Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

The preparation is still on going.

Five kilos of beef, 4 whole chickens, 6 lemangs, 50 pieces of ketupat, rendang in the wok and of course numerous cookies, many of them were cooked by Mak in KL, and I guess Raya '08 is on the way.

While we only have 3 families at this moment, making this raya one of the smallest in recent memory, I hope to make this a better one than last year. It seems to be heading that way. A few of my primary school classmates are coming for Raya, and I hope to do some visiting on the Raya day itself.

Well, I would like to wish all a Selamat Hari Raya and I guess with the thousands of words being typed over the past year or so, I do wish to apologize if I have hurt anybody's feeling.

I guess this apology is only valid for the non-politicians! Haha.. ;-)

Jom raya di Kamunting, eh I mean, Taiping

We are inching closer and closer to the Raya.

Honestly I am looking forward for the Raya break. Been quite awhile since I last went back and enjoy Taiping as it is supposed to be enjoyed. Sure I went back last week to pick up mum (since she wants to bake some cookies at my home) and also during the recent flood, but it was just a tad too short for me to enjoy Taiping and its ambience.

My former primary school classmates are supposed to have a reunion of sort on Raya day. Zaki is contacting the other classmates and we are also planning to visit our dear Ustaz Adnan who taught us in Std 5 and 6 in King Edward.

I am looking forward to seeing friends I have not seen since 1975.

And I managed to call one of my best buddy Zakri Khir. He is now a COO at Allianz. The good news he is also Raya-ing in Taiping and wants to meet up for bukak puasa first this Monday. Apparently his mum is still in Taiping (his dad died in July last year). The smartest boy in school then; no wonder he is doing well in his career, I am glad to say.

But at the same time, with the recent spate of arrest under ISA, it reminds me that for some reasons the power-that-be prefer to show their power and arrest many during the fasting month. The arrest of a former minister under Tengku is a case to point, and I guess RPK arrest and incarceration has to be done during Ramadhan.

How about the many others who have been in there for the past of 7 years? It is so cruel. How about one who returned only after his daughter was burried? Or one who had never bought his children any baju raya for the past 7 years. Read it here.

The Kem Tahanan ISA is in Kamunting, say half an hour from Taiping. When my in-laws were still living in Batu Kurau, we would pass it everytime on the way there. Of course we would not bat an eye lid then.

So let's all go back and Raya in Kamunting, what say you?

After all, gasoline has been reduced by RM0.10 cents. I would save at least RM7.00 if I were to fill up my tank to go back to Taiping.

Wow! Thank you Pak Lah.

I am really indebted to you.

Of bygone era

This is the very reason I love to time travel. These lovely sets of pictures of Kuala Lumpur in the old days are priceless. Someone sent me these last year and while I was archiving past emails in my old computers, I came across these and thought it is appropriate to post them here.

I don't know who own the copyright of these pictures, so I am taking liberty here. If you are the owner, I hope that you have given me permission to share them here.

Now, where is my time machine?

Aah, lovely.

Not much change here I guess.

Would you believe that this is Bukit Bintang?

Karya Symphonic - SM Bandar Tun Hussein Onn 2 Orchestra

http://

Or you can go here.

I have to say that I am proud to have Arif and Akmal playing their roles in interpreting the classic Merdeka song, Bahtera Merdeka, and yes, I am equally proud to hear these students attempting to create a school orchestra on their own, and be able to perform during a Merdeka celebration.

Nevermind the sound, the out of pitch or out of key notes, with less than a month of practice, the students of Sekolah Menengah Bandar Tun Hussein Onn 2 managed to stand out with their performance.

Mind you, it was Arif on the violin and Akmal on acoustic guitar. While you can clearly see Arif and his violin, you can barely see Akmal as he was sitting immediately in front of the conductor.

I have to say I like the violin intro by Arif. I am sure without your guitar Akmal, the arrangement would not work either.

How about this one then - Warisan? A Sudirman's song. You can go here too.

http://

"How do you want me to answer it in my grave?"

Prologue

I was reading the analysis in the The Sun yesterday about all the land scam that have surfaced recently in this country. Among them were the Istana Abang Zek in Kelang, the various unit transferred to Gerakan, MIC and others in Damansara Utama when land for public amenities including a telephone exchange and surau were hijacked.

And of course the house that was built on the road reserve in Petaling Jaya.

I went to visit my auntie in Kuang recently. The lady in charge of the old folks home there told me about how the land in Kuang were practically owned by a former Menteri Besar of Selangor. And someone from the Pejabat Tanah.

When I read all these, I remember Bapak. He was a settlement officer at various Pejabat Tanah in Perak till mid 80s. I duly remember about the pieces of land that the government distributed to the poor in Taiping.

And I can tell you, if he was the type, I am very sure he could have had a few for himself and I am sure he would have left us with many pieces of land.

But he didn't. The only piece he owned was recently sold by his children.

I thought in line with my current work schedule, I should copy and paste my past entry about halal haram and bapak's story on why he didn't enrich himself while in office.

God bless you Bapak. Alfatihah.

"How do you want me to answer it in my grave?" (posted April 21, 2007)

I was mesmerized when I read an article by Mohd Hazri Humphreys in the The Sunday Star (Fit4Life; Feb 4, 2007 - Ooranya Kalori column) about how we (nonArabic-speaking Muslims) always associate halal with the food we eat and neglect the many other facets of the halal concept. Halal in Islam, according to him, encompasses daily living; how we earn our living, our speech, behaviour and conduct, as well as dietary law. In business and in politics too!

Someone related to me this story. As typical bankers, they worked late into the nite and normally the bank would provide dinner for them. So one time, they opted to get food from one Bistro in PJ. A colleague countered, “Is it halal?” She was a bit annoyed with the question as she had always thought that most food outlets in Malaysia are halal. Now let’s fast forward towards the end of the month, when they had to fill up the claim forms for claiming their overtime. Now, they are only paid overtime if they exceed 2 hours of work beyond the normal office hours. A couple of times that month, they didn’t exceed the two hours, so rightly they could not claim the overtime. This same colleague of hers however thought otherwise. “Just claim it as overtime, the boss would not question it anyway,” she told her.

This halal logo is oh so important to us. But one can easily print this on one's printer (and give it some dubious refence number to make it authentic and post it anywhere. Do we ever question it? Does Jakim really monitors whether the logo posted is for real. In this age and technology, how do we ensure this logo is not abused? May be we should paste this to our foreheads so that we live a halal life.

Now here is where our understanding of the halal concept dubious. We are so concerned – and I am not saying it is wrong, that our food is halal. The chickens have to be slaughtered in a special manner and in God’s name, so do the cows. We don’t eat lard or pork; that’s haram (non-halal). The emulsifier for our cookies should be of vegetable origin; typically animal-originated emulsifiers are non-halal. Tiramisu cakes contain alcohol, so it is haram. I remember coming back at the end of my second year at the university, bapak asked me the process of making sugar, and luckily that adsorption (not absorption) process was a basic practice in chemical engineering, so I was able to explain it to him (it was in the final exam in 1983). I guess that that in the early 80s, there had been some doubts on the halalness of white sugar in Malaysia (so lots of people would use raw sugar then).

And yes, typically animal bones are used in the process of turning raw sugar into white sugar!

It is fine and dandy to be asking about one's food. But what about the source of our income? How about the additional money we got from claims that we are not entitled to? And then using the money to feed our spouse and kids? What about the way we rear and treat the chickens before we slaughter them in God’s name? Is that not part of the halalness of our food too? After all we are not supposed to even sharpen the knives in the vicinity of the animals to be slaughtered!

Under the table money. This is too obvious. Nowadays, many would ask for a hp top-up as it is more discreet on the lower end, and perhaps in Swiss bank account for the upper ends.

To me, it is perhaps more critical that we ensure the source of our income is halal. We feed our families using this money. While halal food is important, if you made a mistake, it affects typically only you and you alone. Mohd Hazri said, “Living halal life is more important than eating halal food, as insisting on halal food while living a non-halal life is hypocrisy at its greatest.”

I think we need to live and breathe this halal concept. You know it is wrong taking that RM30 cash bribe, but an RM100 top up for the hand phone is acceptable – I don’t eat using that money. Duit kopi is a Malaysian culture and acceptable to many. Equally wrong is giving bribe to get a project; in many ways it is worse. Claiming what we are not entitled – hey everyone has done that! We had to do overtime many times, and we were not paid; now surely we are entitled to a couple of bucks here and there, right? (You need more excuses? Read Dilbert on Employees Compensation Program!) Whatever the excuses! Justify it all you want.

I think if we were to feed our family using ill-gotten money, while we may look happy, but our lives will loose the ‘baraqah’. We may be successful, but our children may not. We may be a millionaire but in a generation or two, that wealth may be gone. Or our children could face problematic lives, after we are gone. If it is not our children, it could be our grandchildren.

I remember this story told by a (Chinese) cab driver while he was driving me from KLIA to my home one day. The story was that of a very rich Chinese who used to import Japanese vehicles. But he was already rich before that venture. He used to lend money to the others (with land as collateral) and if you can’t pay him back, he will confiscate your land (I guess he was an Ah Long then). Of course he grew richer and richer and with his motor vehicles business, he was perhaps one of the richest men in Malaysia. But he built his wealth on other people’s suffering. While he didn’t have any off-spring, he adopted a couple of children as his own. After his death, many years later, one after another, those associated with him died, or went insane and to top it all, his adopted son committed suicide. So in the end, within two generations, the wealth he created was wiped out. “The Chinese believe that what goes around comes around,” concluded the cab driver.

I have this story to tell about bapak. He worked as a Settlement Officer (SO) at the Land Office in Taiping. Obviously he dealt with land matters in his district. In the 70s, the government I think wanted to distribute land to the poor, so parcels of land can be had at nominal fees, but only for those who were entitled for them – unlike today! Pieces of land in Assam Kumbang could be his when he was in charge of that zone in the Larut Matang district in the 60s and later on in the 70s. So five years ago, I lamented to mak, “well, dad was in charge of the land distribution in Taiping, surely he could have gotten a piece for himself." So mak told me this story, “I had similar thought then. So one day I ‘sounded’ to your bapak, ‘surely you can get the ADO to approve a lot or two for yourself!’ “You know what your bapak told me?” mak asked me back. “Ton, how do you want me to answer it later in my grave?” he said, “I was supposed to distribute them to the poor!”

I really felt so guilty to be even thinking about it.

Rest in peace, bapak. Moga Allah mencucuri rahmat keatas roh bapak dan dimasukkan kedalam golongan orang-orang yang beramal solleh. Amin.

Ramadhan '08

So Ramadhan is here again.

Alhamdulillah, I guess we are here again to celebrate the holy month of Ramadhan. With His grace.

For the past couple of years, I was actually waiting for the fasting month. Prior to this, I was normally apprehensive, especially for the first couple of days, when our bodies had to adjust to not eating during the day.

I didn't feel that at all this year.

Ramadhan could not come soon enough for me.

Never mind that we are doing full day training for weeks, starting the very first day of Ramadhan. Training is normally associated with foods, lotsa food. But training in the month of Ramadhan means no food, no drinks. Nothing at all.

But I guess, this is nothing. We are in the comfort of our airconditioned training room.

But every Ramadhan, without fail, my mind would wonder to this drama on the telly. 

I do wonder if they would re-run it.

Wouldn't you TV3?

Rumah Kedai (posted Sept 17, 2007)

I miss Rumah Kedai this Ramadhan.

Rumah Kedai has always been my favourite Ramadhan drama of yesteryears. It was typically broadcasted around 5.30 pm daily on TV3. I would always be waiting for this family drama during those years in Dungun in the late 80s and early 90s.

It is about Pak Halim and his family. He runs a grocery store and lived on the floor above his shop and hence the title Rumah Kedai. He had two assistants Remy (Harun salim Bachik)and Tapa (Sudiro Sukirman) and their antics are typically hilarious. To me the way Pak Halim handled his family is exemplary. He is soft spoken and cool in every situation and would always come up with solutions that would satisfy everybody.

He is not pretentious though, and not preachy.

He had two daughters, one was Khatijah Tan (forgot her character) and another one a reasonably cute daughter Anis who is a nurse. For some reasons, she seems to have disappeared from the industry.

I do hope TV3 would re-run the series each Ramadhan. BTW Alfatihah to Pak Halim.

Merdeka '09 - The Aziz Ishak I knew

PROLOGUE

I really do not have the time anymore to blog, and I guess I need to make sure I move all my materials from my 360 blog to this one and I thought it is time I move this entry which I posted in conjunction with the 50th Merdeka Anniversary last year - posted on Aug 27, 2007.

I believe we chemical engineers do owe in many ways to this man and his vision, for without him, there might not be a dynamic industry that we can all prosper in.

The Aziz Ishak I knew

He remains an enigma even to me.

When I first met him I was just a little kid. He had driven all the way from KL to visit us in Lenggong in the days when there was no North-South highway (or may be he dropped by while on the way to KL from Penang, who knows). Of course it helped that he has his chauffeur with him. For us kids in the late 60s/early 70s, with bapak having just an old Morris Minor, we looked at him in awe (especially for having a driver) and the fact that mom told us that he used to be a minister.

I don’t recall much of that encounter, beyond the fact that bapak asked the driver if he would like to have lunch together with us on the main table and the answer was a polite no. Oh, and I remember him complimenting mom's dishes during one lunch with mom cooking gulai tempoyak. Mom's gulai tempoyak is very different from typical tempoyak dishes as it is cooked with coconut milk.

The Hariris on the veranda of Tok Jed's bungalow
in Batu Maung in 1967. There is another shot a few mins
later with the ship moving to the right side of the frame.

Of course before that encounter we had been many times to his house. We had attended his daughter’s wedding at his sea-side bungalow in Batu Maung Penang. It is located on top of a hill and from the veranda, you can see the open sea, with ships passing by in the horizon (batu Maung was at the southern entrance to Penang Port). 

Us kids in our cowboy shirts and the kolam ikan
in Tok Jed's house in Penang

We kids used to enjoy the the kolam ikan inside his house. And when you are tired with the fish pond, you can practically walk down hill from the house and within 5 minutes you would be at the lovely Batu Maung beach. When you are hungry, there are many stalls selling laksa Penang, perhaps for a few cents.

Laksa after a dip in the sea at Batu Maung. It is must have
been to hot (as in temperature) for Mak, while the three of us
enjoying our meals.

The wedding that we were attending at his house.

Yes, I do remember the details, as they were quite well documented by a series of photos taken by bapak and the subsequent holiday the family took in Penang that year. Unfortunately, the pictures were stolen from our family home in Taiping. (Fortunately the thief had returned some of the pics, and hence I am able to update this entry in Aug 2011.)

That was perhaps in 1967, a couple of years after he was incarcerated under ISA (arrested during the month of Ramadhan 1965, released more than a year later in 1966). He was under house restriction until 1971.

Fast forward to 1986. I had just returned from Melbourne and armed with an engineering degree and still looking for a job, my sister and I paid him a visit at his house in Taman TAR in Ampang Jaya. We had our small chat with him and his wife Tok Chah over some tit-bits.

“So, you just came back from Australia? Which university did you go to?” he asked me.

“Monash,” I replied proudly. He didn't bat an eye lid. “What’s your degree in?” he asked back.

“Chemical Engineering, Tok Jed,” I replied, hoping to impress him with big technological words.

“Oh really?” he sounded very surprised. Now I got his attention.

All of the sudden, he stood up, and left the table. We were puzzled, but continued our conversation with Tok Chah.

He came down a minute later with a book. While browsing the book looking for the right page, he said something that will always etch in my mind.

“Tok is the first one to advocate University Malaya to set up a chemical engineering department, and now I am proud to have a ‘grandson’ who is a qualified chemical engineer!” he announced.

He showed me the content in the book to emphasize on his point.

I was of course overwhelmed by the fact that, after his many years of fighting to improve the education level of the Malayan to take over all aspect of the British administration, and getting sack for it, I have been a fruit of, no matter how small, his struggle for the nation. Sure, since his time, Chem E department had been set up at UM, and I guess many graduates would have walked passed the door by the time I graduated from Monash in 1985.

He was the nation’s first agriculture minister under the Tunku cabinet of 1955. He loved it so much that he rejected a move to the Health Ministry. He knew he can contribute a lot in this low-key but critical portfolio – unlike many today who would think that the agriculture ministry spells the death to their political ambition, when many of the Malays were peasants and farmers. He wanted Malayans to take over running the fertilizer plant, which was so crucial to the nation economy.

He autographed the book for my sister and I, and gave us a copy that night. I of course had read the book inside out and knew what he went through in his struggle for the betterment of this country. (However, I have lost that copy, which according to the The Star is still banned in this country.)

While we celebrate the nation’s 50th birthday with many singing praises of our political forefathers - the Onns and the Tunkus, and very little of our warriors who literally sacrificed their lives, there are many whose names were not even mentioned in the mainstream publications, and their contributions are certainly no less than many we had been singing praise of.

Aziz Ishak, or better known as Tok Jed (pronounced as Jade) to us, is one of them. He was just too far ahead than many of his contemporaries. While I was too young then to really know what he went through, I am glad that he had left us a memoir for us to live by. A memoir of a true patriot and nationalist, who was in the game not to plunder the wealth of the nation for his own family, but to fight for the betterment of the people. He declined all state and federal awards, and would not even use the title "haji".

He died in June 1999, and I am glad I was around to pay him my last respect.

Alfatihah for Tok Jed.

EPILOGUE

The book is titled Special Guest – The Detention in Malaysia of an Ex-Cabinet Minister by Aziz Ishak. In his book he describes in detail the irreconcilable differences with the Tunku and the events that led to his resignation, subsequent detention and release. According to a recent article on him in the The Star, the book was banned and only allowed restricted access in university libraries.

I am taking excerpt of it on his suggestion for the setting up a chemical engineering department at UM, on page 40.

Quote

In early 1962, I wrote a letter to Tunku Abdul Rahman, as the new chancellor of the University of Malaya, after a discussion with him on the need to place greater emphasis on technical education not only at Trade and Technical School level, but at Polytechnics and University level

What I had in mind, of course, were the technicians to service the industries, such as the fertilizer plant, the paper mills and those in the private sector.

I recalled in the letter that no newly independent country could progress satisfactorily unless and until its national had attained a certain degree of technological and scientific competence. I pointed out that there was a conspicuous absence of a Department of Industrial and Chemical Engineering at the University of Malaya. The continued denial of training facilities in these fields meant that the country had to import high level technician for our growing industries, which for many years to come, would be at the mercy of foreign technologists. I further recalled in the letter that I had met Sir Alexander Oppenheim, the vice chancellor of the UM earlier and emphasized that very same point.

In the letter I then stressed the fact that it was not the policy of the metropolitan powers to introduce such subjects for the simple reasons that the former colonies and emerging countries were meant to be suppliers of raw materials and therefore not to take part in the industrial development. In this case, I quoted cases of universities in India, Ceylon, Singapore and those in African territories, but in contrast to the universities of white commonwealth, courses in chemistry were provided.

To stress in my point further the reason for this was because the UM had its development controlled by expatriate officers, so that our country would continue to be merely supplier of raw materials. My letter to the Tunku closed with the suggestion that “since we are already behind time and our industrial programe has gone forward without the necessary bases in the form of university courses in industrial chemistry and chemical engineering, the following line of actions need to be taken:

o As many Colombo Plan scholarship in Industrial Chemistry, Chemical Technology to be asked from friendly countries. Training should be requested US, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium

o That the University to be asked without delay to look into the possibility of starting courses in Industrial Chemistry, Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at an early date

o That steps be taken to set up a Polytechnic to provide courses not now available at the Technical Colleges.

The Tunku however merely passed on my letter to the Vice Chancellor, whose reply sounded to me very much like an apology for things not done than a full realization of the urgency of the matter. It contained no indication of positive action to correct the deficiency. My comment on Sir Alexander’s letter was also sent to the Tunku.

So far I know, not even today (1976) has a full department of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering been established.

End of quote

I got this from a website which I believe reinforced Tok Jed’s story.

From RPK http://www.freeanwar.net/articles/190901.htm

Cancer Man also told me that Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman sacked the late Agriculture Minister, Aziz Ishak, because he had wanted the government to take away the monopoly on fertilizers held by a big British multi-national corporation. Aziz Ishak asked why the country should allow foreigners to control a commodity produced in the country that is essential to the farmers, who were mainly Malays. He was sacked and discredited.

Aziz Ishak died last year. The younger generation was not told of his noble intentions until the day he died. There was not even a footnote anywhere to register his contribution towards the well being of the downtrodden Malays.

Yes! The truth is out there, but can you ever find it? The X-Files do exist in any country, including ours.Yes! The truth is out there, but can you ever find it? The X-Files do exist in any country, including ours.