All the Rembauans please stand up!!!

People of Rembau must be proud of their MP, ...... do they?

A safe pair of hands

Richard Stengel, Managing Editor for Time Magazine wrote in the To Our Readers section saying that what TIME 100 great reading is the pairings. The pair of the great leader to give his or her opinion how great is the icon to be on the list.... and for the Malaysia so called 'prime minister in-waiting'... Wolfowitz is his pair, the most eligible figure to tell the world why Anwar is very important for them... Sleep on it mate....

THE 2008 TIME 100

By Paul Wolfowitz (TIME)

During the 1990s, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and a group of U.S. Senators organized a forum to exchange views among East Asians and Americans.

Asked at one session about the role of Islam in politics, Anwar replied, "I have no use for governments which call themselves Islamic and then deny basic rights to half their population."

This devout Muslim leader was an impressive and eloquent advocate of tolerance, democracy and human rights. So we were shocked by his arrest and trial in 1998 on charges of corruption and sodomy. I felt his real "crime" had been to challenge Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose impressive record will be forever stained by his treatment of Anwar. I joined Senator Sam Nunn and others to speak out in Anwar's defense. When he was finally released from prison in 2004, U.S. policy on Iraq was unpopular in Malaysia, and Anwar was harshly critical. It would have been easy for him to disown our friendship, but he is not that kind of person. He kept the channels of dialogue open, even while making clear our disagreements.

Anwar, 60, is back in the center of Malaysian politics. The coalition led by his wife Wan Azizah has become the main opposition bloc. His future role can be determined only by Malaysians. One can hope that they will embrace his brand of tolerance, valuing dialogue across political differences, and that this courageous leader will continue to play a leading role on the world stage.

Wolfowitz is a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense

Dream, dream, dream....

You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period. - Christopher Gardner - The Pursuit of Happyness

Yeah, I'm dreaming... and I'll always on my sweet dream... no one can wake me up from this dream...

I'm dreaming of a caring community which no children will miss the first-time notice of a beautiful schoolmate in line at the school canteen... although end up with 'just friend ok' sentence...

I'm dreaming of a caring ministry of higher education which see no student will skip the class to prepare the nasi lemak and burger for room to room night service in the campus....


I'm dreaming of a caring university which never let the lecturer begging to print a page of document to be put in the teaching portfolio....Period.

How to be remembered...

BOY
Are the stories about you true?
They say your mother is an immortal
goddess.

Achilles lifts up his shield. He slips his left forearm into the leather straps on the inside of the shield.

BOY
They say you can't be killed.

ACHILLES
I wouldn't be bothering with the
shield then, would I?

BOY
The Thessalonian you're fighting
-- he's the biggest man I've ever
seen.

Achilles mounts the boy's horse.

BOY
I wouldn't want to fight him.

ACHILLES
That's why no one will remember
your name.

The scene from Troy, where Brad Pitt as Achilles, told the boy how to be remembered... to fight the impossible is always in my mind. In politics, we should be a man with principle. But what a shame for those who follow the flow and polish the apple to get what he or she wants in this temporary world.

How to win votes?

Illustration and graphic taken from Malaysiakini

From his early works organizing the people in Chicago, Obama learnt the concept of issues, action, power and self-interest. He wrote, ' ...Find out their self-interest... That's why people become involved in organizing - because they think they'll get something out of it. Once I found an issue enough people cared about, I could take them into action. With enough actions, I could start to build power' (Obama 2004, 155).

SO, for the candidates wannabe in the upcoming general election please go to the grassroots first and learn what they really need and please care for them, not only when election comes but it is an ongoing services...

Frustrated MP

It was after maghrib when I read the news about the desire not to contest and retain the seat. Something uncommon when the ambience of election is very much alive..... what we have read and heard were all about how the politicians wish to continue their services to the constituents (except those in MCA who reluctantly announced their retirement) and another four years will accomplish their mission. But the news from Malaysiakini have made me numb. My senior from IIUM decided that it is impossible for her to continue as MP due to the internal conflict within the party. This 'giant slayer' who retain the seat in 2004 by defeating the present MCA secretary general Ong Ka Chuan was a vocal MP in Dewan Rakyat. Good luck to Fong Po Kuan.

In the mood of the game...

Just returned from Old Trafford... What an enjoyable game.... the celebration all along the journey back to Dungun...
Watching the game at OT - I'm dreaming
MANU 1 -MANC 2 - Dream comes true

Datuk, I was there when you were crying for Islam....

The silver bearded man asked the audience what he will tell his grandchildren if he wouldn't say the truth about what Islam has taught just to keep his position as a mufti.. will haunt his life forever.... still fresh, repeatedly played in my memory the scene in Masjid Melayu Subang eleven years ago.... Alfatihah to Datuk Ishak Baharom

Think as you wish....

Almost every class I've taught, I said to the student, in my class, thinking is compulsory and creative thinking will get extra mark. Some students told me, how can I measure the thinking and my answer was, I have the instrument that can see the bulb over your head ..... simple, those who has the ability to think critically could translate into words or actions. I did really enjoy when the class has full of thinkers and the tutorial was lively with full of knowledge spreading all over the campus.....

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it - Henry Ford

Obama, Obama

I've replayed so many times this speech and decided to share with the forumers.. you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqoFwZUp5vc
to watch the video. I''m currently reading the 'Dreams from My Father' written by him and in a short while I will post the review in my blog. This was the transcript of the speech.

You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.

But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do.

You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days. You have done what America can do in this new year, 2008.

In lines that stretched around schools and churches, in small towns and in big cities, you came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents, to stand up and say that we are one nation. We are one people. And our time for change has come.

You said the time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that's consumed Washington.

To end the political strategy that's been all about division, and instead make it about addition. To build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states.

Because that's how we'll win in November, and that's how we'll finally meet the challenges that we face as a nation.

We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division,

You said the time has come to tell the lobbyists who think their money and their influence speak louder than our voices that they don't own this government - we do. And we are here to take it back.

The time has come for a president who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face, who will listen to you and learn from you, even when we disagree, who won't just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know.

And in New Hampshire, if you give me the same chance that Iowa did tonight, I will be that president for America.

I'll be a president who finally makes health care affordable and available to every single American, the same way I expanded health care in Illinois, by by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to get the job done. I'll be a president who ends the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans who deserve it.

I'll be a president who harnesses the ingenuity of farmers and scientists and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil once and for all.

And I'll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home who restores our moral standing, who understands that 9/11 is not a way to scare up votes but a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century. Common threats of terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease.

Tonight, we are one step closer to that vision of America because of what you did here in Iowa.

And so I'd especially like to thank the organizers and the precinct captains, the volunteers and the staff who made this all possible.

And while I'm at it on thank yous, I think it makes sense for me to thank the love of my life, the rock of the Obama family, the closer on the campaign trail.

I know you didn't do this for me. You did this because you believed so deeply in the most American of ideas - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.

I know this. I know this because while I may be standing here tonight, I'll never forget that my journey began on the streets of Chicago doing what so many of you have done for this campaign and all the campaigns here in Iowa, organizing and working and fighting to make people's lives just a little bit better.

I know how hard it is. It comes with little sleep, little pay and a lot of sacrifice. There are days of disappointment. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are nights like this, a night that, years from now, when we've made the changes we believe in, when more families can afford to see a doctor, when our children inherit a planet that's a little cleaner and safer, when the world sees America differently, and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united, you'll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.

This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always said was inevitable.

This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long; when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause; when we finally gave Americans who have never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.

This was the moment when we finally beat back the policies of fear and doubts and cynicism, the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.

Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment, this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope. For many months, we've been teased, even derided for talking about hope. But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path.

It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.

Hope is what I saw in the eyes of the young woman in Cedar Rapids who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford health care for a sister who's ill. A young woman who still believes that this country will give her the chance to live out her dreams.

Hope is what I heard in the voice of the New Hampshire woman who told me that she hasn't been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq. Who still goes to bed each night praying for his safe return.

Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire. What led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation. What led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause.

Hope, hope is what led me here today. With a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America.

Hope is the bedrock of this nation. The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.

That is what we started here in Iowa and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond.

The same message we had when we were up and when we were down; the one that can save this country, brick by brick, block by block, that together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Because we are not a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States of America. And in this moment, in this election, we are ready to believe again.

Thank you, Iowa

The Village By The Sea

My first year in IIUMC dealt a lot with the language classes. I started my english course with level 1. The lowest level. The beginner. But it was an opportunity that I treasure most. One of my lecturer in my first semester was Miss Naomi Lane. A sixty-something English woman who taught us reading comprehension. The text that we were required to read comprehensively was a book by Anita Desai, The Village by The Sea. The way Miss Lane handle the class made the lesson very interesting. The synopsis below taken from wikipedia.

The Village by the Sea is set in a small village called Thul, which is 14 kilometres from Bombay. Lila, the eldest child among four siblings, is thirteen years old, yet she already has the maturity of an adult. Her brother Hari, twelve, is the only person with whom she can share her troubles. Their mother is ill and needs constant care and nursing. Nobody knows exactly what she suffers from but she grows weaker and weaker with each passing day. Their father, who has been out of work for months, is in a permanent drunken stupor, from which he arises occasionally to shout at his family.

With two younger sisters to take care of as well as their mother, life for Lila and Hari is not easy. Their father is not very useful as he is often away at the local toddy shop, getting drunk. There is a constant need for money as the family is almost always in debt. Then one day, Hari decides he has had just about enough and leaves for Bombay– the Bombay where dreams come true and ambition yields.

Lila is left alone to manage her sisters Bela and Kamal, as well as her mother, and somehow keep the family strings together. Help comes from an unexpected source, the rich DeSilva's. Meanwhile, Hari is new in the great city of Bombay, and all alone. A kind restaurant proprietor, Jagu, takes pity on him and welcomes him to work in his restaurant, Sri Krishna Eating House. There, Hari builds a strong friendship with Mr. Panwallah, the lovable watch repairer whose shop is just beside Jagu’s.

This book gave some influences for some of us as it was our first English novel.

I (still) like watching people....

Since moving to the Dungun, I've missed a lot of things that I used to spend with when I was in Bangi and KL. One of these moments was like sitting or standing in a train and watching the other strangers (commuters) around- when you have no book to read. You can see all types of people spending their daily routine commute from/to their home and workplace. Some of them exercise their fingers by keep on SMSing all the way until they reach the destination. Most of them fall asleep. But some part of this journey also can turn to be some exercises for your heart, falling in love with the stranger. Simple, when you find somebody that when your eyes meet her, your heart starts to wish something. And waiting for the next station , who will reach first... love at the first sight and not more than 45 minutes (considering the length of time spent in the train). Believe me , it will make your journey seems faster . - This message is under controlled by the association of the united husbands for the sensitive wives.

Globalisation ala Americans

Globalisation that so much linked with the borderless world, where all the transactions and movements have no limits has changed the international relation. Americans, especially the neocon, has made this globalisation (read capitalism) as a new tool to expand their foreign policies in order to protect their national interest. These words from Kristol need to be pondered.

"AND THEN, of course, there is foreign policy, the area of American politics where neoconservatism has recently been the focus of media attention. This is surprising since there is no set of neoconservative beliefs concerning foreign policy, only a set of attitudes derived from historical experience. (The favorite neoconservative text on foreign affairs, thanks to professors Leo Strauss of Chicago and Donald Kagan of Yale, is Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War.) These attitudes can be summarized in the following "theses" (as a Marxist would say): First, patriotism is a natural and healthy sentiment and should be encouraged by both private and public institutions. Precisely because we are a nation of immigrants, this is a powerful American sentiment. Second, world government is a terrible idea since it can lead to world tyranny. International institutions that point to an ultimate world government should be regarded with the deepest suspicion. Third, statesmen should, above all, have the ability to distinguish friends from enemies. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the history of the Cold War revealed. The number of intelligent men who could not count the Soviet Union as an enemy, even though this was its own self-definition, was absolutely astonishing.

Finally, for a great power, the "national interest" is not a geographical term, except for fairly prosaic matters like trade and environmental regulation. A smaller nation might appropriately feel that its national interest begins and ends at its borders, so that its foreign policy is almost always in a defensive mode. A larger nation has more extensive interests. And large nations, whose identity is ideological, like the Soviet Union of yesteryear and the United States of today, inevitably have ideological interests in addition to more material concerns. Barring extraordinary events, the United States will always feel obliged to defend, if possible, a democratic nation under attack from nondemocratic forces, external or internal. That is why it was in our national interest to come to the defense of France and Britain in World War II. That is why we feel it necessary to defend Israel today, when its survival is threatened. No complicated geopolitical calculations of national interest are necessary."

Excerpted from 'The Neoconservative Persuasion : What it was, and what it is.' By Irving Kristol, From the August 25, 2003 issue 08/25/2003, Volume 008, Issue 47

The way we see the world...

It was my freshman year when I started to do a part time job at one of the country's leading pharmacies. On that moment, I thought I was an independent student who can earn some pocket money and at the same time struggling to get the degree. Yes, I earn what I've searched for but I've lost what I've supposed to grab at the garden of virtue and knowledge.

"Part of the problem, Mitch, is that everyone is in such a hurry," Morrie said. "People haven't found meaning in their lives, so they're are running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house and the next job. Then they find those things are empty, too, and they keep running." ( Tuesday with Morrie, p 136)

Empty Decorations

I wake in the dawn to showers of light
Moments of emptiness surround
Floating away with auras of hope
But reality brings me down to the ground
What can i do ?
What can i say ?
I need a place to hide away
Just for a while, just for a smile
Just for the life i used to know

Where every song
Was filled with words of love and not of anger
Where did they go ?
Why did they leave me far behind ?

Cause i don't wanna be alone
Living life all on my own
I don't wanna live my life in isolation
Filled with empty decorations
Cause i wanna be with the people that i know
Who will do the things i do
Making all my dreams come true
I don't recognise the shadows on my door
Although i've seen them all before
Because the only thing i really want is to be with you...

I look at the sky, it looks back at me
I can't hear the silent melodies
I know that i'm here yet i am lost
Blown in confusion by the breeze
Hiding my face, crying alone
I need to find my way back home
Back to the place, the wonderful days
Living the life i used to know
Where every smile
Was born out of a love and of sincerity
And every tear of everflowing joy

END OF SEMESTER

The semester is nearly ends as well as Ramadhan. We have been asked to finished the syllabus before the final week of Ramadhan. But my first Ramadhan in Dungun is quite tough especially when lecturing in the evening......

For One more Day

Just finished reading this book by Mitch Albom, and I've to admit that Tuesday with Morrie is better in term of the narrative. But it's still on my top ten list of the best books for this year.

"If you had the chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it? And if you did, would you be big enough to stand it? Mitch Albom, in this new book, once again demonstrates why he is one of my favorite writers: a fearless explorer of the wishful and magical, he is also a devout believer in the power of love. For One More Day will make you smile. It will make you wistful. It will make you blink back tears of nostalgia. But most of all, it will make you believe in the eternal power of a mother's love."

--James McBride, author of
The Color of Water

I have a blog?

Blogging is an activity that you turn to it at least once a day... but what happen to me, it was a long hiatus to update this blog... don't know why... nothing to be blamed...

'a blog is your own personal virtual soapbox, where you can get up every morning and, in the form of a column or a newsletter or just a screed, tell he world what you think about any subject, upload that content onto your own website, and hen wait for the world to come check it out.' (The World is Flat, Friedman:118)

New Constitution in Thailand

Military government in Thailand has conducted the first ever referendum in this country last Sunday to decide whether the new constitution will be accepted or not. Only 57.6 per cent of the eligible voters voted, far below the usual turnout at general elections. According to Peter Janssen in his analysis,

'a final count of ballots cast, only 57 per cent of the people who bothered to vote Sunday supported the new charter, with 42 per cent rejecting it. And despite being the country's "first-ever" referendum, the novelty value was insufficient to draw the masses to the polling stations'.

By this result, the re-installation of democracy in Thailand has a long road to go....

New Politics in US-UK?

What matter most? Image or Ability…. The way Hillary leads the run for the democratic nomination and Gordon Brown newly crowned as Prime Minister has portrayed the new style of leadership. ‘Goodbye charisma, hello new politics’ provides detailed analysis about this new politics in US-UK relationship ….