The Frail Upperhand

The recent government announcement to precede with the reduction of bumiputras scholarship quotas is an impressive and bold move. It reflects government, particularly ruling party commitment towards bangsa Malaysia and multiracial spirit, not forgetting, same field competition. Bravo.

Some may speculate UMNO had a hideous ploy to punish Malays for voting the PR. Well, this must be a sore loser’s revenge when bumiputra terms covers the indigenous Ibanese, Melanaus, Kelabits and others which resides here earlier and longer than any of us. Perhaps, the most important and basic thing is, the JPA ( equivalent to Public Service Department ) scholarship should be never looked as a racial matters. In the spirit to forge the ‘bangsa malaysia’, there should never be this kind of quotas imposed. It is time to consider abolishing the race query inside the JPA forms and instead SPM grades shall be placed at first and foremost pages of the request form. This to make it clear, the highest numbers of A’s shall receive the merit; like one of the outspoken short-tempered UMNO bald-headed warrior said “ …yang dapat 13A, kita pejam mata bagi biasiswa”. It must be a pleasant view to see the outspoken of UMNOs to make such a statement. A calming breeze that runs through the veins and cavity of a worried heart.

Speculation based on racial stance also arises when Peraks’ Pasir Salak MP Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman rises from his seat and stirred a turbulence in the parliament hall about his disagreement towards the rearranged JPA quotas. Crises and taunts are bouncing off everywhere. He became absolutely mad till he had furiously expressed his disagreement with whatsoever compromising changes made at the cost of Malay rights. He even challenged anyone who refuted his statement to leave the parliament, so he can prove himself right with four eyed meeting at the lobby at instance. He is fighting two evidently different sides when he also find utterly disgusting to raise his hands in approval for suggestions made by his party. He sure felt disgruntled to be in UMNO, as its fundamental role to protect and preserve the rights of Malay. A risky proposition for Datuk Tajuddin as BN who lauded ‘democracy’, would impose disciplinary action to any members whom decided against any of their proposals. E.g, the 2 Gerakan MP’s regarding PORR. A glimpse of revelation, reveal a crack of UMNO battered first line barrier. Pasir sudah menyalak!

The time might come, to actually loosen perks enjoyed by bumiputras. Considering that, we are not hit exactly on the Achilles’ heel. Yes, education offers social mobility, every Asian (not only Malaysian), emphasize them first and fore mostly. 55/100 is still an upper hand figure, although quite feeble. There are still options. There is still MARA to lend money and opening up chances on quality education, thus producing credible, educated, culture-rich Malays. There are nine sultans offering scholarship and their offerings can be found on newspapers, if not found, perhaps it has been snatched by ‘insiders’, I guess. There are GLC’s like TNB, TM, Petronas etc. etc. It is time for the Malays to impress different and various scholarship-giving bodies or companies. The possibilities of missing JPA blessings is a big loss, due to the ballooning and squeezing, yet the getting accustomed is rather more important now. Even, the dinosaurus extinct due to their inability to get accustomed with the harsh cold weather due to some hypothical huge meteor impact on earth.

Also, it is time to consider that oversea education is not that glamour anymore. Overtime, we had the ability to match those of theirs. We shall offer competency. And should we instill trust in local education syllabi. Our universities, some established as early as pre-independence days are probably capable to producing people with knowledge par with oversea universities? We can afford multi-million lab too, we can brain-tap best lecturers, 100acre building complexes… only the weather is a bit hot here. The number of straight-A’s is increasing; would the oversea accommodate us most of the time? If they did go, to which government did they pay their income tax as they work? Ironically, the sky is the limit when you are successful. That’s a promise. Government may had a futile attempt in rewriting the books.

Of course, speculation must be filtered many times before we believe. But there is one thing which we often heard in people’s mouth. A simple short thought and we knew it’s a fact from the start. When this kind bargaining UMNO, it’s a clear sign that UMNO is weak.

Let’s take a break on the JPA issue for a minute.

Imagine yourself walking through a Sony boutique. Sony is relatively famous for their fabulous end consumer electronics. Their presence in the digital related world is everywhere. Their arm reaches from into the niche market of thin profile digital cameras to professional studio-grade visual device. From mobile MP3 players and surround audio speakers. From funky and snazzy mobile phones, to glossy LCD panel that made TV watching experience a fantastic visual feast sensation. Never forgetting, the PS3, that plays Blu-Ray till you can brag to your friends that you were amongst the first in the neighbourhood to acquire the Blu-Ray technology which is second to none, even if a dozen of DVD9 disc fused together in somekind of Jimmy Neutron particle accelerator gun rays.

We pay extra for Sony’s. We do pay them without hassle or regret. Because it’s a Sony! And this brand comes with premium.

What If Sony cannot produce great products? They are unable to create snazzy mobile phones? High capacity DVD’s? Envy-triggering slim digital cameras? Advance LCD/Plasmas? Worst, other competitors like Panasonic, Philips and Samsung have overtaken them in terms of research and innovation? What if Sony is not worth competing with those top brass digital device players? . Magazine would not even compare Sony LCD with, say, Samsung LCD’s, because its like comparing a Mitsubishi SpaceBox a.k.a Proton Juara with Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Sony last ditch before completely throwing the towel would be competing through price front. Their device can be purchased at bargain price. You’ll get their LCD for hundred ringgit less due to backward technology they applied. 

The way I put this way, shall be inappropriate yet it the position of UMNO itself which is weak. Not only the Achilles’ heel is broken, splintered and splattered, but also tendons, joints and areas related. All we see here is not irrelevancy of the party which is just the scenery, but a leadership crisis. The non-confrontational style of current leader which some quarters regards as sopan-santun and budi bahasa has been practiced in wrong places and has taken its toll on us. The transition of power dragging on for further 2 years, while present leaders just looks on watching pending damaging decisions and understanding being forged. Maybe Ku Li, Muhyiddin Yassin or Rais Yatim should forget visions of being a PM due to burden of todays’ terrible decision may linger till their estimated premiership period. The future bapa pembangunan insan, who insanely drops quotas and talks about Tun Mahathir paradigm shift is nothing more than possible.

Maybe this time around, it has been more difficult/incorrect and sinful to defend rights and showing love towards one race in such manners. Standing up in parliament and speaking up. They are regarded as Nazi-esque , racist, intolerant, selfish, noise-maker and monkey. Its been a long, lonely and painful quest for Datuk Tajudin, he is like a lone soldier which platoon had diverted their path avoiding enemies, yet, this one acts like a nut to defend the receding control border. Yes, in the war, he is the frontline. It reminds me of a Malay proverb (in times where all things Malay seems degrading and conservative, felt like telling this though) “ kalau hidup tidak berbudi, umpama pokok tidak berbuah “ ( living without serving, would be similar to trees without fruits)

Who can expect something than has been given away today shall be taken back tomorrow?. We are infact being stripped away from the previledges which we had. Previledges that were never been in question or doubted before. Never questioned/rarely objected because of our strenght and resilience towards dissident urges and irrational bargaining. The party was an agent of change that clearly explain word-by-word that quotas were something to helping the weak. To help people remain calm. The key of it all, the party was ( used to be ) solid and strong till those whom challenge shall look like a fool standing on a chair during a major examination where everyone remained sit and quiet. But, today, under the pretext of equality, human rights, open-competition, similarities and whatsoever; the quotas seems like a heideous, wrong, revolting ,monstrous; while the basic fundamental, is to help the weak majority. Those who wished to abolish it seems more heroically better than right, while those defending it will sound more terribly worst than wrong. When UMNO is weak, the bargaining is on. 

We are looking at UMNO opening up its bargaining counter. They have lost the ‘political premium’ which nobody dared to question last time. It is time to seek survival and relevancy in the stormy political arena, and UMNO had to resort in terms of bargain. A losing bargain to remain in the game. Who are being bargained/compromise/traded off? It’s the people who thought UMNO were all this while is seriously fighting for Malays. 

The Ego Strafe

“I’m Sorry”. This innocent word we were taught to say as early as pre-school is costing more these days.

Some may delve that “sorry” is a word used by someone that is powerless, weak or had no option. For instance, when someone met a sultan in all situation, then you will see them profusely asking for forgiveness. Even, at the very beginning of sentence they would start off with: “Ampun, beribu beribu ampun “ ( Apologize me, a thousand apology ). I did not have any hypnosis power to read into these people mind whether they are seeking apology because they had disobeyed royal protocols laid by the istana or broken any rules of religion or morals proclaimed by the God.

Through Islam perspective, forgiveness should be sought from Allah S.W.T. As we were thought that all mercy and forgiveness belongs to Him. As one of ninety-nine gracious names of Allah goes by Al-Ghaffar which in Arabic means the Ever Forgiving. The daily affair of our life is bounded by the rules fundamentals laid out by the Quran. A holy scripture that is being brought down to Prophet Muhammad for over the period of twenty two over years (22 years, 2months, 22days precisely). Being a wrongdoer means break any of these rules. Naturally, when you broke any rules, it made you viable and justified for punishment. When we say ‘sorry’, we are seeking to nullify these rules, In other sense, we seeking to brush aside the ruling, by promising that we won’t repeat again. So only God has the right to give the green light whether it is possible to brush aside, get exempted from the ruling. For all that, it shall remain the fair judgement to stipulate based on situation and condition that we faced. Wa’ullahualam.

While reminding myself and not being holier than thou, the above mentioned statement does not mean we should hinder ourselves from saying sorry amongst our friends, family or others and leave it to His Most Gracious Allah to judge. There are some portion in the teaching that regulates forgiveness amongst ourselves through conscience responsibility, rationality and morality. Although forgiveness is the absolute prerogative of His Most Gracious Allah.

Once my ustazah reminded that we should sought forgiveness from the victims of our wrongdoings while it is still possible to see them face to face. Failure to do so means that we had to bore the brunt of looking for them during the ‘final assembly’ day. A day which Allah rises those all of his creations from the dead and assemble them for ‘judgement’. She reinstated: “ Bukannya kecil padang mahsyar tu…”. Seeking a single person amongst the crowd of six billion people is no funny business. Even, we have trouble finding a missing kid in Malaysia 22million citizen alone with a synchronized effort.

Strangely, the mechanics of Karma at least never find its way here. As a young boy ( until now ), I am always reminded by wisdom rich old kampong folks and serban donning ustaz about the positions of those affected by our wrongdoings. “ Doa orang teraniaya itu sentiasa dimakbulkan Allah S.W.T “ ( The prayer of those suffering/affected/incapacitate by our wrongdoings shall be granted by His Most Gracious Allah ). From my interpretation, for instance, sorry it has to be politically related; If Anwar Ibrahim really finds himself being victim of a highly raunchiest slender during the 1998 allegation of sodomy, then, he may pray for Tun Mahathir hairs to falls off or his gums recede till he look ridiculous. But this kind of ‘what goes around comes around’ thing are open to such interpretation which made everyone talks like Madam Zorra.

If tomorrow, Tun Mahathir falls from a horse, people may interpret it as an omen which God responded to Anwars’ prayer. Even, last year Tun Mahathir admission into IJN can be interpreted as answered Anwars’ prayer. Yet, looking into different dimension, Tun Mahathir remaining fit, vocal and mentally sharp in his 80’s may be seen as Anwar mercy of not praying for his former boss for shameful downfall. Or indeed, Anwar has prayed and the omen is beginning to take its shape before the house of cards crumbles. Finally, Anwar might had really done those nasty stuff?. In short, yes, this kind of talk really branches out into various interpretations. I believe it has triggered the Cluedo inside your mind too.

Saying ‘sorry’ too many times also discredits us. Like a merit system on individual trustworthiness, the more you say sorry, it means you are prone to mistakes. And each time when you wanted to give a suggestions or opinion, you may be back-referenced to the amount of ‘sorries’ that you have pledged. Does saying sorry also means that we are incapable?. Perhaps, earlier on when it is devised that ‘sorry’ might be said by those who are weak is making sense. Due to social structure, wealth, popularity and influence, someone may be asking for apology and back-out after seeing to bleak outcome. Sorry may be for the losers? Maybe or perhaps?

Would sorry be the word for those who are weak and without option?

Some may assume saying sorry as a kind of drag. Saying sorry means the victim whom we seek forgiveness has some sort of bargain power, or at least criticize us. In the highly competitive world nowadays, everybody wanted to reach the zenith of success as quickly as possible without a long bereavement. We stumbled upon motivational mottos like “Never say no! Action is power!”, indeed, its good for us to have all these sorts of firm and assertive living mottos, yet, the zealot nature of some human being made them act like a racing horse on Super Sundays lottery strike. Eyes covered by a piece of rubbery leather so that it would not look elsewhere. Instead going forth as quickly as possible, completing the circuit no matter how crooked it may be. No matter how many shoulders and legs we may trip. Hell, it may become a stampede. Never says sorry, because it may cause a drag.

Ironically, life science mechanics mimics the actual physics. When we push something forth, friction will appear. In million of matters needed to be settled, saying sorry means giving the victim a bargain. It means time to listen to their frustration and keeping our heads low. Dragging costs time. Time means money. Courtesy should be sidelined. Sorry may be history.

In this very competitive world too, where citizens have become more aware of their rights, a simple sorry may be never enough. Malaysia, day by day is becoming more of a law/legal-concerned society. You called someone a katak, they would saman malu (defamation suit) you. And because you called someone a katak in front of a third party, the one you call katak may sue you for the lack of sleep he get due to the utter shame. Hell, you might end up paying for his wages which appeared as the katak is unable to go work because the employer thinks that the same way too. Worst, you end up paying his lawyer fee. The accumulated money resulted handsome slap of money on the face to shut the katak out. I always have a thought of having a pre-law girlfriend so that in the future, if everything goes smoothly, she may back me up when Malaysian becomes overtly assertive law-abiding society. Come to think again, if she turned the table around; can be real painful eh…?

In this competitive world, where most of the thing must be done in textbook way, people with professional practices like doctors, architects, accountants and lawyers are susceptible to being sued due to malpractice. Wrist being injected in wrong manner, and causes gangrene which leads to amputation. Buildings constructed with sub-standard low quality material collapse and injure people. I don’t really know how the other two can negatively affect the life of people they serve, yet, this all means a simple sorry has no value since people life has been deeply affected.

In my humble opinion, Sorry is a significant word, which usage has been limited due to the complexity of our rationality and judgment. Sorry can be looked through different lights. It means courtesy. It can also mean shame. Sorry can be a menacing word which keeps reminding us. Like: “better safe than sorry”

The Gray Matter

Assume me as an Anwar avid supporter. Anwar Ibrahim. He used to be head of ABIM.An Islamic youth movement. A man who aspires the young and took charge of reformation against old and dusty establishment corroded with abuse and nepotism. He looks promising.

Lets brush aside the allegation which this 61 year old politician is involved in sodomy with a 23-year old male university student. This is just the same technique to ploy his downfall exactly 10years ago. Don’t you happen to hear that a murderer never uses the same weapon which failed to ‘kill’ its target in its previous attempt. Let alone, leave this bickering to the others to analyze and speculate. Go ahead conduct some sophisticated fabrication DNA test or tap on some madam Zorra advice regarding Anwar facial acupuncture hotspot to determine his wrongdoings of sodomy is true or lies. Never trust them, because only God knows besides Anwar.

He is one inch closer from being the fifth prime minister. Yet, his boss have retrenched him. That happened ten years ago. With Rahim Noor held responsible, I further had trust in Anwar. He has enshrined a vision for better Malaysia, an Islamic and non secular Malaysia. He had made UMNO looked less secular. He is nationalistic too. He justified the usage of Bahasa Baku. The exact pronouncation disregarding any regional slang. Now I’m saying ‘saya’ instead of KL tongue ‘sayer’. Just that he did not accomplished it. I’ am enthralled by his vision, fortifies my support towards him.

Anwar is a standing tall beacon of light, standing near a hill, beside a ravaging sea. His rock solid foundation is made of pure enthuastic supporters. His supporters once were high intellect people which past even rooted from UMNO. The party which they seek to relinquish on the basis of reformation, change and restoration of justice. Names like Dr. Chandra Mudzaffar and Ezam Mohammad Noor used to stood beside Anwar and his tireless political quest to reform Malaysia. I call them heroes and the incredible think-tank of the party. Capable of denouncing Tun Mahathir authority during the height of reformasi. The taunt, the cries and shouting. Now, they have changed side. They never really understood the struggle of PKR perhaps. Should I call them coward of giving up too early? Nah! Even UMNO has their defectors.

Yet, Anwar still never lose his shine. He insist he could attract more current ruling Parlimentary members to join him, I mean, his side. He never let departure of Ezam Mohammad Noor from neutral to the opponent side stall his quest. By the final weeks of June, there were talks that four BN Mp’s were changing sides. Who is Ezam? Just a political apparatus to be brought around town making noises about how dissatisfied with his former party and tens-of-thousand strong youth division he led. Anwar mentioned that the recent allegation of sodomy has affected this plan. Like an interrupted gear shift when the clutch is not fully pressed. Its okay. I buy his words and willing to wait and support him avidly.

To spruce things up, this leader has made some sort of guarantee to become a PM by 16th of September. Coinciding with Hari Malaysia. Even the old days oracles and fortune teller has been very generally ‘playing safe’ in predicting events and occurrences that would come in their life: eg. “Between the fifth and sixth full moon of the year”, “ days after the full tide”. Anwar is a very highly-disciplined and business minded person. 16th September is the set date. Only he did not mention about the exact time. On 17th September, expect a euphoria filled Malaysian as they expect cheaper fuel. I’m buying his words, and remained his avid supporter.

Another reason why I call Anwar is a beacon, is because his promise of lowering the fuel price as soon as he becomes a PM. Surely, we, rakyat lately has lost our sight and in need of light from this beacon. Our sight has become blurred, and recent price hike has made our steps becomes slower and sloppier. The only thing is, the standing still on solid foundation beacon has not yet been installed by high beam, fog penetrating light bulb. The government are very rhetoric in teaching us to be less subsidy reliant. It is not issue to being subsidy free. This is about the oil reserves which we had in our backyard, our property, our rights and our khazanah. Who deserves them any better than us! The rakyat of Malaysia. Yes! Lower the price of fuel because its our lifeline. A light which Anwar would lay upon our path, is cheaper petrol and diesel. A post-election manifesto since election were held when he is still under restriction or pantang politik . Do not assume its gimmick or populist affair. It has to be taken seriously. because a single cent of fuel hike affects the rakyat, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Now we see a sudden rise of 78cents, would we just stand there and do nothing?

Cheaper fuel means cheaper breakfast when I go to college. Cheaper taxi rate as I travel to college. Cheaper stationeries and materials needed for my studies. GPMS suggested a student card which local IPTs can enjoy student rate everywhere you go. Right now, I do not see a single fire. Do you think the leaders knew how local students felt? No. Their son and daughters are in universities abroad where flights to homeland are worth a whole semester of tuition fees here. I do not mind leaving the ‘wanting-cheap-mentality’, if my family only breadwinner has increased wage. But look. We are getting poorer instead of richer. We are having government that asks us to step back instead of moving fourth. Its is not that we are having famine here, but its irritating when prices goes up and the value of current wages keeps decreasing. Anwar casts ray of light. On top of projection of becoming PM by 16th September, he made another promise of reducing fuel price. I bought his word and remained an avid supporter.

His other mission is to dismantle laws regarding detaining without questioning. Nations who lauded justice and freedom resorted to detaining of civilian without questioning. Ironically, this very nation also provides backing up and political hospitality to Anwar. Ever heard of that state? In the far far west? Yes! This state has a little brother near East Asia. They call this other state ‘little sheriff’. This little sheriff strongly advocates preemptive strike. Plans of sending rockets to suspected targets on nations outside its geopolitical border without inspecting or questioning. That is seriously not adil.

Lets see how this promising Anwar handle the fragile multiracial harmony in Malaysia. Lets see how he exercise his power when he heard convincing whispers in the air that someone is plotting something, but he has no prove to neither detain nor stop them. If this all never happens in the span of next 2years, yet, I still buy what promising Anwar says, avidly supporting him. Who am I?

I won’t support the current government either. They are corroded with power abuse and nepotism. They are the ones who made the fuel rise 78cent giving spasm of stroke-like shock to rakyat like me. They were the party which world paradoxes with rakyat. They live in denial. Their state divisions are always holding meeting and making news headlines so common and boring like: Kesemua bahagian sebulat suara menyokong Pak Lah. ( All division in unison pledged their support to Pak Lah ). Duh. Come down to a kedai kopi, then you look how reality plays its role.

Then, rakyat should immense themselves into a much liberal political realm of being the non-alligned. The gray matter of politics. We neither advocate, nor support to any party. No allegiance towards any collective bodies. When someone asks you: “ Which party are you supporting “, just simply answer “ Undi itu rahsia “

The Lollipop Gloss

There is nothing more mainstream-looking nowadays other than the reflective and translucent look.

It all probably started with the Motorola donning their mobile phone device with highly reflective mirror cum screen. When any there is incoming calls or pending SMS comes, these flat area acts as normal 65k colour LCD displaying phone numbers and names of caller.When the device is in its standby mode, the piece if display surface turns into a highly reflective ala handheld vanity mirror. Wau! Obviously, there is nothing amusing or spectacular about it, since, I find it handy to monitor facial petrol levels or any new pimple breakouts. duh.

The trend also lingers to other gadgetry where LCD screen played a pivotal role. Digital cameras for instance. Some of those point and shoot happy-go-lucky thin profile cameras even spot some of those highly-reflective LCD’s. Someday, it would take over those 22-inchers LCD screen for computers. Placed in avant-garde hair saloons to entice their visitors with visual feast rather than backdated fashion magazines during long perm sessions.

Highly reflective or reflection trends spanned beyond the manicure, pedicure realm. Operating systems are amongst those who resort to reflective look to enhance user experience. Apple for instance, starting with their Mac OSX Leopard released in October 2007 begun to spot reflective dock. In which any application windows that hovers above the dock shall be reflected by the dock. Like sunrise reflected by waters along the seaside. Then the concept of ‘reflection’ is further applied in other software such as the infamous iTunes and its propertiary cover flow. The album covers can be seen animatedly moving left to right according to our command, and along the black background, there would be shadows of the album reflected on the dark background. Like a collection of album art hovering on top of thick slimy glossy black liquid. More shockingly, the OSX Server version also features the reflective and translucent rich interface which puts some graphic-glamourina into the business software.

The Microsoft camp which proudly retains their ‘serious and cooperate software’ image now started to have second thoughts on reflective interfaces and icons. You would have slightly a bit of idea how Windows interface were designed. Look at the flop and bug ridden Windows ME which buttons and icons were rather flat-out,2D, inanimate compared to Mac OSX’s Aqua interface and Carbon graphic engine . Luckily, by now, the Microsoft did move away from serious and cooperate look to a more eye-candy Vista interface. The Windows Mobile6 also started to tweak its graphic codes to enable animated, translucent and reflective rich interface in a palm of hands. The Mobile6 drastically differs from Mobile5. Like a whole new system altogether except for the ‘Start’ button on the top left. What made Mobile6 made this kind of paradigm jump? The iPhone interface looks young and vibrant. We all have to admit that though.

Material wise, I saw a Samsung printer clad in highly reflective glossy plastic sometime ago. It was really suave and neat design. With its blue LED blinking, the matching is rather casual and at first glance, the printer is likely to be assumed as a mini beer fridge than a set of rolling, squirting and sliding mechanism in a mass-produced plastic casing. I was impressed. Samsung, the Korean electronics giant would be the flagpole holder in glossy plastic device. Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of Samsung which had less Zen compared to its Japanese counterparts in terms of mobile phone design. But, Samsung did throw a stone to create a ripple effect on a lake. The Samsung LCD’s had utilized the reflective and glossy look for one of their LCD frame series. I think it became a quick hit for LCD hunters. Rather than ordinary black and textured light-absorbing black or grey plastics, Samsung showed the possibilities of using glossy plastics in variant of black and white for its LCD, plasma frames. It was just simply brilliant. I visited one of the electrical appliances shops and quickly took a hold on those shining 42-inchers. Ahh! A popcorn, Forrest Gump Blu-Ray, a fun-loving girlfriend and one of these LCD would complete me – my mind drifted away.

Other electronic giant which seems to follow suit in reflective design would be HP. This American electronics giant had quick hit products like the Pavilion DV laptops which upper casings were made of glossy, reflective plastics with intricate lines and graphic motives. Pop one of those at the college library, and the material would brilliantly ‘bend’ lights at its curves as if it’s a powerful light sucking black hole. Although its not reflective enough to be able to watch any pimple breakout on the face, still the surface finishing had a certain class of personalization which differentiate it from other seriously boring ThinkPad-esque laptop.

Graphic wise especially printed one also sees the sudden interest in reflective and translucent features. Typography in website or printed-ads now is having shadows on its own, as if those letters sits on a ceramic floor. Browse the dailies and you would probably stumbled upon a few advertisements like slimming therapy which models flaunt their body on top of its reflective shadows. Factories which had obtained their ISO’s made their certificate floating with its exact twin reflected directly underneath it without any skew or distortion. Companies selling their products with the physical superimposed in mentioned above manner. Its everywhere now!

It all boils down to production technology which allowed more vibrant colours and smaller droplets of ink to be printed. Allowing effects of transparency, translucency, opacity, and gradient possibly appeared more robust and realistically. Material research and production made highly reflective LCD a trendsetting and giving a multirole for this already important element of electronic devices. Giving it a personal touch. Operating systems were not just cranking up codes 1000 lines long to create translucent, glossy and beautiful eye-candy windows, but the advancement of colour display from 16-bit to 32-bit to 64 and beyond dilates the possibilities of creativity. From the days of our fathers ATM screens were mere black and green Tron-like display, now, we are seeing more colourful ATM screens with animations and stuff. What next?

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.