What Fest ?               UMNO must not wait      The Big Reward          The Lyric Fade       Corruption & Lies lingers  Energizer Batteries     Things Cant Remember
I ain't afraid of hist.  Najib's Confident             Sammy Lied Toll          Let Sarawakians..  Isn't Attitude Important ?  The Fight Over Relig  Ibrahim Ali I know
What is hamfest        What can I say laptop      Solving Problem G-Cl  We Assume ThingsFairy Tale Witch                
Fuss over scholarship Yayasan Anak2 Islam
Bowing to empty...    1987/88 Second Reuni..   Soccer Final 1Malay    Marrying Age         The Malay Educationist    Technological Trap      Are we at war ?
The Best Finan..cl    My Best Toy                     Our Achievements       UMNO resource     Democracy in USA            Our Rambutan             UMNO Malay Unity
The wealth of man    Beautiful Tradition           Husband Hanky Pan. 
 Foreign Language   PM POST                           Just Think                    Melayu Tak Mudah Lupa
Washing & Drying   Anatomy of thinking         School Web Page          Inflation                  Stall Economy                     Nothing dirty Bersih    Changing the logbook
What a Hack            iPhone Programming         Imbecile Ibrahim Ali   How much a web..   An Imbecile                          MacBook                    Europe Tour Hamfest
Think of a kid          Macbook not easy             The MacBook Excite
  Jika anda membaca muka-muka surat lain letakkan kursor di atas  perkataan surat dan klik  
 

MORE PICTURES FROM EUROPE

25/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE EXCITEMENT OF MACBOOK

The world moves so fast that a short blip of my eyes I found I am far behind everyone else when I open it the next split second. I purchased the Macbook just want to know how the iPhone programs were made and before I even made my second step I tumbled across three more things that I never knew before. First was the RealBasic. Second was the PureBasic and finally the Office X. All along I only knew the basic BASIC and the QuickBasic. I thought the BASIC ended there.

The new and strange BASIC today works on different environment, more powerful and the product can be used across flat form. The structures however remain the same. This give me a new venture. I have to look for tutorials and start to learn a new thing. I have to find ways to get the free ones because I am not a programmer who goes out to make money and too old to give a full concentration and don't have a job to finance extra expenditures. These are the challenges, the excitement and the thrill.

When you are making a trip to Timbaktu by land you will find many interesting things on the way. At a certain place you don't want to stay and some places you want to stay longer. When will you arrive Timbaktu ? You will never know. And I won't know when my first iPhone program will be running on my iPhone. And I don't know when I can produce an application on my Macbook. I have a long distant to cover.

I have always wish I can go to a college or university to learn things I want at the time I choose. If I were a government I would open such an institution where people can go and learn at their own time and learn the subject they want at their own phase. Of course for free. I don't need a certificate or a degree or any form of credential to confirm my attendance.

I am not the only one with this experience and excitement. There are many more people like me out there venturing into the new technology, mostly younger people with promising minds.

The computer just came into my possession. I don't know much yet about it. There are applications that I can't run and the passwords returned to be invalid though I typed in the right ones. The vendor of Apple in Penang had not been friendly enough to assist me. I sense bad attitudes in their answers and I think they are not interested in making Apple computer popular. Hence I have to seek the help of the internet though I know some stuffs are under control. Just grab whatever I can and make do with the little information I have.

I don't fall 100% on Apple Mac. I used my normal Windows to update the web page and logging my radio contacts. I already decide to use Mac for my word processing work and by the time I migrate to RealBasic and PureBasic I will be able to shift my computer usage with homebrewed soft wares.

In the meantime I will continue with my search for whatever things associated with the two BASICS.

26/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

MACBOOK PRO NOT AN EASY SAIL

Coming back from Hurney Plaza after the purchase of Macbook Pro I started to explore it. I had a short look at the xCode. My only problem with it is it's says 'No Base SDK' at some of the sample codes/ But I will find out what that's all about.

Safari worked well and I am relief that I can use it to log my Radio communications on my Macbook Pro. I tested almost all applications. Most work fine.

Until now I have not been successful with the network. I can't open the VNC from my iPhone4. I think it will be some time before I can figure it out. I need to do the sharing and controlling my Macbook using my iPhone. And even the Bluetooth is not working. It is not an easy sail. I have to be patient with the xCode and try to understand each code in detail. But that will be fine because I will have plenty of time when I cast away my radio.

I also downloaded a software that allows me to run Windows application. So far it is not successful yet. Running Wine on Ubuntu was so much simpler. All windows application will be subsequently be shown with Wine glass. Again I will learn this slowly.

I paid RM3700 for it. But mind you Apple charge a high price for everything. An office application is about RM900. A small soft carrying bag cost RM100. A mouse for it costs RM250. It looks like they treat Mac Users as a wealthy people when I am just only a curious person. Guys in China sold a kidney for the iPad or iPhone and to sacrifice virginity for an iPhone.

There is a big hole in my pocket. A real big one. I will have to stay at home for 6 moths to save for other expenditure.

I hope I can achieve what I am aiming for. What I fear is by the time many of us come to understand programs Apple will move another 20 steps. I think it will happen.

25/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

THINK OF A KID

A 12 year old boy recently told me that from standard 4 till the schools only award him with plastic medals for winning the sports competition. His mother did not mind the plastics medals because he gains point for extra-curricula activities.

So are many other Malay boys who gave so much time to sports and did not perform well. The schools would paint a glamorous picture on successful athletes; play soccer for states could earn a few thousands a months, could go to international sport meets, and an easy access to higher learning. The soccer boys almost absent from classes the whole year if they are breed for state's team.

No matter what the policy is, the high scorers would demand places and scholarships. 9A students with a good mark in school activities were cast aside. Anybody with less than 9As would find difficulty in climbing for ultimate successes now and today, except for those who struggled on their own. Lower achievers would be under constant attack if they are offered scholarships in place of the high achievers. It has become a political issue and could cost BN declining votes.

Chong Wei is one of the 20 millions. Can your son be a Superboy like LCW ?

One former director of education said," Better spend the money on the students rather than the ceremony." Calling for a few school band to a sports meet would cost more than RM20K to finance the cost of transportations. That amount could be used to upgrade the prizes for the winners and for the participants a sports' jacket or a couple of T-Shirts would be fine.

Many Malaysian star athletes were gone. Their names are not heard anymore. Their fate unknown. The smart ones made business and survived on their own.

Parents must not depend on the government to think for them. You listen too much to them your future generation will ruin. Though few, there are people who find alternative educations for their kids. Again what is UMNO's Education Bureau had been discussing ? Remember the welfare of our children not of Dr Mahathir. He only wants projects. He is making the nation bankrupt and he said PAS could make Malaysia bankrupt.

The Ministry of education should give a thought to what the 12 year old kid said.

23/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

EUROPE TOUR TO HAMFEST

Rashid and company are enjoying the warm European summer. Last night they were in Vardus, touring  the beautiful villages by train and happily having pleasure window shopping. By today they are already in Zurich. The night before they met several local hams at Lucern. Hamfest will be on Friday. It is held at Friedrichshafen in Germany. After a couple of days they will be pushing to Austria and Czek Republic.

So far there have been no problem about Halal food. There are many Turkish Kebabs. Convert into Malaysian currency each kebab costs RM30.00. That's common in Europe. Everything is more expensive than USA and our region.

The port of entry and the port of departure is different. They arrived in Zurich and would depart via Frankfurt. Both trips transit in Doha.

As soon as I receive the pictures of the hamfest I will publish them here.

In many part of Europe people cycle to work by the thousands. Cars would stop and give way to cyclists. In Malaysia the JPJ and some wise guys said bicycles are dangerous. Cars might knock them. So they allow the express buses to run at 120 km/h.

23/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

I have two more toys to go before my last breath. The above Apple Mac notebook called MacBook would be purchased any time after I have settled my local medical chores. I want to request for my right eye operation next year and other medical checkups. My purpose is to learn the iPhone programming, to feel the touch of it get the thrill out of the success. I think I want to learn XCode and Cocoa using the MacBook. The estimated Malaysian price is RM3500. In USA it is USD999. There are several outlets in Kuala Lumpur but I know none around the northern states.

Another toy is the iPhone 5. If I hear the iPhone 6 would come 7 to 12 months after the 5, then I will have to wait for the 6. I feel I have utilized my iPhone 4 to near maximum, except I could not upgrade it to the latest Operating System. I would have not jailbreak it if I am allowed to have a credit card. My application for credit card were rejected several time because I am jobless. Otherwise I would have purchased the application softwares via the iTunes store. The current OS version could not be used with a certain application.

For old people there are many limitations. The power of retention is almost disappearing. The memory is fast fading. The time has to be divided between this secular world and the future eternity. In the last sermon the Imam mentioned the role of people who have reached the age of near death, just to do a complete preparation to go into the next world. I believe the Jews would understand better than the Christians. For these reasons many young men and women would slowly explain in detail what an internet is to me.

My trip to the capital will have to be a one day affair. After checking all the future schedules and appointments tomorrow I will be making inquiry about the plane ticket. The simplest and uncomplicated maneuver is to go to Mega Mall where one of the Apple outlets can be found. A bus would cost me about RM10 to KL-Central and I think there is a free shuttle to the mall.

The opportunity costs of a MacBook is a holiday trip. At this juncture I should not think of saving for the future because our future is short-lived. I am not only old but heart, diabetic, uric acid and even kidney are all with me. I can go any time. Pooshh! gone into the thin air. I have two radios. They belong to me. If anybody say those are theirs lent to me, then I suggest you knock him down aimed at the feet and hit him hard. My kids may divide among themselves the two Acers and the iPhone 4. But the iPhone 4's camera is already cracked due to the multiple fall.

It is not that I was convinced by anybody to buy a MAC though one of my radio friends, Faizul,  narrated the beauty of his MAC. I had wanted to own MAC since my working days. But that time to drive to use it was almost nil. My only regret now is that Apple charged money to be a member and I can't pay the money. Mac should consider to provide free membership to elderly people.

FaceTime. Now making HD video calls.

MacBook Pro comes with the new FaceTime HD camera and easy-to-use FaceTime for Mac software. Just click to make HD video calls from MacBook Pro to MacBook Pro. You can also make video calls to other Intel-based Mac computers, iPad 2, iPhone 4, or the new iPod touch.2 Your calls will start in portrait view, but you can easily rotate to the new widescreen format. FaceTime automatically displays your contacts from Address Book, so you don’t have to build a buddy list. And calls ring through to your Mac even when you don’t have the FaceTime app open. Learn more about FaceTime for Mac

I am excited the MacBook can do FaceTime with the iPhone. By the time the iPhone is affordable communication using it would be interesting. Again I am wishing myself good luck with my desire to buy the new toy soon.

23/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

AN IMBECILE

Rarely I switched to 20 meter band. When 40 meter band was totally dead the other day I wanted to investigate the condition on 14 MHZ. To my astonishment I found it was open and a lot of strong distant stations were heard. At one frequency in particular I heard one strong station was causing irritating noise disturbing a piled-up station. I heard several stations commented 'Imbecile' which I understand to mean the crazy person. Such behavior was unheard of when a ham radio was a ham radio. The tranquility  cease to exist when ham radio's symbol lives in name only.

Crude and insulting voices are common on 40 meter band around Southeast Asian region.

In my mind, for a long time I have said that those incidences are bound to happen with the new Amateur Radio regulation. When CW was mandatory it took persons of a certain attitude and characters to pass thru. The others would be left behind. My sentiment might not have been right and bias. Hearing such happening I was anxious to know other people's views. I came across one article describing what the FCC people said. He said, in my own words, good or bad of amateur radio depends on ham operators. It is up to them to protect their hobby.

It was no surprise to me. I already said that will be the sure reply. The authority will throw back on the ham operators not wanting to accept the folly of their policies. The FCC also touched on enforcement which is not the function of the authority but for the fellow hams to guard and police their boundaries.

I don't see these issues as things to be argued. It does not happen before but it happens now. The SOP has shifted away from the old ways and mode. I notice the happenings. I analyzed the causal effect before. And any other argument would certainly be dismissed by my mind. What was expected has happened.

We would usually say 'Life must go on' after any devastating tragedy. People with power can say anything they want and do what they like.

In my long days of serving the government I always know the basic principle of responsibility and accountability. If I passed a noisy school, I would say the Head of the school was bad and ineffective. If a school's clerk absconded with the money, the Principal should be demoted. That's the principle of accountability. Sanusi Junid used to say 'The fish rots starting from the head' implying that bad administration results in undesirable outcome.

So when there are imbeciles on radio frequencies the radio authority and the policy makers could not shun away from their responsibility and accountability. Power is not an inborn right, nor it gives a person 'right'. Because I am a President therefore I am always right. The deploying of Might Is Right is surely against the philosophy of human civility. You go and visit a country and you notice rowdy crowds in the city center administering drugs to themselves and people making sex everywhere, what comes to your mind ? It can't be help but to have an impression of useless administration on the part of the authority.

When busses are still speeding at 120 k/h and crimes are mounting, people would see dirt on RIMV and the police.

Monitoring the radio band could be a very interesting hobby.

22/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

HOW MUCH DOES A WEB PAGE COST ?

A web page can cost us between zero ringgit to a few hundred thousands. I use to write free but I refuse to maintain it. Much time and efforts were wasted to prepare for a page; database, images, videos, and the aesthetic aspect of it. A company which employed several web developers and programmers may charge us a few hundred thousand for a theme. We can get a free hosting but in actuality we don't realize the motive behind the free stuffs.

If you ask me how much do I need for a theme I would demand for about two hundred thousand ringgit. I got to buy the web tools and several soft ware; original applications. I got to pay the salaries of several helpers like university graduates who are still waiting for jobs or those who decide to settle down in my company. At time hiring developers could cheaper than employing permanent staffs.

Actually no web page is totally free except for the free services volunteered. We need cameras for pictures and videos. Those people need petrol and vehicles to move around. Their health and welfare must be taken into consideration.

When Goh Yen Yen said the office spent about 1.8 million ringgit for several themes, to me it does make sense. It could touch a million for hiring developers. A few hundred thousands may have ended in someone's pocket usually the negotiators. It has always been that way. The negotiators and the contractors always play golf together or going for holidays abroad. It MAY. To say Yen Yen pocketed the money I think it would be a little harsh for her. She could not sleep well for a few nights.

Remember the IPP ? When someone from the IPP suggested the power price at so much, the EPU put it much higher. Many years ago before an election government changes schools' doors. The RM140 door was paid at RM400. What the opposition party was concerned was about the extra cost not asked by the developer.

There might be staffs who are excellent in computing and web programming but would remain very quiet and silent. If you have been observing government departments you will notice the avarice of the heads who manage like a tyrant, favored the lazy and useless staffs and do not show concern about the workers. Who want to offer free service ? Many government departments have stinking staffs who were vested with powers.

However there are people who are willing to take a few hundred ringgit for the service. If they are not cronies and live outside Putrajaya they will have to struggle to make a living out of computing. Selling goreng pisang is better, no need a diploma or a degree.

Yen Yen should start thinking to employ staffs with good knowledge of web development and programming. In addition she must understand their mode of thinking and how to keep them creative and ever willing workers.

21/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

IBRAHIM ALI, YOU ARE IMBECILE

You do not represent the Malays and we don't want you to represent us. You threaten the Chinese and asked them to store food...For what ? Your dirty and filthy mouth would put the country in danger. You are imbecile and moron. I wish you nothing more than you will be strike by a lightning. You are a real katak di bawah tempurung, war mongering and behave like a gangster.

You asked the Chinese to store food. The Chinese 'tak hairan' because they are the distributors of essential food in the country. It will be the Malays who will suffer. You can go to hell with your statement. The government should put you in a lock up for advocating and fanning racial conflict.

You are blind and imbecile. You thought you will got support from the Malay populace. The peace loving Malays do not like a barbarian like you. They want to live side by side with their Chinese and Indian neighbors. And in parliament you have been making a fool of yourself on topic which you thought as a joke.

Why do you call for Jihad ? What Jihad ? Why only now you yell ' jihad' when you yourself had insulted the Ulama and show no respect towards a Menteri Besar of your own state. Have you not read letters from the Malays who detest you so much.

Let me tell you about what the Chinese did recently. MCA approved RM30 million for the scholarship for the non-Malays. What did you and other UMNO did ? Wanting to depend on government for scholarship and everything else for life ? You should have been thinking of how to provide higher education to the Malays without hurting the others.

God made you so bad outside and inside. Your outlook is as bad as your inside. Your words have been very filthy all along.

If in your mind the nation is sick today, you should find out what made it sick. You graduated in the 70's and now it is already the 21st century what sort of contribution you effectively provide to ensure the country always in good health. Similarly your UMNO friends who did not want to accept you in their party had not plan and thought for the better Malaysia but instead only stuffed the image of money in their heads and selling their souls away.

Have you not found the answer why many Malays prefer to shake hands with the Chinese rather than with the people like you ? People like you even had stated that Ayah Pin is better than Nik Aziz. What kind of a Muslim is that ? They made an issue of a few thousand ringgit Mecca trip for Nik Aziz but they allow the million ringgit Thamby Chik walked away freely. And you condoned corrupt people ?

If you only believe in one party system and all opposition party is the enemy of the state then propose and fight for a socialist/Communist state. Every  now and again I heard top UMNO was saying Putrajaya must be defended, crying like a possessed person. And you a non-UMNO who won on PAS ticket and jumped ship like a Pariah yelled panic as they are. I am sure you would not want that even. What do you want then ?

I know that your mind is saying the Chinese are bad. You know that they could not be all. So are the Malays who rob and steal, cheating and lying, commit crimes and kidnapping and much more. And you are one of them.

The longer you live the more poisonous words would be hurled. I pray that you will be strike by a lightning. We can't afford to make enemies with one another. Our enemies are the greedy businessmen , the corrupt politicians, the land grabbers, the politicians who are destroying the future generation, and the people who are plundering the nation's wealth like the big Mamak.

21/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

IPHONE PROGRAMMING

Today I made a start on what I have been wanting to do for quite some time ie to write a simple program for the iPhone. I was totally in the dark knowing no head nor tail. You don't need to go to school to pick up a simple idea. Thanks God I still live to see and touch the modern technology. At one time I said to myself I wouldn't mind to die at 56 or 60. But now I pray to God to let me live a little longer so that I can write a simple code for my iPhone.

Initially Apple is not too kind because to be a member of developer you have to pay USD99 ( a year ? ) The SDK is free but you need to have a Mac to start using it. I am aware it can be done on iPad. There are developers who developed using Java and convert it to the iPhone binary language.

Programming iPhone would be to the advantage for those who know C++ or Java. But there are similarities in structures of both of them . Using the SDK we can learn X-Code and there are already several commands ready made for the iPhone.

The best way to learn and to understand the complete concept is by doing and testing. I believe sooner or later we can run the SDK on other flat form. So far till now I don't know whether I can do it on iphone. I have enough space on my iPhone to install the SDK. If I can't it will drag me for years on end. If I can't put any application in the iPhone at least I know the codes for the applications. So far I have several applications with their codes written on my CD.

I just want to know how they command the iPhone to work and run the programs. How the programs are written. That's all. I am just as curious as the cats and I would be happy if the younger people cope up with the new technology and keep themselves off the street. The better ones could make money from the programs they made and the new gadgets will be small, advance and popular. As I said from the beginning you don't have to go to university to learn the iPhone programming.

I have never found age is the deterrent for any older people to learn and be smart at it. It's all in the attitude and the system thinking of a person.

Below is a sample code. Notice the structure of the program lines.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h> 
@class MyViewController; 
@interface HelloWorldAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> {} 
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
@property (nonatomic, retain) MyViewController *myViewController; 
@end
#import "MyViewController.h"
#import "HelloWorldAppDelegate.h" 
@implementation HelloWorldAppDelegate 
@synthesize window=_window;
@synthesize myViewController=_myViewController; 
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
        didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions { 
    MyViewController *aViewController = [[MyViewController alloc]
                initWithNibName:@"MyViewController" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
    [self setMyViewController:aViewController];
    [aViewController release]; 
    self.window.rootViewController = self.myViewController; 
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
    return YES;} 
// Other methods from the template omitted 
- (void)dealloc {
    [_myViewController release];
    [_window release];
    [super dealloc];
} 
@end

Since iPhone can run websites any application using the browser like my logbook program, I still can enjoy a home made program using the iPhone though it is not a native to it.

19/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

WHAT A HACK

I told you before that I have no computer training at all. So what I am going write here may sound like a shit. Secondly the technology moves so fast that the stuffs I mention may not be in existence anymore.

I would categorize hackers into two types. The stupid and good for nothing sadists who knows no programming and even bad at studies would be using the ready made programs made by a more smart hacker. If I am a hacker I would be under this category.

The second type are of really the smart lots, who really understand complete computing .

Most intruding are done via the DOS mode to open up and peek into the remote servers. You have to know the command language and the procedure to put data and files into the remote server. If you go into university just to learn hacking then 95% of you will be out of job.

You can't make a living by causing chaos.

Since there were a lot of recent talks and news about hacking, I would like to share the basic concept of port scanning using the old technology. Windows made them and may already destroy them.

There are 3 basic terms I think you should know about; IP address, port and Winsock. IP is like an address of a house to a computer. For the server an IP is associated with the domain name or address's name. A port is something like a door to your house. A house may have more than 2 doors for people to enter. A Winsock or windows socket provide a path for the data to  move about.

I think there are www..xxx.yyy.zzz number if IPs starting from 000.000.000.001 to 255.255.255.255. I don't know whether 000.000.000.000 is considered as one address. And there are 65536 ports. I leave it to you to check both. Now using the winsock from my home I can set the winsock to listen or connect to 212.188.0.245 port 18 of any server , Winsock.connect "212.188.0.245","18" .  The simplest is to send nonsense into the severs after the handshaking is established.

Scanning people's port is made easier when my laptop is turned into a server. I can let my winsock listens to all ports using various IPs. I know Windows XP has the IIS server which I can install via the Control Panel. A little work of configuration would turn my laptop into a server. While scanning is done on people's computer, I found others also trying to come in into mine, mostly from China and tons of them.

There are several routers and Modem would come across. I felt I could change the values in those without even the need of using the password. I used to inform Streamyx about those unsecured servers.

That was several years ago. At a certain thought I felt it was immoral of me to peep at people's web cams hoping for a lady to take off her dress. And it was unethical too. Hacking, VNC, putting trojan and spy wares are not for us. If the military people wants to it, that's their business. Hackers Setengah Masak aren't great. Peeping at people's secret like me is also useless, meaningless and moral less.

When hacking soft wares are distributed and fall into the wrong hands a lot of mischief could be done. I would not not recommend the LAN computers to be connected to the internet. I don't even like the government departments to use even the e-mails. Remember data movement can always be tapped and decrypted.

Don't blame the hackers. Blame yourselves. That's only the hackers not the real espionage yet. We always tell you not to buy soft ware from Singapore or Israel, but you still want to do it. Those countries will not do any suspicious things but merely steal all what the police and the military has. And what may be in Putrajaya too. So you follow the consultant's advice ?

18/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

CHANGING THE LOGBOOK

From the local log book I changed to website logging. The advantage of the website logging is I can log using my iPhone4 if I go mobile or portable. But it can be a hassled to use it at home whenever there is no electricity or more so I want to watch video or listen to music via the log book. So I brought the data down into my lap top and started to run the local program.

Though I am trying to avoid a DX station, yet at time a few station would call me. I always knew that they would open up the QRZ.com. QRZ,com tells something about the logging page. If they were to visit the logbook, they may not find their call sign in. Luckily with the above log book I can send my database to my server immediately and I can also preview the content thru it.

But I have to discipline myself to command me to post the latest database immediately after I log the person. I would not mind much with the fellow Malaysians.

I was able to open the web log book using my Ubuntu too. During the time I was on linux and having a chat with a DX station at the same time, I would just run the log url.  Again the problem is solved. And using Wine I also can run the local logbook .

I was thinking of the double entry . A single stroke can send to the external server as well as to the local disk. Using Visual Basic my codes could not directly access to Microsoft database in my server. Problems would be solved if I convert it to Mysql. However I decide to open the server database from my log book as shown above and work on the data entry from there. It won't be difficult nor time consumingheck and if I have worked the station before. Only the first one of any station will need to do a little typing. The subsequent one needs only to enter the signal report, name and location.

To toggle to the external server I need to check and uncheck the box entitle 'server'. I have to wish myself a good luck.

17/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

NOTHING DIRTY ABOUT BERSIH

I don't think the government is afraid of BERSIH. But the government should be sincere to express the reason for the ban. But to mention 'Kafir' on BERSIH and to call the Malays not to support 'Kafir' very much indicate our mentality to the world. And for Ibrahim Ali to yell and bark it is indeed uncalled for. There is nothing dirty about BERSIH. The main fear is the government does not want the history of Egypt and a few other Middle Eastern countries to repeat here. The protest leader could politely be called to reason out of the possibility of the chaos and promise some of the grouses will be look into.

Even how dirty BN government is and how aggressive the 'government hater' is, we can be sure there will be no foreign interference as in Libya because Malaysia has nothing to offer; our oil is running out, we don't have uranium or gold mine. BN government should not see apparition .

We all should understand that BN would not want to lose and will not bow down respectfully or not. The immediate hurdle for BN is the vote count. Hence it will do anything and everything to pull the Malays away from opposition parties. Will it be successful ? If it is, it will only be a temporary affair. For the next 25 years the Malay votes will be fewer. At that time UMNO will want to unite with the Chinese and the Indians. Or they will have to rely heavily on Sabah and Sarawak. By 25 years time I am sure the Sarawakians will think differently.

We all have seen the strength of Communism and the Berlin Wall. Who ever dream that Soviet Union would break up to pieces. Time is the acid which slowly brought down the Communist and the Great Wall. BN government must see from all point of view and from all angles. Will they survive thru cheats and lies and stay invincible with the police might  ?

I am sure BN has heard the grouses. If it follows Mahathir's advice, it will declare war on it's own rakyat and let rakyat throw curse on him every day till the world comes to an end. And Mahathir does not want his ongoing billion ringgit project be disturbed by any takeover or change in government for a new government can always declare that all previous agreements are null and void. If it uses it's own brain probably it can send a delegation or invite BERSIH to send theirs to Putrajaya for amiable discussions.

Remember Pulau Batu Puteh was lost not thru strong muscle and Malaya ruled by the British was not by British gun.

You think of now. I think of the next 25 years.

16/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

STALL ECONOMY

Stall economy blooms since women emancipation in Malaysia. Working wives have little time to cook for the husbands. Early morning each goes different ways and start to see each other again at about 6pm. Unlike the old days when a wife would wake up for morning prayer and prepared breakfast for the husband, put on his socks and shoes and bade each other good bye.

Today there are numerous stalls shot up to sell breakfast. Because of the high profit it pulls the unemployed and the retired to venture into food business using the lowest capital, namely stall structures. Between 10 am to 3 pm most stalls go to sleep and begins to come alive one by one until 5 pm. Food for tea-time like goreng pisang , popia and other kueh delicacies stalls would be swarmed by the people who just came back from work. A few stalls start to sell dinner as early as the tea-time.

When we compute the GDP we must take the stall economy into account. Money change hands and the economy is active.

The sad thing is the stall economy is slowly changing owners from the Malaysians to the foreigners. This is not suppose to happen. And as usual the authority with the 'Kesian' and 'Tidak apa' attitude failed to stop this practice.

When Alor Star first became a city the town council issue a new decree that stalls by the roadsides must not be seen. Bandaraya's image of a city as a place with planned buildings and structures. It causes problems not only to the stall owners but also to the normal working people. I never welcome the Bandara status because it swallows people's money. The rates went up. Areas where people never paid rates before are now struggling to find money to pay the local authority. However  many stalls reappeared. And the economy is moving again.

I began to see young men busy with the stalls, selling all sort of food. This is a good sign as long as the community support them. They would call their school friends who are jobless to help them. A big portion of potential crimes would slowly diminish. I asked my students who have been helping in burger stall the amount the owner paid them. "RM30 - RM50 a night, Sir." That amount would keep them off the street at night and away from the motor cycle gangs.

While some stalls are fixed structures many are mobile. Today vans for various type of business are available. Ice water sellers would park their vans at strategic locations. The kueh and nasi sellers usually park at the same place. The goreng-goreng business need a fix place.

What most people did not notice is that stalls and open food shops by the road sides are very unhealthy. Dust fly unnoticed and settled in the food. "Why worry about death ?" They would ask."It's all written when you are going to die. Germ or no germ, dust or no dust, we are all going to die." Those who are health conscious would take more care about buying food from the stalls.

Are the food cheap ? Some sellers would price the food they sell equivalent to the ones in super markets. If Nelson sells a slice of pineapple for RM1.50 they would be selling at the same price. Nelson has to pay a high rental, the stall sellers almost pay no rental. I would just called them greedy. I hate to see their faces again when I passed by. In my assessment they don't cheap except for a few like Mee Pal Chop. The Mamak is the worst. Nothing is cheap from the Mamak stall.

If the stall economy cease to operate it will certainly hit the households. Husbands will need to find the non-working wives. A non-working wife has a high financial value, at least 1.5 K. She can look after the children, clean the house and cooks for the family. Buying the raw food and cook would save at least 60% of the expenditure. For RM25.00 of raw food it can last for about a week.

Since many people are eating out food business is becoming lucrative. Parents are rushing to put their kids to schools which provide the cooking course. Catering is becoming popular among the males. The vocational schools which are suppose to take the drop out or the low achievers are now facing problems of students of excellent academic qualifications are applying for the entry.

Stalls were usually set up by poor people who can find no other job. Increasingly rich people are seen to come with luxurious cars to sell the delicacies. And when they do they don't sell cheap. Stalls are suppose to sell cheaper foodstuffs as compared to restaurants or the normal coffee shops.

It is estimated that the minimum net earning of a food stall operator is 4K a month. It is a form of a new economy to be reckon with.

16/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
  INFLATION

Read what the economist says about inflation; what causes it and who profit most, and who are the sore losers. Instead of looking from the point of view of the economists, let's observe it from the laymen's point of view. We use a simple reason and the see the cause and effect of it.

If the price of gasoline goes up, prices of everything will follow up. The manufacturers and transport company will never absorb the shock but rather transfer the burden to the consumers. The scrupulous and greedy business people would push the price up 5 or 10 times more than what they pay. The most inconsiderate at in Alor Setar are the Mamak food shops.

Minimum wages and pay rise is another commanding factors. Realizing the economic consequence many states in the United States took political risks to disband unions and collective bargaining. I believe all unions in Malaysia are hazardous and enemy of the people because they are pushing for spiral inflations.

Just now I went to a small mini-market. The durian as seen here costs me RM13.00. The roadside vendors are now selling them in the same package at higher price and gain double or triple profit. The light bulbs costs me RM9.80 for 9 watts and RM13.90 for 1 watts. The ones manufactured in Malaysia were priced at RM20.00 a piece.

Who are those who won't feel a pinch at all ? Your guess is as good as mine.

To some people they don't know what does expensive means and what is hot. To the big majority they have to bear with the intense heat because they can't afford an air condition unit. They would shy away from the tasty durian. Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang is real and a big number is still at large today.

15/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

SCHOOL WEB PAGE

It has been almost two years that I informed the school to get it's own teacher to maintain the web page I set up http://smtjs.net or set up a new one. The school runs a computer programming course with qualified teachers, graduates in computing whereas my knowledge is out of date and I don't have any computer training. The school agreed and appointed two teachers to take care of the website.

On my recent checking the page was not updated. I met the school administrator and discuss the issue. The two teachers decided to set up a new one because the existing one is hard to understand, too many codes, like a program rather than the normal page. I agreed with their views because they are the people who are going to maintain it.

The present page contains database of students from 1986 - 2000, the period I started computer in that school until the year I left. And there were additional students after 2000. It looks like the database has to be abandoned because they need Java, PHP or ASP to retrieve the data. I used ASP codes. Others contents using ASP's are the displaying of the birthdays and monthly test results. Because of the extensive use of database I prefer the dedicated server rather than  the free website or a blog. It is up to them to choose.

Another problem is a domain name. Currently smtjs.net is used. It stands for Sekolah Menengah Teknik Jalan Stadium. But now the school's name has changed to Sekolah Menengah Vokasional Alor Setar. In the near future it a new name. I told the school the domain name is on sale now at a low price. The school should purchase it for 5 years immediately before the offer close.

How do I get involve in the school ? It was this place where I work before. For those long 20 years I developed several soft wares that made my work easy, from individual databases to financial system. When I left the school a new person took over and threw not only the soft wares but also the computers. Two religious teachers convinced the principal computer internets expose to pornographic materials.

By the time this Principal was replaced with a new one, the Ministry of education made computing as mandatory assets in schools and all schools must have internet connection. I was called to help to get computing running again. At first I refused and asked them to look back for the soft wares they threw. Eventually I softened my standf and began to help them again, free of charge. However they paid me a token amount for the biometric attendant system which I described somewhere in my web page.

I don't want to sway from the present topic but can't help remembering the mentality of a Malay principal and administrators rejecting modern technology  I can't help myself but but to despise people with such mentality. This is country is having problem because we promote this kind of people to run the departments and the country.

There is nothing great about hosting a web page for a school but it has a hiddenvalue in it. It is not only the source of information for the students and the teachers but also for the alumni. It enhances the students' esteem.

I don't expect those teachers to take 5 years to start with a new facelift or updating the current contents. If the school decide not to host any for database it does affect me at all.  I would be sad and sorry for the school because that school was chosen as a bench marking institutionl before, won several awards over the years and the present Prime Minister had visited the school in 1997. I have a high expectation of the school to be leaders in many fields including in the world of information technology.

My saying good bye to the task is because it is high time for the school to manage it's own backyard. And I am getting older and my memory is fast fading. The graveyard is calling me. But the school will stand for a long time to come.

14/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

ANATOMY OF THINKING

What can I write about thinking ? It is not my field of study nor did I read about it. My superficial remarks are are far beyond truth. It is merely a total conjecture.

I happened to stay in a computer lab from morning until evening when I was at Indiana University. The lab was small and one was given a certain hours only to be there. Whenever it was packed I would stay away from the computers and allow those others to use them. There was one beautiful young lady in-charge. Whenever she had a certain thing to do she asked me to take care of the room.

Though I had no computer training , only merely following a short course on computer literacy the students who were in the lab would come to seek my help when the programs did not work. I looked at their codes and I found out their way of arguments in the program lines were totally different from mine and other Asian students. Mine the algorithms were rigid. But theirs were more opened and I knew that their lines of thinking are different.

The anatomy of American thinking was a result of their upbringings. The thinking methods are not shaped to follow a certain rule. So kids mind have free space to explore. There was no boundary to keep them in fear. The teaching of moral and manners are thru reasoning, every questions met with answers related to them.

I very well remember when a lady boss told me 'Yours is to do and not to ask'. A father would say, 'I say that, it's that. No more question.' 'God makes it that way.' 'Don't ask, it is sinful..' We always set up a boundary. You must think as what we think. Not enough with the setting of of culture, we used mass media to control people's thinking and forced them to think like us. Hence we killed mental initiative to explore and we think in the shape and structure we are exposed to. More than 70% of decisions are not based on the creative thinking but more so on emotion. When mind cannot think or has met the dead end it will consult the emotion to act.

It does mean not only we do not nurture creativity but also we cannot produce genius like Teslar who could think out of the boundary and shape of experiences. Because we can't think straight, we tend to copy and paste or hire foreign consultants to solve problems facing us.

Blogs and other rhetoric allow people to dissect our anatomy of thinking and the amount of knowledge we have. It is assumed that a nation with a certain level of thinking could not develop technology on their own and hence would not be a threat to strong nation. The American does not fear Osama ben Laden because he is Osama, but his brilliant mind could pose a future threat and danger.

Dirty thinking does not need creativity and smartness, like a dog does not  need intelligence to bark. There is no thinking needed to act rudely or to curse and yell at others.

I heard young kids talk. I was amazed at their thinking and creativity. Giving the right opportunity and environment they would grow up to be as creative as the Americans too. But once they entered schools their minds began to take shape.  Schools are shaped by way of Max Webber pyramid commands. The line of thought must fit the top authority. A few creative and daring Principals might follow their own paths. The authoritative command would finally  reach the students.

What else that we have not copied from the West especially the United States ? We unashamedly brought Good Morning America and talk shows and others. We copied American idol and other judging procedures. What are we good at ? Making money from the citizens thru corporations ? YES.

14/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
  WASHING AND DRYING

I have a special room about 10 X 10 feet. In here I have an old computer table enough for my hobby equipments. Right now I have a few radio gadgets and a couple of lap tops sit on it. Later I might clear the radio stuffs and re-arrange it with computers.

I have an empty mini-bar which will remain empty for most of the days except on the festival days which we called Hari Raya. It is almost equivalent to Christmas. A small toilet which could not be called a Restroom because it is not as clean as one is attached to this room. At the door is an old half-functioned washing machine. The drier part went kaput but the washing section is working perfectly.

I sleep here in the room, sometimes on the bare floor and sometimes on a mat. It is so shabby that I do not welcome visitors here.

Every two or three days I would wash my clothing, some time 4 pieces and some time about 10. My wife taught me how to use the soap and how to run the water into it. Today I use liquid soap. If I can't wash my own clothing means I am good at nothing at all. Whenever I went to USA or London I would always go to a laundry and enjoy myself. I always came home from the trip with a bag full of neat shirts.

Drying under the sun takes about 2 to 3 hours. At night would take me almost the whole night. Ironing is never a problem. All shirts as seen in the picture does not need ironing. The red shirt was worn on my visit to Europe, USA and any other countries. Probably it was more than 15 years old. The long sleeve one  was at at a 75% discount, branded but only about RM29.00.

Every now and then I also wash my wife's dress and dry them as well. There is another washing machine but it consume plenty of water. It does have a drier. I just don't use it. I just love doing this job. I enjoy it and enjoy the dress I am wearing.

13/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

MELAYU TAK MUDAH LUPA

If you would ask me whether I would hang anybody if I have the power, I would say 'YES'. This is the most ruthless man I have ever seen. He did many unthinkable things. A Prime Minister is to serve the citizen not to form corporations to make money and plunder public funds, He used his power to threaten banks to give the unpaid loans, squeezing anyone he can get hold of. Those crooks are at large and still getting government projects though their treacherous deeds have been publicly exposed. Each day his sin was exposed. The latest we were told about the IPP and how arrogant the EPU of his making could be. At People's court you will hear many shocking sinful things this man had done.

What does he do at the remaining part of his life ? Making big money. He pushed Pak Lah out for stopping the mega project he always wanted. In my kampong a Mamak was so very vocal talking bad things about Pak Lah that the people really detest to hear. His followers said he was a genius. A genius said," The Malays should sell their lands and buy shares." "Forget about agriculture land. We built houses and factories. From the profit we buy food from other countries." The genius threw away the British law on Malay reserve land, and replaced it with the 'Land Acquisition Act'.

He made and created many greedy monsters that made UMNO looked like a Father Monster. He left shit for his successors to clean. Yet IPP, IWKS, Tajuddin Ramli and many more individuals are still at large. Shamelessly Eskay exposed the dealings because he did not get a single cent. He claimed he lost 22 million.

Much have been studied about the Jews and how they are making money. Looking at the style I saw there is no different between this man and the Jews. I observed others of his kind have identical behavior. It started during the Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th Century until this very minute..

He was so mean to call the Malays 'Melayu Mudah Lu[a'. Now he accused Karpal Singh was the winner as PAS dropped Hudud Law. He was the one against the Law and wrote to the Sultan of Kelantan expressing his unhappiness about the Law. He accused DAP of wanting to oust Royalty but it was during his tenure he had wanted very much to turn this country into a Republic. Melayu Tidak Mudah Lupa. But he does.

The Malays should not be confused. If they are so crave for the Malay unity by all mean preach it but do it under PAS.

12/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

JUST THINK

So far I remember there were already three cases where big money were found and returned to the owner. The first one a worker found a whole sack of money while at work as a garbage collector. The second in the house they bought and the most recent only USD17,000. Two found by poor men and one was by a normal couple. Those were in the United States. I also wrote about me unknowingly dropped RM700 at the ticketing counter at the railway station and it was picked up by a Malay man behind me.  My wife who was in the car did not realize it was my money that the man picked and kept to himself.

What kind of a man who returned a few hundred thousand US dollars back to the owner when the owner didn't even know where the money was. At the house where the money was found, the owner of the money had been dead for so long. His children and grand children didn't even know of the money. If you ask Toyo and many other high profile robbers they would say those are the abnormal men. And the one who picked my money for himself is obviously normal and kept up to their standard.

Mahathir was and is the most normal man as far as money is concerned. Millions is not enough. Never enough. Compare to the man who found USD17,000, this poor Chicago man had even not enough money to buy the Mexican delicacy. Yet he returned the money.

In big cities in Malaysia especially Kuala Lumpur everybody robs everybody, I was told. Even Kampung Baru watered UMNO's mouth. If UMNO wants to rob you they make law to legalize their job and would do in a very professional ways. They have a bunch of lawyers working for the new corporations they form to collect money like the IPP or IWKS and a few insurance companies. Not only that, they even kick the Malaysians out to sell properties to foregners. When Najib parroted 1Malaysia, people sing 1Malaysia, place the logo even in the jamban, and 1Malaysia land grabbing company was formed.

Please don't be hard on me and don't be angry. You must pity your generation of your own blood. They will be facing a major problem to find a place of their own to live in later.

Will any Malaysian send back the money they found ? I believe there are Malaysians who will do the same, like some people who donated a few thousand ringgit for the local surau under the unanimous name every now and then, never want people to know who they are. I believe those people will do the same as those Americans. To be honest, base on the track record and the true events I will not believe any UMNO man. Even money from Amanah Saham Kedah went off in the thin air. You give a plane for them to take care, they buy and sell, sell and buy under the nose of the Grand Master who commanded the game, and protected by the King of Malaysian law. You asked Md Zain about these swindlers he will tell you all.

It is interesting to make a study of human behavior and morality of the Malays and the Mamaks. And to find out who is more dominant in Malaysia. Alex Jose once accused the Malays as originated from pirates but never mentioned the Mamak who were the immigrants. Historically the kampung Malays were submissive, trust everybody and never know how to lie. When UMNO and Parti Negara came into being the Malays joined those parties with a strong nationalist feeling. Nationalism in UMNO was high until UMNO opened it's big door to business communities. During Mahathir's period the Malays were rushing for wealth under UMNO. Ministers need to give projects to those who support them. Some get and some did not. Joining UMNO is with the expectation to get pecuniary benefit. UMNO teach people to worship money and it gave out cash to people at the right time. The Malays are taught to be greedy while those under the protection of the legal system they created. Some are making wealth unendingly even at nearing death.

If we say Najib is weak it is the making of Mahathir. He can bully Najib to get all the projects he crave for.

We don't show honesty and integrity, kindness and pity. We do not care about morality and sins. We should be ashamed seeing the non-Muslims who are honest and sincere, helpful and considerate. My sick wife many time had said, "The Chinese are more helpful than the Malays." True or not, that's her experience. No doubt there are Malays who came to help her; unknown person pushed her wheel chair to the toilet and waited for her.

Individuals are feared their kids would grow up humane less like a few retired politicians. Kids are sent to religious schools to get the basic teachings of goodness, honesty and considerate. And mind you Mahathir had wanted to close the religious school accusing them as breeding ground for extremist Malays.

Observe and feel the goodness among yourselves. We are very lucky to have a true Muslim neighbor whom we all the trust and confidence. If they found a million they would return it to the owner.

12/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

PM POST

Now UMNO is pointing fingers at PAS saying HADI WANTS TO BE PM. I think almost every able bodied men wants to be PM. I want to be one too. What's wrong if Hadi wants to be a leader ? Didn't UMNO says Anwar is not fit ? Nobody is fit except UMNO ? What's so special about people who crave for wealth at any expense ? What's so special about anybody at all who are robbers, cheaters and liars ? In fact even the UMNO members were said not qualified if the fathers are not the Prime Minister. So the making of a PM must come from father to son and to grandson ?

I have difficulty in finding a real great leader of the world. Right now I can see a shadow showing Ho Chin Min who fought a great war against the mighty Americans. It is easy to find the monster leaders, too many of them including one in Malaysia. They prey on the people, building wealth for families and lie all along. Ask the Americans about Obama, Bush and even Clinton; how much lie they told the Americans.

A thief call the other people a thief to escape persecution or being caught. You really have to open your eyes wide and hear what UMNO is saying.

I would like to ask UMNO who is fit for the PM post ? Ask Mahathir who is fit ? He believes in nobody. He regretted that he chose Pak Lah and Najib and all the other Deputies. I have a strong intuition that Mahathir would say Mukhriz. You focus your eyes on Mahathir and observe well what he says and what Mukhriz says.

What you may not be thinking is a foreign government too can determine who a Prime Minister could be. If they ever decide I am sure they will not go for a Malay or a Pakistani or a Keling. Or of their origin. If they decide to interfere, they just need only about a few hundred people to run a protest. They only need to highly train about 10 - 15 potential protest leaders. Any form of fatal assault could end up in the government downfall as what is happening in Libya. Malaysia is lucky because we do not have much critical resources like the vanishing oil or uranium field. If we have all those I guarantee a totally new government will come into being.

Leadership should be determined by the masses, by the people. It is not by another UMNO person. Yes it happens well in Malaysia. Mahathir is the King Maker.

When Mukhriz and UMNO is accusing PAS for rejecting Malay unity, I immediately know that Mukhriz did not learn history of the PAS-UMNO merger many years ago. Mukhriz should learn why. You can't force the Chinese to learn history if you yourself don't learn it.

And Mahathir accused PAS of dropping it's Islamic ideal, let him look back at UMNO's ideal and philosophy. He asked the Malays to sell their land for share. He created a group of wealthy corporate and he himself had a share in it. UMNO had become tools of the greedy businessmen who had cheated the Malays like hell. UMNO's philosophy is privatization of utilities, people should repay back by  giving back to UMNO, plundering the education system to drive the Malays to stupidity and incompetent. UMNO wants to win with giving away money, gifts, bicycles, bags, projects etc.

If people prefer Hadi to be PM, well we will try him. If people prefer Mukhriz then we will see whether he will follow his father. If the Malays prefer to continually be slave and be bullied then let them be.

Hadi, wanting to be a PM, is nothing strange. Lim Guan Eng would not reject it if the post were offered to him. The Indians in India would be celebrating if Sammy Velo became a Prime Minister. My friends too like to feel how the PM job is. They may be much more brilliant and do very much better then the UMNO gentlemen.

Mahathir said Karpal is happy with PAS current philosophy. Do you know what is the different between Mahathir and Karpal ?

Ha ha ha! Mahathir — Ali Kadir

June 07, 2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof
JUNE 7 — How far have the mighty fallen? But then again, we should not be surprised at anything our favourite ex-Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says anymore.

The man who mortgaged our future to the IPPs (as pointed out by Sakmongkol AK47 that all the IPPs are owned by politically-connected businessmen Francis Yeoh, Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, Ananda Krishnan) is really plumbing the depths of desperation with his attack against PAS.

I wonder why he has not replied to some strong points raised by former TNB boss Ani Arope on the lopsided IPP deals forced upon TNB by the Mahathir administration. Could his diatribe against PAS be just another diversionary move by a politician who once was respected by all of us for his forthright and decisive way of running the country?

What is odd about his blog posting on PAS’s recent elections is that he is trying to come across as someone who cares about the Islamist party. Didn’t he call them all sorts of names because of their “fundamentalist” brand of Islam? I recall him saying that PAS should be called PIS as it was known as Parti Islam Semalaysia.

Of course, he was taking the piss then because his Umno ruled Malaysia by birthright.

But alamak he is prihatin about PAS “abandoning” its Islamic principles. And to show how sincere he is, he even dragged in Karpal Singh and declared him the winner for getting PAS to “abandon” its Islamic principles.

I suppose Dr Mahathir is hoping to sow some discord among PAS rank and file by suggesting that Karpal is the puppet master.

But such is the fall in his credibility these days that not many people will buy his sudden show of concern for PAS.

I believe that Dr Mahathir and Umno are worried about the direction PAS is taking because for a long time Umno was the only party which occupied the centre but now it has a more credible and clean competitor. Essentially, PAS is more centre and Islamic than Umno.

So it is left to Dr Mahathir and his Umno colleagues to hit out at PAS and try and start an internal revolt. How sad?

A statesman or real leader of Umno would have asked his own party to examine why it has strayed so far from the original principles of its founder and why it has become the model of corruption.

But not Dr Mahathir. Everyone else is to be blamed. Be it PAS or the voters who are apparently easily duped. We are the stupid ones.

Not him. Or his party

 

07/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Do we tell you to close all the Malay books and only open the entire English books ? China, the fast growing country leaping over Japan in GDP and NI, proudly conquered space with Mandarin and now is expanding rapidly challenging the United States. But listen to their English. When they had the national university debating competition, with our eyes closed, we would surely say those speakers were Americans. In many shops we were astonished with their well spoken English using American slang. The youths are picking up languages quick and fast. Don't forget that we always have a representative from China in the International Debate Competition in Bahasa Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

How many languages can a Malay speak fluently ? How many languages can all other Malaysians speak ?

Similarly, the United States, rising up with English language as the national language, started to provide Federal scholarships to foreign language students after the Russian sent it's Sputnik to the outer space. Kenedy commanded that Sciences and languages must be given prior attention to become the leading nation. A few decades later applicants into Havard need to undergo 2 years of foreign language education. Right now Chinese would be a popular foreign choice. USA wants to cope up and wants to know the progress of China in space and weapons.

The degrading of English among the Malays at the school and university level could put Malaysia behind in the race. Examinations which were used to be in English are now in Bahasa. Does it help ?

Bahasa had been made as a national language since in the 60's. Books are slowly to grow. If there are any they are very expensive. Books on computers will be outdated in no time. So are with the other technology. In those years the books in Chinese on electronic, electricity and other technology were in paperback form, cheap and numerous. So the Malays have two choices, either seek the books written in Mandarin or those in English.

What will happen, the Malays with languages capabilities have the edge over those who are mono-lingual in the job market. The amount of knowledge that we will have will be limited by the Malay books and what our teachers and lecturers tells us.

Knowing and not using it is one thing, don't know at all and fear of it would be worse. Telling other people not to speak other languages is barbarous.

All official letters, announcements and other administrative matters must be in Bahasa. That would not bar us from the pursuit of knowledge. They are to be encouraged not otherwise. Nevertheless there are many promising young talents good in brain and skill continue to pursue knowledge in other languages defying the call from some quarters to completely dropped those other lingos.

At the same time we increase books on technology and put them in the market cheaply using the English as basic terms like atom, and molecule. But all terms must be standardized.

We tell you to be well verse in all other foreign languages to keep you competitive. Remember the entry level to Havard by the Americans student needs a two year course in at least one foreign language.

06/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

Husband hanky panky

Women in Kuala Lumpur are gearing up to satisfy their husbands sexually to ensure their partners will not go to find extra pleasure somewhere else. They are forming a club to provide a sexual lessons. Do they think right ? I cannot speak for men, neither rebut those women's conclusion. But from a few chats with friends, several said they were turned off by nagging wives. A liberated woman who challenged her husband and threat the spouse like a bad boy may think she is powerful enough to command and control her husband. A few men fight back and may end in separation. A few would fall in love with another woman with femininity and submissive nature and ready to marry her or made her a mistress. Some prefer to go to prostitutes who treated them like their husbands with full of obedience.

The first factor which matter most the was the unending nagging.

A sexy and voluptuous woman might invite any observer but it does not end up in bed.

A wife who cares to continually check her daily outlook, aware of her weight and serve her husband when he came back from work would make a husband happy. Our grand mothers would powder themselves, wearing neat dress, prepare breakfasts, put on their husbands' sock before going to work had had a long marriage life. Today the breakfast is either prepared by a maid or at the canteen. The couple would go their own way in the morning and meet at home later in the evening. There is a great tendency for a husband to fall in love with his maid.

              Obedient Wives Club

There are exceptionally a few macho men with endless sex drive. The manhood is quick to erect on seeing any beautiful woman especially a lady with a big bust and a big buttock. No club member with any amount of Kamasutra's technique would hinder the husband from extra sex activities. This is also similar to a woman who is hardly satisfied by her husband.

What the women should also know is that a marriage is not merely sex. A divorce is also not always due to sex. A marriage is also a company. One need to discuss and talk on various topics in the news. Whenever it comes to politics the problem might occur if one is an UMNO supporter and the other is a PAS believer. Surely it will be a debate. My wife always support Najib and Mahyuddin whereas I have a tough time to prove that they cannot be better than Nik Aziz.

Talking of the prostitutes , I understand that it hard to find prostitute in Tel Aviv or may be in all other Israel cities. The Jewish states fight prostitution banning pimping and brothels and motel with them. Nevertheless foreign prostitutes do come and are harassed by the authority. In Malaysia prostitution is a heaven. Anybody can go to prostitute except Anwar Ibrahim.

Wanita UMNO should call for the banning of prostitutes and the prostitutions. Will UMNO ban prostitution ? If not those women should inform all other women that UMNO play a part in making their husbands find another alternative sex fun. Don't vote for UMNO and choose PAS.

06/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

BEAUTIFUL TRADITION

Marriage is still a sacred affair. It is a solemn and religious contract bind in the state law. The real pleasure of marriage and sex is when both spouse are virgin. The first sex between both create the utmost pleasure and ecstatic .

The tradition in the Southeast Asian states are very colorful. In Malaya a bridegroom has to provide gifts of various variety in odd numbers ; 7, 9 , 11 or 13  which will include a ring and the dowry in cash. The bride must return the gifts greater in numbers; 9,11,13 or 15. I saw a procession in Kampuchea where a bride groom's party carried a long chain of gifts.

Traditionally the choice of the spouse was done by the male's parents. Today only about 10% of marriages are arranged. Most arranged marriage would last very long except in death they depart.

Beautiful girls are quick to get married. Like men they are choosy too. They have a dream man with a certain feature, more of the facial structure than the character. Some believe that they can use their charms to change men's character only  to find the spouse was too bad. A drug addict ruined the family life. More often than not they run away from the addicted husband.

A ceremony can cost between 15 - 30 thousand ringgit. The poor people spent less because the cooking was done by friends and neighbors. The dowry could be less than RM2000.00. Previously the Malays would sell their lands to celebrate a wedding. Today they use their savings.

The tradition is mixed with religion. The knots are tied according to the Muslim rituals. The Bersanding ( a bride and a bridegroom sit side by side on a dais) is said to be Hindus. At one time the Bersanding ceremony was criticized but the people does not see any religious rites in it, but merely for public perusal, and to appreciate the beauty of the couple.

The couple is called Raja Sehari ( A King for a Day ). Indeed they were, elegant and gorgeous.

It would be nice if the tourist could be invited to the marriage festival. I think the government should work for it. There is always a mechanism to make the arrangement. And special international food can be arranged for the purpose.

05/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE WEALTH OF A MAN

While in Form 2 the sudden urge to learn Mandarin made register for the evening class at Kiet Hwa. There were one other Malay who was doing a car business. The rest were adult Chinese and a few young children. Because of the regular practice I could understand the Chinese movies I watched. At that time I was not thinking of any benefit, only felt it would be wiser for me to know another language. Later I learn Hockien just by asking people the meaning of words I wanted to know.

But that was the bad year for me. I began to hate school. I was stupid and good for nothing. The only subject I liked was history because Mr Boney was an excellent teacher. He would hit us with a ruler if we failed to answer his question. He wanted us to know year 1453 very well. At the same time I was thinking of going to work on a ship, any ship and migrate away. Things took a 360 degrees turn when my mathematics teacher who was also my form teacher remarked that I have a potential to be a good student. That particular word made me felt great. My esteem kicked off to a higher level. I seek the help of a friend to teach me sciences. Syed Aswad was kind enough to show me a clear path on elements and non-element. Now I realize Syed Aswad at Form 2 was really a bright boy.

Young boys and girls of all races are bright enough to learn things. Only if we teach them. A 5-7 year old kid could easily learn 4 or 5 languages if taught. One advantage of knowing other languages is the students would be able to gather knowledge from books written in Chinese, English, Malay, Arabic or Tamil. Chinese used to sell very cheap Hong Kong printed books on technology and electronics in 20th century.

There were many comic books in Mandarin and in those years in English. The comic books attract people to read and remember the Chinese characters and at the same time instilled a reading habits. I went to the Popular Bookstore every now and then and saw the Chinese kids would sit on the floor with some kind of books reading.

Not too long ago someone murmuring to himself that he was at a very disadvantages for not being taught English and the Malay medium school did injustice to the Malay students. He realized his deficiency slowed him down in learning computing from the internet.

Assume that every individual can speak 5 or 6 languages fluently, then we can always discuss as to a language to be used for National language and national identity. If we close the path and made it narrow, we would be creating problems to our own people. The good value of striving for success and knowledge would not be generated. Hence they will be lacking skills and competitiveness.

My mother was not educated. She would not know what I learn and how I felt about school. There are still many parents who are not educated. Even educated parents would not know what's in the school curriculum. They put the faith in the government. They believe the government is always doing a good deed for them and their children. They do not know of the curriculum changes, the type of the educators, the rise in the intake of cigarettes and drugs among school children. Almost all Chinese show concern on their children education but not all Malays do, especially the poor and ignorant Malays. These poor people can't effort to pay even the quit rent.

UMNO has the education bureau inside it. They talk and talk, clap and clap. They discuss the Malay language as a divine language solely to be praised. The Chinese asked their kids to learn Mandarin AND to learn Bahasa and other languages too. UMNO is closing the chance for the young adult to take SPM at a later stage. The Chinese is looking for alternative education to combat the rotting system.

There will never be a balance between the Malays and the Chinese. One is a destroyer and another a builder. One is encouraging laziness and the other is striving for excellence. Skill, knowledge, good attitudes and wise thinking is really our wealth.

05/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

UMNO MALAY UNITY TALK

Why UMNO starts talking about Malay unity ? If you think back how UMNO treated PAS you would not want to look at any of their faces. I remember clearly how Rustam banned PAS leaders from entering Melaka as if he owns Melaka like a god. And how Mahathir belittle PAS and the ulama. And for every flood in Kelantan PAS was blamed. The worst was the investigation on Nik Azis pertaining the sponsored trip to Mecca. I was so angry at this juncture that my mouth almost yell that UMNO was kafir.

Looking at several elections cheat and strategy, the money spent to buy votes, the sabotaging and all what UM NO did, I totally agree with Hadi when he said that UMNO would do anything to cling to power and continue to rule. PAS and UMNO are too far apart, too very far. And UMNO's treachery does not stop till this very moment, continue working with the greedy group to plunder the country's asset. There are a lot of theatrical acts appealing for votes in the next GE.

I am observing Khairy very closely. His acts and words and deeds represent the rest of the UMNO members. People know how he won the election too.

There are two type of unity which I wholly supported; Good Muslim unity and Malaysian unity. Time and again I have repeated that good people are not determined by race. We have the samsengs and hooligans or robbers of all races including the White Americans and the British. We have the very rude Malays, Chinese and Indians. Bad people does not only come from the lower social status or one may call it pariah, but even from the people of higher echelon.

If UMNO claims it's people are all good, even plants and animals would laugh at the joke. If it admits that there are good and bad people in UMNO then UMNO should get rid of the bad people. Condoning corruptions and nepotism, supporting lies and humiliating other people made the whole party smells bad. Putrajaya should open up a video sex shop to complete the mission of UMNO.

Malaysians should unite and work together for the betterment and welfare of all Malaysians, not to talk of any race taking over the country but to plan for our future generation, their survival, safety and economic security. They need to discuss the soaring house price, the employment strategy, providing the goodness to all people. There is no harm to have an ethnic identity, protecting the language and culture of each. At the same time we need to have a national identity, and a common language. Good people can form a great nation, free of lies and sex stories, corruptions and inefficiencies. Let not a new body to form corporation to rob and cheat the populace, to make money out of the poor guys.

Foreigners and local contractors talk about BN leaders demanding for money. Mahathir nearly made Petronas went haywire. Now Scorpion's case on kickback would be lheard outside the country. We will hear of the flip-flop and Malaysia will be put to shame again.

Why the Malay unity talk ? So that they can take Kampong Baru ? Take all other Malay land and sell to greedy people ?

If UMNO wants one Malay group then let all the UMNO members repent and join PAS. And just be ordinary members. Don't fight for the post. Is it hard for UMNO to do it for the sake of Malay Unity ?

05/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

OUR RAMBUTAN

The fruit is still young and green. I have two trees planted by my neighbors while we were away. We enjoyed the fruits for several years before this one. Before it goes red the young children who are learning Koran at our front house neighbor already came to see my wife. "Auntie...auntie..we book the outside portion of the fruits. Reserve for us."

Children especially like to see the rambutan trees. The abode of these trees are the kampong areas called Dusun. It is rare to find a tree in town. And I first saw the rambutan trees when I was 7 when my neighbor took me to their Dusun in Gurun. I remember jumping with joy looking at langsat, mangosteen, rambai, durian and rambutan trees.

The trees need regular shower for the fruit to mature and go ripe. Heavy rain and strong wind will not help at all because the fruits will be blown down to the ground.

A small tree, and a big tree are all trees. They help the eco-system. Animals find peace and food among the growth. All went well until the greedy and scrupulous people came. Haughtily with aid of politicians and big money they destroy the forests and drive the poor animals from their home. They said they did for the wealth of the nation, progress and development.

Dusun is a big asset now. A durian could  be sold at RM80.00 per kilo. The normal grade is averaged RM10.00 per kilo. Rambutan which were used to be sold by the hundreds are now sold by the weight.

Ours is for my neighbors and the children and probably any passers-by who love to taste it.

03/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

DEMOCRACY IN USA ?

America commanded the world to practice democracy or else be ready to face the consequences. Most of us believe democracy means the rule of the majority. The Congress or Parliament will discuss and pass laws which sometimes will take months. But in the United States there is a provision that the President can make and execute laws without consulting the Congress. Looking thru another angle the law in USA could be made by the majority thru debate and discussion OR by the President himself. The law made and passed by the President is called Executive Order. Many of the EO threw off what were laid in American Constitution.

The educated Americans are never happy with many of the EO. It does not possess the spirit of democracy, and put a death to human liberty. Hence Obama returned the approval of the torture of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay. What right then Washington are ordering the other countries to observe human right and liberty to mankind. If we have the ISA camp, USA has a FEMA camp. If our police hunted protestors at night in their homes, the American military did similar action but more brutal than the Malaysians. They even injured women.

If you want to know more of the nature and clauses of the Executive Order you can always find them in the web.

If Rais Yatim is selling the Rule of Law to Washington they would be smiling widely. The President is the Law himself.

Why EO is a practice ? They believe majority's voice may hinder many things. Voices asking for 9/11 explanations would be painful because Washington could not answer and had to go a dirty way to pay individuals to admit they were Al-Queda. The plan no doubt went well but Washington still could not asnwer the question asked. In short Washington itself does not believe in Liberty and Democracy. Some Americans call America as a Fascist state. That's the reason probably Washington ignore the fact that the Liberty warship was bombed by Israel. It is no doubt a joke but it is the starking co-incidence.

Is EO good or bad ? It is depend on the value system of the community. To those who learn American history and the birth of America and the binding of American constitutions, EO is a big s**t. To those who do not believe in complete freedom and complete human liberty the EO could make the nation stable when the time required. Whatever that can cause bloodshed and a threat should be dealt with quickly. We do know country which put away the drug pushers. They went missing and the society live in peace.

But Washington is always act double standard. They would tell us about Natural Justice and the right of a man to defend himself, yet they are practicing the Right to Hire and Fire. What is the right to hire and fire. It means if a boss does not like you he will have just to say 'You are fired'. Then off you go without a job. There is no legal action against your boss.

When there are protests in Libya and other Muslim countries the media would throw bombs at the issue and the government may call the leaders of those countries to step down. When the whole United States went out to protest 99.99% of the world population does not know about it. Or else we can call Obama to step down as well.

Washington had not only cause hardship and difficulties to the Afghan, Iraqis and the Libyans by killing the innocent civilians with the motto 'Rules of Engagement' but also to the fellow Americans. During the Bush administration many Americans became poor and migrated to Canada and during Obama's era the unemployment figure has touched 20%. The money went to war and Israel and other foreign help. War took the most toll. Now even the White Americans are going for the lower level job with much lower pay, just to survive.

How far and how much can we worship Washington ? Do all what the Americans did ? Do all what Washington did ?

03/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

UMNO FINANCIAL RESOURCES

Najib would want to know how much money does the government have ? 'None.' Came the answer. 'Make some. Jala can help.'

Taking money from public to finance the election is always a 50-50 risk. Winning means UMNO can enjoy and celebrate. Losing means a lot of people will be thrown into jail. The best choice is to demand outright sum from the corporate bodies whose existence were from the blessing of UMNO. And the wealthy Indians, Ananda Krisnen, could solely provide the financial assistant. The money are intended for the people, donation to church, mosques and temples, expansion of Chinese schools, special gifts to the old folks, bicycles to school children, free Nasi Kandar and many other goodies for the populace. The Chinese will be given the most. You will see people jumping party with the hands waving for money.

Why the Chinese get the most ? 'You scratch my back, I scratch yours.' Do they think they can buy the Chinese just like that ?

Jala would tell Najib to cut subsidies. Melaka requested the government to explain to the people of the burden of subsidies to the government. "Draw plans what to lie to the people ? If we get the kampong people to believe us that's good enough," someone would quipped. Again the media is ever ready to launch the propaganda campaign.

Must UMNO fight to death to win ? In Great Britain and USA ruling parties changed every now and then. If people chose PR and the party does badly the people would cast the party down in the next election. UMNO had done much campaign thru the media and people have heard what the party had done to serve the people. I am sure the people will vote UMNO for that. Just avoid spending too much unnecessarily. The rest just hope for the best.

I have said before that governments in this region is difficult to lose in the general election. Even the Middle Eastern countries the ruling party would win. They had to replace the corrupt leaders thru the street, which is never a wise solution. But to them that's the only choice.

Here the government use expert to study the situation.

In the last GE I had never thought that the Malays could hit UMNO that hard because the Malays were so devoted to the party that they did not realized what the Malay Organization had done to the country. Mahathir said, "It is high time for the people to repay the government...." Allocate services and utilities to private firms. Then we start to count the new acronym one by one; SADA, PLUS, IWKS and one after the other. Takaful came in using the bombastic Islamic words to squeeze the people. Pay more tax to pay back to the government. That's why we have to give the mega project to these people to pay back for their service as our PM. And most interesting was the ding-dong of the national carrier; Tajuddin -government, government-Tajuddin.

That's not to talk about the land dealing yet. I can die of suffocation if I elaborate the detail story of this. It is a story of greed and corruption, merciless robbers and immorality. It is no longer a Malay or a Chinese land. It slowly will suffocate our future generation of every race.

UMNO had played hard on racial card. It says Anwar is selling the country to the Chinese. I say UMNO is selling the country to the greedy people and i the foreigners. Had not I say before that Dr.M called the Malays to sell their land and buy shares ? Right now the government and 1Malaysia company is going for land grabbing. In the meantime It creates story of the DAP will promote Christianity if voted. The Chinese will turn the country into a Republic. And Anwar is a tool of the Chinese. DAP is riding Anwar.

Isn't it enough for UMNO to get the Malay support ? And the amount of paint thrown on Anwar as an immoral person and not fit to be the leader is not enough ? I think they are more than enough. Then why need more money for the election ? The Songkok, Baju Melayu, Sarong and a sleeper would be more than enough. These were the election dress to show that they are the Malays and  people at heart. Those who never put on Tudung were elegant with the tudung, mainly red in color.

You have yet to hear what the government is going to say to the netbook receivers.

Doesn't PLUS and the Telco companies have enough money to support BN ?

03/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS ?

Have I not told you about a French-Canadian lady doing her Phd pinching her small daughter who misbehave ? I asked her then why not to use psychology on the kid. Her reply was 'What psychology.....' Surely we can't assume she was less educated than our Malaysian counterpart who had been discouraging teachers to instill manners and good attitudes on the students.

Similarly, the human right group should be aware of Washington's policy towards freedom and human right. On many occasions the protestors were arrested and beaten. Trade Unions were barred and made illegal in a few American states. And there were several executive orders signed to kick away the American Constitution on civil liberty. Even a FEMA camp has been set up where people could be arrested without trial.

I am also sure that many of us had witness of the American police brutality depicting how they assault and hit the illegal Mexican immigrants and even the local Americans.

A few European countries passed law against the wearing of Hijab and Burqa. That's the freedom of a person to choose to dress. That freedom was robbed away.

And that's not talking about the unemployment and the crime rate in those Western countries. There is a murder almost everyday in the United States and the United States army is also murdering the innocent people of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya.

What do the Malaysians learn from USA and from the Western people ?

We produce drug addicts, bag snatchers, acid splashers, Mat Rempit, car thieves and land robbers. That's the result of our policies and work habits and attitudes.  That's the price of psychology, human right and liberation. Small kids are smoking. School boys smoke inside and outside the schools. Drug menace continue. And crime rate never vanish or decline.

Yet we advertise our successes to blind the people. We yell that Felda is wealthy yet quietly it borrows 5.2 billion. We lie to the people of our failure and our misdeed. The women liberators are concerned about young girls wanting to get married rather than helping the colossal number of old maids to find husbands for them. The top educationist literally were telling the teachers to leave the students alone except to depart the curriculum contents to the kids. Rais Yatim said 'Morality is the work of the parents nothing else'. These are real, scary real things on the social and moral parts.

The attack of the Muslims on Islam is not a new phenomena. Likewise in the history of liberalization the churches and the Christians were also attacked. And liberty won. First in USA there is no religion in school. The church is separated from the state. There were laws against Christians and the symbols. But no law pertaining to Jewish. So the Jewish Menorah is free to be erected anywhere but the Christian cross is banned. Secondly young couple can stay in before getting married to see whether they are suitable for each other. Thirdly the law to permit the same sex marriage has been passed. Exchanging spouse is common. In one country the selling of drugs is legal.

Will it come to Malaysia ? A kind of Playboy magazine has started. Free sex is rampant.  What more ? Just wait and see.

Who decides what our future will be ? YOU. Your vote.

02/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

MY BEST TOY

The best ever toy in my possession right now is the iPhone4. Two of the pictures below, my former clerk snapped during the daytime and my student wearing the Indian Sari snapped at night without a flash were both taken with this fantastic toy. I enjoyed the melody of the beautiful Spanish song, Besame Mucho and the evergreen Widuri with a HIFI effect using the headphone. My head would be dancing left and right as I walked as if I am a teenager.

The other day when I went to Maxis to pay my bill I was told my usage was only RM24. Phone plus SMS only RM24 ? But I did a lot of messaging using wifi stuffs, facebook, gmail and Skype. I did not waste my time at Mac Donald or Old Town. I would download music and songs after a brief review. I read Malaysian Insider, Kit Siang's blog and Yahoo almost everyday. I used Yahoo messenger to communicate with my friend in Nilai while in Turkey and using WhatApp to talk to my student while I was there. There are many more things I do with it. Of course the best of all I have replaced my camera with it.

I am sure more facilities and utilities will be coming like able to access free channels on the satellites. By that time I may have to buy the new one. And hope I live long enough to enjoy the technology.

To us it is toy, an entertainment mini-box with full of brain and even obey our commands. To someone else it can be a spy gadget which can gather information and study our thinking, culture and mentality. It can trace where we are and what we talk and with whom we communicate. Yet to laymen like us there is nothing secret to hide. We don't hold information. We are not a police or military head. We are not a Minister or the head of the government. Therefore the phone will remain a toy and as an entertaining thin box.

The backup battery made in China is now broken. It was not cheap. For a RM150.00 I find my way to continue charging it in spite of the fault with some difficulty. It is charged before I went to bed and the next morning I took a little time to charge the iPhone itself. That will last me the whole day despitef the heavy usage. I would play a series of video. Or browsing web pages almost all day long.

My iPhone only rest when I go for the real rest. Real rest is when I sleep. Both will go to sleep.

There are too many things to do but so little time to cope up with. This joy is something new, the thrill I never knew before. Who ever thought that I will be holding the phone in my pocket and told it 'It's you I always adore'. This dearest one if it goes kaput, each nightmare takes the wing and my life would be thru .

01/06/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE BEST FINANCIAL CLERK

I come across a few staffs who are exceptionally excellent in their job. I called them Zu, Nab, Puziah and Shima. Nab is shown in the picture here. She is now 55 and already retired looking after her grand child. Among all Nab was the best.

In those days when computer was still young cashbooks were the most vital documents. I commanded for errorless entry, no liquid paper, neat hand writing and all transactions must be up to date. When I developed a software to compute income tax return, any kind of expenditure format and quick to tell me the most current funds available Nab did the data entry as well. She did it very well. Hence we never overspend, the final balance was in the fingertip and our financial status was very well in shape.

When Nab was absent Zu, an electrical technician, would take her place. She kept the work as good and tidy as Nab. I was also happy with her.

Puziah came later. She was to learn and follow every way Nab did. When Nab was transferred, Puziah struggled to keep the work as I commanded. Almost 10 years after I left the school Puziah is still conversant with the mounting job and with the help of a new clerk, Shima, the school account was still in good shape.

Shima has got married and had ask for transfer. Puziah would surely be facing a tough time without her.

Many of Nab's contemporary were dead or in bad health. I am trying to gather them back as many as possible and have some chat at tea time. I hope to see some superb teachers like Sharifah Faezah, Alaina Shoftni, Tan Hooi Leng, Wong Kok Yin, Puteh, Yusoff Md Noor, Rokiah and many more of them at the gathering.

Of course the best fiancial clerk, Nab, will be there too. She is always in my heart. So is Zu.   31/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

ARE WE AT WAR ?

The other day I heard our PM, Najib, shouted "THE YOUTH MUST DEFEND PUTRAJAYA !!!!!"

Is Putrajaya under attack ? Why only defend the place not our own home and families ? Who are our enemies ? Is American coming to bomb and invade Putrajaya ? Al-Queda ?

At the moment I cannot yet see who our enemy is. Or probably I could have misheard it 'THE YOUTH MUST DEFEND CORRUPTION AND THE MISUSE OF POWER'. This makes more sense.

If we don't have enemies outside then who could our enemies be ? I would see drug pushers, FELDA cheaters, land robbers, greedy politicians, officers and politicians who seek quick and easy wealth. And that has nothing to do with Putrajaya under attack. We no doubt have the enemies of the state and the people. But they are not attacking Putraya. Probably they hide themselves there.

The fear actually comes from within driving by the guilt feeling of the many sins committed. We say many things. Some believe them and many see the big lies. They count the number of trees in the Felda fields and multiply them by a few thousand ringgit and said Felda is rich. The silly people clapped. Secretly Felda borrowed 5.2 billion ringgit. And there are many more big lies that had been told. The fear of those people waking up from the drowsy sleep with a few ringgit in their pockets.

Tell the youth there is nothing to defend in Putrajaya. The buildings only need some spring cleaning. Throw out the FLOM and the people behind and inside it.

Is Najib scared of opposition party ? BUT it is not our enemy. Once in a while the Pakatan would 'Gempar Keling'. Why jump at the Pakatan 'Gempar Keling' ? Doesn't anyone know what 'Gempar Keling' is ?

30/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

TECHNOLOGICAL TRAP

Technological Trap is not a game but a strategy of the business community to continue controlling the market by making the customer to continuously purchase the new product without a choice. Computer is one of them. There is always a change in the hardware and the software from time to time. Microsoft is the worst for changing the software, making the old ones incompatible with the new operating system. Within a short period the Windows would change and it immediately killed most of the old applications.

Similarly we would experience similar situation in the iPhone. They introduce the new application but you need to use it with the new OS. Soon enough you will find iPhone4 outdated and will opt for the new version.

Customers have to spend thousand of dollars especially in computer and the accessories.

Another strategy that traps us is the price. The price of the product is made cheaper than the spare parts or the services. This is seen in the printer which is sold at below RM150.00. If the print head get blocked or some mechanism refuse to function you just throw it away and replace with a new one. I do it with a watch. Rather than buying a new battery, I would buy a new ten ringgit watch once in two years.

Though some force us to buy or replace with new ones, yet there are traps that plays around with human psychology. That's why we see products with different versions and design. Version 2.0 , 2.1 , 2.2 etc. When they stop producing of the earlier version and the spare parts are difficult to find the customer will be shown with a new attractive model, of a better design and with improved accessories.

The market strategy is vital to keep the economy going and the firms running. Even the government has to step in to stimulate spending, some by law and some by indirect support. A high insurance for the old cars are aiming at the increase of the car sale to assist local manufacturers and the business communities. A law can be passed that every car owner must buy a new car after 5 years, or cars of ten years old and above are banned on the road.

But the interference does not constitute a technological trap. The technological improvements and the new products are.

Young population wants the new things and always cope up with the advance technology. They would go for the newest OS. To some the change cause great frustrations. Though I still keep on with the old Windows XP, my frustration came when I was trying to develop software for Windows 7. Truly I felt that most of us could easily be made slaves of technological progress. They trap us.

30/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

THE MALAY EDUCATIONIST - ACTION AND RESULT

By educationist it means to imply the policy makers and the education directors. Teachers only execute what they are asked to do.

Policy makers are considered Big Shot, people with power. And these people who failed to see the number of illiterates in the modern education system and changed the policy from time to time within a short period. From my long observation they are more concerned of their social status, salaries, and post rather than the future of the students. During my working days I would always asked them whether they would be sending their own sons to the type of schools they created. They can't see human development and the potentiality. You will notice they will shun their own system. When the system is good they would put their kids and recommended other kids to join it.

I am not going to mention the stepping backward policy but mainly to point out the challenges which had had taken place. The value of the certificate in the job market had ranked very low and some private firms simply reject them. Private schools following their own systems quickly rose up in spite of the government control of the curriculum. They do comply with the basic need. But they also tailored the system to the foreign institutions. Recently there was already statements on the setup of more private institutions since the government is running the curriculum the way it is going.

I am sure many agree as to the method how a person is being promoted. Let me take an example of one school principal who gained much recognition from the education department. On one occasion of the major school event I went to the toilet. The brief description was hell and horrible. I knew then that this principal has his own toilet in the room and did never go round the school compound to do the daily assessment and observation. Yet he won highly praised as efficient. And another Principal who won the excellent award when there were hundred of window panes missing and the school academic achievements was either last or second last.

Those were only two samples. You can imagine how many of those officers were promoted not base on their ability or efficiency.

A big majority are blind to see the importance of  the students' self esteem and pride, the rewards and the attitude development, beauty and morality. And even said expenditure on the students are waste of money.

What if in the near future the private schools show more promise, shine and people will start sending their kids to those schools ? Then the poor Malays , Chinese and Indians will have to hang to the deteriorating institutions. Actually we already start to see the rejection of students of a certain universities just because the lack of proficiency in English. May be the lecturers too are poor in English or the universities carry on with the traditional narrow vision of language policy. It was the Malay students who were losing.

I am not surprise to know that more than 70% of the students cannot compute simple multiplications in their head. Some wise policy makers said that the modern world is using the machine to compute for us. Mental arithmetic has no place. I think in the Chinese primary schools the students must know tables and it must be in the head. A few stalls gave back more change to the customer because of the policy drawn by those officers.

I feel so very sorry to the education system and the policy makers. JPA must know that bad heads could destroy a nation and a race. Bad institutions are gross liability to the nation.

We don't kill the opportunity, creativity and the ability of the students. If we close the chances for the choice of their future and narrow down their potentiality then we are totally responsible for our deeds and our souls will not be in peace.

Who say we can't teach the students to read and write ? Yet the educationists just ignore the issue and pretended not to know it, turning the deaf ear.

One well known Head Mistress whose daughter get 9As is now showing her anger and regret because she failed to win a scholarship losing to the 10As student because her daughter followed the Ministry's education policy on the co-curriculum points. Her curriculum points was not considered for the scholarship. The policy made by the Malay educators had push off the Malay student. And now the worst is to come. This time it comes from the Technical Education Division. My harsh word is 'dumb heads' running the Ministry thinking that they are the smartest genius.

30/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

WHAT IS A MARRYING AGE ?

It is sad that Muslim women are attacking the Muslims aiming at the child marriage.

When does a girl become a woman ? The answer depends on the time of the question. For many centuries in many part of the world it was difficult to find a girl or a women getting married at above 30 years old. Unlike today there are so many old maids who remain unmarried till their death. In the Christian world a girl would marry at 12 years old. When a girl assumed a duty as a housewife she became a woman. Marriage was a sacred ceremony and when it happened the couple would have to undertake the adult responsibility.

60 to 70 years ago a twenty year old girl already felt fear that she might become an old maid. I am not talking of merely the Malays community but also of other communities. The right age to get married depends on when the girls and the boys are ready for marriage and they eager to get married. It is not a factor of age. Many 14 year old girls prefer to elope and try to get married as soon as possible or otherwise they would just stay in.

In the ancient time when land was still in abundance and the economy was self-sufficient the marrying age would be between 12 to 18 for girls and boys were about 16 - 20. Young people began to ask for freedom to make decision when to marry. More because of the fire of love. A girl in love wants to marry as fast as she can. Parents resist on the economic ground especially if their daughters cried for marriage at 12 or 14. There were great fear of their daughters married unemployed lovers and would face a bleak future.

In fact it was not the age that matter. Even if her 30 year old daughter were to marry a jobless lover the family would reject it. Only an old maid has a passport to marry anyone she likes and looks after her husband.

People who are against girls married at 14 should be aware of the tyranny of taking away people's freedom of choice. I remember very well when the 14 year old girl said "I too must be given freedom." It would be unfair for us to demand for the freedom to rob the freedom of the others.

In marriage the heart and love is the most important. A 45 year old wife still can report her of her husband raping her. If she does not love her husband due to the force-marriage sex life could invite big trouble. I fell in love at the age of 18 and had wanted to marry the girl about my age. Her parent rejected and we went our ways. More than 30 years later I was told that she wanted to see me. She was warded for cancer which I did not know. I did not go. And when she passed away I had a great regret. That's the heart and that's the moment I knew she must have love me.

I would blame her parent as much as I blamed those so called liberated women. I think it would be better for these women to help those old maid to get husbands. They also should study the sociology of all communities tracing from the historical period before simply passing remarks on the Muslims. Let us all ask these women how many old maids there are in this country alone. What programs should be planned to get the husbands for them ?

29/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

 SOCCER FINAL 1MALAYSIA
( rakyat diutamakan)

I no longer subscribe to ASTRO. Talking to the ASTRO officer I am of the view that the UMNO-backed company is just like UMNO itself; all are money conscious and arrogant. You want to see the arrogance of UMNO you look at Khari.

To watch the final I was thinking of going to a Mamak coffee shop. Last  night I arrived home at midnight after having had a gathering with my old students. To go out mean I will have to come back to the house about 3.30 or 4 am. I tried my luck to see whether the live will be on our TV channel. Not on our free TV. The Rakyat didahulukan is for those rakyat with money.

To my astonishment the Thai TV had a live telecast. Thanks goodness at least we have countries in this region who are humane, considerate on the poor citizens. So I watched the final thru a TV from our neighbor until the final whistle.

There are two things which I can ponder; UMNO and Thai politics and secondly of the  mental superiority of the English. As to the first Malaysian's politicians are so very engrossed with money, profit and focused their jobs to please the superiors rather than their clients. Those who called themselves educators have been destroying the future of our children day after day by changing and altering curriculum every now and then, just to do something new. I bet a few guys don't ever think of the student's future. To bluntly put these are the Malay officers. UMNO is very lucky because there are still many foolish Malays around to support it. It is not rakyat didahulukan but their own bellies and big pockets.

If they really think of the majority of the laymen they would have provide free telecast like what Thailand did.

Secondly the English of the Anglo Saxon stock have been bullying people. Their history started as pirates. They would plunder Spanish galleon and rob the gold in the name of England. They would be knighted for being pirates. We have to pay them for accreditation and even that recognition is limited to a few years only. They cheat our government, students and other officers. They are cunning. They think they are the God's chosen and said that God is white. Yet we tend to think White man is great and divine. Some of us adore them, even color their hair to like a White man.

The game of soccer is not just kicking and chasing a ball and put it into a goal. It is a game of strategic planning. No doubt we could clearly saw the English game and using three forwards with Rooney as the most vital striker. In the early period 70% of the ball passed were long distant to the forward. The Spanish played a totally different game utilizing individual skills to create an attack build up by making sure of the ball possession. The British is not the smartest after all. They were beaten in badminton and even in the war with Argentina at the initial state of the battle. Had not because of the American's help the British would have had dug their grave in deep disgrace. 

The picture I got from the Thai TV was not so clear because my antenna was not pointing towards Thailand. But it was clear enough for people like use, for a blind man the  a poor visibility of  single eye is always good enough. I could recognize every player, read their numbers, and even noticed the dirty tackles.  The moto People's First is a real shit , another political gimmick to cheat the masses.

29/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

1987/88 SECOND REUNION

There were not too many families attending. There were less then 40 turned up. Counting 4 in family the figures are four time bigger. But this time the number of Girls is as many as the boys. On the average each has four children. One told me that her son is sitting for SPM this year.

I arrive quite late at the function because my student came late to pick me up. I made myself ready at 7.40 and they came at almost 9 pm. The food was already cold by the time I reached there. Knowing that everybody was hungry I gave a quick speech.

Most of us were having eyeball sessions. Those I met before had a short and brief conversations. Those I had not talk approached me and introduce themselves.

There were a few teachers present, cikgu Aziz Selaiman, cikgu Roslan, Ali Karim, Nazri Jusoh, Zainab Bee and cikgu Abdullah. Cikgu Subkihddin Salleh the celebrated soccer referee could not make it because of his student had had an accident. Cikgu Madiah said her husband was in Putrajaya. The Principal and the Senior Assistant were not there as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not recognize all but I started to learn about everyone of them. The less unfortunate can learn much from their friends and I am sure would be able to reduce any existing emotional problem. A meeting like this provide plenty of openings.

What I like about this is that I know of several persons who possess a better jobs and live a better life than me. I really can sleep with my eyes close.

The problem with some of us, teachers, we tend to treat the students as our own kids and would about them all the time if we come to know of their plight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

BOWING TO THE EMPTY VESSEL

Because human being is a social animal, they are easily cowed. One of my students was laughing at one Professor because he was conned of a few thousand ringgit. An educated man may not be be a learned man though we tend to think that all educated persons are learned.  A learned person has more wisdom, wise to see behind things and do not easily follow suggestions blindly. I had been wondering about the followers of the Sky Kingdom whose religious knowledge could be considered ample had still believed in the teaching of Ayah Pin.

We can't say how many people are easily fall to suggestions. Even the Western people  easily fall to TV and media advertisement. A few became victims of the internet scam.

Whenever I was told of a certain program or come across it, I would first ask the purpose of it and what's behind it. If the intent is vicious I would not agree or will not support it however good it looks like.  A hidden motive might be money, or to find publicity or even a vicious scheme.  A man immediately said the netbook scheme is merely for election bait no matter how good my argument was. In short he sensed the purpose behind it, not looking at the benefit of the students.

If you listen to several people talking so many time you would be able to see the contradiction, their hearts and minds, and probably what they are up to. You have to assess their ego, educational level, their jobs and observe them well before believing what they are telling you and telling you to do. They may tell you to do some thing with the purpose of fooling you and to satisfy their needs and ego.

A man of principle is not easily cheated even by a sweet promise and most likely difficult to be conned. So far I have seen many people who simply follow without question in spite of their high educational level. The reason is simple ie they are not learned enough. They can't solve problems by themselves.

But the saddest is when a person without knowledge claims to know he knows everything. One man who only passed SPM and by some luck won a scholarship to do a Master degree in the United States would talk about any topic in the world, which the people with knowledge will dismiss him as the world's greatest liar. When he became a lecturer in a university, I can imagine the type of knowledge he impart to the students. And what type of graduates we are getting then. If he realized that he needed to enhance his knowledge, he would continue reading and amassing as much as he can before talking, arguing or imparting to the others.

The less educated would raise their voice in argument, refusing to accept even a clear proof and fact and usually take the short cut to winning the argument , yelling at the others as 'stupid'. If their words are taken to prove that they are wrong, they would not focus on the issue but keep on repeating the opponents are trying to cheat them, another short cut. I would not be easily lead by unwise and low educated individuals. The empty vessel makes the most noise can still be applied now and today.

That does not mean the less educated do not have good ideas or good things to say. There can be good views too coming from them but those have to be scrutinized and validated. If not one can be cheated and duped not to see the real intention behind a certain action. In many things sometime it is good to ask the question WHY ? Why this person is too good to us today but pretended not to recognize us on another day ?

28/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

YAYASAN ANAK-ANAK ISLAM

Many years ago some may still remember Tabung Ekonomi Islam. It is a Tabung which collected money from the Muslims attending the Friday prayer, the minimum of which was a ringgit. The amount climbed so fast but finally we don't know what ever had happened to the body. Yayasan Anak-Anak Islam or use any name at all shall be set up, not to create enemy nor to challenge any other people. The purpose is to finance the excellent Muslim students in term of a scholarship for further studies in foreign universities. In this way no Indian or Chinese money will be touched and there we can avoid complaints from the others as is happening now. The usage of government funds implies the tax from every race and creed and citizen of different philosophies.

The laymen did not question the management of Tabung Ekonomi Islam because to them a Muslim was more important than a political party member. The betterment of each Muslim is for him to be a good and responsible Muslim, not to wage war or declaring crusade on the others. A good and responsible Muslim would respect all other race and creed and we expect a harmonious living in a multi-racial society.

It is imperative to choose the right managers and administrators. Political affiliation should be rejected outright. Let the professionals run the institution. The advisors must be from all walks of life. I believe the Federal Government audit should be paid to audit the institution. The FGA has a good record so far and did not show any bias in the report. It still maintain it's integrity.

Properly organized millions of ringgit could be collected within a short period. The Muslims will be willing to donate a ringgit a week minimum even though he is childless or his child is not qualified for the scholarship.

Notice that I have not touched on Zakat's money for some reason.

Wealthy people like politicians should finance their own kids. It would be better that way. Even if their kid are qualified, it may be misunderstood.

Many of the Malays like me financed our own way to university. The non-Malay should be made to understand this. And many did not complaint on the heavy expenditure , just because their kids are not of high achievers. Several non-Malay students won foreign university scholarship after their first year because of the super excellent exam results.

Today the Arabic schools are taken over by the government and school boards are slowly losing their grips and control. Many began to see that they are more free to run the school and some were financed by other Islamic nations. They only aimed to continue their studies in Egypt. Parents spent their own money to finance their education. High profile persons even from UMNO would send their kids for primary religious schools. Had not because of this Dr M would already crushed the religious schools because he believed they are the breeding ground of anti-government citizens and even suspect some people involved were of the Al-Qeda cells.

It is no point for Pembela to challenge the DAP on this issue. Instead it should think of a way to drive the Muslims to be self sufficient and able to cope up with the present and future challenges. When Islam talks of Zakat and Zakat Fitrah, it is talking about helping and aiding the fellow Muslims in need. None talks about using the Zakat money to build a Menteri Besar's abode or to finance election campaigns.

After 50 years of independent, any failure to uplift the Muslims' economy shows that UMNO needs an overhaul.

26/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

THE FUSS OVER SCHOLARSHIPS

The fuss about scholarships is actually about the smart and the stupid. It is the old story about the lazy Malays and the hardworking non-Malays. In spite of the label, the government agencies are still drawing policies to kill the Malay competitiveness in many fields. Most Malays would choose the simplest ways and paths rather than finding challenges. There is no point of being vocal if they are degrading day by day.

The worst culprit could be the education system, the people put to manage it and the ability to assess officers. They will act like the Hollywood actors, putting forward the crazy policies, which finally did not benefit the Malays. So when the opposition party challenges on meritocracy we would jump over it. We fear of being defeated.

Another main problem was UMNO. UMNO was so comfortable in power for too many years that the members had no time to compute the future and did not monitor the citizens. Most were rushing for projects and money and I heard a few statement like 'UMNO is law' ,'We are the nation.', 'We can do what we want.' And that push them to be arrogance. Failing to compute the future shocked them hard when they woke up many years later.

The non-Malays are not happy saying it is racially based. The Malays are not happy with the hanky-panky stuff. I remember the protest when a son of a VIP won a scholarship and a place in a university when many other better students failed to get one.

Managers and administrators are not merely to execute or make policies BUT they are suppose to think and planning well. As I always say "Think deep and think hard. Think long..."Thinking is an important and imperative process. Many problems could be solved without causing pain to the others. By thinking means think of the right things not the wrong ones, think the right ways.

One school principal would always talk about Dr Mahathir in every school assembly during DR M's era. He should have focused on the student, curriculum, motivate the students and should all be student centered not Mahathir's centered. That's the kind of leadership that was slowly dragging the Malay students down. And that was a person picked up as a school principal.

The PSD should stop the scholarship the soonest. There are many ways the students can continue their studies oversea without ever using the money from the non-Malays. The capital is the thinking brain and executive planning. And yet we heard "BN government has all the smart people and the professional and only BN can rule...PAS only contain Ulamas..' You watch the thinking thru the words used.  I bet those people can't see what they should be thinking about.

I have talked about many follies which do not seem foolish. The blind eyes are happy with it. When I mentioned about the gathering of information procedures by the foreigners a few simply snub at it because they could not comprehend it. In fact it never come across their minds. So are with policies, the work habits and attitudes. A riddle has been given and it is up to PSD and the government to act in the right manner or else the cracks would be broken to pieces.

26/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

FAIRY TALES WITCH

In the world of reality and the age of reason fairy tale , magic and sorcerers stories made big bucks in the Hollywood. A bad character like the wicked witch must have a place in many fairy stories. The wicked witch has always been ugly, sharp teeth, long nose and red eyes. It is a symbol of evil and darkness. A bad step mother has always been equate to the witch and all along having a bad intent and trying to destroy the most beautiful daughter or son-in-law in favor of their own. In Malay language it is termed "Busuk Hati", "Sakit Hati Pada Orang Lain".

A wicked witch and a sorcerer is almost alike. The later is seen as a powerful figure in an empire with most with evil minds. A wicked witch  simply cannot stand anyone with ability or beauty. The heart was full of filth and the mind had made the conscience vanished.

When one can't see straight one will position oneself at the top of the social status. It is somewhat like an ego, and won't stand anybody blocking his way. He thinks he is perfect. At time I heard a university lecturer condemning the students who scored straight A's in SPM or STPM for failing to live up to the university standard. Deep down in my heart I knew the jealousy they have because they were not doing that well in the SPM and STPM examination.

We have people who are jealous of their neighbors who live a better life and own expensive cars. We saw people who were jealous at their friends who earn more income than them. I have seen small children pushing away another friends from sitting on a chair when there are so many chairs around for them to sit. When a mother gave a ten cent to one child, the other wants the same coin. No amount of other money would be accepted. We would not say that little girl was wicked because she was a child.

If one person is smart, handsome and able, what do we have to lose ? Only a wicked hearted person would want to destroy him just because he is smart, handsome and able. There is no law which states that any handsome, smart and able man must be put to death.

At one time I was in ASB office waiting for my number to be called. Because there were several empty chairs, I sat on one of the chairs I found comfortable. One man came and asked me to move to another chair because he wanted to sit there. To me, he was showing a funny behavior because there were so many empty places somewhere else. I moved because the next one was unseated.

Sick people are on the raise in Malaysia. Splashers are considered a new phenomena. The government announced of its concern too.

Sick people always want to find enemies and will make one if he can't find any. The fairy tale stories always narrated the happenings between the wicked step mother and the beautiful children. Even the more modern fictions like Superman and Batman encountered with the strong evil opponents. The enemies are mean, cruel and powerful.

'Perut Busuk' is a disease. Sick mind is a sick  mind. They will be killed by their own sickness. Just ignore them.

23/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

WE ASSUME THINGS

This morning I decided not  to have my breakfast at the usual place. Instead I went to the Roti Jala's store at the stadium. It is one of the famous Roti Jala around here. As soon as I took my seat my old friend came and greeted me. He was with his wife and a friend at another table. He was working with me as a hostel warden and was a strong man in UMNO. We never discussed politics before and probably now or in the future. I told him that I will never forget him for taking a task of teaching the students in the hostel how to pray and reading the holly book. He said by co-incident he discussed the same topic with his wife just last night. I would call it the brainwave was working.

The entry level of our school was the PMR, the students of about 16 to 17 years old. I would say almost everyone would assume these students could read and write, know the multiplication table, able to recite a simple verses of the holy book and even to pray. I did not. My Math teachers were instructed to run a test on every student to recite table 2 to 12, the religious teacher to find out whether the students can recite quaran and knew how to pray.

The religious teachers calmly informed me that they would volunteer together with other Muslim teachers to couch the prayers and reading the surah. They also plan a short holiday course in Sik for those students badge by badge. In the meantime they would run the evening classes. Saaban, the warden organized the teachings at the hostels. His wife was to take care of the girls. My Senior Assistance went to seek financial aid from YB Bashah. YB Bashah committed five thousand ringgit a year for the cost of the crush course at Sik retreat.

As for the mathematic teachers they found more than 70% did not know tables. So the new students were forced to learn by memory table 2 -12 and they can jump to table 16. At random a student would be called to recite any table during the school assembly. In no time almost all  would be fluent. The first SPMV's result following the program was above 84% with many A1s. And the sciences achieved  95% and continue to raise to 100% for many years. Mathematics and science seem to complement each other.

As a Muslim that was all I could do to the Muslim students, to make them a better Muslims. We did not teach hatred nor militancy.

The students who went to the crash religious course requested to go a second and a third time. But we had to reject them and to continue to improve themselves at school, hostel and at home.

Saaban told me those kids are now grown up and respected him and thanked him for what he did to them. He was a fierce, stern and a friendly warden. He demand good discipline and a clean dormitory. Our school hostels won several state and national championships several time under his care.

Though I have condemned UMNO with uncontrollable  emotion, at least Saaban and YB Bashah had given the greatest commitment. The other day at Majid restaurant I met YB Bashah and we talked of the old days. I asked him whether he still contribute to the school for the good program. Nobody approached him and he assumed they have stopped it. I found out that the school did not undertake to find out as what we had done before. People like to take things for granted.

Please, notice the real religious Muslims on the recent issue of Christian state. Who among the Imams declare any crusade against Christianity ? Probably Ibrahim Ali is looking for the short cut to heaven. It would better for him or the nation to help the Muslim youths and work hard to shake them off the drug habits and smoking. He will find doing it is extremely hard. It would be the real Jihad and a Crusade against ignorance. You don't touch other races or other religions.

Research and surveys on the status, thinking and characteristics of the Muslim youth should be done. Foreigners gather information on our thinking and culture thru the facebook and all other chatting programs. Isn't UMNO has the religious bureau ? You don't talk to the kids from the distant like radio and TV. You don't stay in the air-condition room and shout to the wild and emotional problem youths. Or shake people's hand once a year during the election campaign only.

22/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
  SOLVING PROBLEM WITH G-CLAMP

The electronic key is a MUST for high speed Morse codes. By High Speed, I mean it is more than 25 wpm ( words per minute ). The thread of the screw worn out and the key would shake up and down when I slapped the two paddles left and right.

Because it was not mounted well the key would also move to the left and right. I had to hold it with my left hand and push the paddle with my right fingers. It was certainly very uncomfortable and causes a lot of mistakes.

The simplest mean to resolve the two disturbances is to use the G-Clamp. It stopped the up and down and left to right shaking motion. Today is the first time I can play around with the key comfortably. The error rate has declined a great deal.

The high speed CW is with Mazwan, a Pure Science teacher. Mazwan can even go 45 wpm which is considered a rare specimen in this country. Several guys dismiss it as true saying they send and receive using the Morse reader.

The philosophy of CW is not the mode but being able to use the manual skill with the minimum gadget to send and receive messages at difficult time and place when the high stuffs are unavailable during the time of need. It doesn't need to be the high speed too. During the poor condition and at the critical moment we can send vital messages across with ease.

Electronic keys are not cheap. Some cost more than a High Frequency transceivers.

21/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

WHAT CAN I SAY WITH THE FREE LAPTOPS ?

What can I say when the government is giving away thousands and thousands of laptops FREE to the school children. Even if it is an election bait , it is something very worth to the students and the parents. No parent will question the the government's resources. The profit of the toll and the cell phone companies are more than enough to finance the gifts. All present concessionaries would be scared of the takeover by the new government. They would be doomed if it happens. So a little investment would not hurt.

Who gain ? The students gain. The low income group is now able to own more than 1K machine. This contains a huge resource of information and would make them a better and knowledgeable citizens. The second to gain is the suppliers of the computers. It would cost billion of ringgit and friends as well as cronies would enjoy the windfall. UMNO would benefit tremendously.

Good or bad I have no choice but to support the program. What else can I say ? People I talked to are saying it is an election bait. Bait or no bait no PAS or DAP member would reject it. Someone commented it is not a laptop but only a notebook. Whatever it is not a cheap stuff. If at the time of casting the vote the picture of the notebook came into the mind then the fingers will strike at the blue 'Dacing'.

At least about 40%  of the school were given the computer. Imagine how much money the supplier could earn. Many more will get richer. The factory would certainly finance the election campaign. The DPM had said before that there is nothing wrong for the government to accept donation. Only political parties oppose to the government could not accept it, not even for the pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Old and retired people get nothing. Even an effective and successful former workers pensioned at the very low grade as compared to the new workers. And they have to pay the same amount of taxes and utility bills as those who earned better income. But the price of the ONE vote from the retired people is the same as the working persons. It carries the same weight. One retired man commented that each of the senior citizen should be given a notebook.

People like me would not accept things which my conscience reject. Even the RM500 for the last flood victim were not given to the people around our area. None went to complaint. It is not because we are all rich but because we know the RM500 was not from the government but from UMNO and it was for something in return. It would be bad to accept people's thing without any obligation. There will be words like 'Tak Kenang Budi' or 'Tak Kenang Jasa'.

I would not howl at the government for giving away those computers to the students. It would surely benefit them. We can consider that our students are much better off them many billion others in the world.

21/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 Update - The real stuffs given away to the students are not the laptop, not the notebook but the NETBOOK. The size is smaller then the notebook. They are called 1Malaysia with several well known international brand. It is still worth and a good gift.

 
 

WHAT IS A HAMFEST ?

Hamfest is a convention of amateur radio enthusiasts often combine with a trade show, a flea market and other activities of interest to amateur radio operators. The Flea Market and other trade commodities are so very numerous that at some hamfest it would  take about 3 days to complete the whole area. You can find almost everything there at a reasonable price.

The picture shown here is plucked from the website showing a small portion of the goods at the preparatory stage in 2010 hamvention at Dayton.

  Without the trade goodies a hamfest will be incomplete. Some people travel that far to look for stuffs they can't find at home. Here you can find almost everything. People queue up to buy some popular gadgets for hours especially on the last day.

There would be people who went to the hamfest for a summer vacation, to relax and enjoy the fun.

Because of the nature of the event and a large crowd RAE and the CW examinations were held at the venue. Several Malaysians took their exams and Morse proficiency test at the hamfest in respective locations.

Exhibitions would not be a hamfest. It is more of a show to tell the general public what amateur radio is and of new inventions by the ham radio operators.

It would not be appropriate to call a place with 3 or 4 booths selling T-Shirts and a few antenna gadgets as a hamfest. The big one like the Dayton Hamvention gave away lucky draw prizes with expensive stuffs like a transceiver and the expensive antenna.

I have never been to Indonesia hamvention. I was told in some areas there amount of sales items were numerous from the homebrew gadgets and transceivers to the commercial rigs. And cheap too.

 

 

 

 

Our way in organizing things may be different. It is OK to be different as long as we don't make a fool of ourselves.

To some people they don't mind being called anything as long as they get what they want. Morality and conscience would be put aside.

 

 

07/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 

IBRAHIM ALI FROM THE DISTANT

DAP is now declaring war on Ibrahim Ali. I don't know much about this man and never bother to know him more. The first time I  heard of his name was way back in 1970's, the days of student's demonstration, during Tun Razak's era. There were stories about hunger and poverty in Baling which later lead to demonstration and the result was Buku Hijau by Tun Razak. Hishamudin Rais escaped after knowing that there would be a police raid at the University of Malaya campus.

Listening to the news that the students were were anti Tun Razak, the students met and decided to send feelers and negotiators to inform the Prime Minister that the students were not at all against the Prime Minister. Then there was one relative of a senior Minister who was willing to cool down the heat. The student leaders were to inform all the other campuses not to make any comment regardless of anything before the talk was made. The student leaders from University Malaya and all the other higher institutions agreed.

The next day a newspaper published a certain remark made by IBRAHIM ALI. He was just could not care less, respected no one and only wanted his name heard. I asked  around who was this Ibrahim Ali. They said he was from the ITM. One friend of mine was so angry with him wanted to land a punch on him but only successful in pushing Ibrahim.

A few decades later I heard that he was active in politics. And his name became well known throughout as he was called KATAK, IBRAHIM KATAK. Jumping from one political party to the other. It was almost akin to his profession.

Some years later a friend told me that his school was struck by a lightning after Ibrahim Ali's visit. He was blamed for the lightning because of his statement comparing the hell fire and the fire of goreng pisang. You see his mouth was so very poisonous and he wants publicity. I knew the psychologist would categorize him as a man with unsound mental health not amounting to madness. We usually termed it as sick.

In one occasion he arranged an event involving the Sultan of Kelantan but Nik Aziz was not invited.

Though I saw him from the distant yet I noticed this man was not at all fit to be anything. When a minister stated that Ibrahim Ali does not represent all the Malays I do agree with the statement.

Do you think he will be heading the war like Salehuddin in any crusade ? I doubt not even an atom of it. If people go to war, he will stay in bed, covering his whole body and shouting aloud, "Lets go crusade...let's go..."He is just a jester like the Raden. You take him seriously, you'll make yourself sick like him. It will be fun for a DAP guy to challenge Ibrahim Ali to a fist fight, with or without glove. If he dares fighting then he dares to go crusading. And the DAP guys just aim at his mouth, punch him the hardest until he can't speak anymore. Then he will  quit politics and end himself in coffee shop for life.

Probably I know Ibrahim Ali a little more than Lim Kit Siang.

17/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE FIGHT OVER RELIGIONS

The three religious groups worshipping the same God enmity each other and willing to take each other's lives. The unbelievers would quickly snub religion and insist in the non-existence of God. Human minds are rich with imagination. But imagination is bounded by experience and sight and hearing. So whenever they created super beings the shapes and structures would be as what they have seen or known before. Something that is superb excels the other living things by having 6 hands, 5 eyes or heads of a dragon. And the worst is when they try to picture God as a human being and try to equate the characteristics like the living things. The Jews would hate to hear that God took the shape of human being.

The Atheist would think differently. First they said Religions divide people and causing wars among mankind. Surely God would not want human beings to kill each other. And the concepts of predestination and fate had been debated since the beginning of Christianity.  There had also been discussions on the cause of natural disasters. It was debated whether those were God given and creation or they were natural. Even the best and the smartest argument would not give the right answer. They still try to think God as a human being and think like a human. And there have been talks of quoting and changing a  few lines of the holly books to suit the interests. And they also trying to falsely quoted the passages which are not in existence of other religions to make matters worse.

Religious practice is a man's privacy. For peaceful purposes it would be for us to look at similarities rather than the differences. Here is one similarities which we are not aware of, thinking Burqa is only worn by the Muslim women. Look at the video below

 

I firmly believe that our enemies are not Muslims, Jews or Christians but the evil of drugs, people who rob their own tribes, cheat and lie to them. The greedy who exploit the poor and use whatever methods to enrich themselves by destroying the earth surface and the water catchment areas, the political people who amass wealth thru drug money and illegal loggings. The rich who are blind enough not to see the poor who suffers greatly.

It is painful to quarrel about the official religion of a nation. There are thousand of Muslims who have migrated to Christian countries like England. Another big number is inside a non-Muslim country like the United States. Nobody questioned or talked about the official religion of those countries.

 

The Jews ( Orthodox ) and Muslims pray alike. The Muslim and Jew's youth are more pious as compared to the Christians.

 

 

17/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

ISN'T ATTITUDE IMPORTANT ?

Someone said to me that I wasted his time when I mentioned the word attitude . Alah sabung menang memakai, menang sorak kampong tergadai. That's the attitude of the typical Malay. When they finally realize they are being squeezed they won't want to use their brain anymore because they can't. So they are ready to run amok and hurl accusations and blames.

A status, promotion and position is an opportunity and luck. Probably about 4% is the ability. The show of arrogance and the egoistic and the refusal to compute the consequences will certainly end up with a failure. They are due to the inability to think and organize no matter what position they held.

Knowing an inch and act like knowing a mile is another destructive attitude. Hence there would be a lack of interest to explore and gathering of facts and knowledge. Hence there would be a decline in competitive factor. The ability to compete with the other ethnic group would slowly driving the Malays to poverty. The future generation would curse the predecessors.

I happened to work both in a Chinese and a Malay school. You can see a stark different of attitudes of the parents and the students. You take and compare an essay of 10 boys in the Malay stream and 10 from the Chinese stream, you'll be surprise to see a big different in their quality. The Chinese students can write a very high standard Karangan as compared to the Malay school. Why ? It boils to the attitudes.

In term of perseverance and determination the Malaysians of Chinese origin always has an edge over the Malays. The Malays always want easy and wealthy life. They would sell their business licenses to the foreigners, land to even low bidders, or beg from UMNO. And UMNO really took advantage of this attitude to maintain power.

Out of 10 undertakings by the government Ministries probably 7 to 8 will fail. That's why the policy would change from time to time within a short period. One of the worst is education. A few is getting from bad to worse. When it finally sank the government took the task to privatize them thinking privatization would bring  profit and efficiency. Of course there had been a desire to privatize the profitable agencies too.

However there are many revolutionary Malays with a much desirable attitude. They work hard with hush. They organize well, run effective institution and 'Menang sabung menang memakai'. Not many effective people are recognized. Special people is a  vocal with brilliant ideas. This is what some people don't like. They prefer the kowtow man. I remember very well when Mahathir was in Power, a few people showed concern about his aching legs. Now a few of those may have thrown stones at him.

To know an enemy is also an art. You need to have a certain principle and an attitude of not easily believing sweet words. It applies to knowing bad people also. It is not simply 'Tak Pa La' ( never mind ).

Yesterday I recorded 3 busses running at more than 120 km/h on the highway. Will the JPJ or the minister concern be saying "What can we do. Those drivers have bad attitude. They want to cari makan." ?

16/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 

WHAT FEST ?

I was invited to first show some Morse Code demonstration with 9M2NM, Nordin, at the Malaysian Amateur Radio Ham Festival Kuala Lumpur. Until a few days later before the festival I inquired the timetable to be sent to me so that I can plan my program. I was told that my session will be at 8 pm but at all other time I can have a CW demo.

I brought a transceiver, 2 Morse keys ( an electronic and another a straight key ), a power supply, a Ledaer (LAC 895) and a cable . LAC 895 iss a huge antenna coupler. I remember in the last hamfest CW was to be shown by 9M2FK, Eshee. And nothing was ready for that. In fact there was no CW at all.

Early this morning,14th may 2011, I rang up 9M2NZ, Rashid, asking whether he was already there and whether the HF antenna was up. Rashid gave me an affirmative answer. It took me three trips to load my car with with those stuffs. With the help of the GPS, I managed to find my way to the tower.

I am not going to describe the 'fest' here. So far I have been to 4 hamfests, all in the United States. It took me one day to complete the smaller one. Though they were no match to Dayton, I would say they were excellent. People usually went to the hamfest to find things they can't get from the local shops.

At about 2.30 pm I decided to go back to my hotel. I did ask around about the parking ticket. Someone said I must register first. I went to register. Then I asked another ham operator as to the parking fee and I was told I had to pay RM5=/ flat. For RM5.00 I can sacrifice. But at the payment booth I was charged RM13.00.

The money has not been my concern. I have spent for petrol and toll and left my wife alone at home with her sister-in-law. The RM13.00 is an issue because during my working days, I have organized many colossal events, which took care of everything. The simplest was the car sticker. And the invited guests were well attended.

And the worst joke was when a radio station was given a call sign with RW2 as a prefix. Come on RW2 is a Russian call sign. The Indonesians were there too. People will talk of Malaysian Hamfest.

Ham Radio has become a game here. Anybody can talk now. Without a callsign is one thing, but disturbing people on HF band is another. Nobody is serious at anything at all. Even at RAE and CW exam.

Nobody creates problem to us but ourselves.

I refused to go to the tower again. Thank you for inviting me. God bless the 'fest'.

14/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

UMNO MUST NOT WAIT

UMNO should put Anwar in jail fast and now before the GE13. That will stop all the dirty stories in Malaysian media and Anwar will be vanished. Why wait ? Why all the linger ? There is nothing impossible for UMNO to do. With Anwar gone the mass will be able to breath a little clean air instead of the filthy one.

If UMNO continues to delay, Anwar must continue his provocation until he is caught and put under ISA or quickly jailed. If even that fail he must quit fast and let someone else to lead PKR. The new leadership must be fully filtered, including his/her family's background. No previous UMNO guy or known to have any friend in UMNO must be the new chief. If the Keadilan members can accept Lim Guan Eng then let Guan Eng be the head. UMNO is all the time ready for the character assassination.

How bad is our government ? Since our government is managed by professionals of different ideology and they perform their duty accordingly striving to satisfy their customers, they would put their utmost effort to see excellent results. Hence whenever they are not mixed with politics the citizens are enjoying several benefits. Notice that how the private agencies treat us. When the government by political command privatized institutions  then suppression, corruptions and we are paying more for the utilities and services.

Government agencies which merely become the running dogs of UMNO would not fare well. Most people in the opposition do list the MACC, the police and EC as the bad agencies. Just now 4 to 5 busses on the highway ran at 120 k/p. Young kids could still buy cigarettes.  Drugs distribution is still rampant. Why ? The real focus is not at the real job. MACC has more time spending on political parties than the corrupt government officers.

UMNO prefer to talk bad about Anwar rather than to put him away for good. If the attempt to kill Anwar by sabotaging the brake of the Mercedes we will be able to see a new history, not only of Pakatan Rakyat but also on Barisan Nasional. Certainly the new leadership will have to be encountered with a new strategy.

If UMNO could not jail Anwar because he went to a prostitute as well as it did not anything to Thamby Chik, it certainly could make a fast judgment on Sodomy case. Wasn't the DNA had proven the Sodomy case ? Then why wait.

True BN had computed what action to take if Wan Azizah or Nurul replace Anwar and also ever ready to pay a big sum to a new leader other than Anwar family. PKR has to think fast and quick. Anwar has to make a quick and smart decision. To serve a nation one can be anybody. A good and dedicate teacher is worth 100 times more than the corrupt politicians. A mother who raise up a pious, obedient and honest child is worth more than any high profile lady who insults her race or religion.

Have you not seen by now UMNO always use ONE man to discredit the enemy. Because it controls the law the one man word would be manipulated to be true. The latest is a single man's testimony on DAP wanted to make Christian as official religion. Why ? To make sure no Malay will vote for DAP. That's it. Nothing more. It was all planned. And in actuality if you observe carefully it was the government who took Idris Jala to be a right hand man. Is Idris Jala is the most capable man to solve our economic woes ? No Islamic Malay ? All Malays are dumb ? Know NO economy ? Know NO finance ? Only expert in bluffing and cheating and employing the CIA dirty tactic ? To conquer Iraq WMD, to conquer Afghanistan Freedom of the Afgan, to conquer Libya 'Ghadafi kills his own people'. They study too much in United States about effort to kill Soviet block. And now apply them here.

Believe me, they won't want to finish Anwar by burying him NOW. They prefer to play around with Anwar as a tool to hammer for the election gain. Thinking carefully I think they must have employed some smart devil.

13/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE BIG REWARD

I was never promoted and the promised for oversea trip was never fulfilled just because I follow my own path. Though work was a colossal stress, it gave me much satisfaction when even low SRP achievers did not disappoint me. I praised my teachers for their hard work and we all shared the same view.

Happiness came many long years later. The more vocal ones would write like the student below. The big reward is the Terima Kasih ( Thank You ). I treasure them very much. The message below was received about 30 minutes ago.

assalamualaikum..
walaupun sudah 15 thn berlalu..dihati saya cikgulah pendidik yg paling setia..penat lelah cikgu utk melihat pelajar smvas berjaya..kalau cikgu masih ingat pelajar 5ppn thn 1994;nakal,jahat,suka bergaduh dan mcm2 lagi..sayalah salah seorang daripadanya..saya masih ingat sampaikan cikgu terpaksa memanggil ibu bapa ke sekolah..kita berkumpul di sebelah bilik koperasi(seingat saya)..dan dari situlah cikgu,kesedaran timbul, masa hanya tinggal 2 bulan utk spmv..kami telah buktikan pada sekolah terutamanya pada guru2 dan cikgu sendiri tak ada 1 org pun yg gagal dalam spmv...alhamdullilah dalam penyampaian hadiah dari sekolah sy adalah salah seorang penerima dan saya amat berbangga cikgu menyebut kelas kami..betapa bangga dan seronoknya saya time tu...
alhamdullilah selepas habis degree kt uitm shah alam..sy bekerja dengan sebuah syarikat kontraktor selain mempunyai lesen kontraktor sendiri..(lain bidang kan cikgu)...
apa2 pun sy gembira sgt dapat berjumpa cikgu dlm facebook...
moga cikgu diberikan kesihatan yang baik...
terima kasih cikgu

The remark below was written by another student. He mentioned Hero Yang Gagal ( The heroes who fail ). It was a poem I wrote and distributed to all the classes portraying those cheeky students proudly telling the world when they fail in their exams. I talked to some of the teachers about this student's mail. They said they still keep that piece with them.

15 tahun dulu sebelum cikgu rotan saya dalam bilik cikgu depan ayah saya sebab saya lompat pagaq lari balik, cikgu tanya saya nak jadi apa? Saya kata nak jadi kontraktor, Alhamdullillah, 3 rotan cikgu menjadikan saya kontraktor hari ini. Terima Kasih Cikgu.
PPN Student 95/96 (Hero yg gagal membakar semangat)

Deep down in my heart and I told my teachers to assume the students as one of our own kids. Never give up hope on the weak ones. But our limit was with poor and cheeky students, not with anyone who get involve in drugs. There was no compromise because we did not want schools to be drug taking dens. I can only say sorry to those who do not kick the evil habit.

No student would say it was easy to be in the school. They got to make sure the compound and the toilets were neat. They knew the price of dirty toilets. Vandalism could mean all toilets would be sealed. It won't be opened until the students voluntarily repaired them. Cost will be bared by every student.

My main concern was filial duty. We need to educate the children to show the utmost respect to the mother and each of the student must have a plan for the future. I always asked the problem kids what they want to do when they leave school.

Not all the students would remember me well. Those who can't see my well intended purpose will not see it forever. Yet I still hope they are successful and able to cope up with life, raise families and doing good to others.

None of my students could have known my political belief. That is something personal. Kids are kids regardless of their race or creeds. Similarly, teachers were the same. There was no different between Mazlifah and Wong Kok Yin, between Lim May Chong and Zuhaida Abdullah. Truly, I love them all, and all the time, even after we depart.

11/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

THE LYRIC FADE

I practise singing two songs so much months before my Turkey's trip. Widuri and Besame Mucho were played over and over again until I remember the lyrics pretty well. My wife said "You are now ready to sing during the student's reunion." "No,"I said."Not in the reunion but in Turkey."

So I sang softly on the plane and on the bus. But the tour leader heard it. On one trip he called me to sing. Confidently I went up, holding the microphone and started the Widuri. I looked at people's face. They were smilling.

After two lines my mind went blank. The lyric fade. I forgot the whole song. I was extremely ashamed. That was the end of it. But hours later everything came back. Softly and softer I began to sing again.

Today I went to buy a headphone in a shop. During the test I followed the singer singing. The salesgirl smiled hearing an old man enjoying muself.

Why the lyric disappeared when I held the microphone and looked at people face ? I don't think I can be a singer.

You see I want to enjoy myself, not wanting to know politics. But my wife like to watch TV1 and she would put to the maximum volume and from my room I could hear the voice of the newsreader and the politicians. They either cursed the opposition party, showing loud voices pro-UMNO cursing PKR or some politicians telling lies. When I looked at the newspaper I saw Mahathir made silly statements. I simply can't run away from propaganda.

But I always get the late news. My wife would tell me what she heard in the news. She is pro-government. My one son is strongly on the government side. He would laugh when I talked about BN cheating in the election because he said there was no cheating at all.

In Turkey we never discuss politics because I fear the topic might offend them. The young tour leader did ask me about Osama ben Laden and I gave my view, a long one. But did not show him my political belief. I asked him to read my blog when he return to Malaysia. In the meantime we want to enjoy the sight seeing and the belly dancing. During one luch I sang Mustaffa Ya Mustaffa accompanied by the Turkish musician on the way back to the hotel. The lyric did not go blind, no fading but I only sing 2 lines repeatedly.

Joy and fun could prolong your life. Politics can kill you. Look at Najib's hair now; it is turning more and more white. Everyday the politicians got the bashing left and right, from Interlock to Christian Prime Minister. The seriousness of the bashing is Sarawakian Chinese did not go for BN.

In USA politics is mixed with song. The rap would either express it's hate on Washington or otherwise in the lyrics. A few bloggers in the country mix both too but mostly attacking the corrupt politicians.

05/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

CORRUPTIONS AND LIES LINGERS

After BN lost several states to opposition parties I thought UMNO would want to change it's image. Pak Lah was blamed for the lost and Mahathir chose Najib. Mahathir wanted to have the mega project and he wants his son to lead the nation one day. His road show to discredit Pak Lah gained support. He chose Najib. He gets back the mega project.

The work of the media is to build a good image of Najib. And Najib is struggling hard to wipe off a few of the bad image. Instead of focusing on the nation building, time and money were spent to hire consultants to enhance the clean image of Malaysian leadership. In the meantime the greedy and the opportunist aggressively worked hard to gather wealth. There are many untold stories about how contractors going around to cheat at undone projects using the name of UMNO big Ministers.

UMNO fearful of losing power has to harness the judiciary, MACC, election commissions and all the resources to ensure of the continuing power. Failure means a grave consequences to some big names.

The attack on UMNO now comes from all over; the opposition and the component parties too. The MCA has to side DAP attacking UMNO to get the Chinese support. The Christian probably lead by Idris Jala and Sarawak alliances are attacking UMNO too. Because it sees it is losing component party support, UMNO seek the help of PAS, and tried hard to get the Malays in Kedadilan to come back to support the party.

But the bad big mouth never changed. When there is a flood in Kelantan, PAS was harshly attacked. Anwar was put to shame without any Islamic sense. Eskay and the Thamby the rapper are protected. The Chinese were threatened. Insurance for the poor people are raised astronomically. TV1 is loud with the big mouth. Eskay wants the 20 million but he can't get it. Thamby still walk away with millions untouched.

Look at Mahathir who commented the leadership and the government of his choice is weak. He started the privatization work and giving them either to friends or UMNO friendly body. When people told him to see the failure of privatization in  one South American countries he created more of it. Laws were passed to enabled big companies to rob the people of their land. Yet they say Mahathir is a genius. 

Names like Musa Hassan, Ghani Patail, Umi Hafilda, Toyo and Khairy fumed many million people except the Sarawakians.

True being a leader is hard. But is it easier to lie and put people to shame ? Is it easier to lie and cover up ? Is it easier to plan ways and means to trap the opposition on laws pertaining to sedition and corruption ? When someone wanted to sponsor Nik Aziz to perform a Haj, he was investigated on corruption. When Selangor government provide animals for Raya Haji, it was investigated for using the state funds.

I salute the lady officer in MACC who admitted that she would not want to lie.

I have more UMNO friends than PAS. The good ones are really good and the bad ones are really bad. But UMNO as a whole has shifted much because it is too long in power, and cares nothing more other than making money. Previously the backbone of UMNO were school teachers. Business people began to shape UMNO during the era of Mahathir.

UMNO truly never changed as promised. People first ? Winning a few by-elections made them arrogance again. Will the Malays be cowed to follow UMNO base on the racial threat ? Many Malays saw UMNO has sold the soul of the Malays away. There are many jobless graduates as many as the other race. There are too many Malay drug addicts and petty thiefts under UMNO's nose.

It simply refused to find out why the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia do not see UMNO as a friendly and an honest party. The boisterous, pomposity and the arrogance is seen everyday on news media.

FELDA is not a bluff case. When I was young someone brought me to Pendang to get the manure dued a few years before. At that time I already sense there was something wrong somewhere. And in the recent issues our leaders had to juggle around to close the real story. They met to discuss lies and tried to put right the wrong deeds.

Would Najib adopt Hassan and Hussain's attitude ? Make me a king and take anything you want ?

I am just stating my view that even if UMNO burns Anwar to the ground the intense tension will not subside. Saying Anwar is a sex maniac and not fit to be a leader does not vanish what people think of Khairy, GP, MH, corruptions, cheating and bluffing. The strong shield of law protecting the guilty and the corrupt will not blind the truth of how public fund is plundered. True or not people talk of the goons who were hunger for money and tried to grab as much as they can using the name of the big UMNO ministers.

I happen to read an article somewhere about someone who prefer the Chinese Muslims to lead the Malays and other Muslims rather than the Malay Muslims. That may be one man's view of out 27 million people but that single view may carry a sincere truth. And it indicates that the Malays may not be scared to be under the Chinese rule. Each act of UMNO to kill Anwar will drive the Malays to support the Chinese and would prefer DAP to UMNO, tired of dirty games of UMNO.

You want to know BN and UMNO, just follow what Mahathir is saying everyday. Not only DAP, PAS and the ordinary people passed remarks, Mahathir too had passed the loudest. The government is weak. UMNO must clear itself of corruption.

10/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

ENERGIZER BATTERIES

I bought 4 units of Energizer rechargeable batteries from a super market in town before going to Turkey. I was very unhappy as they were not fully charge even after 24 hours. Immediately I lodged a complaint because I paid almost RM100.00 for the faulty stuffs. The next day I tried to recharge them again but this time not 4 units simultaneously but 2 units at a time. After some hours they were fully charged. I didn't inform Energizer.

While I was in Turkey the company replied to my-email telling about the agent trying to call me but I was not available. I replied and inform of the result and thanked the company. Two days before I came back there was another e-mail showing it's concern.

Only just now I receive a phone call again. Because I just came back and the day is extremely hot, I declined myself to meet the agent. I told him that I am satisfied with it.

You see, I only paid RM100.00 and my complained was attended so very well. In fact the company wanted to replace the batteries. But when you buy a Kancil and some six month later your digital meter went haywire they asked you to replace with a new one at the cost of RM400.00 . You complained of faulty hardware of your Gen2, you will have to pay a few more hundred ringgit. And most complaint will be answer like this," Surely it will be kaput because you open and close you open and close..." when the door knob broke or your power windows ceased to function.

Recently at a food stall, I ordered a glass of ice water. It came back with a dirty plastic glass and full of dust. I complained and the guy pretended not to hear. I told another worker, she just kept quiet. May be because it was not her job. But I did not complain to the shop owner. The second time on another day I ordered the same thing. This time the glass was extremely clean and white and there wasn't any dust. Funny. That's one of the main problems with the Malays running a business. You order Nasi Goreng without chicken, they would bring you one with full of chicken. They think they are helping us and doing a good thing to us.

The Tidak Apa attitude would ruin the business in the long run. People would still go for Korean or Japanese car even though they are much more expensive. I am sure almost all affordable people would go for foreign made cars. One Thai made car would give you free service for 5 years, may be with free cylinder oil too.

Some wise guys looked at me with scorn when I talked about attitudes just because they have power. They fail to see why some organizations were heavily fired by politicians , mostly aimed at inefficiency and attitudes. It is nothing to scorn about. And we don't work 'main-main' and without much thinking, and only 10 or 20 years later to realize the errors. And then throwing the blames on the others.

Energizer is concerned about the customer's complaint. I thank the company for that. I have been using this brand for my camera for years on end. Likewise if you run a business make sure you will be at the work place and observe your staffs well. See how they deal with their customers. You are there because the customers help you.

09/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 

 

THINGS I SIMPLY DON'T REMEMBER

My 1995/1996 students called me up on a chat window on the facebook we had a good conversation. He asked me about the birthday meal for the student which I had totally forgotten. It was an event when students whose birthday fell on the school day would be given a food voucher for a free meal at the canteen. I told him that I don't think it was carried forward. And I did not even remember about awarding the best hostel dorm of the month with Kentucky chicken.

There are things I do remember but I would like to forget at all; the case of drug pushing and a female hostellite who tore and stepped on the Holly Book Al-Quaran. I always hope that they would repent and become good citizens and become a good family men.

One boy wrote to me saying that about 15 years ago I canned him in front of his father for jumping out over the school fence. He said I asked him about his future ambition. "I want to be a contractor." With the three canes, he said, he is now a contractor.

Another girl told me that she came to see me to change the course from electronic to commerce and I didn't give permission. She brought her father along to beg and this time she was successful. She joined polytechnic and later university. Electronic students were usually of better qualification. Moving to other courses mean downgrading their standard. That could be the reason why I dismissed her first appeal.

Another told me that I caught him with a girl and canned him. He said I told him,"If you want to marry her I won't canned you. Do you want to marry her ? " "NO, sir." Then I canned him. I laughed my head off hearing his tale.

As days pass by I am sure more students would contact me thru the face book and remind me of things that I probably might have forgotten.

About 10 years before I left the school, the students were all well mannered, disciplined and took a good care of the school properties. So much so we won several competitions at the district, state and federal level. I even paid for the students trip to Kuala Lumpur when we went to collect the price. And our school turned out to be a bench marking school.

All the way I never get any promotion, no award as promised. Nothing. Why ? Because I don't tow to their lines. Money and position means nothing to me. But when my students sent me a thank you notes 10 or 15 years later, I felt that they were the greatest gifts in my life. And even long after retirement I still go to the same school, not only attending the computer programs but also seeing old friends. The present Principal Puan Maria would say, "Why so long I don't see you."

As I mentioned before when I was in a restaurant eating Mee Goreng, a small lorry stopped by and the driver came in and went to see the cashier. Later he came to me and shook hand with me and went away. When I wanted to pay I was told that the lorry driver had paid for the mee goreng. Imagine, he stopped just to pay my bill. He is not a lawyer nor a doctor. Certainly he is a good citizen and I always pray for his well being. I still can't tell his name.

The worst secret which I have not remembered at all was when a girl student who is a grown up woman told me. "Do you remember you ask me to marry you ? " Of course I don't remember it at all. It could not be true. But on thinking of my young habit of asking every sale's girl to marry me, that could possibly be true. I have written before about me asking a girl selling corn to marry me and I got a free Jagung from her with the NO answer. Surely I could not have joked with my own students.

This afternoon while having a lunch at the school a lady teacher told me that I sms her wishing her happy birthday the first thing in the morning. Again I don't remember doing that. But she could not forget.

09/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

I WOULD NOT BE AFRAID OF HISTORY

History states facts and it made us understand the world better. We would know our root and culture, where we come from and where we belong. We learn about successes and mistakes and we can make sure errors will not be repeated. If we create tales and called it history then we alter reality.

The Black Americans traced their root and some called themselves African Americans. That does not change their citizenship status and be called Americans. So are the Malaysians and the Americans. And if there are a group of Malays resides in China, they are the Malay Chinese.

Had I not learn history I wouldn't have known the Gee Hin and the Hai San, the White and the Red Flag, the nature of the Malay rulers and how easily they gave away Tanah Melayu to the British. We can trace how cunning the British was before and whether they still carry on with their cunningness today.

We study about the Black Ages in the West and understand what it was, and learn about Renaissance and the reasons for the Voyages of discovery, why the English cross to the present America and fought for American independent.

Some kid asked me about the Great Wall of China the other day and why it was built. Do you expect me to bluff and lie to the kid ? My recent trip to Turkey made me ask a question about the Turkish facial outlook; why some look like Europeans and some like the Arabs , some fair and some a little dark. They are all Turkish. And the tour leader narrated the history of the Turkish people.

Some day our future generation would be asking 'Pa why people here speak different languages ?'

The issue here is not history but the fairness, the distribution of wealth, and the dishonest politicians. When PAS pay tax, the government use that money only for Barisan Nasional people to enjoy, not the PAS or DAP. That isn't fair. And when people pay tax, that money is plundered to fill the friendly coffers. That is not fair either. And in my school days I noticed one person not qualified for 6th form can be in the sixth form.

The problem with the education system lies in the man or group of men who are not efficient and arrogance. They brought the standard of education down, create system without the prior consultations to the various related institutions and always change the system from time to time even before it comes to an end.

As a citizen it would not be fair if we only want our way all thru. Go to the United States, Russia or China and talk about civil right and civil liberty. Mind you USA is worst than China on the practice of liberalism and Civil Liberty. Learn the history of the last few American Presidents and know how much lies they told and what FEMA camp is. And China would not give face to the Uighurs and the Tibetan monks at all. The European passed law to prohibit the Muslim women from wearing Hijab.

Though the Americans believe in peaceful solution, they also believe in 'impasse'. If the two sides cannot come to an agreement then force must be used. And they create their own rules on what the rules of engagements are and what is called war and what is not. If we contemplate the American policy closely then we will find that Washington is as savage as many other Asian countries.

Are we savage ? If Taib Mahmud said 'I'll teach Chinese a lesson for not voting BN' then that is a savage statement. Who else ? What else ?

The Chinese born and raised here have no other country for them. This is their country. This is their land. They contribute much for the nation building. Knowing the root do not change them as the beloved Malaysians. We are all brothers and friends. Our enemies are not Malays, Indians or Chinese. But cruelty, suppression, corruption and nepotism. And history is not our enemy either.

Remember we live and die together here, in this nation of ours.

08/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 
 

WHY NAJIB IS SO CONFIDENT ABOUT SELANGOR ?

Secretly UMNO had amassed the Malays in hotels and the other places to discredit Anwar Ibrahim and putting fears in them the consequence of choosing the opposition. In a simple term if the opposition wins the Malays will suffer greatly. These had been done for several months before. With the attended crowd UMNO is very confident that it will get back all the Malay support. Because the Malays are easily cowed, they would forget what UMNO had done to the Malays in Kampong Baru and the other housing areas.

Doubts had been created among the Malays about Anwar, not only a person without moral but also a person who is selling the Malays to the Chinese. And not much was done by the Pakatan to counter UMNO's strategy because of the lack of resources at disposal and the moles inside Kedilan has been baring Pakatan's move. These moles work on money and good money too.

UMNO has been using intelligence from the police and the army and of it's own, and the public media and threatening tactics. The fear of losing haunted them. That's the reason why Najib said UMNO must win at any cost, which also implied to mean by hook or by crook. Losing means more than losing a face. They see horror.

UMNO also put fear that if the Chinese were to rule the Sultan will be swept out forgetting it was Mahathir and UMNO who had the intention of making the country a Republic. And it manufacture tales about DAP's people in Selangor protesting against Azan. Toyol was the main culprit then. And today it is talking about Christian as an official religion under DAP.

Is UMNO really fearful of the Malays being converted to Christianity ? NO. Would they care ? NO. Otherwise they won't be sleeping so long and merely enjoying making big bucks and planning privatization and projects to their members. In other words they are more interested only in money and did not plan well about the education and economic problems of the Malays. That's the reason you see UMNO members killing among themselves on procuring projects. Even the Eskay-Anwar video story was a tale of 20 million ringgit crooked bridge. Then they create more toll pathways instead of providing them free to the rakyat.

Is UMNO so pious and care much about religion ? NO. That does not come across the mind. That's the reason we see the deployment of Jews as our advisors and planners and Idris Jala, a Christian, as Najib strong man. And the top women do not wear tudung as commanded by Islam. Of course there is nothing wrong with APCO, Jala or tudung BUT it is enough to show that UMNO only use it for the political mileage.

States like Penang and Perak will surely be a stronghold of PR. PR in Perak is making it's move. It's up to Keadilan to work extremely hard to counter the effort that UMNO had been doing for a long time. Najib was briefed on the Malays in Selangor which drove his confidence up sky high.

08/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 
 

SAMMY VELOO HAD BEEN A BIG LIAR ABOUT TOLL

It is sad to say that politicians cast aside their morality and blatantly lie to the people. Sammy had said the toll rate in Malaysia was the lowest in the world. I just came back from Turkey where I had traveled thousand of miles thru the highway, and it is free. It is free in Turkey and free in Thailand, New Zealand and Australia and even the United States.

And every each day I heard politicians are lying. Look at their faces and mouths. And hear the news reader's voice on TV1. What do you see and what do you hear.

Sammy had not only been a liar but he also had insulted Islam by saying 'Let the Quaran build the road....' And he was condoned by the UMNO gang.

In spite of the big money earned by the consortium, the government's coffers seem to be very empty. Yet it has the money to set up the FLOM and distributed million of cash to build schools just like that. Not following the proper procedure of spending. Not enough with that it is making laws for corporations to rob people's money and land. Though b******* is too a rude to use, yet it is not enough to describe the cruel act. Insurance, Indah Water and a few others are happily squeezing the masses.

Mahathir recently commented that he is sad to see the diminishing green in KL. And it was him who said that those who are anti loggers were hypocrite and tools of the West. He even went further to ask the Malays to sell their land and bought shares instead. He said we need not worry about agriculture because we can always buy food outside. Yet I heard people praise Mahathir saying he was a genius. In fact lies and law changed much during his time. And today they follow his policy.

Am I pro DAP or Adil or PAS ? Not either. But I just can't stand the big lie and the bad mouth, the arrogance and the boisterous, the treacherous and the traitors. Not only God put their actions in written by the angels but the fellow humans also seal the treacherous and those misusing their powers. That's how the story of revenge is taking place in Egypt right now. And the Saddam secret police were properly revenged for torturing.

Sammy has gone but people still remember him well. Mahathir is gone yet blogs after blogs wrote nasty things about him, the Malays and the non-Malays do not remember him well. His memoirs were criticize fiercely. Built a grave yard made of gold the treacherous and the traitors would not guarantee a heavenly life.

Leaders must not plunder people's money and must tell those below them not to be lavish, and not to burden the populace with the sincere heart. Otherwise they would be remembered badly. Never ever think everyday can be a shiny day.

08/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof

 

 

 

LET SARAWAKIANS DECIDE

There are many people who said that Sarawakians are stupid enough for choosing a corrupt government to lead them. You may have tons of proofs of Taib's misdeed and able to prove that the natives are being cheated, there is nothing that you can do when they decide to choose evil as their savor. That's their choice. They prefer that way. You call them stupid. They would also call you the same.

Likewise the people in Peninsular Malaysia might also go for Barisan even though it plunders the country's wealth and cheat them. There are still many Malays who think UMNO is their savor. They would not care what Mahathir or any other top people are doing as long as they can get free medical help and get a few ringgit during each general election. The Malays are more hard up of money than the Chinese. Even the Chinese can be blinded with big money offered to them. That explains why a DAP can jump ship as well.

Now that the Sarawakians choose to be stupid there is no point barking at them. They are happy that way. They see development in their state, they travel by road and began to forget the 'express boat'. They enjoy electricity and TV. Today's long house is different from before. Who cares about Taib making money and robbing people's land.

Moreover to change the government by general election is almost impossible. The government has all the resources and even can change results. Those who protest in Egypt and Yemen knew this. And many bloody conflict in Africa were due to election cheats. Bringing down the corrupt and cruel government in those nations are possible because racial difference are not so distinct. Here the government can always exploit the situation base on the racial ground.

Likewise in Sarawak argument on ethnicity played important part, between the fate of the Iban, Dayak, Milanau against  the Chinese. Similar sentiment as in West Malaysia was played. So the native chose Barisan in Sarawak and the Malays chose UMNO in West Malaysia.

Keadilan has to change the leadership to win. Anwar's denouncing of premiership and the choice of a new leader is vital for Pakatan Rakyat. The Chinese would want Guan Eng to be the Prime Minister. The Malays might want someone else. There will always be the solution like the half-tenure basis or one is the Prime Minister and the other the Deputy. Pakatan can always choose a woman to lead them.

As to the Sarawakians let them be as what they are.

07/05/2011 - Abdul Rahman Raof