Egypt - the side I didn't know, sob!

After 18 days of street protests by the people of Egypt, and about 300 deaths, on 11 February 2011, the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, relinquishes his post. On hearing the announcement the people of Egypt scream in joy, jump about in ecstasy, cry out in happiness, wave the Egyptian flag frantically, kneel on the ground and express gratitude to the God Almighty, and generally have a generous feeling of relief, excitement and anticipation!

Why? Have I missed something? Have sinister and nasty events been happening all this while in Egypt, that I have not read in the papers, and also missed seeing in the visual media? Have the Egyptian people being suffering that much? To such an extent, that some were even moved to shave off their head, and offer the hair to the heavens above, as a sign of gratefulness? These are the questions that nudge in my mind ever since the over throw of President Mubarak by people power.

To me, the local and international media have not sufficiently, if not at all, portrayed the Egyptian people as suffering greatly under Mubarak’s rule. Only now, I see the word ‘dictator’ being mentioned everywhere regarding the president.

My mind has always been tuned up to think about Mubarak as a strong ally of USA in the Middle East, a great dignitary who is flexible in regards to relationship with Israel and a man well respected by his people.

Oh, how could I be so wrong!

A poet is born!

You write something about nature

Or your feelings

Or about anything at all.

You are clever with words

But not very clever

With grammar.

You struggle with long sentences

So you write

separately

Breaking down the sentences

Into separate lines.

And voila!

It looks like

A poem!

And you!

A poet!

Smile, please!

I read in a Malaysian daily this information about a female politician;
to keep up her strength and maintain her health, she takes raw honey and dates every day.

I wonder whom she dates.

*****
I believe in the Theory of Evolution. Humans evolved from apes. That God created. (Ha! ha! Actually, I am a ‘God created all things’ man).

*****
If I wanted it to rain, I would just go and wash my car.

*****
In the house, when I want an item and couldn’t find it, I won’t waste time searching for it. It will surely crop up later when I am looking for some other thing!

*****So, this is the year of the rabbit...eh? And they are saying all nice things of Mr. Rabbit. Like he is cute, cheeky and so on.

Don’t be too happy, Mr. Rabbit! Tomorrow they will say more things of you. Like you were tasty, delicious and so on!

Tenang now

The Tenang bi-election is just around the corner, on 30th January, to be exact. It is, in my opinion, somewhat difficult for the PAS candidate to win the Tenang seat.

The Tenang parliamentary seat in the state of Johor has about 40% of Chinese voters, and these Malaysian Chinese are quite weary of the frequent assertion from the opposition political of PAS, of turning Malaysia into an Islamic nation. The choice of the candidate, Normala, a teacher by profession, makes it more difficult. Normala seems to be very strongly attached to Islam. So strong, that she refuses to shake hands with males. It is a wonder how she is going to campaign with such a dilemma. Furthermore, a large number of Chinese could see this – the handshake refusal – as an indicator of an attempt to Islamize of the area by PAS.

If against all these odds Normala did win the bi-election, it will be very interesting to watch how she handles the on rush of people trying to congratulate her by shaking her hands!

Thinking Aloud - Khusrin, Interlok, MPSJ's Islamic action

1. Datuk Mohd Khusrin has already taken the oath as the Selangor State Secretary in front of The Sultan of Selangor and the Menteri Besar. The fact that the Menteri Besar had attended the oath taking ceremony itself was tantamount to agreeing to Khusrin’s appointment. And now, the Menteri Besar is saying that he is not accepting Khusrin as the State Secretary. What a joke!


2. Why hurt Malaysian Indians’ feelings by proposing the ‘Interlok’ novel, with that degenerative word, for use by students for literature- study. Malaysian Indians like to forget that old humiliating word. See, I, too, am not mentioning that word! I want to forget it. And here are arguments that, this book, with that word, can help in uniting the all the races in Malaysia. What nonsense!


3. The Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) did right in banning Muslims working in entertainment outlets serving liquor. This is nothing new and does not come as a surprise. There had already been negative comments about Muslims handling liquor, for some years now. Now the MPSJ has been brave enough to propose a ban. It is not necessary to make a big deal out of this.

Brunei in Malaysia

Why not Brunei join Malaysia?

This is the question that always comes into my mind, whenever, there are news about dignitaries visiting each other’s nation, and the things common between the two countries are mentioned.

Malaysian Malays and Brunei Malays have very similar cultures, and even speak the same language -Malay- even though the slang may differ a little. Brunei is also ruled by a sultan. Any royal functions being held in both the nations always have the royal attendance of both the countries. Islam is also the official religion of both the nations. And when you see a map of Brunei it can be seen as a tiny nation that it is squeezed in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Ok, Brunei, with a population of about 400,000, may not be willing to share oil riches with Malaysia, which has a population of about 28 million. But let it manage its own economy. The defense and other aspects of administration can be left to Putrajaya of Malaysia to handle.

It is hoped that both nations give it a serious thought.