Why oh why???

Something irks me yesterday. I suddenly feels the urge to watch movie, browsing TGV and latest they are showing The Storm Warriors....my sis favorite Cheng E-Kin and Aaron Kwok is back with the second installment movie that comes from comics. I think the first one was maybe 10 years ago, or more...

The thing is nobody is available yesterday. I asked this one person whether or not that person is free and up for a movie. Then I get the call;

That person : What movie you wanna watch tonite?
Me: The Storm Warrior,
That person : What?
Me : The Storm Warrior, chinese movie
That person : Ooooo...chinese movie then count me out.
Me : Ok...

What the h*** was that? Its not just this person, in fact many other my friends have reacted this way. Why is it that we always see that only the Malay watch Malay movies...(well at least this one you can blame on the low quality, Yusof Haslam, Razak Mohaidden kinda movie) .

And if at all any HK movies are showing, only the Chinese watch it?

Why is it that Malaysians (all Malay,Chinese,Indian alike) only watch the movie that is of their native tounge?

Why is it that the only genre/type or movie that can unite all these 3 main races is only those come from outside (American movies, Brit movies..etc..etc)

Did we not have a Chinese friend, and Indian co-workers, that the least we should do is open our mind to these alternative entertainment. That I believe will indeed increase our tolerance towards other races.

I have only 1 (ONE) friend so far that watch both Chinese and Malay movie with me. No other people can do both at the same time with me.

Its not about the movie, its about why are we quick to accept foreign stuffs, rather than learn to accept those that is closer to us? Why?

By the way, I have watched Infernal Affairs 3 (a HK triad movie) alone in cinema and I was the only Malay at that time.

It is true that all these HK, Bollywood movies are not local, but they are supposed to be more dear to us rather than all the 'mat saleh' movie, at least in terms of the language, the people and their culture.

Maybe this doesnt make sense to some people but all the small things like this gauge our understanding of other races, and entertainment is actually the most effective education yet.

One more thing, a movie should be watched because of the story line, cinematography and many other factors, not just the language, at least in my opinion ;)

A Little Bit of This.....

Its been a while I have written, despite that I have so many things to talk about.

I watched the 2 eposides of History Channel special on Tun Dr M last Sunday. He will always be my favorite PM of all time and definitely best leader after Prophet Muhammad PBUH. My respect for him is even more than before after seeing the documentary. Despite all the allegation that were thrown to him, I believe that all the things that he have done for Malaysia are for the people's best interest, although people themselves did not acknowledge it. He is a no-nonsense person and speaks from the heart.

Maybe there are things that he did wrong, but hey, he is human to you know, and we humans make mistake. I was closed to reduced to tears when he said in the documentary that he failed in his 22 years to develop the Malay. I say he did not, although it was not a 100% success, but he did managed to shift Malay mindset, develop more Malay professionals than British or anybody could ever anticipated in short 50 years period. Not to mentioned, Malaysians graduate are employed worldwide more than ever before. I for one, is a product of his tenure, and so far am proud of myself and satisfied of what Malaysia has given me so far.

I have this quote on my workstation from him to get through the day,

"We must not antagonise everyone. We must win their hearts and minds. We must win them to our side, not by begging for help from them, but by the honorable way that we struggle to help ourselves. We must not strengthen the enemy by pushing everyone into their camps through irresponsible and unIslamic acts. "

Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Oct 16, 2003 in speech to a summit of 57 Islamic countries

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On another note, I watched the Barca-Real match on Monday and it was an entertaining ones. I only managed to catch the second half. Although C.Ronaldo was taken out due to injury, but the whole game was fast paced and both teams did their best. Barca is brilliant at counter attacking and Ibrahimovich goal is a result of precise pass from (I can't remember who) . Real did work hard but Puyol and Pique proves to be the solid defence Barca is ever thank for. Valdes was not tested much compared to Casillas on the other side (at least for the second half that I watched).
I have not seen much of Kaka, but believe me once he and C. Ronaldo found their pace, these duo will become unstoppable. However, Messi who has just been announced Ballon d'or (aka European Footballer of the Year) for 2009 is yet the true star. He can get the ball, entangled by 3-4 players and still managed to get away with it. His agility and quick footwork is amazing, and so does Iniesta.

I have always like La Liga compared to BPL. As a Portugal fan, if at all they made it for the final in SA, their greatest rival would be the Spanish team. Many of the Portuguese players either had played or now playing in La Liga, and the patterns and way of playing are very much similar. German would be the one to fear as well, but am thinking Spanish is much bigger threat.

There it is, a little bit of this and a little bit of that....

1957-Hati Malaya, The Road to Merdeka!!!

I watched the live telecast from Dataran Parlimen. This year, its just a modest celebration, in respect of Ramadhan. Its actually a blessing in disguise that the two collide. Good reason not to have all this extravagant celebration that not only wasted the people's money, but also leads to various social issues pre and post Merdeka eve.

Last night RTM2 showed Shuhaimi Baba's 1957-Hati Malaya. That is my first time watching it as I missed it when it was in cinema. Very heartwarming, brilliant movie that capture moments by moments how our great leaders initiate the effort to free up this country. The basic struggle that they fight at that time to push British and convince the public to unite and ask for independence as a nation. Highly recommended. Especially to all those politicians that no longer prioritise the people in their agenda. More often than not they are more concern on their pockets and how to get their 'people' gets all the government projects.



My sister had iftar in a mall's foodcourt sometime last week. Just about time to Maghrib, there is this big group of young Malaysian (non Muslim) hogs 3-4 tables for their dinner. While most of the Muslim already bought their food and wandering around trying to spot an empty place to break their fast. One table of slightly older non Muslim people purposely delayed their dinner and wouldn't leave the place for their Muslim patron to seat. They only offered the spot to 'one of their kind' (non Muslim) to sit. Is this Malaysian? When Malay asked for The Malay rights not to be touched in the constitution, they called us racist, but with this simple act of ignorance, who is the racist now?

I feel that only certain amount of non Bumis are fighting for Malaysia. The rest that 'claims' they are Malaysian (you know those people that demands equal rights to all race) are just here for the free ride. They built their life here, do good business due to good virtue of government policy, earn all the money they can and send their descendant to either Australia or US or UK to get permanent residence or citizenship. They are here only until they can find a greener pasture. They complaint about imbalance race in the govt sector, but did they ever applied to be one of the force any way? Look at the numbers of non Bumi in the army, civil service ...pathetic!!! They never felt compelled to defend this country. All they know is the government should increase their quota in anything that will benefit them (monetarily) This is the hard truth and all these people are claiming their rights under the banner 1Malaysia, joke!!!

While I am saying this, I know many non Bumi who has the highest level of tolerance, respect to others and highly patriotic in their on way. This blogger I met online is one of them. Her post really earns my respect and I salute her for the decision.

Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan ke-52 to all dedicated Malaysian (those who really love this country and not just treat this country as free ride until they find greener pasture anywhere else)

Truly Malaysian..

I'm in PD this Merdeka weekend on duty, therefore miss all the celebration in KL. (not that I joined any of it previously..) My family came down for a picnic on Saturday and there was a little incident...I injured my ring finger. My sister, did not saw that my hands was still at there car door unintentionally closed the door and causes my two fingers to be squashed in between the closed door....yes it was really closed..it hurts like mad..

Pictures below was taken after almost 2-3 hours post the incident;









and today the swell has not subside, bet you it will take another one week before it can be restored to its original condition..ouch... lucky nothing happens to my nails, or else it could have been worse.
Anyhow..that's not the main thing that I want to blog about today.

What does it means to be a Malaysian? In difficult times like now where most all prices gone up, us lead by clown government (not all but the top most are), how do you gauge how much Malaysians are we? Last week we had a farewell lunch for one of our trainee, my boss decided to read something about the late Leftenan Adnan Saidi who was killed by Japanese when they occupied Malaya during WWII. What's a patriot history got to do with a farewell? Nothing actually, he just wants to be remembered..

The thing is, he was all hyped up about the late Left. Adnan weeks before as if its a new thing (just because it is) to him. Mind you he's a Malay..mean how can a Malay not know about the late Left. Adnan? But then again if you ask any Malay on the street, how many of them do actually knows about that? My gut feels says that not many...Does it takes a good knowledge in history to say that you are a good Malaysian?

What about honouring the National Language? The fact that I am writing this in English doesn't help either, does it? I don't know actually how to define a Malaysian, is it actually lies on how you live, where you eat, how you talk or is it how you dress? In the millenium age, I guess people are starting to look alike. You would wander around the streets of Sydney and the people dress (hell even looks) alike people in Bukit Bintang. So what diffrentiate us from a bunch of Aussies?

I would say that its all in your heart, the moment you are proud that Lee Chong Wei brought back an Olympic silver medal, rather than trash him for that 39 minutes defeat to Lin Dan, I guess we are on the same boat!! I am for now proud to be Malaysian. Well there is occasional thoughts of landing a job in Europe or Middle East (who wouldn't?) but I know I will always settle in Malaysia.

For this year, its been a sober Independence celebration, all clouded by the current political state and I hope someone better step up and fix whatever things that they can to save this beloved country of ours. (I don't think the current opposition is the best candidate, tho). I love this country, its the only country I ever know but what the future holds for it, am not sure yet.

Long live Malaysia, may Allah bless us.