A DAY IN THE YEAR OF THE OX

Last nite i couldnt sleep at all, for a while i thought i lived in Gaza. The sound of explosion appeared to pop up all over the neighborhood, the air became hazy and the smell of gun powder lingered in the air until early morning. Was Malaysia under attacked? No! It was one of those days when the chinese went all out celebrating their Chinese New Year by shooting fireworks, burning fire crackers and releasing hot homemade hot air balloons all over the place. I thought it was illegal to sell or shoot those fireworks, there laws created for those things but then again enforcement is another matter. I do not think the Police can do anything as the fireworks are all over the place.

I think it is alright to let people celebrate as long it does not get carried away to the extent properties are damaged. During this depressive financial turmoil, it is good to let people have a good time and forget their problems for a while. At least i enjoyed a good colourful display of fireworks from my balcony in peace, not like those unfortunate Palestinians in Gaza where the next fireworks they see will result in their houses demolished or their relatives killed.

I pray to God to save this people from further cruelty and let them live in peace.

We Malaysians are very lucky people as we dont have to go through life threatening situations like in some countries. I guess we take it for granted that it will never happen to us that we start to make problems for ourselves.

Take for instance the political scene in Malaysia we are experiencing now. Accusations of corruptions and playing up the racial sentiments by certain groups never fail to appear in the local papers. Never, ever it has sunk to such a low level that ruling party and opposition will do anything to outdo each other in order to be in power. It makes me sick to see that people's interests are no longer the ultimate drive to hold the office. Defections to the opposite parties becoming the trend of the day? For what if it not for personal interest, position or power? If one believes so much in the philosophy of another political party, why didnt he/she join it before the 2008 election? Why did he defect after he was elected under a different banner? When this happens, who is going to pick up the tab for the by-election? Why waste the public money so they can further their political ambition? Dont we have enough problems during this financial crisis?

It seems that politics plays a strong role in the Malaysian lives. It even has crept into the sports fraternities courtesy of those politicians and royalty who feel they can contribute something to the sports. The truth is they do more damage to the sports than improving them.

The recent debacle of the national football team's lost by a five goal margin has stirred up a big huha which eventually resulted in the sacking of the coach, and the team manager who is an ex-international who has contributed to the Malaysian team's success in the past more than the FAM big guns put together! The joke is the real team manager who is a well known politician is left off the hook which baffles me big time!

It seems that FAM should be accorded a gold medal for their ability to hire and sack the most number of coaches in the last twenty over years, and yet managed to shield themselves of any blame for the state of football in Malaysia. This can only happen in Malaysia ( Malaysia Boleh!!!),whereas in other parts of the world even being second at the end of the season will bring sacking to the coach and management. We need to purge this body of all unqualified people who never kick a ball from sitting in positions which ultimately determine the future of Malaysian football. The question is will they resign? Do not hold your breath!

As we usher in the Year of The Ox, we need to remind our selves to work hard and preservere to succeed during this hard times. We need to focus and rid ourselves of the unproductive attitudes, improve our morales and ethics (especially politicians) and be accountable for our actions. Tolerance and respect has to be restored so we do not be consumed by the in-fighting that can eat up our nation.

SO WHAT IS NEW?

Happy New Year to everyone, eight days late but what is the rush? I never bothered to go out and celebrate the end of 2008 and ushering the new year of the Ox. I just let the clock ticked past twelve midnight and missed the fireworks, what the hell, it happens every year anyway. For me, 2008 is the year to forget that i ever lived through it. So many bad things happened to me of epic proportion that i welcome some mental lapse if possible, amnesia they call it.

So what is new for this year 2009? Despite my wish for a better world, the year started off on a bad note. The Middle East is burning again courtesy of the Israel regime to oust Hamas. This episode is like a re-run of old movies which never ends. Until and unless somebody who are influential like the US, Britain, France and Russia are serious and honest in looking for permanent solutions start acting to solve the issue, we are not going to see much changes on CNN or BBC coverages and headlines for the rest of 2009 and even next couple of years. OIC cannot do much more than issuing rhetoric statements, and the world just can go to the streets at most to protest the invasion by Israel.

Meanwhile the outgoing Mr Bush supported Israel's action saying they are justified in retaliation to Hamas rockets. For Mr Bush Israel citizens have the right to live in peace at all cost but not the Palestinians. They have suffered for years from Israeli war machine and the blockade that has denied them every basic human needs from free movement to supply of food and medicine, and also economic activities. What are the Arab countries doing to support the Palestinians other than condemning the invasion? Nothing! Why? Because their governments also rely on the US for support. The irony is that the US wants to be the middle man to solve the issue despite their bias towards Israel! Go figure!

Economy wise, 2009 does not look too promising also for the whole world. The US is still trying to figure out how to get out of the mess it creates due to greed. Two over million people in the US are out of jobs and more are to be retrenched. Mr Obama is starting to get a headache even before assuming the Office, courtesy of Mr Bush bad handling of the economy and over spending on his war machine in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest of the world including Malaysia starts to feel the fever when the US falls sick. We can stop dreaming about salary increase, hefty bonus and other allowance as companies start to go into contigency plans just to survive the next few years.

Personally, looks like there will be less holiday or fishing trips for me, less movie outing, less Kentucky Fried Chicken dinners, postponement of a new car purchase, less shopping (although my wife may not agree!), more home cook meals and sitting on the sofa staring at the idiot box!

People say history will always repeat itself and those who do not learn from history are the worst fools you can find on this planet. I have been through 1987, 1997 recessions, so what is new?

TERRORISM IS NOT ISLAMIC

Islamic terrorism, that is what they like to term it everytime there is a violent episode of public massacre carried out by terrorists who happened to be Muslims. In the wake of Mumbai massacre at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, the Jewish centre and the train station, which should be condemned in the strongest term by every individual regardless of race and religion, the media are so quick to call it Islamic Terrorism equivalent to 9/11 in New York in 2002.

Why is the media love to use the term so much, and associates the religion to the act of terrorism when Islam never teaches its followers to do such a violent act especially against the innocent public? Why were the IRA were not called Christian Terrorists, or Sri Lankan Tigers called Hindu Terrorists. Why only Islamic Terrorists? I think the term used is an injustice to Islam as it implies that Islam is a religion of violence and every Muslim is a possible terrorist.

There are over a billion Muslims in this world who came from so many countries and from so many races. China has more than 30 millions Muslims, more than the whole population of Malaysia of 27 millions. Indonesia has more than 200millions Muslims, then there are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arab countries, Russia, Albania, Bosnia, Turkey, Philliphines, Nigeria and so many more including the United States and Great Britain. In the US, Islam is the fastest growing religion nowadays.

The term which is popularly used by CNN and BBC, has created a phobia against Islam intentionally or not. In the US, the 9/11 and the continuos emphasis on the term Islamic Terrorism, has made their citizens so scared of anybody looking like Arabs. A lot of the arrested suspects believed to be Arabs extremists turned out to be Sikhs from India. This is the result of stereotyping certain look to certain race and religion, generalization that Muslims are terrorists, Muslim countries are terrorist states. I wonder who created all these to suppot their narrow agenda?

I think the act of violence by those who happened to be Muslims are part of their struggles related to the issues of freedom, independence, politics and vengence in their countries, the act has nothing to do with Islam. The only way to fight terrorism is to find the root causes of disatisfaction or anger, and remove it by offering amicable solutions.

We could trace most of the violent acts by the Arabs regardless of their countries to the issue of occupied lands by Israel, and the injustice toward Arabs in occupied territories. The US has not done enough on this issue through so many peace process and keep failing because the solutions offered were lopsided in Israel's favor. By supporting Israel in terms of moral, monetary and military technologies, the US is seen as the enemy by certain groups of etremists.

The massacre in Mumbai is related to land and independence of Kashmir which is sandwiched between India in the south and Pakistan in the north. India and Pakistan has fought three wars over this mountainous land over the last few decades. The terrorists who were killed in Mumbai last week were believed to have originated from Kashmir according to the Indian intelligence. They also used the act as a vengence against the US, Great Britain and Israel for all the involvement in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, hence why they were very specific in looking for the tourists who come from these countries. The act as nothing to do with Islam as a religion!

Malaysia used to fight terrorism from after the Japanese left right up to 1986 in the form of Malayan Communist Party. The majority of the guerillas were chinese who subscribed to the ideology tied to Peking eventhough they came from rural towns in Malaysia. Majority of them were Buddhist, but the British back them never called them Buddhist terrorist because it was not proper and will reduce support from the local chinese who did not subscribe to MCP ideology. The British and their Malayan counterparts had launched the heart and mind campaign, introduced steps that removed the reason for the arm struggle among the people and eventually eliminated the threat of communism totally in 1986 via a peace treaty signed in Thailand.

The world should learn from the Malaysian experience in fighting terrorism instead of creating more Islamic Phobia by associating a terrorism act to a religion, instead of the nationality of the terrorists. They should investigate deeply into the root cause that managed to turn a group of young kids into a group of ready-to-die terrorists. Most of them requires permanent political solutions from the related governments.

There is a saying that goes " one man's terrorist could be another man's freedom fighter". Hopefully,we do not have to deal with both versions if we all could solve our differences amicably at the table with a cup of tea and a lot of smiles.