Merry Christmas!

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We Malaysians have a characteristic we should be proud of. We are not just tolerant but accommodating of each other’s cultures and religions. When we celebrate our respective festivities and practices, we generally let them be and often join in the celebrations. It’s a national characteristic we should cherish and pass on to the generations to come.

Of course, there will be a few troublemakers who would mar our celebrations and functions and we need to be wary of them and act proactively so that their actions do not cause mass strife. There will also be some in our midst who don’t want to be part of our celebrations. Well, we can leave them alone. If they want to live under a coconut shell and be miserable, that’s up to them. We’ll still extend a hand of greeting to them; if they don’t accept it, that’s ok with us!

So, folks, this Christmas, enjoy the season! It’s meant to be enjoyed by all.

Wishing all of you an enjoyable Christmas, through the tears and the pain. There’s still joy in it for you to make each day more than just bearable.

Merry Christmas, all!

All I want for Christmas …

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… is some truth in local politics! I want some honesty in the way plans are hatched to win the support of the majority Malays currently represented in the opposition. No backdoor entry into government. No lying to the people about who you are.

My appeal to the politicians: Please show some honesty. We are not stupid and can read the signs fairly clearly. So, no more dumping of resources and opportunities to the majority Malays in the opposition camp in order to win some over to the Malay parties in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, sometimes even at the expense of non-Malay rights.

Such vote buying amounts to corruption because everything, including wrong-doing, is overlooked for the sake of grassroots support. Politicians need to draw the line when a particular course of action trips over and beyond the boundaries of moral conduct.

Surely, our politicians know the ethical boundaries that the voters hold, beyond which they will not tolerate? If they do, they should operate within those boundaries. If for whatever reason they cross those boundaries, they should know it is time to step down. There’s no point in denying it or covering up for the sake of grassroots support.

There is a risk of being honest. You may not get what you want. In this case, Malay support from the opposition bench. But, is that so bad? Right now, the government is in a much better place than before as it is led by Malays representing the minority urban Malays and non-Malay bumiputras and non-Malay minorities.

There’s time to win Malay support through effective policies which recognise effort and rewards it. It will not happen immediately but it will happen in the near future. For as long as the PH government has the support of minority groups, it has time to train the Malays to come up without spoiling them with freebies which do nothing to motivate them to strive for excellence and financial independence.

Minority support is not guaranteed, so, it is imperative that the PH government shows evidence of introducing reforms to recognise non-Malay rights.

Politicians should know the preferences of their voters and know when to step down or give up a position when they know they can’t meet up to their voters’ expectations.

It’s Christmastime!

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That time of the year is on us again! It’s the end of the year, the long school holidays are here and to cap it all is Christmas! So, enjoy it, folks. Not that we should not enjoy ourselves throughout the year, but this is the winding down period of the year when we can relax a bit and see in the Christmas season a reason to spread the cheer around.

But, that does not mean that we forget about all the troubles around us. There are flood victims displaced from their homes, poverty, mental stress, violence, injustice, endless pain … . We are aware and where help is needed we offer it not just at Christmas but all the time. But , at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of the One who brought light to millions over the centuries to push their darkness away.

So, friends, this Christmas, when someone extends a hand to you in the light of the season, don’t hold back or withdraw your hand. Take the hand and let the light drive away your darkness or enjoy the season in comradeship.

So, enjoy the season! Go to a Christmas bazaar. There are many around, google over at Facebook to find one. Go shopping. Christmas is not about shopping but if you have some money to spend because it’s Christmas, spend it wisely and boost the economy! Attend a Christmas party, religious or otherwise. Churches organise Christmas plays and if you want to know what the Christmas story is all about, that’s the place to go to.

I know of two events which I’ll mention here. Calvary Church is presenting its Christmas play, The Star of Christmas, tomorrow and Sunday at the Calvary Convention Centre at Bukit Jalil at 5pm. City Revival Church in Subang Jaya is organising a Christmas charity bazaar at 4.30pm followed by a musical concert, the Melody of Christmas, at 7pm at Holiday Villa on Dec 15.

There are many more such events around you. Look for them and enjoy a little bit of Christmas in your heart!

 

 

Tanjong Piai elections should end the Malay first strategy

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It was a foregone conclusion that Pakatan Harapan (PH) would lose the Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election. The fact that the non-Malays abandoned the PH coalition partner Bersatu candidate Karmaine Sardini was nothing unexpected. What was mind-jolting was that the Malays rejected PH, and, particularly, Bersatu.

Bersatu apparently expected to lose. Prime Minister and Bersatu chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the party had thought it would lose about 2,000 votes. But to have lost by a wide margin of about 15,000 votes was a shocking result.

The PM was fully aware that promoting the Malay first strategy by appeasing the Malays and antagonising the non-Malays by not endorsing the reforms promised in the PH manifesto would result in a loss of non-Malay support. He must have thought that the Malay first strategy would bring in the Malay votes to make up for the loss.

In the Tanjong Piai by-election it has become crystal clear that the all-arching Malay first strategy was not enough to satisfy the Malays. They had other concerns that were more important. All of Bersatu’s overtures to draw Umno members over to its side failed. Bersatu needs to find out why Malay voters rejected its candidate despite its efforts to pacify them, even at the expense of the non-Malays.

The fact is that the Malay first strategy is outdated and no longer relevant to people who just want the economic means to get ahead and to maintain their way of life without bothering others. In other words, the Malay first strategy with its accompanying Malay rhetorics and deafening silence on and non-commitment to urgent immediate reforms should be put paid.

We shouldn’t hear of it anymore. Instead, PH needs to go back to its GE14 manifesto and start delivering to the people as promised. It needs to prioritize stimulating the economy and introducing the reforms it has so far shelved, such as ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd), rethinking its position on Zakir Naik (frankly, if he is an Indian citizen, he should be sent back!) and expediting the setting up of the task force to investigate the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and Perlis activist Amri Cne Mat.

It is imperative that the PH government restores the trust of the people by doing the above. If it doesn’t, the coming Sarawak state elections might be another disastrous outing for the PH.

Condo pools you may not be able to swim in

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Folks, if you are looking for a condo with a swimming pool you want to swim in — not wade around in — make sure you find out how deep it is! If it’s only 4ft-deep, then make sure you can swim in a pool that deep.

If you are like me, you’ll not be able to swim in a pool 4ft deep because your legs will hit the floor with every kick, that is, if you are doing the breaststroke. If you do the crawl and can maintain your body position in a straight line just below the water surface, then you won’t have any problems.

But, if you have heavy bones and tend to sink in the water  — like me — rather than float, you will probably find a 4ft-deep pool obstructive because you won’t be able to swim laps smoothly as your feet will keep hitting the floor.

I met this property salesman the other day and I was told that all condo swimming pools in Malaysia are only 4ft deep to ensure the safety of children. Swimming pools in clubs come in the standard depth of gently sloping from 4ft at the shallow end to 6ft at the deep end because clubs can hire lifeguards. In condos, the standard depth is 4ft as the developer doesn’t see it as its responsibility to hire a lifeguard.

In the absence of a lifeguard, even lap pools are only 4ft deep along its entire length. That’s the law, the property salesman said, and developers comply with the law.

Unfortunately, for me, that law doesn’t serve me well! I swim using the breaststroke and like to swim laps non-stop for an hour. I gave up my membership in a sports club for Fitness First in Empire Subang Jaya because it has an indoor pool. Alas, to my great dismay, when I went swimming in it for the first time, I couldn’t swim laps because my legs kept kicking the floor!

I stopped and looked around and saw a few men doing the crawl but no one was swimming laps! I wondered if, like me, they couldn’t. I gave up Fitness First membership because I wanted a swimming pool I could swim laps in! So, I checked out a couple of condos and had the same problem.

So, if you are looking for a condo and it’s advertised to have a lap pool, check how deep it is. If it’s only 4ft deep, make sure you can swim in a pool that deep!

Bringing natural bias out into the open

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34 months in prison and a RM40,000 fine for killing a pregnant cat? Or, am I the only one who sees this as a slightly jarring sentence?

I wonder if the learned judge would have delivered such a sentence if the pet were, let’s say, a dog or a hamster or a rabbit? Would the prosecution have argued so strongly on the grounds of cruelty to animals if the pet were a dog or any other animal? Perhaps, they are both cat lovers and could empathize with the pregnant cat which was thrown into a dryer and set on a programme.

In no way am I questioning the learned judge. Surely, the learned judge made her decision based on the facts of the case. I’m just wondering if the facts included natural unexposed bias — in this case a cultural bias towards cats against other pets. A bias that favoured a dead cat over a living human being.

No doubt it was an inexcusably inhumane act by two men who were found guilty and an accomplice who was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. One man changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to two years’ jail at an earlier date.

If the judge was aware of the natural bias in her and the prosecution and did not let it influence her to make the fairest judgement she could make even though it was harsh, she has my respect. We will never know if she considered natural bias in her judgment. And, it doesn’t matter.

But, it is an issue that needs to be brought out to the open. All of us have natural biases — towards durians , chocolates, cars, handsome men, pretty girls, for money. We can be naturally biased towards anything. The crime isn’t in having a bias; it is in using that bias ignorantly to favour ourselves at the expense of others.

When we become aware of our inherent biases, we learn not to act on them — if we are responsible people. As a result, we become kinder more compassionate human beings.

And if we were the judge in the case stated earlier on, who knows, instead of 34 months in jail and a RM40,000 fine, the judge might have given a much smaller fine and ordered the accused to 34 months of community service like working at an animal shelter and made to take care of and clean up after cats, in particular, pregnant cats? 

In reality, people can’t help their bias, especially when they are unaware of it and fail to realise that they are actually acting on their bias. Civil servants, especially, need to be sent to self-awareness courses to help them see their own biases. When we are aware of our own biases, we can take steps to NOT act on them, especially when the decisions we make affect the lives of others.

Don’t build your happiness on someone else’s ruin

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I read the above saying when I was a young adult. I can’t quite remember who wrote it and where I had read it. But I have always been mindful of it in the decisions I make when it involves other people.

Not that I have never wounded another person, that would be untrue. We are human beings and we, intentionally or otherwise, hurt others. When we do, the best thing to do is to apologize and make amends. But, sometimes, we go on a trajectory because we say “it’s the right thing to do”, “it’s for the good of the family” or “it’s for the nation’s good”, “it’s God’s will”, and we don’t realise the damage it causes others. We fail to see our plan is hurting others and we don’t make allowances for them to opt out of our trajectory or adjust the course to include them.

We hurt out of vindictiveness or to even the score or take it out on others out of our own bitterness or own deep hurt. These are part of being human and like I said earlier, when it happens, let’s just apologize and seek reconciliation.

But, because we are human and capable of such acts of injuring others, it is all the more reason to be careful so that our actions don’t cause injury others can’t or it would be very difficult to come back from.

At a personal level, it may lead to divorce or even murder or suicide. At a community level it may lead to riots and vandalism and at a national level it will lead to war. These are things that are very difficult to come back from and require specialised help in order to heal.

Consider Hitler’s Germany or Japan’s imperial army. Till this day they have to make amends for the atrocities committed by their predecessors. When we do such damage, it always haunts us. We’ll never be fully free to enjoy the benefits we strove for at the expense of people we wounded in the process. It sears our conscience — unless we are so hard-hearted we refuse to confront it by hiding in denial.

I’m no psychologist and don’t want to go into the whys and hows of handling such grave hurt human beings commit on others. In the normal course of life, all I want to say is that we should be ever mindful to never put people in a situation which will be difficult to come back from.

If we do it, it will haunt us for life. We will never be happy. We should as far as it is possible for us to do, never strive to accomplish a goal or build our future or happiness by depriving others or oppressing them or jailing them. We should never build our happiness on someone else’s ruin.

 

Happy Deepavalli, all!

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At midnight, firecrackers exploded all around the neighbourhood in celebration of Deepavalli. Non-Malays were the butt of racist polemics in the past weeks, but it didn’t mar the Hindus from enjoying the Festival of Lights! Because they are maintaining the peace and celebrating, the rest of us can, too, in true Malaysian spirit.

So, have an enjoyable Deepavalli! Let’s stay strong and let the Light shine through this festival and touch others. In the end, Light always triumphs! We can look forward to that!

Wishing all of you a very happy Deepavalli!

The pointless strategy of being pro-Malay

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I think most Malaysians, if not all, will agree — when they calm down — that we are a multi-cultural society and we need to respect one another’s race, religion and background. However, when one particular race keeps harping that what other races say even on non-racial issues “offends the Malays and their religion”, I wonder what’s the real motive.

Firstly, which Malays are offended? The general public? They don’t seem so. They are carrying on as usual. Then who? The supporters of politicians? These are the trouble-makers who for their votes will make demands on their leaders to become more pro-Malay even at the slightest criticism, re: the banned comic, re: Zakir Naik, re: Tamil Tigers.

In these cases, there was no attempt to belittle the Malays in any way but facts were stated as happened and these got twisted and Zakir and the Tigers got dragged in by these supporters and to pacify them the leaders ramped up their pro-Malay and pro-Islam strategy.

The point is that’s what it is: a political strategy — not the truth. The strategy, it appears, is being used to get more Malay voters, and, particularly, Umno members, to join Bersatu, a component party in the ruling Pakatan Harapan government so that the Malay majority is represented in government. In the process, the non-Malays have been made the scapegoats.

Politicians know exactly what’s going on and they are playing their part in the game so that no one side is seen as letting down their respective race. Whatever your strategy, whatever your justification, this is race politics.

The question is: In the so-called new Malaysia should this politics be used at all?

Leaders need to ask themselves what they really want: the votes or the betterment of the Malay majority? If the former, look what it did to Umno. They used race politics to the hilt and they became corrupt and eventually lost political power.  Malays got some money in their pockets but was it real wealth?

If the leaders’ intentions are to raise the standard of living of the Malay majority, will race politics accomplish it or keep the Malays in the illusion of being in power but without real wealth as before?

If the leaders are serious about giving the majority of Malays meaningful representation in government which will translate to a better life, they should stop pandering to and indulging the Malay sensitivity of “being slighted” at even the smallest, silliest thing. Instead, they should start challenging the Malay to stand up to criticisms, hold their own and counter it with thoughtful, fact-based arguments that promote their cause — not resort to puerile, emotional claims of offending Malay sensibilities. When they resort to the latter, it simply entrenches the stereotype that the Malays are so sensitive about who they are, that even the slightest negative comment is construed as an attack when it isn’t. As if any slight offence will make them melt!

Other races take it in their stride. The Malays should be encouraged to do the same.  Equals are not afraid of criticisms by their peers, superiors or subordinates. Unequals are.  To be an equal, stand up, say your piece based on facts and face the consequences.

 

 

 

 

Shamed by a student

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I’m shell-shocked! It’s a term I am taking from G25’s latest statement which expressed its disappointment at the four public universities and their vice-chancellors over the Malay Dignity Congress where it was said that Malaysia was for the Malays like China is for the Chinese and India is for the Indians and other such racist outpouring, which had left most Malaysians “shell-shocked”!

I couldn’t believe that academics could have abandoned reason and logic and stooped so low to ventilate by taking it out on the non-Malays when they should have honestly appraised themselves and their shortcomings. Nothing wrong with self-criticism; one grows stronger from it. Instead they used race and religion to divide. They were rightfully shamed by a young man who calmly exposed his vice-chancellor by unfurling a placard listing all the things his vice-chancellor should have done and didn’t do just after he received his scroll at the UM convocation. His vice-chancellor was on stage.

And, what did the vice-chancellor do? Did he call up this young man, Wong Yan Ke, and talk to him and advised like an academic should have done? No. Instead of talking with him and levelling with him as a teacher to the student, the vice-chancellor and others like him disappeared into the woodwork. He held his own but his detractors couldn’t hold their own and engage him in a mature discussion. When they couldn’t stand up for themselves, they, typically, ran to the powers that be for “help” like making police reports and getting the police involved or even the prime minister.

When asked to comment on what Wong had done, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he should have chosen the right channel. Wong gave an appropriate reply: What is the right channel when he had done everything to talk with his vice-chancellor and got no response?

The prime minister and his vice-chancellors should have attended my convocation 30 years ago. I graduated from a Top Ten public university in the States — the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Convocation was a simple ceremony in the varsity stadium. The academics’ stage was some 50 metres or more out in front of the students who sat in the covered stands.

The students in the front kept throwing apples, oranges, cookies, paper and rubbish at the stage. No one said anything. They let things happen. When the president of the university made his address, he said humourously: “Well, it’s good to see that your throwing is improving!” Throwing rubbish at the stage was the standard student practice and the university cleverly set the stage further away!

Because of the large number of undergrads involved, to graduate the respective name of the department would be called and all the students graduating from that department will stand up and move their tassels from the right to the left. Then, we are graduated.

At my graduation, when the business school was called up, there were boos and hoots. As far as the student community was concerned, business grads were trained to be crooks and they expressed their sentiments. No police report was made and no one was probed.

That is a university education — where academic leaders make provisions for students to speak their minds and dissent. They don’t penalise the students for speaking up and demonstrating, except when it gets violent or out of hand.

Wong thoughtfully made his point and got the attention he wanted. He is getting media coverage but his vice-chancellor can’t show his face. So much for Malay dignity.

Distasteful though it was, everyone knows the so-called Malay Dignity Congress was organised to foster Malay unity. Quite evidently, it was politically motivated. That can be understood but to downright insult the other races is totally unacceptable behaviour and must not be tolerated.

The Prime Minister’s presence at the congress and his subsequent silence over Malay racist rhetorics simply suggest that he has his own agenda and it has nothing to do with fulfilling the Pakatan Harapan manifesto. Well, he is free to play Malay politics, but my advice – for what it’s worth — is this: Don’t keep antagonizing the non-Malays. In some ways, at some point, it will backfire.