Rugby semifinal Airports Cup - MCKK vs STAR today at Ipoh:
Koleq won 19-13
MCKK will play VI KL in the finals nxt week.
The finals of the Msian Airports Chairman Trophy Finals btw MCKK vs VI will be held at UIA Stadium, Sat 13May under floodlights - the ultimate top schools rugby team for 2017.
You are invited to support the kolej team and the kola team only!
We have not met for many many years...Pepe is my senior at MCKK...and yet when we met yesterday...all those years were gone and we picked up as if we last met yesterday. Life is good.
Here we are...in the flush of youth...all in white walking without a care in the world....without the burdens of life and the world upon our shoulders......and we are still to understand the responsibilities that will one day be ours once we join the real world outside the grounds of our beloved MCKK.
How are we to know that almost half a century away some of us will be gone...some of us are making their best contribution to society and to our country, most of us are growing old gracefully and that one of us, larger than life in all respect...one of us will be in Sungai Buloh biding his time there at the pleasure of this odious Umno led BN government.
Yes friends....that third teenager from the right is saudara Anwar Ibrahim. One of my classmates uploaded this image from the past yesterday. As I look and look and look at this image from days long gone by.....familiar faces and many memories comes flooding back into my consciousness and I am lost once again to my days in Kuala Kangsar at Kolet.
No I am not in the picture...but they are all my classmates, my batch and if we are to meet today, it would be as if time had stood still and we are still in that time wrap that school days and school friends comfortable finds themselves in every time they meet, at any time of our life.
I know that at least one of those in the above image is no longer with us.....but those who are left from the above group are still in touch with each other.
Hell....next week there will be a Daun Pisang Lunch get together in Bangsar for our 64 batch!
Our group whatsapp has been running hot with confirmation of those coming, apologies from those not being able to attend, discussions about food and parking availability, long lost classmates being sought out to ensure their attendance...and even talk about how one of us will be able to negotiate the stairs to reach the first floor where the get together was going to take place. The solution? "I will carry you!" volunteered a gallant classmate of ours who is still fit, hale and healthy....though I suspect that offer was made more as a gesture to ensure that classmate of ours will turn up rather that an ability to do as promised....but be assured, whatever is needed to ensure that every one makes it up to the first floor on that day, will surely be done.
This is the circle of life. While America will be changing Presidents the Class of 64 are busy arranging for a Daun Pisang Lunch get together this coming weekend. I have already tendered my apologies for my absence for I know that time and distance will not allow me to be present.
I wonder how saudara Anwar will convey his apologies?
We MCOBA (Malay College Old Boys).....oh oh I can already hear the sighs of the Old Puteras, the Old Frees, VIOBA's......and all old boys from all the other schools....all of them shaking your heads and saying under your breath...there goes that old MCKK boy again talking about (what else?) MCKK! Please lah....bear with me for a moment.
What I am going to say applies to all of us old boys...yes YOU included!
Ok ...back to square one.
We MCOBA go back to our Alma mater in Kuala Kangsar from time to time, to attend old boys weekend. Some roll up in the latest Mercedes Benz and Rolex watches. Some tompang their friends and are grateful for any available transport that gets them to Kolej. Some have flown in from other parts of the world just so they can sleep once again in the dorm they have once slept decades again and sample once again nasi kawah and kolej food cooked by cooks that would not even be able to step into the fine restaurants that these old boys frequent when back in the world that they come from.
Whoever they may be, where ever they may come from and whom so ever they are in real life....all that they leave behind when they pass that Kolej gate and once again enter that place when times seems to have stood still!
Once you do, one cardinal rule applies to all.
One cardinal rule that you must remember for all the time that you are there.....seniority rules! Tak kira lah engkau Tun ka, Tan Sri ka or even if you were once DPM or a Sultan....when you are in the presence of a Senior ....always must respect lah!
Even now as I am saying this I remember with much affection and quiet mirth, the times and places that I have pulled ranks on MCOBA's even out there in the real world....and you know that when you do it with finesse and grace, that "junior" will respond in kind. This respect of your senior has been an invaluable lesson for me in my life....and for that I am grateful to my Alma mater.
How I wish it was so in the Malaysia that we now have....how I wish it was so!
So all you old boys of any school in Malaysia that was shaking your head at my wanting to talk about MCKK again....do you all not agree with me? If only the respect of our seniors that we learned at school could be replicated in life out here in the real world...would not our life be more graceful, more respectful and maybe, even more civilised?
This is always the welcoming image that I see whenever I go back to MC...be it during my time as a student there in the early 60's after time out on the weekends to go into town or that journey back to Kolet after many many years of being away after I left MC to go try and find my niche in this world that we all live in.
Everything there stays as it has always been.....majestic, serene and quietly waiting for my return. ...and the Big Tree a living testimony of a life long past when we assembled under it's spread to go to Friday prayers, of meetings, discussions or just walking under its welcoming shade on warm hot afternoons after time spent in that royal town of Kuala Kangsar.
I heave a sigh of contentment that MC has stayed the way it has always been even as the world I live in is constantly in flux. And once past that gate into Kolet I know that all will be well and I am safe back in the world that I wish will never leave me...a world that we all share when we go back to our Alma Mater.
This morning, images of MC began to unfold as I awoke from my sleep.....but something was different. Not quiet awake and not yet fully awaken by my first cup of Nescafe I lay in my bed and allowed my mind to wander....wander where ever it wanted to go...and then within a moment I knew what was different!
Last night I went to sleep full with thoughts that my friend Anwar Ibrahim has spend the last one year deprived of his freedom. Deprived of being able to do what we all do everyday....spending time doing what our heart tells us to do.....doing what we have to do to earn a decent living and spending time with our love ones. Not for one week,not for one year ...but in his life, this has happened many many times...more times that any of you can ever imagine. And today, this time around, it has been 365 days since he has been deprived of his freedom! And why has he been deprived of his freedom?
He has been deprived of his freedom this time around for the same reasons he had been deprived of it in the past. He is a threat to the corrupt political thugs, thieves, robbers and goons who are now our political masters by default.
I say by default because Anwar Ibrahim has already won the popular mandate from the people to govern in the last general election....and only his physical incarceration would prevent the Pakatan Rakyat juggernaut from continuing with ridding our nation of the political stranglehold that Umno has over all things Malaysian. For without Anwar Ibrahim's physical presence, Pakatan Rakyat could not and did not survive.
All this was on my mind when I went to sleep last night...and it took only a moment this morning for it to again occupy my mind.
That is why even as my thoughts went back to MC...they were troubled by the images of Anwar Ibrahim....an Anwar Ibrahim deprived of all the things that we all take for granted.
I know that by the end of the day Anwar Ibrahim will still be incarcerated in Sungai Buloh and if Najib Razak and his cohorts have their way, he will still be there until the end of his sentence....if not more.
But this I know.....with every voiced protest against his incarceration this corrupt Umno led BN government will be uneasy.
A thousand voiced protest from us will make this BN government very very uneasy!
So just think my friends what a hundred thousand of our voices raise in unison against the imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim can do!
If we can raise millions of voice all asking that Anwar Ibrahim must be set free....what do you think this BN government will do? Think about this my friends and let us do what we must to free Anwar Ibrahim.
I am one...with you we are two...who else will join us?
Over that most contentious of issues in Malaysia today - religion and race - we never had a chance! Our race is an accident of birth and if you are a Muslim, then your religion was decided for you by your parents minutes into our first intake of breath and of life after birth.
I will not dwell upon religion for it has always been by contention that that part of my life is my own and it will stay my own. But race.....ahhh that is something else!
My first conscious introduction to race was when I arrived at The Malay College in Kuala Kangsar to start Form One in the early 1960's.
That we students were all Malays was nothing out of the ordinary for me because I knew then that there were already Chinese Schools, Indian Schools and Malay Schools...and there were called Chinese, Indian and Malay Schools because they had Chinese, Indian and Malays students in those schools.
But in MCKK our Headmaster was NJ Ryan - a Mat Salleh and soon when classes started, a parade of memorable non-Malays appeared in our classroom to give us lessons in History, Geography, Science, Mathematics etc. Even in the Gymnasium, we were taken through our paces by a non-Malay! During choir practice a very pretty non-Malay lady taught us "What shall we do with a drunken Sailor" which we all sang with much enthusiasm because we were then unaware that being drunk for Muslims was a no no! Ignorance was bliss! I imagine that in these days of rampaging Muftis and invasive Jakim, songs like "What shall we do with a drunken sailor" would be consigned to the abyss of religious "non-halal" no no's!
And we Malays in MCKK were talking in English, reading English books and having English language movies for our viewing pleasure every week! All this I took in my stride as being normal and at no time did it ever make me forget that I am a Malay because in the dormitories, in classes, at mealtimes, during sports and in our foray into the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, everywhere I looked and all around me were Malays!
After I left MCKK for the outside world the belief that the other races were part and parcel of my life have never left me. Just as it was in MCKK, in the outside world too I adjusted to the realities that we depend on others for many of our needs and our wants.
As a Malay I never had feelings of inferiority or inadequacy when I look at what the Chinese and the other non-Malays have achieved for themselves in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world. To each his own.
I know that there are many many others out there who have worked tirelessly for world peace, did their bit to eradicate poverty and some have dedicated their life to ensure that justice will prevail even among the very poor, the under privilege and those most in need of it....and in their presence I may stand in awe at their life work but in truth I still consider them to be my equal .....as fellow human beings. For me we are all equal in the face of life and in death. And what comes between that first breath of life and eventual death is a circumstance of life over which sometimes we may have control over but most time don't.
That is why the present conundrum in Malaysia involving race and religion disgusts me. And that it is being driven by a Malay dominated government to divide and rule our people for its own selfish political agenda shames me to the core. Today hatred has already taken roots within us....hatred that has its beginning in the politics that Umno now calls its own for they have decided many decades ago that they will use race and religion to divide and rule us all. And so far they have been successful in this most odious of political endeavours....but for how long more will this be so?
We Malays need to take a long hard look at ourselves and see what we have become after many decades of Umno rule.
We must also understand how others see us from their own perspective.
If we are to do this for our own gain and be the better for it we must do so with clarity and vision and without fear or favor to ourselves and to our race. We cannot have this be an exercise in futility nor allow any negativity in this process to affect our own sense of belonging to a race that is rich in culture and noble in it's bearing. I am proud to be a Malay and I have always been for I know that we are indeed a race whose values and passions for social etiquette and respect for others weighs heavily in the way we conduct our selves and in how we deal with those around us.
The Malay saying " Biar putih tulang jangan putih mata" - essentially meaning no retreat, no surrender - describes the Malays of old most adequately but time and Umno have done much to politicise and corrupt the Malays of today. The Umno Malays who now strut among us with arrogance and hubris are the Malays that others have rightly defined to be the essence of the emerging new Malays....a disquieting development from the Malays that we once were.
From memory, still vivid and real for I have lived with them and among them, I remember the early Malay leaders as leaders first and were politicians by default and not the other way around. They have not become leaders because of politics but were in politics because they were leaders. You cannot say this of the Malay politicians that we now have in Umno today.
From the Penghulus that I have had occasioned to have known to those who were in government and public service right up to those who were the leaders of state and religion - the Sultans - the Malays who have been privileged to be in those positions undertook their responsibility to lead with a sense of duty and an awareness that they must lead by example. And they were aware that they were beholden to not only to the Malays for their public office but to all Malaysians over whom they held sway. Their duty was to all Malaysians.
And these Malay leaders were noble and regal in carriage, words and in their deeds and by examples in the things that they do. They deservedly earned not only the respect of their own race but also of all Malaysians.
In those days being a Malay meant that you were indeed the deserved "bumiputra" and no questions were asked nor needed to be answered by anyone as to weather the Malays were indeed the son of the soil and that others were "pendatangs". The grace by which the Malay leaders and the Malay themselves dealt with these realities of life and politics was not lost upon the "others" and we all soon easily settled into being a nation where everyone had a sense of belonging and felt a sense of duty and a love to make that nation into one that was home to all of us.
Maybe there were already pockets of racial and religious strife among Malaysians even then. Maybe there were already those whose pursuit for political power were financially driven. Maybe there were already those who were in government who made it their business to advance their own cronies, their relative and friends in the civil service and other government departments....but if there were it was nothing more than the fact that as humans we all are partial to errors of judgement and have our druthers in the things that we do. These sometimes fatal flaw in the character of any race, any leader were never driven by the political agendas of any political party hell bent on grasping and holding on to power through the "divide and rule" doctrine over our people.
"Divide and Rule" came with a vengeance when Mahathir took office as Prime Minister and today we see the ruination that doctrine has perpetrated over all Malaysians regardless of politics, race and religion and none more so personify this ruination as in the person of our "leader" and I use the term "leader" loosely here - as Najib Tun Razak and his spouse, Rosmah Mansor.
All that is wrong with the Malays. with Malaysian and with our nation today is manifested by the words and action of these two.
All that is wrong with our nation today - greed, arrogance, hubris, an odious sense of entitlement, no sense of accountability and responsibility for their actions- all this and more can be seen in the deeds and all that these two do in the name of government and politics and sadly, in the name of being Malays.
If they lead by example then we have already been led into a world that these two are much familiar with: where cash is king, Hermes, donations, do as I say not do as I do and a litany of lies, broken promises and anything said for the advancement of their own and Umno's political agenda where the ends justify the means. That is where were are today.
That is why my people, the Malays, need to take a long hard look at theme selves and what they have become after sixty decades of Umno rule and, more worrying, where to is Najib taking us Malays, together with the others in the foreseeable future.
I know what kind of Malay I have become.
That I have chosen to leave Malaysia and live elsewhere tells a story that is familiar with the many millions that have left Malaysia - both Malays and non-Malays - that we believed that the grass is greener elsewhere. Rightly or wrongly we have chosen to state our case by our deeds - walking away from our country of birth and abode in numbers large enough to cause concern for the government of the day and for what our exodus from Malaysia will do to the country's future.
The jury is still out on this but for me personally the move to Australia, while harrowing and fraught with doubts of my own sanity for doing so, has proven to be a decision that has given me and my family the life that I have personally wanted for them and for me....all coming to fruition as I and my wife enter the twilight of our lives almost free of worry as to what the future will hold for us.
But in these matters ...to each his/her own .....and the deed is done. Without question Malaysia and Malaysians are the loser when one of their own chooses to live elsewhere and take with them all that they have in terms of abilities and belongings to the country of their choice.
Now I want to talk about what how the Malays are today in Malaysia.
What do you think the Chinese and Indians are talking about the Malays in the privacy of their houses and in places where they think no Malay are listening? How are the Malays regarded by the other races? Do the other races respect the Malays for what they do as Muslims and as Malays? Or do they laugh and make fun of the Malays for what they perceive. rightly or wrongly, the Malays have become?
Is it true that the Malays paint all Chinese in the hues of money grabbing business people who are driven by one concern and one concern only - making money to the exclusion of doing any good?
Is it true that the Malays regard the Chinese as being Godless and without the limitations that religion imposes upon their disciples : to do good and have within themselves the ability to care for others and understand that each of us are our brother's / sister's keepers?
And have the Malays given up on expecting the Chinese to be Malaysians and to be able to live with them, work with them and exists in harmony and tolerance with them?
I guess all of the above will be true for some Malays and not to others. It will be impossible to quantify and qualify their thinking and sensibilities on these issues because again, to each his own....but if were are to take our cue from what the Malay leaders in Umno are saying in public and privately...then all of the above are true.
Now what do the other's think of the Malays?
Do they despair at our preoccupation of wanting to impose our religion upon them and doing all we can to deprive them of their right to worship whomever they choose?
Do they look upon the attempts of Malays to do business, whether by their own efforts or with the "help" of this Umno led government as being pathetic and without merit? Doomed to failure as they are certain that the Chinese can always, overtly or covertly, compete with any Malay businessmen and triumph in the long run?
Are the Chinese resigned to being second class citizens secure in the knowledge that no matter what, they will overcome? As they have done in education, in business and even in politics and government?
Again like the Malays all of the above can be said to be true of some Chinese and not true in others.
What is true is that these stereotyping of the Malays and Chinese have become so common place that it now rules the perception that each have of the other in almost everything that they do.
Hatred has already taken roots within us and the sadness of it all is that those whom we hate are our own....whether they are Chinese, Indian, Malays or any others....all are Malaysians.
If you too hate those who are of a different race and a different religion from you then you are part of the problem that we now have in our nation.
We Malays may never do business as good as the Chinese for they have had a head start many many centuries ago.
The Chinese may never fully comprehend the Malay preoccupation with respect for our elders and our readiness to accept and invite others into our world - even at the expense of our own well being and interests.
The Indians have always been loud and demonstrative in what they do but they are good people at heart.
We altogether with the many others who call Malaysia home...we must once again learn to live without hatred...for if we cannot then I for one will never be able to go back to the place I call home. And many of you will leave the only home you have ever known ....and all this for want of leaders who are different from the ones we now have!
These leaders we will only have when we understand what I understood when I left MCKK many many years back ....After I left MCKK for the outside world the belief that the other races were part and parcel of my life have never left me. Just as it was in MCKK, in the outside world too I adjusted to the realities that we depend on other for many of our needs and our wants.....
I am constantly surprised by the ties that binds us Budak Kolet to those with whom we are fortunate enough to have been classmates, dorm mates or even Budak Kolet mates...and with anybody else who are in one way or another intimately or remotely connected with MCKK.
From the time that I wore my school tie to Malaysia Hall in Brynston Square in London in search of a friendly face to the time I went to Putrajaya to plead with one of the KSU's there (a Budak Kolet!) for an long overdue payment for work already done for signage there....always that Budak Kolet link has afforded me all the assist I could possible get if the other party was partial to assisting me with whatever help that I are seeking...and deserved. That Kolet tie got me a free lunch in Malaysia Hall then located at Brynston Square and the Budak Kolet who happens to be the KSU called for an immediate meeting of sorts for his legal and contract people to decide whether payment due to me could be processed forthwith! And processed forthwith it was!
Last week was another one of those moments. This time in Melbourne.
Joe and Hassan
Hassan and Hussein
Out of the blue I got an sms from Hassan asking if I was still in Melbourne...as he was in Melbourne...and before you can say "Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di Pertuan Agong" ...there was I with Hassan (whom I have not met for decades) with Joe Kam (another Budak Kolet who now calls Melbourne home) sitting at a Fish and Chips in St Kilda as if the last time we met was a only week ago in Bangsar! And it was only at the end of an enjoyable coupe of hours of interlude that Hassan told me that that was the first time he has met Joe....and yet from the word "GO" there was no hint of that...you would have thought that they have known each other for ages...hell I did not even introduced them after I saw them greeting each other like long lost friends!
Why is there that easiness among us all when we have shared experience of school and of life? Maybe it is the tribal instinct within us that wants acceptance by others...maybe we seek comfort and want to bond with others....maybe in this world of many billions it is hard to find solace and comfort or even a friendly face when you need one. And so we seek others with whom we can connect on any level at all. After family we seek friends and among friends none are more eagerly sought after than those we have grown up with, studied and work with.
And so be it London or St Kilda in Melbourne I must count as one of life's blessing my time spent studying and growing up in that boarding school in Kuala Kangsar we collegians affectionately call Kolet....or, as most of you may know it better, as MCKK.
At sixty seven I am yet to join the super seniors of MCOBA (Malay College Old Boys Association) but within the decade, God willing, I will do so. Until then I want to give thanks to being part, however small, of that legion of budak kolet who are forever linked to that royal town of Kuala Kangsar, the Big Tree, High Table, Rugby, Idris, Sulaimen, Mohd Shah and Ahmad house and all the other things that makes us part and parcel of MCKK.
Allow
me to introduce my oft-intolerable yet cute art teacher Tuan Syed
Bakar.
He taught me art at MCKK. But he also has this quirky ability to
use art to get out of sticky situations.
By nature he has always been a cool non-conformist and consistently
unorthodox in whatever he does. Or shall I say he hates being told what
to do or is simply indisciplined.
At one staff meeting, at MCKK he
wasn't wearing a tie when everyone else in the room did. It was an
unwritten rule to look respectable and formal when attending such
monthly meeting chaired by our Mat Salleh headmaster then NJ Ryan. The
senior assistant principal Cikgu JK Iyer took offence at Syed Bakar"s
blatant disregard for just a simple rule as wearing a tie. What was he
trying to prove? A James Dean wannabe, a rebel without a cause or what?
So Cikgu Iyer decided to take a swipe at Tuan Syed's all too often
non-conformist attitude. He let out a lengthy sarcastic tirade on the
importance of disciplines among teachers and blah blah blah..
.booooring.
Minutes later Tuan Syed got up from his chair and made his
way to the door. Everyone assumed he was visiting the loo. But lo and
behold, he soon appeared with his shirt collar all buttoned up and
dangling from his neck was a beautiful floral tie he had drawn onto his
shirt using a marker pen. Seriously hilarious!
Silently he took his
seat.
Within seconds, whispers, elbow exchanges and small giggles became
contagious around the table.
JK Iyer looked up in utter disgust but NJ
Ryan slowly raised his fist over his month to cover his smile and
probably muted his familiar chuckles as well. He just couldn't contain
the "respect and formality" that instantly filled the room. But the rest
of the teachers around the table looked down at their shoes to avoid
being noticed by then fuming J K Iyer.
Now did you get to understand
where I learned the habit of annoying people around me if not from my
beloved art teacher himself?
"YES!"...Anwar Ibrahim is in there somewhere....and "YES" that is Y. Bhg. Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Abdul Rahman Arshad...or, as we know him then, Cik Gu Rahman Arshad...who, even then we knew, was destined for greater things!
I have no recollections of the above images taken of me and my classmates when we were all at MCKK in 1964 while we were in Form Five Arts One.....but looking at those grainy images of time past brought back memories as I go from one face to the other....some are dead some are living...
"In My Life"
There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all
Datuk
Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a product of the Malay College Kuala Kangsar – Eton of
the East - the premier residential school in Malaysia. An all-boy and all-Malay
school located in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar. The four houses under which
its students are grouped are named in honour of the four Sultans who founded
the College: Idris, Sulaiman, Mohd Shah and Ahmad. The school motto is Fiat
Sapientia Virtus–Manliness Through Wisdom.
An
extract from the Home Page of the MCKK site here will give credence to its
claim to greatness:
Amongst the more notable alumni of the Malay College are: Dato' Onn
Jaafar, the father of Malay nationalism and former Prime Minister Tun Abdul
Razak Hussein, the former Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim,
Malaysian ministers Hishammuddin Hussein, Effendi Norwawi, Fauzi Abdul Rahman
and Nazri Aziz, politician and former chairman of the Barisan Nasional
Backbenchers Club Shahrir Samad, the Sultans of Pahang and Perak, late Omar Ali
Saifuddin III of Brunei from 1932 to 1936 and the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of
Negeri Sembilan. Pak Sako or Ishak Haji Muhammad , Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad and Dr.
Azahari Husin were alumni as well.
But
what of DSAI? How has his time in MCKK moulded him to be what he is today? He
is no longer Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. He has spent time in Sungai
Buloh convicted of corruption and is currently under trial for alleged sodomy
with Saiful Bukhari – an ex-aide. In between his time in Sungai Buloh and this
Sodomy Two trial he has found time to do a few things.
There
is PKR – a party he founded but yet is reluctant to take the mantle of being
its President at the recent party elections for reasons best known to DSAI
himself. He is the leader of the Opposition grouped under Pakatan Rakyat which
now controls four states in Malaysia. DSAI is the rallying point of forces
against the Barisan Nasional. DSAI has travelled far since his release from
jail. Why then is his empire crumbling around him now?
Foremost
amongst his present troubles is the ongoing Sodomy 2 Trial. Here are the
salient points. Saiful went to work for DSAI as his Personal Aide. This
effeminate Saiful then claims that DSAI buggered him during working hours….well
at least he says he was working at the time of the incident delivering paper to
DSAI who was working in a Desa Damansara condominium when Saiful arrived to
deliver the said papers. What we are all wondering is why DSAI is working in an
apartment by himself when Saiful delivered the papers to him? Did not DSAI
learned from the sodomy one case that he would be an easy mark for entrapment
by any party bent on besmirching his name? No use crying over spill milk…. but
when you are leader of the opposition with a 50/50 chance of forming the next
government after the 13th general election, you try and wipe up the
spill milk!
Something
has to give…and what is giving way, especially after the recent abysmal PKR
party elections is the rapid crumbling away of the Rakyat support for yourself
and PKR that you lead….and you must not discount the collateral damage on
Pakatan Rakyat itself.
It
is not yet Armageddon within the camp of
Paktan Rakyat – but if you are talking cancer – it is Level Four! The
cancer has spread to other regions of the body and there is also secondary
cancer. Lim Kit Siang knows this. Tok Guru knows this. All the first tier
leadership within Pakatan Rakyat knows this. For DSAI this Level Four is
self-inflicted.
DSAI
gave a self-imposed dateline of September the 16th 2008 as the day that he will
take over the reins of the Malaysian Government from Barisan Nasional. Nothing
came out of this.
He
held centre stage when Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal issued a statutory
declaration on 1st July 2008 which was embarrassingly retracted by
Bala on the 4th of July 2008.
In
July 2008 DSAI asked to be admitted into the Turkish Embassy on a Sunday
morning citing personal security concerns. He issued a statement which among
other things said:
“I was
transported to the embassy earlier this morning fearing that my personal safety
was in danger. I thank all those who offered to assist me in this time of need
and am grateful to the Turkish ambassador for extending an invitation to seek
refuge within the embassy.
I have been
told that my assassination has not been ruled out as means to subvert the
people’s will and bring an end to the transformational changes taking place in
Malaysia”.
The Turkish
embassy in turn issued a statement on Monday that said Anwar went to the
Turkish Embassy on Sunday morning and asked to be admitted for a temporary
period citing personal security concerns. The Turkish Embassy said it never
invited former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to take refuge at
the embassy.
He
left the embassy on his own accord on Monday at 6.45pm. We are all still
wondering what that was all about!
All
the crossover by MPs from the Pakatan Rakyat camp into the Barsian Nasional
camp were hand picked by DSAI. There had been too many defections that has hurt
PR politically and has resulted in the Rakyat questioning DSAI ability to
choose credible people to be their elected representatives.
DSAI
welcomed Zaid Ibrahim into PKR and appointed him to the political bureau of the
party. We all know what happened when Zaid threw a tantrum at not being given a
“level playing field” in his march towards being Prime Minister of Malaysia. He
was adamant that being Deputy President of PKR was his first tottering step
towards the end game and DSAI did not give him that chance.
I
think we are mostly in agreement that the manner in which the recent party
elections of PKR was conducted made us very aware that DSAI did not walk his
talk about open and free elections. There was talk about what is important was
DSAI intentions to implement the “one man one vote” concept. Like his 16th
September dateline of 2008 that he will take over the government, this too was
just talk!
We
will not take away from Anwar his contributions towards the formation of a
credible opposition coalition that has forever changed the political scenario
of our country, we hope for the better. While UMNO is leading Barisan Nasional
into another era of open government and its own rejuvenation into a political
entity that the Rakyat has indicated it wants, Pakatan Rakyat under DSAI has
languish where it was after the 2008 General Election. If truth be told I would
not be remiss to say that Pakatan Rakyat is no longer the force it use to be.
Where Barisan Nasional has moved decisively towards good governance, Pakatan
Rakyat is desperately trying to reinvent DSAI into what he is not – the glue
that will hold the coalition together. There is just too many dissent and
voices of protest within PR with regards to the need to have DSAI lead the
opposition into the 13th General Election.
For
Anwar it has come full circle with sodomy two – back to his school days at
MCKK. When you are in an all-boy boarding school full of hormone-driven
adolescent boys, you have to be careful whom you make friends with. I trust
that from now DSAI will be more careful whom he makes friends with.
I spent the most formative years of my school life in
an all-Malay all-boarding school call the Malay College in a small sleepy town
call Kuala Kangsar – from Form One to Form Five. I had the time of my life
there! All-Malay boarding school but never was race an issue or discussed at
length in all my time there. Because we were all Malays we could not form any racial
groupings during interval, games or our leisure times. Language or race did not
define our friends or our enemies (if there were any!). When we ate we all sat together- no halal or non-halal section. Racial
discrimination could not exist in an all-Malay boarding school – so as far as
we were concern it did not and should not exists anywhere else…though I must
say that I found the guys from up North did talk a bit different!
And if there was anything racial about MCKK it was our
teachers. And what a mixture it was. Malay, Chinese, Indians and hell there
were Whites too!…and my only memories of this racial mix were good ones. They
all taught us the wonders and joy of learning – of being together as a close
knit group. Because of these teachers our expectations of other races became
good, we enjoyed the time we spent with them and they with us and so was born
the acceptance of other races to us young Malay boys. The acceptance that the
Chinese, Indians, whites and others was also good people. So what was there not
to like about the others?
Is it not ironic – that a Malay, brought up in an
all-Malay boarding school learns the wonder of racial and ethnic harmony from
that young an age? And that love of others has stayed with me till now.
And another thing that Kolej taught me – how
to write, read, think and talk in English.So what I am getting at is this – even with all the inter
racial schools and the multi racial housing estatesand the rukun tetangga – all this would not promote racial
harmony and equality unless the fundamentals are there. We need to have that
love for each other implanted in us from young and then allow it to grow as we
grow. And if we do it will not leave us for life.
