Away For Life - a rambling
What prompted me to write this write-up is that in a recent event in Kuala Lumpur (KL) gave me the shudder. The Power that Be in Malaysia know what some of us is doing in life, we are being watched. The Sinners and the Anti-Establishment that some of us are or were have been recorded. We have seen the East and the West and the South and maybe the North. KL recently pride itself in stopping what they call the Skinhead from having ‘fun’. The Mayor of KL stopping Clubs and Restaurants in certain part of KL from opening after 2 am. We have gone through life, maybe not as liberal but when I think about these people who want to stop this and stop that I begin to laugh inside me, thinking on how they mostly try to protect their interest. The Mayor of KL trying to please the Government (he is a Government Servant one must remember) and the Police trying to guard our moral beings (I wonder if the Police is supposed to guard our moral beings though). Anyway what is moral? I have no answer. But the part that I am most fascinated with is the DON’T part of life in Malaysia. I have written about the DON’T in my blog http://consumated.motime/"To obey or not to obey". Its not a protest but just glazed eyes observation about life in Malaysia then and now.
I suppose some of us are in our 60s now, having gone through the part of life one may not be proud of and one does not want to write about. One does not proudly tell ones grandchildren that one has done all that then and now and now one tells ones grandchildren not to do it. Where is the fairness in this. One has gone through the ‘good’ life but now one tells them not to go through that path of ‘good life’. Boozing, clubbing, sexual freedom and etc etc etc, were they not good life? Now under the pretext of morality one tells ones grandchildren "Don’t do it"!. What is this? The diabolical part is that one says "Don’t" to the good life but one also say, "I want them to lead the hard life that I have been through". Like in a job for example, "In those days I had to do everything but nowadays these young people expects to be spoon fed in everything". Diabolical (again) isn’t it? I would say let them go through life, bad and good, have the experience so that they will learn. How many now old men really landed up in the drain after having gone through the ‘good life’? Not many I know of, and many I know of have had gone through the ‘good life’. Everyone says to you, "Go to the straight path" but how many really can go through the straight path if one has not known what the crooked path is all about. And Malaysia has that culture of wanting people to go through the straight path, the Malaysian way, whatever that means. Malaysia Bolih (Malaysia Can Do anything and everything - translated literally), so what? Other people also ‘bolih’!. I am not being unpatriotic here but its just that I feel so sad at some of us thinking that we are at the centre of the world, I mean not only Malaysian but most people in this world think that they are at the centre of the world; many want to be the guardian of this world, us to follow their morality and follow their values. To them I will put up my two fingers sign. Each one of us has ones values through experience and what one learn while being brought up. But some of us are not brought up but pulled up. Which is better? One can never tell.
I feel delighted when someone says, "Lets try this" but I feel sad when one says’ "It won’t work" but worse still when one says, "We have tried that before and it did not work". The person who says that may never have thought that what had been tried before may have been under different circumstances, or the facts known then were not enough. I have that said to me too many times and I feel sad at those whoever says such.
Of course life have to have death, without which there is no life, there is no opposite. People grow old and die, one cannot live forever. I sometime feel very funny when I hear some people say, "I want to live for 100 years". To me if you live for 100 years you are already a nuisance to society. Ever seen anyone who live for 100 years not becoming a nuisance to society? They become too independent on society. Funny still, or nuisance still, when certain people have the concept that they can be kept in deep freeze after death to live again when science can make life. I mean OK assuming that science can make life and then give you life, but you will live in another era when almost everyone are strangers to you (you might get to know one or two who may have been in the same circumstances as you). And the way of life will be so strange to you that you would wish to die again. But worse still you will try to fit in into the culture, you may be a nuisance in trying to bring in your ‘old’ ways in a ‘new’ society. You may adapt but at what price to you? And what lonely life you will lead. If If If .....................it ever happens.
One of the problems that we in Malaysia are grappling with is illegal immigrants. I suppose all over the world the problem is the same, but I am just focussing my thoughts to Malaysia. Actually its our own making. First we then encouraged the Indonesian to come here in the pretext that they are our closest cousions (at least to the Malays) but when too many of them came we could not cope, neither could we stop the inflow. We wanted them to work for us (the ‘ketuanan’ Melayu is at its best - shall I call it the Malay master race theory) in our plantations, building industry and as our maids. But they came and came and came, our life here is comfortable to them. We gave them everything, our daughters included. Not only the Indon came, but also the Indians, Pakistanis and the Bangladeshi and later the Burmese, not forgetting the Muslim Thais. Now we cannot cope, and we are sending them back to where they came from as fast and as many as possible. And in addition to them becoming our ‘labourers’ they also now become robbers and conmen, the conmen not the Indon but the others mostly from the Middle East and the South America. And we cannot resolve that yet. But again I suspect in all these there are inside players, people who knows what is going on but playing possum, helping the ‘crooks’. Maybe certain individuals or even certain people in authority, people who can make money out of all these chaos.
We are great counterfeiters, not of money but of software's like DVD, VCD and of course the computer software's. We copy everything. And we sell them cheap. Being cheap they are very marketable; everyone is used to have these counterfeits. I suppose even I am guilty of that. Now after the hue and cry by the original owners of these 'software's' the Govt. is clamping on their production. Millions of RM worth of counterfeits are seized and destroyed, but I suppose that is only the tip of the icebergs. They will lie low for a period and then they will resurface again. Then another clampdown by the Government. It will be a cat and mouse game. There is no end to this game, the winner will still be the counterfeiters unless the price of these software's goes down to a more affordable level., affordable to us average buying Malaysian..
We have become very civilised, so we are copying the way of life of civilised people. We have muggers - snatch thefts they call them here in Malaysia. Why the name? Because they mostly snatch women's handbags. But now they have grow into snatching handphones and also computer laptops. So anyone careless enough to leave computer laptops exposed may find that these laptops get snatched by these criminals. Catch them? Many are caught and many more surface.
In a way the Malaysian Government is good, in that its trying to provide affordable houses to all its citizens. In those days it was the low cost houses, RM 25,000 a house which are affordable to many people of the low income group. Then they started to build low cost flats that do not cost more than the low cost houses, perhaps a bit more in certain areas if they add more rooms to them; remember that the first ever flats built by the Government for the lower income groups were 1 room flats which of course became very inconvenient. Then they increased those to 2 rooms and now to three rooms with all the modern amenities. Kuala Lumpur City hall is good in this area, they have built many such flats for the people, to house those who have been living in the squatter areas. These flats are either bought outright by these people or rented out to these people at a very reasonable price, just over RM 100.00 a month pere flat. That is cheap by KL standard. No wonder there is a long Q for such flats. But the bad part of this scheme is that these are misused by some political parties - they place most of their members in these flats, thus assuring themselves that they will get votes in any election. I suppose its just a tactic to be in power, though I think this method stinks. And KL City Hall also built flats which are sold to the public, to those who can afford them. Not many of such flats have been built though.
Rapes and incests are social problems which the Malaysian Government has to tackle, Incest in a way is worrying. It happens, though not that often but still it happens. Why? Once upon a time it was blamed to the small and not many rooms flats being occupied by the lower income group. So in a way it should only happen in the towns and cities. But it also happen in the rural areas, in places where the population density is not high. Probably due to the lack of religious knowledge or even to bad moral behaviour. Its not surprising though as even in the rural areas they do get to see blue films. And can you imagine when the daughter grows up, the father may behave like animals. But again there are fathers or grandfathers who rape those below 10 years old. What do you call these people? In certain cases, not only they rape but they also kill.
The Anwar Ibrahim factor had caused a lot of anxiety in Malaysia, especially in the political circle. Even before he asked to rejoin the Party, the Party had already decided to ban him from joining the Party. Afraid of the shadows they are. Anyway he has said many times that he would not like to rejoin the Party. Anwar Ibrahim was the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia who was jailed 6 years ago for being found guilty after he was accused of being a homosexual and a corrupt person. The main accuser was his former boss, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr M. Recently he was released from prison after countless appeals to all parties, and lastly to the Highest Court in Malaysia. He has just gone for medical treatment in Germany, to operate on his bad back. At the time of writing he has not yet been back in Malaysia.
We Malaysian are funny lot. We tend to be very patriotic and at the same time very authority fearing. What the authority says we always say, "Yes Sir". Why are we like that? Probably because during these years we have had such a good life, we fear loosing that good life. I wonder what will happen if the good life is taken away from us Malaysian? Then we all will become Away For Life.
Recently, the biggest political party in Malaysia had their convention in KL. And I got very disturb by the amount of press coverage that they get. But I suppose it cannot be helped as they hold the trump card in all the press freedom in Malaysia and they own the majority of newspapers and quite a few TV stations in Malaysia. I suppose they even own us in Malaysia right now!
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
I suppose some of us are in our 60s now, having gone through the part of life one may not be proud of and one does not want to write about. One does not proudly tell ones grandchildren that one has done all that then and now and now one tells ones grandchildren not to do it. Where is the fairness in this. One has gone through the ‘good’ life but now one tells them not to go through that path of ‘good life’. Boozing, clubbing, sexual freedom and etc etc etc, were they not good life? Now under the pretext of morality one tells ones grandchildren "Don’t do it"!. What is this? The diabolical part is that one says "Don’t" to the good life but one also say, "I want them to lead the hard life that I have been through". Like in a job for example, "In those days I had to do everything but nowadays these young people expects to be spoon fed in everything". Diabolical (again) isn’t it? I would say let them go through life, bad and good, have the experience so that they will learn. How many now old men really landed up in the drain after having gone through the ‘good life’? Not many I know of, and many I know of have had gone through the ‘good life’. Everyone says to you, "Go to the straight path" but how many really can go through the straight path if one has not known what the crooked path is all about. And Malaysia has that culture of wanting people to go through the straight path, the Malaysian way, whatever that means. Malaysia Bolih (Malaysia Can Do anything and everything - translated literally), so what? Other people also ‘bolih’!. I am not being unpatriotic here but its just that I feel so sad at some of us thinking that we are at the centre of the world, I mean not only Malaysian but most people in this world think that they are at the centre of the world; many want to be the guardian of this world, us to follow their morality and follow their values. To them I will put up my two fingers sign. Each one of us has ones values through experience and what one learn while being brought up. But some of us are not brought up but pulled up. Which is better? One can never tell.
I feel delighted when someone says, "Lets try this" but I feel sad when one says’ "It won’t work" but worse still when one says, "We have tried that before and it did not work". The person who says that may never have thought that what had been tried before may have been under different circumstances, or the facts known then were not enough. I have that said to me too many times and I feel sad at those whoever says such.
Of course life have to have death, without which there is no life, there is no opposite. People grow old and die, one cannot live forever. I sometime feel very funny when I hear some people say, "I want to live for 100 years". To me if you live for 100 years you are already a nuisance to society. Ever seen anyone who live for 100 years not becoming a nuisance to society? They become too independent on society. Funny still, or nuisance still, when certain people have the concept that they can be kept in deep freeze after death to live again when science can make life. I mean OK assuming that science can make life and then give you life, but you will live in another era when almost everyone are strangers to you (you might get to know one or two who may have been in the same circumstances as you). And the way of life will be so strange to you that you would wish to die again. But worse still you will try to fit in into the culture, you may be a nuisance in trying to bring in your ‘old’ ways in a ‘new’ society. You may adapt but at what price to you? And what lonely life you will lead. If If If .....................it ever happens.
One of the problems that we in Malaysia are grappling with is illegal immigrants. I suppose all over the world the problem is the same, but I am just focussing my thoughts to Malaysia. Actually its our own making. First we then encouraged the Indonesian to come here in the pretext that they are our closest cousions (at least to the Malays) but when too many of them came we could not cope, neither could we stop the inflow. We wanted them to work for us (the ‘ketuanan’ Melayu is at its best - shall I call it the Malay master race theory) in our plantations, building industry and as our maids. But they came and came and came, our life here is comfortable to them. We gave them everything, our daughters included. Not only the Indon came, but also the Indians, Pakistanis and the Bangladeshi and later the Burmese, not forgetting the Muslim Thais. Now we cannot cope, and we are sending them back to where they came from as fast and as many as possible. And in addition to them becoming our ‘labourers’ they also now become robbers and conmen, the conmen not the Indon but the others mostly from the Middle East and the South America. And we cannot resolve that yet. But again I suspect in all these there are inside players, people who knows what is going on but playing possum, helping the ‘crooks’. Maybe certain individuals or even certain people in authority, people who can make money out of all these chaos.
We are great counterfeiters, not of money but of software's like DVD, VCD and of course the computer software's. We copy everything. And we sell them cheap. Being cheap they are very marketable; everyone is used to have these counterfeits. I suppose even I am guilty of that. Now after the hue and cry by the original owners of these 'software's' the Govt. is clamping on their production. Millions of RM worth of counterfeits are seized and destroyed, but I suppose that is only the tip of the icebergs. They will lie low for a period and then they will resurface again. Then another clampdown by the Government. It will be a cat and mouse game. There is no end to this game, the winner will still be the counterfeiters unless the price of these software's goes down to a more affordable level., affordable to us average buying Malaysian..
We have become very civilised, so we are copying the way of life of civilised people. We have muggers - snatch thefts they call them here in Malaysia. Why the name? Because they mostly snatch women's handbags. But now they have grow into snatching handphones and also computer laptops. So anyone careless enough to leave computer laptops exposed may find that these laptops get snatched by these criminals. Catch them? Many are caught and many more surface.
In a way the Malaysian Government is good, in that its trying to provide affordable houses to all its citizens. In those days it was the low cost houses, RM 25,000 a house which are affordable to many people of the low income group. Then they started to build low cost flats that do not cost more than the low cost houses, perhaps a bit more in certain areas if they add more rooms to them; remember that the first ever flats built by the Government for the lower income groups were 1 room flats which of course became very inconvenient. Then they increased those to 2 rooms and now to three rooms with all the modern amenities. Kuala Lumpur City hall is good in this area, they have built many such flats for the people, to house those who have been living in the squatter areas. These flats are either bought outright by these people or rented out to these people at a very reasonable price, just over RM 100.00 a month pere flat. That is cheap by KL standard. No wonder there is a long Q for such flats. But the bad part of this scheme is that these are misused by some political parties - they place most of their members in these flats, thus assuring themselves that they will get votes in any election. I suppose its just a tactic to be in power, though I think this method stinks. And KL City Hall also built flats which are sold to the public, to those who can afford them. Not many of such flats have been built though.
Rapes and incests are social problems which the Malaysian Government has to tackle, Incest in a way is worrying. It happens, though not that often but still it happens. Why? Once upon a time it was blamed to the small and not many rooms flats being occupied by the lower income group. So in a way it should only happen in the towns and cities. But it also happen in the rural areas, in places where the population density is not high. Probably due to the lack of religious knowledge or even to bad moral behaviour. Its not surprising though as even in the rural areas they do get to see blue films. And can you imagine when the daughter grows up, the father may behave like animals. But again there are fathers or grandfathers who rape those below 10 years old. What do you call these people? In certain cases, not only they rape but they also kill.
The Anwar Ibrahim factor had caused a lot of anxiety in Malaysia, especially in the political circle. Even before he asked to rejoin the Party, the Party had already decided to ban him from joining the Party. Afraid of the shadows they are. Anyway he has said many times that he would not like to rejoin the Party. Anwar Ibrahim was the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia who was jailed 6 years ago for being found guilty after he was accused of being a homosexual and a corrupt person. The main accuser was his former boss, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr M. Recently he was released from prison after countless appeals to all parties, and lastly to the Highest Court in Malaysia. He has just gone for medical treatment in Germany, to operate on his bad back. At the time of writing he has not yet been back in Malaysia.
We Malaysian are funny lot. We tend to be very patriotic and at the same time very authority fearing. What the authority says we always say, "Yes Sir". Why are we like that? Probably because during these years we have had such a good life, we fear loosing that good life. I wonder what will happen if the good life is taken away from us Malaysian? Then we all will become Away For Life.
Recently, the biggest political party in Malaysia had their convention in KL. And I got very disturb by the amount of press coverage that they get. But I suppose it cannot be helped as they hold the trump card in all the press freedom in Malaysia and they own the majority of newspapers and quite a few TV stations in Malaysia. I suppose they even own us in Malaysia right now!
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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