Buku al-quran itu memang buku yang tiada bandingannya (so far) dan belum lagi ku habis membaca kesemua buku di perpustakaan negara disini. Buku yang ringkas tetapi mempunyai banyak tafsiran dari segi sejarah dan segala yang telah ku tempuhi. Dari sikap politik manusia hinggalah tentang diri kita sendiri. Sering sesorang akan bertanya kepada diri mereka sendiri apabila berumur 21++. Apa erti hidup. Tiada siapa yang tahu. Bagi ku hidup ini tidak akan membawa erti, jika diri sendiri tidak mahu menge-set-kan erti itu sendiri. Erti hidup memang sukar dicari. Jika dicari, sampai mati pun tak akan jumpa. Mungkin dalam keadaan tenat sesorang itu barulah tahu apa itu erti hidup. Atau dalam kata lain, mereka sendiri yang menetapkan misi hidup mereka itu. Sesorang pernah memberitahu ku. Didalam dunia ini ada dua orang sahaja. Hati mu dan otak mu. Yang lain semua hanyalah kenalan perjalanan hidup. Hidup sama sama, nanti mati lain lain. Sesorang pernah memberitahuku juga. Jagalah dan belailah otak itu seakan akan dia adalah teman sehidup semati diri sendiri. Memang benar katanya itu. Tiada siapa lagi yang boleh menjaga otak itu selain diri sendiri. Belailah otak itu dengan ilmu. Bacalah. Pahamilah apa yang di baca itu. Benarkah jika sesorang itu membelajar al-quran seorang diri dia itu mempelajari dengan shaitan (guruku juga sering memberitahu pekara yang sama? Tentu tidak. Beliau mempelajari al-quran itu dengan hati dan mindanya. Bukan kah itu ayat yang lebih baik daripada ayat yang awal itu?

Sudah tentu semua orang ingin menjadi nabi. Tetapi mereka tidak boleh. Tetapi sikap nabi terus di ultrakan sehingga membuat seseorang itu fikir bahawa “Its me against the world”. Sikap semua orang salah, aku dan konco konco aku sahaja benar. Dan akulah sebenar benarnya dari segala manusia. Sikap itu adalah sangat bahaya. Budaya dari utara ke selatan , timur dan barat adalah berbeda sesama sekali. Bukan itu sahaja, jumlah hujan yang turun pun berbeza dari tempat ketempat. Cara pembesaran diri pun berbeza. Ada segilintir dari golongan diraja, ada segelintir dari kampung, ada segelintir dari bandar. Jika hendak di spesifik kan lagi, ada ibu bapa dari golongan muda, ada juga ibu bapa dari golongan tua. Cara pengajaran sudah tentu berbeza. Al-quran adalah penyelaras dia kalangan umat umat di dunia ini. Tak kira dari bangsa, agama atau jantina. Ia berasas kan kerohania, integriti dan bermacam macam lagi kosep perpaduan yang bisa di laksanakan. Aku tidak rasa bahawa al-quran itu untuk orang islam sahaja. Ia adalah untuk semua. Tuhan itu maha adil. Jika tidak apakah salah orang orang bukan islam yang dilahirkan didalam ugama lain?

Apa yang ingin saya tegas kan disini adalah, aspek pembacaaan seperti fonetik tidak penting. Pemahaman lebih penting. Jika tahu baca tak tau makna atau maksud orang pon bisa menipu sesama sendiri.

Why do people volunteer? They are in it not because of the money. To help? yes. But it is one of the reason they would volunteer. But what really matters? The desire to learn from the pro? Yes maybe. But when you are volunteering in a big organisation, what are the chances you will be selected or you will be groom by the pro (the head icon of the organisation).

Learning is one of the main reason why youth today volunteer. Volunteering is more or less like an internship. Most apply for the big 4 (top four companies) in audit, they are KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PWC. How about other sectors? Im sure there are big four in each sectors. The bigger, the better.

Even though they volunteer in big companies such as the audit big four – they know that they will learn a lot of things there. Its not for the money. Its politics. Knowing people, how system works, managing people and most important networking. Is networking is just another word for cronyism?

…refers to the favourable treatment of friends and associates in the distribution of resources and positions, regardless of their …

…Connecting with people of like interests for the purpose of uncovering opportunities, identifying landmines and learning of best practices…

When you look at both of the definition, they all come together. Cronyism = Networking and Networking will lead to cronyism? Well when you think that back again. What is wrong and what is right you can never know. Everyone needs to get something out of anything even though they are not related during that process.

Volunteering again is another way to gain good role model. But most of their mentors can be at a very young age. Fresh mentors. People that just recieved power to comment and command. Just like everybody else. We all like to comment and command others because it shows power. Such role model can give negative impact towards the people of the future. A distorted view about the real work. Negative feedbacks in their mind about being abused. Treated as slave, all sorts of things. The organisation needs to remember. They are not in it for the money. They are here to learn. Since birth. We were thought to be positive and we were trained to be anti-negative. Just read your history text book. Big chapter on democracy, another huge chapter about the world war II. But at the end of the day, the word anti- is a negation. When too much anti- (too much don’ts) it can also corrupt our learning process because the nature of living is continous and we learn new things most of the time. Look  at the world today. Too many anti’s slogan. Anti-Corruption, anti-drugs, anti-war and many other things. Governments and other commissions had fought corruption and drugs as long as they exist. Was it a success? Look at colombia, land of cokes. If they really want to clean their mess up, they can send the whole army to clean it up. Yet there was a joint venture between the US army with the Colombian army during the flushing process. 2004 they said to the BBC that thier campaign is failing. Just look at the head line – “US anti-drug campaign failing”.

So how? Education is the solution. Teaching, mentoring. the needs of good spirit. Students/ Volunteers/ Interns need to venture the sector as deep as they could do. Building up interest is important. Everyone can do what they want in this world. The can be a business person, they can be a teacher, they can be the people of the law, they can be a writer, they can be a vicar and even the pope. How about do they become what they really want? Of course you cannot be the Chief of Police the day you start joining the force. There are process. Like every other jobs. Many of the youth today are eager to be rich. Its not a bad thing at all. Patient is what they need. Most think that after secondary school they are big enough to handle the world of the future. But they need to remember that education is not only the one provided by the government. That is only the basics of learning. For me University is not as hard as I could imagine. It is hard, but at the end of my time at university, I think that university taught me to learn without supervision, learn what you want, learn how to think and be or act busy all the time by doing something. Yes act busy. You will learn new things I am sure you will no matter what you do. So those who stop learning are no different from people on coma. Heart still pumping but they cannot do anything.

So educating volunteers are important. They are there to learn, learn and learn. The organisation on the other hand, the organisation need to have a good system of teaching. Every organisation is a school, a mosque, a church, a temple, the CIA and all of the organisation that exist. Even a family is a school. With good education system, people in the organisation will be happy. From the bottom to the top. People will last longer when the sense of belonging is so strong. Just look at the origin of the word. “Voulu” in french its a past composition which means wanted. The verb is “vouloir” which means - to want. We can see from there who is aftering who. The aftering side needs to make a world class proposal to the volunteers.

To make people of the the future to volunteer more. They need to encourage people why they should volunteer. Unless you are one of the big four. People will come to you unannounced.

 Moral Of the story

I hope that more and more companies here in Malaysia will start to offer volunteer programs to young people. Not only to university students. Yet the should even consider post-pmr or post-spm students. Interest is hard to plant. When I ask young people here in my area. Most would like to become doctors, engineers, architects and many other so-called high paid income. It is not that it is wrong to be that. The process of reaching an ambition is hard. It may be a good thing to have an ambition because it could motivate someone to achieve something. Yet ambition can also lead to be a huge demotivator among young family. Many, especially post PMR students, if they did not achieve the right results, they would not be able to continue their dream to be engineers, doctors, mathematician, and many other science related subjects because they were unable to go to pure science classes. Many saw that as a huge heartbreaker. Nurturing the philosophy of volunteerism towards young people to work at a young age could open up their mind about how things work and give them more options for the future. Apart from building up networks, they also need a person to look up to. Now in Malaysia, the only idol might be our own astronout. We need more people for a young person to look up to. You don’t have to be famous. All you need is to know how to inspire.

The day of glory has arrived,

Liberty liberty we have waited for so long,

We are against corruption and superficiality,

We have signal it with a bugle,

Can you hear us people in the “kampung”?

Unite citizens

Lets form our batallion

Foward, Foward,

So that we have a new air

For the sacred love for this country,

Lets lead and support our siblings,

For your triumph and our glory,

Lets fight with the defender of this country,

Because the enemy is expiring,

Can you hear us people in the city?

Unite citizens,

Lets form our batallion,

Foward, Foward,

A new leaf is what we need

The tyrant and cronys are trembling,

Lets do this once and for all,

Lets see a new reformed country,

At the end of the day we will all recieve our price,

If our heroes falls,

This piece of land will produce a stronger ones,

Against them we are ready,

Can you hear us peole in the estate?

Unite citizens

Lets form our batallion,

Foward, Foward,

Because the light is there

MM

Friday 7/03/2008

16.11 pm

Why do The french hate the english? Because the english was powerful. Yes they were. Lands, armada of ships and they have a post around the world. The expansion of Indochina did not work out for the French (they planned to build another canal just like Suez in IndoChina. If they were, Malaysia would be another Island. What would Malacca be? Just another africa. A peninsular turned Island. The british on the otherhand were more organised, A monarch. France was a republic. You rather listen to a king/queen or a president? Culturally, a monarch of course.

Malaysia on the other hand really hated the british before WWII. Not all. The “rakyat” (the people). The kings and Queens of Malaya love the British because they had the opportunity to be a Gentleman and a Lady. Their lifestyle changed. Sharp suits, Cars with driver and they still get the hold of their lands. So, they are not the oppressed kind. The rakyat however were divided. In the jungles, In the city and by the sea. Rubber plantation, businesses and fisherman they were. Indians, Chinese and Malays respectively. As the so-called Indians (bumiputra/Native), they rebel against the British Residents. JWW Birch, James Brooke, you name it they were hunted down.

When the Japanese came to Malaya via Siam (Thailand today) by bicycle, they were greeted well. A new era. A new admin. At the same time, the Japanese were hunting the Chinese during their colonial period in China. The Chinese now became the hunted. They were slaughtered by the Japanese. They ran away. To the forest. They established the “Parti 3 Bintang” which significy the three main race of Malaya. Malays, Chinese and Indians. They fought the Japanese together alongside their old foe, the british (aide were also recieved from China). Why? To get ammunitions, weapons, radio, mortars, and help from a powerful Imperialist.

They fought until two atom bombs were dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The WWII ended there and then. A new war later started. Fight against the communist. Russian Victory during WWII seen as a threat by the Western Community, the United States, the british, and other Allies. It had many effect towards this small country (Malaya). A new war. Against the Communist our old friend the “3 bintang” which significies the first volunteered unity between the three main races of Malaya. Due to the leadership lead by Chin Peng (a chinese) and support mostly recieved from China not from mother Russia, it mayhave made the instability in the 3 bintang towards problems such as cronysm or even rasicm towards the malays for being the most populated people in this small piece of land. Well, It can be one of the propaganda by the british when they are fighting against the communist in Malaya.

Election in Malaysia is near. Two main frontline are fighting against each other. Yet all of them are fighting for this beloved country. One would want to sustain its history and the other frontline is eager to make a change for a better world. What difference does the two party have? What difference does it have between the stories mentioned above? Between North Africans and The French, Between British and French, Between Malays and the British during colonial period, Between Bintang 3 and the british during WWII, between the Capitalism and Communism in Malaya during post WWII? Power. Everybody is fighting for power. Power to govern, power to govern. Who does not like power? even a hippie would like to have the power to make the world green and free. Even a policeman would want to have the power of law. Even a customer would like to have a power as a consumer.

My prediction after the election if the Alternative Front would win the election. The National Front loyalist will not stop to fight until they govern again. Would the alternative front allow Khairy or other youth chiefs to organise peaceful assembly in the streets of KL? Will the FRU still be FRU and the red trucks will not stop squirting? Will it stop?

Will books be cheaper in Malaysia? Will PAS mind if someone of non muslims write about Islam – for example Karen Armstrong) Will there be no censorship on films and music? Will there still be “Islam” on our Mycard? Will my children have Indians and Chinese be friends at school (I do not have many during my time at Goverment school due to “kelas peralihan” where chinese and indian students were put in one block and they need to learn malay for 1 year. (By the time they enter form 1 they are 1 year older than other malay students. How would want to be friend with the juniors when you are at school)? Will I be able to go to Kuala Lumpur from PJ less than 1 hour by public transport? Will the future government stop to subsidise cars in Malaysia because too many people can afford a car, where as public transport should be a priority than cars (PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GOODS which one comes first?). We have to accept the fact that oil prices are skyrocketting, no use to subsidise petrol because many other things can be done to curb the problem rather than using Imported oil and at the same time subsidise the petrol. How can this work? PUBLIC TRANSPORT. Rather than comforting malaysians with world class highways, better build a world class public transport which is cheaper and cleaner for the environment. More street lights is needed! Of course Street lights are public goods and you cannot make toll on every post lamp. There will always be a free rider! But with that it will make a safer Malaysia. People can have more confidence to walk around at night. As for social issues, are we willing to close down or not allow “Mamak Stall” to operate after 12 or earlier? People should be at home at night. Its not because of security. Its about social issues. The loitering culture is bothering parents and the performance of the product of Malaysia. My proposal is to create dedicated and a discipline Malaysians.

 Can the Alternative front grant my wishes? I know the current admin cannot.

Bak pepatah kata orang Perancis

Le monde est a vous nous / Dunia milik kamu kami

Eventhough malaysia is a so-called Islamic country, we are not even practising the first word that ”god” told Muhammad- which is “read”0r in Arabic “iqra”. Look back at history, Al andalus- what make the empire so great? - BOOKS. Yes millions of books was translated back then. Not the one from Mecca nor Medinah. The book from the greeks. Of course. The Arabs were not so great back then nor they are today. Bunch of ”jahil” (ignorant). Thats why the prophet was sent there. The renaissence of the arabs. Yet they are still proud (ignorant). Yes Millions of books were translated in old spain. Many books here are banned for the public. Such as the prince. Karen Armstrong’s books, and many other religion , philosophy-related books, politics and many other. What do we have here in Borders the curve- A huge section of Manga (japanese cartoon), 3 huge section of Crimes and collections of the Singapore horror books. Where are the books from Ibn Sinr, Books from Al-kindi? Where are the collections of the Indian-Classics? Books about history of Malacca? Books about Majapahit. Where are the books from the chinese philosphers?

Not only that. Malaysian books are taxed. Yes they are. “Thats how they make money” when I asked the cashier at “Borders the curve”. As a Malaysian, I think people love imported products. The Coffee, Shirts, The books, even their burgers. We love being whom we are not. We like to see things not to imagine.

What else can we use to improve our imagination than books? Not blogs. of course. People like to write about their life. Not about wisdom.

To foreign investors who is reading this. Come to Malaysia and if you have an ambition to create a book printing business in Malaysia leave a quick comment as a foreigner you need a Malaysian partner to start a business here (51/49)

Things here are so expensive when you compare it with the amount of salary that you earned for the month. For example, a pack of cigarettes here is around RM 8.20. Its even much more expensive than the UK (number wise -5.50 per pack {in pounds}). Of course its cheaper here in Malaysia when you compare it with the UK. But we are not earning pounds here. But an average Civil servant will earn about RM 1000-5000 per year, and to reach the later digit is quite hard for a civil servant. That is the nominal income. After income tax, EPF (The Employees Provident Fund ) and pension funds, how much money do you have to spend or to save for your children and for maintainence of your house. Talking about house, you even need to pay for mortgages-house cars and ETC.

I have shown only cigarettes as an example. How about other household products. Many were not made in Malaysia itself. Foriegn investors tend to set-up their business abroad in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand (Pringles in Malaysia is made in Thailand) and many others Indochina countries where labour are cheaper and where they are willing to work just for the sake of the future.

From what I have seen in my observation so far, the malay malaysians are emotional. They do not know how to let things go away. No matter how good or bad they have been. They like to think more about today and yesterday rather than tomorrow. The future. That is what important. Being good for today is good enough for them. They dont know that people can change overnight. From being religious to a totally complat “weng”. Sustainability is not there. We were not brought up to know. We were forced to know. What our interest is we do not even know. We are not confident when we are alone. We are too confident when we are in a pack. [this is what I have seen so far and I am unable to make comparisson nor write about other races in Malaysia as I was unable to as we are too segregated among each other (what a shame?)]

YES we are segregated between each other. That is the reality of this so called harmony in this country. I cannot even name a chinese nor an Indian whom I know just like I know my Malay friends. The gap are just too far. Of course many will have many friends that they can list down. But the truth is that we Malaysians feel so insecure. We are too concern about our politics, our piece of land (like we have one), our reputation as the “indians (native)” of Malaya and we are too proud of our religion. The first three things that were mentioned need to be forgotten. We need also to know what is religion. A religion is not something you can force someone about. It is a personal thing. At the end of the day, you won’t even know your own parents when you are there (end of time).

 We need to clear from our mind from politics because its useless, we need to stop to talk about our ancestors land because we do not own one(many of us now are X breed{some may have ancestor from chinese bloodline, Indian bloodline, Indonesian bloodline and even from the northern part of Indochina such as Mongolia, Pakistan, Arabs and many other) {just because we are born Islam, it does not mean that we are Malay|-if you want to argue about our history. We don’t even know who we are-|} and we need to forgot about our luxury of being the “indians -native” of Malaya. Because this is Malaysia. Not Malaya anymore. Each of us need to know how to live together just like a family. United under one umbrella. We must sing the same song. And share the same idea. What is it? the idea of the future. We all know what is it. It is the success of the family. Our parents cannot set the idea of the future for the children. Of course they cannot. They can only educate their children. Let the children choose what they want. If not we will rebel.

We have the potential to be so powerful on our piece of land. Yes we can. But first we need to educate ourself to be one. There are so many of us here in this country. We have been fighting for the same reason. But we we will never win because we are fighting for the same reason. It is much simpler if we intergrate among each other and solve our problem. Hating your own family will not take you anywhere.

A new Image. A new America many would have think. A better America. What would it benefit to the world? A fresh start? Maybe or Why not. As I mention earlier, investors will come back to the New ‘old’ World. What benefits would it have towards the invested countries. Countries like vietnam, Thailand, India and many of the growing countries. Will they pull of the plug to return to the States. Just like what they did during 1997? Why not. Many things need to be adjusted to the economy of the states. Less soldiers will be needed in the mid east. They already started to pull out some of the recruits. They will leave the veterans there. Who needs them in the States? They are too “specialised” in the killing business. They will always be in the middle east to teach people how to do what they do. The American way of police-ing.

Interest rates start to come down earlier this month. From 5.55 (FROM THE FEDS-WHICH IS QUITE HIGH) to around 3.5% is an early sign to encourage people to come to the land of opportunity back. I guess it will come down even more in the future. With oil prices are screaming to the top. They really need to do something about it rather than changing the price to euro, which will create more volatility or risk towards their economy. Eventhough the euro look more stable than the USD now.

No wonder that the Asian stock market went down by 3% the other day. It is most probably because the interest rate of the FED came down. Less expensive to borrow that is one thing. But the other thing is future income. Low interest, low volatility. Low volatility equals to lower future returns. Even the coupon value will come down to anyone that lent their money to the Feds. What if countries that has a huge amount of USD deposits in their banks? Value will go down as well. Unlike what they predicted.

Many people are also praying for the US economy to go down as they hope for higher interest from the FED so that they can earn higher interest while saving money in their banks. Higher return. But the risk will always be the same especially when you save your money at a bank. The money will always be there. The value will of course change but the risk of having lower value is unlikely as long as they won’t do business like the president of zimbabwe.

To conclude from what I have been talking about. The bottom line is that the US economy will bounce back in the near future. A new face will come in to the oval room. Its either a lady or a new face will come in to increase people confidence about the yanks. No matter what the people who ran this show is not stupid. They even know that they need a new plan to move foward or to grow. They will do almost anything. No matter what, a black guy, a woman , you name it. They even willing to sell the country to be more powerful.

Most people that I knew in my village are still the same. Still looking and aftering for a wild adventure. But they realise that they are all adult now. Not that they all went to clubs nor to the KTV. They prefer to loiter around like we use to be like. They meet the same bunch of people everyday. The people that they grew up with since they were very young.

We lived exactly like what our uncles used to be when they were in their 20′s. We still aftering the life of the 70′s. The so-called retro. We never look foward as much as we look at the past. They never take things so serious. They just want to live. They do not want to talk about the future. All  they want now is to  smoke everyday and feel good about what they imagined or think. 

I was shocked when one of them told me that these days people smoke whenever they want to. Not just by themselves. He told me back then he can only smoked in complete secrecy. Nowdays you can just have a joint in front of your house. Many stayed until late night. Some were quite desperate waiting for the ”runner” to  come back. And when the runner came back my desperate friend didn’t even stayed long. He took the stash and left.

About work. Not so many came out brilliant. Especially those that were brilliant between year 7 to 15. The so called genius. Those that made me jealous to succed. My inspiration to be hard working. Now, most of them became  despatch boys. Working 8 to 5 trying to make a living in this expensive country. They are all now became too insecure. They really need security and they take it too seriously with out making a plan how to overcome this challenging life. They just want get hold of money. Making their own money to pay for the petrol, to pay for their food and the most important reason is to be adult. But they did not realise that more can be made by doing other things.

I left my whole friends when I was 16. I was forced to be in a different environment. Meet people from the city and to learn that the world is so big. The fact is that the world can only be small when you know a lot of people. The mentality of a village still the same. Only few are brave enough to get out from the village alone. The person who think that friends is just friend. A person that can forget about their fond memories. A person who seeks a different environment. A person who knows that they not going to see their friend forever. Someone who does not want to be reliable. That is what we all are. We are too reliable. Not only people from my village. It is what most people are and want to be. To be the most reliable among each other until they do not want to get of their comfort zone. An error is a big mistake to them. If we do not change this attitude. We will be and always be like a heard of lambs in a barn.