A New Wave of Rising Expectation

First President Hosni Mubarak was ousted out by the force of the common citizen. Then President Zine el-Abdine Ben Ali faced the indignance of the Tnisians. Now Mohamed Ghadafi, oncce the King of Kings in Africa is facing the brewing storm of frustration and discontentment among some of his people. The tidde of rising dissatisfaction and dissappointment seems to be spreading fast in the African countries including Zimbabwe, Ugganda, Cameroon and Senegal. The same is happening in the Saudi Arabiah States of Bahrain and Yemen.

Is this an indication of a new wave of rising expectation and disappointment with the authority that stays too long in power, no matter how fair and benevolent the current leaders think they are, or
what?

It looks as though many of the Muslim or Muslim-preponderant States are being swept by a sudden realization that there is a limit to patience as a part of faith. They are willing to pay obeisancce and be loyal to the authority that rules them in line with the Islamic teaching ' Atiullah waati urArasul was ulilamri minkum,' onnly up to a certain point. After more than 20 years of such rule without any sign of a willingness to give the people a voice tto determine their own leaders and have a say in the government, they will protest and force through a change. They want a say in selecting the Ulilamri - their leaders.

What has happened and is happening now shpuld be seriously heeded by the authoritative leaders that now rule the country no matter how benevolent and fair they think they are. Democratic meeasures must be introduced to allow the people to have a say in selecting their leaders and formulating the policies of governmentt. On the one hand we have good old US of A trying to force democracy in the oil-rich countries (its own brand of course) ) while on the other the Muslims are no longer happy with the teaching "hear and obey" - samikna waathakna. They feel thaat the ummah should have a say in the running of government, especially when the majority of the people remain poor and empoverished after more than twenty years of autocratic rule while the leaders and previleged groups in the country live in wealth and luxury.

The government must immediately looekd at the participation and thee sharing of power to govern with the people, though the form of democracy as espoused by the US need not be the only altlternative to follow. What is most important is that the wealthy leaders should not be seen as enjoying the wealth of the country by themselves without a fair and convincing plan for distributing the wealth to the people.

Have such a plan, convince the people that the plan is being actively ppursued, that the wealth of the country is being shared with them and that they are geeting a very fair share of the wealthh...and things could remain stable and calm. Wealth and luxury are highly visible while mild empoverishment and relative poverty cound be invisible. But they will ultimately rear their ugly face in the country ad people will protest. Better do something beefore the wave of rising disappointment and expectation sweep over the country. No matter how fair and benevolent the currennt government think it is, if it has been in power for more than twenty years without being able to bring about a visible transformation towards a life of comfort and prosperity for the masses, watch out. The tide of angry protest and disappointment will surely come sweeping by.

The new wave of rising expectation can come to your shore, sooner than you think. It's better to throw in the gear of change now. .

One Nation One Nationality...

There's only one Malaysia and the nationality of its citizens is Malaysian. But the Malaysians can be of different racial origins, embracing different religious faiths and practicing different cultural norms and habits beside the overriding Malaysian cultural mix. Thus we have UNITY IN DIVERSITY. Other nations too have the same national and cultural identity. One national identity but made up of several religious and socio-cultural ingredients.

What's wrong with that? It's true for the US, the UK and other European nations, USSR, Indonesia, Singapore etc. The national identity remains intact and well-respected without any attempt to integrate all the religio-socio-cultural mix into one common
entity loosing all original costituent textures, shades and colors.

While socio-cultural differences can be slowly overshadowed by a strong overarching national culture which evolves through the years, to put all the citizens of a state under one religious faith is an impossibility. In the context of Islam, it is even ludicrous since the Ummah ( followers of the Islamic faith) can only be a Muslim with total subjugation to Allah and His Prophet, Muhammad SAW. Those who don't accept and pronounce the shahada ( Asyshadu anlaillaha illallah waasyhadu anna Muhammad ar-RasuAllah), cannot be considered as an Ummah. As such the slogan Satu Malaysia Satu Ummah must be understood with the limitation of the religious requirement, although the integrative potentials and aspirational aspects of such a call is great.

While all nations aspire to create a single, solid and homogeneous entity, heterogeneity is a fact of life. Allah Himself stated in the al-Quran that He created men with different races and descendants so that they may learn from each other. If Allah has willed it so how presumptous it is of men to want everyone in a country to assume only a single identity? They can only coexist and live together under the same leadership, nationhood, ideological conviction, political and socio-economic regime. But their religious faith, native culture and customs can remain different though under one overarching national identity. Thus we still see the differences among people from different racial and cultural origins in the US, UK, Indonesia or elsewhere although they are all Americans, English, Indonesians etc. Malaysians would also be the same. It is the rights, the privilages, the pride and the security of being the citizen of a nation-state that hold the people together, not necessarily their religious and cultural orientation or their political views.

Thus i Malaysia is a beautiful clarion call for all Malaysians to work together, develop the country and live in peace and harmony. But it cannot be equated with one ummah for we are multiracial and multicultural. What is needed is more goodwill between ummah and non-ummah. More importantly. the ummah - those professing the Islamic religion- must not allow themselves to be torn apart by party and political interest. You'll all answer to the same God - Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala. The breakup, ill-feelings and enmity between and among the ummah, can be more destructive than the social ills of society as a whole. Let the ummah in Malaysia consolidate themselves and the ideals of i Malaysia can be achieved more easily.

The realities of life....

Life is always a changing mosaic - a fast moving collage of happenings that often leaves us breathless. Do we and can we understand everything that happens before our eyes. Anyone who can categically answer ' Yes' is either a presumptious omniscient or an egoistic ignoramus. What we can understand is only life as we shape it for ourselves, as we understand and picture it in our mind. The real life out there could be far diiferent from what we thought it to be.

Everyone has his or her own image of life and what it should be like. That's the sum total of our ideals. Can two or more people have the same ideals.? Of course you can but only up to a certain point. Beyond that we all have our differences. It is the sharing of certain common ideals that brings people together as friends and colleagues. Different ideals and ideas about life will keep them apart.


That's quite natural . What's not natural is the fact that people having the same ideals and ideas about life have different understading or impressions of the real world as it exists today. They see different achievents of their ideals and experience different levels of satifaction or frustration. The gaps between what they hope for in their ideals and what they see as being achieved in real life are different. What others see as having been achieved they don't see it as such. Even though things have changed they don't see the changes. That is because the image of the world in their mind has not changed one little bit.

This is a very important factor in bringing people together in a society, especially in a multiracial one. The real world as we see it might have changed tremendously but not to them because the picture of life in their minds have not changed. Lets illustrate this phenomenon with a few examples.

The social status of the blacks in the United States has changed tremendously with the election of Obama to the White House. But some people in the world and maybe in the US itself see no change. In Malaysia the status of the non-Malays has changed tremendously after Merdeka and especially now after so many non-Malays occupied keys positions in the government. Yet to some there has not been much changes and the non-Malays are still being treated as a second class citizens. It is something in their minds which has not changed.

The most difficult change to appreciate in the world is the change in religous tolerency. Education has made people more appreciative of each other as friends and colleagues in spite of religious differences but some people still see religion as the root cause of all divisiveness in a multiracial society. Every disagreement, conflict or enmity between racial groups is traced back to religion though people with different religious beliefs have been living together for ages without serious conflicts.

Islam today, for example is still equated by some people with backwardness, intolerence, aggressiveness belligerence, and brutality.The brutality of the suicide bombers for example is seen as more diabolical than the killing of thousands of Muslims in Afghanistans, Iraq, the Palestine , Bosnia-Herzegovina, and various other places in the world. It matters little that some Muslim leaders have become the prime movers of peace initiative in the world. The picture of muslims' brutalities in the war of the Crusades and during the Caliphate years still filled their minds and so every evil thing happening in the world is dumbed on the Muslims. This is the stand of those with an Islamophobiac view of the world,

Undoubtedly some Muslims also carry indeletable images of the attrocities that the west had done to their county and their people. Thus they refuse or fail to see what good the west had brought to them, no matter how beneficial the changes brought about by their interaction had been. This is the stand of the xenophobes. But note that xenophobia is a hatred of strangers, not necessarily of westerners or of Christians as such. There's no word for a hatred of Christians comparable to Islamophobia. Good Muslims are prohibited from hating a fellow human being, but there could be xenophobes around.

These people are the greatest stumbling block that the world faced in trying to seek peace between the East and the West. The islamophobes and xenophobes carry a picture of the old world in their heads whiich had never changed in spite of the various changes that have taken place in modern times. Until they change the picture in their head they can never accept the realities of today and accept the fact that God had made the world not just for people of their own racial origin and faith and that others have as much right as they have, no matter how poor or powerless they are as compared to them . It is the image of the world in our heads which prevent us from accepting the world as it is today with people of all racial origins and faiths living and working together in peace and harmony.

Private and Voluntary Organizations

In all developed nations there are a number private and voluntary organizations which play a vital role in promoting the welfare of the country and society. They play a great role in the economic, business, industrial and social development of the country, with their own funding and organizational ability.



These bodies usually cooperate but work outside the government administrative infrastructure. They may get some assistance from the government but do not come under the directive of the government. They are independent and make their own decisions.

Such is the case with the trade unions, the various business, industrial and financial associations, and numerous professional groups or associations. They do sometimes act as a countervailing power to the government when there's no effective opposition to evaluate and criticize government's action.

The government is of course free to befriend any private or voluntary organization, give financial assistance and seek its support in whatever program the government is launching. Or on the other hand to contain its activities if they go against the interest of the government. The big question is: to what extent can government assist such bodies financially or provide funding for its activities from the public coffer? Providing some special funding for specific purposes approved and supported by government isokay. Such approval goes through the normal budgeting process.

But can and should government allocate public funds to a private and voluntary organization as if it's a part of the government apparatus? Furthermore can such bodies use public officials to administer and promote its activities which lie outside the scope of normal governmental operations or represent government on an official basis? Can government premises be used for the operations of such private and voluntary bodies? When all the answers are 'yes' what makes the private or voluntary organization private or voluntary as different from a normal government agency?

If such private and voluntary organizations are allowed to take over some of the government's functions then goverment rules and regulations will be thrown to the dogs. Such fear had cropped up when the privatization of some government services was embarked upon some years ago. The privatized agencies function outside government control since they finance themselves.
But as we all know many run into problems and the government had to bail them out. It ends up with the government coughing out huge sums of public money to support their operations. These privatized agencies are known to be quite lavish in their spending, pay their staff high salaries, and escape all forms of review by the government itself. When faced with financial problems they just seek government's help or raise the charges that they impose on the public for the services they provide.

How much is this costing the government and the public today? And now we have private or voluntary organizations functioning very much like government agencies but not placed directly under government control. Is this another form of privatization? These include the association of VIP's wives and and other associations involved in promoting
the interest of bright but disadvantaged children. With all these extra-governmental activities going on, it might perhaps be better if the civil service is reduced to a minimum and more of the services be handed over to private organizations run on public funding. Another way of doing it is to allow politicians and private sector people to head all the important posts in government services as chosen by the political bosses in power. Or to emulate the American system of administration, important public posts can be filled in by popular votes. These include the post of the Chief Secretary to Government, the Inspector General of Police, the Attorney General etc.

The public and civil service in Malaysia has increasingly been overshadowed and denuded by the authority of the political masters. The privatized agencies have taken over many of the functions the civil service used to be responsible for. When will a new evaluation be made as to what the civil service should continue to do and the rest of the functions be handed over to the private sector or the government sponsored private and voluntary organizations?

Skyscrapers and Luxury Apartments...

The skyline of KL has changed so much that every time you drive on one of the 'lebuhraya bertingkat" or multitiered highways cutting across the city like the lines on your palm, you feel as if you're a stranger in a new city. Especially when all the old landmarks are hidden away and you only see the old roofs or the sophisticated front of new edifices staring at you in the face.
Hey what building is that? you ask the person sitting beside you. Damned if I know, comes the couldn't-care-less reply.


There are so many of the high-rise buildings, not really skyscrapers yet, many of which are modern, high-class, luxury apartments, that you can hardly keep tag of their emergence (as if from nowhere), let alone of their names when not boldly written somewhere on the building itself. Take the new NUKE highway through the Sri Hartamas area and Mont Kiara. for example. All the super-posh apartments must have hit the million or multimillion ringgit jackpot price.

The big question is: Who can afford them? Certainly not the government servants (except in the Ministerial or YB category), the factory workers or the budding entrepreneurs and businessmen. These places can only be bought by the billionaires and millionaires from Malaysia or abroad, especially from Japan and Saudi Arabia. I recall Tun Mahathir's article on Kampung Baru.
If the Malay pseudo-slump area were to be opened up for development and filled up with modern high-rise buildings, who can afford to buy up or rent these su[er-expensive premises as a business center or a luxury home. Certainly not the people in Kampung Baru, not all of them anyway for there certainly are some who have joined the millionaires club. The same question can be applied to the thousands of super-posh apartment buildings springing like mushrooms in KL and the greater metropolitan are, extending to Puchong and Kembangan.



Certainly KL has become too expansive for the common citizens of the country. Especially the original settlers and 'orang asal' who have not become the nouveau riche - including the GLC bosses, businessmen, politicians or corporate executives. These exceptions remain a very small group in the 'orang asal' population as a whole. Their faces could be lost in the throng of millionaires and billionaires in the country. Kuala Lumpur is not for the "orang kampung" anymore, just like "orang Kampung Baru" if the area is opened up for modern development. You can't expect the budding businessmen to open up business in the golden triangles of Kuala Lumpur. They will fold up before one year, especially when they can't participate in the very lucrative night-entertainment, gambling. GROs, multi-level selling and other trades which involve commodities, activities or dealings which are "haram", "bida'ah", or even "syubahah" to the Muslims. . Most of the super-rich tycoons usually have a hand (or just a little finger) in these business though never directly. You cannot get rich by just selling "pisang goreng" or 'kacang putih". You must get your fingures into many and several lucritive business.

So, where does that leave the 'orang asal' ?( I avoid the terms "Bumi" or "Orang Melayu" because they are full of racial overtones!). Wish I can offer an answer. Once certainty is that KL bukan lagi mereka punya. The Skyscrapers and Suoer Luxury Condos are for the super rich, millionaires and billionaires. Unless the government wake up to this fact and do something to ensure that there are some 'orang asal' in the new imposing edifices making up KL skyline, we'll have a foreigners' city in the heart of the country.

Quest for Modern Technology

In our drive to become a high income nation, the introduction and adoption of modern technology is a sine-quo-non.
Malaysia has made an astounding progress in this regard, especially in the field of communication and transport. We now have our own satellite and GPS system and our automotive industry. Even agriculture has introduced the use of some of the latest high-tech machines and equipment such as the multifucntional and walking tractor.


But most of the high-tech machines and eqipment we use are imported with car production as an exception. After a brief period of borrowing japanese technology, our automotive industry is now striving out on its own to produce cars for local consumption and export. In the IT department some of our own home-grown products are now in the market

Unfortunately, most of the modern tenological equipment and gadgetaries that we use in Malaysia are still imported. Aside from the mini radios, tvs, cameras etc. many of the high-technology equipment used in farming and manufacturing are huge and very costly. In agriculture the walking tractor seems to be the smallest equipment available. Even the grass mowers and kubota tractors are too big and expensive for personal and individual use. They are all imported.

Only in the production of light agricultural equipment such as machines related to the gathering and processing of oil palm and the processing and packaging of food products have we been able to produce our own. The recent MAHA show had displayed many of these. The Malaysian Technology Development Corporation appears to be more interested in the import of the big equipment and machines rather than promoting research, development and production of light equipment and instrumentsfor our daily use.

We just don't seem to able to traslate our technological ideas into mechanical innovation. I rememer years ago when Tun Mahathir as Prime Minister suggested that a special tractor which can float on the slimy mud of the ricefield be invented since tne ordinary tractor will sink too deep into the rice fields. Until today no such machine has been developed and put into commercial use. Many of the ricefields have been abandoned until recently when a new initiative had started to replant rice on a commercial basis using some very heavy ploughing and harvesting equipment. How successful is this endeavor remains to be seen.

I myself have been trying to get a ride-on mower that is small and affordable for mowing the grass and clearing the garden and the larger housing compound in rural homes. Not the big one as in the picture.


It should also be able to vacuum the rubbish not cleaned up by the local authorities. It will also be most helpful if such a machine can pull a little plow used for gardening. I suggested this idea to a graduate electrical engineering student and she said that that would make a good study at PhD level. Many people expressed a need for such a machine since mowing the garden and housing compound of a hector or less can be a very expensive affair nowadays. An average citizen with a love for tending the garden and keeping the compound around his home clean, would now need an arsenal of gardening equipment to do the work himself ( See pic for my own version of his need). Get the 'have-mower-will travel -men' to do the job and you have to cough out a few hundred ringgit a month to keep a well-trimmed lawn.





There're actually many things that Malaysians can invent for their own use or adapt for household use. The sling-mower for example uses a machine that can be adapted for other uses like for moving a buggy and perhaps act as the propellant for a boat. You find such long-stem propellent being used by the Thais on their river. The coconut scraper uses the same machine with some adaptation. The push-mower with clever adaptation can become a self driving machine and the blower can be used for separating the good rice from the husks. MTDC should be looking into these areas of technogical development so that simple machines with advanced technology can be produced by Malaysians for everyday use. It is all these simple. cheap yet hightech tools and equipment procuced locally and made available to everyone that would make our society more modern and sophisticated.

Celebrating 1.1.11 in the Village.

Yes. I joined the crowd to usher in 2011 at MATIC ( Malaysian Tourism Information Center) on the last night of 2010. There was a big crowd for the Center was holding a final rehearsal for the 1.1.11 celebration to be launched in the morning. The Homestay Association was presenting a showcase of all traditional dances and songs from different States, including the Zapin, the Makyong, the Hadhrah, the Rodat, the Sewang, Semasau etc. AT 12 midnight a firework display lit up the sky over the Centre, echoed by the booms and flashses of other displays held at various other places like the KLCC and Merdeka Square. (see pic)

After the display the crowd at MATIC joined the young dancers on and around the stage to dance through a couple of popular tunes like 'Cuti-cuti Malaysia'. 'Malaysia Truly Asia', 'Poco-Poco', Sewang, the Samasau. Banghla, etc. Even at 1.30am the weekend fair at MATIC was still crowded with the singing still going on, on a special stage set up for the occasion. Flashes of fireworks can still be seen in the sky. The cheers and humming at the Center was suddenly broken by the shrill wailing of a police patrol car entering the area. Heads turned. What happened? Oh, just somebody who got drunk and became too rowdy, came an answer.
The sun rose with full glory on the morning of 1.1.11. I had earlier decided not to attend the launching of the Homestay Show nor the full show that night for I have seen so many of such occasions. I wanted to go back to my village and see how the new year was celebrated, if at all, for I don't remember seeing any such celebration.
Sure enough, there was none at all, not even a flag, a bunting or any sign of celebration. The countryside and the rural areas in Malaysia don't celebrate the New Year. The merry-making is only confined to the urban centers. There was no sign that such celebration had been held in the night either. I had gone back to the village armed with my arsenals to do some weeding and grass-cutting, raking dead leaves and burning rubish - to clear up the compound of my old wodden home which had remained unoccupied for several years and also the village home of my wife.

It'is just a usual pastime engagement for me on weekends, to give my body a proper physical shakeup by doing some tough menial job. Staying in the village home also brings back old memories and the fun of listening to the music of the mosquitoes, the crickets and the other denizens of the rural night.
But on this new year day of i.1.11, on my way back to my wife's village house in the evening, I passed by the children's playground close by the road. The uncared for sight took me by a real surprise.



Being unprepared for what I saw, I could only take a few pictures to show what i mean. Is this the playground that the village children are supposed to enjoy themselves in. The boys in the picture don't seem to care but I felt very sorry for them. Doesn't the Headman in the village care to do anything at all about such a situation? This playground is very close to the Community Hall, UMNO village headquarters. Doesn't anyone really care for the children of the village?
I have seen other uncared for children's playground in other villages. But not as bad and dangerous as this, with plastics bottles and all forms of rubish being strewn about. No wonder Aedis can easily find a nice place to breed and launch their attack on the vlllagers.

I hope the year 2011 will put an end to such sorry sights.