Fauzi (kiri) ketika pertemuannya dengan Adek, Selasa lalu.
JAKARTA - INDONESIA. Kesemua ahli Laskar Merah Putih seluruh Indonesia digesa untuk tidak mengulangi demonstrasi di Kedutaan Malaysia susulan isu bendera Indonesia terbalik dalam Sukan SEA Kuala Lumpur 2017.
Penasihat Markas Besar Laskar Merah Putih, Datuk Dr Fauzi Mohamad berkata, demontrasi ini perlu dihentikan demi kebaikan kedua-dua negara.
“Pada masa sama, Ketua Polis Negara (Malaysia), Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar juga telah berjanji akan menyiasat perkara tersebut.
“Saya meminta kepada semua Laskar Merah Putih seluruh Indonesia untuk tidak mengulangi demonstrasi di Kedutaan Malaysia yang telah direncanakan bagi memprotes isu bendera terbalik berkenaan serta juga untuk menghormati saya sebagai Penasihat Markas Besar Laskar Merah Putih,” katanya yang juga Penasihat Pertubuhan Al Qalam Malaysia dan Indonesia.
Selasa lalu, Fauzi telah bertemu dengan Ketua Umum Laskar Merah Putih, Adek Erfil Manurung bagi memohon maaf bagi Kerajaan Malaysia dan rakyat Malaysia kepada seluruh rakyat Indonesia mengenai isu bendera terbalik.
Fauzi berkata, dalam pertemuan tersebut turut memutuskan permohonan maaf yang dibuat oleh Menteri Belia dan Sukan Malaysia, Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar masih belum cukup untuk memuaskan hati rakyat Indonesia.
Sementara itu, Adek pula mendesak Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak ‘turun’ sendiri ke Indonesia untuk memohon maaf berkenaan isu bendera terbalik.
Adek turut memaklumkan sekiranya Najib gagal berbuat demikian, kumpulannya akan melakukan lebih kerap demonstrasi dan akan disertai ribuan anggota
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.
What I miss about KL would need a month of telling. The craziness and loudness of Brickfields. The sights, smells and sounds of Chinatown.The wonderful aromas of appetising delights wafting towards you as you enter Kampong Baru. It all conjures up possibilities that soak your senses with anticipation of things to enjoy! Good food with good friends sharing good conversations. All to be had for a pittance. For what I would pay for one Big Mac Value Meal in Adelaide I could have a meal for four in Brickfields, Chinatown or Kampong Baru…and still have change!
Go upmarket to Bangsar Shopping Centre and you are in another world. You need serious money to have a meal with friends. I dislike the money I have to spend to sit down at the food places there but it is just right to talk business with friends and acquaintances. You can hear yourself converse and you can carry on with your business of talking business with your business friends and acquaintances unhurriedly. And you will see familiar faces going about their business of being seen in the right place at the right time. That is BSC for you.
KLCC is exquisite. Cheap food or expensive food. Supermarkets or named brand outlets. Just looking around or shopping. Anything you want to do you can do at KLCC and you will not be disappointed at its ability to entertain your every mood and fancies. I was enthralled from the first time I walked into KLCC and I am still enthralled when I walk into KLCC again and again on any given day! All that you want to eat or buy, all that you want to see and do and all that money and dreams would make you want to wish for, within reasons, KLCC will deliver. A wonderful experience that challenges all of your senses – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste are all there to be enjoyed at KLCC.
I know there are many five star establishments all over KL. None more so within the Golden Triangle but I most enjoy spending time at the Melting Pot at the Concorde. You sit and indulge your taste buds on an array of Asian and Western dishes while your eyes feasts on the sights of KL passing by those huge open vista of windows that brings KL to you and yet allows you to be comfortably enveloped in an oasis of comfort and serenity with the physical closeness of Jalan Sultan Ismail within touching distance –so close and yet so far.
I know the traffic is horrendous – no matter what the hour - but Jalan Bukit Bintang is surreal when you drive through it in the cool comfort of your car – windows up. The hustle and bustle of people making a buck at every corner of the street …let me say that again…the hustle and bustle of the Chinese people making a buck in the street of Bukit Bintang promises the locals and the tourists plenty. What earthly delights money can buy, Bukit Bintang will most probably sell. All this with PDRM IPK (Selangor Contingent HQ) looking benignly from a hill overlooking Bukit Bintang.
There are many other spots in KL that holds good memories for me. The Coliseum for one, A place my grandfather have frequented in his heydays and one that I hope my grandchildren too will – and what my grandfather saw as he walked into the place I hope my grandchildren too will see unchanged – even the waiters that seems never to have never aged – well not much beyond 70 years anyway!
The Flea Market at Amcorp Mall in PJ is a must on most Sundays. Starting at the basement where the really old treasure are lurking amongst the many stalls – if you are prepared to look and haggle. Some of the stall owners are not too keen on selling what they have got unless the price is right – not for you but for them! They would rather keep their treasures for another week for them to enjoy as there is always the next week to sell it. My favourite buy has been a wooden boat with its outboard engine still functioning if you hook it up to a battery – and I got it all for RM$8. Someday I will pass it on to my grand daughters and let them share it….though I suspect it will probably last a few days before the boat sinks under the weight of the cargoes those two would want to pile on it to see what it took before it does sink. For now I have it beside my work desk to be gazed fondly upon by only me and when the mood strikes me, hook on to the battery to see if the outboard engine still turns. But my wife thinks of it as she would think of any empty milk carton – to be discarded in the bin at the earliest possible opportunity!
After a few hours at the Flea Market we would adjourn to the nearby A&W for lunch…well more for the Root Beer really – served in an ice frosted mug that takes your breath away as you take your first long gulp at its precious fluid. I have been abroad many a time but no Root Beer has come close to satisfying my taste buds as this A&W Root Beer in PJ! And with a gallon or two of Root Beer in the takeaway container we head back to more contented then when we left Bangsar.
