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Melayu Suka Pesta dan Karaoke di Kolong Blok

Semalam di kampung aku, ada keluarga Melayu buat satu pesta (nak kata majlis walimah bukan).

Mungkin pesta berkhatan atau hari lahir. Siap dengan belon. Majlis dibuka dengan Marhaban. Bagus, Alhamdulillah.

Tapi selepas itu, dia orang melalak berkaraoke sepanjang hari sehingga sampai waktu isyak.

Oh Melayu ku, bila kamu semua mahu sedar. Pergilah berkaraoke di kelab karaoke. Nanti orang bangsa lain “complain”, kamu semua naik darah.

Bangsa lain buat “bising” disebabkan kepercayaan agama mereka.

Begitu juga majlis walimah kita dengan hadrah dan kompangnya kerana adat resam Melayu.

Tapi kalau majlis berkaraoke – tidak payah lah. Menunjukkan orang kita suka sangat berhibur.

Tidak ada faedahnya melainkan mengganggu ketenteraman orang lain di hujung minggu.

Cukup lah dengan Majlis Persandingan – bagus sekali tidak perlu berkaraoke.

Fikir-fikirkan lah.

Kiriman pembaca Syahrul

September 23, 2014
Why Do Singaporeans Hate Filipinos?

It’s the obvious question everyone is asking nowadays amidst a raft of hate blogs and other such digital artifacts going “viral” all over the Net. Many of these seem to have stemmed from the whole fracas surrounding a plan by Filipino community leaders to stage a 12th June Independence Day event at a major shopping centre in Singapore. The plan attracted a lot of debate and, with it, anonymous trolls lobbing racist abuse into the mix. Politicians on both sides of the sea have since chimed in even as organisers of the event withdrew their plans presumably under the weight of the harassment. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has condemned Singaporeans who were involved in the online harassment for their “thuggish behaviour”. Charles Jose, spokesman of the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) assured everyone that this is an “isolated” incident and that such attitudes reflect only that of “a small number of Singaporeans who don’t have the full appreciation or understand of the role of Filipinos there”. But the more important question remains the elephant in the room politicians and mainstream commentators tiptoe around: What is the source of this hate, and why does it seem to resonate amongst a big sector of Singapore society; big enough to shut down a major community event such as this year’s Independence Day commemoration there? The most recent and, by far, most virulent sower of hate against Filipinos in Singapore involves a 24th May post in which the author encouraged his (or her) compatriots to “step on them, push or shove them” when boarding a train. Before that there was another blog published by a different author proposing that Filipinos be made to ride in separate buses owing to their being perceived as too loud and annoying. This intolerance seems baffling considering that, by any measure, Singapore is one of the most racially-tolerant societies in a region where racism is often an institutionalized part of society and governance. Racial and religious harmony is regarded by the Singapore government as a crucial part of Singapore’s success, and played a part in building a Singaporean identity. But achieving and maintaining this harmony was (and continues to be) no easy task. The 1964 race riots were a series of riots that took place in Singapore during two separate periods in July and September between Chinese and Malay groups. The first incident occurred on 21 July during a Malay procession marking the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In total, the violence killed 36 people and injured another 556. About 3,000 people were arrested. At that time (1963–65), Singapore was a state in the Federation of Malaysia. In 1969, seven days of communal riots, a result of the spillover of riots also occurring in Malaysia, resulted in a final toll of 4 dead and 80 wounded. Singapore would not experience a major riot until 44 years later when the 2013 “Little India Riots” erupted on the 8th December 2013 after a fatal accident occurred at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road. About 300 migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu and Bangladesh were involved in the riot which lasted for around two hours. Where do Filipinos figure in this scheme of things? According to the records of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, there are 180,000 Filipinos living and working in Singapore. The Philippine government’s stated position on this large presence is that these residents “remain an important part of the city-state economy”. That is, of course, seeing it at a macro-economic level. The way individual Singaporeans see that presence at a street level may tell a different story and may have deeper social implications separate from the economic numbers. And that is, perhaps, where the “debate” around root causes should be. As such, the Philippine government’s position on the matter may be incomplete, which means that an incomplete or, worse, aflawed solution to resolve this (if any such is actually being planned) may aggravate the problem further. The last thing we need, specially in times when the Philippines grows ever more dependent on foreign capital and employment for its survival, is for the proverbial elephant in the room to keep growing bigger. [NB: Parts of this article were lifted from various Wikipedia.org articles related to Singapore in a manner compliant to the terms stipulated in the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License that governs usage of content made available in this site. Photo courtesy Pinoy-OFW.com.] Source: http://getrealphilippines.com/

September 23, 2014
Wanita Hamil Empat Kali Dengan Ayah Kandung

Kes ‘haruan makan anak’ bukan lagi sesuatu yang mengejutkan dalam masyarakat hari ini, tetapi kejadian ayah bercinta dengan anak sendiri mungkin sukar diterima. Bagaimanapun itulah yang berlaku ke atas Lina, 21, yang dijadikan kekasih oleh ayahnya sejak empat tahun lalu sehingga dia kini hamil enam bulan.

“SAYA anak tunggal. Ayah dan ibu berpisah ketika saya berusia lima tahun dan sejak itu saya tidak pernah berjumpa ibu. Menurut nenek, ibu berlaku curang, menyebabkan hak penjagaan saya diserahkan kepada ayah.

Saya juga diberitahu, ibu berkahwin lain dan ada keluarga sendiri.Bagaimanapun, ayah tidak pernah berkahwin lagi. Berikutan ayah sibuk dengan perniagaannya, saya dipelihara nenek di kampung manakala ayah tinggal di Kuala Lumpur.

Seingat saya sejak kecil, ayah sering bertukar pasangan tetapi tidak pernah berkahwin lagi. Hubungan ayah dengan semua kekasihnya juga tidak lama, antara dua hingga tiga bulan saja.

Ayah pernah membawa pulang beberapa kekasihnya untuk diperkenalkan kepada saya dan nenek, tetapi saya tidak sempat rapat dengan mereka. Ini kerana ketika mula hendak rapat dengan mana-mana ‘auntie’ (kekasih),ayah bertukar pasangan dan memperkenalkan kekasih baru.

Ayah memang banyak kekasih tetapi tidak pernah berkahwin lagi. Mungkin ayah kecewa dengan perkahwinan pertamanya, tetapi saya tidak tahu jawapan sebenar kerana setiap kali bertanya, ayah berdalih kononnya tiada jodoh.

Saya tidak tahu sama ada ayah berdendam dengan ibu hingga menjadikan saya sebagai mangsa atau ayah benar-benar cintakan saya. Ini kerana menurut nenek, rupa saya ‘sebiji’ (sama) dengan ibu. Perubahan layanan ayah terhadap saya berlaku ketika saya di tingkatan lima.Jika ketika kecil ayah hanya melawat saya seminggu sekali, tetapi ketika di tingkatan lima, ayah semakin kerap menjenguk saya.

Kadangkala empat lima hari seminggu berikutan rumah nenek hanya 50 kilometer dari Kuala Lumpur. Ayah juga kerap bertanya mengenai hubungan saya dengan lelaki. Dia Meminta saya berterus-terang dan berjanji bersikap terbuka.

Yang menghairankan, semua teman lelaki saya ditolaknya kerana ada saja yang tidak kena baginya.Ini menyebabkan saya marah, tetapi ayah memang ‘pakar psikologi’. Diapandai bermain dengan perasaan orang. Mungkin itu kelebihannya hingga ada ramai kekasih.

Dia memperbetulkan fokus saya daripada remaja yang ghairah ingin bercinta kepada pelajar yang tekun. Ketika itu saya yakin keputusan ayah kerana dia inginkan yang terbaik untuk saya kerana saya satu-satu anaknya.

Bagaimanapun, saya mula berasa hairan apabila selepas tingkatan lima walaupun memperoleh keputusan cemerlang, ayah tidak mengizinkan saya melanjutkan pelajaran.

Lebih menghairankan, beberapa rombongan meminang saya juga ditolaknya,sebaliknya dia meminta saya membantunya dalam perniagaan. Bukan sebagai pekerja, sebaliknya saya hanya diminta menemaninya ke majlis tertentu.

Saya seolah-olah menjadi pembantu peribadi tidak rasmi ayah. Apabila dia menghadiri majlis atau meraikan rakan niaganya, dia membawa saya.

Ketika itu saya mula berasa layanan berbeza daripada ayah. Pada mulanya saya bosan kerana perlu menemani ayah ke sana sini, tetapi lama-kelaman saya gembira kerana ayah membelikan barangan mahal.

Hubungan kami juga banyak berubah kerana ayah kerap membelai dan memeluk saya. Percakapan ayah juga lain dan romantis. Dia juga kerap memberikan hadiah.

Malah, saya pernah menemui sajak dan puisi ayah yang ditulis di kertas dan surat khabar. Antaranya bertajuk cinta terlarang yang ditujukan kepada saya dalam bahasa puitis.Seperti saya katakan, ayah pandai bermain psikologi. Mungkin ini jerat ayah.

Akhirnya saya menjadi lemah dengan pujukan dan kasih-sayangnya dan ayah yang sepatutnya menjadi pelindung bertukar menjadi kekasih saya.

Daripada hubungan ayah dan anak, kami semakin intim dan bercinta. Ayah melayan saya seperti kekasihnya dan mungkin kerana ketandusan kasih-sayang sejak kecil, saya terjerat dan merelakan hubungan ini.

Akhirnya kami terlanjur. Saya tidak ingat berapa kali kerana ia kerap berlaku. Kami hidup seperti suami isteri dengan saya sering bermalam dirumah ayah di Kuala Lumpur.

Kalau ayah ada urusan kerja di luar daerah, saya ikut dan tinggal bersamanya di hotel. Hasil hubungan kami yang tidak lagi terkawal menyebabkan saya hamil empat kali.

Bagaimanapun, saya sempat menggugurkan tiga kandungan awal kerana ketika itu ayah mengambil berat keadaan saya. Apabila haid saya tidak dating dua bulan, dia bawa saya berjumpa doktor untuk menggugurkan kandungan.

Beberapa rakan mengesyaki hubungan kami kerana melihat cara ayah memegang saya kadang-kala keterlaluan, tetapi saya memberi alasan saya anak tunggal.

Kuasa Tuhan menentukan ketika hamil kali keempat, ayah sibuk dengan perniagaan. Dia tiada banyak masa dengan saya. Alih-alih apabila sedar,kandungan berusia enam bulan.

Saya terpaksa mendapatkan bantuan beberapa rakan baik. Mereka mengesyaki hubungan saya dengan ayah dan saya cuba berdalih dengan lelaki lain,tetapi mereka tahu ia angkara ayah kerana saya tidak pernah ada teman lelaki.

Akhirnya saya mengaku dan berterus-terang, menyebabkan saya kini disembunyikan. Hampir sebulan saya tidak berjumpa ayah dan saya tidak mahu dia tahu di mana saya sekarang.

Saya kini ditempatkan di sebuah rumah perlindungan dan mendalami ilmu agama sebelum melahirkan anak tidak lama lagi. Saya sungguh menyesal dengan perbuatan saya.

Saya memohon keampunan daripada Allah, tetapi pada masa ini saya tidak sanggup bersemuka dengan ayah. Saya belum ada kekuatan kerana perasaan cinta terhadapnya masih kuat.

Saya tahu perasaan ini salah di sisi agama, sebab itu saya menjauhinya bagi menghimpun kekuatan untuk menghadapi masa depan tanpa ada hubungan terkutuk dengan ayah.Jika ayah membaca artikel ini, saya berharap ayah faham dan saya ingin menjadi anak, bukan kekasih ayah.

Sumber: Harian Metro

September 23, 2014
Death Penalty for Malaysian Drug Trafficker

SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old Malaysian who had earlier been found guilty of bringing into Singapore 22.24g of diamorphine, the pure form of heroin, was on Monday (Sep 22) sentenced to death.

Prabagaran a/l Srivijayan was arrested in the early morning of April 12, 2012, at the Woodlands Checkpoint after immigration officers found two bundles wrapped with black masking tape – later found to contain the diamorphine – in the centre armrest console of the car he was driving into Singapore.

Prabagaran, who had said he was unaware that the two bundles were in his car, claimed trial on a charge of importing heroin of more than 15g, which carries the death penalty.

He was convicted in the High Court on July 22.

Court documents said Prabagaran had borrowed the car from a friend to enter Singapore on that day in April because he could not use his motorcycle. He had been behind in paying his monthly installment and he was afraid that the motorcycle shop in Malaysia would repossess the vehicle.

Prabagaran had also told another friend that he had to take the car to Singapore early in the day – even though he was due to start his shift at a petrol pump station here only at 3pm – because he needed to return his work permit and gate pass to a former employer.

During the trial, the prosecution had argued that Prabagaran was an untruthful witness and that his testimony was “unconvincing, riddled with inconsistencies and cannot be believed”.

“If the accused (Prabagaran) had truly intended to return his work permit and the gate pass to his former employer, he has not offered any satisfactory explanation why he had to do so several hours before his work shift began,” said the prosecution.

Prabagaran’s defence lawyer, Mr N Kanagavijayan, told the court that his client would be filing an appeal against the conviction.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/death-penalty-for/1375990.html

September 23, 2014
Fate of Malays Are Shaped By The Government

Dr. Mahathir says the Malays are lazy. He says he has failed. After a lifetime trying to correct the Malay character, since the days he wrote his Malay Dilemma, Mahathir is a frustrated man. Either the Malay is irredeemable or Mahathir has the wrong prescriptions.

The Malay is lazy compared with whom? There must be a measure. Because Mahathir is ashamed in front of the Chinese, then by extension, the Malay is lazy when compared to the Chinese.

If so, why are the Chinese not lazy and the Malays lazy? To me this is not due to some innate cultural characteristics and – allow me to say it directly here at once – it’s due to the refusal of the Chinese to allow others to dictate their destiny. The Malays on the other hand have resigned to the fact that their destiny is shaped by others, notably the government.

Before Umno, the Malays were as they were because centuries of living under feudal rule had shaped their childlike dependence. When Umno came, the mental bondage wasn’t eliminated but reinforced by the neo-feudalism that Umno practises.

The Malays must now start believing that they are given this inalienable right to define their own lives, that responsibility over their wellbeing rests with themselves first and not defined by an extraneous entity like the government. The Malay is free to pursue his own personal interest without being prevented by others; he plays his part in contributing to society’s wellbeing voluntarily. He looks after himself, his family and does his bit for society.

I see the Chinese in Sungai Klau and Sungai Ruan not shirking from communal interests. They collect donations and the better-off contribute generously to religious and social causes. But more important, they undertake to look out for themselves first.

This looking out for themselves is probably shaped by their own acknowledgement that it’s difficult to obtain help from a Malay-dominated government, and this induces the Chinese to look at creative and even defiant ways. But I also think that looking after one’s own interests is also shaped by a personal code of conduct. No one owes you a living but yourself.

So as to Mahathir’s opinion that Malays are lazy, many Malays will not believe that. The Chinese may also reject this notion. Sure, I have seen Malays being instructed repeatedly by the Chinese mandor over a particular job, but that is not to say the Malay is lazy. He is less skilled.

There are of course a great number of layabouts and loafers. They are like that because they have no application. Talent is wasted if there is no application.

Application. The first politician I heard using this word was Lee Kuan Yew. Having all the necessary social and productive skill sets, you require application. If application is hindered, the person becomes a dud.

I have been thinking what is it that hinders the Malay from applying his potential? Since Mahathir is comparing the Malay to the Chinese, I would like to offer my thoughts on this.

What’s holding back the Malay? It would easier if we can lump it all into the concept of culture. That would require a more scientific exposition, not possible in a blog like this. We have to be more specific.

Different mental plane

The hindrance to application is personal inhibition. The Chinese does not attach much significance to authority, it seems. The Malay operates on a different mental plane.

The Malay, after years of living under the feudal system, is what he is today because of that. He is inhibited. He has the glass window, the invisible bar that defines him within a narrower space. That space was defined in the past by the feudal system of government and now by the system of neo-feudalism. Umno really does not want to liberate the Malay mind, fearing its power will be challenged.

That space to me is defined ultimately by the government and so it is ultimately the government that is responsible for moulding the Malay mind. The concept of government to the Malay is that of an imposing benign master, deity-like, to be obeyed at all times. That allows the government to create a childlike dependence on the government and its leaders.

The path to a more complete application is therefore, I think, a break from dependence. Umno actually does not want to liberate the Malay except on its terms. “On its terms” means without forgetting the dependence and debt to Umno. Umno is actually looking after its own interests first, the interests of its own leaders, and then the Malays.

Taking care of the Malays should mean freeing them and allowing them personal space.

The Malay person’s more complete stepping out of the boxed space is inhibited by Umno. Umno has not liberated the Malay mind, and because of that he is inhibited. Of all the characteristics that prevent the Malay his full application, perhaps the most prominent is meekness, which translates into irrational subservience to the government. In the 1970s, when Umno produced the book Revolusi Mental, the party tried to encourage Malays to be more arrogant and defiant in attitude. Perhaps that is what they need most of all. A defiant and rebellious attitude.

The typical Chinese new villager in Sungai Ruan or Sungai Klau or Teras in Raub has 60 to 70 acres of land in the jungle turned into fruit orchards and so forth. Drive around the new village of Sempalit and you will see every available space in front of houses is planted with vegetables of some kind. Drive around in Sungai Klau and Sungai Ruan and you will see workshops attached to houses. You see that with Malay houses too, but with less intensity.

The PTG, the Land Office, has not taken action. Suppose a Malay individual decides to cultivate a two-acre plot in the jungle, the people from PTD and Forest Department and other people would be swarming over them. These people are asking the government to allow them a way out, not given handouts.

The handout recipe is a function of a sound welfare safety net system. Only those old and infirm qualify to get handouts. These people deserve to be helped. The able bodied, the skill-deficient, they cannot be given handouts but a way out.

Just compare the typical Malay and the typical Malaysian Chinese. The Malay would likely depend on the government for sustenance, either as an employee, contractor or rent seeker. He is a dependent. His mindset is shaped by the interests he can cull from being dependent on and seeking favours from the government. The government is the master, he the slave. The government is a deity to be worshipped, feared and obeyed absolutely.

The typical Chinese is probably self-employed, is working in some unrelated government business establishment. He defines his life. He is chauvinistic in the sense he accepts that his welfare and wellbeing are his own responsibility. So why can’t he be cocky and refuse to kowtow to anyone? He doesn’t owe anyone else a living. He participates in the free market.

He is independent and has choices when it comes to what kind of government he wants. If he wants to support DAP for being truer to his interests, there is nothing the Umno-led government can do because the Chinese are not dependent on it.

Ariff Sabri is the MP for Raub. He blogs at sakmongkol.blogspot.com

September 23, 2014