The Outreach

There is no such thing as spiritual corruption. But the act of giving and providing salvation is something that can drive people to commit leap of faith.

Imagine Baghdad which had population of 5million people (compared with Klang Valley 1.5million) rocked by bombs, mortars and artillery shells. The earth shook like a thousand trains or rollercoaster starts to rumble on its tracks. Apartments were without facades, roads turns into replicas of moon surface and air were filled with smells of weaponry carbide. The only entertainment is a mono-stereo battery powered ala-walkman radio, looters are everywhere, food were scarce and soldiers were ravaging homes for something to please their homesick bone dry libidos. They're bored of playing blackjack rummy while chomping on tobacco.

During war, there is always a spot called the ‘sanctuary’. A place which these struggling to survive, war torn people seek salvation and protection. A safe place where blankets and bread were miracalously available in such situation . A confinement which the military would not deliberately fire on, or bombs fall onto, neither shelled. This is due to a pact made to confirm that the ‘sanctuary’ areas belongs to the ‘White Zone’ as what being ruled out in laws of engagement or whatsoever convention. During wartime, these so-called sanctuary are actually The Church

Churches exist not only in warzones. Of course, in warzones, they don’t just pop up out of osmosis when the machines of war is rolling at full throttle, but even before the initiatives of war, churches are already there, erected with a cause to spread Christianity practice the teachings. Lets shift our focus on slump and poor areas. Churches may established by small groups of missionaries in the midst of the slump. In the crowded unplanned high density urban slump, where the inhabitant were living merely enough to feed themselves, getting themselves cleaned in communal bath-house which just a piece of corrugated zinc is separating their naked body from the public eyes. Living in a depressed situation where they were surrounded by the hectic and catalytic urbanization and highly competitive mechanics of capitalism, they become nothing but a bunch of depressed city workers. The churches started preaching, doing activities, contributing charity drive on weekly basis, later on daily basis. Finally, fully involved with the communities of the slump.

It’s these churches that starts giving them the materials needs and protection. War aids were sometimes made available at the hands of the churches first, which, in effect made these refugee seekers or civilian war victims seek their help in an act of survival. Like a stream of ants seeking sugar crystalline. How did the churches got the deal of receiving the war-aids firsthand? Or come to a term with military commanders to declare their areas as ‘white zone?’. The chain of organization which these Churches belonged has ensured that their demands were made heard through influential entities. May it be United Nation, or nations which had war superiority or bargaining power of terms. Connection runs globally, funds for churches seems like inexhaustible.

Of course, without prejudice, help are given without regards of religion background. Churches were there to help. And the act of giving eventually made the receiving end to feel owed. The role of churches as sanctuary and lifeline to those who had lost everything during the war, had nothing to repay except by submitting themselves to the causes which saved them at the first place. Thus, they decided to join those who had helped them tirelessly. They even jumped into the same cause, reason and finally faith.

The terms spiritual corruption never existed. No single religion conjures corruption. They were translated into the ‘art of giving’ or in other words ‘giving is caring’.

This might be the new paradigm of Christianity spreading of their teaching. Through lightening the burden of others in need especially when war, crisis, poverty, famine and instability is everywhere. This are their chances. The terms ‘spiritual opportunist’ also does not exist, since religion do encourage us to offer assistance when someone is in dire need of help. So, the missionaries made themselves available and presence seen through churches in a middle of urban slumps or in the deepest jungle tribal villages. If medical officers were needed, the church had theirs delivered. If teachers were needed, the church may even built schools and provided the sylibii

In Malaysia, where peacefulness happens like hot and humid happens all year long, the pagan, atheist or ancestral worshipping in the deepest regions of Borneo are those which were approached and offered by the gives. The missionary were the first to approach them and their preachers were the first preach them about ‘revealed’ religion. Even in the less jungle covered peninsula Malaysia, the orang aslis are most likely to be approached by these determined missionaries with their makeshift churches.

As a Muslim, living in Malaysia which had a repeated stance as a Islamic nation ( negara Islam), we should have felt the brunt of being left behind in finding possible mualaf (Islam converts). We even have lost counts of those who converted to Islam but received poor attention and supervision in leading their life of new faith. Which in the end, they decided to revert, with our syariah court justifying this on grounds of ‘not practicing or no proof of practicing the Islam’ (look who is talking?). Are we capable of maintaining a single surau located near a deep jungle tribal village 100km southeastern of Miri, Sarawak? Lacking funding? No willing worker, sponsors? If not then maybe our organization is weak somewhere somehow.

What made church comfortably available and stood the worst situation ever imagined? The bombarded, artillery shelled Baghdad? The rebellious post-Taliban city of Kabul? The densely populated and depressed slumps of Jakarta or Calcutta? Sudan scorching hot sun exposed refugee camp? They are well financed, well managed, and well received by the locals. A blessing, some might say. What motivates their organization to have access and bargaining power in almost all of situation? How did they get much funding? Where did they round-up the expertise (doctors, engineers, geologist etc. etc.)? What made them contribute very generously? There must be a motive which had thrived this places of worship to flourish and wins the heart of the locals . Perhaps, if we had found out the real motivation, the ulamaks over here too would scramble quickly to the deepest plateau of Sabah and Sarawak to approach the tribes and start leading them the way of our straight path.

The Stepping

Kids, teen and adult. Like a rule of thumb, the stepping of 7,14,21 are the important ages of which every level, the treatment and relationship with parents took a drastic turn.

I used to listen to one tazkirah ( preach ) by an ustaz regarding family management ala kursus kahwin ( marriage course ). Ustaz was really serious at the time as his mood swings from light sarcastic to seriously sharp eye stare. I almost felt like a sharp beam of radioactive laser pierced through my retina as he stared at me and everyone else in the surau. He mentioned about the gift of child by god is a rahmat ( blessing) and we were given the amanat ( responsibility/accountability) to grow the child up into a useful and resourceful person. He simply referred a child has three stage of growth and each stage has its individual style

Lifting his thumb into the air, all of us stared at his thumb like he is going to cast sprites of Magical aura. Instead, he mentioned a thing which I still vividly remember till this moment:-

" Children, should be well taken care and given the attention he/she needed. At times, the children can be pampered accordingly. Do not hit them as they are too young to accept punishment as method of teaching. They should be fully guided and supervised in almost everything they do to avoid damaging mistakes”

Then, he raised his forefinger joining the thumb, he later explained: “ When a child has grown older, till his/her age made them eligible to perform prayer ( usually at the age of 7 for boys, when menstrual cycle start for girls ) , then, parents should teach them in a strict manner. A child at this age shall be hit or punished in whichever way as long as it does not cause injury or handicap. Advice should be given to them as much time as possible to ensure they internalize the moral and civic values which the family stood for all this while. Guidance and supervision is still given but gradually lessened to ensure learning has taken place. So does the environment of being pampered must be reduced to an intermediate/minimal amount “

Later, he proceed and lifted the middle finger in a combination of gapless three finger arrangement and says: “ Sampai takat ni, buat macam kawan saja la…” (At this level, then a parent shall treat their children as friends ). Everybody was either half nodding, full nodding or just looking at their friends followed by occasional laughter. It was a clear indication that at that level means any parents intervention on decisions, stance and thinking is ineffective or non-compulsory as at that age, rationality had reached to a maturity level. In short: Independence of thoughts.

It was on my 21^st birthday a month ago when my dad dropped by in KL. I fancied myself with the ‘best meal in the world’ at a hotel in Jalan Sultan Ismail, when dad mentioned something ‘out of this world’. A word which is very eerie eversince I was whispered by his azan when I was still an infant.

“ Now that you have grown tall and big, you can think on your own, make decision on your own and choose paths that’s really fits you well… You are on your own “. My eye become extremely rounded, rounder than that eye-of-Malaysia, that I thought that his words immediately means I need to pay the rent of the apartment room. The whole rent, electric, water and internet bills?. Worst my college fees. My heart skipped triple beat. It sounded like he is leaving everything down to me, cutting all ties. Along the way to Cyberjaya, I knew that his advice were more of deeper meaning that he wanted to convey, which he wanted me to realize that at 21, I should be in a way or another capable of making the best choice for myself. He had put much hope that with this kind of liberty, I would lead myself to someplace better and would not get too drunk in liberty since it can be damaging when not exercised properly.

Then, I realized that the moment has come when a big change has occurred. I recalled, that when I entered primary school, my dad always hit me when I did something wrong or inappropriate. All the privilege which I used to have when I was still a little tot are gradually lost and never ever felt again. At 14, it became more frequent that I’m being severe punished. Felt like life is dwindling into a world of invisible ‘curfews’ for almost everything. I’m not wrong this time that liberty is fully mine at 21^st , perhaps, as property planned by my parents, are the time when I shall be decide freely without much ‘veto-rization’.

Tomorrow I received a call from mom informing me that I have gotten the ‘kunci’ (key) in which she will never again interfered my decision, action and thoughts. She mentioned about reduced nagging session which made me smile a bit. She repeatedly mentioned ‘The key is all yours’. How should I respond? Yahoo! at the top of my lung? No. Infact, Worry irks me.

I admit, it was the best birthday present to be able becoming the sole-pilot of myself. Not much obstruction or interference from this moment on. It is a transition which I had anticipated for the past decade of my life. It is the perfect time to move on as how much longer would I be stuck with the ‘rules and regulation’ and time-consuming parental advisory, yet, there is serious doubt that I can handle this liberty very delicately as it demands. For surely, I lacked of brotherly figure to give views relevant to generation similar to mine. When a fatherly figure has decided that its significant power to intervene to be drastically reduced/withdrawn, I probably become virtually lost, in terms of guidance. It is like a leap of faith similar to that acrobat jumper which is thrown without anyone to grab. Which will be my prerogative of how should I grab the next rope, which hung is not covered by safety net.

As for now, I do not rely on single person for self-benchmarking. I had multiple friends which project qualities in different fields. Like the Malay sayings ambil yang jernih buang yang keruh ( Take the good, put away the bad ), I had observed them as an exemplary. Do I follow them?, honestly, it is not my way of doing things according to other people, but I had adjusted and indeed I did look them as mentor with many of them not realizing it.

It is a Malay proverb which really stirs the conscience to be less egoistic such as ‘ Sudah bodoh tak mahu diajar, sudah pandai kedekut mahu mengajar’ , in times like this the cold-harsh bit of reality has fully become the disciplinarian. Punishment of reality is sometime very shocking and tragic to bare. Like proposal to couple-up with an uptown girls being squarely rejected? . Nevermind, multiply it by seven.

As what precisely kind of treatment I will get, shall remain questionable as I have not back since PAS took hold of Kedah in March this year. Politics has nothing to do with parents-child relationship, yet the family institution is the smallest institution to govern, and there are style dealing with the various paradigm of family

One of the paradigm is the reality of the 7,14,21 stepping. I have reached the end of the stepping and wandering: What Next? The number 28 seems to echo a call for another commitment of a new dimension. And the 7,14,21 cycle would start all over again perhaps?

The Clockwork

Situation 1:A Singaporean clerk earns 2000S$ and their petrol costs RM5+.
Situation 2:Our clerk earns RM2000 and our petrol costs RM2.70.
Telling people that a tonne of feather is heavier than a tonne of steel is silly, yet,ministers were screaming that our petrol is the lowest in the region.

I’m always having trouble with precise timing. I often discussed it with my mom over the phone, the deal is, when class starts at 3pm I’m supposed to be at the bus stop as soon as 2.40 as busses comes around 2.45pm ( Go to hell with the RapidKL 15mins interval ‘Tempatan’ routes statement, they indeed come every 45+ mins ). My mom said that if that happens, then leave the apartment as early as possible. Probably 2.30, so, I’ll be doing exposed to radiant heat and staring at strings of big-sunshade wearing college girls which indeed have ugly eyes.

Doing architecture, every minute is very vital. The trouble and hustle of writing a 2’’x7’’ name tag on six days and six night’s model really worth taking . Without a tag on your hard-to-made model simply means a refusal to grade the model, not even look. Every minutes is tried as hard as possible to not to be wasted on hasty unproductive things, thus, making the act of walking down to the bus stop 30minutes early as virtually unviable solution.

Yet, with an intention of precise timing, I did reach the bus stop before my 3minutes before my forwarded clock strike 2.45pm. The estimation of time which the bus should have/will appear. Shockingly, as I arrived at the bus stop, I notice there was only a person there. Perhaps he wanted to go to the college too, as the way he casually dressed, does not look like he is going to drop by KL. I was becoming increasingly nervous as I approached the little stop with a person underneath it.

As my clock strikes 2.45pm, I stood still for another 4 minutes before proceeding to ask the only breathing person that exist there besides me “ Where is the bus? “ (Inappropriate question which that person too has got to ask), then he started explaining that he misses that last bus which arrived on 2.30pm. Yup, he is the first victim and I’m a poor man to join him in the statistics. Quickly I did a brief calculation in my brain which forwarded 45minutes from the previous bus passes and it will definitely arrive no sooner than 3.15pm. Yes, 15 minutes of doing nothing. Adding the ‘sweetness’ would be a sight of architecture student carrying boxes no smaller than a CPU casing ( ATX precisely ). Sitting, waiting and wishing upon the scorching heat of sun for the RapidKL busses to arrive early.

Still doubtful, my late attendance is obviously noted by the lecturers, but the nightmares of Rapid drivers going for some coffee breaks and perks has flooded my thoughts with possibility of waiting the bus as long as 3:45PM, Worst 4pm. Completing the 1-Hour cycle of nothing but bus-waiting. It would be unwise to walk back and climb up to the 11th floor of my apartment with the huge boxes I'm carrying.

This kind of situation, being retold to mom through the marvel of cellular network reaching hundred kilometers away to Sg.Petani is being treated with such a saddening explanation. I’am regarded as putting/shifting/transferring the blame on RapidKL instead of disciplining myself.

Who can tolerate this type of inefficiency and incompetency in Malaysia? Pak Lah who is vying to become and would mostly be nominated for ‘Bapa Pembangunan Insan’ through his cliché of Cemerlang, Gemilang dan Terbilang has made something contradictory? What has become of his word to improvise the public transportation system? Perhaps the lackluster of today Malaysia can be blamed on Tun Mahathir exhausting national reserves on megaprojects. The failure to eradicate corruption and ‘yes-man’ syndrome was blamed on Tun Mahathir whom planted the seeds of corruption and cronyism in the government, perhaps, in his 5th year at helm, Pak Lah can blame Tun Mahathir for triggering rapid urbanization and industrialization which reduces the hectares of rubber plantation vital for making tires of public transportation buses. Ironically, the nature of blaming 'legacy' problems fits the requirement for our current PM to step down and be replaced with someone really competitive like Muhyiddin Yassin, Rais Yatim or mostly Najib Tun Razak.

Do not forget the recent hike in petrol prices may have a very big impact on students like me. Indeed, I never drove any car yet at the moment, which means I heavily relied on busses and taxies to get to my college which is situated a little less than 4kilometres from my apartment. The case of unreliable busses leaves me with no option but to cling onto another alternative which is the taxis. Probably, it is too early to tell whether they are increasing the non-metered flat-priced journey fare, but it seems they will do it. The chain effect of fuel hike will see the immediate increased price of daily goods. They, the drivers, had to do something to earn extras in compensating with their rising cost of living, which means increasing the current fare. The victim: us, students.

There is always a very cynical solution amongst the less-constructive thinking people who might suggest me to quit studying in Cyberjaya. It may sound deeply rhetoric like “Why study in Cyberjaya when you start to see the costs is unbearable?” or “if you wanted to avoid pricey items and higher cost, then study elsewhere”. I assume this type of rhetoric is rather creating another barrier/problem on top of existing problem. Same goes to the present administration which had been cleverly rhetorical on Malaysian way of life. Instead of moving forward, they urged the rakyat to live more frugal; to the extent of driving less than 100kmph. The speed limit in Malaysia topped at 110kmph

But there is no rhetoric when facing Pak Lah and his league of capable cabinet leaders. The reason I say that is when UMNO and BN is blessed with abundance of economists, entrepreneurs, financial advisers, which knowledge had been garnered from various prestigious and established school of respective matter, yet, the failure to formulate an effective and well-conceived policy has hampered us as rakyats.

These heavily knowledgeable people inside BN/UMNO can make a lot of difference. They may follow the footsteps of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Daim Zainuddin which are regarded as the economy architect of modernized Malaysia during the Mahathir-era. Situation may be different 20 years back then and now, yet it has been a long way which Malaysia economy has been battered with the uncertainties of global economics, and believe me, we have learned a lot. But lessons have been wasted as none of these highly capable economists have debriefed Pak Lah on the cause and effects of actions. Perhaps Pak Lah himself is not interested in overlooking and making checklist to determine the implementation went well or not. I used to hear stories of Tun Mahathir overseeing the Twin Tower construction as if it’s a government building when its just an office spaces and shopping complex. Perhaps for Pak Lah, he is just interested in seeing paperwork reports that is submitted to him every week or so.

I guess, this is what happened to his noble intention to ‘improvise the efficiency of public transport’. The report that arrives on Pak Lah desk says that our public transport is at satisfactory level while the rakyats like me bore the brunt and went through hell of incompetent public transport. The newly established Rapid Penang suffered a huge blow as users and commuters complained about the bus inconsistency ensued with its bus drivers strike on some disagreement with the operators. Who to blame now? Fingers keep crossing here and there. Are the users not disciplined expecting to see busses arriving at their disposal? Or are the drivers were taking too much perks and time off? Or does the operators are doing some mission impossible stuff by pushing their drivers into doing long routes within a ridiculously short time span?

My opinion, neither government nor the opposition, cannot avoid the spiteful decision of increasing fuel price. But, at this dramatic 78cent level is somewhat painful to take, still, there is a logic in making this one-time decision. If the rakyat dragged this matter to the streets of KL into violent prolonged demonstration, worst case scenario, government would lower the hike to 50cent ( to RM2.42 per litre), prior to their lowest option to increase fuel price of 50cents, 78cents and 1ringgit . The best the government can show their lauded ‘concerns’ for the rakyat is to seriously improvise and consolidate the reliability of public transportation. Today, the public transport has become chronically less preferred (for various reason) even the college girls here are seeking boys with their own vehicle as perquisite to date them. This casts a serious doubt over my aim to end single life by October this year.

Yet, there is no need to have highly intellectual intelligentsia think tank persona to revamp the Malaysian public transport system ( perhaps all the intelligentsia were leased to the judiciary reform task, anti-inflation committee and EPU's ), well then, lets just have a highly motivated operation managers that would debrief Pak Lah on a concrete roadmap. Get Pak Lah himself to do a checklist on the progress. Checklist that he himself fill/ticks, strictly no more report prepared by kaki-bodek. It’s the least he can do if had lost checklist counts for his 5 bombastic corridors. Lets make public transportation as a preferred choice. Lets make it convenient and easy . If it happens, then Pak Lah is partially eligible to claim his ‘Bapa Pembangunan Insan’ title.