My Rummage Case - Part 2

When we were in Primary School Mr Kempson Wong would read us stories from The Roman and Greek Mythologies. My favourite was 'Jason and the Golden Fleece' and I remembered sneaking and standing just by the door of another class to listen once again to Mr. Wong reading the same story. He saw me and I was told, quite gently I thought, to go back to my class.

Aesop's Fables was another interesting source of stories. In my rummage case I found this book which I had bought in 1973 for $3. I would read or rather translate (at Yusof Ishak Secondary School I was made to teach in the Malay Medium - but that's another story) some of these stories to my own class - first thing in the morning - before I started taking the Attendance. Most of them could relate the tale and the moral of the story and some of the bright ones would connect some of them - to my glee - to characters in the school from amongst their peers or their teachers.

Well, I've been reading this book once again at bedtime and like my students at Yusof Ishak SS I was making connections between these fables and our current political environment and personalities.


Take this story from the above book: FISHING IN TROUBLED WATERS. (page 212)
" A man was fishing in a river. After stretching his nets right across the stream from one bank to the other, he tied a stone to a cord and beat the water with it to make the startled fish swim into the meshes without looking where they were going. One of the inhabitants of the place saw him and reproached him for muddying their clear drinking water. 'But the stream has to be disturbed like this,' he answered, 'or I must die of hunger.' "
The moral of the story? "It is the same with nations (or vested interests - my words). Agitators succeed best by stirring up strife".

The Triumph of Herald

My Rummage Case - Part 1 (CsH)

This is the Case I found in the store-room several days ago and the wonderful contents will make for several revealing postings.

In a file I re-discovered my collection of my Primary Six examination papers. Don't ask me why I kept them. Is it the magpie in me or the karung guni man? I cannot tell. Some of the stuff is sweet and poignant, while others are hilarious - at my expense of course.

Here comes the first.
My first big boo boo is my failure to give the right title for the composition topic 'Yourself'. I should have conjugated it to 'Myself'. Mr Tan Sin Ho was quite strict. 'Pr.' as a short form for 'Primary' is unacceptable. The roman numeral for V needs a stroke at the top and the bottom. My name is spelled without the additional 'o' and that remained uncorrected until I got to secondary school.
All in all, what a yucky piece with a sentence like 'My hair is black, my eyes are brown, and my skin is also brown'. How unimaginative. I would have given myself 20/50
instead of 35.

Anyway 2 generations later, our great-niece Sarah Hana wrote this version of 'herself' in a little 555 notebook that I had given her . By the way, in the 21st century, you write down your 'biodata', not 'Myself'.

Here's the data input.

I would mark her 7 out of 10 - after all she's only 7 years old. She has a broader sense of family and nature than I had and for that I have to give her 8 marks. And for those who are unfamiliar with the KL jargon, 'Giant' is a supermarket. In my time all we had was Kedai Seng Teow and Kedai Ah Chwee.

And because she did not describe herself, here's the data-maker. Hmm, should I reduce her marks for this omission - but then I was 13 when I wrote that howler? Maybe nowadays these hi-tech kids resort to mobile cameras, ipods and drongles and do not depend on words. Still, it's a shame for words require more thinking and imagination.



And this song is for Nadia, Bella, Adam, Ariff, Tasha, Sarah Hana, Anis, Ilyas, Emir and Sofia from tok ngah and tok kacang aka tok iain.

Showing Off (CsH)

Rummaging through my boxes of junk, I found this notebook which had in it a list of my collection of 78rpm vinyls or records as we used to call them. The 78s were the prototype before the 33rpm and the 45rpm vinyls. I recalled the 78s from the 50s and I got hooked ever since I found a stack of them piled up in a Chinese stationery shop in Bandar Seri Begawan in 1978. The apek was happy to get rid of them at $2 each and I bought all he had! Among that harvest were songs by P. Ramlee, Saloma or Salmah Ismail as she was initially known, Nona Asiah , R. Azmi, Aman Ballon and a host of other treasures.

When I visited my brother Mus in Hull in 1981 I went crazy looking for 78s in English and there were lots to be found in various record shops in Hull and Leicester. Together with the spouse I extended my treasure hunting for Malay songs in Singapore (especially Arab Street), Penang and umpteen other shops in umpteen towns in Malaya. The best ones we found in an Indian Muslim kedai runcit (sundry shop) at Kuala Kangsar.

All in all I have 78s of 24 lady singers and 20 male singers - my absolute pride and joy! The problem with 78s is - most phonographs and hifi sets have speeds of 33 and 45 rpm. only. Fortunately in Leicester, second hand players were relatively easy to get especially from the Charity Shops or at the Car Boot sale. That was about 15 years ago. Now you can't buy them ( at the price you're prepared to pay) - for love or money!

Again I'm gloating because I have in my treasure chest 4 such machines and they're all safe in KL. The next stage is for me to learn the know-how - to transfer (and preserve) these songs to CDs. A few months ago I did something daring for a 65 year old mak ngah - when I experimented with taking a movie from my camera. The above is the fruit of my experiment, not quite brilliant but it will have to do for the time being. It left my arms aching because I had no tripod, but I'm quite proud of my handiwork. When we get back to KL I shall endeavour to improve my technique and technology and share some of my favourites on this blog.

The song 'Malaya Merdeka' was sung by Zaharah Agus. It was recorded on the Pathe Label. The blurb on the record says ' March (the type of beat that is) susunan D. Abell dengan A.Jaafar Orchestra'. 'Pulau Aman' is on the flip side - 'Pelahan dengan A. Jaafar Orchestra'. 'Malaya Merdeka' was a popular song - obviously before 1957. What is special to me is the word 'Malaya'. It's a shame that this name for my homeland has been expunged. If the names of Sabah and Sarawak are in use, why not Malaya?

Associate Professor Wu Zhi Tao - The Man with the Magic Touch

Today I want to be a harbinger of joyful news. This is about a wonderful man whose magic touch is healing as well as inspiring.

Prof. Wu was the Acupuncture Specialist at Tung Shin (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. I think we spent more time with him than with any other individual during our 5-month stay in Kuala Lumpur. Twice a week, every week - on Mondays and Thursdays - Prof. Wu would work his 'magic' on repairing and rehabilitating these ageing frames of ours.

On average, he would deftly insert 5-7 needles on top of my head, 1 on each side of the temple, one on the forehead just above the nose (which felt more than just a pinprick), about 5 or more on the stomach, 2-4 on each arm and 5 on each leg depending on whether the rickety knees have been misbehaving. I became a hedgehog, albeit a happy one during these sessions. This Sifu, this Master of his art knew what he was doing and knew it well. We had absolute confidence in him. He cured my sinus, improved my circulation, treated my colds and coughs and infection without me having to resort to drugs or antibiotics. He did a wonderful maintenance job on this pensioner. At the end of each session with Prof. Wu, we always felt relieved, relaxed and walked with an easier spring in our steps.

But there's more to Prof. Wu than meets the eye.

I had mentioned to him about my high cholestorol level. He listened attentively, as usual, and with a twinkle in his eyes he said, ".....must not makan nasi lemak." I gasped and said, "You can speak Malay?" He told us he had been learning Bahasa and from then on, we often had words like "tunggu sekejap", "sakit?" and so on, 'injected' in between the needle-punctures.
Why am I so astonished? Prof Wu was an expatriate Specialist from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and had been in KL for just five years. I was touched that he took the trouble to learn and use what he described as 'Bahasa'. That speaks volumes for this National from the Republic of China.

But that was not all. Our niece Maria and her son Ariff suffer terribly from sinusitis. Ariff, bless his cotton socks, was brave enough to give acupuncture a go despite his fear of needles. He had about 12 needles on various parts of him but the worst were the ones on the face. Prof. Wu could see the pained grimaces and the near-tears and soothed this brave but frightened little boy with "....aaah, macam Hang Tuah". Ariff survived and was able to boast about the scars made by the needles. (They were just little pinpricks which disappeared after a couple of hours, but you know what men are like - big babies!)
And Prof. Wu managed to leave me speechless, again.

There was to be another revelation which made me place this extraordinary man high up on my list of Honourable People. We love walking and on one of our walking trips we bumped into Prof Wu. He was observing a couple of frogs at the water's edge of this large pond. Upon our enquiry he confessed that a week before he had bought up 14kgs of frogs at Selayang Market and released them into this pond!! He was just checking to see if they're still fine! We did ask him later if he was a vegetarian or a Buddhist. He shook his head to indicate 'no'. He was just a very good man, and we had to tell him so despite his embarrassment.

Many many years ago, in the 1970s, there was this Prime Minister of the island Republic of Singapore, a Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who extolled the importance of the 300 top-of-the-heap Singaporeans, the Mandarins so to speak, on whom the island's success and survival depended on. And we all nodded respectfully.
Soon after that he went on to say that the Chinese (75% of Singaporeans are Chinese) should be proud of their 3,000 years of culture. Well, that left us - the 13% Malays, 9% Indians and 2.4% of Eurasians and 'Others' - a wee bit intimidated.
After all, it's not the total GDP, the per capita income, the size and prowess of the Armed Forces, the academic quality of the population and the high exchange rate of the national currency that justify "3000 years of culture".

No. True culture is to be found in this broad-minded man, with a huge heart and soul, a Sifu, a Master who extended his healing and caring to humans as well as other living things.
Prof. Wu returned to China in early December 2009. We will miss him but we will never forget this giant of a man.

Kalau lah hidup tidak berbudi,
Umpama pokok tidak berbuah.

Translation:

A life that's lived without kindness,
Is like a tree that bears no fruit.

A Patchwork Puzzle

"This is a moment to seize. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do let us re-order this world around us."
Speech by Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister of Britain to the Labour Party Conference in October 2001 just after September 11.

The dust has not settled on the triumph of the Catholic Herald. The High Court's decision does not solve the problem. Is their decision safe or politic or popular or right? There are facts and facts and there are also interpretations. I taught my students - when I was teaching Critical Reading at USM - that one should not just look at the words but to also scrutinize the underlying concepts and assumptions. For example, in a recent report by CNN, they described Malaysia as "predominantly Muslim but multi-racial." Note the different weight in meaning when you describe Malaysia as " multi-racial but predominantly Muslim." It all depends on what you want to stress - the multiracial makeup or the 60% Muslims.
And so I ask once again - WHY?


Over and over again - from Francis Fukuyama to the neo-cons in USA and Britain to the fearful Islamophobes in Europe - the War on Terror has been invoked as window dressing to keep out the 'barbarians at the gate". George W. Bush's reference to the Crusades when he embarked on the invasion of Iraq is no slip of the tongue or fault of the mind. Despite all these justifications, these nations are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the Islamic nations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The victims have been labelled the perpetrators. Welcome to the New World Order of the Christian Millenium!

The timing is ripe and right.

And now after the triumph of the Herald, the consequences are to be expected. "I told you so." And another voice behind the curtain smiles and says "I know so!!"
Newton's First Law of Motion states: "A body remains at rest or moves in a straight line (at a constant velocity) unless acted upon by a net outside force."

Let us take a lesson from this Chinese proverb. "Now that the bird is on the shoulder, don't allow it to nest in your hair."
One day there may be an insistence on using the Arabic/Muslim 'Isa' instead of Jesus Christ? But there's already Yesus Kristus. Perhaps Luke, Matthew and John?- although it has already been indigenized to Lukas, Matius and Yohanes. Will Mother Mary sound better as Emak Mariam for these punters? And in the Lord's Prayer - will they use 'Bapa' or 'Ayah' or 'Abah' or 'Papa' for "Our Father......" Then there's the word/name 'Andrew'. Can this be 'Malayrised' or Arabized? It's a trifle difficult because it's not a biblical name - it's origin is Greek meaning "Manly".

Perhaps " multi-racial but predominantly Muslim" Malaysia should take the same road as their neighbours Indonesia and Thailand and indigenize the names of all non-Malay/Muslim citizens. After all, what's in a name???

Still, the best cherry has already been picked.

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him. (Martin Luther King, 1929-1968)

In my next posting I want to write of a lovely and wise man - our "Sifu"- Assoc. Professor Wu Zhi Tao. 2010 has been like a can of worms.

WHY? WHY NOW? WHAT NEXT?

So, the Malaysian High Court has decreed that the Catholic Weekly magazine can use the word "Allah" in its applications.
The theological and historical reasons for and against the Catholics' claim have been bandied about a great deal before this judgement was made. To many of us, both Muslims and Catholics (perhaps?) it all seems so small-minded, so mediaeval and so, so unnecessary.
Now that the Judaeo-Christian legal system which we inherited from the British has given the Catholic Herald what they demand of this Muslim country - what scenario can we foresee? Does this also mean that all Catholics at prayer and Catholic publications in Singapore, Vietnam, Macao, Hong Kong, China and the Phillipines will be using the A word for God?
This appropriation of "Allah" to describe "The One" is tantamount to an attempt at subverting and undermining the Muslims' psyche and heart whenever "Allah" is uttered.
When I recite my Syahadah "Ashadu an laa ilaha illa (A)llah, wa ashadu anna Muhammada(n) rasulo (A)llah" [ I testify that there is no true god (deity) but God (Allah) and that Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of God] I cannot help but visualize Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam using the same assertion of the word "Allah" but which carries totally different concepts and connotations. To me "Allah" is one and "The One". To Catholics He is "The Son, the Father and the Holy Ghost". I do not question the Catholics' concept of the Creator but is it right for them to hijack Islam's one and only word for what is most fundamental and sacred?

Why Now?
Christianity does not have a good track record in working to induce, cajole, persuade, and intimidate others to increase their flock. To commandeer the word "Allah" to their arsenal is unkind and unwise. If this word is so relevant and dear to them, why didn't they apply it right from the time Francis Xavier and the Jesuits and all the missionaries came to evangelize in the Malay Peninsula? Why wasn't this issue brought up during all those pre-Merdeka discussions about citizenship and freedom of religious practice?
Many can see that now the time is ripe to shake the fruits off the tree of Islam - to weaken its roots and stop it multiplying. The world of Islam is at its weakest now and the word 'Muslims' has become almost a distasteful if not a dirty word especially when you add adjectives like 'fanatical', 'extremist', 'violent' and 'oppressive' as the western (and non-western) electronic and print media are wont to do. Muslims are being mocked and chastised in publications and cartoons and the agenda of the "War on Terror" waged by the neo-Crusaders have included harassment of the followers of Islam (the 90% who are not 'terrorists') and left them flailing and reeling. Worst of all they find themselves having to keep on apologising and seeking for approval and acceptance of their beliefs - to the point where they actually lose track of who the perpetrators are. They have been sucked into the neo-Crusaders' snare!
Also at this time, the Malays are at their weakest and the onus is on them to get their act together. The in-fighting and the semi-feudal attitudes which see them selling themselves to the highest bidder is nothing new. My late Abah and his friends were talking of the same weakness and malaise in the 1950s. Talk about laissez faire and individualism - the Malays have been practising this since forever! Our religious scholars on the other hand - like most Malaysian Muslims - are too cosy and snug (and smug) in the comfort zone that Malaysia provides. Their vision of Dunia dan Akhirat (Now and Hereafter) does not go beyond or above their own personal salvation and succour.

In his speech at the start of 2010 Pope Benedict XVI called for respect and peace. Demanding the right to co-opt the word "Allah" in a Muslim nation does not make for much respect or harmony.
In his UN Speech in August 2008, the Pope, amongst other things, said:
"Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal. ......Human rights ..must be respected as an expression of justice and not merely because they are enforceable through the will of the legislators".

An Appeal is to be made against Justice Datuk Lau Bee Lan's judgement - a rational, logical step to make. But an appeal undertaken by our religious intelligentsia to the Pope, who is the Catholics' Chief Pastor of the Whole Church and the Vicar of Christ upon earth would not be amiss. There is a lot at stake, not just the rights of Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam and the Catholic Herald. Will their flock be any the weaker or deprived if they desist from using the word "Allah"?
As for the Muslims in Malaysia, they must not react with their usual - to quote the Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan - "uncontrollable outpouring of emotion, (which) end up providing living proof that Muslims cannot engage in reasonable debate and that verbal aggression and violence are more the rule than the exception".

Also in the meantime, our intellectuals and intelligentsia, (where oh where art thou?) should look into the future to locate and pre-empt any other possible rockings of this Boat, this Malaysia - to prepare for "What's Next"!!!!!

GOOSEY GOOSEY GANDER - whither shall you wander?

When the shark bites with his teeth dear,
Scarlet billows start to spread.
Fancy gloves though, wears old Macheath dear.
So there's never, never a trace of red.

WELCOME 2010!! Here we go again - the same nasty , extremist Muslims threatening our peace and security. What with the Christmas Day Nigerian bomber, the Somalian attacker of the famous Danish cartoonist and now the UK Muslims protesting against the War (ungrateful wretched Muslims all of them, biting the hand that feeds them etc. etc.), we don't need an oracle to tell us what the rest of 2010 will be like. Let's ignore the Israeli ..... no sorry, I mean IDF (Israeli Defence Force) attacks on tunnels in Gaza. As for the rising number of deaths in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq - it's their own fault- they brought it upon themselves - after all our (the nice guys, the West) attempts to give them freedom and democracy.
But hey, here's a piece of good news. No, it can't be true - not from that Muslim (the indigenous majority) Malaysia.

SAUCE FOR THE GANDER
I found this posting "Malaysia's Allah" in rocky'sbru December 31 2009.

This BERNAMA report is taken from http://rockybru.com.my/. My reproduction is awful. Please click the image for a better read.


BUT THERE'S NO SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE
Check this
Read the above report from the Daily Mail - "Outrage as Islamic extremists vow to march through streets of Wootton Bassett" to learn more.
"Islam4UK - which calls itself a "platform " for extremist movement al-Muhajiroun - plans to parade through Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, in the coming weeks. The group's website says the event...."not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military" but of the Muslims....."murdered in the name of democracy and freedom"."

Ex-mayor of WB says, "We are a Christian country and a traditional old English market town who honour our Queen and country."

This Goose is cooked because of "significant community concern" (from tonight's Channel 4 News). We'll just have to wait and see.
Like Rocky who has been feeling under the weather, 2010 is beginning to make me sick.