We can see the last election was the most emotionally driven ever.
I hope everybody would keep calm and carry on.
5 years is not too far away.
Even the king didn't comment much. What we as a common citizens have to say about this?
Really. We've done what we could. That deserves a big hand for.ourselves.
If only time can stop at that era.
Personally, I think that was the time people of Malaysia lived in harmony.
People, regardless from any descendant, would come together watch the movie, laugh and talk about it.
Talk about now - which was the last Malay language movie that all Malaysians last watch?
If you look at P.Ramlee's movie - its value is still relevant, the humour is still silly and funny.
You can feel that the people back then were really honest, straightforward and simple.
I hope someday, the day would come - that Malaysians would realise that, happiness means simple things.
It's not peer pressure, it's definitely not emotional - it can start by smiling in this hard time, just like how P Ramlee stayed positive in his movies.
Let's look at the big picture: the government who knows how to give cash to citizens is nothing.
Any country can do that.
The current government, which failed make good policies, and make them well run, is the root cause of this country's deterioration.
This is the reason why you hear noises against the government which failed to make good policy, that people can feel.
It is the policy
Personally I think religion shouldn't be part of the country policy, especially in the world nowadays, where pluralism is a norm.
First, many laws from the religion were created many many years ago - some of the elements might not be relevant to the society nowadays
Second, it's a nature that human will compare - if you apply law to a certain group, that others get different treatment, that's when the frictions started
What made the above two points worse is that, information flows easily nowadays, it's easy to compare with other people, other countries or even other religions
Just think of religion as a music genre: Would it make sense to play techno music in a classical music concert, and ask audience to accept it as it is?
No. The audience will leave, the audience will protest.
Therefore, in this country, it cannot be a wishy-washy hope that it is a secular state, as well as Islamic state.
Just my two cents - someone really need to make it clear.
It was midnight.
More 100 containers arrived at the port. The workers helped to unload the containers from the ship - they are all guarded by a team of armed forces
Lastly, the armed forces escorted the containers to a storage house nearby.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is a true story that just happened. It was not drug smuggling that you see in the movie.
It was definitely not human trafficking.
It was just police forces helping to escort the rare earth ore to the Lynas plant.
If you want to read the full story, you can go here
Let's try to flashback a bit - in my experience, I didn't see police escorting the cash delivery/collection at the ATM machine.
I didn't see police forces guarding Poh Kong jewelers shops
I don't think police forces would guard raw material for gold from the port to the plants.
Safely to say, I don't think police forces would have ever escorted the raw material for the Nestle Milo that you and I drink everyday.
So why the double standard?
What about street crime and robbery that happens at ordinary citizen's house. which is their official duty?
Look, this happened while anti-Lynas coalition Himpunan Hijau is holding a 300km march from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur.
This rare earth ore is definitely something that Malaysian citizens do not want.
In short, we are double-screwed:
1) The police forces were helping to escort some raw material containers, instead of protecting citizen's safety (which is already at disturbing state)
2) Our delegate (i.e. the government) spent our hard-earned tax money to deploy police forces for such unwanted escort, because we had mentioned many times to this very delegate that we DO NOT WANT RARE EARTH PLANT.
Or put it this way, we had just spent our (tax) money to screw ourselves.
It will definitely happen again, in another form.
That was perhaps the worst legacy left by the British before they left. (besides that, we are rather fortunate because they left a rather good parliament, judiciary system, as well as education system to start with)
Now the issue is, the jus soli method left by the British, which was used to divide and conquer different ethnicities back then, was used in even worse manner by the current government.
The result? A very sensitive nation.
After half a century, we are still practising divide and conquer method. We still brand ourselves as Chinese, Malay or indian
People will object or argue when they feel the Malay or Chinese or Indian rights were compromised.
The application forms are racist as well: there's no Malaysian option to select.
We have a privilege system for the majority "race", not minority.
We are a secular country that claims Islam as the official religion, with politicians claiming others for doing great harm on Muslim way of life, while they sit on the wealth from unknown source.
This is a confused nation, but with potential. At least it had great potential.
My summary? Voting for a different party to manage the country, for just 5 years, is worth the try.
By then, you will suddenly realise, you don't need the racial based parties: UMNO, MCA and MIC (in short:racist parties) to unite and run the nation.
They will suddenly become irrelevant.
I talked to a friend earlier. My friend didn't believe that our votes can change the future of this country.
That's sad.
My friend added that either opposition or current regime would do the same.
However, my friend admitted that the story is different for Penang.
So I shared the story about Penang - I told the summary of my relatives' awe & shock in Penang, after the last election:
"They didn't like the previous state government (under Gerakan, a BN alliance), so they just vote for opposition - which they didn't plan out together, it was an individual's will. In the end, they were all surprised that they made the change, and Penang is a better state now"
It is the same for Selangor, which, along with Penang, are among the richest states in Malaysia, albeit lack of natural resources compared to poorest states such as Sabah & Sarawak.
So really, the reason we have election, is to vote for change - if you do not have confidence with the current government. It happens every 5 years, you get the chance to choose the better candidate to run the country, if the current screws up - examples shown in many countries around the world, 5 years can't be screwed that bad, if really screwed.
It's the same as you changing the phone - If one day iPhone has become sucks, you have other options such as Android or Windows Phone.
Phone nowadays has yearly (or shorter) update, though ;)
Many people do not know what this day exactly meant for.
It was 49 years ago when Malaya, Singapore, Sabah (was called North Borneo back then) & Sarawak formed Malaysia.
Details? Read it from wikipedia.
I read from somewhere, which is very interesting: Terengganu, Kelantan, Sabah & Sarawak are oil producing states.
But, they are also the poorest states in Malaysia, with Sabah being the poorest state.
What went wrong in the past 49 years?
It's a food for thought, by the way.
But it doesn't stop me from loving this country, which will have a lot of greens compared to others.
Everyday we've been hearing sad news - robbery, murder and lately, 3 statutory rape cases that the convicted ones were found not guilty, on the reasoning of 'bright future', 'had consent from the female', 'unreliable proof by the kid of penile penetration'
In a very near future, we shall have the General Election - a chance to choose who you want to run the country in the next 5 years.
I hope my friends in Singapore (yes, majority of them are there now) would take this chance to make a difference.
If General Election turns out to be 'bad candidate selected to run the country, again', I might be doing what my ancestor from China did... again.
I've been following his one column comic from newspaper to his FB.
Yes, if you are free, just give him a like on his facebook page - he deserves more than just a 'like'
My father said he read from somewhere that, when this artist has inspiration while driving, he would even park his car at the roadside just to draw it.
A very creative yet sharp artist :-)
The thing about the local film, Tanda Putera, is that - I find it unnecessary.
1) It features the director's view on 513 incident, which, the topic itself is not even allowed to be taught in details in primary or secondary school. Hence, the public never had a fair view on the incident - what gives the director to have the fair view on the incident?
Moreover, in the trailer, it clearly showed that the production team did not do enough research - some of the banners were written in simplified Chinese, whereby it was only introduced into Malaysia in the 70s.
2) Then comes about the timing - the movie will screen some time in November, which is just months away from General Election.
The title itself had already suggested that it is a movie dedicated to Tun Razak, who is the late father of current Prime Minister - Najib Razak.
So there's no doubt that this movie intends to remind people about Tun Razak's contribution to Malaysia.
This point is also strongly related to point#1, which, the movie is somewhat intended to demonize the Chinese descendant in Malaysia - as the cause of the riot.
To give yourself a much holistic view on 513 incident, I strongly recommend you to read the article on Wikipedia, and also an interview with Tunku Abdul Rahman - the ex-Prime Minister who was forced to resign after the 513 incident.
After reading both articles, you can somehow tell that there was indeed some conspiracies, and most importantly, both Malay and Chinese were both held responsible for causing the riot.
So, this movie at this timing, one may say that, somewhat it has intention to be in conjunction with General Election - to tell the citizens that the current government knows best.
3) There are better story to tell for a movie.
For example, how about a film about Tunku Abdul Rahman? There are so many stories to tell, from him being the Chief Minister of Malaya, to become the Prime Minister of Malaya, and his effort in getting Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to join Malaysia, while witnessing Singapore departed from Malaysia.
That would be a much better topic to remind Malaysians how our leaders fought for independence, to appreciate and to respect.
For such an essential Malaysian drinks, it received much better salary increment than ordinary people.
RM31.30, for 2KG refill pack, at Carrefour. (it was like RM25 something two years ago? that's like 24% increment in two years)
Anyway, it comes with 200g bonus. (i.e. RM31.30 for 2KG + 200g)
So I guess I should rest my case, for having the "Janji Ditepati", to stay in the high income spending country.
On a totally different note: Milo tin is in its 70s retro design now. It looks nice. Go check it out in any supermarket.
I heard this song on BFM.
(BFM is worth another post to blog about though)
I was impressed by the song quality as the music sounds relaxing and somewhat random.
My SoundHound couldn't find the song - so I memorised partial of the lyrics.
Googled it - et voila, it's Yuna!
Nice and I hope you'll enjoy :)
