cakap cakap : Nothing good to write about in Malaysia. Nothing.

4.50 AM Sunday Morning. 5th February 2017

This morning I am especially early - at my keyboard all showed with a Mocanna Coffee by my side and a glass of ice cold water to wash it down with, and ready to start writing at 4.450 AM on a Sunday morning, even by my standards, is early. I needed the ice cold drink because I have made the coffee strong...very strong. How many of you do have a glass of ice cold water to help wash the coffee down your throat? It helps.

This morning I have already posted about the former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen who is in a "critical condition" in hospital as he continues to fight motor neurone disease. I did not even know that he was ill.....but I do know of this South African Rugby legend. All we can do is watch from afar and hope that all will be well with him.

As is my habit, from the time that I woke up this morning at around 3.30AM, I have let my mind wander through my past, present and possible future, hoping in that journey, to find something to write about. 

In times like this, it takes no effort on my part to think of KL.... Bangsar to be exact. That is the centre of my universe when I am home in Malaysia. When I am back in KL I would prefer to live in Bangsar. In Jalan Limau Perut, In Jalan Maarof and the last time I was there about a decade ago, in Bangsar Permai Condos.....well it really should not be called condos for it is more an apartment than a condo...though it has a "gym" and a swimming pool and the obligatory security detail to guard entry into the condo/apartment. The last time I was there, they had already levelled the Lever Brothers complex/factory situated between Bangsar Permai and the main road. I wonder what has happened since then.

I was also thinking about when was the last time I felt emotional about my country of birth...no, maybe emotional is not the right word to use. Maybe I should say I was thinking about when was the last time I felt proud about my country of birth. I did not have long to think on this one....easy! 

The last time I felt proud of Malaysia was in and around the 1990's. 

I had been away from KL, in Perth, for a few years. My Father suggested that I should come back to KL to see how things have changed - and when my father "suggest" something, I try to comply. From Subang we went to my father's house at No: 15 Jalan Boon Kim (later changed to Perisaran Titiwangsa) and in the morning I could see, in the distance, the newly completed Petronas Twin Towers. It was an amazing sight!

  

Later that afternoon we went to the Twin Towers and I could remember to this day, my awe as I walked through Suria KLCC....and I remembered with clarity how proud I felt about my country, about my prime minister and about what Malaysia had achieved under that prime minister : Tun Mahathir.

That was the last time I remembered feeling proud about my country of birth.

There was another time that came close to that time....after a twenty five year wait in 1992,  we won the Thomas Cup with a victory over Indonesia. 

That was a "feel good" moment for all of us...but if truth be told...when we finally won the Thomas Cup..... I only wanted to see Siti Hasmah and how she was celebrating the win...for she was then the Patron of the Malaysian Badminton Team and was not the Malaysian Badminton Team playing for our country, our people and for Siti Hasmah?

Today politics, corruption, arrogance and a total lack of ethics and morality are what our political leaders are known for. Our people are being polarised, divided, marginalised, prosecuted and persecuted. All that we can look forward to in the foreseeable future is doom and gloom. 

Even here in my small apartment in Melbourne, early Sunday morning, that feeling of doom and gloom rests heavily upon me. I could do with a few hours more sleep. I could do without the stress and the time needed to work on this blog. We could all do with being proud again for our country and have that "feel good" emotions that can sweep through the nation and make our people feel one again.....but the way things are now, no way!

And so instead I write about the troubles our country is now in. I write about a prime minister with a wife who embarrasses me. Nothing good to write about in Malaysia. Nothing. 

I see that it is now just past 6 AM. I must shake myself out of this melancholy that engulfs me when I think of home, of KL and of Bangsar. There is still the rest of Sunday to be lived. Enough said.