Singapore - Racial Harmony

worth reading...

Othman Wok (born 1924) was a former Cabinet Minister in Singapore for 14 years. He was the Minister of Social Affairs from October 1963 to June 1977. After retiring from active politics, he was Singapore's ambassador to Indonesia and served on the boards of the Singapore Tourism Board and Sentosa Development Corporation. For his political, economic and social contributions to the nation building of Singapore, the Singapore President awarded him the Order of Nila Utama (2nd Class) in 1983.

Small spark can create big mess

By Jenny Goh

Source: The Straits Times (Dated: July 23, 1997)

Former minister, Mr Othman Wok, spoke to Tampines JC students on Monday on the occasion of Racial Harmony Day. We publish below excerpts from his speech, which dwelt on his experience with the consequences of racial disharmony in the past.

Be wary of people who bring up sensitive issues for political gain
TODAY, July 21st 1997, is peaceful and beautiful. We live together as one big family in this peaceful, clean and safe environment. There is tolerance, understanding and friendliness among us. We are now enjoying full employment, high income, better homes, good schools, first-class medical facilities and
transport system.

We have been able to achieve all these because, after the difficult period of the 60s, there has always been peace and harmony in the country. Racial harmony is fundamental to us if we want to make Singapore the best and happy home for us and our future generations.

July 21st, 1964, was a totally different day from today. It was a public holiday - Prophet Mohammad's Birthday. It was an auspicious day for the Malays and Muslims and they were celebrating it with a mass rally at the Padang, followed by a procession about 3km-long to Lorong 12 Geylang, the headquarters of the Muslim Missionary Society of Singapore.

This was the way the Prophet's birthday was celebrated every year and there had never been trouble. The non-Muslims always looked forward to it. They enjoyed the colourful dress, flags and buntings, and the beating of drums by participants. To them, it was like a Muslim Chingay Parade.

But this particular day was also one full of uneasiness. The atmosphere at the rally was very tense. I was there leading the PAP contingent, comprising the party's Malay and Muslim members.

I had a feeling then that something would happen that afternoon. I saw many policemen around the Padang and felt assured that it was unlikely that there would be trouble.

However, speeches made by Muslim leaders at the rally did not at all portray the teachings of Islam and the Prophet, which stress tolerance, understanding, respect and good neighbourliness among mankind, irrespective of their races, cultures and religion. Intermittently during the speeches, there were shouts of "God is Great" from the participants. Their voices were not that of praising "Allah", but of anger.

In fact, communal tension was already in Singapore a few months after we joined Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. This was created by a group of irresponsible, chauvinist and extremist political leaders of the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) from Kuala Lumpur.

They played up the sensitive issues of race, language and religion purposely, stirred up Malay emotion and sentiments and caused disharmony among the Malays and the non-Malays, knowing well what the consequences would be.

Why did they do this despite the fact that Malaysia was facing a more dangerous external threat of confrontation launched by Indonesia's President Sukarno, who was against the formation of Malaysia?

All Malaysians, irrespective of their races, should unite and fight him, instead of against one another.
Sukarno claimed that the Federation of Malaysia was a colonialist plot to threaten Indonesia's security and that the people of Malaysia themselves were against Malaysia. A disunited Malaysia would have proved that he was right. Yet this small group of racialist Umno political leaders went ahead to
create disunity among the population.

Malays reject communal politics
The reason was, Singapore Malays, for the first time in the history of this country, rejected communal politics. In the September 1963 General Election in Singapore - the first held when we were in Malaysia - all the Singapore Umno Malay candidates who contested in the Malay-dominated constituencies of
Geylang Serai, Kampong Kembangan, Southern Islands and Pasir Panjang, lost to the People's Action Party Malay candidates.

The Malay voters in these constituencies rejected Umno, a communal political party, and supported the PAP, a multi-racial political party. This really upset Umno leaders in Kuala Lumpur.

Two months later, led by Federation Umno secretary-general Syed Jaafar Albar, the extremist leaders descended upon Singapore and proceeded to champion greater rights for Singapore Malays.

They insinuated that Singapore Malays were second-class citizens, discriminated against and oppressed by the Singapore government. They lied and created suspicion and hatred among the Malays that their religion, language and culture were threatened.

The PAP, they alleged, was a Chinese-dominated government that was anti-Malay.

Their inflammatory and fiery speeches were carried by the Malay vernacular press, especially the Utusan Melayu, which was printed in the Jawi script and therefore could not be read by other races.

I worked in this newspaper for 17 years (1946 to 1963) and was its Deputy Editor when I resigned to become a politician. This newspaper had a large circulation and was read widely by Malays all over the Federation.

The Malaysian Constitution provided for special Malay rights in the Federation, and promised equal basic rights and opportunities for all Malaysian citizens. But the Singapore Constitution stood apart on this key
point. No special rights imported from the Malaysian Constitution for anyone in Singapore on the basis of race, language and religion.

This was a sore point for the Umno Federation leaders. The Singapore Government never challenged the Malay special rights as practised in the Federation. It was their business. What we did was to call
for the reaffirmation of the spirit of the Malaysian Constitution, and that was for a Malaysian Malaysia, a democracy based on the principle of non-communalism and equal basic rights for all.

In Singapore, instead of the Special Malay rights, incentives in education were given to all Malay students. Since 1959, all Malay students enjoyed free education from primary to university level. This was to enable them to continue their studies to the highest level that they could achieve without financial worries.

The incentive was also to encourage them to study harder so that eventually, they would be able to catch up with other students. A highly-educated Malay is an asset to his/her family and country. He/she enjoys the same opportunities as the others in securing good jobs and better salary.

Syed Jaafar Albar came to Singapore many times to speak at Umno meetings and he continued with his inflammatory and communal speeches. The situation became more tense and dangerous. About 10 days before July 21st, 1964, he organised an indoor rally in a cinema in Pasir Panjang attended by officials
and members of Umno branches. There were a few hundred of them.

In his speech, among others things, he accused all PAP Malay Legislative Assemblymen of being un-Islamic, anti-Islam, anti-Malays and traitors to their community. He whipped the audience into a frenzy, so much so that angry shouts were heard from outside the cinema: "Kill them, kill them, kill Othman Wok."

One week later, the Singapore Government called a meeting of officials and members of all Malay and Muslim organisations in Singapore at Victoria Memorial Hall.

That meeting was to hear grouses and dissatisfaction, if any, on national issues and to rebut the accusations, lies and insinuations made by Syed Jaafar Albar. The meeting was attended by PM Lee Kuan Yew, Cabinet members, all Malay MPs and senior government officials.

Bloody riots in Geylang
During the three-hour session, none among those present brought up any national issue. Only nitty-gritty matters were brought up and answered promptly. At the end of the meeting, it was clear that the Singapore Malays had no complaint against the government.

The lies and insinuations by Syed Jaafar Albar were exposed. But this angered Umno. The riots took place at about 4 pm along Geylang Road near Lorong 12. By the time curfew was declared by the Federation Ministry of Home Affairs at 10 pm that night, many people had been killed and injured. The violence spread quickly, particularly in the eastern part of Singapore, but mostly at Geylang Serai, Kampong Kembangan, Joo Chiat and Changi.

The violence lasted for a week; 23 people were killed and 454 injured. It was the most severe violence that Singapore had experienced. We had riots and demonstrations before this, mostly caused by the communist-dominated trade unions in relation to industrial problems. But never a racial riot of this magnitude.

Though order was finally restored, great damage was done. There was hatred, fear, suspicion and disharmony among the multi-racial population. The result was a shifting of the population.

Many Malay families who lived in non-Malay dominated areas before the riots moved to Malay-populated areas. Chinese families who lived in Malay areas moved to Chinese-populated areas. The polarisation of the two communities was very dangerous.

This had to be rectified quickly. We took immediate steps to assimilate the population again and restore harmony, trust, confidence, respect, tolerance and good-neighbourliness. It was not an easy task. But it had to be done.

Our public housing scheme was in full swing. We resettled them and mixed them in the HDB flats. We felt that this way, they would be able to learn to become good and friendly neighbours and understand and appreciate one another's customs and cultures. We took the right decision.

There is now more understanding, tolerance, respect and friendliness among the various races. During festive seasons like Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali, they celebrate together and visit one another. Today, there is practically no racial problem in the housing estates.

One week after the riots, I was in Kuala Lumpur. A senior Utusan Melayu reporter met me, obviously to find out about the situation in Singapore. He told me that at 2 pm on July 21, 1964, he already knew that the riots was going to happen. I said: "How did you know beforehand when the riots took place at 4 pm?"

He replied: "Oh yes, we knew beforehand. We have our sources, you know." That clicked. Utusan Melayu must have been informed by those responsible
for the impending riots because it was going to be big news.

No attempt was made by the Federation government to institute an official enquiry into the riots until asked for by the Singapore Government.

A Royal Commission of Enquiry to investigate the riots was only established in early 1965. Even before it completed a quarter of the enquiry, Singapore was told to leave Malaysia on Aug 9th, 1965. I was the first person to give evidence before the Commission.

Why Tengku booted S'pore out
In his letter to Dr Toh Chin Chye, who was then Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and PAP chairman, Malaysian Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman said that he decided on the separation in the interest of friendship, security and peace of Malaysia as a whole. There was absolutely no way out. He said: "I am
not strong enough and able to exercise complete control of the situation."

I believed then, and I still believe now, that his other reason for booting out Singapore from Malaysia was the report of the Royal Commission of Enquiry, if published, would definitely point accusing fingers at those guilty in Kuala Lumpur for the violence in Singapore. With Singapore out of Malaysia, there was no need for the Commission to continue with the enquiry as it was dissolved automatically.

What do we learn from all this? We should not take racial harmony for granted. Race, language and religion are very sensitive issues that appeal to the heart. These issues are always under a seemingly peaceful surface. Just a small spark will create a big mess and damage our prosperity, racial harmony,
stability, peace and tranquility.

Therefore, we must always be wary of people who want to create trouble by bringing up these sensitive issues for the sake of political gain. Any such attempt should be nipped in the bud. Many countries like the US, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to name a few, have serious racial problems. We do not want Singapore to be in the same category.

We are now progressing towards nation-building in order to achieve national unity and national loyalty. This will take time. The most important pre-condition towards this goal and our continued success is racial harmony.

All minority races must be made to feel comfortable with the majority. And the attitude of the majority must sincerely show a non-threatening way, not threatening other races, their languages, their cultures and religions. Also by being fair to them by giving them the same opportunities in economic fields, jobs, education, medical services and housing. There must also be a spirit of give and take.

Otherwise the minorities will feel uncomfortable, oppressed and discriminated against. This, inevitably will lead to dissension and disorder because the differences are such that we can never be a homogenous people.
Then we have a situation like in the early 60s and I am sure we do not want Singapore to return to that period.

Letrik Kena potong Hari ini.

Hari ini, sampai saja di ofis, mel called "abg letrik dah kena potong". terkedu aku. mmg boleh naik darah lah. aku call si agent yg mmg tak boleh dipercayai tu. tak dapat. bila dapat dia cakap dia ada meeting. aku terus menjerit. meeting ke tak meeting ka dapat kan letrik aku balikkkkkk!!!

aku hantar email, cakap kat bos bos seluruh alam, dalam draft ku aku tulih "if you think u r paying cheap asian guy too much, i'm ready to fly back to Malaysia now". dan aku tanya mel. "abg nih emosional lah". dan aku pun tak jadi hantar. aku cakap. "They just cut off my electricity and I'll be check in to the hotel today"

Kalau aku ultraman, aku dah terbang kat mamat tuh, pastu aku fireeeeeeeeeeee!!!! sekarang ni mel dekat rumah, duduk dalam oven HaHaHa.

Sesiap yang nak datang sini, pertama sekali, kena ingat, kena bersabar dgn karenah2 org org di sini. kerana negara2 disini, dirunning oleh rakyat2 asing. mereka hanya menghormati rakyat tempatan dan orang2 putih.

Sepupu dan rakan baikku

Sepanjang kehidupan aku, aku membesar bersama sepupu2 akudan kami amat rapat sekali. kami kawin pun pakai sistem kutu, bermula dgn aku, jem (baju biru), Ju (tgh sanding tu) dan zack (baju merah). zack baru diijabkabulkan di masjid tanah pada 26hb May 2007.
Setiap kali bercuti kami akan bergilir2 tidur di rumah sesiapa sahaja. Kalau dah malam tu dah terlepak kat rumah aku, maknanya tidur lah kat umah aku. kalau ada org tua carik, dia kena call semua rumah, tanya. sbb kalau sorang ada kat situ, 3 lagi mesti ada. Selalunya aktiviti menonton bola sepak, yang pastinya aku tertidur, kalau terjaga sbb 3 lagik dok jerit goal goal, atau bodo!! bangang !!. Pastinya zack dgn chelsea nya, Ju dgn arsenal nya (dulu dia MU) , dan Jem aku kurang pasti sekarang. dan aku plak, cepat lah habis, aku nak tido :D. Dan kalau ada game perak lawan di Ipoh atau Bukit Jalil, pasti aku akan mengikutinya, aku takde lah bersemangat sangat pun, tapi sepupu2 aku ni lah yang menyemangatkan aku. Kalau kenduri kawin sepupu yang lain, pasti kami berempat kuat bekerja. cari kawah lah, sampai letih atau "terhele" org gerik kata. bangun pagi2 "perah" nyo (kelapa). Tapi sekarang semua sudah kawin dan berkeluarga. Cuma aktiviti tidur nih, kena sediakan betul2 lah sbb ada bini masing2.
Rasa terkilan tak dapat balik kenduri zack semalam. dah la isterinya org masjid tanah. So balik kampaung boleh lah kami plan sama2 lps ni :-)

baju kunin dan baju hitam tu: anak buah zack
budak kecik yang duduk belah kiri tu: cousin kita org jugak
3 budak kecik lagi tue: anak anak buah aku

Movie Marathon

We had movie marathon last Friday. Mel downloaded and burnt a few movies and we watched it on our made-in-china DVD. Seriously this DVD is damn cheap but its features above everything. The branded one could have codex only but this dvd can play subtitle as well. Very cool!! We started with “confession of pain” followed by “music of lyric”, “because I said so”, “puaka tebing biru” and I forgot the last one because I felt asleep at the end of puaka tebing biru. I hate horror movie. I heard “jangan pandang belakang” made a record with more than 6.5 million collections, but I do not dare to watch it. I know if I do, I will get strange watched and start having haunted feeling. But the thing I hate most I will not have enough sleep. I still remember the day I watched “Pontianak harum sundal malam” with my fingers on my face. I did not want to watch it at the beginning but my cousins, insisted me to accompany them. How could I tell them that I’m afraid to watch those kinds of movies? :P . Mel laughed at me and used to tease me on this. I’m not afraid of the dark but I do afraid what is in the dark HaHa.

Then yesterday, we went to city centre for last sequel of pirates of the Caribbean “at world’s end”. This 3-hour movie is well played and it has a great story with a superb ending. Anyway, Mel was emotional because Will turner had to leave Elizabeth at the end. No worries, Elizabeth will keep Turner’s heart safely :P.

I’m planning to watch it again, as I couldn’t understand well some of the words being said in the movie. Since I’m still thinking and dreaming in Malay, so I'm still having problem to catch up what English man said :P. “No wat”er”. They simply lost T.

There was subtitle down there but it was in Arabic :P. Marabbuka!!

Apa apa jer lah

ish sejak mel sampai nih, aku tatau nak tulih apa lah. mcm takde topik menarik nak ditulih. Mungkin jiwa aku tidak memberontak semasa hidup keseorangan. Aku gelak jer tgk bini aku tidur awal dan bangun awal. aku tak heran, sbb aku tahu dia masih jet lag. Aku saje jer provoke dia, kan bagus kalau cam ni selalu, ini asyik tidur kul 12 malam. HaHa dia pun tak berani nak buat statement tengtang kekonsistentan dia dapat bangun awal sebegitu. Sbb dulu dia pernah buat statement, dia suka bangun awal. habis jet lag sama lah balik kan hahaha. kali ni bila aku provoke, dia hanya mampu tersenyum tanpa berani membuat statement. kerana dia takut hanya akan menjeratkan diri. HaHaHa.
dapat lah aku rasa makan asam pedas, walaupun rasanya tak lah boleh lawan asam pedas makcu masjid tanahnya. dah improve banyak jugak lah asam pedasnya. not too bad HaHa. lps tuh dapat lah makan ikan masak taucu. sungguh selera aku makan. Bila nak main dengan kasut boling baru nih. malam ni kena standby lagik. byk sgt standby malam2. bukan buat apa pun. hanya bersekang mata jer.
baru baca blog intan. Sedih aku baca cerita kakak ipar adik dia. meninggal lps beranak. Klik kat belah kiri tu nak baca. comel baby dia. itu lah suratan qadaq dan qadar. Tapi seperti yang aku selalu cakap, kematian itu pasti akan datang. memang susah nak terima kalau berlaku pada kita, tapi kita kena bersedia walaupun sukar.
iym pulak baru beranak 3.9 kilo. dia cakap jenuh dia nak teran kali nih. tapi aku cakap dia dah tere dah bab bab meneran nih. sbb ini yang ke 3.
jadi semua manusia akan mati. jadi tak usah lah kita berdengki sesama manusia di muka bumi ini. buatlah berbaik baik. Kerana hanya amalan yang baik sahaja dikira untuk ke syurga.

Wallahhualam.

Suatu Hari itu pasti datang dan berlalu.....

The day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived :D Yessszaa, my dearest Mel safely landed at 21.25 pm last night and it took her an hour to get her passport stamped. A lot of people at the arrival hall as well, and I had to order frascato strawberry while waiting for her. Sadly we just had 2 hours before I left for work at 1 am. So we spent this quality 2 hours with unpacking her luggage. I’ve got my bowling shoe (thanks to jernk), narita and yokohama Hard Rock t-shirt and luminix digital camera. Material things are not really important but having her back by my side gives me fulfillment.

Tak sabar nya nak tuggu hari Ahad

Hari ni takde cerita. cuma saya nak bagi tahu, saya tak sabar tunggu ahad malam. Penantian itu satu penyiksaan bak kata pepatah melayu. Selamat Berhibur di hari minggu ya teman teman.

Makcik Citi

I am really pissed off with Citibank today. I just checked my online statement and I found out there was double charged for Air Asia transaction. I just bought only one ticket for my sister but they charged me twice. I called Citibank through yahoo messenger then I found out Citibank did not recognize all numbers entered in yahoo key pad. “please press 1 for English, 2 for malay..bla bla” it kept on repeating it even though I pressed so many times already. Since I wanted to save my prepaid amount, I got to switch to my celcom 013 number and I dialed through voip (*120*+60323830000), After going through all verifications I managed to talk to one executive lady named Debra. I told her about my statement then she asked me my fax number so she could fax the form and I need to sign it then send it back to them. WTF? I don’t have the fax machine and tomorrow is off day if I want to get my customer’s favor. I asked her if there is any other way I could do, since I’m currently away from KL and I don’t have access to any fax machine here. “I’m very sorry sir. Without your signature we couldn’t proceed”. I shouted at her [no vulgar words ;-)] and requested to talk to her manager. Then she asked me to call again at the same time and she will discuss this issue with her manager. I hope she will do it. Her voice did not sound sweet anymore after getting pressure from me. Pity her. I shouldn’t scold her. I should talk and request things in a nice way. But when it comes to money, rational people become irrational and irrational people become insane.

Anyway, when I called the next day, everything was sorted of as they will refund the amount in next statement. It has been 7 years and all this while was fine, so I could forgive them for this stupid howler.

Selamat Hari Ibu

I never celebrated this special day until I got married. I’m not against it but org kampung like me never bother this kind of event. There are many times I forget my late mom, but she’s always in my memories. Every single time I miss her, tears streaming down my face and I’ll be having a good cry. It’s quite sad because my wife wasn’t able to meet her. I used to tell how great she was and how I was pampered by her. She never forgot to bring my own plate and cup to the wedding [aku dulu lebih hygiene dr siput] and I just kissed her whenever I felt like doing it. It was hard for her to get mad at me. One kiss from me would melt her heart. I always on the winning side when I got in a fight with my sisters or brothers.

Luckily I married to the eldest in the family else she would say how spoilt I was. Huhu. A few days ago, when I was on the phone with mel, she asked me to send sms to her mom to wish “selamat hari ibu”. It took me sometimes what to write. If I remember quite well, it goes like this “Selamat Hari Ibu, semoga panjang umur dan dapat beramal ibadat selalu”. It was short and sweet isn’t it? Haha. Then there was a long reply from her. I’m still keeping it. here it goes

MIL: T. kasih Maaf mama baru buka telefon. Pagi tadi sebok masak awal sbb nak pergi kenduri marhaban dua rumah. Sehat? Hai bila den nak dapat cucu lagi ni? Salam dari mama dan ayah.

As expected, there must be a word “cucu”. One seems not enough. My sister in law just had a baby boy. After 5 years of waiting from us, alas they got one from zura (mel’s sister). Mel was excited too. One of the reasons why she flew back to KL :P. Everybody knows how lucky to be 1^st cucu. You’ll be getting anything you want. If your parents can’t afford it, most likely you’ll be getting it from your atok and nenek. There will be high expectation on you and you could be spoilt too. I’m speaking on mel’s behalf. Haha

Then I replied to MIL again, I told her to have fun with the 1^st one and as normal human being, it’s quite hard to be fair. Of course I ended it with “gurau jer”. Then she replied with a longgggg one. She said she was excited and can’t wait to have more, then told about my FIL calling their cucu every day. It’s pretty normal because we will come to that age and we’ll have the same feeling. This cycle applies to everybody before we die.

It won’t take long. If you happen to live in KL, you noticed that your life have gone just so fast. Ten years back when a small kid looking at you, they called you abang or kakak, but now they will call you Pakcik or Makcik. To make it sounds nicer, they call you ‘uncle’ or 'untie' (Aunty). It doesn’t make any difference, it just that the second one sounds orang putih :P I believe most of us have so many things left to do. We don’t have much time and most probably we’ll be dead before we know it. Please make sure, you get some time with God OK :-)

p/s: I don’t really know how to end this and it always dead comes to my mind.

Acronym: MIL (monster-in-law..eh silap mother-in-law) FIL (Father-In-Law)

Life is shit or life is not always a bed of roses?? Hehe

People used to have brunch but living here, I'm getting used to luncher (lunch and dinner haha. suka hati perkataan aku). Tropicana orange juice for my breakfast will do for my day. Since I have had curry and rice for the past few days, I decided to have KFC. I guess KFC would be worst than rice for my diet but I just opted for it. As usual, I ask for dinner meal, (3 pieces + coleslaw + bun + pepsi + fries) and extra ketchup. He just added another one so it became 3. I need 5 at least to finish my meal. I asked for more than he said “my manager will deduct my salary if I give you more. The most we can give is 4 only”. I was quite cool and I just smiled and asking for one more. Guys, how lucky you are being in Malaysia, you could have a bottle of ketchup for your fries only. I have to be cool in anyway, because I don’t want my BP suddenly goes up due to this life. It’s very true, because I just spoke to Munir and he told me, his friend had high BP after being a year in Saudi. They are worst than me because they have special equation which is arab = tonyok. I guess I have better life than them Hahahahaha.

It’s already 12.31 am and it passed my bed time. I do not feel sleepy or horny by now. Subuh is getting earlier and earlier, I have to push myself to snooze before 1. I just changed the alarm bell from 4.30 to 4.00 because the sun rises at 4.45 now. Practically, my 4.00 o’clock here same as 6.45 am back home hehe.

Ooo yea, my electricity still in jeopardy because I’m not able to do the transfer. I dealt with my agent this morning, so I was asked to pay in advance, regardless of the amount. I told him to pay 1200 but they just accepted 500 only. Then I paid him another 500 for service charge. As long as he gives me the check and with a few clicks I submitted the claims. Shit always happen everywhere. Like it or not, we have to deal with it. If you can turn it to “baja” ( I lost my vocab now), then it will be good. While cleaning it you will get the dirt. Anyway Mohaini is a good shit!!! hahahaha mohen jangan marah.

Next week I will join arm shooting session. I supposed to go yesterday but I had to wait for my agent. He kept on saying 5 minutes but it took him 4 hours to arrive.

Hopefully can work it out so I can put my photos here :-)

Fantastic weekend

Janne (say Yanni), a sale guy from dubai office came here for meeting and invited me to join them for dinner with local people. One local guy drove us heading to Mesaied (small town) and suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and turned right headed to desert. I had no idea where were we but the dinner was great, and they do it almost every weekend. it just for guys only. Some pictures taken by Nokia E70.

The man who drove us there.

Susu Unta. Sedapppp

Me and Janne (remember J sounds Y in finnish)

Me and Tina (Malaysian Indian working in Finland)

Our Dinner... rice, lamb and chicken.. yummmyyy

Most of the time, dia org main kad sambil ketawa2


Then the next day, Sham invited me and a few families for lunch

That 2 little girls are sham's

Me and cute shakila (yasir's daugther)

Last night, me and another 2 guys went out for spidey and Mary janne at City centre. Luckily we got the seats :-).

Keep On Going

I wrote and deleted a couple of blogs before. I’m worry this writing will have the same fate. Well, after rereading it the whole entries again, suddenly I don’t feel like to share and I wanted to write for my own reading only. It’s quite hard to keep going.

I started clicking my favorite links and read them one by one. I fall in love with kadazanpower writing, because it could make my heart skipped a beat when reading it. She could sell her stories if she wanted to. Then slowly, I got on Tip, Sally, Farok, and Bai. Tip and Bai updated them quite frequent where else Sally and Farok hop on it on weekly basis. Subsequently, from Bai’s I treasured other people’s blog whom I don’t know them in person. A couple of days ago I found Daphne Iking’s and started reading it till now. Personally, I love to see her on TV and it all started with TV3 explorace. I couldn’t remember well the winners of that program, but I could see her hosting it very well. I found out she’s a Kadazan, but I’m not sure she is powerful as kazanpower. (tak kot tracy).

Nowadays, being away from home is not a big deal. With advance and progress technology that we have, communication is no longer expensive. Families could be far away, but if you can talk about 30 minutes every single day to them, you don’t feel the distance anymore. I don’t exactly know how they charge, but I found out yahoo VOIP is a bit cheaper than skype. It doesn’t cost much. It’s not even 1 dollar for 30 minutes call. But then people will find it annoying when they received too much calls from you. My wife and sisters found it very boring. Of course I need someone to talk to, but I don’t really know who to call. I love to call HEMSEM, because he could answer me at anytime and we could talk of anything. I guess, almost everybody loves Hemsem. Hemsem’s friend could be your foe but he plays a good bridge for anything. When it comes to love, I’m not pretty sure to recommend him, because he is too good to all. Haha

Sometimes, you have this kind of thinking. Who is your close friend and is it worth to have them as your friend. Does your family care about you? Then you don’t care if any of them have any royal roots or whatsoever. Being alive for 3 decades, I don’t bother such questions lingering in my head anymore. Growing old is mandatory anyway and everybody alive today will die one day. If not by ageing, it will be something else before that. Life is short right!!! Do you have what it takes to be in heaven??

To my beloved wife: Thanks for the courtesy call last nite and get well soon :X

Kesangapan Tahap Cipan

di sini agak membosankan shopping complex, tidak sehebat KL. anda akan berbangga sekiranya mendengar kata2 org arab di sini yang pernah ke KL. mereka akan kata, hebat betul KL. murah dan maju. kenapa lah orang malaysia datang sini. tahun depan saya hendak pergi lagi. sekali ini saya pergi nak duduk KL sahaja 2 minggu. Terpinga2 aku dia menceritakan taman burung, zoo negara, aFamosa di melaka ada cowboy show dia kata. dia kata best betul. aku megiyakan aja, padahal aku pun tidak tahu ada cowboy show.

Disini ada satu shopping complex yang menarik. dia buat mcm ala ala venice kat dalam nya.
Bila ambil gambar di dalam shopping complex ini pasti mereka tidak tahu kita di mana. padahal di luar bangunan ini suhu sudah melebihi 40 darjah celcius. Suhu makin meningkat. Bulan 7 di jangkan 50 darjah.
Ini pula adalah makanan yang saya sambut selepas lulus ujian lesen memandu

dan tetiba kawan aku bagi dengar lagu jepun ni. bunyi cam best jiwan2 gitu walaupun aku tak paham. click di sini utk mendengar. aku pun dah makin sanggap dah duduk sorang2 nih. aku rasa sedikit sebanyak mengalami tekanan jiwa. rasa tidak keruan.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/9f6f14fa-06cd-4926-9fdf-0f2837254fc8/Hirai-Ken---Aika-(Elegy

It’s pretty boring now. I’m still thinking what I shall write by now. My wife found my last entry very boring and some said it’s getting unexciting. Anyway I spoke to my friend just now and he informed me that he will be on TV and he’s trying in acting now. I told him, he could do it, who knows one day I’ll be getting his premier ticket. Then I could tell people, “he is my good friend” and I told him I can’t wait to see him on the front cover. He tot I made fun of him, and he swore at me. It pretty normal because people found it non-amusing when getting compliments from me. I was serious anyway and am too old to tease people. After finding it not so surreal he thanked me for supporting him. Wish you all the best. Anyway you have what it takes.

Doing support stuff is damn boring. When nothing happened you have plenty of time. You could reply any email in seconds. So I kept on sending and replying mohen’s email today. His baby born prematurely and it was 1.1kg only. Nothing bad happened, and according to him, his son has to be warded for 2 months at HUKM specialist center. If anybody happened to be nearby, just pay him a visit then.

Then I called my wife, and I guess she found a bit annoying because I kept on calling her. Before marriage, we could talk for hours and we could talk a lot of things. After 5 years of marriage, the communication sometimes go kaput as we have nothing much to tell. That’s why man still going out on weekend to hang out with their friends. I felt irritated too, because she seemed not happy with my call. Could be 1st day of the month :P. I lost my appetite !!! [~Sigh]

My nonambitious Ambition

If we recall back when we were in standard 1, our teacher will ask each of us, “what is your ambition?” We have to fill up with 3 jobs according to our priority. “Tentera”, “Polis”, “Bomba” are the favorites. Slowly, when we were growing up, sometimes the order changed or replaced. As for me, once I knew the word, “Juru”, I started writing “Jurutera”, “JuruTeknik” and “JuruBina”. The fact was I didn’t know what exactly of those. But there was something that I really want to be. I wanted to be a pilot. Everybody knows, Pilot has handsome pay, they can travel around the world and they have smart uniform. Until now, if there is pilot staying next door, I will find out, what car they drive and how their wife looks like. If she is beautiful, I would say she was ex-stewardess and her husband has enough to take care of her and housewife will be her current role.

But I’m just a plain ambitious people. I tried once which I failed and never tried after that. Once we start having job, our commitment slowly growing. We have car installment, housing loan and family to support. I’m afraid to start the journey again, hesitate to challenge the problems or any drawback, scare of new things or of the differences, and finally, does not know or implement my life-improvement formula. I will never reach my ambition destination. [pilot].

Either I like it or not, I have to change my plan. I’m forcing myself to love my job, learn as much as possible and looking for opportunity and grab it. Start patting your back every morning and say “your life is better than yesterday”. I set my goal, and every minute of my time working and thinking towards it.

Those successful people they are genuinely ambitious. They know what they want. They dare to sacrifice and take the challenge. What they see is success. They never listen to any inch of negative judgment. I really salute and admire this people, but I’m very sorry to myself because I can’t follow their journey.

Do not let yourself down, if you are not part of them. The world will not be fun anymore if everybody is indistinguishable. At least you and I are equal. Everyone has their own way and there is old saying goes “ukur baju di badan sendiri”. It just that we have to measure where we are and where we stand now and start planning our own journey. If I recall back, I just belong to average student and a lot of things to be regretted if I want to. I knew that I’m not smart but I never double up my effort to study. My effort most likely just exactly the same like Mon. but he is gifted and definitely he could do well. I supposed to put more effort if I want to be like him.

For non ambitious people like me it’s all about lucks and opportunity when it comes to work. If you happened to be in good department, indirectly you will be good in that, because it becomes your routine. It’s not because somebody else cannot do it, but they never had the chance to learn. Then we are trying to be out of our comfort zone, some of us do not have enough skill, and some of us doing well because their next job requires the same skills. Sometimes we could see people hopping job so easy and we still stuck there from the first year joining the company. Believe me, they are not really good, but the required skills are the same and they start having confidence from the day they move out from their comfort zone. Most of them are lucky at the beginning. A good thing about them, they dare to move and they know how to grab the opportunity. That’s it!!

If you feel like to move and you have what it takes, this is the time for you. Once you are out of your comfort zone, your self-confidence grows slowly and you will be learning a lot. We have to take challenge a bit. The rest will come slowly.

If you want to surprise the world, be genuinely ambitious which is not me. You have to be extraordinary. If we read about them, they tasted failure and they will tell us those failures thought them a lot of things. Their points are all true and the problem still remains on our side. Are we willing to compromise and take the test like them?

Sad thing about me, I still have blockage mind and telling myself that I’m a conservative guy, and I can’t tolerate of heavy challenge.

Pilot will be in my dream only ………

Empathy

I am a bit busy today because the system keeps on going down. Yea.. the same issue again and I have to use my thick face as a shield. This is the last resort I could do when I have nothing to explain, and I don’t want to bullshit them. It just makes my life worst. So telling the truth will make them hating your company but you Haha.

I’ve got to do something, so I sent email to mailing groups asking for advice. Thanks to them, they advice me to change a timeout value but still it just a workaround solution. I did as suggested and I could see it running well and hopefully I will be in peace this weekend. What a boring story.

I’m trying to keep my momentum going, so at least I could write something everyday. What to tell if we have nothing special happened today. Anyway, while talking to iym just now, she informed me that Mohaini just became a father. Congratulations Mohen!!!

We are still trying hard to have one Haha. If I have one, I will have more idea because I could tell every single thing about them. How they behave, their growth and birthday like most of my friends do. Anyway, it’s not that bad because I could tell about you people. Then you might feel happy if I could bring back your memories. Part of growing old is remembering those sweet days and smiling alone.

Tip ym’ed me just now asking me to write something about Mel. I have nothing much to tell about her. She is matured and looks older than me. We have nothing in common. She starts ignoring me when her favorite Korean Drama is on TV or PC. I told her, there is nothing good about them because even though those heroes are jambu (indeed they are) but they have hairy armpit. They should shave a bit or do some trimming then will look better. “Org tengok muka dia lah. Bukan ketiak. Saiko!!” will be her respond to me. Don’t forget, they love to eat pig too. I hate pig. [no offence]. “Abang, kalau ada anak nanti, Yang nak dia kawin dengan orang korea. bestnyerr”. Who’s more psycho?I used to tell her watching those Korean dramas will make your brain freeze. Sometimes those dramas have no background sounds and seriously it just makes me feel sleepy. Being a husband, sometimes you have to understand her by putting yourself into her shoe. Squeeze yourself a bit if you can’t fit in. So I tried to watch “my girl” and “goong”. I really like my girl because it made me smiling and grinning alone :D.”Goong” was damn boring, so I just watched it half way only. Then when I am here, I watched “Dalja” spring and now I’m engaged with “Hello Miss” [look at below pictures]. “Hello miss” currently air on KBS world channel, but you still could download it at www.d-addicts.com”. These 3 dramas are light comedy drama. I just love it. Why don’t give yourself a try. Start with this drama. See my dearest Mel, I’m promoting Korean drama, so you could have more addicted friends.

Talking about “ketiak”, it reminds to AAA (Aripendi). For no apparent reason I have no idea why people calling him “ketiak”. We have to ask nyace on this. Besides, Nyace loves to see people’s “ketiak”. “Panjang gila bulu ketiak dia” common statement from him when looking at people’s armpit.

Wikipedia: Nyace: a nice guy from Kelantan and good at teasing others.

The Signs of ageing

While most of the people having their day off for labor day, I’ve got to come to work today. There is no extra work or whatsoever, it just that there is no Labor day here. I’m feeling bored as I have nothing much to do. I completed the requested script yesterday and waiting for the IT to give access right to transfer the file.

Suddenly, I just missed my wife. I called her and we chatted and talked through skype. She just returned from my Kampung. I’m very happy because she could go back there without me and she knew how to carry herself. She went to see most of my uncles and unties. She treated my parents and sisters very well. She cook for them and bought them dinner at Tasik Raban. I never had been there but I could smell how yummy it was. To be frank, I’m not able to do the same. Even she asks me to be hypocrite still I won’t be able to do the same way.

My wife was here for 2 months. I managed to bring her seeing the whole country. We went to all nicest and not so nice places. Fairly, She loves to be here but still she wanted to go home :D She has been dreaming to be in Japan, so it wasn’t fair if I did not let her go. I had to send her back home for a while. Being married and alone is not easy Haha. I’ve got to know a few Malaysian here, and I did hang out with them once in a while, but I’m happier if I could do things together. Anyway, she’ll be back here in two weeks time.

Thank God, my life is getting better. I’m happy with what I am and what I have even though a lot of people out there are more successful than me. Most of my prayers have been answered. I keep on praying as I want him to answer my wish. God never lies to us. I still remember when I was a child and living in kampung, I wished to go to boarding school. I envied those people studying there. God answered me. I was accepted into MRSM Penang, even though, people used to refer it as a rejected MRSM. I loved to study there but no sweet life for me. People there pretty boring (I guess they saw me the same way too :P) and I never contacted any of my ex-school mate. Wira was the president, but I came to know him when we were at iTTM. Then I started dreaming to study abroad which I failed to make it and end up graduated at MMU Melaka.

Studying at iTTM and MMU was the best wonderful moments in my life. I didn’t really like the course, but I love to be there. We were very close to each other. I just couldn’t imagine how I hated Mohaini so much. He just spelt anything he liked and he was so arrogant with his SPM result. He asked me how I did in add maths. I proudly told him I got A1 for that paper and indeed I was good in maths. What did he say? “ooo mrsm gred rendah pada sekolah biasa, tu pasal ko dapat A1”. He was closed to Gmen and both of them were good in teasing people. But sooner both of them became close to me. We used to do things together and Mat Bon’s room was the main spot for having sandwiches tuna. I learnt how to copycat, and I love those people sharing their answer with me. Mon is a bright student, he never copied and he used to say “aku tak tahu lah. aku bantai jer”. but everybody will say “tak pe kasi jer jawapan ko”. He let people to copy him reluctantly. But I never copied during final exam. Never dare to do that. During quizzes or testes I would try my very best to have ghost around me. I could remember very well that I used my feet to fold over my English manual to copy format of the official letter.

But I felt stress if people like Nyet sitting beside me. He could ask extra paper when I was about to understand the whole question. He did quite well but most of his answers were rubbish and it was hard to copy him. He wrote so many things and you didn’t know which one was the right answer. He was killing a bird with many stones. Tip loves to copy too but you have to make sure what you have else he didn’t want to share. Suzanne was good in letting people had her answers.Probably people like bisu, flash and wira (only they know themselves) had genuine answers but I tried to avoid sitting beside Norli. “ayah aku marah aku tak dapat 90”. Saiko jer aku rasa. But she is a nice girl. She was naïve and everything must follow the book. But we love to see her when she was in cold J. Sally and Keme were good copier companions as well but surprisingly they did well in UK (sally jgn marah…). I guess most people have their own style of copying. Flash is special. Mohen and I used to tease him for not being a good companion. We pity him because he used to get lower marks than I do (sbb mohen tere pada aku kan), we asked him to use “toyol”. He refused to do so. I really respect him for now (dulu aku cakap apa lah tanak meniru), because he succeeded in what he is doing now and at least he could tell his children how hard it was. Mohen used to say “aku tak study lagi” but he did his own way. While everybody was napping he started to read. He wanted people to see how good he was. Sorry I jumble up between iTTM and MMU experiences haha.

Anyway, even I had ghosts around me, I just graduated with 2.97 (Jernk, lonyok and his besfren nyet always make fun of it. "ko bukannya pandai sgt..."). I was so disappointed with the point because I was not able to be part of TM parent company. I was dumped to its subsidiary. I was working with my ex-lecturer at that time when TAB offered me the job. I went to TM HR manager asking them to release me. I did say, “I’m willing to work with TM if they could take me. Not the subsidiary”. How desperate I was. Then he said No and started threatening me with the scholarship amount. I had no choice so I just worked at TAB. Looking at positive side the salary was a bit higher than parent (at that time). I should thank to TAB anyway, part of me today because of them. My ex-team leader is a manager now, and we still keep in touch. Who knows our path will cross again. As a countrified man, I envied people traveling abroad especially when I looked at pictures of my brother in Japan. The first time I took plane when I was heading to Malacca from Ipoh. Nobody willing to send me at that time, my brothers and parents rewarded me that. I was so excited. I tried to hide my feeling but people could see it well. I asked keme to buy me plane ticket (Pelangi air) and she sent it to my kampung. Then I took bus from Gerik to Ipoh. Wira waited for me and with a giant bag that I had, we headed back to his home on his kapcai. His parents wanted to send him to Malacca as well so they asked me to join them and they tried to get refund for the ticket. I was so happy being told the refund was not possible, so I could take the plane. His late father helped me checked in there. When I was in the plane I didn’t know how to put on the seat belt. I just covered with my hand pretending that I was wearing it. Bodoh sombong sebenarnya. Alhamdullilah, I safely landed with no seat belt on.

Singapore was my first experienced abroad. I had my experience so I knew how to cover my “jakun” this time. I was with Landen. He was very shy when he asked me to get into sex toy shop together. Working with TAB, plane becomes no luxury anymore. While we had our server in Alor Star and Kuching, we had to fly almost every week. We preferred to take air asia, then we claimed mileage and toll. We still making profit. I believe the company did not lose their profit for that. This is my third job in 8 years of experiences and I managed to travel all continents but America. Sometimes I did bring my wife together, if I have to stay longer. But for this year, I’m not traveling anywhere because I have to be here. My wife outnumbered me for Japan :P

Umrah is our priority. We plan so many times already but we still couldn’t make it. Banyak dosa rasanya. Oh man.. I’m growing old, I could remember those sweet days. We can’t turn back. We can say that our age is stop at 27 or 29, but people could see the sign of ageing on our face. We can’t lie. But I still love Nasha Aziz even she's in her thirties now :-)

So more to come and please drop by again next time ;-)