Inspiring story

This is Erich Hartmann,

I first read about him when I was in school.

Hartmann was a German fighter pilot during the Second World War.

This is an illustration of him flying in his "Black Tulip" fighter, followed by his wingman,

They were flying Bf109s.

Not exactly my favourite WWII fighter.

There were better others.

But Hartmann preferred to fly only Bf109.

He shot down a total of 352 enemy aircrafts, the highest score ever recorded in history

It's exceptionally high even by the standards of WWII.

Considering the nature of current and likely future air combat, his feat was likely never be matched by anyone else.

But Hartmann fought for the losing side in the war.

He was imprisoned in the then Soviet Union for over 10 years after the end of the war and was among the last German prisoners of war released from captivity.

You can read more about him at this link:

Erich Hartmann

The story of this "Ace of the Aces" fascinates me when I was a kid.

It leaves a strong impression on me.

Bravery, selflessness, sacrifices, loyalty etc.

May sounds stupid in our materialistic world today, but I like those things.

Anyway, Hartmann's story to me is much better than the story of current Malaysian politics.

Really.

There are actually so many other better stories out there than all the nonsense that those people want us to believe.

At the moment I prefer reading or writing about people like Hartmann than about Dr Mahathir, Najib, Lim Guan Eng, etc.

How I wish I can do things like flying and shooting down my country's enemies like the guy instead of mostly just bitching day in day out.

Previously I thought I was sort of doing the same by writing this blog, but now I think I was just stupidly bitching along and nothing more than that.

Next time, I should write better stuff.

Yup, I'll try.

That's if they don't shut me down first la.

What? Najib stole all those money?

Let him lah.

If he really did, let's pray for Allah to make him choke to death on all those ringgit.

Well, what else there is for us to do, isn't it?

Dr Mahathir and the rest had done everything that they can what.

Najib insists he's innocent and wants to stay in power.

And he has the power to do that.

What more can you all do other than making noises and praying?

Other than that, just wait la for the general election.

Realistically, that's all there is to it.

Life has to go on for now, okay.

Need to do the necessary to go on living.

Well, need to get up now and get ready for the day.

I'll write again when there are something really worthwhile to write.

This blog is slowing down a bit.

Sorry, I'm getting really lazy.

Or maybe just not motivated or inspired :)

A confession

Okay, I confess.

I don't support KJ.

My last post and those others about him previously were just meant to irritate people....especially people that I wanted to irritate.

Just for fun only.

Why would I support KJ.

I don't even like the guy.

In fact, I don't support anyone these days.

Not Dr Mahathir, not Najib, not Lim Guan Eng....definitely not Lim Guan Eng.

I don't see any real reason for me to support any of them.

In fact, I'm tired of them all.

Nowadays, I just want to get by from day to day.

That's all.

Whatever I write now are just matters of fact.

No more no less.

For instance, KJ is the future of Umno.

That's a fact, considering the current circumstances.

And it's true what, he's handsome and macho.

At least that's my opinion.

But it doesn't mean I support him.

Bukan saya dapat apa pun nak sokong dia.

However, we have to admit that KJ is the only option Umno has for its future.

At least that's the way it is if Umno still survive the next general election.

Again, let me remind you all, just because I said that doesn't mean I support Umno.

I have done all I can to support that party.

I'm tired of it now.

I don't support the other parties too, okay.

Wasting time only.

Whatever it is, life still goes on for ordinary Malaysians, like myself.

One way or another, we have to carry on.

That's why I prefer that we all make sure things are still good enough till the next general election.

Good enough for us to earn a living, keep our loved ones safe and not cause any problem.

Come election day, we just vote the ones that we prefer to lead the country.

That's the only way, actually.

Even if you hate the current leaders so much, you can't topple them down now.

You have to wait for the general election.

When the time comes to vote, then by all means, vote them out.

I know, some of you all don't want to wait.

But do get real, okay.

That's the only way.

Fine, we can bitch about things for now, but please don't make it worse.

Keep it cool.

Let's not wreck the country.

Okay, I need to go on a long drive now.

Take care everyone.

Peace.

Go KJ! (Part 2)

I think I got it right when I wrote that Khairy Jamaluddin is

Umno's new hope

Some had jubilantly cheered a likely KJ's downfall following the recently reported RM100 million embezzlement case in the office of the Youth and Sports minister, but I was convinced that the handsome guy would survive that.

Well, who else Umno has to lead the young ones in the party?

Seriously, KJ is the only one.

He's smart, charismatic, eloquent, etc...and of course, he has the looks too.

And yesterday, I think I'm more or less confirmed to be right.

KJ's beloved father-in-law Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was made the new Petronas adviser replacing that troublesome Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

KJ's star is shining bright again.

For me, there's no stopping KJ now.

He even got his nearest rival, Dr Mahathir's son DS Mukhriz Mahathir out of the way.

Unless he screw it up himself la, which I don't think he would after lessons learnt in 2004-2008.

KJ has survived it all.

If he plays his card really well, he may even be the one replacing DS Najib Razak as PM in not that many years from now.

I think he is capable of that.

His appeal as a leader extends beyond Umno.

Really. I'm not kidding you.

There was once I was in a car with a group of Indian young ladies.

All of them are highly educated and beautiful.

And they were excited about where we were going.

Believe it or not, we were on our way to observe the Umno general assembly at PWTC.

The reason for their excitement was that they got to see KJ in person.

They were like "OHHH!!! HE'S SOOO HANDSOMMMEEE!!!"

It's a real story, okay.

May Allah fry my ass and other parts of my body in hell if I'm lying to you all about this one.

(Note: I think I need to add that every time I tell one of my more colourful stories. Otherwise people will accuse me of being a fraud and liar)

Okay, enough lah for today.

Here's a song to cheer up your Saturday,

Have a good weekend guys.

DAP wouldn't care less also

It looks like the government really want to shut down the anonymous political blogs.

You all can read it at Rocky's posting,

Blog/portal registration: Why some politicians stand to lose most

If your blog is registered, that means you can't be anonymous anymore, isn't it?

That includes me too, I guess.

Well, mine is actually not strictly a political blog.

I don't try to be a saviour of Umno or become penyelamat umat Islam every other days like some people.

That would be too tiresome.

I also write about things other than politics too, okay.

Movies, music, travels, autism, my family, etc.....and even a bit of my pathetic love life.

But still, I guess they will come after me if I don't register this blog.

"Annie, you are hereby charged with operating an unregistered political blog. By writing that you are dating a DAP supporter, you are actually campaigning for the evil Chinese evangelists of that party."

I can just imagine them saying that to me.

So troublesome.

Well, are we going to have "thought police" now?

Even if I go and register this blog, there's no guarantee that they will not later on take action against me.

They can after all interpret what I wrote at their whims and fancies.

"You are against people attacking Tun M. You must be a ProTun trying to topple the government. You are bad. We are shutting you down."

Ya, that sort of things.

Some are already doing that.

"Either you are with us or against us," so they said.

It's all really not worth it.

Therefore, once the new law comes into effect I think I will stop blogging.

I'm not going to break any law.

Instead, I will do other things.

Maybe I will switch to Facebook.

Yup, somehow they were not concerned about FB.

Facebookers don't need to register....just bloggers.

And blog is actually outdated compared to FB.

And how about twitter? Should they register twitter users too?

Wassap? Telegram? Want to register those also or not?

I used to be an active Facebooker before becoming a blogger.

I will think of it.

The idea of quitting blogging is actually not so bad.

This blog is not as precious to me as some people thought it is.

Despite being anonymous, it had caused me quite a lot of trouble.

Back then, I felt the risks were worth taking.

Kerana agama, bangsa dan tanahair.

Lately, I'm not very sure of that anymore.

Really.

They can shut it down if they want.

I will just walk away.

I'm totally okay with that.

By the way, I need to continue with my book project.

If I don't blog, I would have more time for it.

So, no problem.

Everything a bit more restricted but it should make us feel more like being in Singapore.

Singapore is good what.

Ask the DAP people, including the rejects if you don't believe me.

Singapore is their paradise.

By the way, do you all know any prominent DAP blogger?

Honestly, I only know Sakmongkol AK47.

From what I know, DAP is not depending too much on blogs for cyberwar.

Maybe that's why there are bloggers who actually love DAP but got disheartened and switched to supporting BN and Umno because they were not given due recognition by the party.

So, I guess DAP will not be very affected by the newly proposed law either.

What a shame, isn't it?

All those efforts and sacrificed freedom of speech will be wasted, I think.

Well, too bad.

Simply hantam one

Slept a bit too early and was woken up just now.

Quite a nuisance like this.

So difficult to go back to sleep.

It's now about 1.40am.

I'm writing this just to while away until I get sleepy again.

Somehow, I always miss my mother at a time like this.

Checked the phone, and I saw that she's online and likely still busy where she is now. She's overseas.

There's also a message in my phone from a friend who told me that a particular blogger is spreading a story about me being a former political reporter of New Straits Times.

Told him to stop reading stupid blogs.

Less poison and nonsense.

Nowadays, I only read blogs in my blogroll.

By the way, I'm not a former political reporter of NST. May Allah fry me in hell if I lied about it, okay.

Need to clarify that. Otherwise those unfortunate guys who used to be a political reporter of NST may be accused as being me.

Not fair to them. From what I know, they are good guys.

Well, you know lah, these days, people simply simply hantam accuse others of things.

Terrible people that one.

Whatever it is, I'm getting very lazy.

Do people really still care to read all those heavy political stuff?

Shouldn't they be focused on work instead of reading all those nonsense?

Nowadays, I write in this blog without even checking the issues at hand properly.

I really simply write things out of my head.

Mostly just to while away the time like what I'm doing now.

Anyway, what are there to motivate me to put so much effort into all these?

It's not like I'm being paid RM20,000 per month to blog....like some lucky people.

Well, never mind.

That's their rezeki, okay.

I'm fine with it.

I was just a bit pissed when those type behave so holier than thou.

As if they are so superior than others and that what ever they wrote are the gospel truth.

And they have never really been on the ground.

Well, never mind.

Wasting time and energy only talking about that.

I better try to sleep again.

You all, have a good day.

Anyway, here's a song,

Peace, okay.

A nice melancholic movie and other small stuff

Had dinner with my mother.

She was on her way to Singapore and stopped here to see me.

It's nice.

I had not seen my mother for quite a while.

She's always busy with her work in KL.

Sometimes I wonder how my father could stand her not being around most of the time.

He loves her very much despite all that.

Well, she's going abroad again for work later in the week.

That's why she is down here to visit my grandparents who are currently at my big aunt's place in Singapore.

Anyway, today I got no mood to write about politics.

It's the same ding dong as always.

Nothing really worthwhile to write.

Good that I'm not being paid to write this blog....unlike some people.

Otherwise I would have to cook up something to justify the payments.

Malay unity, resistance against the enemies of Islam, etc.

These days, all sorts of people are writing about those.

Sometimes it gets quite hilarious because I knew what the writer who wrote such stuff was really all about.

So fake.

Still, I don't mind it that much.

Everyone has to make a living, okay.

Well, let them be lah.

Actually, just before I started writing this, I just finished watching the last portion of the movie,

Our Little Sister

It's beautiful and really heartwarming.

I've been watching it online bit by bit since yesterday.

For me, it's about coping with being left by our dearest beloved and staying strong without being judgemental for the days to come.

I love this type of Japanese drama movies.

The pace may be a bit too slow for most people here, but I don't mind it at all.

It gives me time to enjoy the smaller details of the movie.

It makes the movies so real.

There's this certain pleasant but melancholic feeling whenever I'm watching them.

Honestly, it's the same feeling I got when I was traveling around Japan,

Something to do with the Japanese landscape and the way of the people there, I guess.

Nonetheless, it's really nice actually.

Eh, past midnight already.

I better sleep.

Unlike some lucky people, I have to actually get up in the morning and go to work instead of just writing about penyatuan umat Melayu bagi menentang musuh-musuh Islam....or something like that :)

Okay, good night.

About Guan Eng's nice house and not so bright Umno people

Unlike most people in Johor, I don't work on Sunday.

My workplace  still observes the usual Saturday and Sunday weekends.

No one bother us about it because our's is just a small family type outfit.

I prefer it that way.

Also, the arrangement makes it much easier to coordinate work with most other parts of Malaysia....and the rest of the world.

Anyway, I have been hibernating at home since yesterday.

Got an invite to go on a ride by the gang but decided not to go.

It's too hot out there these past weeks.

Well, I'm not much into convoy riding anyway.

Nothing really worthwhile to write today, except maybe the controversy about Lim Guan Eng's over RM2 million bungalow.

But then again, so many people had written about it, that I got nothing more to add.

Guan Eng is really in a fix this time, I guess.

He should had just instead bought one of those nice sea-view apartments at Gurney Drive.

If I'm not mistaken, the price is more or less the same, but people won't really notice because it's not landed.

Sure the towkeys there can give discounts too.

Also, I don't think Betty mind it that much living in an apartment. Makes it feels like living in Singapore. Quite classy, actually.

Guan Eng and Betty looking classy

However, I doubt the whole thing will make much of a difference.

Most Chinese will still support DAP.

Even more so if Guan Eng is charged, found guilty and thrown in jail for corruption because of that expensive house.

That's just the way it is.

DAP people had done their job really well as far as winning the Chinese support is concerned.

It's just too bad for them that their leader is not so bright that he got caught like that,

Umno on the other hand is still struggling to unite its own members, let alone the Malays who are its core support group.

Then there's that rebellion on top of it all.

Instead of calming things down, their big-time bosses and macai started to shoot not only the rebels but also those who refused to join the fight.

They even employed some weird people including spiteful DAP rejects to wage a hate campaign against their fellow party members who refused to be like them.

Of course such people who don't have any love for Umno would happily take the job of tearing up the party to pieces.

Stupid.

Let's not even talk about the fighting among themselves, such as the very ugly and public quarrel over who initiated the #RespectMyPM campaign.

Why can't they just do their work properly instead of getting bogged down by such things?

Well, that's how things are at the moment.

Both sides are equally bad one way or another.

At least that's how I see it.

I know, not very nice stuff to write on a Sunday afternoon like this.

So, that's about it.

I better just relax and watch some Korean drama instead.

Yup, that's what I'm going to do now.

You all rest well too, okay....unless you have to work on Sunday like most people here in Johor.

Peace.

Annie is not a mockingbird...over the hardship issue

A friend asked why I tried to "water down" the people's financial hardship in my last posting.

He said it's not nice of me to suggest for the people not to complain too much and then telling them about my overseas travel plans.

"If I didn't know you any better, I would have thought that you are mocking the people. We, the rakyat are really suffering now, okay," he added.

Honestly, it was not my intention to mock anyone over the financial difficulties issue.

I was just suggesting for all of us to be realistic and not go overboard with our complaints.

That way, those who can do something about the matter can consider our message and do something about it.

It's better than just getting them upset and in the end refuse to help us.

What's wrong with conveying our message without getting all emotional?

Personally, I tend to ignore people who shout and scream not so nice things at me.

I just don't like it.

It's the main reason why I decided to remain neutral ever since the Umno civil war broke out last year.

Both sides appeared to be dominated by not so bright people who resorted to screaming and shouting when they can't argue their case intelligently.

For instance, there's that lady who screamed and shouted the word "kencing" to described her unhappiness towards PM DS Najib Razak. I honestly felt very uncomfortable watching the video and then realising that she has been hailed as a heroine by some people.

Then of course there was that quarrel of mine with a DAP reject turned Umno saviour and penyelamat ummah from the Najib camp who is instigating Umno to be a gangster party with the motto of "either you are with us, or against us".

I do wonder what these sorts of people were trying to achieve by using words such as "super moron" and "orang tua nyanyuk" (senile old man)?

For me, that's what brought about the whole thing to this level where finding peace on our political landscape now is next to impossible.

Seriously, I'm fed up with the whole thing.

I rather talk about being realistic now.

I may not like the Najib camp for all the stupid things they are doing, but realistically, I don't believe the effort by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his supporters to topple him before the next general election will succeed.

As I wrote previously, everyone should just wait for the next polls and not make things worse for the country.

Those who now hate Najib should just bare with it for the next two years.

I'm okay if they want to campaign against Najib, but hopefully they don't do so by disrupting life of Malaysians who just want to make ends meet in this not so economically solid time.

The main thing for us now is to make sure this country remains safe.

Actually, for now, there are still quite a lot of people who can still afford a not so bad lifestyle.

Here is an example;

What tough times? You must be joking……

Anyway, I told my friend that I have to be truthful by admitting that at personal level, I don't really have much to complain at the moment.

My finances is currently quite tight but not that much worse than previously.

In fact, I'm earning more now with my current job compared to the last one.

My work is also less stressful and my current employers are very nice to me compared to my former bosses, who are a bit of the pain in the ass type.

Well, maybe I'm among the lucky few.

I admit that there are those who are not as fortunate as me, and I'm not mocking them.

Pertiwi soup kitchen in KL

Nonetheless, I'm still not convinced that this country will fall apart before the next general election if we all don't hurry up the effort to topple Najib.

I just don't see it happening, okay.

So, I think it's still alright for those who want to get rid of Najib to wait and do so at the ballot box instead of resorting to not so nice things which would only make things worse for everyone.

As for my travel plans, I actually thought of going to Japan again right after returning from my trip there last year.

I like Japan that much, okay.

Actually, if we plan our trips carefully in advance, they can be quite affordable.

For now, I can still afford to have such plan.

It's not that I'm rich or anything like that, but I always believe that putting on our best effort can get us what we want as long as we are being realistic about it.

And I can do so without even turning myself into a paid blogger, okay.

Well, whatever it is, I'm going to take it easy for now.

Want to enjoy this weekend.

Hope you all enjoy it too and not get all stressed up all the time :)

(Note : To the commentator who asked for info about van service to go around Tokyo, sorry to inform you that I have none. During my visit there, I mostly moved around with trains. Other modes of transportation there are quite expensive.)

Chill and don't be so negative, okay

Someone invited me to join a  summer trip to Europe the other day.

I was actually quite tempted.

However, after an extensive calculations of my finances, I had to say no to it.

The trip could costs me a minimum of RM15k.

Really can't afford that at the moment.

Still, I'm glad that the person had invited me to go on the trip.

I was very happy because of that.

It would have been very nice to visit those places again, and in good company at that.

But I have to be realistic with my finances.

Things are quite tight now.

And I'm not alone.

Most people are going through the same.

Some even feel that the country is collapsing because of those difficulties.

I think that's being a bit too dramatic ,  but yes, I do agree if the government is to push itself harder to make life less financially difficult for everyone.

But, I still don't think BR1M is the answer.

Cash handouts can't be sustainable and not so nice for the country's image.

I wish I'm some sorts of an economist and can offer a suggestion on how to do it.

But I'm not.

Maybe the more clever bloggers can suggest something brilliant to help the government make the people's finances better.

Who are the more clever bloggers?

Well, they are the ones who can come up with fancy charts and graphs la.

Maybe they can impress the government with those charts and graphs so that BR1M can be replaced with a better policy to make the standard and quality of Malaysians' life better.

That's better then using the charts and graphs to convince everyone to hate each others.

Example : See, my very fancy charts indicate that the Chinese belligerence level has reached the boiling point due to the mental poison administered by the Christians. So, the Malay Muslim ummah, heed my word, YOU ARE IN DANGER!!!!GET READY FOR WAR!!!!NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER!!!!EITHER YOU ARE WITH US OR AGAINST US!!!!

Aiyo....chill la. Go take a shower. That should cool you down, okay.

Really. In my opinion, if everyone takes it easy a bit, we will be much better off.

Life is always fraught with difficulties, but if we don't lose our head and get emo all the time, I'm quite sure we will eventually overcome them.

Keep a good heart and Allah will bless us with a better life (and finances), okay. InsyaAllah.

Anyway, I'm going to keep saving some money for maybe a winter trip either end of this year or early next year.

As I said in a previous post, I want to go to a hot spring in Hokkaido to do this,

Yup, taking a dip in the hot spring there with the snow monkeys in the dead of winter.

That would be an amazing experience.

I've been in Japan in spring and autumn.

Always want to go there in winter.

The summer is just hot....sometimes more than in Malaysia, so I was told by a Japanese guy.

Well, whatever it is, I need to save money for the trip first.

Hopefully things will get financially better not only for me, but all Malaysians.

The garbage out there

Thought of writing something current, so I surfed around just now to know what others are doing.

Tried to find out what their opinion on things.

Not really reading, but just checking the headlines.

Nowadays, I more or less know what the contents are by just reading the title.

Things are becoming rather predictable.

As of late, it's mostly the usual bad mouthing ding dong.

It's coming from all sides.

Rather stupid, actually.

It makes me wonder though - do all that name calling and uncouth remarks really help their respective course?

Honestly, I don't think so.

I believe people are mostly just put off by them.

Or is it the whole name calling and bad mouthing are just for them to vent anger and feeding their bloated ego?

Or is it that the cybertroopers have run out of ideas on how to churn out stories to justify their payment that the most they could do these days was to resort to name calling and bad mouthing?

Lack of imagination and thinking, if you ask me.

Boss wants to counter that dastardly person....eeeerrrr......call him a lying bastard lah.....easy what.

The problem of it all, I believe is that most of those in this line of story telling business are getting lazy nowadays.

Lazy to use their brain.

As long as the payments keep coming in, they don't really care.

I don't think they even care whether the people who really matter read what they wrote, let alone believe in them.

Never mind, I'm also getting lazy....but at least I'm not getting paid to write my nonsense.

Well, today's the same so far.

Really nothing worth writing on that frontline.

What? The Pas-Ikatan pact?

Eh, please don't waste time on that, okay.

I'll check again to find better stuff later.

For now you all can just listen to this song from an old crazy movie first, okay.

Errr...that song actually should be sang at the end of a day instead of in the morning like this.

But never mind lah. I'm running late and no time to think and find another song.

Need to go to work now.

My little advice - you all should avoid wasting your time reading all those garbage out there, okay.

And try to have a fun day instead.

Ciao.

The need to be cute

Don't want to write anything serious today.

Been writing those in the past few postings.

A bit depressing, I think.

I need to cheer up a bit.

Today, I just want to comment a bit about people whom I noticed were trying too hard to be cute.

Some worked out fine, but others, unfortunately failed miserably.

After all, we are not Japanese who are mostly a bunch of naturally cute people.

I'm not actually very cute myself, but I think I know a bit about these sorts of things.

Being cute is nice, but some people are simply not meant to be like that.

It has something to do with the person's character and maybe the conditioning of his/her life.

If those who are not meant to be cute try to be so, they tend to end up being just irritating.

At least, that's according to my observation.

Really.

This is an example;

YB "Shit-Stirrer"

Claiming to be a "Sassy MP" was clearly an attempt at being cute, but in this case, I don't think it really worked.

Theresa Kok did win with a huge majority in her Chinese-majority constituency in the last general election, but that's not because she is cute, okay.

She won because the Chinese at that time felt that her MCA rival is a stooge of the hated Umno.

Miss Kok is simply not the cute type.

Actually, I think I'm cuter then her. Seriously. And I'm not even trying to be cute like her.

I think the lady would be better off being the serious no nonsense type.

It suits her better.

Miss Kok shouldn't really worry about projecting such an image because some men do prefer the domineering serious type like that, instead of the cute ones.

Ask Lim Guan Eng, if you don't believe me.

In fact, I think if Miss Kok manages to get one of those men to really like her accordingly, she may then actually be cute and sassy without even putting any effort whatsoever....if you know what I mean :)

Well, I actually sympathise  with all those try-too hard-but-failed-to-be-cute ladies.

I don't really know what made them think that being cute is such a good idea when being so does not suit their personality.

For instance, you can't be a grumpy venomous person and be cute at the same time.

It just doesn't work that way, okay.

This applies even for blogging.

It just doesn't work trying to be cute but still being spitefully bitchy at the same time.

I cringed every time I see anyone tries to do that...such as whacking someone and trying to make the readers like it by putting cute cartoon characters to go with it.

I was like....

Hmmm, I'm simply lost for words whenever I see that sorts of thing.

Supremely irritating beyond measure, okay.

The best, I think is still being oneself.

You can't go wrong with that.

Of course, trying to make ourselves likable is good, but I think we should stay in character to do it.

Anyway, I don't really subscribe to the idea that we (especially ladies) have to be cute to make people like us....or like what we write.

Just try to be a good person with a relatively clean heart should be enough, I think.

Better ways to defeat TMI

Woke up at about 5am.

I slept quite early last night.

Checked the phone and saw this image sent via Wassap by a friend who was a senior editor in the now closed The Malaysian Insider.

He sent it to me at almost 1am.

Just right after the portal closed down at midnight.

I know quite a few of the faces in the picture.

At least they are still smiling despite losing their job.

These guys are actually my "enemies" in my fight to defend Umno and the establishment all these years.

You can check the archive of this blog and noticed that I had really nothing good to say about TMI.

But still, to see them shutting down makes me a bit sad.

I rather argue with them then shutting them down.

I actually did just that here,

• Jahabar, your portal needs better editorial la

After all, I believe that the outcome of the war to win the hearts and mind of the people will be decided by the people themselves.

I believe that the people will decide based on whom they like better.

The perception now is that TMI closed down because of the recent blocking of its website by the government after it published a not so nice article about PM DS Najib Razak.

In my opinion, it makes BN looks bad.

It doesn't matter that the TMI bosses and the portal's owner had announced that it had to be closed down due to commercial reasons.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't block the portal's website that day.

That to me, was a bad decision.

Why can't they just argue better than the TMI people?

That way, the people can see the truth and not think of the government as being the bullying type.

Actually, even suing and bankrupting them in court is better.

Anyway, I believe that if not for the blocking, the people would have accepted that TMI had to close down anyway because it's financially bleeding.

After all, the local online media is suffering now.

I first wrote about it here,

• No more joking around soon
• and just the other day, there was this story,

• The sad story of TRP journalists

Well, another version of the story that I heard was that the TMI bosses decided to scuttle the portal rather than letting it fall into the enemy's hand.

Don't know lah....that one you all better check with the now former TMI people themselves.

Okay, I need to get up and get ready for the day now.

Have a good day everyone.

Nice guys can win wars too

They said nice guys can't win wars.

I don't think that's quite accurate.

Unless of course if you equate being nice as being stupid.

In that case, I think I can also say nasty guys can't win wars either...as I often equate being nasty as being stupid.

In my opinion, stupid guys are the ones who can't win wars.

There are times to be nice and there are times to be nasty.

Smart people know when to be nice and when to be nasty.

Stupid people don't. That's why they can't win wars.

Same thing applies in politics.

Blogging too.

Whatever it is, I prefer nice guys. The smart and principled ones, okay.

They make life better and win the battles too.

Plain nasty guys tend to be stupid, tiresome and in the end lose the fight.

For me, being nice is good.

This is one of the smart and principled nice guys that I know:

Those who regularly read this blog from the start would know that I always have good things to say about TS Abdul Ghani Othman, the former Johor MB.

I started this blog two months before the end of his tenure in the run up to the last general election, but I have seen his work up close since the early 2000s.

Ghani led Johor BN through the general elections of 1999, 2004, 2008 and 2013.

Johor BN scored 100 per cent in 1999 despite the Reformasi movement at that time.

In 2004, it was almost a 100 per cent again if not for a technical glitch which caused BN to lose the Senggarang state seat.

In 2008, at the height of the rebellion against then PM Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Johor BN only lost the Chinese majority Bakri parliamentary constituency and state constituencies of Skudai, Senai, Bentayan and Mengkibol to DAP along with Maharani and Sungai Abong to Pas.

As for 2013, Johor was hit hard by the Chinese tsunami, yet BN still retained its 2/3 majority in the state assembly and lost only five of the 26 parliamentary seats. It should be noted that about 40 per cent of Johoreans are Chinese. Johor Umno's dominance was however still largely intact with an estimated 83 per cent of Malay electorates voted for the ruling coalition.

Ghani, who was ending his political career at the general election made the ultimate sacrifice of becoming the first Umno leader to contest in a Chinese-majority constituency. He was requested by PM DS Najib Razak to contest the Gelang Patah seat against DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang in a brave but futile effort to stop the Chinese tsunami.

It is a good track record, as far as I'm concerned.

Ghani is a nice guy as he always do things properly.

Johor had a balanced development between rural and urban areas under his leadership.

He was firm and serious as MB, Johor BN chairman and Johor Umno chief, but I always remember him as being fair to all, even to those who considered him as an enemy.

He has always been nice in that sense and I don't remember ever hearing him said things such as "either you are with us or against us", which sounded quite thuggish to me.

Of course there will be people who are going to dispute this, but I stand by what I know of the guy.

Yes, a nice guy can still be a winner.

There is no need to be an unprincipled, immoral etc nasty thug to win.

I think the teachings of Islam requires us to avoid being one of those even during war time.

Therefore, I still believe that the good and nice guys will win in the end, one way or another, insyaAllah.

(Note : Received the news that The Malaysian Insider is closing down as I'm writing this. That's too bad as I guess the journalists there will be having a hard time finding new jobs. Hope they will be okay. I never really like TMI for its mostly pro-opposition coverage, but still, I wish it doesn't have to close down like that. You can read more about it here: The Malaysian Insider to close down)

Reflections

Some people really make it seems as if the sky is falling down on top of our head.

Actually, it is not.

The world still spins and lives go on as usual.

Everyone has to earn a living and should try the best to make it in this world.

I think focusing on that is better than getting all worked up over politics.

Why should we get so agitated over what some politicians said or the bullshit written by actually not so clever bloggers.

Malays, the Chinese are not trying to enslave you, okay.

Chinese, the Malays don't want to bully you or steal your money.

Really,.

They all just want to get by with life.

Those who do those bad things are bad people. They are not Malays or Chinese.

If you all reject those bad people who are trying to make you hate each other, you all will be okay.

Malays should unite as the Chinese should unite.

Unite to be better people and build a better future.

Not uniting to hate others.

United Malays Nationalist Organisation that I know promotes that.

Of course, the best is if Malays and Chinese, along with the other Malaysians can unite, so that this country can be a better place.

Think about it, okay.

That's all for this nice Sunday morning.

I want to continue lepaking for the rest of the day.

Here's a song,

I hope you all enjoy it.

Cheers :)

Reality check and doing a bit of good

Lots of small birds chirping outside the place I am now.

Other than that, everything else is peaceful.

Very nice.

Drove here with my father yesterday evening for the weekend.

I wish my mother is with us but she's busy as always.

Well, never mind.

Didn't check this blog since my last posting yesterday afternoon.

Too lazy.

Found a few pending comments just now and just let them through.

I think this blog has became a bit of an outlet to vent anger and frustration.

So many negative comments.

But I don't mind that. Better let it out here than resorting to really harmful things.

Actually, I have been doing that all along.

If I get angry or frustrated, I pour it out here.

For the more personal stuff, I omitted the names.

It's after all just sort of a therapy for me.

I never really believe that this blog changes anything anyway.

The bad things will continue even if I repeatedly write about them.

The most, more people would become aware of those bad things.

That's about it.

I reminded myself of that whenever my ego gets the better of me.

I'm definitely not one of those who claim to know everything because I'm writing a sopo blog.

Actually, I don't even care if there are people who say I got no credibility.

If they think I'm writing nonsense, they can simply not come here and read those nonsense.

It's not as if I'm going all out promoting this blog.

I'm not even on Facebook or Twitter to do that, okay.

Anyway, despite all that, sometimes I do get a bit of fun too writing this blog.

Especially when I think I can do something really good.

Small stuff mostly.

Like when I promoted the upcoming movie about autism,

• Redha

Nice to see quite a number of people read that posting.

Maybe some of you all will actually go and watch the movie and learn more about autism.

That's a little bit of good out of this blog.

The thought makes me happy.

Better than all the peddling of political poison.

Anyway, here is another good movie about autism which I would like to recommend,

And here is the link to a  short video about the movie,

Filmmaker Janet Grillo on bringing 

the reality of autism to the big screen 

Hope you all will check out this movie too.

And on that positive note, I'm ending this posting.

I need to relax now.

Maybe I'll go to the beach later in the day.

Have a good weekend guys.

The sad story of TRP journalists

These are excerpts from a last month's posting,

• Not an easy job

The other day, just before CNY, another prominent portal, which however is a pro-establishment, got into financial troubles and ended up not being able to pay the salaries of its staff.

I lent a bit of money to a journalist friend working there so that he could celebrates CNY.

It's now past Chap Goh Meh and his salary is not yet coming.

I was actually holding back from telling the whole story.

At that time I was hoping for the journalists involved to still be paid their salaries despite whatever problems the portal was going through.

But I guess, it's not going to happen.

Today, Rocky came out with this posting,

So what's the story, TRP?

Excerpts:

Some 70 journalists and editors were thrown into the streets, not paid a single sen since the New Year, and on Feb 29 The Rakyat Post announced that it was ceasing operations.

Yeah, what's wrong with these people who own The Rakyat Post.

It's terrible what they did to those journalists.

And these people are supposed to be pro-establishment.

TRP was actually doing well and was catching up with the likes of Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider as well as beating other prominent pro-opposition portals such as Free Malaysia Today in term of hits.

Its reporting was good and relatively balanced despite the clear editorial policy which leaned towards the establishment.

Yet now the journalists working there were cast out just as if they were garbage.

For me, it's yet another case of the establishment's lousy media strategy or maybe even the lack of it.

Those in charge don't seem to know their priorities or even differentiate between good and bad.

This is one of the main reasons why Barisan Nasional is losing the battle for heart and mind of the people.

The media generals just don't give a shit about what happened to the soldiers who are fighting in the trenches.

All they care about is their cushy highly-paid jobs and being surrounded by boot-lickers.

It doesn't matter to them if the boot-lickers' talent is limited to only boot licking. Let's not even talk about their actual political inclination.

Those who were really dedicated to the job and committed to the cause became so demoralised by the whole thing.

Why bother to work so hard and go the extra mile when you will still be cast out if you don't have the talent of kissing the bosses' ass.

I have seen this happening all over the place.

Well, I have actually been bitching about this since quite a while ago even when I was still going all out supporting the establishment.

Now, I'm just tired.

This TRP case is really the ultimate.

Up to 70 journalists working for a pro-establishment media set-up being treated like garbage in one go, at a time when the establishment needs all the help it can get.

That's really brilliant of the establishment's media strategists.

I give up trying to say more, okay.

By the way, I heard the owner of the Malay Mail Online is taking over TRP. Don't know for sure whether it's true or not. If they do, I hope they can salvage something out of the mess.

So much for Pas

A month or two back when I expressed my disagreement with the new "either you are with us or against us" dogma of Umno, I was labeled as a ProTun and a few other not so nice things.

Some sort of a DAP reject turned Umno saviour and penyelamat Ummah said Umno must throw out everyone who disagrees with the leadership and replace them with Pas people.

It doesn't matter if the Umno members are still loyal to the party. As long as they disagree with the leadership they must be thrown out.

No need to try winning them back into the fold.

All very gung ho.

It was also suggested that Pas be given seats currently own by MCA, Gerakan and other "useless" BN coalition members.

Basically, according to the brilliant suggestion, as I understand it, the new BN should consists of Umno, Pas and the Bumiputera parties of Sabah and Sarawak.

Others can be thrown into the lake.

No worries, Umno have Pas.

Pandai sangat.

But today I noticed there were these stories;

PAS says will back no-confidence vote

PAS to form new opposition pact

So how now?

Really, I don't know what to say about this.

I'm not clever.

Maybe someone can come up with some sorts of nice charts to explain how this latest development is going to help Umno.

I'm going to keep quiet.

Talk too much, then people will throw all sorts of nonsense at me again.

I better not.

I'm too tired anyway,

You all think la about it.

I want to sleep early.

Here, as you think about the mess, you can listen to this song,

Nice, eh.

Good night.

No rush and middle finger to haters

Honestly, I'm a bit like this Anon who wrote this last comment which I got before writing this,

Anonymous9 March 2016 at 00:12

sighhh....just wait for the GE lah...wats the rush???...Negara kita ok jer....people still go Starbucks...Buy Iphones....Go Overseas....Shopping Complex still full...Movie collection juta2....people still buy designer dress...people still can afford pergi Jom Heboh....Football matches.....blablabla

I just want to wait for the next general election.

It's just two years from now...probably earlier even.

That's not too far away from now.

I know. Some people are very angry but can't they just wait a bit rather than getting all worked up like now?

Things may be tough at the moment but I don't think it's at a point where everything is at the brink of collapsing on top of us.

Whatever it is, please don't break the laws to express unhappiness over things, real or perceived.

Don't be too obsessed with anything, okay.

We still need to earn a living, fulfill our responsibilities, take care of our loved ones, etc.

Let's not wreck the country in our effort to fix it.

As I previously said, for me, when it's finally time to cast my vote at the next general election, I will reflect on my situation and decide who to vote based on whether my life is getting better or otherwise.

Why must we let ourselves be herded like sheep into following everything that other people said?

Why must we believe in everything the politicians, writers, bloggers etc said?

Can't we think for ourselves?

I believe that we can assess our life ourselves instead of being told how we are by those people with vested interest.

Okay, getting involved in a political movement can be quite a bit of fun and everything, but please don't over do it.

I understand the needs to "keep the fire burning" and everything, but please don't let the fire gets so big that it ends up burning everything down.

Be rationale, okay.

Furthermore, the chances of settling "the dispute" before the next general election is hardly realistic.

Actually the harder people push for their course under the present situation, the harder it will get for everybody.

People don't like that.

They don't like to see weird characters instigating people to make things worse for the country as others are struggling to make ends meet.

It puts them off.

The same way they were put off by some people who endlessly call for people to hate each other because of their different race and religion.

Aren't you all put off by people such as that?

I do.

Just because they were rejected by their own race,

they are now calling on us to hate and punish that particular race.

That's mean, isn't it?

It's not as if they love our race or anything.

They are just motivated by hate and now they are calling on us to hate others too just because they didn't get what they wanted.

Why must we believe in these sorts of people.

Those who want to rush things before the next general election should reflect on this.

If they go overboard, people will be put off by their antics.

Really, there's no real reason to go overboard.

Protest all you want but be nice about it.

And please keep away the creepy characters.

That way, you can keep things going and people may even like and support your cause.

On top of that, be realistic, okay.

Things can only be changed at the general election.

That's a fact.

Unless you all want this country to burn.

If you fail at the general election, there's the next Umno election.

Those are the only ways to do it without wrecking this country.

The present government will not step down under any other circumstances.

It had proven its resolve to do so during the Umno civil war last year.

As for the meanwhile, life has to go on.

Bear that in mind.

Okay, I need to get ready for work now.

Have a good day.

The need to stay cool, calm and collected

I saw this Voicey's posting

Sabah's voice must be unimportant to Habibur Rahman

and got a bit jealous.

Some people can get away with such things.

If I'm the one who wrote it, surely there are people who would jump up and down accusing me of these and that.

May likely whine to others that I should be ostracised for being a ProTun or something like that.

Ya la, whacking one of the media bosses of PM DS Najib Razak is no small deal, okay.

Well, never mind.

Anyway, I totally agree with Voicey when he pointed that what were said by Foreign Minister DS Anifah Aman should be given a better highlight by the mainstream media.

What the guy said makes a lot of sense.

I find him to be one of the more sensible ones.

The anti-Najib people may hate him for defending his boss, but they should admit that Anifah doesn't do so blindly like so many others.

These are among his words;

"What concerns me right now is that with the actions of Dr Mahathir, who is a lauded statesman and a beloved international icon, the country could become unstable, driving away foreign investors from this nation at the same time.

"As a former Prime Minister, he should be more understanding of what democracy is, which cannot be achieved the way Dr Mahathir is going about it now."

You all may disagree with what he said but have to admit that it's a cool, calm and collected statement.

A lot better than all those who screamed and shouted at the elderly statesman, calling him names and such.

As I once told a prominent pro-Najib blogger who is much favoured by someone who hates me very much from their camp, it's the people who will decide the winner of this struggle and their decision would depend on whom they like better between the two sides.

It's not about who can shout louder or present fancy charts and graphs to convince the people.

It's about who can present themselves as being better in the eyes of the people.

Behaving like a thug or as if afflicted with some kind of mental illness would not win the people over.

At least that's how I see it.

That's why I feel that Najib needs people like Anifah very much, the same way Dr Mahathir doesn't need people like that creepy Hishamuddin Rais on his side.

Living an ordinary life

Just resting today.

Earlier, a friend told me via Wassap that he's flying down from Tokyo to Singapore.

Maybe can catch up with him over there later if I have the time.

Lucky guy flying all over the place like that.

Me, stuck here and bogged down by its political nonsense.

Just so happened that I watched Totoro again last light.

Satsuki offering Totoro an umbrella at a bus stop. Satsuki is carrying her sleeping little sister Mei. 

Well, I kinda miss Japan quite a bit of late.

The closest that I can get to it is by going to Singapore.

Singapore may not be as nice or pretty as Japan but it's not too bad either.

Clean, disciplined, proper etc.

And the people mostly move around using public transport....trains especially.

Malaysia is supposed to be like that in 2020.

That's about four years from now.

With all the nonsense going on now, I doubt we will achieve that.

I even dread thinking about the next general election two years from now.

Hopefully, there will be not too much upheaval.

For now, I'm just going to try carrying on with my life.

Trying to keep it simple.

Earn a living, fulfil my responsibilities, obey the laws, etc.

I'm no longer trying to save Umno and the ummah and other fancy stuff like that.

Let the fancy people do that....or claim to be doing that.

Everyone needs to earn a living, isn't it.

For me, nowadays I just want to continue living the life of an ordinary person.

End of the day, when it comes to the next general election, I'm going to ask myself whether my life is getting better or otherwise in order to decide who I'm going to vote for.

I'm not going to listen to rhetorical bullshit to make up my mind.

Well, that's me.

How you all going to decide is up to you all.

I think it's still a free country as far as that is concerned....at least for now.

Do enjoy it.

Okay, enough of that.

Here's a bit of Jazz for this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Cheers.

Staying neutral and away from creepy people

I'm not going to sign the "declaration" initiated by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

It's because I want to stay neutral.

Also, I'm especially uncomfortable putting my name on paper as being on the same boat with quite a number of people who signed the "declaration" as some sorts of the movement's leaders yesterday.

For one thing, I don't want to join any movement if one of the leaders is Hishamuddin Rais.

The guy is just too creepy, okay.

Well, I can't join the Najib's camp either.

I don't believe in their "either you are with us or against us" dogma because for me it's too stupid.

There are too many stupid and weird people in Najib's camp and I don't want to be one of them.

I also don't want to be in the same team as you know who. Don't want to end up being neurotic like that.

Anyway, even if I want to join them, I don't think they will accept me as my way of doing things is very different from theirs.

Yup, I'm staying neutral.

Being neutral is allowed in a democracy, and I want to believe that there is still democracy in this country.

From now on, whenever I'm writing about politics, I will do so just as an observer.

I will try to stick with facts and make my comments based on them.

It's the same as during the Umno civil war which started last year.

By the way, I think that civil war is over for good yesterday when Dr Mahathir and the others signed the declaration.

It's now an all out war involving everyone, instead of just those within Umno.

About clean heart and no malice

Been a very busy day.

Just got home.

No time to write earlier.

Just released the few comments for my last posting using my phone the whole day.

It's nice to know that some readers of this blog do care about special needs children such as those with autism.

It shows that there are still many good Malaysians out there who care about initiatives to make our society better.

I'm glad that not everyone is full of hate and obsessed with negative aspects of things such as the murky world of Malaysian politics.

Actually, I believe politics don't have to be dirty.

It can be about honesty, integrity, dignity, sincerity and other good stuff.

It doesn't have to be the way Malaysian politics now.

But then again, who am I to lecture on this.

I'm not an expert.

I can't even make this blog looks impressive with fancy charts and words or write very long postings.

All I'm going to say this time is that, I believe that if we strive to have a clean heart and bear no malice towards others, including those who deemed us as enemies, then insyaAllah we will be rewarded with goodness, one way or another.

If we can have that attitude in politics, then I'm confident Malaysia will be a better place.

Anyway, I saw the news about TS Muhyiddin Yassin announcing that he is not leaving Umno despite recently suspended as deputy president and sacked from the deputy PM post.

I'm fine with that.

After all, the guy has been with Umno all his life.

It's not like he is some sorts of a DAP reject who got nowhere to go, now trying to be an Umno saviour and defender of the ummah or something like that.

So what, that he said he wanted to continue making noises.

He's almost 70.

People at that age always make noises.

Normal la.

Well, at least those paid to blog can earn some extra income whacking him back....not that it makes much difference anyway.

Whatever it is, if Muhyiddin makes too much noise later, they can always get Ku Nan to sack him altogether.

No worries, okay.

PM DS Najib Razak and his people should now just do what they are supposed to do and make sure the people vote for BN in the next general election.

Hopefully they can....

Eh, that's too much politics lah. Supposed to be just a side issue.

Past midnight already.

I better sleep.

Here's a song for the night from the upcoming movie Redha,

Nite

Redha

Let's stop being negative for a while.

Today, I just want to tell you all that there is this local movie, which I believe is very good coming our way,

The movie will start showing in the cinemas on April 14.

This is a review from someone who had seen it,

These are the links for those who wish to know more about the movie,

Redha Movie - YouTube

REDHA (@RedhaMovie) | Twitter

And this is a trailer of the movie,

Just watching this trailer already made me cry.

I hope no one will later accuse this movie of being a Dapster-Protun propaganda just because I'm promoting it.

It's just about autism.

Guys, please go and watch it, okay.

Thanks.

Three years have passed

This blog is three years old today.

The following is for my record keeping purposes,

Posts : 1,120

Pageviews : 3,078,991  

Comments : 33,503

I would like to thank all who visited this blog, especially those
who commented on the issues that I wrote.

As of now, the most read post is

Stupid Malay men

which I wrote at the height of campaigning of the Teluk Intan
by-election in May 2014.

For comparison, this is what I wrote exactly a year ago,

• Two years have passed

and what I wrote the previous year

• A year has passed

As for today, I'm still semi-retiring from writing about politics.

Can't totally quit as if I do so I'll be accused of all sorts of nonsense.

The last time I tried to do that, I was accused by some pro-Najib people of being banished, banned and what nots for not towing the line.

Then there's a bunch of DAP rejects trying to take credit of it as if they are the ones who managed to hound me out of cyberspace.

Also, some anti-Najib people had went around telling the world that I wanted to quit writing politics because I was not paid to do so anymore.

What a bunch of shallow, pathetic losers.

These are the type of people who think that the world revolves around them just because some people read their blog.

Their bloated ego and sense of self importance got the better of them.

Armchair and paid blogging do not make one a political expert, okay.

Believe it or not, I have actually been on the Malaysian political battleground for quite a while.

I'm talking about really walking around meeting people on the ground and stuff .

Yet, still I don't claim myself as an expert of everything or anything.

What I wrote were mostly just my opinion from what I observed myself.

That's all.

For instance, when I wrote about the Teluk Intan by-election, that's because I was actually there for the whole duration of it.

I didn't just pop by for a day in Teluk Intan and then wrote about the by-election as if I knew everything about the whole thing.

Worse still if I'm just sitting at home and blogging as if I'm the expert of Teluk Intan because I can make some fancy charts and theories.

That's why, when someone asked for my opinion about the impact of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad quitting Umno last night, I just said I wouldn't know for sure.

Logically though, I don't think anything visible will occur.

It's not like there will be an exodus of Umno members quitting the party because Dr Mahathir did so.

I'm of that opinion based on what happened in 2008 when Dr Mahathir quit the party to protest against the leadership of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Umno members were not bothered to quit along. They just continued as normal....but many continued to protest from within the party too.

I saw it happened back then and that's why I concluded the whole thing that way.

It's as simple as that.

I don't think a fancy chart is needed to explain it...unless of course if you desperately needed to impress readers or please your paymasters, maybe.

Okay, that's all for now.

Need to get up and get ready for the day.

Cheers.