Bee En Downfall Parody

I am suffering from depression, so I was told by my doctor.

All his medication did not help much, whenever I think about our country, I was just not able to laugh, let alone smile, until I watch Kavi's Bee EN Downfall Parody!

I laugh like I have never laughed before, not because his work is hilarious, I am still laughig with tears in my eyes and I wonder why?

Finally, I realise that I laugh with tears in my eyes whenever I replay Kavi's work, because what was depicted in his work does really represent the hopes and dreams of millions of oppressed people in this land.

Now, whenever I need another Xanax or another Macallan, I will try to watch the Parody again.

Thanks, my dear Kavi.


Thank you, my dear brother.

TERESA KOK AND "DEFENDERS" OF ISLAM

Teresa Kok was taken away on Friday [12/9/08]. Two self- proclaimed Muslim Groups were at the Sentul Police Station making report against Teresa on Sunday [14/9/08]morning around 11am.

At the scene, by the road side, some gangster-looking youngsters with yellow head-band were holding some banners accusing Teresa of " menghina Islam."

I stopped my car and asked one of them what was it all about.

Me: Dik, apa dah jadi?

He: Ada Orang menghina Islam.

Me: Siapa?

He: Tak tahu! (The banner he was holding reads: Teresa Kok Menghina Islam)

Me: Lalu you marah siapa?

He: Tak marah siapa, cari makan saja!

Me: Tapi Teresa KOK sudah ditangkap ISA.

He: Siapa Teresa KOK?

Me: ..........

My dear Malaysian brothers and sisters who are Muslims, speak up like our dear Kata Tak Nak, please do not let these people confuse the non-Muslims about the religion.

The mystery behind May 13 1969 has been gradually unveiled over the years, more authoritative first person accounts can be found in books such as The Unmaking Of Malaysia and especially Tun Doctor Ismail personal notes as revealed in The Reluctant Politician. Most accounts described the riots as a tragic consequence of internal power struggle within UMNO.

What I saw on that hilarious Sunday prompted me to think that there must be at least three or four factions within the Peninsular UMNO, each trying to neutralize the others so as to command the support of the 66 Peninsular UMNO MPs left in the present Parliament.

The leaders and supporters of each and every faction cautiously plot and plan all sorts of sinister traps for all their other adversaries, but each not daring to make the first move, fearing that that will leave even the last man standing badly wounded. There is a very tense Mexican Stand-off within UMNO as RPK put it sometime ago.

Given the present untenable situation within UMNO, when dealing with external “enemy”, different faction within UMNO has different scripts, some on racial issues, some on religious issue and some on character assassination.

The difficult part is in the execution of such script, as when one faction executes certain script, the other factions may sabotage or at least try to dissociate themselves from such script, hoping that the faction executing the script will fumble and be neutralized without their own hands being tainted by blood.

As such, all those sinister scripts written are often clumsily executed without proper casting direction and hence I suspect that what I saw on that hilarious Sunday around Sentul Police Station was just one of those scripts being acted out by silly casts with uncoordinated confusing sequence.

No, there is really no tension among our ordinary peace loving Malaysian and definitely no one is interested in fighting each other. That kind of fight is only confined to bankrupt politicians.

AHMAD ISMAIL AND RACIAL SLURS

The Star reported “ BN leaders slam Ahmad for arrogance “

Dear Leaders of BN component parties,

Why hit out at Ahmad Ismail?

What he said was merely a very mild repetition of what tens of thousands of civil servants, especialy school teachers, were being indoctrinated during sessions organized by Biro Tatanegara.

You need evidence? Please interview those trainees who were victimized by all sorts of abusive racial remarks inflicted by non other than our Biro Tatanegara. Most of them left the typical 5 days training session with broken hearts and eyes full of tears.

By the way, when I went to UM in 1979, the first thing I was told during orientation was that I am from Kaum Pendatang, a term I heard for the first time then. During the first lecture in Political Science, we were being lectured on the term Kaum Pendatang. To my horror, the lecturer was later to be conferred decorative titles and even became the head of Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka.

I struggled and worked hard both in Malaysia and abroad, pay my taxes to our government, and our government uses our taxes to fund a destructive institution called Biro Tatanegara to train our teachers, among others, to remind my children that they are from Kaum Pendatang.

Dear Leaders of BN component parties, no point attacking Ahmad Ismail, instead, do look at Biro Tatanegara established by the support from you yourselves.

Many years ago, in the mid 70s, there was this very bright boy from my community around Brickfields who scored full distinctions in his MCE (Cambridge O level) in La Salle Brickfields. He went on to score full distinctions in his HSC (Cambridge A level) in Victoria Institution.

During his interview for a government scholarship, he was asked by the interviewer to sing the national anthem to prove his loyalty to the country. With tears in his eyes he took offence to such doubt over his loyalty and walked out on the spot.

Later on he was offered a scholarship by the Singapore Government under the Colombo Plan to study in New Zealand from where he then graduated as an engineer. He went on to serve the Singapore Government and became a distinguished faculty member of NUS, till today.

The sad part of this story is that from the day he left Malaysia, he vowed never to return to this land where his loyalty could be unfairly questioned just because of his race. True to his word, he has never returned and his poor elderly parents had to travel to Singapore to see their grandchildren.

That’s the story about the bitter experience of a mild mannered top scholar in the mid seventies who would not tolerate racial slurs. Today, we are talking about the denial of citizenry rights according to race EN MASSE be it during political ceramah or, more damagingly, during Biro Tatanegara sessions organized for civil servants, such as teachers, researchers or even returning doctors who wish to serve our Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam.

Now, is Ahmad Ismail guilty of racial slur or the whole BN government is guilty of such slur? More importantly, can such racial slur be remedied by apology or by sincere repentance, leading to a courageous change for a better Malaysia?

Farewell Pak Samad

Pak Samad was detained briefly by the British in 1946, and again in 1951.

Upon his release in 1953, Pak Samad co-founded PAP along with LKY.

After moving to Malaysia, he would later be detained under ISA by the BN government. TDM released Pak Samad later but did not abolish ISA.

Today, during his kebumian, no doubt many powerful people will be present to shed their tears and to bid farewell, but for a great man such as Pak Samad, dont they realise that the single most decent thing that they can still do for Pak Samad is to abolish the draconian ISA?