Malaysiaku, Negaraku

In Malaysia, nearly everything can be politicised.           When Mahdzir Ibrahim, linked to former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad's party Gerakan Tanah Air claimed that the concept 'Rahmah' currently used by Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim government originated from Dr Mahathir himself, another writer, Hafiz Hassan wrote to claim that Rahmah is a Quranic concept.           Mahdzir's argument is not even worth rebutting, but I have the tendency to agree with Hafiz, except to say that the concept is not entirely Quranic.           Allow me to enlighten all of us here since I am also a student of Hebrew, Greek and to some extent Jawi.           The Quran only came about in the later part of the seventh century. The Old Testament in its written Hebrew form was already there for a few thousand years.         The Hebrew word  ( רַחֲמִים ) ...

  Allow me to first congratulate Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan  for his appointment as the new Health Director-General of Health (DG). Based on feedback I received from the ground, who used to criticise the former DG, Dr Radzi appears to be getting a better rating. He is a “kind and low profile person,” says one. “He is a team player,” says another. A number of others from the medical fraternity have also given some positive feedback which I cannot quote here. Like the American Indian chief who puts his ear to the ground, allow me to give him the heads-up so that he can become a good director-general well-respected by people within your fraternity. Firstly, and I think most people would give me the thumbs-up, is a golden rule: In the event that the country has to face another pandemic, delegate the job of releasing the daily statistics to the public relations officer instead of stealing the limelight yourself. Secondly, the DG’s job is to boost the morale of med...

           Of late, there have been several cases involving members of the public and the law enforcers and local councils, where the victims are usually the civilians.          Take for example, the dog catcher from Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) who was let off while the injured victim Patrick Khoo was charged in court for "obstructing a public servant from carrying out his duty."         If the dog catcher "did not hit the senior citizen intentionally" was there a display of aggressive behaviour? Compared to the injury suffered by Khoo, the officer did not sustain any injury at all.          It is believed that the same officer was also involved in other cases where complaints about his aggressive behaviours would have reached the ears of the department director, one Dr. Chihradevi N. Vadivellu. Why was this officer not deployed elsewhere?        ...

  The arrest of three senior aides of a cabinet minister by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission should send a chill up the spine of those who think that they can get away with corruption. While they are still “innocent” until proven guilty, I will elaborate three obvious points that I can see about the Unity Government led by Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim and his sincere efforts to eradicate corruption. This most important Point No 1 which the Opposition and their supporters must realise is that Anwar will not tolerate corruption anymore. We must understand that he has fought against cronyism and nepotism for over two decades. He himself served a whole jail term of five years for a case where he was found guilty of abusing his power; therefore, no one can ask for clemency in anything less than three quarter of the entire prison term. The fact that the minister from the ruling coalition was also asked to provide his statement shows that Anwar also did not interfere with ...

By Stephen Ng The minimum specifications for stairs constructed in the country need to be revised by the local authorities together with the Board of Architects Malaysia in view of the increase in the average length of a man’s foot.          Based on an anthropometric study of 1197 adult Caucasian males (mean age of 35.5 years) undertaken in North America, it was found that the average man's foot length was 26.3 cm (10.3 cm) with a standard deviation of 1.2 cm. This          Many of us have longer feet compared to our grandparents. My foot measures 23 cm (9 in). My son’s foot, who is only 15, is already 23 cm (9 in).          This is assuming that we are not wearing our shoes or sandals, but when we put on our shoes, measuring at least 254cm (10in), the tip of the shoes will hit the riser of the next step, causing us to easily tip over.        ...

        While lawyer, Shafee Abdullah has a duty to secure his client’s release, the rakyat (and I believe the rest of the world) are watching closely every move made by his legal team, since his client and former Prime Minister, Najib Abdul Razak was involved in "one of the world's greatest financial scandals" which the US Department of Justice declared as the "largest kleptocracy case to date" in 2016.           In the SRC International trial, Justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali has found Najib guilty of the charges and sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment, which is nothing in comparison to what the late Gopal Sri Ram feared, if both Najib and Rosmah are found guilty in other cases, the couple would be imprisoned for the remaining years of their natural lives. The latest development involving Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said, whose letter addressed to Najib’s lawyers c...

First published on March 30 night. Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. (Proverbs 12:10) There is more than meets the eye when the man involved in a scuffle with two Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) enforcement staff recently, will be charged in court tomorrow.         I will leave the case to the honourable judge, who alone has the power to decide whether the case is frivolous and a waste of the court’s precious time. This is beyond my scope. However, I would like to comment on the way how the case was handled by all the parties involved–the MBPJ, the police, the Attorney-General’s chamber, the Selangor State Government and the Ministry of Local Government & Development.         Although I do not wish to influence the decision of the honourable judge, to me, if the man is sentenced to jail for even one day or fined RM1, I think this is an injust...

    Tohmahan-tohmahan yang dibuat oleh aktivis Redhuan Tee Abdullah baru-baru ini adalah amat menyakiti hati rakan-rakan saya.          Sepatutnya, Tee boleh membuat laporan polis sekiranya ada sebarang bukti yang kukuh andaikata gereja-gereja sengaja menggunakan Bahasa Melayu sebagai suatu cara mengkristiankan orang Islam.          Selain dari itu, beliau tidak patut mencampuri hal ehwal bukan Islam. Ramai di antara rakan-rakan saya yang beragama Islam pun membuat komen yang sama.          Selain dari Tee, dua ahli politik lain juga telah menfitnah Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Hannah Yeoh. Walaupun sebagai seorang Kristian, beliau akan mengampuni kedua-dua, tetapi perbuatan mereka ini masih perlu diambil tindakan mengikut undang-undang.          Ini adalah kerana Allah yang maha pengasih itu adil dan telah menubu...

  28 February 2023 The Current Situation We have depended too much on the middlemen in the food chain. This is why raw ingredients have caused food prices to be raised. At the moment, Menu Rahmah may have taken off in the Klang Valley, but it has not reached other places. Feedback from Ipoh, and two East Malaysian states suggest that they too are keen to have the budget meals but such idea has not taken off yet in their towns.     What can the government do to help?   1.    Talking about prices of food such as meat and veggies, YB Michelle Ng reported that resident associations in USJ 3/4 in Subang Jaya have already started buying their groceries directly from the farmers. This is to cut off the middlemen. The Domestic Ministry, for example, can use this model and help publicise their model for others to follow or connect the farmers with the resident associations of housing estates/condo/apartments. If farmers are short of workers, they have to start to i...