56th Merdeka

Merdeka,Merdeka,Merdeka

Today West Malaysians celebrate their 56th.Merdeka with a sense of fear of uncertainties of what is going to happen to their future and that of their children. A day that used be one of great joy and patriotism when we were young as become one that is marred by the many unpleasant incidents that occur every day. Reflecting on what is going on today in our country it is sad that we are not progressing as we should as envisaged by our fore-fathers.

The pressing problems we face today as citizens in our beloved country are:

1.Racial polarisation. After 56 years of Independence Malaysians are still very much divided along ethnic and religious lines. In fact we are worse off than when we started. So much hatred for others is being sowed in the hearts and minds of the people, worse so at a very tender age in primary schools when children should be innocently mingling around freely without thinking of the color of their skin or the faith they profess.

2. Rampant corruption. Today corruption has become an accepted practice. It has gone into mega scales and leaders who are to be examples have become involved in siphoning billions into their pockets. The rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer.

3.Escalating crime rate. The crime rate in the country has reached unacceptable levels where the people are now living in fear for their safety and that of their loved ones..The police seem unable to control crime and provide adequate security for the citizens. Thugs and criminals are taking control with the police is incapable or refusing to do anything drastic to stop them. A state of lawlessness appear to be imminent which sends shivers among the people

4. Deteriorating standards in all fields - Education,health,financial management and almost every field to look into, the quality and standards are nose-diving to worrisome levels.The frightening thing is that the government is least perturbed by these deteriorating standards and adverse international assessments. The government of the day appears to be incapable of proper management of its resources and responsibilities to the people.The nation seems to have lost its direction as it is on auto-cruise with no strong and decisive leadership.

5. Severe brain drain. The best brains in the are leaving the country due to unfair policies resulting in the country going backwards rather than forwards.

6.Blatant and gross abuse of power where ordinary man on the street cannot get justice with the public services, police and judiciary which are highly politicized and subdued by those in power. Ordinary citizens have become fearful of cooperating with the law enforcement agencies as the whistle-blowers get punished more often than the law breakers. Law abiding right thinking citizens are punished but criminals w3ho abuse the law go scot-free

There is an urgent need for change in the country which the people at large were prevented from doing so at the last 13GE.We cannot go on like this for long. Change must come and the sooner the better but the people are not sure how to bring about it. The people are unhappy, frustrated helpless and do not know what to do. More and more people are beginning to believe that only divine intervention can save the country from ruin and destruction.

On this 56th Merdeka let us all unite for once, regardless of the faith we profess and the God we worship, to pray for our country that goodwill, logic and reason will prevail. Let us pray that the good will triumph over evil for the well-being, peace and progress of all citizens regardless of race or creed.

 God bless Malaysia

Happy Merdeka

Indian youth and crime

Concerted and genuine efforts by government needed

The following is a true story of an Indian family that was once such a closely knit one, the parents were such good people who brought their two sons with a lot of love and care. Life for them was very happy until the eldest son was about 15 years old when he started befriending some naughty boys in school who had connections with certain working youths.

Soon he started to lose interests in his studies and his performance in school deteriorated and he became more unruly and stared rebelling against his parents. His relationship with the outside youths became stronger and he started missing school. He failed his SPM and after that was offered a job by the friends who were later found to be involved with certain criminal gangs. Slowly he then became fully incorporated into the gang and that gave his parents terrible agony and nightmares.

Unable to control their son, the parents became depressed and isolated themselves from friends and relatives. In a matter of just a few years a happy and united family was shattered and disintegrated into a chaotic and miserable one by one member going astray.

This is a sad story of one such family. There are many such families in our midst and it is a pity that many Indian families are in such predicament, disintegrated and plagued with extreme distress and agony as their sons on whom they placed their future turns to be a hardcore criminal who could be killed anytime.

The recent controversial killing of 5 alleged members of an underground gang by the police in Penang may be a success for the police in their fight the escalating crime in the country. While there is controversy on the way they were shot but nevertheless 5 young men lost their lives at the peak of their lives as they were all in their twenties. Grieved parents have lost their sons and siblings their bothers.

The elaborate funeral processions that followed for the dead “warriors” came as a shock to all who witnessed them. It is frightening to know that there are so many Indian youth in their early twenties who came out in support of their “heroes” who were shot dead by the police.

The latest statistics reveal that about 70% of the gangsters are Indians although Indians form just 8% of the population. This is indeed alarming and more scary with reports of these gangs are going around to schools to recruit more Indians youths into their fraternity.

This fatal shooting should not be treated as an isolated incident involving hardcore criminals as they were all Indians and the Indian community is now facing the major problem of extremely high crime rate and I fear that unless it is addressed urgently as it may affect the safety of the people at large.

The underlying cause why Indian youths are turning to criminal activities must be seriously looked into. It did not come up overnight but over 5 decades. At a glance it appears to be due to their poverty resulting from years of neglect by the political system in the country. Failures in school, lack of higher education and job opportunities together with wrong attitude and priorities in life and the failure of the Indians community to grasp the hardcore realities in the country.

The government should not brush off these problems as just an Indian one but should tackle it as a national one that threatens the security of the people as a whole. Better educational and job opportunities must be provided for the Indian youths. For those who do not do well in schools, special vocation training should be provided by the government as that would stop the youths from falling into the hands of criminal gangs.

Killing hardcore criminals is just a short term measure to reduce crime but the long term measure is to stop our young men and women from falling prey to criminal gangs. This can only be achieved by proper education, training and providing job opportunities for all especially the neglected and poor Indian Malaysians.

It is time for the government and all parties concerned, especially those involved in Indian affairs to sit down seriously to study the genuine plight of Malaysian Indians. Denying something is seriously wrong is not going to solve the problem but must acknowledge their existence and act to overcome them.

Young Indian youths are increasing being attracted to criminal gangs due to unavailable opportunities for education and jobs especially in the public sector. The government should take the lead to employ more Indians youths in the civil service, police and armed forces where their talents and contributions should be rewarded appropriately like their fellow Malay counterparts.

Hari Raya Greetings

Hari Raya Greetings

Wishing all Muslims friends and relatives a Selamat Hari Raya.
May this Raya bring all Malaysians closer together in peace and harmony with the sharing not just of food and drinks but GOODWILL

All that is needed from us:
  A little more love,concern and sacrifice on our part for those of a different race & creed,

and
A little more courage to reject those to incite racial hate,

  To 

realise our dreams and hopes for a truly united Malaysia.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

An inspirational story of a mother

I am not your diver

There was once a mother who had a son whom she loved very much. She showered all her love on him and did all she could to educate him and make him a successful graduate and with a good job. The son was a very nice person, very caring for the mother and the family, until he fell into bad company when he started to rebel and disobey his mother.

Despite the mother trying to change him, the son refused and continued with his bad behavior with his friends. One day the mother was sick and wanted to go to the hospital but she was too weak to drive. She called the son and requested him to drive her to the hospital. She was shocked to hear what he had to say, “Call for a taxi, I am not your driver”. He then continued with what he was doing.

The mother was so hurt that that she went to bed after taking some of her own medication. She glanced through an album containing photos taken when his son was young. One of the photos showed her sleeping on the floor beside her young son lying in hospital bed when he was 15 years old after undergoing some surgery. As she looked at the photo tears started rolling down her cheeks and she slept never to wake up again.

The next morning, realizing his mother did not prepare his breakfast, he went into her room to look for her. To his surprise he saw her dead. He looked at old photo of him with her that she was holding in her arms. Even at her death she thought of nothing but him. He cried and cried for not having taken her to the hospital as she requested. He regretted how rudely he rejected her plea to take her to the hospital.

It was all too late. His mother was gone never to return again.

Uttarakhand Floods & politicians

As thousands are feared dead in the recent floods and rescue workers are working tirelessly round the clock to save lives and remove dead bodies,politicians continue to quarrel over who is responsible for the tragedy.

Politicians like their counterparts all over,seem to be totally detached from the masses as they have no feelings for them.The real tragedy is not the floods but the attitude of our politicians.What a shame!

Uttarakhand Floods in India

Heart touching scene of a child whose both parents are missing after Uttarakhand floods in India.

We may not be able to do anything for this but at least we can pray for him.At least we can be thankful for our parents who may still be with us.

May God help find his missing parents soon and unite him with them.If they are dead,then take care of him by sending someone,like us, to reassure and care for him.

This child wants his parents badly but they are not there but there are many children who have parents but do not want them.

As thousands are feared dead in the recent floods and rescue workers are working tirelessly round the clock to save lives and remove dead bodies,politicians continue to quarrel over who is responsible for the tragedy.

Politicians like their counterparts all over,seem to be totally detached from the masses as they have no feelings for them.The real tragedy is not the floods but the attitude of our politicians.What a shame!

Tribute to the dad who did small things with great love

 As parents we usually try to give the best for our children. We slog and work very hard to ensure that all their needs are taken care. Very often we end up giving them big and expensive things which really like but they may not really appreciate our sacrifices behind all those expensive gifts and rewards. When I look back at my own life, I realize that it is the little things done with great love by my parents that I tend to remember most. It was not the material value of what they gave but the value of the efforts they put into that seemed to have struck me and remains vividly in my mind.

The following story in my life is one such effort by my late father when I was in school about 48years ago.

At that time I was in standard 5. We were rather poor depending totally on my father’s income as a hospital attendant.  My mother used to give me 5 or 10sen as pocket money to school every day. My parents tried their very best to ensure they had that money every morning. Looking back now I realized the trouble they would have gone through just to get that 10sen to make sure I don’t go hungry in school.

One morning my mother did not have even that 5sen to give me to school. She sent me without any pocket money and I obediently went without making a fuss. While in school just at the bell rang for recess, I was feeling hungry but did not have any money to buy food. Just I walked out of the classroom I saw my father entering the school compound on his bicycle. He saw me and quickly came over and handed over 10sen for my food that morning. I took the money, bid him goodbye and rushed to the canteen to join my friends for some food and drink. I in fact felt embarrassed when my friends teased that my father had come to bring the money to school.

That evening back at home my mother explained how my father got the money for me. He was very sad when my mother told him she did not have the pocket money for me. He went to work and managed to borrow 10sen from his friend, take time off from his superior and rushed to the school to hand over the money before recess, which he made it just in time.

At that tender age I was not aware of how he would have felt when he couldn’t give me even 5sen to school. It did not understand how he would have felt when he had to borrow 10sen from his friend, approach his boss to get time off and rush to send me the miserable 10sen.

Now when I recall and picture the scenes I feel so proud of my father. What he gave me might be very small but it was done with a big heart. How happy and contended he would felt when he managed to bring that 10sen to me in time. How pleased he would have felt when he saw the happiness in my face on receiving the money.

Yes, it is the little things others do for us with great love somehow remains in our hearts. That was what Mother Teresa asked us to do in our own lives,  “We cannot do great things but we can do small things with great love”.

To all children out there treasure every moment who have with your dad and appreciate everything he does for you.And dads remember is not the big things that matter but the small things that you do with great love for your children.

Happy Father's Day