Weekend at the betel palm island

The betel palm's correct name is actually the areca palm. In Malay it is called pokok pinang. It is often called the betel tree because the plant produces a fruit, the areca nut, that is often chewed along with the betel leaf. The betel plant is a type of vine whose leaves are thought to have medicinal properties. In Malay it is known as daun sireh.

Not many people that I know of, chew betel leaves nowadays. My late maternal grandmother was one of them. I must've been around five or six-years old when I first watched her go through the ritual of this amazing habit. She had this small brass basket that held four tiny cups with covers plus a small shear-like implement called a kacip. The kacip is used to cut the areca nut (pinang) into small strips and also to shave off some slices of gambier. She would take a clean betel leaf, dip her finger into a can containing lime-chalk (kapur), and smear the chalk onto the surface of the leaf. She then sprinkles some pinang and gambier onto the leaf, fold it up maybe three or four times before popping the thing into her mouth and start chewing happily. Sometimes tobacco is added into the mix but I'm not entirely sure. After a few minutes of blissful chewing, she would work out a glob of grossly-coloured saliva which she spits into this special container with careless ease... a remarkable woman, my late grandmother. May the Almighty bless her soul.

Anyway, this post is about our trip to the island named after the areca palm, Pulau Pinang. Apart from lending its name to an island, the pinang fruit also feature in a well-known Malay proverb, `Bagai pinang dibelah dua', a metaphor used to describe a very nice, if not perfect, match of two persons. The phrase is commonly used as a polite compliment to a newly-wed couple at their wedding ceremony.

Pinang, as a word on its own, also carries the meaning of seeking the hand of someone's daughter for marriage. And I guess this ties in nicely with the objective of our travel to Penang in the first place.

Two weeks ago, we traveled north for the engagement ceremony of our eldest son to a sweet young lass from Balik Pulau. The formal pinangan process had actually been carried out three months ago and was hinted in an earlier post here -> A taste of nasi lemuni in Pulau Pinang.

It was a very small representation from our side because both parties agreed to make it a simple and brief affair. Alhamdulillah, things went smoothly and we hope the wedding, planned for September this year, would be without any hitches as well, insyaAllah.

Tepak sireh, the traditional symbol of gift in Malay engagements and weddings

The engagement ring and tanda hantaran (folded RM notes)

A simple assortment of gifts from our side

The future mother-in-law slipping on the ring on the future daughter-in-law's finger

The case for fence-sitters

I wrote the following piece as a short article for my Facebook page on the eve of our 13th General Election. This morning, we all know of the final outcome of that event. The ruling political alliance Barisan Nasional have been returned to power, albeit with a poorer performance than their last outing in 2008. The opposition alliance of Pakatan Rakyat did not succeed in their attempt to become the new government.

Both parties are obviously now analysing their results; one is trying to understand why it didn't do so well while the other is perhaps wondering if it had done enough. This is where I think what I wrote earlier would still apply.
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The case for fence-sitters

It is polling day tomorrow 05.05.13. I guess most of us by now are sick of the political campaigns and have already made up our minds on who we are voting for. This short piece of writing would therefore probably be my last mention on the subject of our 13th General Election.

Many years ago, I was in a discussion with a former boss of mine about some technical issue at work. He was putting forth an argument about something to which I already agree, but he wanted to say it out anyway.`I know I’m preaching to the converted,’ he told me, `but I like to see you agreeing to it all the same.’

It was the first time I heard the phrase, but preaching to the converted is what most of the politicians are doing, or so it seems to me. You get the feel-good vibes but you do not score too many new points. It is the fence-sitters that you need to swing your way.

A typical trait of the fence-sitter is that he/she does not favour one party… but then the other side doesn’t look too appealing either. So for this rare piece of political opinion, I’d like to touch on the particular angle of why a person would dislike a party. No point talking about the `likes’… there are too many, whichever side we choose, and the reasons are obvious anyway.

It is also not difficult to zoom in on the issues that cause us to dislike (some would say `hate’ is a better word) a political party. From the various FB status updates and subsequent comments that I read on my friends wall from both sides of the divide, I have picked some for objective discussion. They are in no particular order of importance.

The anti-PR crowd

1. Voting for DAP would spell doom for the Malays. DAP is a Chinese racist party. The Chinese can’t be trusted. Once they are in power, the Malays will lose their privileges. Worse still, Islam may cease to be the country’s official religion.

2. PAS will implement Hudud law once they are in power. We will no longer have any entertainment shows. The casino at Genting and all 4-D shops will have to close. The country will be governed by a select group called the syura council. We will descend into a Taliban-like era. Investors will run away.

3. The Pakatan Rakyat alliance won’t last. The component parties don’t have a common ideology. PAS is fighting for Islam. DAP is fighting for racial equality. PKR’s struggles are only for Anwar Ibrahim. They only band together now because of a common enemy. Once in power, they’ll be fighting amongst themselves. The country would be in chaos. There would be no stability.

Of course there are many more issues raised by the opponents of Pakatan Rakyat but the above sample should suffice. Let’s now play the devil’s advocate and think for a bit on why such issues are of concern.

The reasons : 

1. In the minds of many Malays, especially the rural folk, DAP is still a Chinese party, even though they have been trying their best to project themselves as multi-racial. There are still sections of the Malay population who do not trust the Chinese, for whatever reasons. Bitter pill to swallow but still a fact.

2. The spectre of religious extremism is not lost to certain sections of the Chinese populace. PAS has never dropped their ambition of implementing an Islamic state and the actions of some of their members do not portray the image of moderation. Their youth wing have been active in raising protests when overseas entertainers come to hold performances in Malaysia. While PAS is now advocating the welfare state approach, their efforts have yet to convince many non-Muslim citizens.

3. It is not difficult to see that the common objective of the PR alliance is to remove the present government. Once that objective is achieved, many people doubt that the cooperation would last. Of course, PR says that this is untested as they have never been in government before. Try them out for one term, they say, only 5 years… but then there are still many people not willing to take that gamble.

Okay then, let’s jump to the other side of the fence and see some of the views from there…

The anti-BN crowd

1. Barisan Nasional is a corrupt party that is wasting millions of ringgit of public money. They enrich only their cronies and even allow Ministers to use public funds for personal gains. They control the law enforcement agencies and practice selective prosecution. They catch the small fry but let the big sharks get away. They use government facilities for the party campaign process. They control the newspapers and television and say only bad things about the opposition.

2. The Chinese component party MCA is ridiculing Islam but UMNO as the dominant member is not doing anything about it. UMNO is allowing the official religion to be disrespected by its own ally. The BN as a whole, practices politics along racial lines.

3. PM Najib Razak is not a firm leader and is not in full control of his party. He still fears the influence of former premier Tun Mahathir. The Tun has done more than enough damage during his 22 years in power. How can Najib transform the country if old hands still pull the strings in the background?

The reasons :

1. The handling of certain scandals involving Ministers and well-known personalities connected to BN have not been forthright and conclusive. The NFC fiasco was actually first highlighted by the Auditor-General before being pounced upon by PKR. Funds for a project that was meant to increase livestock meat production, were utilised for purchase of luxury properties. Yet the PM can let it slip by. He should have been firm and taken action against Shahrizat. What he only did was let her senatorship run the full term and not renew it. Pretty lame. Even worse, TPM Muhyiddin, who was Agriculture Minister at the time the project was first approved, hardly offered any explanation. For the even bigger PKFZ scandal, 2 former ministers from MCA are facing separate court charges but their trials are exceedingly slow to the extent that they might as well be on holiday. And what about the money spent to rescue Perwaja, which in the end, failed anyway? Don’t even think of asking about Bank Bumiputera.

2. UMNO cannot claim to be the protector of the religion of Islam while ignoring the deplorable way MCA is criticising Hudud. The MCA President has been making this attack on Hudud law as his primary tactic because he is out of ideas. His party is about to become insignificant just like Gerakan. UMNO can even allow MCA to carry full-page newspaper adverts attacking Islam. Shameful.

3. Najib is still beholden to Tun M for manouvering him into the PM position by kicking out Pak Lah. So when Tun M says put the Perkasa leaders as candidates, Najib tries to compromise by just putting Zul Noordin in Shah Alam. Tun M not happy. Che Johan Che Pa mysteriously withdrew from being the nominated BN candidate at Pasir Mas, thus allowing Perkasa supremo Ibrahim Ali to take on a one-on-one fight with Nik Abduh of PAS. Najib tak terkata apa. The old man still wields a lot of power. But the PR leaders and many followers hate the Tun more than Najib himself. Try ask Anwar, Karpal, Kit Siang and Nik Aziz. Many people believe that Mahathir was the one responsible in introducing money-politics within his own party… a disease UMNO leaders, at each annual perhimpunan agung, say they are trying hard to cure. Yeah… right.

So there you have it, a sampling of reasons why people from one side dislike the leaders from the other. For sure, you’ll have many other reasons of your own.

If I'm a politician looking hard to win a seat in parliament, I would focus on trying to address those concerns among the undecided folks known as fence-sitters. They are the ones who would most probably tip things in my favour… especially in a very tightly fought contest such as the one this time. But hey, who am I to to give such advice?

To all friends and unknown enemies, Selamat Mengundi. Jalankan tanggungjawab anda kepada negara.

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Barely a full day has yet to pass and I'm already reading in today's Facebook, various opinions and comments on why the results turned out the way it did. These include some nasty and insensible remarks; one party claiming the other has cheated while the other chiding the other for being sore losers who plan to take the issue to the streets in protest. Not to mention quite a few with obvious racial insults. It surprises me sometimes that such remarks come from my friends who, at other periods of the year, are actually nice people.

As I have previously written elsewhere, I am a firm believer that each individual has a right to hold onto his own opinion and express it in any way he wishes. It is the way that opinion is expressed which gives us the judgement of character.

Anyway, I am also quite pleased to read a few very well-written analyses from people of moderation. It gives hope that our country can still be heading in the right direction for a better future.

I share this quote from the writer Amir Muhammad : `That the losers can't accept losing is normal. What's new is that the winners know they didn't really win.'

Buku lima

Some time in early March last month, I managed to drop by the Big Bad Wolf book sale at the Mines Convention Centre in Serdang. Although I have heard of this spectacular book sale before, it was my first time visiting the event. As I stepped into the convention hall, I became awestruck... I thought I had reached book heaven. Klang Valley folks are so lucky. If such a fair is held in Johor Bahru, I'd be a regular customer for sure.

I caught the BBW book fair on the very last day of the extended sale period and even that was at late evening after settling the work stuff at my KL head office. If not for the need to drive back to JB, I could have stayed right up to closing time. There were simply tons of books that I wanted to browse through. Anyway, I made full use of whatever short time I had to return with a haul of 14 books. At a mere RM5 per copy, the total purchase cost me only RM70, which is about the normal price I'd have to pay for 2 brand-new novels. It was a mix of works from new authors (new in this sense, meaning that I'm reading them for the first time) plus some writers whom I'm already familiar with. Three of the fourteen are non-fiction.

The full list of my selection is as follows :

1. Boris Akunin - Turkish Gambit
2. Mitch Albom - For One More Day
3. Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
4. Harlan Coben - Long Lost
5. Michael Crichton - Pirate Latitudes
6. Alan Furst - The Foreign Correspondent
7. James Hamilton-Patterson - Empire of the Clouds
8. John Le Carre - The Constant Gardener
9. John Le Carre - The Mission Song
10. Elmore Leonard - Up in Honey's Room
11. Sue Miller - Lost In The Forest
12. Christopher Priest - The Dream Archipelago
13. Colin Tudge - The Link
14. John Wood - Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

This particular stack should cover my reading appetite for next 6 months

From the pile, I chose to start with Bryson. Having read three of his books before, I was pretty confident this work would not disappoint. Indeed, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a biographical account of life in the US in the 60's, is very hilarious.

I am presently digesting the second pick, a first-time read of Alan Furst who's fiction novel titled The Foreign Correspondent, is a spy/mystery thriller set in Europe before the start of World War II. Readers of this blog can now sort of guess why my postings have been a bit sparse of late.

Okay then... what has the title of this post got to do with a collection of books I got at a bargain?

`Buku Lima' is a Malay idiom that does not translate to mean `five books' (but if we really want to apply the direct translation rule, it could actually mean the `fifth book' or `book no.5', as in a specific book from a series of books... but then I digress). The phrase denotes a clenched fist and by extension, if displayed in a provocative manner, would mean a threat or an invitation to physically punch it out. Buku lima is also the name given to the hand-held weapon known in English as brass knuckles. Bizzare, isn't it?

But hey... I don't want to be scaring off my readers with unnecessary aggression. It's just to let you know April 2013 marks the 5th year this blog has been in circulation. Thanks to all for the company...

When things don't go your way, think of the times when they do

Life indeed, has its ups and downs. Sometimes we are lucky while at other times we are not. Nobody goes through life in a flat line; it would be such a boring experience if there is such a life.

For some of us who have gone through very tough times and faced many problems, it would seem that the downhill stretch of our life journey is always longer than the uphill part. Personally, I do not believe it to be so. We only remember the downward journey because of the suffering. We tend to forget the upward movement because we enjoy the nice view too much and forget the blessings that come with it. It is therefore worthwhile for us to appreciate that the good times which come our way more than sufficiently compensate the bad ones. To illustrate this point, I relate to you the following story which comes in two parts.

Some time in the middle of February, my wife called me while I was at work. She said that a motorcyclist had crashed into the front of her car on the very road in front of our house. The biker was coming from the opposite direction at very fast speed and apparently was not looking straight ahead. The lane in front of my house is not that wide and the passage is made narrower by cars parked along the side. The collision could not be avoided.

The young man who rode the motorcycle was flung off his bike but luckily for him, no serious injuries were sustained. My wife's car suffered quite a bit of damage; the right headlight and signal light were totally smashed, the hood and side panel were badly dented. To make matters worse, the biker has no valid license and it is quite doubtful if he had the required road tax and insurance cover too. To avoid a formal police report being made, he offered to pay for the damage to my wife's car. But he does not have any cash on him, so he told the story that he has a sister who would come later in the day after work, with some money as initial payment. The balance would be paid at the end of the month when he gets his salary. As a measure of his sincerity, he left his identity card for my wife to hold on to. Being the kind-hearted soul that she is, my wife accepted the proposal. Besides, there wasn't much else she could do; the guy was broke.

When I got home from work and had a look at the car, I estimated that repair works would cost in excess of RM500. While we waited for this so-called sister of the biker to show up, I had a look at the IC that was left behind. It shows an address within the same kampung but my wife said she actually went to the street mentioned in the IC but nobody in the area knows the man. That was when we had a feeling that we've been duped. The so-called sister never showed up. I called the phone number that supposedly belongs to the sister but the call was not answered.

The next day, I told my wife to proceed with making a police report. The guy has already disappeared and it became clear that we have to bear the full cost of the repair. I considered a few options on how I can try to go after the biker but in the end I decided just to let the matter go and swallow the loss.

The damage to my wife's Proton Wira

So that's the first part of this story which touches on misfortune. Now to the next part.

About two weeks after the incident mentioned above, I was on my way to Kuala Lumpur to attend a meeting at my Head Office. It was Sunday evening and I was driving alone on the North-South Expressway. As I reached Senawang, the traffic became heavy and all 3 lanes of the highway slowed down to a stop-go movement. It was a real struggle to be stuck in such a jam especially since I was driving a 4-wheel drive pickup with manual transmission.

The slow crawl took me past Seremban interchange when the unfortunate happened. During one of the stop-go cycles, I had a lapse in concentration and did not brake in time when the car in front had stopped. I hit into the back of this car which in turn caused it to jerk forward and hit the car in front of it. As I stepped out of my car to survey the damage, I realised that I had run into a Beemer. Crap, I thought... the repair to this car is going to be expensive. Since it was my fault, I'd better be prepared to cough out a sizeable sum.

The driver of the Beemer got out. He was a young man probably in his late 20's. I saw the initial disappointed look on his face and so quickly admitted my fault and said sorry. He then went to inspect the car that he had hit. The driver of this car, another young man, also got out and the three of us we looking at the damage to the rear bumper. There was a slight dent and some scratches. The two young men then had a quite discussion with each other, after which I saw the driver that I hit took out his wallet, gave some money to the driver of the front-most car who took it and drove away.

We then had a look at his car. There were some dents to both the front and rear bumpers. I asked him how much he needed but he politely declined. When I insisted on paying something, he said to pay whatever I can afford. I took some RM notes from my wallet which I'm sure is not enough to cover his cost but he took the money without question. I offered him my phone number just in case he needed more after the repairs were done but he simply said, it's okay, no need. He got into his car and we both resumed out journey. It was all over in a matter of minutes. No fuss and no aggravation. I didn't even have time to take note of his license plate number.

As I drove away from the incident, I couldn't help but be thankful that it turned out all right. I'm left thinking that the young man's parents had brought him up well. He's obviously rich but never once did he show any arrogance. And I'm not implying that rich people are. To the young man who drives a dark blue BMW 3-series whom I accidentally ran into on the NSE somewhere near Seremban, thank you for your kindness. Your parents must be proud of you and may Allah swt bless you.

And so my friends, when things don't go your way, do take a step back and think of the times when they do...

Wedding weekend

We were in the Klang Valley this weekend since late Thursday night, primarily to send our eldest son who's flying back to Jordan on Friday morning after spending a few weeks of his term break back home in Malaysia. He is now completing his final semester at university and God willing, should graduate in the middle of this year.

How time flies... it seems just like a few years ago that we sent him to the airport for his first flight overseas.

Anyway, it was an opportune occasion that blogger-friend, Puteri Kamaliah invited me for her daughter's wedding at Taman Tun Dr Ismail yesterday 23 February 2013. Kak Kama had previously invited me for the wedding of her elder daughter two years ago but I missed going to that one because something cropped up at the last minute. This time around, the timing was just nice and so I made the effort to be there.

Until yesterday, I have never met Kak Kama in person before. We have been friends in cyberspace via the blogger network and Facebook for a number of years. I can't quite remember when she first commented in this blog but she wrote that she came by Just Observations by way of Kak Teh's blog. From that first comment, I directed her to read an old post of mine about Dungun town in Trengganu (because that's her hometown). From then on I guess, our online friendship developed.

I have previously written about my wish to be connected to my blogger-friends and regular readers in real life, and how in 2011, I have met six. Kak Kama was the first commenter in that post, mentioning that she and I have yet to meet. Alhamdulillah yesterday our wishes were fulfilled.

The wedding reception of Najiah Najib and her husband, Izhar Shazly was held by the poolside of the Sri TTDI Condo. It was a joyous occasion and the weather just held out nicely until the event was over.

Kak Kama has now successfully gone through the marriage ceremonies of her daughters. She now has to weave the same magic to get her two sons to follow the same steps...

Best wishes to the groom and bride for a happy life ahead