About stupid editors and Frim's canopy walkway

Just released this comment at my last post,

Anonymous31 May 2017 at 11:23

Salam Annie. lama tak de posting. Where are you. Japan may be.

Nope, I'm not in Japan, though how I wish I am.

Well, actually I have not been well. Still a bit sick.

That's why I have not been writing. Better that way because I tend to over-bitch when I'm not well.

Okay, I better write a bit. Otherwise people may thought I'm dead already :)

The hottest thing happening now I think is that stupid The Star insulting Muslims thingy leading to,

Star suspends two editors

Someone asked me what I think of it, and I said it's just plain stupidity.

People get stupid sometimes. That's all.

Personally, I don't think The Star maliciously intended to insult Muslims.

Why would it want to do that for? Just for the fun of it? Seriously?

I don't like the newspaper and I don't buy it, but I have to be fair by saying that it was just a stupid oversight on the part of the editors in charge.

By the way, I don't buy any newspaper anymore. Read everything online. Save money a bit.

Whatever it is, this insulting Muslims thing happens all the time.

Even New Straits Times, which is The Star's main competitor (if you can call it so despite the huge gap between their circulation figures) had been accused of the same thing when in 2006 it published a Danish cartoon said to be insulting Islam.

Click for better view

NST, however, got away with it. You can read the whole saga at this link,

No Action Taken Against NST After Public Apology

Well, The Star had issued a public apology too in this latest incident.

So, everything should be okay.

Even the suspended editors should be okay. Just embarrassed a bit for being stupid.

Being sometimes stupid should not be too bad.

We are after all only humans.

In case of editors, they make stupid decisions too and I don't think we should be too hard on them.

This whole thing actually reminds me of an incident not long before the last general election in 2013.

I was driving to work that morning when I received a message informing me that there will be a coordinated attack against a top editor.

The attack was to be carried out by several top pro-BN bloggers.

I never asked why they wanted to attack that editor but I felt that they shouldn't do that as I know a bit about the editor and he is not such a bad person.

True enough, later that day the blogs posted several negative comments on the editor and they demanded his resignation.

At that time I was part of the Big Cat blog team, So, I persuaded my team leader to post something which I wrote about the whole thing.

You can read what I wrote at this link,

Editors' job hazards

Well, of course there are editors who are really assholes, but despite that I rather give them some benefits of doubt.

From what I know of them, they are smart people who tend to once a while get stupid rather than malicious.

Sometimes they miss things they should't have.

Even the great ones are like that.

So, I think everyone should cool off.

That aside, I'm hoping once I get better can visit the FRIM conservation centre in Kepong.

I saw this story yesterday and decided that I want to walk along that canopy walkway one last time,

FRIM’s canopy walkway to close after 25 years 

 I have fond memories of that place.

Okay, I need to rest now.

Cheers and happy puasa.

Chinese are never to lose

When I wrote this post

• Are the Chinese running out of money?

on the Bandar Malaysia issue, a commentator replied,

tebing tinggi4 May 2017 at 20:15

The Chinese are just playing games ,jut to see that they could gain more .

The Chinese are never to lose ,jut wait and see .

Well, the comment turned out to be true as far as the Proton strategic partnership plan is concerned.

This is the story yesterday,

Geely Holding buys 49.9% of Proton

It certainly make this observation of mine kinda stupid,

• Le Proton

I was so sure the French going to get the deal when reports said Geely had pulled out of it.

Turned out, the Chinese were just being smart business people.

They were just bidding their time to make the right offer, it seemed.

I think they are really smarter than the French.

They must have known that DRB-Hicom would prefer not to let go of the controlling stake, at least for now. That's probably why they only take 49.9 per cent.

The general election is coming after all and Proton being taken over by foreigners may upset too many people.

After election, different story lah.

Personally, I don't really care as long as it will do good for Proton in the long run.

I argued on that point here,

Maybe Dr Mahathir wouldn't mind the Japanese too much

Anyway, in a related story, the Chinese are getting 51 per cent controlling stake of Proton's Lotus as part of the deal, and it was said that the

Lotus sale gives DRB-Hicom 100 million pounds

Perhaps Lotus is what the Chinese really want in the first place.

Lotus is a good brand name with excellent track record. Probably the best thing that Proton have.

Well, doesn't really matter to me.

If DRB-Hicom think it's a good deal they are having with the Chinese, then who am I to complain.

I got no prejudices against the Chinese anyway.

If they are smart enough to make a good offer, then they deserve what they are getting.

Anyway, I have never seen a Geely car.

When I was in China, I saw lots of Volkswagen and Japanese cars.

Can't remember seeing a Geely.

Maybe they were there in front of me, just that I didn't notice their badge.

So, this is a video about one of their cars,

I still prefer the Japanese, but this is also not too bad.

BN will win if the opposition parties remain the same

Someone asked me yesterday whether the opposition parties will be able to defeat BN in the next general election.

I said no.

Well, not if the opposition parties remain the way they are now.

Honestly, the way I see it, the opposition parties are simply in even worse shape than BN.

That's the truth. Even the opposition supporters, if they are honest with themselves, will have to agree.

There's that Pas factor to begin with, which will break the opposition's vote bank among the Malays.

The opposition parties were hoping for a Malay tsunami against BN, but without Pas in the same camp as the others, I don't think that's going to happen.

This Pas matter has been discussed quite a lot, so I don't think I need to elaborate on it.

Let's go to the other opposition parties and see what's wrong with them,

Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia

It is basically a Dr Mahathir's party consisting disgruntled Umno people who quit or forced to quit the party after the latest failed Umno rebellion.

Their way of thinking is however still as if they are in Umno. Lately they were even squabbling for positions the same way when they were in Umno.

This latest blog post by Dr Mahathir confirmed talks that the infighting has been serious,

PENYOKONG SAYA

They are also finding it hard to play second fiddle to the more senior opposition parties such as PKR, DAP and even Amanah.

It would be hard for many of them to swallow the fact that even if they win, they will have to submit to the other parties' wishes.

On top of that, they may even have to accept that Anwar Ibrahim is to be made PM if they win the next general election. That's going to be very hard for them as they have been whacking the guy for a very long time when they were in Umno.

PKR

PKR is still stuck with the ideology of making Anwar the PM, plain and simple.

Yes, they do talk about justice and a better Malaysia, but their end game is still all about Anwar.

As of now, they seem even willing to sacrifice everything else including the goal of winning the next general election, to achieve that objective.

For them,  beating BN would be meaningless if Anwar is not to be PM.

Thus the other day at their convention, they sort of forced everyone, including their guests from the other opposition parties to hold up the Anwar to be PM placard.

Dr Mahathir, who was there actually avoided doing that.

PKR's Anwar as PM dream is actually off putting for many people who hates BN as they equally can't stand the idea of the former DPM running the country.

DAP

The Chinese-based party is currently stuck at third gear.

It can't improve from it's Chinese tsunami mode of GE13.

It's for all intent and purpose is still actually a Chinese party.

All its effort to appear multi-racial have not been making much progress.

Any attempt to dilute it's Chinese flavour only causes it to lose chunks of its Chinese vote bank.

That's exactly what happened when they fielded a Malay girl at the Teluk Intan by-election in 2015.

For many Malays, DAP is still a Chinese political bogeyman that scares them.

It doesn't help that some of the DAP personalities openly displayed their lack of sensitivities towards the Malays.

For example, by openly promoting evangelicalism, some DAP leaders do not seem to care what the Malay Muslims feel about such activities.

They even contemptuously dismiss the Malays unhappiness over the matter.

They probably feel that they can get away with such behaviour because their constituents are mostly Chinese and that they may even actually win more Chinese votes that way.

However, the effect would actually be damaging for the opposition parties as a whole because Malays, who are the majority in this country tend not to take such nonsense too kindly.

Its a case of "Menang sorak Cina, kampung Melayu tergadai".

Amanah

Consisting mostly Pas rejects, it's the only opposition party which in my opinion is without too much baggage.

Okay, party president Mat Sabu may be a baggage because of his not so handsome face as well as crazy antics and background, but the other leaders seem not so bad.

These guys are after all mostly professionals who joined Pas believing that they can do good in the Islamist party.

When they were still in Pas, the party seems less Taliban-like.

Well, too bad that they got kicked out by the Pas Ulama gang and have to set-up their own new party.

However, they don't have the Pas' Islamic fanaticism which attracts a lot of Malays, especially those from the rural areas.

Unlike Pas leaders who can claim that supporting their party is akin to buying a ticket to paradise, the Amanah guys, who are not ulama could only project a moderate Islamic image which may not be attractive enough for the more religiously-inclined Muslims.

Amanah may do some good in non-Malay heartland states such as Johor and Malacca but that's about all that they can do.

It may not likely stand much chance in three cornered fights with Pas and Umno such as what happened at the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections last year.

Mat Sabu may not be handsome in my eyes but some girls do love him though.

Well, that's my honest opinion about the opposition parties' chances for the coming general election if they remain as they are now.

Unless they do something drastic to overcome their problems as laid down above, they will lose again.

A lot of people that I know are fed up with the opposition parties despite their hatred towards BN. Some of them don't even want to talk about politics anymore and may likely not bothered to vote later on.

This, however, doesn't mean Umno and the other BN parties will have it easy in the months ahead leading to the general election.

If they get over confident and cocky, which they tend to do all the time, they may get the people to be so angry that they don't really care whether the opposition is any better or worse to replace BN in Putrajaya.

They would just vote for the opposition out of spite because they are pissed off by the arrogant and stupid remarks as well as failures to do the right things coming from the BN side.

Actually, I believe the opposition parties' only chance to win the next general election is if the people become so angry with BN that they couldn't care less whether those to replace the ruling coalition are any better.

Can Khaled do what Ghani did in handling a Malay tsunami?

According to this Bernama story,

Johor BN Will Focus Efforts To Recapture Seats From Opposition

JOHOR BAHRU, May 20 (Bernama) -- Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) will focus its efforts to recapture seats lost to the opposition in the last 13th General Election (GE13).

Johor BN chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said BN would ensure victory, despite the opposition´s confidence of capturing 5 parliamentary seats in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).

"Ask the opposition to specify which areas (15 seats) that they want to capture in Johor," he told reporters after launching the Mega Sale �Muafakat Johor´ Carnival 2017 at Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium, here today.

The Johor Menteri Besar was commenting on a statement by Pakatan Harapan that expressed confident to capture 15 seats in the state in GE14 after a special meeting of the Pakatan Harapan Johor yesterday.

In the GE13, Johor BN won 21 of 26 parliamentary seats. The five opposition seats are Kulai, Gelang Patah, Kluang, Batu Pahat and Bakri and Pagoh.

On the Mega Sale Carnival, Mohamed Khaled said the carnival would be expanded to Iskandar Malaysia as it would help the people in the face of rising prices of daily necessities at the moment.

Not a very well written story, but never mind.

Well, since Khaled asked where are the five parliament seats the opposition is confident of capturing,
let me take a wild guess....errr, one of them should be at his own division of Pasir Gudang where BN's majority was slashed in 2013 from over 20,000 to less than 1,000.

It's 935, to be exact.

The others should be Ledang (1,967), Tebrau (1,767), Muar (1,646), Segamat (1,217) and Labis (353).

Out of the 25 parliament seats won by BN by less than 2,000 votes in the last general election, six are in Johor.

That makes it one extra more than what Khaled asked for.

There are several other places in Johor where BN's majority had been significantly reduced, but let's save those for another story.

Can BN win back its lost parliament seats in Johor?

For that, maybe we can just look at the majority won by the opposition in Gelang Patah, which is 14,752, Bakri (5,067), Kluang (7,359), Kulai (13,450) and Batu Pahat (1,524).

Maybe Batu Pahat can be taken back by BN.

In the first place, BN was not supposed to lose that seat in the last general election but the Umno headquarter's decision to ignore Johor liasion committee's recommendation not to field Mohd Puad Zarkashi there handed the seat to the opposition.

For more on that, read this,

Meroyan kalah pilihanraya

So, what could possibly be Khaled's strategy to avoid BN from losing more seats, or to put it as he said, to recapture those now with the opposition?

If we look at all those 50-50 seats, they are mostly racially marginal.

That means BN, or to be more precise Umno can't rely solely on Malay unity in Johor.

It needs to win back some non-Malay votes in the state, especially among the Chinese.

I'm not sure how they can achieve that, but definitely not by the approach of some who went around saying that the next general election will be about Malays versus Chinese.

Some people told me that the Bangsa Johor campaign led by the palace may do the trick as it makes the Chinese happy.

Maybe kut.

Well, I don't know. Only the Johorean Chinese can tell whether they are happy or not.

As for Malay unity in Johor, it  has always been unity in Umno.

Nothing to do with Umno-Pas unity. That's why I couldn't care less about all those perpaduan ummah talks. In Johor, it's perpaduan Melayu didalam Umno, okay.

Khaled personally told me that 83 per cent of Malays in Johor voted for BN in the last general election.

That's how strong was Malay unity in Johor.

I believe if not for that, the Chinese tsunami of 2013 would have swept away the state from BN.

In light of the Umno rebellion led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the opposition is expecting a Malay tsunami against BN in the next general election.

They expect Johor to be hit hard by it, thus their confidence in capturing more parliamentary seats in the state.

The last time there was something which could be described as a Malay tsunami was during the 1999 general election.

It was estimated that less than 40 per cent of Malays voted for BN in that election

The ruling coalition was saved by the Chinese who went all out to vote for it after being spooked by the violent mostly Malay-led Reformasi riots of  Anwar Ibrahim.

Umno, nonetheless, lost a lot of seats with Pas capturing Terengganu that year.

Johor was however untouched by that Malay tsunami.

Johor BN, led by then MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman, won all the parliament and state seats in that 1999 general election. It was an amazing 100 per cent victory at the height of a Malay rebellion against Umno.

Back then, Johor was truly the tiang seri of Umno.

Lets see if it is still so, and whether Khaled can do what Ghani did in leading Johor into what the opposition believe will be another Malay tsunami.

I do hope for Khaled's sake that he agrees with me that in Johor, it is not wise to stop a Malay tsunami by saying "you are with us or against us", 'no retreat, no surrender" and other such stupid things now very popular among some clever Umno people and supposed supporters.

Bear in mind that back in 1999, there were many Johorean Malays who disliked Dr Mahathir for what he did to Anwar, but they still voted for BN because of their loyalty to Umno.  It helps that Johor Umno, then under Ghani, never witch-hunted them.

Maybe Khaled can learn from that.

About Malays versus Chinese

A friend who is a Sabahan Chinese called to complain about this article by RPK,

GE14 is about Malays versus Chinese

He said such an article is not helping Barisan Nasional to win back Chinese votes, and may cause difficulties for the coalition in Sabah and Sarawak.

My friend, who is a staunch BN supporter had sounded very distressed.

"Can you help counter this RPK's article?" he asked.

Seriously, I wish I could help him, but in this case I don't believe I can.

I explained to him that he needs someone with a bigger and more influential platform to do that.

Mine is after all merely an insignificant anonymous blog - just a little anchovy compared to RPK's hugely popular Malaysia Today.

I do understand though why my friend was so worried about such racially provocative articles.

I was also guilty of writing such articles in the aftermath of GE13's Chinese tsunami. And my post of those sorts were relatively well read.

I was mostly venting out my frustration at that time because I was so disappointed with the Chinese for choosing to abandon the moderate Malays of the establishment during that general election.

But, as I previously wrote, things cooled off after that as things slowly went back to normal.

I believe the Chinese political tidal wave of 2013 had also receded to a certain extent over time. The signs were there during last year's Sarawak elections and twin by-elections of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.

BN actual managed to get a decent percentage of Chinese votes during those elections.

I never expect BN to get overwhelming percentage of Chinese votes in future elections but it would be good enough if the percentage could be increased to 20 or 30 percent. Maybe it could help stop our society from becoming more racially polarised.

More importantly, it may even shut up those who are advocating racism as a political tool.

Actually, I never believe that we Malaysians, despite all those racial rhetorics, are really racists at heart.

Those ugly racist feelings, for me, were the faults of politicians who exploit communal sentiments to win support.

These bad people and their minions always tried very hard to deny that we Malaysians could live together and that there are those among us who could be the best of friends or even love and accept each other the way we were.

In my last post

Annie's favourite Ang

I highlighted this (excerpts),

Later on I have a Chinese friend who is like Hillary. He doesn't play a guitar but can mix around with Malays very well. He is so well liked that even the local Pekida and Tiga Line guys hang out with him. I think it's something to do with his sincere heart.

A commentator then accused me of lying about having such a friend as he can't believe that such a Chinese exist. Pekida and Tiga Line are after all known to be extreme Malay organisations.

In my reply, I provided this link to a previous article of mine where I mentioned about my friend,

Annie and Najib's advisers

Yes, that Chinese friend of mine really exist and if the commentator who accused me of lying bothered to check on him, he will discover that my friend is exactly as I described him.

The guy even looks a bit like a young Hillary Ang of the Search fame.

A young Hillary Ang

Let me add a bit more about him here.

When his father died a few years ago, I spent several days with him and his family at the funeral parlour during the wake. A group of Pekida guys turned up there to pay their last respect and convey their sympathy to my friend and his family.

It turned out that the Abang Long of the group is sorts of his "abang angkat".

No kidding.

The Pekida and Tiga Line people are not exactly the same as the people of Ku Klux Klan, okay. If we take out the politics, these guys are as normal as anyone else. They also like good people irregardless of race and religion such as in the case of my friend.

For me, all that matter is for us to regard each other with sincerity and honesty.

As for my Sabahan Chinese friend's request, all I can say is - let us all try not to be influenced by people who want us to hate and fight each other so that they can benefit from the chaos that comes out of it.

Give it a try, okay.

Annie's favourite Ang

Relax.

This Ang is nice and the best, okay.

I'm talking about Hillary Ang.

In case you don't know him, the guy is a lead guitarist and founding member of Search, the greatest Malaysian rock band ever.

And Hillary is not a girl like Hillary Clinton. He's a real macho rocker guy.

That's him on the right,

That's in the mid-80s when the JB boys of Search ruled the Malaysian music scene.

I was just a kid at that time, but when I first heard his guitar riffs, I knew that Hillary was exceptionally good. Perhaps even the best among local rock guitarists.

Back then I always wondered how the quiet Chinese boy could be part of the Malay rock band. The Chinese are after all not known to be so into hard rock music. That's what I think made him extra special.

Later on I have a Chinese friend who is like Hillary. He doesn't play a guitar but can mix around with Malays very well. He is so well liked that even the local Pekida and Tiga Line guys hang out with him. I think it's something to do with his sincere heart.

Guys like Hillary and my friend are among the main reasons why I can't hate the Chinese even if I try. Believe me, I tried after the Chinese tsunami of 2013. Cuma boleh marah sekejap je. You can't hate the entire race when you know and like the good ones among them.

Well, at least I can't.

Anyway, here's Hillary and his Search gang playing at Planet Hollywood in 2007,

And this is him and the gang when they were much younger and at the height of their power,

Nowadays Hillary looks very uncle uncle....

....but he's still as cool as ever, especially when he is with a guitar.

Umno's campaign styles and memories of Tenang

Umno celebrated its 71st birthday at the National Stadium last night.

National news agency Bernama estimated about 150,000 people at the event.

It's almost as many as the whole of DAP membership.

This is its report on what Umno president DS Najib Razak said at the event,

UMNO Remains Strong As It Always Struggles For The People - Najib

This is a picture from the event yesterday,

The last time I remember of such a gathering was the Umno's 66th birthday celebration on May 11, 2012.

This is a picture of the event from back then,

Looks the same and the number of crowd was equally as impressive as yesterday.

It was part of the built up to the 13th general election which was held just short of a year later.

The main reason for the gathering back then was as explained by Najib in this Bernama report picked up by The Star,

Najib: May 11 mass gathering to prove Umno's strength 

I believe the gathering yesterday was also held as a show of strength and part of preparations for the coming general election.

I'm not however a believer of big party gatherings being helpful in winning elections.

After all, despite the similarly big birthday celebration of Umno in 2012, which was followed by other crowd-pleasing events such as the Jelajah Janji DiTepati programme, BN did not do really well at the polls the next year.

Personally, I'm more for real works on the ground such as door to door campaigning, providing efficient community services, showing genuine care for the constituents, helping out when people are in trouble, etc.

It's after all a matter of winning the hearts and minds of the people.

Showing how strong a party is, doesn't really do that.

Okay, maybe it's good for party morale and such but that's all about it, I think.

It's something like having five main pages of your event highlighted by a newspaper which is read mostly by your own party members and supporters.

I don't actually think people would react like "Huih, ramai dan bersemangatnya ahli Umno....hmmm, aku nak sokong Umno lah macam ni."

Don't know lah, but those are my thoughts.

I actually developed this line of thinking after being on the ground during the flood-hit

Tenang by-election

of 2011.

BN at that by-election employed a very practical campaigning approach, especially by approaching voters at personal level and persuading them that BN is their best choice.

The BN campaign on the ground was led by local leaders as they knew the locals better. Outsiders, including high ranking party leaders were told to play a supporting role if they wish to lend a hand for the campaign.

There was hardly any big gathering or fun-fair type of events to spice up the campaigning.

Even outriders escorting VIPs were told not to use their sirens going into the villages, Felda settlements and residential areas.

Johor MB at that time TS Abdul Ghani Othman even told a group of local Wanita Umno members not to proceed with their plan to have a lunch gathering at the KFC outlet in Labis town.

The reason for it was to prevent the locals from getting irritated by what they may deemed as pompous behaviour among the Umno campaigners.

It was felt that the presence of a huge crowd of Wanita members in their red and white uniform swaggering around all over the place may have that very effect.

In contras, Pas which was heavily backed by especially DAP at that by-election embarked on their usual big ceramah and gatherings.

There were a lot of unhappiness especially among Umno people who came to Tenang for the by-election as they were told not to do the usual.

I remember a friend from Kelantan asking me "Tak ada buat gelombang merah ke? Macam mana nak menang kalau macam ni je?"

Even pro-Umno bloggers and social media players were heavily criticising the Johor Umno's campaign style.

"Hambar", "Tak meriah", etc they wrote.

The unhappiest among them were however people from the Umno headquarters in KL.

They were told that for the Tenang by-election, they didn't have to organise any event which may costs the party a lot of money.

In another word, Johor Umno at that time was saying that no one would be allowed to make money out of the by-election at the party's expense.

If those fun-fair like events were allowed to be held, contracts would have to be doled out to certain individuals and paid by the party. This, Johor Umno felt was not worth the expenses and furthermore not really helping the campaigning effort.

Despite BN later on winning the by-election by a significantly increased majority, the unhappiness of the Umno headquarters people remains.

Note the multi-racial BN crowd celebrating with their candidate Mohd Azhar Ibrahim after he was announced as the winner of the Tenang by-election.

Johor Umno was again heavily criticised at a party war room meeting after the by-election.

The debate on the matter led to the Johor Umno war room director being later on banned from attending future meetings.

The excuse given was that only those who led an Umno division were allowed to attend the Umno headquarters' war room meeting. The Johor Umno war room director was the only one who was not a Ketua Bahagian.

All the nonsense were despite Najib himself praising the leadership of Johor BN and Umno for the victory in Tenang.  The campaigning for the by-election was described by him as being the most well managed and costs effective ever.

I'm not sure what it's going to be for Umno and BN in terms of campaigning style after this. After all, the next general election may be just a matter of months from now.

If I'm an Umno member or supporter, I would prefer Najib as my party leader to do the right thing rather than allow some people to use the party to enrich themselves via fun-fair contracts.

Well, of course I'm not a party member or even a supporter, and therefore all that I'm writing here is just actually sharing my experiences and thoughts on the matter.

If Umno wants to have a fun-fair like campaigning for the next general election, than that's their choice.

None of my business, really.

Okay, that's all.

Cheers.

Be cool as ours is a tolerant multi-racial society

I was in JB on Friday when the commotion outside the mosque in Austin Perdana happened.

A Chinese man got himself beaten and his car smashed up for repeatedly honking outside the mosque during Friday prayers.

His car was apparently blocked by those parked by the roadsides outside the mosque.

This is The Star's report of the incident;

Group attacks motorist outside Johor mosque 

and the warning by police;

Cops warn against further unrest following mosque incident 

and this is RPK's commentary today;

Don’t build mosques in towns and where there are humans

Actually, I'm not really sure what RPK was getting at but maybe he was being sarcastic.

I was shown the video of the incident just moments after it went viral on Friday by my friend who is a Chinese.

We were lepaking at his shop near Taman Nong Cik.

"Susah la macam ni. Lagi la polarised negara kita," he said.

"That is just people being stupid" I replied.

Earlier in the day, my friend and me were at a church attending the wake of a friend who died a few days earlier.

Everything was okay there as my deceased friend lay in rest before his funeral the next day.

There were Chinese, Malays and Indians among his friends who attended the wake.

I think the best way to avoid such an incident at Austin Perdana was to stop all racial and religious incitements.

Under normal circumstances, I don't think the Chinese guy could be so stupid to incessantly honk away like that as he knew that the owners of the cars blocking his path were praying in the mosque.

In all probabilities, he could be like one of those whose comments in this blog using words such as "Fucking Melayu....bla bla bla" I had to spike off for being overly racist.

That, I blame on politicians who went around telling Chinese that they are second, third, fourth,  or fifth class citizens because the Melayu people are oppressing them.

As for the people who beat up the guy and smashed his car, I don't think they would react like that under normal circumstances.

They would likely be more patient, having just finished their prayers.

However, in this case, maybe just the other day some politicians had told them that the Chinese are kurang ajar power grabbing bastards out to get them.

So, I think it's a combination of all that which caused the fracas.

I don't think it's really about cars being blocked or anything.

By the way, cars parked by the roadsides during prayers causing congestion were not only at mosques, okay.

Cars parked along the roadside of Jalan Maarof, Kuala Lumpur during prayers at the Arulmigu Sri Ramalinga Eeswarar Temple

This reminds me of a conversation I had with two Christian friends when I was in college.

Both are members of the Francis Xavier Church at Jalan Gasing in Petaling Jaya.

One of them (let me named him as Leslie) was complaining to me about the Christians being discriminated by the Muslim-led BN government.

The other guy (let me named him as Shawn), however told Leslie to cool off.

'Where do you park your car when you go to church on Sunday?" he asked Leslie.

'By the roadside la,' said Leslie.

'Why you didn't park inside the church compound?" Shawn asked again.

"Not enough space. Hey, you also parked by the roadside what," said Leslie, a bit irritated.

'Ya, I parked by the roadside too every time. You ever kena saman?" said Shawn.

"No," said Leslie.

"See, the police didn't saman us because they knew we were in the church praying. If they really want to oppress us they would just saman everyone who parked by the roadside. After all, the law is the law what. But they didn't. It's because ours is a tolerant multi-racial society. That's the way it is in this country la," said Shawn.

I remember this conversation with my friends very clearly despite it being years ago.

I think we Malaysians need to have more conversations like that rather than getting hooked up too much on politics of hate.

Are the Chinese running out of money?

First there was this story yesterday,

Bandar Malaysia agreement with IWH CREC lapses

Then it was followed by this one,

IWH CREC disputes TRX City claims over lapsed Bandar Malaysia stake sale deal

I was like "Hey, what's going on?"

These are indeed weird developments.

I really thought it was all a done deal.

Well, I still remember the big news back then in Dec 2015,

1MDB sells Bandar Malaysia land to

 Johor, Chinese consortium

It actually sounded quite good at that time - Bangsa Johor and Bangsa Cina building a city for Bangsa Malaysia :)

Now I do wonder what really went wrong.

All that's known so far is that IWH CREC can't pay the needed sum to buy the 60 per cent of the project.

Maybe it got something to do with this,

China's capital controls start biting

Don't know lah.

Maybe it's just that they don't have real money.

All the hype about the Chinese having all the money in the world may not be true after all.

Somehow this whole thing reminds me of this news from back then,

RM22 billion Mersing Laguna project cancelled 

If you bothered to click on the above link, please however not believe in everything written in the story.

There's a story behind that story which only those who were directly involved in the project from start until its cancellation could tell.

I can't. Don't feel like spending nights in a lock-up, okay.

Well, never mind.

I'm actually not so disappointed that the Chinese are out of the Bandar Malaysia project.

Maybe without them I can get this wish of mine for the KL- Singapore High Speed Rail project,

May the Japanese beat the Chinese on the HSR

Back then when it was made known that the Chinese have a foothold in the Bandar Malaysia project, which the HSR will start in KL, I thought the Japanese were out of the race.

Now their Shinkansen bullet train got a better shot for the HSR project.

Senna's Day

F1 legend Ayrton Senna died 23 years ago today.

Please click on this link if you don't know who's the guy,

Ayrton Senna

Since there's nothing really interesting to write today, I'm going to pay tribute to Senna, my favourite F1 driver of all time.

Really, the Pas' decision yesterday to severe ties with PKR doesn't interest me. Anyway, I had witten about it in my last post. So predictable.

Back to Senna.

I was still a kid in 1994, but had been following the F1 races after becoming fascinated by Senna's duel with his arch rival Alain Prost at that time.

Those days there were no live telecasts of the races, yet I religiously watched the recordings despite already knowing the results of each race from the news.

My aunt, a fellow F1 fan who was staying with me at that time woke me up the morning after the San Marino Grand Prix accident at Imola.

"Senna died," she said.

At first I thought she was mistaken.

'No lah, That's Roland Ratzenberger," I said in reference to the Belgian driver of Simtex team who died in a crash during qualifying the day before the race.

It was a really bad weekend at Imola. Rubens Barichello who was driving for Jordan at that time was also badly injured in an earlier accident.

"It's Senna. He's really dead," insisted my aunt.

I jumped out of bed and rushed to the living room to watch the news. TV3's morning bulletin was still carrying news of Senna's death.

How Senna died was quite unbelievable to me at that time.

He was going through the high speed but easy Tamburello corner when everything went wrong. The Williams car just went straight into the wall and Senna died upon impact.

It couldn't be Senna's mistake. Something was definitely wrong with the car.

At that time I used to play the Microprose F1 game on my aunt's Pentium-powered PC. It was the best of its kind then.

Tumburello corner is the first one after the start of the lap. They built a chicane there to slow it down after Senna's accident.

So, I know a bit between an easy and difficult corner.

I actually memorised every corner of each F1 circuit while playing that game. It was necessary as I had to take each corner using the right gear and be ready for it before I reached there. I also learnt about taking the best racing line when driving from the game.

I didn't go to class that day.

Instead, I took a walk to the nearby 7-Elevan and bought all the newspapers to read more news about Senna's death.

I was living in Section 6 Shah Alam at that time. The 7-Eleven is the one near the market there.

Lots of memories from back then.

I mostly lost interest in F1 for a while after that.

That was until F1 came to Malaysia in 1999. This year, it will be its last. But that's another story for another day.

I'm closing this posting with a video tribute to Senna,

The last segment of the video clip was moments before Senna's car went out of control and crashed at Imola 23 years ago. It seems as if only yesterday.