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Bersih 2.0: The truth that cannot be covered
Which is the truth? The government of Malaysia has his own stories. The people of Malaysia who took part in the Bersih 2.0 rally last Saturday (July 9, 2011) have their own stories as well. True, not true. True, not true?
If you are in doubt of Bersih 2.0, please check out their website at http://bersih.org.
I am not going to write a long post here. The video below speaks louder than any words on earth.
Please watch the video carefully until the end then tell me which is the truth. If you have the slightest conscience, I am sure you will cry. I cried after watching the video and there is nothing shameful to tell everyone that I cried.
Fortunately, the man in the video who collapsed into unconsciousness has survived. Another man named Baharuddin Ahmad who was at KLCC during the rally, however, collapsed and died after being suffocated by the tear gas which was fired directly at his group by the FRU. A man has sacrificed his life while battling against the brutality of police and the tyranny of his own government.
Whilst one man is down, many thousands will rise for him!
Bersih 2.0 Worldwide
I shed tears while watching this video. This is so damn touching.
Bersih 2.0: The ancient Chinese philosophy
Not long after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became our prime minister on April 3, 2009, he made a four-day official visit to China from June 2 to 5 the same year. During the visit, he mentioned his father’s special relationship with China. His father, Abdul Razak, was Malaysia’s 2nd prime minister and first established diplomatic relationship with China in 1974.
Recently, before the Bersih 2.0 rally, he and his son Nor Ashman took part in a radio interview on One FM Morning Kaki program. Ashman greeted in Mandarin and the Prime Minister greeted in Cantonese.
One can easily tell that our Prime Minister is trying to impress the Chinese Malaysians how he embraces China, her language and her culture. That’s a good gesture of course. Unfortunately, the Bersih 2.0 rally which took place in Kuala Lumpur yesterday (July 9, 2011) has discredited what he has been portraying thus far.
You see, the Chinese language is not something that can be learned in a few months’ time or a few visits to China. It certainly cannot be learned using Google Translate or any other language translator on the Internet.
If our Prime Minister had studied and understood the Chinese wisdom below, what happened yesterday would not have happened. Managing and ruling a country is not as simple as “早晨，大家好，我系Najib。” (Good morning, how is everyone? I am Najib).
Lastly, this applies to those MCA eunuchs as well. Being Chinese descendants and speaking Mandarin as your mother tongue means little or next to nothing in embracing the Chinese culture. Your mentality is only equivalent to that of the uneducated peasants in the society in ancient China.
不 尚 賢 ， 使 民 不 爭。
不 貴 難 得 之 貨 ， 使 民 不 為 盜 。
不 見 可 欲 ， 使 民 心 不 亂 。
是 以 聖 人 之 治 ，
虛 其 心 ，
實 其 腹 ，
弱 其 志 ，
強 其 骨 。
常 使 民 無 知 無 欲 。
使 夫 智 者 不 敢 為 也 。
為 無 為 ， 則 無 不 治 。
Bersih 2.0 – Love to my country
Today, July 9, 2011 is the day tens of thousands of Bersih 2.0 supporters marched in Kuala Lumpur peacefully for the good cause to seek electoral reform for a clean and fair election. There are plenty of information spreading on the Internet about Bersih 2.0 rally so I am not going to repeat everything here.
One thing for sure, this rally has changed my perception and the spirit of a true Malaysia, where all races – Malays, Indians and Chinese united under one cause despite of the unwarranted, tyrannical acts by the National Front government and the police. I have never felt more proud of being a Malaysian.
A quote from a friend of mine from Hong Kong:
Democracy won’t come to you, is you go and get it. if you have chance just speak out loud, or shout from the rooftop. – Atropos
And from famous actor Clint Eastwood
Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands. – Clint Eastwood
What happened today on July 9, 2011 will be written in the history of Malaysia. This is the day when fellow Malaysians stood up bravely to defend their civil liberties which have long been disrespected by the ruling government since independence. I don’t want my children, when they grow up, ask me: “Dad, what had you done on July 9, 2011?” and I can’t answer them. So I decided to wear yellow (the signature color of Bersih) and walked in town to show support. Honestly, as a father of three and the breadwinner for my family, such decision was not without fear. Why fear you may ask? Perhaps Malaysia is the only region in the world where you can be arrested for merely wearing yellow. And being arrested is one thing, how you would be treated after arrest is another.
This morning, I wore a yellow T-shirt and moved around at certain parts of the town. In the afternoon, after meeting my client at his office, I walked from Hatten Square, crossed the main road, and walked length of Dataran Pahlawan in the same T-shirt.
Having been following up the rally happenings in Kuala Lumpur since morning, I thought I could at least feel a little of the Bersih atmosphere here in Melaka. Disappointedly, I only saw large crowds, mostly Chinese, hanging out at Hatten Square and Dataran Pahlawan happily as usual. Everyone seemed carefree and undisturbed by the fact that thousands of people were being treated inhumanly by the police just because they wanted to ask for a clean democracy for all Malaysians. I hardly spotted one that wore yellow. If you look at the photos taken during the Bersih rally, you can see most of the protestors are Malays, relatively few Chinese took part in the rally. I am not being racist here, my point is there are too many Chinese Malaysians who simply don’t give a damn to the wellbeing of the country. They don’t even care to vote. All they care about are how much money they can make and how well they can live. With such attitudes, no wonder the Chinese are being called “pendatang” or squatters in spite of the fact that they are born in Malaysia. I think these people really deserve such labeling.
Although what I did was insignificant and actually nothing compared to those who had risked being arrested, injured or even losing their life to join the Bersih 2.0 movement in Kuala Lumpur today, I am glad that I have made one tiny step to conquer my fear by wearing yellow and walking on busy road and in busy malls in the heart of Melaka, with the spirit of Bersih (Clean).
If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. – Dale Carnegie
The Cancer of Malaysia – Part 1
March 2008, the opposition parties or denominated the People’s Coalition (or Pakatan Rakyat or PR for short), received an unexpected landslide victory in the 12th General Election (GE12). PR had successfully secured 5 northern states in peninsular Malaysia. Since then, Malaysians have started to witness their own very beloved country becoming the showcase of betrayals, mockeries and remonstrations.
Before our former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad stepped down, he made a radical change to our education – the use of English language to teach math and science subjects in all primary and secondary schools. His change was immediately welcome by many Malaysians, I was for one of them. This, of course, was disagreed by many other parties who champion pro-ethnic education. Dong Jiao Zhong (the association of Chinese vernacular school boards and teachers) is one of them to loudly protest.
Before we get deeper into education, it is worthwhile to mention a few racial and religious pandemonium which happened recently. One most recent uproar is the protest of the ruling of court over the use of the word “Allah” in a Catholic newspapers, Herald. Churches were bombed and torched by some unscrupulous citizens. Before this, a group of Muslim protesters trampled a severed cow head to protest the building of Hindu temple near their residences. You can find many reports on disheartening eruptions of racial and religious matters besides politics on the Internet so I am not writing the entire length and breadth but to mention one or two as examples.
Malaysia advertises herself as a beautiful country with multi races living together in harmony and tolerance. Where is the noble tolerance between different races and religions? What is contributing to this separation of ethnicity and religion?
Let us ask ourselves a very simple question: What has happened to Malaysia? This simple question has no easy answer. The answer is multifold and viciously lurking and recycling in every layers of Malaysian society.
If you ask me what my answer is, I think the best analogy to describe this is cancer! Yes, multi-stream education in Malaysia is like cancer, slowly suffocating and envenoming the pure untouched minds, silently consuming ethnic unity in Malaysia.
Before I go further, I would like to boldly correct a common mistake and suggest a term to address Chinese descendants or Malaysia-born Chinese as “ orang Cina” or “Cina” for short. In my opinion, only the native inhabitant of China can be entitled as “Chinese”. Like Peranakan, “Cina” will be the proper localized term to classify our ethnicity. While for Malaysia Indian, I would address them as “orang India” or “India” and Malays as “orang Melayu” or “Melayu”. To be fair.
As a Cina myself who has received 6 years of primary Cina education, I generalized the grass root Cina community as conservative and hardworking with narrow and superficial thinking and vision. Close minded, emotional and shallow. I personally have experienced these many years ago during school days.
I was a town boy and lived among grass root Cina. I had never communicated with a Melayu or India until I was in secondary school. I would see some Melayu ladies passing by my house every morning and evening.
In primary school, I was among the 100% Cina students except a few Melayu teachers and staffs. My limited exposure to other races did not come to the end when I went to secondary school. All students coming from Cina primary school would be put together in “Remove” class, 100% Cina with no India at all. I only began to have Melayu classmates during Form 1 and I could tell you, they were fun to call them friends compared to other Cina peers. This racial mixture had to come to the end when I entered Form 4. I was in Science 1 class and there was not a single Melayu classmate, only 1 India. In Form 6, again I was in Science 1 doing double math, my classmates were 100% Cina.
After more than 20 years, I can still remember an experience during my upper 6. Our teachers always advised and encouraged us to speak English in school and of course I was the only “stupid” Cina student to comply. As the result, one of my female classmate called me “Banana Man” （a racial discrimination term used by Cina to call other Cina who does not speak Cina, it is like banana, yellow (Chinese skin) on the outside, white (English) on the inside) and together with other classmates as well as our peers from other classes to desist from speaking to me. How shallow she and the others could be? This is the malignant product of multi-stream education. These shallow and superficial minds are poisoned and shaped by the monotonous environment.
About 5 years ago, my wife and I were to decide which school we should send our children to. Being a Cina educated who did not have confidence in Cina vernacular education and my wife received her education from national school, we decided to send our children to national school based on a few observations.
I was back to my former secondary school and coaching karate there. In my class, I had both Cina and Melayu students. And the Cina students were from both Cina and national school. I observed them for very long time and these were what I concluded:
- the Cina students coming from national school are more willing to interact with their Melayu peers.
- the Cina students coming from national school are more communicable and possess good interpersonal skill far better than those coming from Cina stream.
- the Cina school educated students demonstrate self centered attitude.
- the Cina school educated students shun themselves away from dialog.
- the Cina students from national school are more active and socializing.
As a software engineer, I have not used Mandarin to communicate despite the fact that many years ago I had collaborated with software developers and engineers from China and Taiwan. Based on personal experience and observation, we decided not to send our children to Cina-stream school.
But to be fair, ethnic and religious demarcation happens in national school. This Chinese New Year, my wife prepared some cookies for our eldest son to bring to school and to share with his classmates. None of his Melayu friends ate or touched the cookies. It is pathetic to see how religion separates Malaysian children at such a young age!
Multi-stream education is the separatist which divides the ethnicity at the very young age. Children are separated by ethnic idealism in the name of education. And Malaysia is the only country in the world which practices multi-stream education.
Next, we should look at treacherous political influence and the historical mistakes in multi-stream education.
Strikeout the word “Bumiputera” for unity
The Najib’s new administration has just merely passed the first 100 day and he has already shown his dedication to unite the people of Malaysia. New economic policies such as the 30% compulsory “Bumiputera” stakes in IPO (Initial Public Offerings) has been abolished. This is going to stimulate, for sure, more foreign investments into the country. Good for economic growth.
As far as “Unity” or “One Malaysia” is concerned, the word “Bumiputera”, should be strikeout and will never exist in the dictionary of the Malay language. Literally translated, it means prince of the land. The ethnics Chinese and Indians, although they are the lawful citizens of Malaysia, they are not the prince of the land.
Let all be referred to as “Rakyat Malaysia” (Malaysia citizens). For example, there should never be “Bumiputera” and “Non-Bumiputera” pricing in housing properties sales. But when election comes, they call all “Rakyat Malaysia” to vote.
How can the country unite whilst the people are divided into “Bumiputera” and “Non-Bumiputera”? I wish Mr. Najib, the new prime minister, will critically consider to abolish the word “Bumiputera” if he is really serious about uniting the people of Malaysia.
Ahmad is Buiputera Rakyat Malaysia. Sivakumar is non-Bumiputera Rakyat Malaysia. I am non-Bumiputera Rakyat Malaysia.
So why divide citizens of Malaysia into Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera?
Public transport fares going to increase
The 3:30PM quick news on NTV7 had reported that all public transport (including buses, taxis and school buses) fares are going to be increased by coming August 1. If my memory serves me correctly, the inter-state bus fares were increased by 30% last month.
The new fares will certainly burden a large group of citizens who rely on public transports as their locomotion. The increase of school bus fares will also stretch more burdens to households who depend on school bus service to send their children to and from school.
While the Najib’s administration has implemented some new economic measures to stimulate economic growth and unity, is this increment of public transport fares to balance up his check book?
Betrayal – when the Phoenix becomes fowl
The people of Perak have been betrayed by the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Coalition) elected representatives who switched camp recently. It is really sickening for the attitude of Malaysia politicians and it looks very much like a bunch of uneducated and unethical ass-holes (in both camps) fuck up the feelings of the people. And they severely go against the will of the people who entrusted them with majority in last year March election.
It takes years of hard work for the People’s Coalition to win majority seats in a few states in northern peninsular. Sparrow became Phoenix by the power of people. It then betrays her own people and opts to be fowl.
Let us together despise them, spit on them.
PS: It is the fault of PKR for accepting the crossover from the other camp. They destroyed what they have sowed. Who is to be blamed?
What a dinner!
After my karate class, I went down town to pick up my parents. The traffic was massive. Getting into town took almost 30 minutes and getting out of it took another 15 minutes. When we reached home, the two older boys were ready. Dmitry was wearing his new watch. We were going out for dinner on the last Sunday of 2008. I quickly took my shower then we left the house at around 1900.
Some days ago, our friend recommended a Hakka restaurant at Taman Merdeka, Batu Berendam. We were very eager to try out this restaurant.
Kids’ first karaoke
We were invited by LA’s sister and her husband to Su-Ann’s be-lated birthday celebration. We embarked to PJ around 1100 yesterday and arrived at her brother’s house around 1400. Almost all of LA’s family members were there. We had some light food for lunch then took a rest.
We headed to Neway Karaoke Box in One Utama at 1700. The karaoke box was huge. The lounge was big enough to fit in all 20+ of us. It was a buffet dinner with free karaoke. The food was very nice and everyone was enjoying and had a full tummy.
As for our boys, this was their new experience, a new one. They had no idea what karaoke was about. Dmitry was really enjoying singing with his cousins. He sang Beauty and the Beast and Reflection (theme song in Mulan). I would say not bad at all at his age. He could recognize all the words in the lyrics. He was good comparing to his old daddy. Ha.. ha..
Dietrich joined him for a few kid’s songs. Dominik roaming around and having fun with all sort of food. He really enjoyed the food and the noises there.
We left for Melaka at 2245 and touched base at 0115. The kids were soundly asleep after a fun karaoke and tummy filling buffet session.
More night views at KLCC
There were some downpours on that evening so the weather at night was cooler. I really needed to get online to check my emails and to get some information from the Internet. My hotel did not provide complimentary Internet connection and I had to pay for RM40+ for 24 hours use. Who would use the Internet the whole 24 hours? What a stupid 5 stars hotel!
I learned that there was a Coffee Bean down P. Ramlee road which opened till midnight. After dinner with my sister, Jenny, I took my gears and headed to P. Ramlee. On the way, I took a picture just outside KLCC.
It was almost midnight when I heading back to hotel. I saw clouds passing across the tips of KLCC. I was taking the picture with my phone so the pictures were not as good as those taken with DSLR.
It was a nice walk because of the cool weather. But walking in KL was risky. You might sprain your ankles if you were not careful. The pavement was not event and some were protruded. I almost sprained mine a couple of times. So, if you ever come to KL, beware and watch your steps. Pedestrian safety and comfort are not the city’s interest.
Night view at KLCC
I passed by outside KLCC this evening and saw this magnificent view. I always wanted to take a shot of this magnificent building but did not manage to do it. This was a great opportunity but unfortunately I only had my phone (with camera) so I couldn’t get a nice picture of it. I like to take architecture photograph. Next time, I will take my DSLR with me.
自私自利的马来西亚华人
读了“916变天不成，安华应该交带！”之后，我写了“完成大事，要有耐心”（我也把它登在我的博客里，见：小不忍则乱大谋）来回应这妇人之见，希望大家能忍耐一下，继续齐心协力支持安华斗争到底。可是还有些持“妇人之见”人仕继续讽刺安华、要安华解释等等的来信。
看了之后，本人极度感慨马来西亚华人这种自私自利的态度。人家做得好，一声感谢都没有，要是有吗就随便说声”好！“。人家要是做不到吗，就踩到底，要人家解释等等荒唐之说。读了“安华好心没好报”和“应该体谅行动者”，我略有同感：安华欠了你吗？
好些马来西亚华人多是自私自利、怕事、不团结、自扫门前雪。举一项列子，一些华人看到他人被打劫，就快快躲起来，眼不见为净。有些还告诉子女亲人不要多管他人“闲事”惹麻烦。反观马来友族，要是一人被抢劫，整个kampung的人就会出来捉人。难怪会让他人看扁我们华人说我们是“寄居者”！
变天是一件国家大事，不是小孩子玩泥沙。变天如棋，安华正小心翼翼下这盘棋，一步错，全盘皆落索。安华一定要依照宪政程序一步一步来。要是安华直接觐见国家元首，肯定被对方咬定安华没照宪政程序，反被对方问为何安华不先在国会讨论，那时就连国家元首也帮不了安华。
安华除了依照宪政程序之外，他也正在打心理牌，让现今政府丑态百出，同时也试探国际社会对他的支持。安华比任何一位在朝或在野政客有更多的国际人脉网络，如果由他出任首相，肯定很多外资蜂涌来马。
变天这件事已经引起国际社会的关注。要是当今政府胆敢以内安法令捉安华，西方国家，由其是国际人权委员会肯定会大肆谴责当今政府并向其施加压力。
请大家先搞清楚才做指责。要是不知道宪政或法律程序，那请不要胡乱指责安华，于事无补，反而弄巧反拙。这样会让他人更瞧不起我们华人！
这种态度要是不改，不管有位多么好的首相，我们华人在马来西亚不会有什么好日子过。
Shield of virtue, sword of truth
A noble knight, armed with the shield of virtue and the sword of truth, on his way to a kingdom barred by forest of thorn. May the shield of virtue protect him from harm. May the sword of truth fly swift and right to the heart of evil. The evil dies and the good prevails.
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