white. They consisted in many shades of grey.

There are no frustrating responses other than these ‘grey responses’. Being a simple minded person, we are subject to tremendous pressure of people telling you its not a NO but not a YES either. Its somewhere in the middle of unchartered territory. Like the age question: it can either be partially true and partially wrong at one time. This usually occurs in relationship.

When you have a relationship with someone, as we know, there is no way to calculate or measure affection. Mankind had gone to extreme length to measure moles of chemicals and photons of lights which seems to be too vague to calculate for the rest of us. Affection on other hand, an emotional response triggered by god-knows-what. The moment a couple seems to ‘agree’, it seems everything leads to YES. Unlimited and without holds.

In this fuzzy logic world, the term YES can branch into several types of YES. A 25%YES does exist and differs greatly from 75%YES. Occasionally, we met those kind of people that took advantage of fuzzy logic. A girl who uses the word ‘sayang’ to no matter whom she talked to. Sensible sense wise, sayang is a word reserved to someone who we really care. Its akin to honey. But perhaps, due to the oh-so-urban attitude and bye-bye-conventional kick-ass image projection, everyone gets their bit of sayang. She explained its simply not wrong to call friend sayang; She loves her friends. Then I asked what does she call the person she really affectionate? She cleverly answers “itu cinta”. I did asked further what a difference with kekasih, buah hati, teman mesra as there will be various type of parallel relationship, and there it goes a long list of this-can-be-done and cannot-be-done. Kekasih can co-exist with teman-mesra; buah-hati, sayang and cinta can exist simultaneously to form a threesome(?) and so on so on. Like a prepaid combo packages and cross-lines call tariffs. It differs.

I wonder why? When things can be as simple as binary YES or NO. ALL or NOTHING. BLACK or WHITE. There are people who subscribed to this type of complexity of OBVIOUSLY YES, PERTIALLY YES, HALF-HEARTED YES, NO-BUT STILL…, DEFINITELY NO, NOT NECESSARILY NO-NO.

Yet, I do not blame or get mad with these people and their ‘grey responses/fuzzy logic’ they are giving. We are not SQL server where there is a chart for each responses. We are not lawyers which strikes question and the responses are majorly YES or NO ( during trials ). We are humans, given ears to listen and brain to reason things out. So, I take time to listen and you are damn right, this ‘grey responses/fuzzy logic’ takes loads of time. Most of the time, its counter-productive and takes us into a confusing rabbit hole. Fuzzy logic is perhaps akin to ‘beating around the bush’ talk. That is why CEO only hears report during meeting, either they GAIN or LOSE. Military Commanders with their confirmation of either GO or ABORT. Quick and simple.

Fuzzy logic may be applied in good ways. As ways to avoid bursting people bubble or high expectation, we frankly tell them that the result varies from a degree to a certain degree. Fuzzy logic can form a distancing mechanism where once a couple declared their relationship, the affirmation is somewhat partial, in effect, there would not be an express make-love-on-sandy-beach getaway. YES is not a 100% YES. Fuzzy logic echoes the English superlatives for instance; good, better, best- logically, they all are what we wanted; but which one exactly?

Fuzzy logic can be played for the fun of it. Like hooking up with someone which serves as stepping stone before hooking up with much more desirable partner.It’s a logic that we speak, yet it has a blurry bottom line. And because our mind digests ‘logic’ easily it doesn’t matter if it has blurry bottom line, for as long as its logic!

The opposite of fuzzy logic will be crisp logic. A logical sense that is very much recognized, that it seems clear and crisp. In short; it will be like answering a Q like a binary machine: YES or NO.