The Fuss About The Word Allah In Malaysia

When I first heard about this issue concerning Herald the Malaysian Catholic Weekly, demanding the rights to keep using the word ‘ALLAH’ to refer to their godly deity in their weekly publications, I knew that this will not end very well.

It will be problematic. Very problematic.

Non-Malaysians who have learned a thing or two about the basic history of Ancient Egyptian Empire-inspired religions like the Abrahamic ones would probably say:

“Why would this be a problem? The word ‘Allah’ has been used to refer to a godly deity among the Arabic language speaking people from various religious backgrounds, even before any of the Abrahamic religions ever started! Arab traders travel all around the world, and besides goods, they also trade language, expanding the vocabulary of many other languages where they made business.”

Unfortunately, things are not so simple; it will never be.

In Malaysia, religious blindness has always been a convenient tool for politicians.

The truth is that although Malay Muslims could be considered as quite religious and passionate towards their faith, it is a great irony that the same people are mostly NOT very well informed with their own religion.

The basic principles, its history and how it all started.

Opportunistic politicians know this very well.

People are not interested in meticulous facts about history, about who is right or wrong.

People just want to ‘appear’ to look like they are fighting for something great.

People want to vent anger and stress, pat themselves on the back, feeling good with the illusion that they're doing something good for their god.

Yes, this is problematic.

Because people don't know what they really want.

And people are too lazy to think for themselves.

They need opportunistic politicians to think for them.

When there are no trustworthy politicians in Malaysia…

Yes, this is problematic.

Clearly we need to revise our education policy.

Hard Questions: Religion Conversion for Muslim Malaysians

Today’s post is going to be an extension to one of my previous post about answering ‘hard’ questions from my Japanese friends. In that post, I give out 2 different questions that I consider hard to answer, and in today’s post I’m going to attempt to tackle one of it.

The question that I would like to ‘answer’ in today’s post would be about Malaysian Muslims and their freedom in religion.

This is going to be a long, long one so let’s get into it.

Hard Question No 1: In Malaysia, when it comes to religious conversion, everyone is promised the freedom of (or from) religion, but why does this not apply to the Muslim majority?

I have two types of answers here: One for the Muslim Malaysians and the other for the Atheist Japanese.

CLICK TO CONTINUE READING THIS LONG POST

Answer to Muslim Malaysians:

If you have not heard it already, basically ALL Muslims, Malaysian or not, are prohibited from leaving Islam. The main reason is because it is in the Islamic Code of Law, and like many other laws, there are severe consequences when you break one. In this particular case, one could be granted with the maximum penalty of DEATH if leaving Islam was the offence that he/she chooses to commit.

The confusing problem here is that Malaysia is NOT an Islamic Country (Malaysia as an Islamic Country was just a political label); and the existence of two court system (secular and Islamic) makes it hard to tackle such cases because the Syariah Law only applies to the Muslims, and what makes a Muslim a Muslim is by his/her faith, NOT something written on his/her identity card.

According to the basic teachings of Islam, when someone decided that he/she is no longer a Muslim, no identity card could save him from the fires of HELL when he/she goes to the other world.

So how does such a law could be accepted as a part of Islamic Law is something that we should ponder upon as it was in direct violation with the basis of Islam that promote tolerance, peace and freedom of thought. One very important point to remember here is that this law was passed AFTER the death of Prophet Muhammad, thus making it a human-made law after all, like many of the other detailed elements in the law system we call the Syariah Law.

The only thing that separates Syariah Law from Secular Law is that it was created based on HUMAN INTERPRETATIONS of the Quran and Hadiths.

Well, at least that has always been my opinion about this issue.

The second most popular reason would be the FEAR of negative voices coming out those ex-Muslims. This is quite important because the negative opinion towards Islam that comes from the mouth of an ex-Muslim carries with it a certain weight; as they lived through it and experienced it first hand. They’re not mere Islam-bashers or racist Islamophobes.

The other popular reason that Muslims love to discuss about is the fear that ALMIGHTY GOD might be angry with a community that allows Muslims to freely choose their religious loyalty.

This could lead to GODLY PUNISHMENTS, preferably natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes or maybe some newly evolved and dangerously deadly diseases like the new pig influenza.

It could be anything really; GOD could punish them by making their sons homosexuals, of instance, and for the conservative Malaysian community, having a homosexual son is the worst thing ever, no matter how hard the homosexual-activists tries to associate themselves with happy words like ‘gay’ and ‘fabulous’.

FYI, the act of sodomy, even if done in a confined private space and far from public view, is illegal in Malaysian Law, and one could be prosecuted for this backside sexual gratification. Read about Anwar Ibrahim.

To sum it up, I can come out with lots of other reasons, but these are the main three:

1)The Islamic Code of Law itself strictly prohibits Muslims from changing/choosing to be free from Islam. Even if the blasphemer was born into a Muslim family (and this automatically bound him/her with a godly contract to be a Muslim for life), he/she has no choice but to adhere to this law; because a law is a law and if one decides to break it, that person should expect the punishment to be severe.

2)The fear that these 'bound-to-hell' blasphemers might expose and put Islam in a negative way, causing more Muslims to become blasphemers and eventually turns everyone else, hell-bound. Like a zombie disease. If everyone goes to hell, who is going to play with the many many promised virgins in heaven?

3)Fear of GOD’s punishment for being secularly tolerant and abiding to the international human rights and moral values. They don’t want tsunamis or their sons to magically turn gay, so no one should be allowed to un-Muslim themselves. If the natural disasters still occurs, it must be because Islam have not succeeded in conquering the whole world yet.

So that was my ‘answers’ to Muslim Malaysians, and I’ve used these answers on several Muslim Malaysians before, and I guess my simple explanation and brief conclusions seemed sufficient enough to some of them; and through my personal experience, a lot of them accepted my answer without much rejection.

Well, probably the only rejection that I got is something like “ Yo dude don’t talk about Islam man, you don’t go to religious schools and you don’t memorize the Quran. You’re constructing your opinion on bases that you set by yourselves, so just shut up and don’t act like you know everything dude, you might get sinned for that” - kinds of complaints… and these are quite popular: You don’t go to religious schools, therefore you have no rights to voice your opinion about religious matters.

But the same method did not work very well with some of my (atheist) Japanese friends.

Especially to those really interested in discussing and talking about the subject.

(The uninterested ones would just nod even though they don’t really understand/agrees; being careful not to cause unnecessary conflicts, one that I would never start in a discussion such as this.)

The same answers that I have provided above does not work, because they do not adhere to the ‘current’ international standards of human rights, a secular code that were created by men, for men. A code that evolves along/with the change of moral values and what we humans mutually thinks is globally wrong or right.

It does not make any sense to them.

This is why I have to answer the question differently and take a different point of view, so here it goes:

Answer to Atheist Japanese:

Throughout the evolution of human society and rapid development of humane standards, we humans are known to be competitive creatures, and those sitting on the top of the food chain is not the strongest, but the smartest ones; the ones that lead and control other lesser humans.

People have been experimenting with a lot of ways to control people.

Some uses our natural instinct to bond with other that has similarities with us by introducing the ideas of races and clans.

Some uses nationalism and patriotism.

Some uses political ideologies and looks-good-on-paper theories.

And the most powerful tool of it all: RELIGION.

Muslims pray at least 5 times a day and follows a strict and controlled life, and this made them very loyal, passionate and abiding to their religious leaders.

This is a very convenient situation because people are easy to believe whatever that comes from their respected religious leaders.

Just think about what would happen with the powers that these religious leaders hold against the ordinary people, if someone rebels and started to form a new group that did not believe in being loyal with the current people on top?

How are these religious leaders going to retain their power over their people?

They cannot because rebellious ideas are very threatening to people with power.

So they cook up a horror story and influenced their own people to look down and despise these pitiful unbelievers, and when it comes to a point that the method does not work anymore, the only solution is to KILL the rebel, shut him up and justify his death through laws that were made and passed among them.

Pretty basic formula used by many other ancient religion.

Getting pretty hot in here, doesn’t it?

Moving on to the next ‘reason’, I remember one of my Japanese friends who took me by surprise by a simple argument: When someone leaves Islam, that person is automatically free from Islamic Law, so the death penalty for conversion cannot be applied here!

That argument made sense at first but it can be easily put down:

If that is the case, then why does the death penalty still applies to soldiers who defect from their county? This military law is still very common in many military organizations around the world!

The only negative side of this counter-punch is that it put Islam in a militaristic light, something that might not look very ‘nice and peaceful’.

Moving on…

To know the reason why a Malaysian Muslim are not allowed to change his/her religion, we have to go back to the source and understand the real reason why it was prohibited in the first place.

Just a few years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, there were many followers who stopped practicing the Prophet’s teachings, and goes back to burying baby girls and raping random chicks and sucking dicks.

So in order to stop this, they made it a death penalty for a Muslim to abandons Islamic teachings, so that they will not return back to their barbaric ways of life.

Islamic teachings have ushered a lot of moral improvements to their civilization, and do I have to stress how much progress in science has Islam influenced our civilization?

WEEEEE!

The other reason for this DEADLY BAN is pure military-minded.

As many knew, the early days of Islam is filled with some pretty crazy wars, and a Muslim soldier who abandons his faith can no longer be accepted as a Muslim soldier because his allegiance to his military commander is in parallel with his allegiance with his military commander’s GOD.

At that time, one cannot be a trusted Muslim soldier if he is not a Muslim because the war they’re fighting is mostly based on religious belief; Islam vs Christianity ? the holy war.

So just like any other military organization before (and after) it, it’s a no-brainer to apply this law to protect the integrity in the military ranks, and keep the brotherly group spirit alive among the soldiers.

Hey, it’s easier for men who were thrown into a bloody war to bond with their partners if they have something in common; and religion is one BIG element. The army with the most team-spirit will always win.

Even modern day military organizations nowadays still uses religion to bond their soldiers, heighten up their spirit, justify their war and sometimes makes it look like it is a good thing to kill some ‘unbelievers’.

The last ‘reason’ (that I can think of) why the Malaysian authority does not allow religious conversion among the Malay Muslims is smaller in scale, but quite coy.

It’s totally political: Welcome the New Economic Policy!

But because this has been a very long post already, I plan to lay out and connect this point later when I wrote the second part of this post and try to answer the second question that is: How could a modern society such as Malaysia justify the blatant unfairness that is the New Economic Policy?

Uniquely multi-cultural and multi-religious, the authorities believes that in order to maintain peace, the Malay majority should be given special advantages that could help them in a lot of area; education, employment, health care, loans etc, in order to stabilize the social disparity among the various races, especially against the wealthier Chinese.

Before I end today’s post though, I would like to sum my ‘answers’ given to my Japanese friends:

1) Religion gives power to certain people, and in order to retain that power, rebels cannot be tolerated.
2) The law were created for a good reason in mind, to keep the early followers of Islam from their barbaric ways of life.
3) It To be continued…

P/s: Where did I have the time to write all this stuff? I don’t expect anyone to read all this stuff from start to finish though… Well, if it’s me, I would stop on the first paragraph and start to search for Akiyama Rina videos on youtube for sure!

Disclaimer: If you’ve read my other posts here, you would probably knew that I am not someone with the credibility to discuss about ‘heavy’ stuffs, but that does not mean that I am blind nor stupid. Well, I am a little bit dumb and perverted, but I still have an opinion, and if you disagree, write a comment! Freedom of speech is awesome, let’s use it!

tak nak balik berkhidmat untuk negara ke?

aku ditaja JPA untuk belajar di Jepun selama 6 tahun.

april 2003 - march 2009.

setahun buat bahasa jepun, 3 tahun buat diploma pastu lagi 2 tahun buat degree.

kalo ikut rate sekarang, biasiswa bulanan yang aku dapat adalah lebih kurang rm4800.

(100yen=rm3.7)

rm4800 darab 12 bulan darab 6 tahun = rm345,600.

banyak tu.

tu tak kira duit yuran pengajian + elaun buku la, elaun pindah, elaun kesihatan etc.

kalo campur sumer2, ada kot cecah setengah juta.

" setengah juta? banyak tu beb, but still, ko masih nak stay kerja kat jepun, tak nak balik berkhidmat untuk negara, untuk rakyat ke? "

ke sudah lupa diri?

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dulu aku banyak kali terbaca berita pasal student overseas tajaan kerajaan yang lepas graduate, tak nak balik mesia, langgar contract dengan terus sambung kerja kat oversea, pastu tak bayar plak tuh duit pinjaman.

kerajaan taja mahal2 supaya nanti dia bole balik untuk berkhidmat untuk rakyat.

tapi balasan nya, dia lari entah ke mana, demi kepentingan diri sendiri.

taufiq ali, kamu macam mana?

KLIK UNTUK BACA SETERUSNYA !!

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kontrak aku dengan JPA lebih kurang mcam nih:

aku belajar sampai dapat degree dalam kejuruteraan mekanikal kat universiti nasional jepun, dan lepas graduate, pihak kerajaan berhak memanggil aku untuk bekerja dengan mana2 badan kerajaan yg memerlukan. jika aku tidak berjaya untuk menghabiskan pengajian dalam masa yg ditetapkan @ menolak tawaran pekerjaan daripada kerajaan selepas graduate, aku bole dikenakan saman dan perlu membayar balik duit ganti rugi (duit biasiswa) kepada pihak JPA.

seterusnya, selepas cukup setahun daripada tarikh aku graduate secara rasmi, tetapi pihak JPA masih belum memanggil aku untuk berkhidmat dengan mana2 badan kerajaan, maka aku bebas daripada kontrak dengan JPA tersebut.

aku tak perlu kerja dengan kerajaan dan aku tak perlu bayar apa2 pun jika perkara diatas berlaku.

sebelum aku masuk company aku skang, aku dikehendaki oleh pihak embassy untuk menghantar satu surat ajaib.

surat perlepasan kontrak namanya.

kuasa surat tersebut adalah untuk memendekkan masa menunggu untuk ditawarkan untuk bekerja dengan kerajaan, daripada 1 tahun kepada 0 hari.

0 minit, 0 saat.

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jadi legally, aku tak perlu punbalik untuk bekerja di malaysia.

tapi aku tetap rasa yang aku perlu berkhidmat untuk negara.

kalau tidak, buat apa kerajaan habiskan setengah juta; cuma untuk lahirkan seorang jurutera yang akhirnya bekerja dengan syarikat bukan kerajaan?

bukan kah pelik lagi aneh sekali program tajaan luar negara yang aku sertai nih?

pelik, memang pelik.

aneh, memang aneh; kalau kita tidak tahu objective utama buah fikiran tun mahathir nih.

anda pernah dengar pasal dasar pandang ke timur tak?

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seperti ramai muda mudi malaysia zaman sekarang, tun mahathir pun suka sangat2 dengan jepun dan rakyat2 nya.

muda mudi suka anime dan manga, tun mahathir suka dengan japanese work ethics.

muda mudi suka j-pop dan j-dorama, tun mahathir suka dengan japanese customer service.

muda mudi suka mihiro, tsubomi, maria ozawa, yoshizawa akiho, yui komine, sakurako, riko tachibana, takako kitahara, tina yuzuki, hiyori shiraishi, nao yoshizaki, ran monbu, erica kurisu, kaede matsushima, serina hayakawa, yuka ozawa, rio hamazaki, sakura sakurada, jun seto, kazama yumi, ayukawa nao, asami yuma, hatsune minori, natsume nana, mizaki mao, nakano mina, imano yume... (kalo korang tahu lebih daripada 5 nama di sini, maka korang memang kena kurang kan tengok japanese AV... seriously dude ;p)

tun mahathir suka japanese punctuality, precision and passion for detail.

tun mahathir suka + kagum sesangat dengan orang jepun nih, sampai dia mahu makin ramai orang malaysia yang jadi macam orang jepun.

cara untuk menjadikan impian tun mahathir itu satu kejayaan adalah dengan menghantar student2 malaysia untuk belajar di universiti2 di jepun, dengan harapan bila mereka pulang nanti, akan terbentuk satu komuniti malaysian yang mempunyai ciri2 kejepunan, dan komuniti ini diharap dapat mempengaruhi rakyat lain untuk mencontohi sifat2 kejepunan yang tun mahathir suka sangat tu.

kesimpulan nya, tun mahathir mahu supaya rakyat malaysia pon mampu bertukar jadi ultraman.

memang cantik sekali rancangan itu.

tapi seperti mana2 rancangan manusia, ianya tidak sempurna.

[note: aku dapat explanation nih daripada bekas setiausaha peribadi tun mahathir ketika kami tengah minum kopi kat doutour selepas menunaikan solat jumaat di sebuah surau dekat dengan stesen shin-okubo. of course la aku tambah perisa sket...]

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rancangan ini kurang sempurna kerana japanese work ethics tidak di ajar di universiti2 nasional jepun, tetapi hanya bole dipelajari apabila seseorang itu bekerja dengan syarikat jepun di negara jepun.

so kawan2 sekalian.

macam ini lah cara nya aku berfikir.

macam mana nak berkhidmat untuk negara.

adalah dengan menimba ilmu dan pengalaman bekerja dengan orang jepun, dalam syarikat jepun kat jepun.

sebab tu lah aku sengaja pilih syarikat yang tidak ada seorang pun pekerja malaysia.

aku masuk sorang2, dan hopefully aku bole buat kawan baru dan dapat memahami culture jepun sepenuhnya.

walaupon memang aku tidak nafikan, yang bekerja kat sini bukan lah mudah, tetapi aku kuatkan juga semangat.

bila aku dah rasa macam dah ada pengalaman, baru aku rasa aku boleh balik, dan tolong jump start project2 kat malaysia pula.

aku harap aku dapat ilmu dan pengalaman yang membolehkan aku mempengaruhi orang malaysia jadi ultramen, satria baja hitam, flashman, 5 ranger etc.

aku harap aku dapat menjadi 'jambatan' yang menghubungi malaysia dan jepun.

alamak, cakap besar plak aku nih.

tapi, itu lah motivasi aku buat masa nih.

motivasi ku adalah untuk memberi sumbangan kepada negara.

setengah juta punya budi, kena balas jugak walaupon orang tak minta.

[nota aneh: aku tak pernah lak dengar mana2 senior aku yang end up kerja dengan kerajaan. tidak ada seorang pon. majoriti yang kerja kat malaysia pon, masuk syarikat jepun juga. perkara aneh ini sebenarnya tidak lah aneh sangat. kerajaan nak pakai ke jurutera yang reti cakap bahasa jepun?]

ngomen pasal konflik palestine

Kat sini aku banyak tulis pasal benda2 yg mengarut tak ingat dunia punya.

Kalau ada orang yg datang sebab nak baca pendapat aku pasal issue politik ke, issue agama ke, issue apa2 aje la yg serious sket, maka mereka akan hampa sangat2 sebab aku tak brapa suka post benda2 yg serious nih.

Bagi aku, kalo org nak baca pasal sumer issue2 tuh, diaorg bole baca di blog orang lain yg lebih arif pasal issue2 tersebut.

Tapi aku tak bole alih pandangan daripada satu issue kemanusiaan nih: ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT.

Sejak aku lahir, sampai hari ini, issue hangat nih tak penah selesai.

Baru2 ini aku tertarik dengan interview Al-Jazeera dengan salah seorg wakil Fatah, yg menegaskan bahawa issue Israel-Palestine merupakan issue tanah, bukan nya issue agama ataupon bangsa.

*Fatah nih dikatakan lebih non-violent (dan lebih diplomatic) sket berbanding Hamas; dan US, Turkey dan Egypt lebih senang berurusan dengan Fatah berbanding Hamas, kerana history Hamas dahulu yg lahir daripada pemberontakan student2 Egypt menentang pemerintah nya.

Nyata sekali wakil Fatah itu bijak dalam memberi pendapat seperti itu, kerana approach seperti itu lebih mudah untuk mendapat sokongan international yg realitinya agak rimas nak tolong orang Islam.

Tapi kenyataan wakil Fatah itu jauh sekali daripada kebenaran.

Teras utama conflict ini tak lain tak bukan adalah kerana conflict tiga agama Abrahamic utama: Islam, Christianity dan Judaism.

Walaupon conflict Israel-Palestine selesai dengan Hamas menjadi badan governance dengan 2 state solution (dimana border Gaza dan West Bank kekal mengikut Belfour Declaration 1917), tidak akan wujud situasi aman di Holy Land.

Kenapa?

Orang Islam sudah pasti tidak akan berpuas hati selagi Israel wujud di muka bumi.

Orang Yahudi pula lebih sanggup mati daripada meninggalkan tanah Israel.

Orang Kristian pula mahu tanah Palestine menjadi hak milik Yahudi 100% untuk memenuhi criteria untuk Armageddon berlaku. > ni panjang ceritanya. Cuba selidik sendiri pasal criteria yg perlu dipenuhi agar Jesus dapat turun ke bumi untuk selamatkan org Kristian dan org Yahudi yg convert masuk Kristianiti.

Kesimpulan nya, selagi wujud nya penganut ketiga2 agama tersebut, tanah Holy Land itu tidak akan aman; sama seperti sejak beribu-ribu tahun lagi. Tanah Palestine telah dikuasai oleh pelbagai kuasa penjajah dari seluruh genap dunia; bersilih ganti.

Tapi itu tidak bermakna kita bole pejam mata tutup telinga dengan ketidak-adilan yg berlaku di tanah Palestine sekarang.

Apa yg kita bole lakukan, sebagai seorang manusia biasa yg tak punya apa2 kuasa besar?

Boikot barangan Israel dan US?

Bagus juga cadangan itu, tapi aku tak nampak yg tindakan itu boleh merubah apa2.

Walaupon begitu, paling kurang pon tindakan tersebut dapat menaikkan kesedaran masyarakat tentang kekejaman rejim Zionis.

Itu lebih penting.

Yang penting adalah peningkatan tahap kesedaran masyarakat yg konflik ini bukan nya di cetuskan oleh rakyat Palestine, tetapi oleh polisi Israel sendiri yg tidak mahu memerdekakan Gaza dan West Bank.

Issue nya adalah kerana Israel mahu taraf hidup di Gaza dan West Bank jadi begitu buruk, sehinggakan orang Palestine itu sendiri akan angkat kaki dan berpindah ke negara Arab lain.

Israel mahukan semua tanah Palestine, dan cara yg terbaik untuk menghalau orang Palestine drpd tanah mereka sendiri adalah dengan merangsang mereka supaya meninggalkan tanah air mereka sendiri.

Itu lah misi utama golongan2 yg menyokong objective rejim Zionis.

Walaupon begitu, aku cukup hampa dengan negara2 Arab lain yg kaya dengan duit minyak.

Kekayaan Pak2 Arab nih setanding dengan Pak2 Yahudi; kalo mereka betul2 nak tolong Palestine secara tekanan politik terhadap US, bole aje.

Cuma diaorg tak nak ajeh.

Diaorg lupa dengan pesan Rasulullah (saw) supaya meninggalkan budaya asobiyyah arab.

Semua nya sebab sayang kan duit.

Tak guna umat Islam jadi umat paling ramai kat dunia ni pon.

Kalo kita tak bersatu.

urbanisasi dunia tidak lah seburuk yg anda sangka

現在の地球の人口の半分以上は都会に住んでいると言われている。そして、毎年都会に住んでいる人は増え続くと予想されている。この「田舎から都会に」という変動は「自然から逃げる」とも呼ばれている。この「自然から逃げる」という言葉は、非常に悪いイメージを持っている。その悪いイメージが付く理由としては地球の表面を都会化にするため自然を壊して環境を変えなければならないからだと考えられる。

　　しかし、地球の工業化と都会化の成長の一般的な過程は環境に影響を与えるが、あらゆる問題について、かならずしも都会を非難すべきではないと思う。都会は汚い廃棄物を出す工場ではない。都会は高密度における人々の集まる、かなり環境にいい場所である。なぜなら、田舎のように広まった所で住むより、都会で一緒に群生する方がはるかに少ないエネルギーを使用することができるからである。

　　人間がより多く都会に住めば住むほど、効率の高いレベルのエネルギーの使い方、そしてより低い無駄遣いを抑えることができる。減退しているコミュニケーションと輸送のコストで、都会はこれまで以上に重大になった。都会は知性の扉になり、新しい技術の開発をより早く、そしてより効率よくできる。そういうものとして、都会は人間資本(human capital)と革新を作り上げる知的な接続を創造する。

　　市街化の普及は途方もないほど有益な過程である。都市の人々はより経済的でそして生産的で生活と仕事をすることが出来る。都市の密度は何百年間もの革新の源泉だと思う。都会には貧困、汚染、および病気のような問題が悪評につながりはあるが、その問題の原因は都会だと言えない。

　　言い方悪いかもしれないが、都市が人々を貧しくするから、貧民がいっぱいであるのではなく、都市が貧民を引き付けるから、都市は貧民でいっぱいである。都会は悪いから来るのではなく、都会は良い環境性質を持っているから何百人もの人々が都会に集まりに来る。取引と振り合いの機械を求め、郊外に来る農村からの出稼ぎ労働者にとって都会とはより輝く未来を提供する場所であろう。また都会は、他には手に入れない公共輸送と最低生活保障福祉計画などもある。

　　我々人間は社会的な種であり、そして私たちの最大級の実績はすべて協力的である。都市は、協力的である共同作業をより簡単にするためのマシンであり、人間類の発展に欠かせないものになっている。

　　人間は非常に強い柔軟性を持ち、環境の変化に合わせて自分の習慣を変えていく。よりいい生活の性質を掴むには自然に戻るのではなく、このまま地球が都会化的に進むべきだと思う。しかし、原料として使えるものは自然の中にたくさんあるから、自然の回復と調整して、自然を効率よく使用するべきだと考える。自然は人間のためにあるから、その逆ではない。

shake of the day

there was a small earthquake (turns out to be 4.0 in richter scale) just minutes ago and it made me quite dizzy because everything was shaking. after the bigger wave of shakes stopped, i quickly took the video below:

..

p/s: my room was messy from the beginning, NOT because of the earth-quake. :P

strangest dream

--- journal entry for march 28th 2008 ---

I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt I was in my hometown, in pasir mas and I was walking to the local madrasah to pray margrib. As the madrasah become closer and closer, I felt my feet being heavier and heavier. I tried to walk faster because I want to be able to pray in the front saf but my legs become heavier and heavier. I tried to run and I tried so hard, it’s so excruciatingly exhausting. Then I puked out of pain and muscle exhaustion. It was so tiring, I was breathing heavily and sweating like I’m doing a 100km marathon in the middle of the sahara desert. Finally, I arrived at the madrasah, and my exhausted legs couldn’t hold me anymore so I fell on the steps; I was so close; so I crawl into the madrasah; my hands were shaking out of exhaustion. Other people just look at me and keep walking into the madrasah.

Then my emotions take a sharp turn from feeling tormented by exhaustion, to feeling joy and happiness of my success. I made it. I made it on time. I was so happy. I looked up and I could see everybody else in the madrasah were smiling. They were smiling at me. I was so relieved, and happy. My shoulder blades felt lighter.

Then, without any explanation, my chest felt like it was filled with thick black smoke; it was very uncomfortable. My head felt heavy, my chest is about to explode. Then I cried.

I cried. I cried. I cried.

My heart is breaking. So I cried. The pain is not in my leg muscle, but deep inside my heart. So I cried. I bit my lips and grind my teeth so hard because I was crying. I cried so hard, it’s difficult to breathe. I lost control of my own emotions.

I could feel that each drop of tear brings along with them an ounce of the negative energy that was overwhelming me from the inside of my chest, flowing through my sore throat and out of my eyes. My chest felt lighter as I continue to cry.

Then, I woke up. My eyes felt very warm. Real tears are running down my cheek. I was crying in my dream; and I’m crying in real life. I don’t know that the human tear is as warm as this. I tried to stop crying because I got no reason to cry; but I just couldn’t stop. It’s very confusing, and I started to freak out. I was crying more than I was crying in my dream.

In the middle of this confusion and flow of warm tears, I thought to myself: “Holy Shit. I am crying! This is fucking amazing!”. The last time I cried was when I was 13 years old, inside the school madrasah; so it has been a long, long time. That was ten years ago.

This is such a rare occasion, so I took my camera and started to take pictures of me crying. Tears were dropping onto my lap, but I felt nothing now. No sadness, no pain, no joy, nothing. It seems like I have drained my emotions through gallons of tears. I just pushed the shutter button several times until I stopped crying.

I was able to took 18 pictures until I stopped crying; but only 3 of those shots were of me crying. The rest of the pictures are useless because my hands were so shaky, I kept capturing the ceiling and the back wall. Out of the 3, only one picture has perfect focus; the other 2 were too blurry that it’s hard to notice the tears running down my cheek.

All this crying is robbing me of my energy. So I decided to get back to sleep. Plus, maybe I could continue my dream and find out exactly why I cried. I took a long piss and went back to bed. It’s so cold that morning that my warm piss turned into steam. It smelled pretty bad.

Why am I sharing this with you?  You might ask. To tell you the truth, I don’t really know. Maybe because I thought that it would be cool. Or maybe I’m just concerned. What if this dream, my tears, has some meaning? A message for me; a warning about something. A reminder. I will never know the answers to these questions.

Or maybe I do.

Fuck it. I don’t believe in that bullshit. If dreams have even an ounce of relevance to real life, I’d be the luckiest human being among men with a healthy dick. I tried to console myself by saying that; I'm trying to push away the negativity surrounding my consciousness. I was supposed to be strong.

Mimpi tu mainan setan.

p/s: I don’t really remember what I dreamt about when I went back to sleep. It’s just some random wet dream, nothing special.

は。か。さんへ

許可を取れずに勝手に名前を載せて、お詫びを申し上げたいと思っております。大変ご迷惑とプライバシーの侵害をして、真にすみませんでした。今日の電話で約束したように、注意されたすべてのポストの内容（名前と職場名）を変更しました。

なお、ブログの内容を変更・削除しても、GOOGLEのCACHEにはまだ保存されていて、完全にデータがGOOGLEから削除されるのは何日かかかると思われますので、ご理解下さい。

これから、同じような事を起こさないように頑張ります。短かったお電話でしたが、大変貴重なことを教えて下さいました。ありがとうございました。これから、他人のプライバシーを侵害しないように注意深くブログを書き続けたいと思っております。

TAUFIQ ALI

AKITA UNIVERSITY

G Election: the aftermath

My previous post about the general election basically reflected my concerns about the future stability of Malaysia, of whether this change is going to be good or bad. Shouting ‘viva la revolucion’ while waving your favourite opposition party’s flag is cool, but don’t be too excited just because the government that you hate had lost big time. When the winning celebration is over, when everyone stops congratulating each other because they help contribute in this historic moment of our country, the party stops and the real serious issues comes in to stick the needle of reality back into our veins.

Can PKR establish a clean, transparent government that competitively provides an economic solution that benefits everyone? Can DAP create the ideal secular society that treats the rakyat equally and fair? Can PAS deliver on their promise to keep welfare/social development in parallel with the spiritual prosperity? Who knows? Those questions seem to be too ‘pretty’ to be realized in this dirty world of ours anyways. Let’s just hope they don’t fuck things up worse than any political party before it.

Heavy lumps of HUGE responsibility had been exchanged during this general election, and the people sitting on the other end should be prepared.

With that said, the rakyat still has not lost their hope in the National Front. The National Front is still, the governing power that needs every ounce of support from the hopeful rakyats if it wants to change. Will the rakyat’s desire to see a positive change and significant improvements in the way the government deals with problems that need decisive decisions, be fulfilled? Will the huge loss be the big slapping hand that wakes up our leaders to pull their socks and stop fucking around with their little dicks; and start to hear what the rakyat has to say, and respect their opinions? Who knows?

My hope is that this general election makes both alliances a better governing power. I hope both the opposition and the government did their best to cater to the dire needs of the rakyat. I hope the competition would eventually benefit the rakyat, just like the competition that AMD brings into the microchip market that leads to INTEL going into ‘awesome mode’ and eventually kicked AMD’s ass in term of technology to eventually benefit the customers; because that is all that matters: the customer, or in this context, the rakyat.

I wish good luck to both the opposition coalition and the National Front. Now get back to work, and make sure you don’t fuck us up! BOTH of you!!!

G Election: surprisingly not surprising

The 12th Malaysian general election is basically over with the BN keeping a simple majority; and that is a big deal because the last time that happened, some malay and some chinese go out in the streets and killed each other. Let’s just hope that this grand political shift that our young country is facing does not result in a violent knee-jerk reaction from the fanatic supporters of any political parties involved.

Before the election, I knew that BN will never win Kelantan and Abdullah’s supporters will be reduced significantly; but I don’t expect such a big loss to the National Front! This shows how pissed the rakyat is with the current government, and the rakyat had delivered a severe punch to the groin of BN by voting in protest of the government, NOT in support of the opposition.

Although I believe that the National Front’s agenda is still very much relevant to the current social and economical patterns of Malaysia, I’m really looking forward to what the opposition can do to outperform what the government had done, economically and socially.

Malaysia under Badawi had a pretty good economic exponential, a pretty awesome success that exceeded foreign economist’s expectations. But it looks like a stable economy is not enough. The rakyat wants a racial stability that focuses on equal prosperity and transparent governing; a system that gives the people true freedom of speech, and an equal chance to strive for their own success. These are the things that the rakyat wants, and I can’t help it but be doubtful that the inexperienced opposition party could magically make those fancy words into reality. Those same fancy words came out of the charismatic mouths of Anwar Ibrahim, and for the sake of our country, let’s hope it’s not bullshit.

Politicians using fancy words put aside, let’s put reality back into play. Although Kelantan and Kedah will surely be governed by PAS, who is going to be the boss on the newly won opposition states of Selangor, Perak and Pulau Pinang? Although Parti Keadilan Rakyat appeals to the multi-racial rakyat, PAS’s pro-islamist agenda and DAP’s pro-secularist agenda will surely clash when making decisions about the states that they will control in the future. Will this lead to PAS being expelled once again from a political coalition just like when they’re with the National Front in 1977? Ok, maybe I am over-analysing the situation here. PKR, PAS and DAP will be nice to each other. Let’s hope they will.

One main question lingers inside the head of teary eyed BN supporters: Why we lost this bad? I’ve been away from Malaysia since 2003, so how the hell would I know? Although I have no real idea of the reasons, some of it is quite obvious. The first main reason would be the disappointment among ethic minorities, of course. Especially the Indians. They have been a firm supporter and believed in the government since independence, and just look at where they stand in the social pyramid of Malaysia. It’s not very pretty to say this, but any race would surely be pissed if they were to take the Indians’ positions. Basically, with the several religious rifts and the gigantic feeling of their voice not being heard, the Indians just gave up on BN to channel their support to someone else because most of them have no faith anymore in the coalition. But they just form 8% of the population, how can that be a significant power to change the guys sitting on top?

Oh man, I just forgot about what I want to write about the Chinese. What I can think of right now is that the Chinese has been long disappointed and felt been treated like a second class citizen in regard with the positive discrimination to the bumiputras. And the sexy Chua Soi Lex scandal does not help the MCA, at all. Powerful viagra pills put aside, I still think the Chinese still believes in BN; they just vote against it as a protest, and what a great protest that was. I don’t think the Chinese saw it positively about the islamization-race going on between UMNO and PAS either.

Crap, I don’t really want to write about the malays because it could be too long for anyone to read, including myself. So I’ll just point out the obvious reasons that I could think of:

1) Voting to protest the corrupt government, not to support the opposition.
2) Everyone likes the candy that Anwar is selling, because it tastes different, but nobody really knows whether it’s better or not.
3) Worried at the rise of crime and price of everyday goods.
4) They don’t want to vote for anyone else except Mahathir. These people need to wake up though.
5) Kelantanese don’t want to be thrown into the fiery fire of hell if they vote for anything else except PAS, because the guys who tell other people that they are ace in religious matters said so.

Wow, what the hell am I babbling about? I don’t even like politics! I woke up this morning, take a look at the news, freaked out and opened blogspot to write about how freaked out I am. What really matters to me right now is actually this: Is my scholarship going to be affected in any ways? I mean, I don’t want anyone to realize that they’re actually giving us more money than we needed to survive in japan, all these years. I hope they still don’t realize this little luxury they're given us and focus on the development and the racial harmony of the county. Because that’s more important right?

Man, I better close this one fast. I’m already sleepy and I need to edit some ugly pictures I took during the graduation party for foreign students yesterday. So here it goes:

The opposition has (almost) got what they wanted for the past 50 years. Now the main question is: can they deliver all the sweet promises to their hopeful supporters? Although there is a great sense of anxiety of what will happen in all of this suddenly powerful political change, something that Malaysians are not used to; I hope this is the change that all of Malaysians had wanted. I hope this is a change for the better. There is no better time for us to also enjoy political growth in parallel with our stable economic growth since the late 90’s economic crisis. Lastly, I am glad that the Human Rights Watch is WRONG. The opposition will never win this big if the election was rigged by the National Front. At 50 years old, Malaysia is still a young nation that is still searching for its true identity. This change might have helped us came closer to the society that we have long dreamt of: a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious community that enjoys economical stability, spiritual harmony and blooming prosperity. No dream is too ambitious, right?

Peace out to all my malaysian brothers and sisters! remember: don't kill each other this time, ok?