Jojo on Vox

I'm a great admirer of Mohd Nor Khalid the Malaysian cartoonist more popularly known as Lat, short for "bulat" or round in Malay. Lat's cartoons perfectly captures the many idiosyncrasies of Malaysians and day to day Malaysian life in way that reminds us that we should be able to laugh at ourselves, not to take ourselves too seriously and more importantly, that we have more in common with each other than we would like to admit.

The man himself

In these politically divisive times in Malaysia, Lat succeeds in communicating via his simple cartoons things that unite us as Malaysians - sports, food, friendship, music and plain ol' good humour. Most of all, Lat's cartoons are also political commentaries on the hot issues of the day and I think it's because his brand of humour is so gentle that it would take a supremely thin skinned person to be offended with his politically inspired cartoons.

Typical urban Chinese mom

This Merdeka, I think Pos Malaysia should commemorate Lat with a series of stamps show casing the best of his work depicting Malaysians in all their idiosyncratic glory. That would be money, effort and time better spent than on erecting billboards reminding us to be "grateful" (cringe) to our leaders for their "sacrifices" (yeah I guess it's real tough to perform your job if you have to commute in a Mercedes Benz).
 

Lat's apt depiction of the vicissitudes of KL public transport

I'm not a fan of Air Asia, but I'm happy that some of their planes have Lat cartoons painted on the body of the air craft. What a great way to showcase the works of a real Malaysian icon all over the world.

ATM

After saying that he hears the message which the people have sent him through the 12th General Election results, this is what His Sleepiness has to say:

Avoid debates on sensitive issues, PM tells MPs KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 ─ Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday reminded MPs not to debate issues touching on racial sensitivity at the Dewan Rakyat sitting as the Sedition Act could be enforced in the august house.

"They must ensure that the debate is of quality and at the same time remember that issues that can raise racial sensitivity, issues that breach the Sedition Act must be avoided.

"This is because the Sedition Act can be enforced in the Dewan Rakyat, in other words, the Sedition Act is also applicable in the Dewan Rakyat.

"They are not free to talk on anything that breaches the Act," he said after a meeting with Barisan Nasional (BN) members of the Dewan Negara, Dewan Rakyat and State Legislative Assemblies at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).

He said such issues should be avoided as they could create tension and problems in the country.

Abdullah also advised MPs to understand the issues at hand as well as the Standing Orders so that the debates would be effective.

"If you don't know and speak wrongly (in the debate), then there is no meaning, it gives no significance at all. They (MPs) must be firm and confident to come up with good debates," he said.

On the handful of MPs who use coarse language, he said such words would not have been uttered if they truly understood the Standing Orders.

"Those who utter such words are also admonished by the Speaker. Don't speak as you like, waiting for the Speaker to reprimand, don't speak on matters that will invite a reprimand from the Speaker.

"Such words cannot be used in Parliament. It is unparliamentary. That's why I said they should read the Standing Orders," Abdullah added. ─ Bernama

The Keris Fiasco

Wasn't there a Minister who not too long proclaimed in Parliament that non-Malays should go back to where they came from if they didn't like it here? It's hard to conceive how such a callous and insensitive remark could not have damaged ethnic relations in the country but was any action taken against this Minister.

They are mostly straight talking multi-lingual friendly & helpful folks. Malaysia behaves as if it's the only multi racial country in the world but Holland is far more ethnically diverse than we are. Despite that, everyone seems to speak Dutch & I was surprised that I'm spoken to in Dutch in supermarkets & shops first. The great thing about the Dutch folks is that they can make the switch to English seemlessly when you tell them that you don't speak Dutch.

They also seem to be friendly folks; the people whom I walk past in the office corridors & share elevators with all say "hi" or "hello" or "good morning" even though I don't know them. Do that in Malaysia & people will think that you are nuts.

There were several occasions when I wasn't sure if the train I was on would stop at my intended destination. The people on train whom I asked for directions would often ensure that I knew where my stop was if they alighted before I did.

Dutch toilets are insanely built. In a country where there are so many tall large folks, the broomstick cupboard size of toilets really baffle. Yesterday Hani showed me her new flat, which has 3 times the space of her old place, except for the loo. Her loo has just about enough space to sit down on the john, stand up, wash your hands in a sink the size of a large chinese soup bowl, turn gingerly around to exit & that's it. It's the same for loos I've seen in other Dutch apartments. The size of my hotel loo which first struck me as tiny now seems quite palatial in comparison to the typical Dutch toilets.

Call it a wish list, but all of these things must be done to stop the country from careening further down the tubes. This is by no mean an exhaustive list.

1. Increase transparency and accountability in the public sector
This should be done by :
(a) publishing the rules / yardsticks on how judges are nominated & selected;
(b) amending the Local Government Act to allow for local council elections;
(c) removing the ACA from under the PM's office and making it an independent body with real enforcement & investigative powers;
(d) repealing the Printing Presses and Publication Act to enpower the local media to do more investigative journalism instead of being the mindless governnment syncophants they are today;
(e) publish the criterion by which government tenders are awarded.

2. Remove all cost inefficiencies by the government
This can be done by:
(a) removing all subsidies and assistance for Proton - let it die if it has to die or allow someone who can help it out of the sea of red ink it's in. There's no national pride in wasting even more of tax payers' money funding the terminally doomed national car project;
(b) putting a stop to all ridiculously wasteful exercises like the Angkasawan;
(c) awarding government project to contractors with excellent track records, not to those whose workmanship only lasts a few months for eg the Jalan Duta courts' collapsing roofs and the shoddy workmanship on the repair works in Parliament house.

3. Revamp the entire education system
This can be done by:
(a) Getting education experts from around the world to recommend medium to long term plans on how we can improve our education system to produce a more competitive & marketable workforce;
(b) Increasing teachers' salary & benefits
(c) Implementing a measurable KPI based meritocratic system of performance review for teachers & sack non-performing teachers, not transfer them to another school;
(d) Rewarding academic research based on the number of the number of academic papers published in international journals, not the number of asses kissed in the university hierarchy;
(e) Inviting renowned subject matter expert academics to teach in Malaysia and to transfer their knowledge to locals or at least make it attractive for these people to come and teach or set up research labs here.

4. Increase the competitiveness of Malaysia as a place to invest and work
To be continued - need to sleep first.

I may be on a business trip on March 8, the date of the Malaysian general elections. I had plans to inquire with the Malaysian embassy in Holland on how I can cast my vote on that day if I was in fact out of the country at the time. This article in The Star today reports that the Election Commission secretary says that only Malaysian civil servants abroad are eligible for postal votes and that all other Malaysians living overseas have to come back to vote!!

WTF!

It's completely ridiculous to expect Malaysians abroad to fly back home on short notice to vote. Why can't Malaysians abroad also be eligible to the postal vote like civil servants?  Is the Malaysian government afraid that these group of Malaysians, who could be made up of a large number of disgruntled people who have left the country, would not vote for the Barisan Nasional? Are we saying that the votes of Malaysians abroad don't count? Americans abroad can cast postal votes, so can the British, so why not Malaysians? Don't they count? Obviously not. It's time to change the law to facilitate the ability of Malaysians abroad to participate in the democratic process.

It's the Year of the Golden Rat - so I'm told by the many text messages wishing me Gong Xi Fa Chai which I received at about midnight last night. It's been a very quiet new year so far; Leonard, Erin & Yew Yen couldn't come back this year because he couldn't take time away from work, which sucked. Last night, we had our reunion dinner at a little cafe in PJ New Town, just my mom, Amy and me. Didn't feel the same; last year we had all the family around, including Kung & Poh, at the reunion dinner. Kung was always the first person to give me an angpow - so that I could spend it earlier, he said. I don't know of any person who loved giving away money as much as he did.

I don't know whether it's age, or just a sign of our times where traditions get watered down as we go along, but I remember CNY being a bigger deal when I was younger. I remember my grandma making her pineapple tarts weeks before CNY. It was a very time consuming affair - she made her own pineapple jam for the tarts by scrapping the pineapple flesh by hand and then cooking the shredded pineapple in a huge copper wok over a slow fire. I miss the smell of cooked pineapple jam wafting through the kitchen warmed up by an oven full of freshly baked tarts.  No matter how many she made, grandma never seemed to make enough tarts....as soon as they came out of the over, they would quickly disappear into Leonard's mouth. Because of this, she had to hide some tins of tarts away from the resident cookie monster's sight, so that we had some left to offer to guests who visited us during CNY.

Maybe the CNY of my childhood seemed more special because I was younger & less jaded, perhaps it felt more special because there were some goodies which my grandma made only during CNY. Besides her tarts, grandma also made sun dried agar agar, which she sunned for about a week before CNY, hardening the sweet translucent jelly into an almost crunchy consistency. The highlight of the reunion dinner was a duck stew - "ta lo ngap". I've never found anything like it served in restaurants & it's one of my biggest regrets that I never took the recipe down from grandma before she became senile.

One particular CNY reunion dinner stands out in memory. My grandpa had a friend who lived a few doors away from us, an old World War 2 veteran Anglophile gentlemen named Yusuf.  We invited Yusuf over for CNY dinner because he was alone. We made sure there were some chicken dishes at the table and placed the chicken dish in front of Yusuf & the pork dishes away from him at the far end of the table. Before the dinner started, we told Yusuf abbecaout the different dishes on the table but once we started, Yusuf stood up & reached over to the pork dish at the end of the table. How do you tell a 78 year old man he shouldn't have that dish? After dinner, Yusuf asked my dad if he minded if he had some brandy? It was hard not to oblige the old boy who spoke fondly of a time where things were more liberal & less superficial.

Speaking of superficial....don't have to be psychic to predict what tomorrow's news headlines will be. Smiling pictures of the PM with the MCA president tossing yee sang or painting a dragon head's eye with some schmaltzy we-love-each-other-muhibbah caption. What bollocks. How little does it take for us to be told that if we don't like it we can go back to China / India and that we're second class citizens?

Another random thought.....traffic was fantastic today, the roads were pleasantly empty, more so than a Sunday. Amy & I went to SS2 just to park in front of the Savemart supermarket just because we could. So siau, but it was fun.

Let me just say upfront that I'm suspicious of Hillary Clinton and don't consider myself one of her fans. Most politicians are public sentiment chameleons but my gripe with Hillary is that she can't even project an image of being sincere. Got that feeling after I read her autobiography Personal History. Anyway, I really like Ed Stole's cartoon below because it so accurately captures the public's double standards to men and women in power when they show their emotions. The minute a powerful woman display an iota of emotion as Hillary's alleged choke up while campaigning in New Hampshire this week, she's labelled as emotional. See a man choke up and he's labelled as sensitive and in touch with his feelings. Maybe that's why Hillary supported George W in going to war in Iraq - had she voted against that motion, she would have probably been criticised as being weak.

Reaction to Hilary's alleged choking up during New Hapmshire caucus campaign

The one thing which I love about Deepavali is the beautiful kolams which you find on the floors of most shopping malls. The office had a modest design of a peacock this year, made by the employees. Came across a giant Kolam while I was browsing along the Gardens on Deepavali morning 2 weeks ago and was intrigued by the design which I thought resembled batik. The kolams always remind me of the intricate Tibetan sand Mandalas. I can't help but feel that it's such a shame to destroy the kolam and the mandalas after a time, but the dismantling of these designs serve to remind us of the impermanence of beauty and life in general.

Arial view of giant kolam at the Gardens, Mid Valley on Deepavali Day 2008

Close up of Kolam at the Gardens, MidValley on Deepavali day 2008