Monday, January 19, 2009

Pearls & Gem : The Dawn Of A New Era

Friends ,

The recent by-election result from Kuala Terengganu was no surprise to me .You ask any Malays now below 35 whether they would vote for UMNO in any election and almost 100 % of them would say they would vote a frog instead !You ask those Malays with tertiary degrees ,indirect product of UMNO's affirmative policy ,a great majority will vote the opposition ,except those few who live on lucrative government contracts and handout and the Pemuda's and Puteri's looking for easy life as government's hangers on .

This is a sad state of affair .A party that once was so proud of it's election record and always the bastion of the Malaysian government now having to swallow humble pie and continue to whistle in the dark .Still impervious to change and insensitive to criticism ,with built in mechanism that tend to promote the unashamedly corrupt ,the inept and the political missfits.With all these UMNO is like that robot they sent together with the astronauts in the film Red Planet: It has been switched on a self destruct 'military mode' !

With Najib Tun Razak definitely taking over at the helm in March the scenario for self destruct would almost be complete and beyond 'reconfiguration' .With the Altantuya baggage on his shoulder and his wife's previous excesses ,in these years and age of information, his would be an uphill task

Let us look at the other side of the equation :Anuar Ibrahim .Anuar's achilles tendon at least to the Malays [ and no one gets to power in Malaysia without overwhelming Malay support ]is that his Party Keadilan lacks Malay content .Look more HINDRAF if anything else .The marriage of convenience between PAS and DAP in Pakatan is neccesary and make no mistake about it ,both Lim Kit Siang and that old man Karpal can make all the animal noise they want about hudud but PAS is the senior partner in Anuar's Pakatan .Without PAS ,Anuar might as well be the President for HINDRAFF .Lim Kit Siang knows fully well that the Chinese ,as represented by DAP ,would never be in a position to share some semblance of power in a 100 years without piggy bagging on Anuar 's Pakatan ,and Anuar know without PAS he might as well get back to the relative safety of having free lunch for the rest of his life in the vicinity of Sungei Buloh .

Look at it this way : If Dr M did not offer that parachute jump for Anuar some 20 years back where would Anuar be ?My guess is that he would probably join PAS but since he was a young man in a hurry and PAS then was all 'kopiah and no content',UMNO became his obvious choice .

What would I do if I am one of the think tank for PAS now that 'UMNO is in its death throes and there would be a vacumn soon enough .I would advice PAS to get a 1st class PR firm specializing in massive 're-branding exercise' .Islam from time immemorial stood for excellence in this 'duniya' and excellence in the 'akhirat': when Florence ,Madrid and Rome were still bathed in darkness ,ignorance and plague ,Cordoba was a city of light and centre of knowledge and the arts .Now these former 'barbarians' have the audacity to want to teach the Muslims all over the world how to live and govern .

PAS should get away from the present stigmata of just being seen as champions only for the meek and the mediocre .PAS ,like Islam ,must aim and 'sell' itself as a party that stand for 'universality' of man and should not be weighted down for being 'Malay' .Islam is about the 'Universal man ' with excellence in thought ,actions and word .PAS should go for more 'Erdogans' amongst it's fold .

In 2009 ,NEP and Nationalism are outmoded concepts .Equality ,egality and fraternity are in . They are also the rallying cry in Islam .They just need to be repackaged !Malay dilemma is no longer a relevant issue .This vacumn in leadership is a Malaysian dilemma ,and all issues must be looked from an overall Malaysian perspective ,not Malay ,Chinese or Indian .In the eye of God ,all of us are equal except for our level of piety .

Enough of the bullshits ,I better go to sleep !

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The PR Firm whose primary task is as per 5:67 ...deliver what bas been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do it not, then you have not delivered His message...,
is all the time there. We just need a little light to see.

Now, whether we belong to the firm or otherwise, it's up to us to take a pretty close look at ourselves. If we are a member of the firm, rebranding should not be the priority, because that shall happen when the real product is inevitably launched,
9:33
He it is Who sent His Messenger with guidance and the dinulhaq, that He might cause it to prevail over all din..

The priority is however in understanding the firm's autonomy. By understanding so, there really isn't any need to address current political scenarios with the hope of latching on to the system. I'm quite sure that all members of the PR firm would heed the instruction,
6:70 And leave those who have taken their din for a play and an idle sport, and whom this world's life has deceived...

Pearls and Gem said...

As always Pope ,your maqam is way beyong me .Aku tak faham setabuk apo mung kato .

Take away politics from the discussion :How do we for example 'sell' Islam to those lost 'sheeps'?I met a Muslim acupunturist by the name of Dr Hasan from Peking working here in KL .He was surprised not many Malaysian Chinese are Muslims and he attributed this to attaching Islam to being 'Malay' .Chinese are very proud people with several thousand years of history .Depa tak mahu'masuk Melayu !'.Pasal depa dok tengok Melayu ni banyak sangat 'penyakit' .

This is where rebranding is necessary .Nak sebar ugama ke atau nak sebar ideology berteraskan ugama ,kita di Malaysia kena ceraikan Melayu dengan yang kita nak jual .

Shamsul said...

Doc, A new brand of islam will emerge from the 'Land of Shaitan', like Buddhism, Islam will be packed and pakaged from among the so called heathens who wore flowers in their hair and worship the the AlMighty Dollar. Keep you stetoscopes aimed and your mind open and watch how the like evertything else in this life even islam is going through the ringer in the west where the branding process is already happening.

Pearls and Gem said...

Given your long sojourn in the land of the Braves ,I believe you .

Well someone here also deemed fit to repackage Islam and sell it as 'Islam Hadhari' .Cannot sell and the salesman would soon join the rest as a retiree .

Interesting to note that anak Pak Hussien in his address to the 'Shaitans' said that he would engage the Muslims in a new way .Remained to be seen but his deafening silence on the massacre in Gaza already gave us some inkling that we cannot expect very much change even from him .

The whole scene was surreal to me : seeing Dick Cheney being wheeled like that ,Senior Bush walking decrepitly probably noy knowing the light of the day and Bush Junior trying to put a brave smile like a schoolboy having to hear his 8 year tenure being 'rubbbished' in a few minutes by the Man from Kenya .

We will see our Obama conduct himself over the next few months .At least the world is many times over safer now that moron is no longer in the White House which should actually be painted red now that a lot of innocent Palestinian and Afghanis blood being needlessly spilled .

Sorry Sam ,I cannot caumouflage my anger there ,because the last 8 years of Bush administration has been too moronic .

Shamsul said...

Doc, Behind every Bush there is a terrorist!
Behind Obama there is still Osama!
The struggle will go on between what is good and what is evil, just like two oposing parts of an atom without which all ceases to be. We are just the watchers, Allah's witnesses and what we do or not do we will have to account for at the end of days. The more closer we are to the main stage the more we are accountable for.However woe unto those who fail to even acknowledge what is happening in and around them except for how to make a living.

Pearls and Gem said...

Prof Naguib Alatas ,our very own philosopher ,ulama' and thinker par excellence put it simply :If it is a matter of the 'perut' that excites you ,then the result is what that comes out of it !

That quotation is not exactly the same but to that effect as I recall .

Anonymous said...

Dear Nik,

May be what I'm going to write is nothing to do with "the Dawn Of A New Era', I just want to paste it anyway.

Mencari Gen Juara

Dicari segera di seluruh Malaysia
Para jejaka para wanita
Yang jejaka
penjaring gol sebarang liga
Yang wanita
pelari pecut negeri dan negara

Lalu,
Mereka semua diperiksa
Apakah darah bergen juara
Jika ada, kawinkan mereka

Majlis perkahwinan ditaja
Majlis Sukan Negara
Kerana FAM tak punya dana

Pasangan memilih atas suka sama suka
Tidak ada sebarang paksa
Tapi diberi ganjaran setengah juta
Bagi gaji bagi kereta
Lengkap dengan apartmen selesa

Sanggama diatur-selia
Oleh pakar yang memilih baka
Melahirkan gen juara
Lalu bersenyawa
Benih wanita dan jejaka
Calon juara.

Bila hamil di peringkat lembaga
Embrio dibela gizi berharga
Dengan vitamin-vitamin istimewa secukupnya

Bila embrio lapan minggu usia
Alat pendengaran lembaga sudah berderia
Pasangkan di perut ibu tetuang udara
Bunyikan lantang genderang sorakan menggempita

“Ggggoooooooooool! Ggggoooooool!”Ggggooooool!
Begitu juga lain-lain suara
Berkaitan bola
Sepanjang kehamilan hingga
Kelahiran ke dunia
Dunia bola

Bila hari kelahiran bayi juara tiba
Lekatkan di pergelangan tangan mereka
“Hak Penjagaan Di Tuntut Negara”
“Bayi juara milik Majlis Sukan Negara”
Lima hari di institusi
Hanya dua hari dengan ibu-bapa sendiri

Hari pertama bayi di dunia
Latihan bola sepak sudah bermula
Kaki-kaki mereka berantingkan bola
Biar deria di tapak mesra
Menyentuh rasa tanpa perlu melihatnya

Bayi gen juara membesar sempurna
Dengan susu bermutu istimewa
Tambahan vitamin, mineral, DHA, EPA, taurina
Nukleotida, arginina dan bla.. bla ..bla...
ramuan tumbesaran merangsang semua
persiapan untuk jadi juara

Bila mereka boleh berjalan
Sehari dah berlari
Bola sentiasa lekat di kaki
Makan bola
Minum bola
Tidur bola
Fikir bola
Belajar bola
Tonton bola
Tengok katun, katun bola
Segala-galanya bola
Akhirnya hingga dapat merasa bola
Membau bola

Pra-sekolah tiga tahun mereka bermula
Kurikulum dirancang sedemikian rupa
Tersusun rapi jadual berkala
Makan minum disukat semua
Mereka diajar disiplin perwira
Datangkan juara silam dalam arca
Bawa lagenda bola bercanda ria
Membina semangat waja dari semuda belia

Bila mereka dewasa
Gagah lagi perkasa
Tinggi tegap enam kaki semua
Otot dan otak berkerjasama
Membuat formasi seharmoni orkestra

Lincah di padang stamina memanjang
Merasa bola tanpa memandang
Membau kesempatan sebagai penyerang
Menjaring gol bukan kepalang
Nak jadi juara kena merancang
Dari setitik mani hinggalah mereka beraksi di padang
Kalau tidak, kita terus berhati walang
Kalau kita mula sekarang
Dua puluh tahun lagi kita ada juara yang bukan calang-calang
Agar di stadium, kita tidak dirundung kecundang malang
Bersorak gempita penuh riang
Anugerah gen juara kita gemilang
Tapi bukan sekarang, kena merancang


Rahmat Haroun Hashim
Doktor Kampung, Langkawi.

My quest for champion genes.

Anonymous said...

I baru dapat baca yang ni hari ni Dr Nik.susah nak komen pasal re branding ni, interpretasi ugama Islam selepas kewafatan rasululullah sentiasa bertukar.Saya baru baca bagaimana susahnya saudina abu bakr untuk menyelmatkan islam dari nabi palsu, pemberontak tak mahu bayar zakat dan yang lain hanya mahu meninggalkan islam tanpa sebab.Hanya perang menyelamatkan ugama waktu itu, berkat kepimpinan pahlawan seperti Khalid ibnul Walid dan lain lain dan kekuatan iman orang islam yang tinggal. You see, it still goes back to Kekuatan iman dan tak takut mati.wallahuaklam.dari hafiz

Pearls and Gem said...

Hafiz ,

You got me wrong .Islam does not require re branding .'Kita' yang nak jual Islam ni yang perlu rebranding .

Depa associate Islam sebagai barang yang mediocre pasal kita mediocre .Orang Cina di Malaysia associate Islam dengan being Malay : banyak penyakit Melayu ni if we care to reexamine ourselves .Kalau dah diatas ,semua sudah fikir complete ,orang tak boleh komen lagi ,semua cukup macam suddenly magic .Komen sikit dah melenting .Politic ke administrator ke atau lebih semua fe'el sama .Cepat melenting and a false sense of important .

PAS yang perjuangkan Universality of Islam masih dikonkongi dengan 'syndrome kopiah' dan kekampongan mereka walhal Islam ni is all about excellence ,in thoughts ,word and deeds .Mana bolih tidak : The Ottomons at one time were controlling from the Adriatic Sea to almost half of China and Russia .We gave science and light to the world .Renaissance that started in Florence was as a result of the information technology from Muslim Cordova etc etc .

Now the rest of the world is yet again still in darkness : they have lost their souls but we in the Muslim world cannot show th way out pasal kita 'have lost our confidence in ourselves and like parrots ape-ing the West .