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TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE

A big bulk of world's population give priority to religion and many practise it daily and use it as a guidance in life. A person who claims he belongs to a certain religious sect may not follow the teaching or practise it. Some would use it as a tool to enrich themselves or to exert power on others. By and large a religion's teaching is for the good of mankind, creating peace and order in the local or international community.

However in the  modern world there are many non-believers as well. If the non-believers do not use religion as a guidance they would the secular laws and their conscience

A person who follows his religious teaching and who use his conscience will not rob other human being of their freedom livelihood ,will not cheat others.

But there are people who do not follow the religious teaching or have any conscience at all, who would go around bringing misery to other people, cheating them of their land and livelihood, forcing their will  on others, claiming other people's belonging as theirs. Some even create laws to legalize their cruel actions.

Beside religion, other cultural heritage like language and traditional practices are still binding. Some communities are struggling to ensure that it will live forever.

One single treacherous enemy of  culture is technological progress which will sweep away the old tradition s and values. The usage of Western dress and inventions has accepted since the yesteryears. But today's kids want to own a laptop and a hand phone and in fact almost every kid carries a hand phone around. Computers which only became a household common item in the 80's are now influencing people from all walks of life. Political decisions , government agencies and daily correspondence, and policies.

The Voluptuous explosions of the hardware and the software do not stop there. It continues to invade privacy, and mindset aggressively. Government secrets are siphoned out in volumes , personal sex life are being recorded and spread, sexual acts movies are accessed by person of all ages for free.

Would you want to allow the modern technology destroying our tradition ? Some communities are planning hard and  setup programs to combat with the coming challenges to ensure the traditions will not be washed away. Some just don't care. Others are selective in nature. It is very scary when the government declares the implementation of the E-Government. The spy can be in the software or the firmware. This does not destroy the tradition but it makes the whole nation so very brittle.

ONE OF MY SINS

I have committed many sins, between me and God and between me and other people. There were two occassions that is still haunting my mind until today.  When  I was working my entertainment allownces were spent on my non-teaching staffs. I bought food for them everyday and dresses for Hari Raya. When they were in need of money, I went to their help. One day someone came to my house wanting to borrow some money. I did not know him them. He said he needed some money badly. I asked him whether he was working. He said 'Yes, I am a labor in one school...' I told him to go and see his school's principal and seek his help. That man went away. 4 or 5 years later another man came and beg some money. I was retired then. I told him that I did not have money. His voice seem to be familiar. But I could not recognized him. He went away.

Guilt hit me that night ."Was he my former worker ? His voice sound just like him.." My wife did not recognise him too. I told my wife that it was a second time I turned away needy men. The next day I went to school asking one of my friends to find out whether so and so came to my house. I was told that it was not him. Nevertheless I went to his house and pay him some 'zakat' to clear my mind off the guilt. One PAS supporter in the school told me "Cikgu, it could be a malaikat to test you."(Cikgu it could be an angel to test you).

Then I waited for poor people to come to my house. Nobody came anymore except one boy who just have mental recovery that came to beg from time to time. When I got my ASB dividend I asked the school whether they were giving any 'fitrah' to poor students. They said they have given.

I am not a rich person. But God gives me enough to feed myself. Some bit extra given is not mine but belongs to others. The income I get from my computer software is extra, not much and not always. But it should go to the needy too.

The unbeliever says it is just co-incidence when my desire to see poor people asking for my help has been turned away. But that's what we believe. God takes away when what was given before was rejected.

Today 02/11/2009 I talked to Aziz on the  ham radio about poverty and that me recalled the sins I have commited. But there are many good men around and I hope a little help they can give is good enough. Whereas the state and the country have zakat money and social welfare funds. What do these officers do ? I heard people were talking of the zakat money being used for political party campaign. At times people are being blinded by the politicians and voted them.

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When elected leaders think everybody is rich like them then their fiscal  policy will certainly be qruel to the poor people. Aziz mentioned that one Datin who went to the rural areas with him during the disaster relief just rang him up to tell him that she felt 'insaf' looking at  poverty in those areas. That is a good beginning for her. And hopefully for all of us.

WANT TO GO NAKED

To most of us, the Asians, seeing a naked body is something offensive. I came across groups naked people while in foreign countries. While I was in YMCA Honolulu, I was quite shock to see people were naked in toilet, talking to each other and brushing their teeth. I went to my room and waited for about am hour later before I returned for my bath. I had to withdraw earlier on because if I were to be there, I would the only one with a tower around my waist. And another place I saw a group of people, men and women, bathing under a Waterfall, naked. My lady friend who went to a toilet for mandi had the same experience.

Some countries enacted laws against exhibitionist and naked in public because it takes away the freedom of other people from looking at non-offensive objects. Though we were born naked and naked itself is natural, human beings had been covering their private parts from the days we know of. Who taught them to do so ?

Actually everyone is naked, if not bare they are naked in their clothing .

Naked and the exhibition of sexual parts do not just end there. There are religious rituals called phallus worship. Some culture treat lingga as a respectful object nearing to something to be adored and worship. It is a god of fertility. Those small parts can even led people to war and murdering.

Something that is considered sacred have been abused by many. They stuffed the female god of fertility with various man made objects and exhibit them as entertainment. The lingga too roams about looking for a home since it's home being taken over by other objects. So much so it sometimes harbored in home of the same sex. They named it as 'sodomy'.

When sex life is considered as individual's freedom family values begins to breakup. Babies born would just belong to the mother. The ownership is brittle because there is no  marriage contract. The live in partner's sibling will go without proper parenting. Questions on burial and property will pop up when such a person passes away.

Old value system has not betrayed us. Society still owns the word ' ashame ', and 'shameful'. Someone challenged me to go naked in front of a school assembly and talk openly for 30 minutes without dress for 20 million dollars, I would not do it. WOULD YOU  ? One old man showed his private part to a group of Puteri UMNO and luckily went scotsfree when he was acquitted for lack of evidence. The Puteri UMNO should have photograph the old man's vertical  and distributed for public perusal. What the Puteri should have done was to challenge back that dirty old man by showing him back theirs. The should do it altogether.

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MAKING THE TRUTH

Absolute truth is when something really exist or happen. It is true that you and I are now exist in a place we call 'a world' . Putting a finger in a fire and  there is a sensation called 'hot' is also the truth. Describing something as exist when it does not exist is not the truth. To say you are already dead and are now living in heaven is not true.

Can the concept of truth become an issue ? Yes, it can become a big issue and in fact a main issue which we cannot discount off. What you are reading now and hearing from words of mouth can be something we could call opinion,  truth or lie. This article is an opinion. Many items in the media can be lies, factual or distorted facts.

The Americans are very fond of public opinion or empirical evidence. This carry several implications, one of which is lies can be manufactured into truth. If somebody starts to spread words that Mr. A  originates from Timbaktu and  everyone believes in it then  Mr. A is from Timbaktu has been turned into the truth in the minds of all people, whereas in actual fact he had never been to the place before in his whole life.

Inventing stories are not as great of inventing evidences. For survival or to destroy other individuals people can go to the extend of manufacturing evidences. This stage of lies does not happen among the common people. Common people mainly spread news they heard.

In the old education system form six students were taught how to think logically and rationally. Today we can teach ourselves to think rationally. One of the ways of thinking is to compute a cause and effect. If we know that the rain continues non-stop for 2 weeks the likely effect will be flooding. When flood happens relief centers will have to be opened.

Lies can spark conflicts and uneasiness. Administrative or political decision can have a very long term effect and many things cannot be undone once they have happened. The saying 'look before you leap' is still applicable until today.

Making the truth out of lies or hearsay has become a common practice of the day. The greed, and the powerful are the culprits who bring sorrow to people at large.

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FIRST TIME ON THE PLANE

The picture above showing me and 9M2RB, Rusli, in Jakarta. The picture was taken by 9M2OK, Osman. We were on the way back from the Jogjakarta Seanet Convention. When we decided to attend the convention I was very excited because I had not been on the plane before. Rusli had had several prior experiences. Ari, 9M2EG, had been telling us that he had made for halal food in Jogjakarta. The urged to go to Jakarta was also driven by the desire to meet YL hams whom we had had many contacts. I n those days the band condition was very excellent. My regular chatting partner was YB0HH, A.K Jalaina, who had been a famous recording artist for Keroncong.

In KL we had to take a bus from the terminal to the plane. On the bus I felt exhilarated and ecstatic. I recalled when I was a young boy my neigbor looked at my foot and said 'you don't have the long line, so you wont travel far'. I dared not wear sleeper for fear that I would not be allowed to board the plane. And while on the plane I asked Rusli how to put the seat belt and what other things that I should do. We put up a night in Jakarta with Pak Kader joining us at the hotel.

The next day we took Garuda to Jogjakarta. I remembered a severe pain in my ear when the plane took off. Rusli taught me how to get rid of the pain. But the worst came at the time of the landing. The pilot must have been working with the airforce before. H e made almost 180 degrees turn, causing pain and head ache. That was the worse ever landing I had ever have in my entire life.

At the Seanet we were greeted with friends that we had been talking over the years.  The ladies were looking for 9M2RB and 9M2AR. We were greeted by them. The meeting was a very joyful one. But I have to admit that we were looking forward to meeting beautiful ladies that matched us. Indeed the ladies were beautiful, very beautiful. But they were tall and we were very short. We were no match for them.

Food was quite a problem to us. I and Rusli decided to walk looking for halal store. While walking we were looking for display of Quranic verses. We did not find any. We looked at the food. Every they sold Nasi Gudek. Nasi Gudek ? We asked each other. We were thinking it was the non-halal meat. We came back to the hotel feeling hungry. Osman had taken nasi goreng at the hotel. One of the workers in the hotel suggested we took a trishaw and asked the peddler to take us to Muslim restaurant. Finally we found the nasi padang and the quaranic verses we were looking for.

After lucnch at the convention hall  the next day Rusli asked me 'Man, did you take ikan lompat ? ' I did not understand hi. "Ikan lompat Man, ...katak". I did not take any meat or fish. The frog meat looked like a crab ( goreng tepung). Osman took it the whole piece because the taste was delicious. Ari did not take it. Then we were all laughing.

The SEANET was fun and very well done.

On the way back at the airport there were a group of people asking ask whether we want to book a hotel in Jakarta. We asked the GARUDA staffs. They said OK. We paid. They gave us printed infos about the room and hotel plus the payment. We had to make full payment. I was looking forward for another flight ride. My mind was like a jungle people who had not even saw a plane before.

On arriving Jakarta we went to the hotel, handed the document and ready to check in. We were told that there was no such booking made. We knew then we were cheated. We had to make another payment.

The trip was interesting. That was the first time I was on he plane. The incidences of the kamikaze pilot, con men working with the flight staffs, the nasi gudek left us with sweet memory.

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A FIGHT WITH MY WIFE

A retired person budget is always limited. But women are women. May be all women are the same. They think differently from men. I heard stories abut many housewives urging their husbands to buy this and that when the husband's income is small.

My Kancil is 13 years old. It has been an economical car and has taken us all over the country. Until today the engine is very excellent. But 'if it rains outside it also rains inside'. I suggested to her to buy a new Kancil 660 because the price is very low and the maintenance cost is low. She profusely rejected the idea. She wants the SAGA. "Saga is 1.3 whereas Kancil is  660. 660 consumes very much less petrol. Our income is low. We can't spend much on petrol. And SAGA is double the price". We argued. The fight went on for almost 2 days.

She won the final battle. I had to submit when she said she would pay a little less than half for the car and whenever we go for distant travel she would contribute for the gasoline expenditure.

Quietly I went from shop to shop and asked the common questions. "What is the down payment ? How long do I have to wait..." Different place gave different answer. "500 down payment and 3 month's wait". "100 down payment and about a week's wait. But the new price of SAGA has gone up..."."500 down payment...old price...maximum of one month's wait".

I chose the one that gave me the old price but I said I do not have any money to pay within a period of 2 months." I will pay in January..."

Yesterday I took my wife to see the car. She chose silver color. We assed whether we can put the wheel chair in...let she sat in the car..." She loved it. She looked happy not knowing that I will be getting a long time head ache.

I tried to overcome the horrified thought of having to spend on the new car in future. I thought of our age. How many years more will we be living ? "Might as well enjoy life before kicking the bucket..." I told myself.

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MENDING AN EXCELLENT  SCHOOL 2

Browsing the combox on the initial page there is a topic 'Mending An Excellent School'. In the article I mentioned the status of my former school as a bench mark and an excellent school. As soon as I retired the new administration made changes after changes. The Ministry of Education had acknowledge that the standard of this school is going down but the administrators insisted it was becoming better and better, even claimed it's result had been better than the previous administration.

Yesterday 04/11/2008 SM Teknik taiping became the champion school. This morning I rang up a teacher asking whether they won any price at all. "None .",he said. Only last month the school made a visit to Johor to learn from it as instructed by the Ministry. I was quite alarmed and asked "What has happened to our school ? "

Just imagine a person going to a place where it is recognized as an excellent institution and he makes changes according to his own perception. 180 degrees turn would be quite interesting .

In education sometimes funny thing happen. A school that has 400 broken glasses and last in the public examination was given a reward to the administrator as excellent person. When I pointed out such a case, I would be branded. Awards to a person does not look at the school's achievements but something else.

The teacher I rang up was the one who had been responsible for making the school beautiful. He gave up when a new administrators took control of his job. I have known that some of the teachers were putting fires to the new principals. Today he said ,"Now the administrator has asked him to take care of the environment. I'll make sure we will get some award next year..."

I was very mad when I heard the new administrator threw away my internet computers in the school and other administrative soft wares. I was told he was influenced and convinced by his friend in the school. That was before computer internet system were brought in by the Ministry of Education. But there was nothing that I could do. The school belongs to somebody else. They decide.

If you open the page on Mending an Excellent School you'll find some pictures of structures. Many of these structures are not there anymore, even the reading tables were removed.

I do not go to see many universities. I went to Cornell Ithaca, Ohio Athens and Bloomington Indiana. Beside the natural forests in many of the  places, some buildings were full of creeping plants making them looks green all over. Plants and trees provide oxygen and shade. They can also prevent flood and landslide. When people are investing billion of dollars to make deserts green, some school principals were cutting down trees. I just believe the choice of a leadership must take account of all aspects in a person; creativity, knowledge, aesthetic sense, problem solving ability, the power of making analysis and a strong reasoning ability.

Some people fail to see the relationship between beauty, discipline and academic achievement. What a pity.

               Below - Cornel University at Ithaca

Below - One area of Ohio University

When I asked a little fund to erect a structure to put plants on my building, the Ministry of Education Technical Division said,"Why should we give to Alor Setar ? ". Alor Setar's school is facing a public road. We don't want our school to look naked, but plants on the building it will make the school nice to look at, pleasing to the eyes. These people think hat education is just teaching and learning. They do not know the importance of human soul and emotions.

Ada mata tak nampak, ada telinga tak dengar, ada hati ego rajanya.

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When I was in teachers college my room mate was Lok Sai Yen, a tall slim person .He was a neat person always keep the room clean. He would arrange my study table, putting the pen, rulers etc at the respective places neatly. After college we made a short correspondence and then we lost him altogether. Lok Sai Yen never discuss any sensitive issue with me.

When I followed a tour group to USA several time there were no extra Malay male partner. So I had A Chinese room mates. They were all understanding and we told stories and laughed before going to bed. Some asked me about the Government policies and some did not. Certainly I could not talk for the government. There were many tings I learned from them. One room mate would tell me about Feng Sui as we strolled along the street in Anaheim, showing the buildings that can bring luck and those without. At time we challenged each other to go for dangerous ride while in Disneyland.

One other room mate was a bit older than me. He was a strong man. He would do Tai Chi before going to bed, Tai Chi after coming out of Disneyland. He could very fast. "I climb hill everyday at home because I plant vegetables...", he told me. No wonder he was very fit. He always asked me to share food to save money. Some I agreed but others I went for individual consumption. There was an incident I would like others to share with me concerning this room mate.

Before going back to the hotel from Disneyland, I told the group that they must see 'Fantasmic Show'. There would be 2 more shows that night. They were advised to come back later. We came back in a group. A group went into the theme park. Another group went for dinner at the Mac Donald. I was with my room mate and the others too. After dinner we mved out of the restaurant. I walked followed an Indian couple. My room mate walked faster and the rest followed him.

When I and the Indian couple went in we saw a big crowd. Somehow we squeezed in and stood at a distant. Everyone enjoyed the fantasmic show. "Are you satisfied ? " I asked my Indian friends. They were very happy and felt very satisfied. We went back to the bus stop to take us to the hotel. We found another group and were talking about the show. About 15 minutes later my room mate and those who followed him arrived. "How's fantasmic ? Do you all enjoy the show ?".The reply came "WE DID NOT GET IN, WE LOST OUR WAY". They followed my room mate for almost 30 minutes and did not find the entry. Everybody laughed their stomach out. "You don't see Fantasmic, you don't come to America..."

My room mate in Europe was a Malay friend. As soon as we went in the hotel room I would straight way went horizontal because I was too very tired. I did not know what time he went to bed. Later on he told the story about me to his friends that I went to bed early and he stayed awake watching TV until past midnight. One night he and one other friend wanted to cook rice. I could hear their discussion but could not open my eyes. Later I heard them laughing because the rice was hard. The next morning they asked me to cook. Remembering the amount of water the rice was just fine.

My Malay room mate

When I saw this room mate at KL airport, I saw he carried 2 big bags. "Why 2 big bags.\? " I asked. He showed me the cooking utensils, a packet of rice, can food plus some other food stuffs. "I can't live without rice ",he said. "What's in the other bag ?" In the other bag was full of shirts, newly bought dress still unpacked. Each day he would take out from a plastic a new shirt, new socks and new pant. I was laughing at him. But he wasn't a funny room mate. At least he followed me around especially in London. I showed him how to travel by tube. "It's easy...next time I know how to come alone."

BUT many many years ago when I was still young at a travel agent's office I saw a lady there making an arrangement for traveling to USA. Suddenly the agent said "Cikgu do you want to be this lady's room mate ?" I thought it was a joke. The lady turned to me asking me the same question ."Tak pa la you jadi adik I (Never mind la, you'll become my younger brother )".I felt very chilly. Certainly I rejected it. Later when I told the story to someone he said I was stupid. I did the right thing. I freed myself from being hooked. Otherwise my whole life would be in misery.

Today I don't desire to have any female room mate how beautiful she is, even if she is as beautiful as Miss World because I am already "mati pucuk". If you can lend me your pucuk I may consider.

I could not make her my room mate. Even if you have the medicine for 'mati pucuk' I would not want it also. At least I can be free of sodomy or rape charge. Ladies would be safe with me. If you are going somewhere you can also leave your wives with me. They will be safe.

Most of all I could forget about sex and adultery. That makes me a better person.

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PASSION FOR FOOD

Many people have passion for food. Passion for food is not a trivial thing. Sometimes you might think it is very absurd. I have seen a Chinese movie series about a cook and a palace. There were many hilarious incidences showing how cooks fought with each other to go into a palace to be the King's Cook.Even in TV series cooking has been the main menu of the show.

One Dato' I know of told me that he would go to Ho Chin Min city just for popiah and Jeddah for a kind of Arabic cuisine that he likes best. He would tell me the best of the food in each country. He traveled worl wide for them.

I too have passion for food. What I like most is the killer with high cholesterol, ie the lobster or big udang. The part of the udang that contains most cholesterol is the head. I know of several persons who have passion for big udang were strike by heart attack and one died a few days later. Yet  I still go for it.

The local delicacy of big udang is udang goreng from Majid restaurant. The mamak would charged me between 15 to 20 dollars a piece for each prawn. He would only fry it when I make an order. In USA I would hunt for a restaurant called Long John Silver. The price of the plate of seafood at this restaurant is very reasonable. The fish and shrimps are very crispy and

Picture above is some of the new menu of the Long ohn Silver

tasty.

One of the food that took me a very long time to consume was the Red Lobster. Though I have been to USA many time, I just looked at the Red Lobster's poster browsing the price and moved away. Those days I had no money to eat an approximately 30 ringgit meal. But finally when I went with my wife for my kid's commencement we entered one restaurant. However we only ordered the tail portion of the lobster and the shrimps. The taste was so delicious that we gave quite a tip to the person who served us. Because we gave so much praises for the delicious taste, the man 'ta pau' us with free extra stuffs.

I would go to Kuala Perlis once a week for Terubuk Bakar. We would called the restaurant first before making a move so that we don't have to wait when we arrived. The head of the terubuk is fried, deep-fry because we can get rid of the dubious tulang. The bones would become crispy. The tail would be grilled. Udang goreng tepung for two and at time tomyam would be our order. It cost us about 40 to 50 ringgit.

A tasty breakfast will be Roti Kirai ( roti jala) at Darul Aman's stadium. I think that is the best taste roti jala. The price inflated day by day. Now a plate of roti jala and a coffee cost RM3.00.

One of my friends from Arau by the name of Tengku Yusoff also have passion for good food. At this time he has not taken any flight to foreign coutries yet to buy meal, but he might do it later. This man traveled from the state of Perlis to the state of Kedah just to buy roti canai or cakes at Secret Receipi. For nasi kandar he and the family even go to Penang.

I know there are many of the readers have passion for food and could narrate a very long story about it. I would like to advise the young people to take care of your health. Eat less cholesterol. Eat less food. Eat more vegetables. For elderly people like me I advise them to take whatever you want. No pantang. Enjoy every delicacies because we won't be living much longer. Eat while you can.

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WHERE DO YOU SLEEP ?

Today 06/11/2008 at a traffic light the driver of the car in front of me stayed foot even when the light turn green. I had to horn her several time. You know what ? She went asleep while the light turn red. My cousin was worst. He went asleep while driving and  knocked a small structure and his car went into the drain. He said all he knew he was in the drain. While I was working an Ustaz, a religious teacher, were reported to sleep in class. I went round to see whether it was true. Indeed he was sleeping in front of the students. I called him and  gave him a severe warning. Other teachers told me he even went asleep while driving. A few weeks later he was killed in an accident. I knew then he fell asleep while driving.

Recently a group of students reported to the school authority that their teacher slept in class and continued sleeping when he drop to the floor. Certainly we tend to think it is very bad for teachers showing bad example to the students. parents would be fumed to know such cases.

I believe those people must be suffering from a kind of sleeping disease and it is very dangerous when they are on the road. Their health condition deteriorate without their knowledge. I think we better go for a medical examiation if we know we can go to sleep anywhere. There is a different between sleeping while at rest and sleeping while driving.

In the case of the Ustaz, I was not aware that he was suffering from the sleeping disease.  I thought he was sleepy because he run a restaurant and always sneak out of the school to attend the food stall. No, it was not due to the tiresome but the health problem. We tend to have a distorted fact on a person when a series of actions created some doubts.

Sleeping in a work place will create a bad impression even though a person is suffering from the sleeping syndrome. Even sleeping by the roadside in the broad daylight would raised some doubts; whether the person is dead or alive. In some town you can see people sleeping on the five foot way at the broad daylight. Drugs addicts sleeps anywhere at any time they like. In USA hundred of people sleep on the street and  woke up at about 8 to 9 am. In the heart of London I saw beautiful young ladies slept at the five foot way after midnight till early morning.

Some people sleep so soundly that even if they are physically carried away to a different locations they would not know it. We use to do that when we were scouters, carrying our friends from one tent to another.

I don't think anyone of you could be sleeping while driving. If you are you wouldn't be reading this short article right now. But do observe the driver in front of your car. She/He cold fell asleep at the traffic light too.

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THE FIFTH DIMENSION

You would not believe in fifth dimension, do you ? But you believe in Feng Sui. Isn't it under the cloak of the fifth dimension. When the scientists are talking about the black hole, the worm hole and the while whole ,they are not talking about the gender's sex. They are talking about the fifth dimension. Nature works in mysterious ways. You may not believe it if I were to say 44 human curses can make things really happen ? We see the happening thru the sight of co-incidences.

If you open a business or a restaurant and you have 44 people cursing your restaurant for ignoring customer's request or showing your sombong way, you can be certainly your business and restaurant will close in no time. I remember going to an agent of Proton Tiara to purchase the vehicle and was turned away. "We don't accept government loan", one lady said. Well good, if they don't want my money I just wish them luck. I think they must have done to 44 people already that finally I saw the shop closed. Another incident was at a restaurant. I called for fried rice without chicken. "Remember please ,no chicken". To my surprise, very great surprise, the lady brought the fried rice wit chicken in it. I told her that in no time your shop will close. The business went dead a little while later.

Some rich and wealthy people think they can buy people, cheating the poor men, rob away of their properties using lawyers and legal procedures and show excessive acts of arrogance. They think they can use their money and power. If people's curse take effect, they might suffer from physical or emotional illnesses of all sort. Mental and physical deterioration at times make them wish that they should have dies at the earlier age.

The business community in Kedah are all hanging the picture of Sultan Abdul Hamid in their shop. Just go to any shop. May it be a Malay, Indian or Chinese. They say it makes their business better and flourish.

Think hard. By what chemistry effect that made man of the same physical shape and animals and insects of various shapes and behavior. By logic the big bang should have resulted in many more living world like us. I heard from NASA TV the other day discussing the very high possibility of the existence of similar living things and mankind like us.

I have not seen ghost or the beautiful nice smelling lady but when I was a boy I remember seeing something called 'Tengelong' flying at the back of my house looking fro frogs and with green intestines. I know that such phenomena could not be found anymore because of the modern vehicles that shocked them. The ran deep into the jungle.

Most Malay politicians still believe in Bomoh. I heard even the Western leaders consult those who are able to see the future.

Numbers 8888 and 4444 means great things to the Chinese and the Malays are picking them up too. The fifth dimension is just in front of you. You just don't see it because you are not ready or qualified to see it. How about us ? One or two may be able to see the door of the fifth dimension.

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THE CONs, THE THIEVES AND THE ROBBERS

You walk along a street, a boy runs and knocks you. Later you realize your purse is missing. Later you hear an ATM machine is being bombed and RM300000 went missing. Robbers went in a goldsmith shop and took a heist of almost a million dollars. You read all these or you experience them.

Those are legal robbers. Legal robbers rob you in the open using the enacted law made tailored to their needs. Many organizations rob ordinary people. We called it daylight robbery. The financial institutions got ways and means to take our money sometimes using all sort of excuses. When profits were made they did not distribute all but when losses happened they cut your money. Even supermarket parking tickets increase by many folds though they have nothing to do with petrol's price.

I overheard a teacher telling a parent who claims takaful insurance, "The insurance payment is only ONE dollar". Takaful said one dollar is too small but that is the insurance. One dollar of all school's children gave them million of dollars over the years but when they are to pay they gave such an excuse. And Takaful used government's favor to act similar to the normal robbers. So is the Indah water and other organizations.

It actually does not make much different between robbers. They are the same. They want people's money by hook or by crook. BY HOOK. They hook you by legal means. Some called the law enacted for them as Draconian Law.

Take one organization who take your money to invest in business that can never 'rugi' like a highway, Lever Brothers, Oil palm and a few others. When in the last two months America is having an economic problem, they claim they do not make profit and cannot give good dividend to you. The 10 other past months were not mentioned. The cheating and bluffing went round. Remember the petrol price ? Shahril and other Ministers were saying the increase made Malaysia worse. They lied to the people.

I went to the shop to buy things which I seldom bought and found some went up by 100%.

Just imagine that one day you are not allowed to go thru the normal road to go home. You are asked to take the road that they make. You have to pay two dollars or more a day. This has happened in Cheras. When the residence acted those people went to seek for police's help and the police sided them. I could not bear to witness such as incidence. Can you comprehend that ? I can't. People in Cheras could not wait for the next election.

Even political post has the effect of being robbed. Pak Lah was chased out by many so called leaders. Anwar, Musa Hitam and others experienced almost similar case.

The amount of cheating and legal robbing is beyond controlled now. The robbing spree must stopped. Rich and powerful people should be human beings, and have conscience if not believing in sins and life after death.

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THE GOOD OF A MAN

I have written on similar topic before and now I am writing it again. Today 11/11/2008 my 84 year old father in-law passed away. As a Muslim we usually want to know whether he did owe any money to any people. If the lender says 'halal' his soul will be relief. The family had to pay back any loan made. The daughter went to a Chinese sundry shop and asked whether his father made any loan. He said 'NO'. This and many other men could have said 'YES...by such and such amount.'' Dead man tells no tail. Can't people bluff ? Do you think nobody can bluff ? So we know the sundry shop owner is a good man.

Goodness in a man does not choose a skin color, religious belief or race. It does not recognize language or culture. It is a global character which can be owned by the people of the world.

My disabled wife was helped by the Chinese, Indian and the Malays. During her fall Chinese man came to raised her up and other races came to her aid several time when facing difficulty while traveling with me.

So never say that goodness of a man is only owned by a specific community of citizens only. Remember in one of my essays I mentioned about a poor and helpless man in Kuala Kedah was gave bags of rice by the Chinese neighbor who can't bear to see the plight of the poor woman.

There are man people who had realized that greedy and irresponsible persons could be with anyone. But people use politics and embarked upon racial issue to gain popularity. By the creation of polarization people could exploit i to gain political power and amass wealth for themselves and cronies.

In a country of a single race people still fight each other, jail size is not reduced and the nation is not totally peace free. There would be still thieves and robbers , rappers and murderers, low and high class criminals. If there is any utopia here will be no police and criminal laws. Even in Communist countries corruption is high and rampant.

People putting on religious or racial cloak to cheat has been well known. It is not confined to one single religion of the world. It is not the religion that is bad , but the person in it or person using it.

It is not easy to see a really good man. It is inside his heart and mind. The external action and the content of the heart and mind should be at parallel. They are the same. Giving money with some ulterior motive is not considered good.

Human being is easily cheated by his eyes and ears. He could be cheated by a dress a person is wearing, by the manner a person move, by language or the smiling face. Worst of all a person wearing a political badge goes round cheating people to collect money.

Be aware please.

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YOUR KID - WHICH SCHOOL ?

The PMR result is out. Which school is suitable for your kid ? Most of the time our thought does not match our kid's. A few may follow our advice. They tend to follow their friend's choice.

Whatever any decision must also depend on their result. Our educational system provides education for all kids with different mental ability. So don't worry if they do not perform well in their PMR. The low academic achiever can apply for vocational school for skill training. In my mind Automotive is the best choice. Look at the job market which skill allows them for easy 'cari makan'. I have several auto students from aliran kemahiran who are doing very well now. In fact extremely well.

The 5As and above are advised to go to normal academic school. They can choose to be lawyers, engineers, doctors and many other professions depending whether they go to the Arts or Science streams. I have a hard time when I was the Principal in vocational school with parents whose kids got 5As and above. They want to enter my school. I advised them to go to the academic or technical schools. Some insisted and stayed in vocational stream. One problem for us in the school was to run a few extra subjects so as to provide openings for these student for higher learning later. Of course we did that on our own without telling the Ministry of Education.

If your kid wants to be an engineer only then go to technical or any science school, not a vocational school.

Vocational schools are from medium to low achievers. No doubt it depends on the school's administration to mould their students for the best of the profession from the normal mechanics to a good engineer, yet it is not advisable to a very excellent students to be there.

I asked my lawyer friend why he sent his 5A's kid to my school, he said his son wanted to . "What's he want to be ? "."An architect." He said. We had to introduce art and craft to the Building Construction course to enabled the students to go for architecture later on. Now the boy is an architect.

There was a 9A student applied to go to catering at Sungai Petani vocational school. She was rejected for her own good. Probably the Ministry had similar opinion to mine. But the parent complained and insisted. May be the parent had already decided to open up restaurant and other major food business. In situation like this things are different.

In short you study the result and make a decision. Go to a school which would give him  more choices of profression in his later life.

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I have not done much for my mother. After marriage I moved away and so busy with my work that I did not go to see her everyday. Whenever I went to the house she would wait for  me. I cried when I remember her. Our mother took care of us when we were young, protected us from mosquito bites, use every mean to cure our fever and sicknesses. I wish to be beside her in the world thereafter. Because I have not done much for her, I don't want others to do the same to theirs.

While I was the head of department, my teacher would come to me and asked for my permission to pick his/her parent at the airport. The teacher is in Alor Setar and the parent in Johor. I would tell the teacher to be with the parent the whole day. "After picking up your parent, you stay with them. Don't come back to school. You can make up for the lost of your lessons later."

When a teacher living with her mother solely and the mother is very old and senile and need to be attended after noon, I would asked the time table teacher to arrange her class so that she could go back to take care of her mother.

The very major part of our work whatever it is , is for mankind. We want good citizenship. We can't say 'Hey..job come first, parent is your personal thing....you can't mix both..'

You will become old or may be very old too, and would ease yourself anywhere. Imagine if your kids just wouldn't care about you and throw words of curse and scold you for being old. I was very happy with one of my friends name Manan who lives in Perlis. I praise him not because he has a good job but because he did a very excellent job of taking care of his farther who already passed away and now he is looking after his mother.

I saw women crying because they said they did not look after their mothers well before their demise. The regrets are there. The only things is just to pray for their souls. Those still having mothers are very lucky people. They better take care of their mother well. Don't complain and don't feel their presence cause difficulties. The more forgetful they are, the more love you show on them, the more goodness you have done. Later when they die you won't regret at all.

Today you are so concerned about your kid. You take leave when they are sitting for UPSR, PMR and SPM. You want to make sure that their future  is good. Likewise our mother had the same concerned.

While you can, do your best. May God bless you.

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Cikgu Abdul Rahman Zakaria rang me up early in the morning ."Cikgu, we have nasi kambing, please come quickly.." I have not been to school for many days because nobody called me for any job. Then I remember Mr Wong Kok Yin also invited me to have a chat with him because he will be transferred to another school. I have to go because today is 13th. Nov 2008, the last day of the school semester for 2008.

After sending my wife to the hospital for her physiotherapy, I  took my own sweat time to school. After eating , chatting and helping to copy files to DVD, I went to look for Mr Wong at another staff room. I had a chat with Wong .Cikgu Mazlifah joined in. Later cikgu Faridah came to talk about the good old days. Wong said that he , Mazlifah and me are of the same star, Virgo.

Wong and Mazlifah are mathematics teacher and Paridah is a sciences teacher. These two subjects have some history to tell. Before I have these teachers, no student fared well. The subject teachers had been blaming the students "..budak bodoh...stupid..simply cannot learn....can't divide 200 by 4..." It looks like branding of students gives them sole satisfactions.

Some how by the will of God new teachers came. Puteh and Aziz Selaiman were for Sciences, Wong, Mazlifah, Bakar were for Maths. We group together. I told them about branding, about negative and positive thinking and about reality. What is reality ? Nobody, no student is stupid. "The word is banned". So we planned the methodology, various approaches to teach and motivate,  and even going to the basic of multiplication.

That year there was a break thru. The result shot up; 80%+ for Math and 90% for Sciences. So was the next year and the subsequent results until sciences maintains 100% for several years. Certainly I had to give excellent appraisal to all of them. I told Wong that the school is losing a very good teacher. What had happened before was that Wong applied for transfer to Penang because his wife had to go there and Mazlifah followed her husband to Kuala Lumpur. When they both rang me up asking me whether they could come back, I was very elated and happy to hear the news. I worked hard to ensure of their returned.

Though I left the school in 2000 and retired in 2003 my friendships with most of the teachers there continued till today.

Paridah narrated the story of how the Science teachers motivated their students and how they run of  panitia. We recalled the fight that I had with the Ministry for not sending our teachers to USA for some courses; but when come to developing the same curriculum the teachers went for the course, our teachers were called. I barred my teachers from going and that gave a big head ache to the Ministry. They could not rebut my argument.

We talked about he input and the output and the effort to enhance the quality, the quarrel  I had with PPD and JPN for not following their educational program to raise excellent. We were thrown out of the program. I told my teachers then that we must prove that our methodology is better than their 'Cerdik 3' program. True indeed we proved we were right. Schools following the program dropped in results while others obtain their normal standard. Our school's result shot up by leap and bound.

Mazlifah will retire next year though she looks very young. Paridah looked very  and happy enthusiastic because her daughter achieve all As in UPSR. Quietly I hear she said ," I feel the reward for being honest in my work teaching them with my full heart....".

Most other teachers in the staff room are new. I just recognized them but not close to them. They can't perceive the open day that we used to have, the final night of flexible program, the euphoria of getting the number of awards at national levels.

I said to Wong, "If you go to SM Teknik Alor Setar, you will be using my thumbprint software..."

I had to excuse myself because it was already time for me to fetch my wife at the hospital.

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WHERE IS THE INTEGRITY

Most parents are jubilant when UPSR's result was announced. But almost all parents I met informed me that there were the morning SMS displaying the questions and answers stuffs. A few said they  were similar, which indicated that the leakage was true. Thing goes so haywire that Malaysia has been dubbed as 'Bolehlah Land". Cheating goes from the small thing to the major cases like falsifying documents for further education and land ownerships title.

Dishonesty, weak systems, shortsightedness are among the factors contributing to the disarray. You can see this everyday in the newspaper. In fact we can gauge the mental ability of many leaders by their media statements which many time looked very awkward. Recently Dr. Mahathir hit at UMNO who chose persons with bad history for the leadership. In fact many political leaders have some history which many described as 'bad' too. If political leaders do not show their integrity, how could we expect government departments to be effective.

If you tell those people that e-government is insecure and dangerous, they would snub you and ask you to learn about firewall. When somebody suggested about the usage of biometric system to ensure security they would talk about the problem of the system. They do no want to really think or listen to ways how to combat with document's security. Leakages in SPM had been in the newspapers many time over the years.

All these own their origin to 'dishonesty' and 'irresponsibility' . A system to set must take account of human's fallibility. The behavior of some of the head of departments who like to discount their subordinate's opinion totally is also a factor for the problem. When I voiced my opinion about the things we have to look into whenever we decide to paint a building, my head 'What to consider. Just paint la....".So every year you can see the same school would paint the same structure time and again.

Question papers can leak from those who make questions, the clerk who type them, the workers of printing press, the persons who look after the server or even from a hacker. People with big money could even go to the different sources to buy the question, They only need to know where the questions will be printed.

In the 'Bolehlah' land police station, JKR building and others could be burned to destroy evidences, holes appear on a newly constructed roads, land title changes hand without the knowledge of the owner, zakat money used for political purposes, department legalized things which are not legal in law, government enacted laws to allow private body to rob people of their money, certificates can be bought, there is a positive correlation between promotions and crime rates , government explosives can find their way out to kill normal people and many others.

Not all parent took heed about the question and answers coming from the SMS.

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WHERE ARE ALL THE GOOD MEN ?

Looking at the turbulance in one political party in the country and the choice of the youth leadership, I came to ask myself 'Where are all the good men ? " Dr. Mahathir blasted the party members for choosing candidates of bad history. Actually there are not only 3 or 4 people with bad history. Many see the whole lot has bad history or behavior.  Mahathir himself like to dump good people. To the late Tunku, even Mahathir has bad history.

Where was the Tabung Haji's money went to ? Look at the whole picture carefully

Good men do not play around with people's money, do not devide the earning among themselves,  do not use Zakat's money for political purposes, do honest and sincere work, do not invent non-existence things, telling continueous lies, enacting laws to rob people's money. Call it blind at heart and eyes, I can't see one good man yet now. Bad people will fight for corrupted persons.

Certainly there are thousands or even of good and smart men around. Probably they do good things but kept them to themselves.. They just do their honest work to earn honest pay. They serve the country well in their own way.

Being honest sometimes can make one a victims of reckless people. If entangled with political people he will have a bitter experience. They could be under an extreme pressure to follow the instructions against their will and beliefs.

Honesty does not stay in any particular political party or it's members. Like the others they also 'cabut kerja', asking for commission and didn't carry out their work well. 

People are so absorbed in competition for posts and money that people forget about the plight of the citizens.  While the number of crimes is announced to have declined, more explosives are being used to get he money out of banks, people die by the snatch thieves, school kids smoke  even while in school compounds, drugs pushing continues.

The social value of 'shame' does not exist among some people anymore. When they are accused of accepting big sum of money, they say it is from a profit by the company. Profit are to go to the shareholders and it is up to the shareholders to decide. They demand money directly from projects and contractors and ready with any kind of law to challenge if they are accused of doing those ' vulger ' things. In the West this is termed as 'no morality'.

Rudeness and going against the boss is not a heroic action. In the Malay culture it is considered as immoral. The immorality has gone from an individual to the songkok he wears, the flag they hoisted.  Like animals they also attack the state rulers. A Sultan was address as 'binatang'. That is the kind of morality they have.

Greedy people make friends with high ranking officials of the sate or political leaders. They used racial cards to get themselves going, bait people with money or women, lie and cheat using lawyers. Of course they have power over the many laymen. Not every person bows at them in spite of their wealth. They too are bad people.

Government officers should not take side. They are to serve the people. Then serve the people in the best way they can. Court officers , ACA  personnel and the police should not work for a political party. They cannot be selective. At the moment many arrests are comprehend as selective though they deny them. Laymen's intelligence should not be insulted. But they have the right to vote for anyone. even voting for immoral candidate.

It looks like that the bulk of good people are in the mid strata of the populace, the government officers and professionals like doctors or clerks.

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A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHT

In New Zealand I traveled by couch from North to South. In USA by car from North to South and East to West. In England I took a train from London to Scotland. What did I see ?

I saw a vast area of agricultural land especially in new Zealand. I passed several towns but the biggest were about the size of Baling or Sik. They are not like Alor Setar, Sungai Petani, Butterworth, Ipoh or Kuala Lumpur where you only see tall and giant structures. I have yet to see China.

In these countries agriculture is not abandoned. This writing is not aim at attacking anybody but I will merely say statements that I heard. Dr Mahathir said Malaysia can buy food from outside. People can sell land for industrial development and housing estates. And people are talking of development which mean the erections of structures covering the whole nation.

One teacher said  in a meeting 20 years ago "Agriculture is security". Recently another friend of mine supported Mahathir's idea of industrialization and condemns Pak Lah's philosophy on agriculture. He said Mahathir is smart and have vision. Of course I asked him about New Zealand or Scotland whether those are backward nations and the mentality of heir leaders are lower than Mahathir.

Advance nation rose base on their agriculture. Even in USA rice are planted and exported.

If you read newspapers you can recall some of the statements  made by the Ministers like, "Our education system is the best in the world ..United States is learning how to manage funds from Malaysia.....our toll rate is the lowest in the world...."

Developments mean different things to different people. The greedy define to fit their own need, to enrich their coffers. Then they can choose their own friends as contractors, money rolled in as projects were approved., houses made for non-citizens and wealthy people.

I remember well my relatives in Kuala Kedah as fishermen. They would move out to sea at night and came back home early morning with fish. The fishermen were there for years. Then Khir Johari came with the idea of Pukat Tunda. Only a handful got the pukat. The technology robbed the big majority of fishermen until they have no more income and became very poor to date. Kuala Kedah is now becoming the drug addicts area.

Outside people are coming in because of the housing estates and people with big capital are capitalizing the fishing industries.

One interesting thing to note in New Zealand is that when you drive thru the country you seldom encounter with passing vehicles like cars. Even at the outskirt of the city the traffic is not at all heavy. I did not see any toll house like we have here.

The value of their currency as compared to Malaysian ringgit is much higher than ours. That made things more expensive to go shopping in the country. In this case we can boast to have cheaper products than some of the developed countries. You can only buy souvenirs for your friends, nothing more.

Not everything foreign is good. In the case of the country I mentioned that is something we can ponder about and thought about the meaning of development.

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THE FADING HAMS

Amateur Radio used to be a grand hobby of dignitaries and good people. Because of the degree of difficulty to be an amateur radio operator, only the competent and educated people were able to enjoy it. But there were many who tried to get involve in it could not do so because they can't reach it. The technical exam was in English and one need to pass the Morse code test too.

In Malaysia there were only a few people who get the license to operate. Each will be given a call sign. They call themselves hams. Almost all hams were scared of the authority and abide by the rules. There would be about 20 people each day forming into 2 or 3 groups talking to each other every evening. Those who did not possess the license yet would be monitoring the evening chats or the Morse communications. They told stories, created jokes and narrate their real life experiences.

The high class hobby began to fade as the standard later declined. As younger generation took over the management of radio communication, they brought in new ideas which drag the concept of ham radio away from the original one with justifications of their own. And in Malaysia the senior hams fought for B license which did not require for Morse test.

The story of license B began with various events. Rigs were smuggled out of factories and distributed. People used those equipments to communicate with other services. To curb piracies the authority relaxed the test and passed almost all who sat for the test. Amateur Radio began to fade from the original concept from here.

Political lobbying never stopped. Justifications were sought, from the argument of the hobby to the emergence of computer technology. Ham radio manufacturer began to see the new technology threatening to their economy. The business community lobby for no-code so that more people would become ham radio operators and provide safety to the manufacturer. The lobbyist won.

Worldwide there is a rapid decline in communication procedure and good and competent hams moved themselves away from the new category of radio operators. After the initial exchanges between the old and new Americans operators, the old hams finally decided to cease it. In the good old days ham community were more or less submissive and follow the old hams. Seldom or no rude exchanges took place. Everywhere old operators were talking about the quality about the ham operators. Some accused the drop in quality was due to the greater number of CBers becoming hams without no-code. On the other hand these new guys refused to be called as incompetent and low class hams.

As far as I com concerned a ham operator is a person who got the ham ticket thru the traditional ham package. That include the CW test. Those who do not agree and insist that they are also hams, by all mean they can call themselves by any name. Deep down in my heart ham radio is fading and slowly will die except in those countries which still keep the codes going and ham ethics at bay. The only things is that I can't count the number of Morse codes signals that are still on the band. Some say by the tenths of thousands. The Japanese, Russians, Indonesians, Indians, Pakistan, Sri-Lankan, Europeans and Americans are very active on Morse codes.

At least 2 Malaysian old hams who could not have verbal communication had to fall back to Morse code to communicate with friends before they finally passed away. The last words from a dying person could be very important.

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THE QUEST FOR CHALLENGES

Today we hear of flying cars. In many years to come believe me there will be flying carpets. As long as mankind has the desire to fight challenges and hardship, progress will come. The Westerners have a long tradition to go against odds and fight them. Those were not without cost. Human and financial lost were great but they never gave up. You can see them hunting for adventures in mountain climbing, jumping the airships, and fighting dangerous rapids. Even the game of roller coaster does not begin here.

I don't know much about the Europeans but I understand the Americans fairly well. I used to say that the smart Americans are really very smart and the lousy ones are numerous too. They could be lazy as the Malaysians, stupid as any other people. For us we don't follow the bad and the useless people and habits. We have mind to think and to select. More often than not we don't adopt the ones which we consider as hard and difficult. We pressed for simplicity, no challenge and low standard stuffs.

While others were contemplating on fuel saving cars all over, a few smart individuals decide to venture on flying cars. With knowledge on Vertical Take Off plane, the superb microchips and other current technologies they decide to take up the challenge. Finally the car can fly.

Once the Malay students prefer the Arts stream. It was easier to pass and easy to get job. They made themselves to believe that the Malays were not cut for Mathematics and Sciences. And it remained so for decades. Until today many want easy things with all sort of excuses. Basically the mind just simply refuse to face challenges. That left the 'more difficult' subjects of sciences and mathematics to the Chinese.

There have been time when school curriculum was design to make it more simple just to make it interesting. Today there have been thought to scrap the national exam and replace it with the school base assessment. I can't help laughing thinking of the mentality of those in the Ministry of Education. Like private universities the schools want to pass their own students. Many subjects would get 100% results. Hence there is a lowering down of the quality and would erase public confidence in our system. In fact even our government does not trust in the system it creates when computer programmers were hired from other countries and all the strategic planning were of foreign thoughts.

Malaysia must inculcate the culture of fighting hardships and facing difficulties while they are young. A few days of out bound school  for a certain group of youths will eventually decay and vanish. Unless the mentality of the government agencies and the politicians changed the Malays will continue will have the subsidy mentality, without government support they cease to function well.

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WHAT IS MEANT  BY SLIM MAJORITY

when a boss walks into his office he knows that there are almost half of his workers does not like him. He does not know to whom he should throw a smile. He would not go into the common toilet for fear of someone might write vulgar words about him. He had to tell the hired guard to see that his car would not be punctured or splash with paint.

Overwhelming majority is as good as absolute majority. In a society where we have only 5 - 8 percent deviants we can be sure the whole society still accept the ongoing practice. A political party with this kind of a majority could claim to be popular. This is where the question of morality comes in. An immoral person is a person without guilty conscience and disregard religious beliefs. A person with slim majority should have conscience and fear rather than continue to be arrogance. 2/3 majority is a man made value for comfortable support which is actually isn't good enough.

Many people still remember Maradona's hand of God. The only winning goal scored during the world cup championship was using his hand, which the referee failed to see. The whole world scorned at the winner. Here is where morality comes in. A moral person will ponder at the slim majority he obtained. You can assess a person's state of mind and character. When Maradona was arrested as someone involved in drug, many were not surprised.

There are deep stories behind any slim majority. It tells about strong people who cannot be bought and no amount of promise can sway them. It tells about people who are easily bought. It tells about instilling fear of racial dominance and insecurity. It tells about the character of the people. It tells about efficiency, of ratio between the input and the output. It flashes what  the future will be.

Whatever the slim majority does not smell good for the country and the people. Certainly it is not the approval factor.

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