Thursday, August 28, 2008

Not So Pearl & Gem :I Do Not Know........

Friends ,

Frankly , I do not know whether I should feel sad or happy .

Anwar Ibrahim won with a bigger thumping majority .Just only more than 3000 votes than Wan Azizah's 13,00o ,some detractors from the other camp might say .But this is a Malaysian by-election in the hinterland of 'Serba Boleh' .With all the 'sumpah serapah' [that made a mockery of the sanctity of Islam] as preamble and the might of the government of the day brought to bear .

Again the nagging doubt ,'did he do it or did he not do it!?' playing in the mind .Was Rusmah ,and by association ,Najib guilty or not guilty as alledged ?GOK ,God Only Knows .Was Pak Lah a party to the crime ,by not taking proper wise action when the rumours initially cropped up ,or was he 100 % ignorant and sleeping on his 'job' ?Some detractors ,including Dr M ,might say he has been sleeping throughout .Again GOK ,God Only Knows !

This , my friends , is the land of 'Serba Boleh' ,pick your choice and make your stance .People of Permatang Pauh though have made their stance loud and clear .The government of the day can show blue film ,real or imagined ,repeat a thousand time ,of the guy with his 'Dick' fully erect and thrusting , shafting into the now world famous anus horriblis ,and yet the guy would have won with a much bigger majority .The people believe Nik Aziz and Abdul Hadi have more credibility than Pak lah ,Najib ,SyedHamid and the rest all combined ! Some may have doubt Anwar after the 'sumpah serapah' but very few doubt Tok Guru Nik Aziz 's sincerity [ and 'sixth' sense ] over his support for Anwar . This old man does not get easily excited over 'money' and power as Najib et al do .

This last minute support ,I believe ,was pivotal in the subsequent thrashing of UMNO .Such is the magnitude of the credibility gap present ,that whenever anyone on the side of the present government opens his mouth ,that very comment works against their candidate .What has gone wrong with the 'think tanking ' in UMNO nowadays !? Has it been relegated to a 30 plus year old Oxbridge graduate who obviously is still too' wet in between the ears '!



In Japan ,such heads of government would have disappeared in the wee hours of the night and in the privacy of their rooms ,quietly commit harakiri .Over here they can only proudly pronounce to the world that ,yes ,in Malaysia we are proud that democracy is working !It must have been a brilliant discovery on the part of Najib ! Democracy is actually working !

Is this going to be the dawn of a new era in Malaysian political development and maturity ?Where politicians and cronies ,top guns in government no longer have the blank cheques to sign and do as they wish or are we going to see more of the same ?Most importantly for us Malays Muslim ,are we just beginning to see the ugly head of Non Malays Muslim clamour for more of the flesh ?Do we have to move out of the veranda and stay in the cowshed ,having just given the master bedroom to the guest ?

Winning the election is simple ,Anwar might find ,and even moving right on to Putrajaya might not be too difficult given the current Raayats' dissapointment with UMNO and BN in general ,but running a pluralistic society such as ours ,with that many fault lines and divergence ,need more brain than what clowns like Bush and Blair have all combined !

Congratulations Anwar !
Dr Nik Howk

PS :
If you are going for the jugular this time around Anwar ,make sure your 'think tank' has in them that something extra called 'wisdom' to walk the 'mine field' that is Malaysia .

"This is not yet the end ,nor is it the beginning of the end .This is just the end of a beginning "...............
Sir Winston Churchill

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”...
Abraham Lincoln

"Do not doubt your power ,lest you give power to your doubt"
Some little known Greek philosopher

"Our typical Malaysian'Think Tank' advising big time Ministers, going for higher office ,normally brainstorm :a lot of storm by little brains "....
Dr Nik Howk

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Pearls & Gem : Imagine .........

Friends ,

Imagine .......

A whirlwind trip from Mekkah over the barren desert to Jerusalem's AlAqsa , and then many time swifter than light , to the outermost border of unreality into reality ,Sidratul Muntaha to meet the Absolute Reality .

You say : "Peace and Felicity to only Allah the Most High "

He replied : "Peace and Felicity to you ,messenger of Allah ,with My Rahmat and Berkat"

You replied :"Peace and Felicity to all of us abdals of Allah ,who are 'soleh' .I accept that there is no god but Allah and I accept that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah ."

The angels from down below boomed :"Our Lord ,give Peace and Felicity to Muhammad ."

Imagine .......Once back home with the Message you have to face clowns like Abu Lahabs and Arwa ,Abu Suffians and Hinduns and the likes of Abdullah bin Ubays............generations and generations of them !

"Imagine ..........
There is no heaven ,
Imagine there is no hell ,
...and there is no soul too,
....You may say I am a dreamer ,but I am not the only one ,not the only one ......"

John Lennon's Imagine leads to Rome , the other ,to Mekkah !
Pick your choice ....Without constant contact with the Absolute Reality ,we are just 'lonely people'.........' kubur masing masing !'

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Not So Pearl & Gem :Is There Life Beyond Anwar & Najib ?

Friends ,

Just 8 years ago the night DPM Anwar was sacked and sent to Bukit Aman ,while the whole of KL was tense and there were some street demo ,Dr M was noted to be 'cooling' his nerves riding his favourite horse at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club .I scrawl a badly written note to Dr Siti Hasmah [that was pure madness but when you go ballastic what else can a poor citizen like me do] .

"..... your hubby is already 75 ,and he may need to meet his God anytime , and if he is not correct about Anwar I just wonder how he is going to explain to his God why he did what he did !I hope he is right !If Anwar is wrong he deserve more than a jail sentence .He deserve to be shot ! Both your husband and Anwar have let the Nation down ! "

My house phone went 'numbed' for a couple of days .My wife scolded me for being both dumb and crazy .It was obvious ,and we accept that we were being watched by 'Big brother' but it was all worth it ,at least I get that off my chest and able to maintain my sanity .Five long days later came the reply :

"...We have no choice .My husband was tipped off by SB for sometime .He picked Anwar because of his Islamic agenda .My husband can stomach the 'economic consequence'[ she must be referring to Mirzan's bailout by Petronas] but cannot accept 'this thing ' about him ....My husband has no choice but to act.......Only Allah knows ! " .Only Allah knows ,Dr Siti Hasmah wrote .

That was our former 1st Lady .Many now may despise Dr M for letting down the Nation by eroding the Judiciary, IPP deals to friends etc etc [ to be fair ,retrospectively we have a tendency to only remember the negatives ! ,and that is human ] but we can never get a better Ist Lady again like her .No 1st Lady in my book in the near future will come any better packaged than Tun Dr Siti Hasmah .Even though I did not agree with her reason and Dr M's action ,Tun Dr Siti Hasmah and myself ,we got on 'famously' after that letter .

As A citizen I was just doing my job sending her my 'dirty emails about what I thought of her husband's actions and inactions .The PM was behaving like a dictator ,his cabinet were filled by people who behave like poodles ,the feeling of the raayats need to be channeled .I was just playing a role of devil advocate .

I even gate crashed into A Sri Perdana 'do' for GPMS people one Ramadan night ,prayed beside Dr M but I never spoke a word to the old man .As a citizen I cannot forgive what he did to Tun Salleh Abas . That was a mortal sin and un-statesmanlike !You may say I may be suffering from a ' small man ' syndrome ,praying the Magrib prayer in his house ,by his side but refuse to talk nor shake hand with a great man .But even a small man must be given his day and that was my day I reckoned !

Now 8 years on we are back to square one .Is Anwar's case a malacious lie to kill off his political ambition and maintain the current UMNO status quo in Government despite it's increasing irrelevance , or is he really what they depicted :A brazen homosexual masquerading as a future post modern 'Saladin AlAyyubi' , the one that will bring the Muslim Ummah forward along with others in the Ist World ? The suave Muslim statesman who can court and dine and play ' balls ' with the American and the Kufr West and East and yet push the Islamic agenda ahead..., or just a lowly ' sodomist' in his private life .

Long after the court has adjourned and sentence being passed in the near future ,this question will never be answered .Only Allah and Dr Wan Azizah know .As Dr M succinctly put it recently ,the Appeal Court may have decided he was not guilty , but that does not mean he did not do it !

The political scenario is however very simple .The court case will go on .Come August 26th Anwar will win the Permatang Pauh by election hands down .The Mattress Extravaganza in court will take months .Anwar with his panache and winning ways in Parliament will be able to form the government in no time given the increasing irrelevance of UMNO nowadays .Pak Lah will find himself either deposed or will be an incoherent Head of Opposition .This man has been incoherent for sometime now anyway .The court case will by then be also irrelevant as irrelevant as the Altantuya case presently .

Scenario 11 ,Anwar still wins his by- election by as big a landslide as in earlier scenario,but by a stroke short of a miracle , could not turn around the Parliament .The court case goes on and found him guilty .He goes to jail .Syam Apakahnamadiadahtu become an instant bumiputra millionaire .Come 2010 ,Anak Pak Jab becomes the PM !His analyst friend ,Sirul and Co get off scot free : cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that Altantuya may actually has accidentaly blown herself up by mistake at the material time of her death !

The 1 billion dollar question now is can we Malaysians live with the uncertainties surrounding Anwar ?Do we not have other choices ?Is there really a dearth of real political talents that we have to hang our future and our children's future on him ?Anwar may be innocent ,or he may be guilty ?Do we want to transfuse possibly 'tainted' blood into a bleeding patient or just throw the bag into a waste basket and re-order a new fresh one ?Do we have a fresh one ?

Is the Malaysian Muslim's ummah interest best served by Anwar's Pakatan ?There was a deafening silence from Sivarasa and Co on the Malaysian Bar 's issue on ' Conversion to Islam' .We do not expect Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh to be sympathetic to us on this issue or any issue for that matter as we know very well who they are .Has not the Malaysian Muslim ummah given in enough to the non Muslims Malaysian or is it a case of 'dah bagi peha nak beri semua pula' ?

They used to ask for a Merdeka University, there are more than a hundred now littering the Nation .They speak about equality and freedom of religion ,Selangor is littered with kuils at every nook and corner and no one has ever been prevented to practice or preach ,they talk about equal economic share ,my God ,80 % is still not enough !Go to London ,New York or Sydney and one will know what religious and economic freedom mean !In Switzerland today we learn that the Western liberal society ,as what they claim they are ,even are not happy to allow the only mosque there to even have a small minaret : so much for religious freedom .

This generosity by the host has to stop somewhere !And Anwar's Keadilan does not seem to know the edges .

Now what about Anak Pak Jab ?People's perception is very important .People perceive he cannot control his wife and his lust !Fullstop . It is just perception , no hard proven evidence .In a court of law ,no hard evidence , the case is thrown out ,the plantiff wins and you pay cost .In politics and election ,perception is everything !

The Altantuya's case is still on and will be for a few more months ,so far we are going round and round and none of the brilliant legal minds ever have the courage enough to ask publicly in court ,the most basic of question as to who is 'the big gun' behind these policemen ,Sirul and Co !Instead we are going round and round in circus .Again public perception .Is Rusmah Mansoor a chronic Mrs 10 % as is the popular public perception that she is ?Again all innuendoes but no evidence ,legal or otherwise .Just heresay .Public perception .Though in Malaysia for sometime in the past public perception seem to be correct ,rather than the watered down official version .Not now in this new openness under Pak Lah .

Yet again another case of possibly 'tainted' blood !Do we want to use it on our dying patient or thow it away and just re-order a new one ?

Is Muhyidin Yasin or Rais Yatim etc etc so inferior to Najib Tun Razak ,that he is irreplaceable or is feudalism so well entrenched in present day UMNO that it cannot be changed ?Is UMNO so impervious to change that it can afford not to care anymore about public perception ?Are individuals more important than the sum total ?Does UMNO still not believe the general perception that it is rotten to the core and need major cleansing ?Is UMNO still in a state of denial ?

What is happening to the young turks in PAS that they collectively cannot change the mindset of the old ones ?Is continuation of the PAS -UMNO dialogue too lowly for PAS that it is not worth having ?Is Islam to be limited to the parochiolism of Kelantan or the symbolism of the kopiah ?Or is Islam to be perceived as Allah's chosen universal solution to human problems on this planet Earth ,applicable to both Muslims and Non Muslims ?Is Islam cutting edge enough to be at the peripherry of scientific knowledge and that we Muslims should by now be slicing genes and breaking down the atoms for human endervour ?Or are we just happy with the kopiah symbol of backwardness , poverty and mediocrity ?

I am just a simple doctor plying my trade. I am not even a corporate surgeon or thinking politician .I have more questions than answers but in my opinion ,presently if we were to survive well the tightening 'vice' by the rest on our culture ,economics and religious interests ,we have to make a quantum leap forward .We have to think beyond Anwar and Najib !A major paradigm shift .Throw away the possibly 'tainted' blood into the dustbin of history and start afresh !

Was it Tun Musa Hitam who 30 years back told us to be a 'little bit kurang ajar' on our own turf ?The time is now .

Allahualam .

Monday, August 4, 2008

"Class of 65 ,Malay College Picture Gallery"

Friends ,

Thank you Rosli Mat Ali [ Class 69] for CCing those picture gallery of class 65 .Most outstanding from the sea of greying ,balding distinguished figures is the youngish looking YB Dato Shahrir Samad .Despite his 100 % silver grey he still looks young and sprightly ,must be due to his daily running and brisk walking regimen !Most of the rest look their age .60 plus and tired !,except the forever youthful Effendi Norwawi .Make one wonder whether 'reverse osmosis' really work .Rumors abound that he has a new candidate for ' reverse osmosis ' beyond TJ .Lucky man !

Effendi and TJ aside ,those pictures brought back a tinge of nostalgia and sadness to me as I ponder on the vagaries of age , ageing and my very own mortality .It felt only like yesterday that we were pounding on the hallowed ground of "Eton of the East" ,young schoolboys ,pacing around the world famous Prep School ,Big School ,The Pavilion ,dreaming dreams of conquering and changing the world ,under the Big Tree ,and the occasional naughty 'double rations' before the bell !...and of course the scrambling for the odd last minute ,one or two vacancies, at High Table .

This kind of nostalgia and sadness always invariably bring me back to base :The One and Only ,The CEO of the Universe .My nostalgic mind fast forward from the mid 60's to the mid 80's , and that brought me to Mekkah .I could still recollect the friday evening 'usraf'' we medicos had at our makeshift Al Ghazzah Hospital barely 400 metres from the Haram .I was a young medical consultant then given the order to bring down the mortality of our feeble hajis and hajjahs down to half or less the previous years figure .

That we did despite people falling like flies from heat stroke at Arafah under the midday sun in excess of 55 degree centigrade ,one of the hottest Arafah Day ever !.It came down to less than a quarter from the previous year , alhamdullillah .

Can still remember the Ulama' who lead the Isha' prayer and gave us a short lecture that night . An old sage well known amongst pilgrims from this part of the world , known as Hj Mohamad Al Mandeleng ,from Sumatra long domiciled in Mekkah .Could still recall his parting remark :" We Muslims ,to be safe ,must be in continuous contact with our Maker ,just like the spark plug of a car ,always firing .No sparks ,the engine stall .No genius required .You pick yourselves up from there at your very own pace ."

Before we parted for the evening he taught us a short 'doa' ,very short that I doubt many in the audience that day were impressed . I was though ,because this simple doa I recite 20 ,30 times a day,and has kept me in continuous contact with the Maker eversince .

"Astaghafirullah halazim allazilailahaillah huwalhayyulkhayyum waatubuilaik ,rabbirfirli waliwalidayyak walmukmini walmukminat ".......you ask for penitence and salvation not for yourselves only,but also for your PARENTS always and all other Muslims in general .We are all brothers and parents in Islam are 'special' people .

Very short doa .There are doa and doa's but since this one is short and has deep connotation and meaning I recite it everywhere ,during rukuk, sujud ,on waking up ,before ,during and after all my 'cardiac interventional' work , and whenever I feel stressed as I find this a great 'destressor' [ all doa's are destressors ] and today ,sadly after seeing the "Class of 65" picture gallery .Somehow this reminded me of my own mortality .

We all , from Class 69 downwards ,are at the 'margrib' of our life . One foot firmly planted on this side hoping we will hit that 4 score and ten with our mind ,body and soul intact[ may I add: Aqidah ],and the other one going to the 'other side' .The 'looks' on the faces of '65 does not inspire in me that most of us will hit that target .Thus the sadness .

Back to Tuan Guru Hj Mandeleng :It is all about Contact ,Contact and Contact .The rest you fill yourselves with Ilm ,Ilm , and Ilm .Then of course Amal .But without the Contact you can have all the Ilm in the world but one can end up like all the 'John Espositos' of the world :Full of knowledge on Islam but without faith and wisdom !

Allahualam .

Dr Nik Howk

PS :'Sedekah' Al Fatihah for the late Kamaruzaman Maaruf of Class 65 who has been called back to the Realm of the Unseen .I will always remember Kamaruzaman Maaruf as that wizardry ,fast 3 Q's ,that make the oppositions looked like wax stuck to the ground .Such beauty and poetry in motion .May his soul be placed amongst the blessed . Amin .