kugiransays

lucky me to have the moment of prime minister duties hand-over. i was listening to era radio while they broadcasting live from Balairong Istana Negara. try to find live tv broadcast, but didn't found any.

i didn't know how Pak Lah took his oath of Taat Setia and Memegang Amanah, but from what i heard it seemed that it was a very hard responsibilities. it heard like Pak Lah was giggling during the oath taking ceremony. his voice was shaking and he heard to be too nervourse.

i could understand how he felt. even people would not have the such gutts to angkat sumpah for telling the truth infront of judge, and he was doing it as the country's no.1 men.

i would like to see the headlines for saturday news. how it would be. bet you, there will be something goes like this "Pak Lah: Perdana Menteri Malaysia ke-Lima" or "Pak Lah Destiny" or may be "Dr. M out, Pak Lah In".

congratulation you people. hopefuly can be a better citizen.

As this blog I write, the rakyat in my office is standing still in front of our 22 years old television set - the only one we have - watching the handing over of the prime-minister-ship duties ceremony.

Today Malaysia bid goodbye to the man who brought Vision 2020 and a kaleidoscop of success to the country, Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed. The man filling in his shoes, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi signed the letter of oath - pledging his secrecy and loyalty to the royalty and rakyat - a few minutes earlier.

Witnesses will tell you that the successor, Pak Lah, was quite obviously shaking as he put down his signature. Dr M on the other hand looked quite solemn throughout.

Doas were recited to usher the official appointment of Pak Lah as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia. The press had earlier reported that Dr M had asked the cabinet to support the new First Man, while Pak Lah had promised that current policies shall be continued.

At the Balairung Istana Negara, Dr M was also conferred the Anugerah Seri Maharaja Mangku Negara, now to be called Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and Seri Setia Mahkota award was given to his wife, now Tun Dr Siti Hasmah.

And the national anthem played on.

don't know what to think of. it seems that i am missing all the listed activities. i think it is really funny of me. you know what, it has been a month since i left malaysia and i only got my homesick a few days back. may be because it is close to ramadhan already and hari raya is waiting.

i only discovered this feeling when i was playing around with my new computer. i turned up my laptop, which is now being my mp3 player, and aired Allycates songs. then it came to the song Berita Dari Rantau. ooh damn...it just pops out. i miss m'sia.(tak sangka, layan blues jugak aku ni)

nothing much happened during my first day of ramadhan here, except i did got confused with those mazhab hanafi terawih. like what we usually did, when it comes to the terawih praying time we would have those selawat and other bacaan. here, they just stand up and angkat takbir. and the most confusing part is in solat sunat witir. we usually perform 3 rakaat with 2 salam. but them, performing 3 rakaat with 1 salam, just like sembahyang maghrib. and in the last rakaat,after baca all the surah 3 qul they will angkat takbir sekali lagi and there is a moment where i'm not sure what they are baca. i heard from my friend, that they baca doa qunut, tapi kita yg mengamal mazhab shafie tak payah ikut sebab takut tersalah amalan.

p/s: may be i will not berebut-rebut meja, tapi akan berebut-rebut masak makanan sebelum berbuka. rumah aku pelik, diorang tak suka share sekali. lepas tu masa berbuka kelmarin aku sorang je. yg pak sigit tu ambik makanan masuk, berbuka dlm bilik dia. yg sorang lagi pergi masjid, berbuka dgn buah kurma baru balik makan. pelik betul diorang ni.

p/s: en. leman...aku bukan tak nak hantar cerita sekolah kat sini, tapi kalau boleh aku nak share cerita lain sebab sekolah telah membuatkan aku tak senang hidup. risau memanjang. jadi apa salahnya aku tukar topik supaya aku relax sikit.

1. buying lots of kueh and other exotic dishes - the kind you know and the kind you will soon discover - at the various Pasar Ramadan

2. exchanging the kueh for lauk with that one housemate who likes to cook

3. spending more weekends in hometown - the fasting month is the time when old Rapat Setia boys and girls come back and bump into old schoolgang and galah-panjang playmates at Pasar Ramadan Tepi Sungai and the masjid during terawih.

4. joining the throng of people for a berebut-meja-buka-puasa sessions in crowded places like Picnic KLCC with friends after work and sahur afterwards

5. receiving kurma hampers from the various IT companies and invitations to the Press Nights/Buka Puasa sessions they organize specially for IT journalists to attend and mingle

6. lepaking with the gang and have conversations on balik kampung, the cookies that we like to eat but not to bake, the cute second and third cousins you'd hope to meet, how much duit raya you'll have to fork out this year - and (in hush-hush tones) where to buy mercun papan rocket fireworks, followed by the horror stories of personal near-kudung encounters.

7. oiling the panjut for lighting the house come Malam Tujuh Likur

8. weaving ketupat and showing off by making it all the hard-to-make bawang style

9. getting and sending Selamat Hari Raya wishes from family and friends, especially from the ones living abroad (Neo... you know my name.. but the snail-mail wish is still my favourite method, though)

10. meet Betik - who had finally surfaced from his lake of silence - and Poket - who seems to be getting busier and richer (amiinn) nowadays for break fast. Bilo nak buko samo-samo nih?

seems like i did missed lot of things. put aside the linkin park thingy cause eventhough i love their songs, but i couldn't stand the crowd. from what you'd told, youngsters will pack in where ever they go. no offense. but teens do enjoy the music in the wierdy ways. its up to them but sometimes it really look funny on how their dress, the hairs, the pears what so ever. naah...just let them enjoy life while they could.

wah...i missed dr. M stories. it has been a month i'm away from malaysia. reading m'sian news from the net is not enjoyable as holding the 'koran' in your hand. there are limitations in your reading. not all the interesting 'highlight' can be accessed. it will enjoyable to read the SMS stuffs. may be some of the great quotes can be found, who knows.

remember Dewi, my new housemate from Indonesia. she's a very friendly person. in just 4 days of her stay, i felt like i have a sister now. before, when we get back from class or else where, it just only our voice giving 'salam' heard. but now, if she is in the living room, whenever you enter the house, there will be a warm welcome home greating. if not say hi, she will scream out your name.

i used to get 'terperanjat' one time. i didn't know that she was there, so i just opened the door and walked in. then suddenly i heard my name being called. loud. as usual when you got shocked, you will be 'terlompat' and 'jantung berdetak pantas' (macam bait lirik lagu Terima Saja, GiGi).

for your information, she a hindu. so at one time she gave 'salam' to me. i didn't know how to react, whether to 'jawab salam' atau apa ya??? as far as i know when ever org kafir bagi salam pada muslim, we could not asnwer the 'salam' because the salam that has been given would meant 'celaka lah kamu'. i didn't know if this is true since i heard it not from a reliable source. so, what i can do was just gave her a nice smiley face and 'angguk kan kepala'.

and now we have got used to it. so, every time we walkin, we set our mind that she is there.

last night i experienced one funny moment. i went to a malaysian house. just to pay a visit as Pak Sigit, the senior in my house, want to see his friend there. rumah pompuan bujang. luckily, there was a malaysian family there, also paying them a visit. so we had some good chatting and so on. then, this one woman asked me, are you malaysian? of course i'm. then she laughed. she thought i was indonesian since i came along with Pak Sigit and Dewi. she wondered how an indonesian can speak in a full maner of malaysian. no 'dong' words, no '...in' words.....what a heck? do i look like mat indon? or like philiphino?

cause i also have experience when a philiphino approached me and speak tagalog all the way. 'tercengang' la kejap. then i speak malay to him. dia la pulak tercengang. kah kah kah.....

ha ha...i'll recieve romeo's cds next week. may it is just nothing sience you'd got your's already. but it is really an exciting pleasure. Dewi husband, Chandra, is coming and he would bring me the cds. what an excited days now. at last i will have romeo's.

p/s; i'll send hari raya dedication through Utusan Malaysia. as promised, you, betik and poket names will be appeared besides my family. may be i will make it in saparate dedication or may be as one. i want to send my picture with snow in background, but there will be no snows until february, and it will only last for a week. aaaaah....

And Linkin Park claimed to the fans that KL is the biggest crowd they've played for so far. But I guess that might be true, judging from the pix my fellow journalist friend took.

She and a couple more of my office mates went to the concert - I didn't. Did I have to work? Naah.. Did I have anything stopping me from going to the concert? Naah..

Simply because Linkin' Park is not my cup of tea. Their music's listenable, but I don't really think it's worth paying RM100 (let alone RM127 for an arena ticket, which I consider my standard) to see them.

(I'd pay double for RHCP, No Doubt, Jamiroquai and a few of the local artistes such as SHeila Majid, Ella and the good-old Search though..)

Anyway on that Wednesday night, when the bulk of KL youngsters and music lovers were at N Stadium watching Too Phat open for the US act, I tag along my sis to work, not because it's Ladies Night at PH - I had to do the supiring (my sis and the singer was sick).

The first set went on smoothly, and the band took a 45-mins break at 11.15PM. 12Am came, and the band climbed on to the stage, waiting for the DJ to conclude his spinning... when suddenly a big crowd appeared.

The crowd: They were youths. They had spiky hairdos. They were wearing Linkin' Park T-shirts. They were from the concert! Aik cepatnya habis?

Sure, the venue of the concert is very nearby, in fact you can walk all the way to Bukit Bintang without breaking much sweat. But it's only midnight - takkan lah Linkin' Park main kejap sangat?

Unfortunately, the group only performed for an hour and 15 minutes, said Aimie, my Computimes Lab mate said. Ala...

And none of them showed up in kilts (probably cause they have been warned not to). Ala...!

And Too Phat's soundsystem was muffled (apparently the duo had to bring in their own gig stuff so that it will not get mixed up with Chester and co's.) Lho!

And the band playing at PH got a big number of requests for Linkin' Park songs, which they delivered as usual (it's a nightly thing for a resident band). The youngsters - girls with their free wine and champagne, boys with their credit-card-bought liquor - partied till 2.45AM, while the band cursed Linkin Park concert organisers for keeping too much to the must-conclude-the-gig-early rule.

I got stuck to my seat (as the whole club was packed like sardine in a sandwich) with a couple of friendly-yet-civil suspected-lesbians dressed as if they just got back from the recent Anugerah Era 2003 (the theme was 70's) and a group of boys who recently discovered that it is OK for men to use hair mousse, lots of hair mousse.

These arrogant boys stayed pretty much aloof, not even bothering to say hi to me who was gracious enough to share my little table with them and their stinkin bucket of Johnny Walker's AND the two girls, till the lady singer sang Melly Goeslaw's Ku Bahagia! Too much, really!

(By the way, the big news is that Ning Baizura was voted by a majority of Era FM listeners to win the coveted "Vokal Wanita Pilihan" award, beating Siti Nurhaliza, Siti Sarah, Ziana Zain and oh, I didn't pay enough attention to remember all of them!)

To make matters worst, singer Rem, who is a good friend to the band showed up and was invited to sing Metallica's Enter Sandman or something like that. Rem did OK throughout most parts, right up until the "Exit light, enter night..." line.

But he totally blew it when he added his trademark teran to "Rock to never never land...". He must have been singing too many balada songs for his own good.

While Rem needs to learn when to drop his terans when it's not needed (after all, Misha Omar is already duplicating his style), our retiring Prime Minister needs to learn how to read text language.

The country will bid Dr M good bye come this OCt 31, right after the OIC meeting is done. (Well, actually the meeting will be over on the 18 of Oct, thank God, for then the road closures will finally end. A lot of interviews and IT events had been shelved to a further date due to this, as favourite areas such as Bukit Bintang, Jalan Tun Razak, KLCC etc is not easily accessible by mere public, we had to make way for the OIC business delegates to roam around.)

The Malay Mail, TV2, and Celcom are among the companies hosting a "To Sir With Love"/"Thank You Dr M"/"SMS Kasih Perdana" campaign, giving the rakyat a channel to send messages of appreciation to this extraordinary leader.

If you can get your hands on a Malay Mail, you can read messages people send via SMS to the newspaper, hoping that Dr M will have the time to read it all once he's gone for retirement.

Some of the messages are cool ones, e.g.:
"I can be as good as anyone. You taught me this, Dr M." from Sam.

or sucking up like:
"The success of Malaysia is Mahathirism. Your beliefs and ideals are without parallel." from Brent

and:
"EVERYBODY KNOWS THE 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD BUT IF YOU ASK ME, DR MAHATHIR IS THE 8TH WONDER OF THE WORLD." FRM APPU (Note: The all-Caps lettering is the sender's initiative, not the newspaper.)

or comparative ones:
"Long ago there were Tun Perak and Hang Tuah. Today, there is only Dr Mahathir, the greatest Malay and Malaysian Warrior. A legend and a hero who will always be remembered for generations." from Mat Noor

or even the huh? apo? ones:
"They say Nasi Lemak is famous in Malaysia. But you, sir, are more famous and respected all over the world." from Arina, Klang

but there are quite a number of messages that goes like this:
"I hv no words 2 say. U r just 2 big 2 describe. I will pray 4 yr health. Thank you so much." from Assir

and this:

"Tq, tq, tq, tq. May ALLAH bless you." from NYZ

and this:
"Not only M'sians still need u, but d world coz u r d voice n warrior of d ordinary people."

and this: (in fact this is actually a spammed message modified - aiyo kadavoley!)
"A FRIEND is A GIFT when it's new. It's a MIRACLE when it's TRUE. But u know it's a BLESSING when it's U. 10Q PM." Luv, Selvi Kunchu

I hope none of them will be sitting for the upcoming PMR, SPM and STPM!


p/s: In case you are interested, Neo, today's local newspapers' headline reads:

New Straits Times: Dr M: Let's not antagonise everyone"
The Malay Mail: Verdict on Tenaganita Chief Irene Fernandez: Jailed for tarnishing nation's image
Berita Harian: Jika OIC mahu tebus kembali maruah diri dan Islam: Dr M ajak bertindak satu nada
Harian Metro: Lakonan Isteri: Pramugari kedua dikenal pasti dalam VCD lucah

Also made it to the front page - Airasia: Pulau Pinang dari RM1.99 sehala

(I bet Johorians are rejoicing the new route Airasia recently included - Johor Bahru/Singapore - and the price tag for this destination is RM9.99 under the current promotion!)

i need some interesting news, events, happening moments from malaysia. live in bradford is so dull. everything needs money, no money no business. even for a paper printing which using the universities computer room's facilities need to be made an installment. and the credits will be deducted once you made a printing. a piece of white & black printing costs 6 pence which equavailent to 36 sen.

now it really made me realised how lucky i'm or may be all the malaysian as we don't ever requested to make payments when we were using the university's facilities. eventhough PPP's gymnasium can be used without any charge. here in bradford university, each time we entering the sport center we need to pay for £1.20. just for entrance. if you would like to joint any sports club, you are required to register with the student union and a £55 membership fees will be charged for 12 months membership.

until now i still could not play any sports yet, except for social badminton session with the other malaysians. and there are no outdoor pitches for games like basketball. i don't know why, may be because of the windy and cold temperature. but they do have tennis and hockey pitches for outdoor activities.

please feed me with something cheerful and great since i do stuck in this boring county...all the county being recognised by the word ....shire. west yorkshire, south yorkshire, londonshire, oxfordshire,..bla bla bla.....

A friend (who used to study in the US) once told me about her fellow Malaysian-student mate. This friend of hers is a gay guy who hung out a lot with the rest of the Malaysian students, especially my friend's Sunway College clique. And they accepted him alright, not minding him occasionally hitting on the guys, treating him just like how they treat others.

Unfortunately this particular gay person is extra sensitive (apparently most of them are, according to most people I know who knew gays). He always perasan as if the gang had something against him, and he took almost every joke personally.

For our generation, people who can't take Yo Mama jokes are not in. So in my friend's case, her gang began to find the guy irritating because he's such a sour puss. But the gay guy thought it was cause he's gay.

"Susah lah ini macam.." my friend said, and admitted that they began to drop the gay guy off their outing sessions when they could no longer bear having to pujuk him everytime he feels offended (which happens very often then).

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes it is not the straight people that should be blamed when these gays claim they feel alienated or unaccepted. Sometimes it's them too.

And sometimes it's just the person, you know. If you're obnoxious, you're obnoxious, who cares about your sexual orientation?

Neo san, don't feel bad because you got those gay club membership brochures shoved towards your direction. There as you said, the gays have won their place in the society. There's no need to dress in a certain way or wear an earring on just one ear to demonstrate their choice (as how their Malaysian counterparts still have to do). They would not know where you stand unless they try.

However, just like any minority group in any sense, they still have to stay within a club - an organization - to protect them from the rest. Which means they have not really won. (If you still need an organization to achieve or protect something, that means you are still struggling or still under some kind of threat, no?)

But the article I posted earlier made me realize that indeed, it's not the dress, or the way they walk or talk that makes a man.

You know you're the man when you stand in one corner - quietly talking to a couple of your fellow colleagues as you all wait for that company bus to arrive (and take you all to your office in Bolehjaya) and one of your female colleagues walk across and coyly say "Hi Rul....!"


p/s: Kalau baca pasal gay ni boleh lagi lah, tapi kalau baca pasal murtad... hish.. hangin... but it's their loss.

i've just finished my Virtual Worlds class when i get to read this homosexual stuff. and this topic really caught my attention.

first of all,...hey dude! i'm now in the english soil. what had being expected were far beyond the reality here. as you people might know, western society has approved and accepting the homosexual lifestyle in their community.

i used to watch a talkshow that being aired every weekday's morning called Kilroy, a show like Oprah Winfrey show. this show disccusing all over the topic that relates to this country society. one of it was about gay, "I Discovered My Child Is A Gay".

the show tried to investigate and disscuss how parents reacted when they found their children is gay. and gay is not really restricted into men-to-men sexually relation. i manage to discovered that the term, 'GAY' is a representation of relation for those who have the 'unsur kelelakian'.

on the show itself, they invited those 'penkid' to talk about their relationship with their girlfriends. and this group also being called as gay.

the climax of the talkshow was when a mother raised the issue from the perspective of Christianity. she said that she will never accepted that her daugther is a gay. she will always love her daughter but will never ever recognised and accepted the homosexual relationship. there is clearly stated in the Holy Bible that humankind need generations. and with this kind of living there will be no generation anymore.

and this mother recieved so much pressure from other participants since the studio was full of gay couples. the most irritated situation was when the programme play a clip from BBC segment that showed how a son tried to tell his mother that he is gay through a live telecast by BBC.

try to imagine how broken the heart of a mother when his son brought her to a very wonderful dinner in an exclusive restaurant just to tell her that he is gay. you people should see the reactions of the mother when she first heard it. she just frozenly stood on her chair, looked straight into the eyes of her son, and tears running down her face.

and there is a Jewish couple. they said that they are a true follower of Jews. they said that they love their relegious. but on top of it, they could not accepted the believe that they could not have the same sex realtionship. for them that believe is not fair. there is no freedom in live, no freedom in choosing theirselve. so from here we can see how corrupts the western culture.

may somebody has told you guys this. here in uk, homosexual has turn like culture. most of the universities here do have gays and lesbians society. i've expereinced once when this gays society in my university approached me and gave me broucher on their activities.

damn...!!! who the hell i'm they think off. do i look like a them that made the approaches.

and there is a gay fest in uk annually. during this fest all gay will march naked in London. and there is also a lesbian fest which goes similar to it.

it seem like homosexual has become a culture and they are stronger than religion. they can counter any religion at anytime as long as they get what they want. and the British Parliament has almost to approve the rights of homosexual relationship.

what the hell it is now....

Hey things have been pretty quiet lately huh. What's up everyone? I have been busy trying to finish th e November issue, and now that it's done, I can finally breathe and enjoy Malcom in the Middle tonight.

I recently found an article at Nizam Zakaria's blog that I find really interesting. Thought I'd share this with you guys and see if you all have any opinions on this.

Bukan apa, kadang2 kesian jugak tengok lelaki2 lembut, wanita2 keras, gays dan lesbian ni. I respect them as humans, but I don't think I can ever come to terms that homosexuality's OK.

Is it all the maggi mee and ajinomoto we're eating that's making these people's hormons went haywire?

At the risk of sounding stupid, let me just admit that somehow I always have this funny perception that what's really causing those girls to wanna become boys and those boys to wanna become girls and those boys and girls finding their own kind more attractive is all the processed food we eat, especially bio-engineered stuff - we change what's natural, so when consumed the output is not natural lah. Something like that loh.

Anyway, for your reading pleasure and thought jerker, here's the article I was talking about:

Friday, October 10, 2003
Faster, pirate, put on your eyeliner! by Shanon Shah

(This article first appeared in Malaysiakini.com, Opinion. Wed Oct 8th, 2003.)

I haven't seen Johnny Depp in too many films, but have few doubts about his talent and integrity as an actor - for proof, watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. I'm not going to review the movie here, but am simply bursting to share something that struck me about it.

For the uninitiated, Depp plays the lovable, mischievous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in this swashbuckling epic from Disney. I won’t give much of the plot away, but I'll be talking a lot about Sparrow.

To summarise, Sparrow agrees to help young William Turner, an orphan who survives a maritime disaster without knowing his father was a pirate. This is to save Turner's love interest, Elizabeth Swann, who has been captured by Sparrow's nemesis, Captain Barbossa.

Sparrow comes across as one funny dude from the first moment we see him on screen. As he steps onto the pier from his sinking boat, we are introduced to a man who walks like a model and who has had one martini too many, to boot.

He waves his hands around in the manner of a certain male Malay celebrity chef, squints and winks to punctuate his colourful dialogue. He also wears jewelry and make-up. The more savvy readers can probably already tell where I'm heading. With all the recent ruckus about lelaki lembut (effeminate men), I just thought this was a refreshing portrayal of masculinity...in a mainstream Hollywood film at that.

Regulation of expression

I know there are a whole lot of people (not me) who are just dying to thank a certain Fairuz of UiTM, who sparked off this national drama by writing his letter (which reeked of sour grapes, by the way) to Utusan Malaysia, asking the media and Malaysians to stamp out the abhorrent proliferation of effeminate men and gay men.

And certain segments of the media responded quite predictably. It wasn't enough that we were all bombarded during prime time news with a sexually capricious Malaysia Airlines male flight attendant showcasing his, um, in-flight entertainment.

No, those quarters of the media decided that we needed to buck up and get out the machetes for lelaki lembut and gay men, too. And because women’s rights have made such inroads in this country, we soon had to deal with wanita keras (aggressive women) and lesbians, too.

Then, true to Malaysian tradition, a ministry got involved. A few ministries actually, but there was a particular one that took up the issue.

So the nation is finally at the stage where the state is trying to regulate citizens’ expressions of masculinity and femininity.

Boys have to be Tough. They have to camp in jungles, eat slugs and wade barefoot through rivers. This is nothing to be dismissed readily - even Arnold
Schwarzenegger would squeal his Republican tonsils out if he ever saw our rivers.

Men have to be Men. They have to dress like Men. Talk like Men. Walk like Men. Spit like Men. Have short hair like Men. Rip the flesh off chicken drumsticks with their teeth like Men.

Reconstructing heroes

Then along comes Jack Sparrow, with braided hair, wicked eyeliner, jewelry, fey hand gestures and sashaying gait. Talk about providence.

One of my female friends who watched the movie with me denied this. Granted, she is one Johnny Depp fan who'd practically drown in her own pheromones at the sight of his left earlobe.

And he plays a pirate! A swashbuckler! A dashing hero of the seas! Who fights with a sword! How could anyone even think that he’s, you know, camp?

Then again, are we saying that the only men in makeup and jewelry who are good at using swords can be pirates? I think you'll find a few patrons of Jalan Bukit Bintang who'd beg to differ - on pain of the consequences of Section 377a (‘unnatural sex’) of the Penal Code, of course.

Who are we to determine what makes a man? Even with all his off-kilter mannerisms, Sparrow was still the hero everybody adored, and with whom quite a few girls in the audience still ended up falling head over heels in love.

And yes, the other characters in the film did notice Sparrow's, um, unconventional style, and they did make remarks about it. But all in good faith. All in good humour. Nobody actually thought to ask him, "Er, but surely there’s a bit more yo ho ho to go with your bottle of rum?"

Before I am accused of deconstructing a Disney pirate comedy, I must admit that Johnny Depp has never said that he intended to play a pondan pirate. What he did say was this: "The way I walked, well, it was a couple of things. To me, it was like this guy who had spent a very, very long time on the ocean battling the elements. It was a guy who had spent way too much time in the sun, so maybe his brain was literally cooked a bit.

"And he was way more comfortable on the deck of a ship, in terms of the rhythm of the ocean, than he was on dry land. And I think he would also be a guy who would understand that, like, he could take that and use it to his advantage, you know. As if to hypnotise someone. He’d kind of go back and forth and hypnotise them, kind of like a cobra, a moving target. So, that's where it came from. I thought he would hate being on land."

Yeah, yeah, thanks for demystifying everything, Johnny. By the way, I didn't see Barbossa act like a "cobra". He must have hated being on land, too, no?

Persecution of differences

Aha, but you see, I'm doing it myself, too. Why do we need to assume that every man needs to act in the same way? Different men are different. And difference should never be used to extract doctrines and practices of inequality, or worse, persecution.

You see I studied at an all-boys secondary school. There, boys were respected if they were Army cadets, or district soccer players or track athletes. They were revered if they were all three. God forbid if they had a brain and could at least pass their exams - they’d be worshipped as saints.

I had a friend in that school who is a lelaki lembut. He was teased from Day One about everything - from the colour of his underwear, to the way he spoke, to his reluctance to play soccer.

He wasn’t just teased by fellow students. He was publicly humiliated by quite a few teachers, too. Being his friend, I came to his defence. A lot.

I was teased and humiliated, too, by association. Because I myself can’t play soccer to save my life. But at least I excelled in studies, I wrote well, I spoke English fluently, I entered debates and won.

I was a prefect, I knew taekwondo. If any one of my Neanderthal classmates or teachers tried to challenge me, I’d just stare right back at them and flash my prefect’s badge.

But my lelaki lembut friend didn’t have any of those things. Many people couldn’t understand why we were friends. He thought it was pity on my part. They thought he was trying to take advantage of me.

Me, I just thought he was a great guy. A funny guy. A guy whom I didn’t need to impress to be his friend.

He runs a beauty salon now. I call him up every now and then. I ask him how he’s doing. I laugh when he tells me about botched perms, or 50-something Datins who want to look like Erra Fazira.

When our former classmates ask me about him, I tell them proudly that he has his own beauty salon. But as much pride as I have in him, I can't wipe off their scornful smirks whenever they hear what I have to say.


"Does he wear makeup? Is he in drag? Does he still talk like...you know? Is he still attracted to... you know?"

If only it were just these idiotic questions he has had to deal with. But no - he also has had to deal with state religious officers threatening to fine him because his eyebrows are too thin.

He has been shooed away from male public toilets. He has been spat at by passers-by. His car was vandalised by a Datin who called him ‘Raja segala pondan’ (King of Transvestites).

Upholding dignity

So, when I see journalists and politicians trying to milk his pain for political mileage, I get really mad. I feel like I need to do something. I feel like he needs to do something, too.

But he gets so despondent. He tells me, ‘It’s okay lah, I’m just going to run my salon, buat kerja halal (do an honest job) and hope for the best’.

Once I quoted the Hadith where Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) tells one of his companions (and I’m paraphrasing here),: "No, no, you don't just leave your camels here then go to the mosque to pray for Allah to guard them. You tie your camels up here and go to the mosque to pray for Allah to guard them."

My friend asked: "What in the world do camels have to do with my beauty salon? Are you calling me a camel? I’m not a camel, okay. I'm a wanita jadian. You can quote me on that. I may have a beard but I also need my Maybelline mascara."

No, silly, I replied. Run your beauty salon. Buatlah kerja halal. Shave your beard. Wear your mascara. Go ahead and pray for the best. But please, when push comes to shove, you also have to fight to defend your rights and your dignity as a human being.

He scoffed at the suggestion, saying that nobody else would stand up for him. I said, of course they would.....I would.

And at last count, so did nine organisations and more than 130 individuals - including me - who submitted a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia in August.

But I remember him in secondary school, looking defiant when our physical education teacher shouted at him and called him a useless pondan for the entire school to hear. I didn’t know what to say then.

However, if there’s a boy like that in secondary school now, who has been following the local media coverage about lelaki lembut, who is feeling just as alone and defiant, I’d tell him to go watch Pirates of the Caribbean.

He wouldn’t need to give up his eyeliner to be a hero. Savvy?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHANON SHAH is an analyst and a former journalist.

NB: Nizam Zakaria would like tell his readers who happens to be a 'lelaki lembut' (or 'wanita keras' for that matter) that he would stand up for them...

posted by: Nizam Zakaria| 10/10/2003 04:48:13 PM Comment (3)

how do i start??....monday or thursday??
what do i know, i started to hate those day. why? because those days i have to face the most boring class in my life. its kinda hard days for me to hear and learn something that really challenge my passion and brain. monday have to be faced with human-computer interactions. thursday will be fill by multimedia systems.

what else that i can do except put my ears to be full by the terms and ideology of human-computer interaction stuff. learn how eyes work on the graphics, look out how ears interact with sounds. try to discover which part of those human body that captures, encodes, analyse and delivers those input.

the subjects area surpose to be intersting, but i didn't know what were wrong there. seems like the delivery of such magnificant psychological intepretation on computers and human got wrong.

what will really cher me up is i'm having a review of issues in digital media. i'm gonna make a review, may be, on the psychological perspective of Japanese Animation which probably will based on a scene from MANGA animated movie, The Ghost in The Shell or Akira. may be i will talk about the ideas behind the sexual presentation of the main character, or may be on the concept of violent that have been used. how an adult delivers such kind of ideas in thier perceptions.

that was the only thing that made me felt alive today. like i had found the trigger of the realistic of my course.

* aku pegi york semalam dgn liza + housemate. faizal surposed to join. tapi tarik diri last minute. katanya tak de duit. ntah....

* sungguh b.e.a.u. tiful. masuk dlm the oldest church in uk, the york minster. masuk2 org tgh sembahyang sambil diiringi choir chantting. rasa macam dlm filem brave heart, kalau tak pun macam cerita dark side of human world. gila ahhh

First of all, it is always not a good idea to tag along your sister and her BF on an outing, regardless if they bloody insist. Second of all, as told by Ambrosia Lala aka Ribena Berry of the recently reshowcased Bolehwood Awards, "Give an Indian a mic aa.. "

Here's what happened. My sis' BF was in town with his gang, and they all said they wanna catch Sunday Night Live with Dayang NF, and oh yeah, Hazami and Reshmonu too. At first I didn't wanna join them - after all, I do have to get to work early on Monday - but they say "Ala, tak R&B lah lu...". Etcetera, whatevera. Alright, alright.

So we went down to PH quite early for dinner - hey! PH is celebrating it's birthday this month so some items on the menu goes for 50% off. Well, not that I have to spend anything since the guys are buying.

An hour before the three artistes went on the stage, a bunch of their counterparts showed up. No one interesting (read: Faizal Hussein didn't come, so already the night was wasted).

Then the band took their spot on the stage, plus a couple of back up singers. Then the music started, making all the tudung mamas go crazy. Acis, Kelly and Jamie Wilson, plus ITM's own Zaibo on percussion definately delivered good music.

Then the celebrated trio came on stage. Dayang NF didn't dress up - she looked just like another clubber, same goes for the suspected gay singer Hazami, but the other fella whatisname, Reshmonu was clad in a trench jacket I thought Neo should buy.

Then they started singing some black tune - in fact the whole night was filled with black R&B tunes - the singers only sang one bloody number from their own album - maybe Dayang NF was obstructed due to the unfinished court case she filed against her record label, while Hazami simply thought he can impress people more if he can deliver songs from the more established foreign artistes, but I don't know about the macha (as in I don't know if he did sing his own song cause none of it sound familiar).

Talking about the macha, let me just tell you how he fantastically ruined the show.

First, he was openly ogling Dayang NF, I'm surprised Dino didn't do something about it (but that's probably cause Dino thinks Dayang NF can take care of herself, unlike how protective Ayie is with Siti NH). He was trying to woo Dayang NF - get close and do some of what he thought was the sexy move - but Dayang NF was smart enough and she kicked him off the stage.

The show would have been an interesting one had this didn't go on everytime the macha and Dayang NF exchange spotlight. But that was not the worst part.

True to Ribena Berry's words, the macha was over excited everytime the mic was within his grab. I lost count on how many times he shriek "Wokay KL make some noizzzzzeee!" throughout the two sets. Grr...

Then he kept babbling about something - totally Greek to me! Even Greek is a bit more comprehensive to me since I know what hronia polla means. So maybe I should change that part of the sentence to... ugh nevermind... I don't have anything against the macha 's kind, rather this post is more about bitching him specifically.

And the babbling didn't stop easily. Try this - everytime it comes to the macha's turn to sing, there will be a five minutes blab that preceeds, and everything was supposed to be said in English with a very heavy US tang accent, ala-ala ghetto la konon.

Hazami too had to kick him off the stage with his lousy dance routine (oh me oh my, Hazami really should sit behind a piano and do his gig, if you ask me. The moment I saw him "move to the music", I just want to wail "Stop him! Stop him!" I know Pezal would have done it without thinking twice).

Well bound and gagged I must be if I had to sit through this right? But I really had no choice. The gang I was with was too engrossed in Dayang NF's performance (mediocre, in my opinion - not soundwise but stage-control wise). So I rot on my seat for two and a half hours (should have been two hours, but the extra half an hour was dedicated to the blabbings of the macha ).

And when they finally say goodbye, somebody shouted "Dayang, encore!" but again the macha got a bit too perasan and jumped back onto the stage and proudly announced, "We wonna singa nother songa!"

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Phew! Feel much better now! Bitching on a blog always give me inner peace. Oh no! I've given you guys another piece of crap! Sorry!

p/s: Did I tell you guys I ran into Aya at PH the Sunday before last? She looked quite thin but she said she gained lots.

p/s 2: Yo Neo, what's happening - anymore chickies calling you cute?

p/s 3: Leman, when can we lepak together? You so busy eh?

p/s 4: And what saved the Sunday night from going down the drain? Let me tell you bout this cute guy joining me at the screen watching EPL some other time hehehe...

Hey guys, whatsup? I have not seen either of you for quite some time kan? Well can't be helped in Neo's case, but the postcard did help. As for Leman, hey, what's our excuse again? Oh yeah, you're settling in a new place right?

Anyway, I just got back from a family holiday in Penang (we went to Rumah P. Ramlee and that's how I got the heading for this particular blog post) and before that we all got together for my nephew Zakwan's birthday (the family has not regrouped for a long long time) and before that I went more than a bit crazy over that Gigi concert (I literally did went crazy! My sis had to slamdunk me back to earth to snap me out of my temporary insanity!).

Evidently, my last post was all woolywoozy - "ku akui memang ku rasa" Aw man, I'm going to go gugugaga over Gigi for a long time still by the looks of this - kesian Encik Leman. Gomenne!

By the way, for digital video camera, my colleagues love Canon models for their capability to produce true colour output, for scanner, I like the new Canon USB model that does not come with a power cord, printers - anything from Epson is a safe bet and digital camera - so far I personally had good experience with Siti Nurhaliza's Minolta Dimage Xt. However, since you wanna buy both printer and scanner, why not check out an all-in-one machine? The Lexmark X5150 OK bah!

Neo seems to be having fun - music and girls, what more can one ask for! Going to Leeds, no stopping you now. Do be frugal though, you never know what's coming your way. Eh, mana cerita pasal belajar dan kelas ni ya...? Hehehehe... And oy, don't forget to call your mum eh?

P/S: Eh Grik, if it's any consolation, Gigi tak nyanyi "lagu bius" dari Untuk Semua Umur... which I'm sure is one of your fave tracks..

P/S 2: Leman san, hope you can still use some input from me at this eleventh hour...