Monday 7 March 2016

Selam (**) kan Malaysia

A fateful portent??

.... snipped from ...

......  a gathering of the saviours of Malaysia.


Got back home just 36 hours ago and it looks like I'll have to get into diving gear if I am to be saved by the above as they bring down the wretched vessel that is Malaysia.

It seems all is not well  and so we have this gathering of  chalk and cheese, a motley crew of men, coming and crawling from the  hallowed halls  and woodwork of politics, civil groups and the media.  How  can their Campaign benefit the Rakyat - except to " sapu chat di rumah yang burok".

We were often reminded ; when elephants get into battle, we - the hoi-polloi - have to get out of the way.

It's difficult for this septuagenarian to distance herself from this made-in-Malaysia soap opera.  It brings to mind the fable  about  "The Horse, Hunter and Stag".

A quarrel had arisen between the Horse and the Stag, so the Horse came to a Hunter to ask his help to take revenge on the Stag.  The Hunter agreed, but said: " If you desire to conquer the Stag, you must permit me to place this piece of iron between your jaws, so that I may guide you with these reins, and allow this saddle to be placed upon your back so that I may keep steady upon you as we  follow after our enemy."  The Horse agreed to the conditions, and the Hunter soon saddled and bridled him.  Then with the aid of the Hunter the Horse soon overcame the Stag, and said to the Hunter: " Now, get off, and remove those things from my mouth and back."

" Not so fast, friend," said the Hunter.  " I have now got you under bit and spur, and prefer to keep you as you are at present."

But I have to make a slight change to the above fable.  The Horse and the Stag actually inhabit the same territory and have a very similar diet.  Although they have four legs they are not as well constructed to outwit the two-legged Hunter's shewdness and tactics.

In this tale about the Horse, the Stag and the Hunter, what lesson can be learned?  Don't you get a feeling of deja vu?  It has happened before in  the history of the Malay domain : during the fall of the Malacca Sultanate, the acquisition of Singapore, the creation of the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States, the Malayan Union and  even the terms of  Merdeka in 1957.


One last thought before  I  leave to catch up on my jet lag : Jong Pechah, Yu Kenyang.









4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As salam Cikgu

Selamat pulang ke tanah air tercinta. Meskipun badai tengah melanda, ini saja lah tanah air saya.Terima seadanya meskipun perit. Kita jumpa untuk minum kopi dan bertanya khabar. InsyaAllah.

Salam hormat untuk semua.


Fatimah Kari (UM)

anak si-hamid said...

Salam and thank you Fatimah.

We would dearly love to meet you for kopi (kampung) and catch up on news.

Right now, my mobile has gone kaput and communication becomes a bit more difficult. But my e-mail is still in good working order.

So our tanah air is not too bad eh, despite the attempts of some to demolish it to the dust bin.

Anonymous said...

hi Ash,

haven't seen an article of yours this hot. normally you would touched on family matters and about your life away from home. thus, read with interest on your feeling of deja vu the connection of what is happening now compared to the past. I think this would be an exciting next article if you care to continue ie what did we do wrong earlier.

will keep waiting. take care ash.

- Hantu Siber -

anak si-hamid said...

Thank you Hantu Ciber,

Hmmm - I think there have been 'hotter'stuff on Ash than this. I think it is more tongue-in-cheek than anything else. I could not resist those two blocked out letters and turn the political farce that goes on in my tanah air into a joke.

As to the deja vu - what happened earlier was partly due to our vulnerability at the hands of the imperial powers. Today we Malays shoot ourselves in the foot because of our over-riding ego, greed and bodoh-sombong. I see the scenario here as a case of the thieves falling out with each other.

Wait for an article on immigration.