More often than not, patients with 'heartburn' who present to me at my outpatient clinic or in ER are really having non cardiac problems. Commonest are certainly pain from GERD [ gastroesophageal reflux ie commonly called by laymen as 'gastric']. Often time pain due to gallbladder inflammation and impacted gallstones also can mimic 'heart pain' of angina.
A good clinician who listen well to the history given by the patient and after a careful physical examination, can usually deduce whether the pain is in the 1st instance cardiac or non cardiac. A stress ECG is usually done in most cases to separate the 'cardiac' from the 'non cardiac'. If stress ECG is normal and if I feel the problem is one of GERD, a referral to a gastroentologist would be done with a view towards upper GIT endoscopy, a procedure that can be done in the morning in a daycare outpatient gastro unit.
If I suspect that the patient's problem is due to gallbladder stone impaction in the cystic duct, I would ask for an ultrasound abdomen. This is a painless outpatient procedure done usually by radiologist [ Xray specialist ] similar to ultrasound examination done in pregnancy except that in this case the area under study is the upper abdomen.
Below are utube presentation of a laparascopic cholecystectomy [ keyhole surgery for gallbladder removal ], and upper GIT endoscopy.
click here,
For actual procedure,
click here
Upper GIT endoscopy,
click here
click here
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Atrial Fibrillation
click here
Four possible treatment modalities :
1. Most often and 99.9 % of the time initially with intravenous medication which ideally would be to try to 'chemically cardiovert' the heart rythm back to normal sinus rthyme. Having done that your doctor will dispense to you oral medication to be taken for a period of time to maintain this normal rythme.
In a situation when normal sinus rythm could not be achieved via medication, your doctor may aim for a compromise by accepting the ATRIAL FIBRILLATION, but at the same time focus on controlling the rate with a 'rate-limiting' oral medications such as a betablocker or a calcium antagonist [ atenolol, metoprolol, verapamil ]. Added to this , since your rythme is now in intermittent or perpetual AF [ short form for atrial fibrillation ], there is a finite and significant risk for stroke due to an increased tendency for minute blood clots to form in the left atrium. To circumvent this issue, your doctor will usually prescribe along with the 'rate-limiting'medication such atenolol, another drug to 'thin out' your blood, warfarin.
2. In an acute , life threathening situation when it is imperative that your doctor need to achieve normal sinus rythme as fast as possible for example in patient with bad heart function or acute coronary syndrome or when initial intravenous treatment fails to control AF or rate is too fast, your doctor may elect to use the technique of 'ELECTRICAL CARDIOVERSION'.
click here
click here
3. Increasingly now, in selected cases, persistent chronic AF can be converted to sustained and most time long term normal rythme by a technique called AF RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION. This is done not by your usual cardiologist but rather by sub specialist in cardiology [ we bread and butter cardiologists, plumbing type of cardiologists, called them 'electricians' ]. They specialise in the electrophysiology of the heart.
click here
click here
4. If AF Radiofrequency ablation fail, very rarely one would proceed for a hybrid electrophysiological-surgical approach. This is only done limited to specialised cardiothoracic centres of excellence at present, centres that have the volume and numbers, to ascertain successful conversion of AF to normal rythme.
click here
Four possible treatment modalities :
1. Most often and 99.9 % of the time initially with intravenous medication which ideally would be to try to 'chemically cardiovert' the heart rythm back to normal sinus rthyme. Having done that your doctor will dispense to you oral medication to be taken for a period of time to maintain this normal rythme.
In a situation when normal sinus rythm could not be achieved via medication, your doctor may aim for a compromise by accepting the ATRIAL FIBRILLATION, but at the same time focus on controlling the rate with a 'rate-limiting' oral medications such as a betablocker or a calcium antagonist [ atenolol, metoprolol, verapamil ]. Added to this , since your rythme is now in intermittent or perpetual AF [ short form for atrial fibrillation ], there is a finite and significant risk for stroke due to an increased tendency for minute blood clots to form in the left atrium. To circumvent this issue, your doctor will usually prescribe along with the 'rate-limiting'medication such atenolol, another drug to 'thin out' your blood, warfarin.
2. In an acute , life threathening situation when it is imperative that your doctor need to achieve normal sinus rythme as fast as possible for example in patient with bad heart function or acute coronary syndrome or when initial intravenous treatment fails to control AF or rate is too fast, your doctor may elect to use the technique of 'ELECTRICAL CARDIOVERSION'.
click here
click here
3. Increasingly now, in selected cases, persistent chronic AF can be converted to sustained and most time long term normal rythme by a technique called AF RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION. This is done not by your usual cardiologist but rather by sub specialist in cardiology [ we bread and butter cardiologists, plumbing type of cardiologists, called them 'electricians' ]. They specialise in the electrophysiology of the heart.
click here
click here
4. If AF Radiofrequency ablation fail, very rarely one would proceed for a hybrid electrophysiological-surgical approach. This is only done limited to specialised cardiothoracic centres of excellence at present, centres that have the volume and numbers, to ascertain successful conversion of AF to normal rythme.
click here
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Unto Him is The Journeying
Friends,
Woken up with a cold sweat just now at 3 AM still thinking about Libya! Some American Muslims have found it fit to ask Obama to go into Libya and solve the problem there !! My God when is this common, cheapskate, convenient modus operandi of 'invasion into Muslim hinterland' going to end ?? Sudan is going to be divided, Afghanistan, Pakistan, then Libya, then Iran ,,one day Malaysia...this is madness !
No one has invaded israel yet despite all the animal noise people make at the UN or around the world !
Surf the net on Libya amd Muamar Gaddafi, The Madman of Africa....come across Ismail Musa Menk's discourse on DEATH. Libya has to wait. Leave Muamar alone. Leave the madness and 'heartbreak' of world politics aside......
Let us see what this Zimbabwe Mufti has to say about DEATH. I throw in my colleauge's [ Dr Rahmat Haruon own discourse on the issue for good measure ] poem in as well, for good measure. He had had some brush with death recently:
Nik Howk
.............................
M A T I....
Nafi itu mati
pergi jauh kau dari sini
biar aku sendiri dalam isolasi
murka pada mati
kenapa kau mahu ziarahi
diri ini
mahu kutawar-menawar dengan mati
bukan kini
biarlah lain hari
kalau mati datang lagi
biar hanya mampir lalu berlalu pergi
usah kau kembali
wahai mati
kemunculanmu mengundang depresi
Tundalah kedatanganmu mati
sehingga aku bersedia merangkulmu nanti
masamu akan tiba wahai mati
tika daku terimamu segenap sanubari.
31 Januari 2011.
RahmatHarounHashim
Shaykh Ismail Musa Menk's discourse on Death, click here
Related Articles in the blog,
click here
click here
Woken up with a cold sweat just now at 3 AM still thinking about Libya! Some American Muslims have found it fit to ask Obama to go into Libya and solve the problem there !! My God when is this common, cheapskate, convenient modus operandi of 'invasion into Muslim hinterland' going to end ?? Sudan is going to be divided, Afghanistan, Pakistan, then Libya, then Iran ,,one day Malaysia...this is madness !
No one has invaded israel yet despite all the animal noise people make at the UN or around the world !
Surf the net on Libya amd Muamar Gaddafi, The Madman of Africa....come across Ismail Musa Menk's discourse on DEATH. Libya has to wait. Leave Muamar alone. Leave the madness and 'heartbreak' of world politics aside......
Let us see what this Zimbabwe Mufti has to say about DEATH. I throw in my colleauge's [ Dr Rahmat Haruon own discourse on the issue for good measure ] poem in as well, for good measure. He had had some brush with death recently:
Nik Howk
.............................
M A T I....
Nafi itu mati
pergi jauh kau dari sini
biar aku sendiri dalam isolasi
murka pada mati
kenapa kau mahu ziarahi
diri ini
mahu kutawar-menawar dengan mati
bukan kini
biarlah lain hari
kalau mati datang lagi
biar hanya mampir lalu berlalu pergi
usah kau kembali
wahai mati
kemunculanmu mengundang depresi
Tundalah kedatanganmu mati
sehingga aku bersedia merangkulmu nanti
masamu akan tiba wahai mati
tika daku terimamu segenap sanubari.
31 Januari 2011.
RahmatHarounHashim
Shaykh Ismail Musa Menk's discourse on Death, click here
Related Articles in the blog,
click here
click here
Monday, February 21, 2011
One Billion $ RM Naval Frigate.....
Friends,
'Duit Kopi' or kickback has become a way of life in Malaysia, thanks in no small way to our great Dr M who initially started the ball rolling by diminishing all institutions capable of keeping this under check. I decided to do my very own simple' kampong' way of checking the figures today. I must say I was lucky because out of the blue this morning, Encik M, a well known self made ship builder, with hundreds of million orders from mainly Europe on his book, walked in through my clinic door . We Malays talked about 'panjang umur' and 'Tok Wali' and there he was, walking into my room for his early morning consultation, ready to being 'bullied' and grilled.
" Encik M, hypothetically if I am your PM and able to give you a negotiated tender to build a 6 similar frigates for the country as what was given to Bosteed Bhd, how much would you charge us per piece.Give me a ball park figure,give and take 10 millions. You to make some profit and we the Govt not to lose alot. We want to help your company to be able to join the big international boys in the marine industry ?"
" Doc, a basic frigate without fitting and weopenry of that size would cost 150 million RM for me to build. Frankly speaking,I would hope to make 10 to 15 millions there as profit. I work on the basis of 10 to 15 % profit. With high end, state of the art weopenry, 'exocet' missiles and everything,all imported overseas and supervised by relevant experts, I am looking at a ballpark figure of a couple of millions less than 800. That is very very high already,fully loaded with all the newest toys in the business, except probably a nuclear missile ! And this Doc inclusive of a 5 year FOC maintainence contract to cover. Me and my boys could rest for the next 5 years even at 800....This would boost our profile no doubt. We already have a lot of orders from Europeans. We have yet to build for our Navy though. They dont like us. Our figure are too low for them."
So friends, it is not that bad as it initially seem. We are not looking at 400 to 500 million RM kickback now. We are just looking at just under 200 millions. That seem a measly sum after Scorpene. People have learnt their lessons!...That constitute progress towards good Islamic governance. Our govt is Islamic mind you.
Nik Howk
PS: by the way, Bosteed Bhd has never been in the black despite all the help from the Government all these years. Mostly run by retired generals and admirals.
Oops! At 200 million a piece, 6 frigates would give a whooping 'duit kopi' of 1.2 billion. Not bad we Malays nowadays, very good at mathematics!
................................
Assalaamu'alaikom
rm200mx6. Yes a pittance. Yet Melayu still vote them in.
Wassalaam,
GrandPa.af ©اخمد فضيل
.........................................
Dear Grand Pa,
At the end of the day, despite whatever 'animal noise' we make, we deserve the shit we deserve!
Nik Howk
.................................................
[ Letter from my dear sister..a Dr M number 1 fan..]
Dear Hok
Are there evidence and proof for these "frigate" scandal? and the many unfortunate "legacies" which you confidently based your biaseness on?. If yes I will be a convert in a blink.
When I was in the team in-charge of the procurement and contract for the KL International Airport project, we were overseeing more than hundred projects with a total estimate of more than RM10 billion. Amongst the biggest tender is the terminal complex at RM2 billion, the satellite building at RM1 billion and several others each contract from RM100k - RM500k. No interference whatsoever from the Prime Minister.
In fact initially way back in 1990 we were being conned by an anglo-japan consortium who claimed that they are the expert for world-class airport and as such the government agreed on a contract management for the consortium to construct KLIA for RM20 billion. But later Mahathir rescind the contract and requested the local professionals to form a Project Management company under Tan Sri Jamilus to manage the contract and at the end we manage to build that airport for RM10 billion - saving the government RM10 billion. All these are not hearsay but backed with all the files and contract documents. Not once did we received any "wahyu" from him with regards to the the pre-qualification, estimates, tender evaluations and negotiations. All decisions with regards to money are based on our recommended procurement strategy, technical and contractual basis.
In addition, after KLIA project I was involved with other projects with a total cost of more than RM1 billion - again no interference from him whatsoever. All estimates and negotiation were by our company which we recomended and accepted by the government. In fact the government even reduce the contract sum further as a discount due to being selected contractor.
Show me the evidence of wrong doings by Mahathir personally than I will be as angry as you but for now I can't.
Salam
Imun
......................................
1 Mar 2011 22:53:52 +0800
Imun,
I see that my dear Imun,you are still stuck with Dr M !
The one billion rm per frigate is not Dr M's though and your 'recalcitrant' dear brother dont live in the past . He choose to live in the future.
As for Dr M , he is already 86. He has to meet his God one of these days, as I have bravely pointed to him in my personal letter to his Mrs some 10 years ago during the height of the Anuar debacle.
I dont take side. I am not a blind 'lover' of Dr M nor of any one except HIM. Kings, sultans and numero unos of nations are special people. They choose and are 'ordained to be there. Some despots even 'kill' to be there. Just look at Libya. What they do involve 'billions' and affect millions. Whether they like it or not they will be judged by us and by God . They will be judged by history harshly and there will be no two way about it because unlike you or me these are important public office. On Judgment Day I bet you some would have wish they are just the green scum in the rocks rather than have souls and exist and be judged!.
Yes I agree with you if you say he is no Muamar Gaddafi but in life indeed Dr M did left a lot of legacies...Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Proton, The state of our Judiciary, the incoherence in our public policies etc etc and etc.
15 years on, our institutions are still blinking when our neighbours all have left us behind. On the corruption index we are onpar with Cambodia !Corruption is rampant. Public accountability is next to zero.
The one billion RM Frigate announced by the PM after Pak Lah is testimony of our present malaise!
No I am not thinking of Dr M. He is old newspaper, my dear sister. I dont waste time reading old newspapers!
Howk
'Duit Kopi' or kickback has become a way of life in Malaysia, thanks in no small way to our great Dr M who initially started the ball rolling by diminishing all institutions capable of keeping this under check. I decided to do my very own simple' kampong' way of checking the figures today. I must say I was lucky because out of the blue this morning, Encik M, a well known self made ship builder, with hundreds of million orders from mainly Europe on his book, walked in through my clinic door . We Malays talked about 'panjang umur' and 'Tok Wali' and there he was, walking into my room for his early morning consultation, ready to being 'bullied' and grilled.
" Encik M, hypothetically if I am your PM and able to give you a negotiated tender to build a 6 similar frigates for the country as what was given to Bosteed Bhd, how much would you charge us per piece.Give me a ball park figure,give and take 10 millions. You to make some profit and we the Govt not to lose alot. We want to help your company to be able to join the big international boys in the marine industry ?"
" Doc, a basic frigate without fitting and weopenry of that size would cost 150 million RM for me to build. Frankly speaking,I would hope to make 10 to 15 millions there as profit. I work on the basis of 10 to 15 % profit. With high end, state of the art weopenry, 'exocet' missiles and everything,all imported overseas and supervised by relevant experts, I am looking at a ballpark figure of a couple of millions less than 800. That is very very high already,fully loaded with all the newest toys in the business, except probably a nuclear missile ! And this Doc inclusive of a 5 year FOC maintainence contract to cover. Me and my boys could rest for the next 5 years even at 800....This would boost our profile no doubt. We already have a lot of orders from Europeans. We have yet to build for our Navy though. They dont like us. Our figure are too low for them."
So friends, it is not that bad as it initially seem. We are not looking at 400 to 500 million RM kickback now. We are just looking at just under 200 millions. That seem a measly sum after Scorpene. People have learnt their lessons!...That constitute progress towards good Islamic governance. Our govt is Islamic mind you.
Nik Howk
PS: by the way, Bosteed Bhd has never been in the black despite all the help from the Government all these years. Mostly run by retired generals and admirals.
Oops! At 200 million a piece, 6 frigates would give a whooping 'duit kopi' of 1.2 billion. Not bad we Malays nowadays, very good at mathematics!
................................
Assalaamu'alaikom
rm200mx6. Yes a pittance. Yet Melayu still vote them in.
Wassalaam,
GrandPa.af ©اخمد فضيل
.........................................
Dear Grand Pa,
At the end of the day, despite whatever 'animal noise' we make, we deserve the shit we deserve!
Nik Howk
.................................................
[ Letter from my dear sister..a Dr M number 1 fan..]
Dear Hok
Are there evidence and proof for these "frigate" scandal? and the many unfortunate "legacies" which you confidently based your biaseness on?. If yes I will be a convert in a blink.
When I was in the team in-charge of the procurement and contract for the KL International Airport project, we were overseeing more than hundred projects with a total estimate of more than RM10 billion. Amongst the biggest tender is the terminal complex at RM2 billion, the satellite building at RM1 billion and several others each contract from RM100k - RM500k. No interference whatsoever from the Prime Minister.
In fact initially way back in 1990 we were being conned by an anglo-japan consortium who claimed that they are the expert for world-class airport and as such the government agreed on a contract management for the consortium to construct KLIA for RM20 billion. But later Mahathir rescind the contract and requested the local professionals to form a Project Management company under Tan Sri Jamilus to manage the contract and at the end we manage to build that airport for RM10 billion - saving the government RM10 billion. All these are not hearsay but backed with all the files and contract documents. Not once did we received any "wahyu" from him with regards to the the pre-qualification, estimates, tender evaluations and negotiations. All decisions with regards to money are based on our recommended procurement strategy, technical and contractual basis.
In addition, after KLIA project I was involved with other projects with a total cost of more than RM1 billion - again no interference from him whatsoever. All estimates and negotiation were by our company which we recomended and accepted by the government. In fact the government even reduce the contract sum further as a discount due to being selected contractor.
Show me the evidence of wrong doings by Mahathir personally than I will be as angry as you but for now I can't.
Salam
Imun
......................................
1 Mar 2011 22:53:52 +0800
Imun,
I see that my dear Imun,you are still stuck with Dr M !
The one billion rm per frigate is not Dr M's though and your 'recalcitrant' dear brother dont live in the past . He choose to live in the future.
As for Dr M , he is already 86. He has to meet his God one of these days, as I have bravely pointed to him in my personal letter to his Mrs some 10 years ago during the height of the Anuar debacle.
I dont take side. I am not a blind 'lover' of Dr M nor of any one except HIM. Kings, sultans and numero unos of nations are special people. They choose and are 'ordained to be there. Some despots even 'kill' to be there. Just look at Libya. What they do involve 'billions' and affect millions. Whether they like it or not they will be judged by us and by God . They will be judged by history harshly and there will be no two way about it because unlike you or me these are important public office. On Judgment Day I bet you some would have wish they are just the green scum in the rocks rather than have souls and exist and be judged!.
Yes I agree with you if you say he is no Muamar Gaddafi but in life indeed Dr M did left a lot of legacies...Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Proton, The state of our Judiciary, the incoherence in our public policies etc etc and etc.
15 years on, our institutions are still blinking when our neighbours all have left us behind. On the corruption index we are onpar with Cambodia !Corruption is rampant. Public accountability is next to zero.
The one billion RM Frigate announced by the PM after Pak Lah is testimony of our present malaise!
No I am not thinking of Dr M. He is old newspaper, my dear sister. I dont waste time reading old newspapers!
Howk
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dominoes Falling in The Islamic Hinterland......
Robert Fisk on Egypt, click here
Tunisia, click here
Afghanistan, click here
.........................................
11th Feb
Nadzru,
Kudos to your daughter and wives who have some sense and staying put in Cairo!!! That is the right thing to do. I am sure apart from high food price, if one remain away from Tahrim Square one is safe. We have overblown the security problem of our people in Cairo for local politics.
I would have thot if out politicians are not out to score political mileage and spending millions from state coffers or private funding to fly 6000 students home, a box of maggi mee to each family would have suffice the ordeal......instead they have to spend millons and a lot of dirty phone calls to corporate guys like you tp chip in..........look like Our National Erection is not far away...but then again anak Pak Jab may think this this may not be the right time, the Tunisian experience may rub on Malaysians in a positive way......but someone high up in Malaysian heirachy [ you would not believe me Iif i tell you anyway ] thinks Malayisans DO NOT HAVE BALLS
And all this are not free. I am not sure how much you guys from Ranhill have to cough out but all the GLC's are coming out with millions sponsoring the exodus to KL. That Tony Fernandez chap from Air Asia, for having the honour to being photographed at the staircase of his jetliner, I dont know what was his 'damage' ?
If we do have BALLS, Tenang would have been won by the opposition , at least giving some message of sort that we are not going to stand anymore nonsense from our bosses!
My neighbour who is a Malay middleclass , half of his family has migrated. 3 months ago I said how come??? Now I am feeling very sick in the stomach as well.....we can actually stomach these nonsense up to a point.
Nik Howk
..................................
To Nadzru Azhari
Sent: Sat Feb 12 00:20:58 2011
Subject: Re: Merhaba
Dear Baba,
I went out with mama earlier carrying the camera around my neck. There were about 5 people asked me, “Tahrir? Midan tahrir? *Kachak kachak picture???” , hahaha. I laughed and answered, “na’am, lakin midan tahrir la’ kha thii rah?*dangerous?” – Me, babbling crazy Arabic. They all nodded, “na’am!! For foreigners is veryyy dangerous. Only Egyptians can go”
Aihhhh… I thought with mama’s Arabic look-a-like face we can cheat through midan tahrir. But unfortunately I have your Chinese eyes, so I don’t think that would work out well. “It’s okay…, la’ mushkilla! Mafish mushkilla~ I’ll just walk around here and take shots of the emptiness within the city” I said. See baba, everyone warned us. I don’t think we can go there. Just watch the news; you can see how crazy midan tahrir is. We stopped by a ‘fuulun’ shop , mama bought herself two pack of ‘fuulun’. She bought the ones called ‘aswani’ and ‘haelwani’. I guess the ‘haelwani’ supposed to taste sweet? I haven’t tried yet. Anyway, in that ‘fuulun’ shop, there were many people who bought those nuts to bring to midan tahrir. The stuffs that they bring along are juices, coca cola, ‘fuulun’ wa ‘khubz’. There were also few ‘shabab’ discussing about Husni Mubarak on the streets, all I heard was “bla bla bla Husni Mubarak bla bla bla!” *yes… I didn’t catch what they were saying exactly.
So everything seems pretty normal around here, it’s a lot more quiet and there are not a lot of people roaming around town. I took some pictures but well, there were nothing so exciting really.
Mama bought herself another pair of Crocs shoes. There I met with four cute little Egyptian girls! There were somehow, excited seeing me. Well I guess that is no surprise, I have your looks. No need for me to elaborate right? Hehe. One of them came up to me and said hi, they asked my name In English but I answered them in Arabic. Haha, they were quite surprised. They are Nur, Jasmine, Janna and Sara. I’ll send you their picture through facebook. They are all almost as pretty as me. HAHA. *I inherit the ‘perasan-ness from you too baba…!
Woohoo! Finally Hosni Mubarak has stepped down!! Yesshhhh!! I can hear the people celebrating outside, but how come it sounds like gun shots? Cars honking, and i hear the 'walalalalalalalallalala!!!!'
p/s: Oh well…, I pity those entire Malay students who ran away from Egypt. They ran for nothing. Uji and Fatin are stuck in Jeddah, I wonder if they will still go back to Malaysia?
Your cutest daughter, Siham.
............................................
12th Feb.
Nik Hawk,
That's my second daughter writing from Medinat nasr, Cairo. She stays!
Nadzru
................................................
Nadzru,
As some one very high up in the heirachy of things Malaysian emailed to me yesterday, 'MALAYSIANs HAVE NO BALLS'. Of course he need to remain nameless here ! I agree with him.
WE BLOODY MALAYSIANS DO NOT HAVE BALLS !
Our mediocre minded self serving politicians are running the country to the ground and we purred at home and sleep like cats.
We desrve the shit we deserve Nadzru!
Nik Howk
.....................................
Nikhowk,
The 'rescue' of Malaysian students from Eqypt has little to
do with perceived danger in Cairo, but everything to do with photo-ops
at Klia for Ringgit Malaysia and her hubby. Having been spurned by
TokGuru at the royal Christmas eve get-together (should not the fatwa
council make a ruling on that one?), there is an urgent need to
demonstrate that oomno cares for the poor Malay talibs in Cairo more
than PAS does. It has everything to do with PRU13.
Regards,
TS Wan
.....................
Yes Tan Sri,
Very cheapskate, Ringgit Malaysia nowadays.
And the GLC's will pay for all of that excessess. I am surprised you guys were not called to chip in as well !
Nik Howk
...................................
What say you Nadzru.?
Should 'we' technically speaking sack the present Malaysian ambassador in Cairo ?....for not giving the right advice....even while I am sitting here in my drawing room can tell that 'bringing home the students was a bad advice in all circumstances'.
You know him well. Has the whole embassy gone bonkers ?
Nik Howk
....................................
Dearest Nik Hawk,
I was awake infront of the TV till 3 am this morning. It was so difficult to make the Old Fellow Mubarak vacate his seat. The popular demand to make him leave was so overwhelming, 99% of his voting population less 1% who make up his security apparatus, goon squad and his cronies. Even his cronies felt suffocated, they all can do with a new government to grow and prosper. The proverbial Ali Baba and his 40 thieves need fair and progressive markets to grow, though his capital came from shared stealth with the Caliph. The Sinapoleans know this very well. They , the Sinapoleans are the worst corruptors in Thailand and Indonesia but once the stolen capital is brought to Sinapo, they need the order, predictability and fairness of free market to really grow further under the aegis of the best free market mechanism. They need to create mass purchasing power, clean and sanitised civil society , theatres, operas, libraries, etc ( a casino or two, as stolen wealth also need further stealing all the same). So the 1% that didn't go to Tahrir Square are made up of this class, still on free will they don't like him. So the total is really 100%. Yet in the last Egyptian National Elections Mubarak kept his post with a 99% votes in his favour.
Let me begin by returning salaam and salutations to Grandpa Ahmad Fadhil. I was a classmate of Nik Hawk in lower secondary, we separated when he left for the MCKK and I to Sultan Abdul Hamid College Alor Setar. At University level there was a mass tribal population transfer between his classmates in MCKK and mine in SAHC. A majority of mine went to Medical Faculty at the MU and a majority of his to Engineering Faculties in the UK. I was with the latter tribal mix. Later on in life, I went into business and that took ( and still does take ) me to many parts of the world, especially the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and hence Cairo becomes my travel stop.
HE Ambassador Dr Fakhreddin Mukti is a dear personal friend of mine. I had dinner with him in Mohandessin Cairo before the Midan Tahrir revolution and he was the one that reiterated to me that of the 'Tahfiz ' school students in Malaysia that entered Al-Azhar university and its sister institutions in the Classical Islamic studies, 50% flunk outright, of the 50% that passed 45% took more than the normal 3 1/2 years to get a BA and 5% could articulate and formulate their thoughts in arabic. Meaning 95% are estranged from thinking and formulating their thoughts in the arabic language, which is the medium of university studies instruction. This after a whole primary + secondary education in Malaysia with arabic and Quranic studies as the main stream, including a 5 year long stint of 'memorising' The Quran. In the end to be beaten by European and Central Asian and African students in the private American University in Cairo, where 100% of the students could articulate and formulate their thoughts in arabic after SIX months of rigorous classes. The estrangement of the malay students from the language that they are supposed to be at default with, is best seen like how they ran from the Midan Tahrir revolution, like runneth the proverbial yellow donkeys in the Quran. Our malay students simply cannot immerse in anything other than their own comfort zone, miserable though that may be.
In defense of HE ambassador Fakhreddin, I am almost daily on the mobile phone with his PA and butler Mohammad Abdel Aziz Mehrani up and until early this morning. Mohammad happened to be also serving in similar position to predecessor ambassador Zainal Abidin , my uncle. I have a gentleman's agreement with ambassador Fakhreddin that I ' top up' Mohammad's official salary with an allowance for him to also look into the affairs of my children, nieces and nephews all of whom are in the Medical Schools in Egypt. This is possible as Mohammad is a contract officer and not a full time Embassy staffer. Mohammad told me that Ambassador Fakhreddin was up to his ears with calls and pleas from howling and wailing parents ( mums especially) for him to request to get our Government to get their children home as Egypt was exploding and their beloved 'children' are at tremendous peril. Being an Al-Azhar student at time himself, the ambassador knew very well that between staying on to ' kill time' hanging around the campus and going home, the latter is preferred for the vast majority of the much academically lethargic students. They are not of the kind of the liberal arts students that you get in Cairo , American, Ain Shams or Alexandria university that produce world class writers, economists, diplomats and classics scholars. So he played to the gallery, he responded positively to the wailing malay mums at home.
If you recall the street interviews of those young Egyptians in english on Al-Jazeera, didn't you notice how articulate they are in english! Can you tell me if any of our malay Al-Azhar students able to do the same? And our malay students have exposure to english as a taught language since their were ' taula ka ar-rijli' ( knee high) to a ' yahya el-arnab' ( jack rabbit)! Tell that to their wailing mums, and she will tell you that all she wants from sonny boy is for him to lead the tarawih prayers, take her to Haj and umra and take up job as a pegawai pencegah maksiat. What else can a Quran memoriser do ?( Especially if he remains illiterate in the arabic language and he couldn't think in that language?). We are very fortunate that Ambassador Fakhreddin's statistics said that 5% are good. In absolute numbers that is 50 graduates per year and that I believe him , it is GOOD. We have FIFTY Al-Azhar graduates that can think, articulate and formulate his thoughts in the classical languages and contribute to the progress of our Deen and Ummah EVERY YEAR! We may not produce that many cardiothoracic surgeons every year. So what about the rest of the 950 students every year? Well, they make up the bulk of those yellowing donkeys you saw coming off Tony Fernandes redpainted aircraft!
What cheesed me off is that the herd also included medical students. I always thought that they are a different breed! No, no quite,apparently many have the same wailing mums, yes the same mums. Our august malay mums have children in Cairo in BOTH Faculties! I even have a father , a university mate of mine, who sent me a circulated sms, seeking my prayers for safe delivery of his daughter by Tony Fernandes. I blame not the distressed ambassador, but I blame the wailing malay parents!
Nadzru
..................................
Dear Doc Nik Howk,
Thank you for sharing your conversation with your old and dear school friends, though I feel I do not belong in that close-knit circle of old friends. Anyway, thank you just the same.
I am writing not just to thank you, but to tell you that I read through Nadzru's letter twice, carefully, to glean the nuggets of insights it contains. I must say his letter depressed me. I thought I knew that our students that end up in Islamic institutions are ill equipped and, generally, do not do too well. But the picture is even sadder.
Why is this so? Is this systemic in our society? In 1971, when I was working in the PM's Department (the PM was Tun Razak) I worked directly under King Ghaz, minister for Special Functions. One day, prior to drafting a position paper on the Dadah problem, I had a thorough discussion with King Ghaz about the problems faced by our youths (an estimated 96% were Malay youths!). Our conversation, which went through lunch hour, was whether this was the result of modern society, urbanisation pressures, or a systemic weakness in the Malay community, and whether a further dose of religion was the answer. I was skeptical of the 'religious solution' and my boss agreed with me. You can, I imagine, project this phenomenon to academic proficiency. For every successful Dr. Nik Howk, how many fall far below par? What should we do? Do Malay parents need bigger balls, as you suggested? Huge ones made of brass?
I do not believe that Malay boys are necessarily slow. Not true at all. An insult. In our school at Cempaka, I am delighted to say that the Malay students do as well as boys from the other communities. In fact, at Cempaka we are color blind. Every child is treated the same, and made to work equally hard. Only a few Malay parents complain about the academic rigour, and take their children out. But the majority agreed with our regime, and stayed on. There is no 'bending the curve' at Cempaka. Academic integrity is everything.
Many years ago, my wife took a little Malay boy living in a low-cost flat on Jalan Tun Razak, and offered him a full scholarship (including books, musical instrument, uniforms, shoes, etc). His father (handicapped in one hand) repaired air-conditioners, and his mother a polio victim, took in sewing jobs. At first the parents politely refused our offer, saying it was their "takdir", "Datin, tak kan se cupak jadi se gantang", and they did not want their son to "mix with rich children", or "children from other communities" and "anak anak kafir". My wife persisted gently, and asked the little boy if he wanted to study in a private school. He brightened up and smiled yes. His parents gradually relented and agreed.
The little boy joined our kindergarten. He did well in school, became confident, and made a lot of friends of all races. He won academic prizes, was in the school swimming team, and learned to play the violin so well that he was chosen to perform in the school orchestra. He won an engineering scholarship, graduated, and now works in an international company. We now get a nice note with a Hari Raya card from him every year. Manusia, bukan sahaja Melayu, tak lupa.
I feel sorry for the many Malay children who are overly 'protected', offered no international language, and a competitive environment in which to work hard, flower, and become successful.
Regards.
DC.
.........................................
DC,
I'm delighted (as I'm sure you are) that the pony's turned into a stallion! I salute the Egyptian people & wish them all the very best. But of course we all realise that Mubarak's resignation is just the first step. The road for Egypt is going to be long & arduous, with many uncertainties, but I hope Egyptians will find the way which will bring the people some acceptable measure of freedom, social justice, economic progress, etc.
Yes the pony may have turned into a stallion but let's hope & pray that it gallops in the right direction....
Kadir
........................................
KD,
You are absolutely right. It turned out to be a thoroughbred of a stallion! Wonderful news. Now comes the hard part. Let me put it very briefly:
Is Egypt really in the cusp of a genuine change? I wonder and worry. True, power has moved from Morabak to the hands of the military. But Egypt, as we all know, is a military regime or, to be more precise, a military corporate regime. The military are embedded in, and have a sizable chuck of, the Egyptian GLC businesses. Life for them has been sweet, and they have another sweetener - a largesse of US$ 1.4 billion annually from the Americans. Will they have the political will to give everything up, just like that? Especially when there is currently no civilian alternative? Will they really emasculate the constitution and the political apparatus of the involvement of the military? Will they really help organise the setting up of a civil society, through open, free, and fair elections? As the Bard of Avon said "..aye, that's the rub".
Let us bear in mind that the US, Israel, and Europe will like the military, and the foreign policy establishment, to maintain a strong status quo. They have a knee-jerk fear of change. They will work hard, through fair means or foul, to achieve this end. But a status quo ante would be diametrically opposed to what the Arab street wants. And has the street this sort of political endurance, wiles, connections, and skills? I think this is where we are for now.
Cheers.
DC.
................................
13th Feb
Friends,
Preserving the people's freedom is more important than setting up a system of Sharia (Islamic law), even though freedom remains part and parcel of Sharia, said Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Friday evening in an interview with Al Jazeera television network. Al-Qaradawi, who is an influential Islamic thinker and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group.
Recently, some members of the Brotherhood have tried to alleviate concerns that they want to establish an Islamic state by asserting that the Brotherhood does not seek to the rule the country or establish an Islamist government in Egypt.
Al-Qaradawi also emphasized that the army should protect the nation and the rights of the people, rather than rule the country. He stressed that the right to protest peacefully for the sake of a better life is granted by Islam and recognized by every human rights convention. He congratulated the Egyptian people and the Arab nation on the departure of President Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of the revolutionary struggle.
He described the young revolutionaries as honorable Egyptians who went beyond the call of duty to achieve national justice.
Al-Qaradawi expressed his confidence that God had aided them because he aids those who sacrifice in order to bring about justice, adding, "I was sure that God would aid the revolutionaries. I swore in my Friday sermon that God would soon help these youth, and that is indeed what turned out happening.”
Holding the ousted president responsible for the bloodshed, he said that “God wanted to award this victory to the Egyptian people” and denounced claims that Egyptians were servile and slavish.
He added that Tahrir Square had become a university for the educating the virtues of self-sacrifice, and suggested that the square should be renamed “25 January Revolution Square.”
Al-Qaradawi praised independent media outlets for disclosing facts and uncovering falsehoods while criticizing government owned media outlets as misleading. He accused the later of having continued its campaign of deception up to the final moments before Mubarak’s resignation was announcedWassalaam,
GrandPa.
............................................
Grand Pa,
The West has already set up its agenda of underplaying the role of Islamic Brotherhood in this Egyption overthrow of Mubarak...it is set to put the secular forces within the mass movement up against Ikwanul Muslimin in future to make sure its interest remain the same....'Sepak terajang dan 'sepelet' macam ni depa dah biasa.
Masih banyak ranjau dan onah disepanjang jalan untuk Islam di Egypt.... I tak nampak ada lampu di hujong tunnel yet....masih kabur
I am pesimistic about the outcome of Egypt going democratic , let alone more 'Islamic' and less secular. The military can play for time . They have under been under secular forces for so long[ Gamal Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak ] to just give back their perks that easily. It is difficult to rejoice in these trying circumstances.
The ballgame remains the same. This is just changing of the prinicipal actors. Qardawi and the Muslim Brotherhood would be to naive to think it otherwise that is why his 'fatwa' sounds a wee bit gaurded. They have been in this ballgame long enough to modulate their realistic expectation.
If Suleyman is in power, all of them would go back to jail. A matter of time. My friend Nadzru, the arabist as he is, may think otherwise....he is very well informed on what goes on in Egypt. Doc Razley from IOC may want to comment if it does not affect his 'soru'.
Nik Howk
....................................
The cosmic battle remain the same. But I do think Islamist must know how to prioritize without losing the big picture. When society is looking for economic and social justice, political participation etc we can talk about wudhu and less on hudud.
How can we talk of hudud when we don't have social nor economic justice and Big Theft is rampant.
Just an example.
My concern is that Islamic movements are still too male dominated with women treated as a wing and put in a closet in major discourse. There's a huge disconnect here which even innovative shiism has stopped thinking post Khomeini.
The first thing an Islamic regime will do and I am afraid Ikhwan Muslimin is no exception is to impose dress code and segregation. As a father of 3 girls vs 5 boys I shudder because the girls are above average when compared to the average and below average boys in the schools.
In the Kelantan civil service we have zero representation at the top and in the middle
Rahimkamil
.....................................
Dato Rahim,
I think Dato' ,the Ikwanul Muslimin has matured well, thus the very guarded response as we can see from it's chief Shaykh Qardawi. It is all siasah.
Look at Tariq Ramadan in the US. Cucu to Hassan Al Bana....
He is singing a different song there....dalam kandang kambing kita mengembek , dalam kandang harimau kita mengaum.
Tariq is not not talking of Darul Harb or Darul Islam.....he is talking of Darul Dakwah...That is very bright.
They are all bright....only back home here we are less bright: 55 % Malays/ Muslims, 5 % Hindus and 25 % Chinese and we are bending backward almost breaking our back to HINDRAFF!!! We Malays do not know when the goodness should stop.But of course this is a digression from our main topic...Egypt !
Naughty thoughts though.!
Nik Howk
.....................................
Dear Dr Nik,
Certainly Ikhwan Muslimin has matured and are more inclusive than the turbulent days of Almarhum Asshahid Syed Qutb. Probably tolerant of pluralist views.
And I am more appreciative of Qardhawi than Ru because of his work on Islamic banking (some may dispute what is so Islamic about this....well).
But I have yet to see a clear and audacious position on social and political participation of our women when compared with the unfinished work of Almarhum Khomeini.
We can't ignore the other half of the ummah.
I stand corrected if there are other evidence.
Dato Rahim Kamil
....................................
'Tolak campur tolak campur' Dato', by my simple kampong analysis, down the lane in 6 months time,it would be back to business as usual, probably worse because now is governance by committee, a military one at that, rather faceless, monolithic, NOC style with no Tun Razak[ The Malay element at least has a softening effect on things to be fair] behind it but Suleyman the Butcher looming not very far away in the background........Mubarak at least cannot hide behind any curtain. There was at least a personal face to the previous administration.
To Suleyman The Butcher, the obvious solution would be very simple. 6 months in fact to this kind of guys would seem to be an eternity. Just round up all 30 or 40 'gedebes', lock them up in jail or better still kill them off. That would be the end of the people's revolution. That is a cynical way of looking at things. I am a clinician. Bottomline and worse case scenarios are part of our calculation daily.
I am very pesimistic. I do not see light beyond the tunnel except another blood bath in Egypt 12 months down the lane..
"Orang Penang kata Pi Mai Pi Mai Dok Tang Tu Juga "....
Nik Howk
Tunisia, click here
Afghanistan, click here
.........................................
11th Feb
Nadzru,
Kudos to your daughter and wives who have some sense and staying put in Cairo!!! That is the right thing to do. I am sure apart from high food price, if one remain away from Tahrim Square one is safe. We have overblown the security problem of our people in Cairo for local politics.
I would have thot if out politicians are not out to score political mileage and spending millions from state coffers or private funding to fly 6000 students home, a box of maggi mee to each family would have suffice the ordeal......instead they have to spend millons and a lot of dirty phone calls to corporate guys like you tp chip in..........look like Our National Erection is not far away...but then again anak Pak Jab may think this this may not be the right time, the Tunisian experience may rub on Malaysians in a positive way......but someone high up in Malaysian heirachy [ you would not believe me Iif i tell you anyway ] thinks Malayisans DO NOT HAVE BALLS
And all this are not free. I am not sure how much you guys from Ranhill have to cough out but all the GLC's are coming out with millions sponsoring the exodus to KL. That Tony Fernandez chap from Air Asia, for having the honour to being photographed at the staircase of his jetliner, I dont know what was his 'damage' ?
If we do have BALLS, Tenang would have been won by the opposition , at least giving some message of sort that we are not going to stand anymore nonsense from our bosses!
My neighbour who is a Malay middleclass , half of his family has migrated. 3 months ago I said how come??? Now I am feeling very sick in the stomach as well.....we can actually stomach these nonsense up to a point.
Nik Howk
..................................
To Nadzru Azhari
Sent: Sat Feb 12 00:20:58 2011
Subject: Re: Merhaba
Dear Baba,
I went out with mama earlier carrying the camera around my neck. There were about 5 people asked me, “Tahrir? Midan tahrir? *Kachak kachak picture???” , hahaha. I laughed and answered, “na’am, lakin midan tahrir la’ kha thii rah?*dangerous?” – Me, babbling crazy Arabic. They all nodded, “na’am!! For foreigners is veryyy dangerous. Only Egyptians can go”
Aihhhh… I thought with mama’s Arabic look-a-like face we can cheat through midan tahrir. But unfortunately I have your Chinese eyes, so I don’t think that would work out well. “It’s okay…, la’ mushkilla! Mafish mushkilla~ I’ll just walk around here and take shots of the emptiness within the city” I said. See baba, everyone warned us. I don’t think we can go there. Just watch the news; you can see how crazy midan tahrir is. We stopped by a ‘fuulun’ shop , mama bought herself two pack of ‘fuulun’. She bought the ones called ‘aswani’ and ‘haelwani’. I guess the ‘haelwani’ supposed to taste sweet? I haven’t tried yet. Anyway, in that ‘fuulun’ shop, there were many people who bought those nuts to bring to midan tahrir. The stuffs that they bring along are juices, coca cola, ‘fuulun’ wa ‘khubz’. There were also few ‘shabab’ discussing about Husni Mubarak on the streets, all I heard was “bla bla bla Husni Mubarak bla bla bla!” *yes… I didn’t catch what they were saying exactly.
So everything seems pretty normal around here, it’s a lot more quiet and there are not a lot of people roaming around town. I took some pictures but well, there were nothing so exciting really.
Mama bought herself another pair of Crocs shoes. There I met with four cute little Egyptian girls! There were somehow, excited seeing me. Well I guess that is no surprise, I have your looks. No need for me to elaborate right? Hehe. One of them came up to me and said hi, they asked my name In English but I answered them in Arabic. Haha, they were quite surprised. They are Nur, Jasmine, Janna and Sara. I’ll send you their picture through facebook. They are all almost as pretty as me. HAHA. *I inherit the ‘perasan-ness from you too baba…!
Woohoo! Finally Hosni Mubarak has stepped down!! Yesshhhh!! I can hear the people celebrating outside, but how come it sounds like gun shots? Cars honking, and i hear the 'walalalalalalalallalala!!!!'
p/s: Oh well…, I pity those entire Malay students who ran away from Egypt. They ran for nothing. Uji and Fatin are stuck in Jeddah, I wonder if they will still go back to Malaysia?
Your cutest daughter, Siham.
............................................
12th Feb.
Nik Hawk,
That's my second daughter writing from Medinat nasr, Cairo. She stays!
Nadzru
................................................
Nadzru,
As some one very high up in the heirachy of things Malaysian emailed to me yesterday, 'MALAYSIANs HAVE NO BALLS'. Of course he need to remain nameless here ! I agree with him.
WE BLOODY MALAYSIANS DO NOT HAVE BALLS !
Our mediocre minded self serving politicians are running the country to the ground and we purred at home and sleep like cats.
We desrve the shit we deserve Nadzru!
Nik Howk
.....................................
Nikhowk,
The 'rescue' of Malaysian students from Eqypt has little to
do with perceived danger in Cairo, but everything to do with photo-ops
at Klia for Ringgit Malaysia and her hubby. Having been spurned by
TokGuru at the royal Christmas eve get-together (should not the fatwa
council make a ruling on that one?), there is an urgent need to
demonstrate that oomno cares for the poor Malay talibs in Cairo more
than PAS does. It has everything to do with PRU13.
Regards,
TS Wan
.....................
Yes Tan Sri,
Very cheapskate, Ringgit Malaysia nowadays.
And the GLC's will pay for all of that excessess. I am surprised you guys were not called to chip in as well !
Nik Howk
...................................
What say you Nadzru.?
Should 'we' technically speaking sack the present Malaysian ambassador in Cairo ?....for not giving the right advice....even while I am sitting here in my drawing room can tell that 'bringing home the students was a bad advice in all circumstances'.
You know him well. Has the whole embassy gone bonkers ?
Nik Howk
....................................
Dearest Nik Hawk,
I was awake infront of the TV till 3 am this morning. It was so difficult to make the Old Fellow Mubarak vacate his seat. The popular demand to make him leave was so overwhelming, 99% of his voting population less 1% who make up his security apparatus, goon squad and his cronies. Even his cronies felt suffocated, they all can do with a new government to grow and prosper. The proverbial Ali Baba and his 40 thieves need fair and progressive markets to grow, though his capital came from shared stealth with the Caliph. The Sinapoleans know this very well. They , the Sinapoleans are the worst corruptors in Thailand and Indonesia but once the stolen capital is brought to Sinapo, they need the order, predictability and fairness of free market to really grow further under the aegis of the best free market mechanism. They need to create mass purchasing power, clean and sanitised civil society , theatres, operas, libraries, etc ( a casino or two, as stolen wealth also need further stealing all the same). So the 1% that didn't go to Tahrir Square are made up of this class, still on free will they don't like him. So the total is really 100%. Yet in the last Egyptian National Elections Mubarak kept his post with a 99% votes in his favour.
Let me begin by returning salaam and salutations to Grandpa Ahmad Fadhil. I was a classmate of Nik Hawk in lower secondary, we separated when he left for the MCKK and I to Sultan Abdul Hamid College Alor Setar. At University level there was a mass tribal population transfer between his classmates in MCKK and mine in SAHC. A majority of mine went to Medical Faculty at the MU and a majority of his to Engineering Faculties in the UK. I was with the latter tribal mix. Later on in life, I went into business and that took ( and still does take ) me to many parts of the world, especially the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and hence Cairo becomes my travel stop.
HE Ambassador Dr Fakhreddin Mukti is a dear personal friend of mine. I had dinner with him in Mohandessin Cairo before the Midan Tahrir revolution and he was the one that reiterated to me that of the 'Tahfiz ' school students in Malaysia that entered Al-Azhar university and its sister institutions in the Classical Islamic studies, 50% flunk outright, of the 50% that passed 45% took more than the normal 3 1/2 years to get a BA and 5% could articulate and formulate their thoughts in arabic. Meaning 95% are estranged from thinking and formulating their thoughts in the arabic language, which is the medium of university studies instruction. This after a whole primary + secondary education in Malaysia with arabic and Quranic studies as the main stream, including a 5 year long stint of 'memorising' The Quran. In the end to be beaten by European and Central Asian and African students in the private American University in Cairo, where 100% of the students could articulate and formulate their thoughts in arabic after SIX months of rigorous classes. The estrangement of the malay students from the language that they are supposed to be at default with, is best seen like how they ran from the Midan Tahrir revolution, like runneth the proverbial yellow donkeys in the Quran. Our malay students simply cannot immerse in anything other than their own comfort zone, miserable though that may be.
In defense of HE ambassador Fakhreddin, I am almost daily on the mobile phone with his PA and butler Mohammad Abdel Aziz Mehrani up and until early this morning. Mohammad happened to be also serving in similar position to predecessor ambassador Zainal Abidin , my uncle. I have a gentleman's agreement with ambassador Fakhreddin that I ' top up' Mohammad's official salary with an allowance for him to also look into the affairs of my children, nieces and nephews all of whom are in the Medical Schools in Egypt. This is possible as Mohammad is a contract officer and not a full time Embassy staffer. Mohammad told me that Ambassador Fakhreddin was up to his ears with calls and pleas from howling and wailing parents ( mums especially) for him to request to get our Government to get their children home as Egypt was exploding and their beloved 'children' are at tremendous peril. Being an Al-Azhar student at time himself, the ambassador knew very well that between staying on to ' kill time' hanging around the campus and going home, the latter is preferred for the vast majority of the much academically lethargic students. They are not of the kind of the liberal arts students that you get in Cairo , American, Ain Shams or Alexandria university that produce world class writers, economists, diplomats and classics scholars. So he played to the gallery, he responded positively to the wailing malay mums at home.
If you recall the street interviews of those young Egyptians in english on Al-Jazeera, didn't you notice how articulate they are in english! Can you tell me if any of our malay Al-Azhar students able to do the same? And our malay students have exposure to english as a taught language since their were ' taula ka ar-rijli' ( knee high) to a ' yahya el-arnab' ( jack rabbit)! Tell that to their wailing mums, and she will tell you that all she wants from sonny boy is for him to lead the tarawih prayers, take her to Haj and umra and take up job as a pegawai pencegah maksiat. What else can a Quran memoriser do ?( Especially if he remains illiterate in the arabic language and he couldn't think in that language?). We are very fortunate that Ambassador Fakhreddin's statistics said that 5% are good. In absolute numbers that is 50 graduates per year and that I believe him , it is GOOD. We have FIFTY Al-Azhar graduates that can think, articulate and formulate his thoughts in the classical languages and contribute to the progress of our Deen and Ummah EVERY YEAR! We may not produce that many cardiothoracic surgeons every year. So what about the rest of the 950 students every year? Well, they make up the bulk of those yellowing donkeys you saw coming off Tony Fernandes redpainted aircraft!
What cheesed me off is that the herd also included medical students. I always thought that they are a different breed! No, no quite,apparently many have the same wailing mums, yes the same mums. Our august malay mums have children in Cairo in BOTH Faculties! I even have a father , a university mate of mine, who sent me a circulated sms, seeking my prayers for safe delivery of his daughter by Tony Fernandes. I blame not the distressed ambassador, but I blame the wailing malay parents!
Nadzru
..................................
Dear Doc Nik Howk,
Thank you for sharing your conversation with your old and dear school friends, though I feel I do not belong in that close-knit circle of old friends. Anyway, thank you just the same.
I am writing not just to thank you, but to tell you that I read through Nadzru's letter twice, carefully, to glean the nuggets of insights it contains. I must say his letter depressed me. I thought I knew that our students that end up in Islamic institutions are ill equipped and, generally, do not do too well. But the picture is even sadder.
Why is this so? Is this systemic in our society? In 1971, when I was working in the PM's Department (the PM was Tun Razak) I worked directly under King Ghaz, minister for Special Functions. One day, prior to drafting a position paper on the Dadah problem, I had a thorough discussion with King Ghaz about the problems faced by our youths (an estimated 96% were Malay youths!). Our conversation, which went through lunch hour, was whether this was the result of modern society, urbanisation pressures, or a systemic weakness in the Malay community, and whether a further dose of religion was the answer. I was skeptical of the 'religious solution' and my boss agreed with me. You can, I imagine, project this phenomenon to academic proficiency. For every successful Dr. Nik Howk, how many fall far below par? What should we do? Do Malay parents need bigger balls, as you suggested? Huge ones made of brass?
I do not believe that Malay boys are necessarily slow. Not true at all. An insult. In our school at Cempaka, I am delighted to say that the Malay students do as well as boys from the other communities. In fact, at Cempaka we are color blind. Every child is treated the same, and made to work equally hard. Only a few Malay parents complain about the academic rigour, and take their children out. But the majority agreed with our regime, and stayed on. There is no 'bending the curve' at Cempaka. Academic integrity is everything.
Many years ago, my wife took a little Malay boy living in a low-cost flat on Jalan Tun Razak, and offered him a full scholarship (including books, musical instrument, uniforms, shoes, etc). His father (handicapped in one hand) repaired air-conditioners, and his mother a polio victim, took in sewing jobs. At first the parents politely refused our offer, saying it was their "takdir", "Datin, tak kan se cupak jadi se gantang", and they did not want their son to "mix with rich children", or "children from other communities" and "anak anak kafir". My wife persisted gently, and asked the little boy if he wanted to study in a private school. He brightened up and smiled yes. His parents gradually relented and agreed.
The little boy joined our kindergarten. He did well in school, became confident, and made a lot of friends of all races. He won academic prizes, was in the school swimming team, and learned to play the violin so well that he was chosen to perform in the school orchestra. He won an engineering scholarship, graduated, and now works in an international company. We now get a nice note with a Hari Raya card from him every year. Manusia, bukan sahaja Melayu, tak lupa.
I feel sorry for the many Malay children who are overly 'protected', offered no international language, and a competitive environment in which to work hard, flower, and become successful.
Regards.
DC.
.........................................
DC,
I'm delighted (as I'm sure you are) that the pony's turned into a stallion! I salute the Egyptian people & wish them all the very best. But of course we all realise that Mubarak's resignation is just the first step. The road for Egypt is going to be long & arduous, with many uncertainties, but I hope Egyptians will find the way which will bring the people some acceptable measure of freedom, social justice, economic progress, etc.
Yes the pony may have turned into a stallion but let's hope & pray that it gallops in the right direction....
Kadir
........................................
KD,
You are absolutely right. It turned out to be a thoroughbred of a stallion! Wonderful news. Now comes the hard part. Let me put it very briefly:
Is Egypt really in the cusp of a genuine change? I wonder and worry. True, power has moved from Morabak to the hands of the military. But Egypt, as we all know, is a military regime or, to be more precise, a military corporate regime. The military are embedded in, and have a sizable chuck of, the Egyptian GLC businesses. Life for them has been sweet, and they have another sweetener - a largesse of US$ 1.4 billion annually from the Americans. Will they have the political will to give everything up, just like that? Especially when there is currently no civilian alternative? Will they really emasculate the constitution and the political apparatus of the involvement of the military? Will they really help organise the setting up of a civil society, through open, free, and fair elections? As the Bard of Avon said "..aye, that's the rub".
Let us bear in mind that the US, Israel, and Europe will like the military, and the foreign policy establishment, to maintain a strong status quo. They have a knee-jerk fear of change. They will work hard, through fair means or foul, to achieve this end. But a status quo ante would be diametrically opposed to what the Arab street wants. And has the street this sort of political endurance, wiles, connections, and skills? I think this is where we are for now.
Cheers.
DC.
................................
13th Feb
Friends,
Preserving the people's freedom is more important than setting up a system of Sharia (Islamic law), even though freedom remains part and parcel of Sharia, said Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Friday evening in an interview with Al Jazeera television network. Al-Qaradawi, who is an influential Islamic thinker and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group.
Recently, some members of the Brotherhood have tried to alleviate concerns that they want to establish an Islamic state by asserting that the Brotherhood does not seek to the rule the country or establish an Islamist government in Egypt.
Al-Qaradawi also emphasized that the army should protect the nation and the rights of the people, rather than rule the country. He stressed that the right to protest peacefully for the sake of a better life is granted by Islam and recognized by every human rights convention. He congratulated the Egyptian people and the Arab nation on the departure of President Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of the revolutionary struggle.
He described the young revolutionaries as honorable Egyptians who went beyond the call of duty to achieve national justice.
Al-Qaradawi expressed his confidence that God had aided them because he aids those who sacrifice in order to bring about justice, adding, "I was sure that God would aid the revolutionaries. I swore in my Friday sermon that God would soon help these youth, and that is indeed what turned out happening.”
Holding the ousted president responsible for the bloodshed, he said that “God wanted to award this victory to the Egyptian people” and denounced claims that Egyptians were servile and slavish.
He added that Tahrir Square had become a university for the educating the virtues of self-sacrifice, and suggested that the square should be renamed “25 January Revolution Square.”
Al-Qaradawi praised independent media outlets for disclosing facts and uncovering falsehoods while criticizing government owned media outlets as misleading. He accused the later of having continued its campaign of deception up to the final moments before Mubarak’s resignation was announcedWassalaam,
GrandPa.
............................................
Grand Pa,
The West has already set up its agenda of underplaying the role of Islamic Brotherhood in this Egyption overthrow of Mubarak...it is set to put the secular forces within the mass movement up against Ikwanul Muslimin in future to make sure its interest remain the same....'Sepak terajang dan 'sepelet' macam ni depa dah biasa.
Masih banyak ranjau dan onah disepanjang jalan untuk Islam di Egypt.... I tak nampak ada lampu di hujong tunnel yet....masih kabur
I am pesimistic about the outcome of Egypt going democratic , let alone more 'Islamic' and less secular. The military can play for time . They have under been under secular forces for so long[ Gamal Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak ] to just give back their perks that easily. It is difficult to rejoice in these trying circumstances.
The ballgame remains the same. This is just changing of the prinicipal actors. Qardawi and the Muslim Brotherhood would be to naive to think it otherwise that is why his 'fatwa' sounds a wee bit gaurded. They have been in this ballgame long enough to modulate their realistic expectation.
If Suleyman is in power, all of them would go back to jail. A matter of time. My friend Nadzru, the arabist as he is, may think otherwise....he is very well informed on what goes on in Egypt. Doc Razley from IOC may want to comment if it does not affect his 'soru'.
Nik Howk
....................................
The cosmic battle remain the same. But I do think Islamist must know how to prioritize without losing the big picture. When society is looking for economic and social justice, political participation etc we can talk about wudhu and less on hudud.
How can we talk of hudud when we don't have social nor economic justice and Big Theft is rampant.
Just an example.
My concern is that Islamic movements are still too male dominated with women treated as a wing and put in a closet in major discourse. There's a huge disconnect here which even innovative shiism has stopped thinking post Khomeini.
The first thing an Islamic regime will do and I am afraid Ikhwan Muslimin is no exception is to impose dress code and segregation. As a father of 3 girls vs 5 boys I shudder because the girls are above average when compared to the average and below average boys in the schools.
In the Kelantan civil service we have zero representation at the top and in the middle
Rahimkamil
.....................................
Dato Rahim,
I think Dato' ,the Ikwanul Muslimin has matured well, thus the very guarded response as we can see from it's chief Shaykh Qardawi. It is all siasah.
Look at Tariq Ramadan in the US. Cucu to Hassan Al Bana....
He is singing a different song there....dalam kandang kambing kita mengembek , dalam kandang harimau kita mengaum.
Tariq is not not talking of Darul Harb or Darul Islam.....he is talking of Darul Dakwah...That is very bright.
They are all bright....only back home here we are less bright: 55 % Malays/ Muslims, 5 % Hindus and 25 % Chinese and we are bending backward almost breaking our back to HINDRAFF!!! We Malays do not know when the goodness should stop.But of course this is a digression from our main topic...Egypt !
Naughty thoughts though.!
Nik Howk
.....................................
Dear Dr Nik,
Certainly Ikhwan Muslimin has matured and are more inclusive than the turbulent days of Almarhum Asshahid Syed Qutb. Probably tolerant of pluralist views.
And I am more appreciative of Qardhawi than Ru because of his work on Islamic banking (some may dispute what is so Islamic about this....well).
But I have yet to see a clear and audacious position on social and political participation of our women when compared with the unfinished work of Almarhum Khomeini.
We can't ignore the other half of the ummah.
I stand corrected if there are other evidence.
Dato Rahim Kamil
....................................
'Tolak campur tolak campur' Dato', by my simple kampong analysis, down the lane in 6 months time,it would be back to business as usual, probably worse because now is governance by committee, a military one at that, rather faceless, monolithic, NOC style with no Tun Razak[ The Malay element at least has a softening effect on things to be fair] behind it but Suleyman the Butcher looming not very far away in the background........Mubarak at least cannot hide behind any curtain. There was at least a personal face to the previous administration.
To Suleyman The Butcher, the obvious solution would be very simple. 6 months in fact to this kind of guys would seem to be an eternity. Just round up all 30 or 40 'gedebes', lock them up in jail or better still kill them off. That would be the end of the people's revolution. That is a cynical way of looking at things. I am a clinician. Bottomline and worse case scenarios are part of our calculation daily.
I am very pesimistic. I do not see light beyond the tunnel except another blood bath in Egypt 12 months down the lane..
"Orang Penang kata Pi Mai Pi Mai Dok Tang Tu Juga "....
Nik Howk
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Of Qarun and Surah Ad Dhuha
Kak Ling and Nadimah,
TQ for sending me the articles on Firaun.
The 'battle' between Firaun and Prophet Mosses[ pbuh] was at the spiritual,intellectual, and physical level and of epic proportion. It started with Ramses saying to Mosses,
"What!!, dont you scum know that I am God!"...to the culmination of the split of the Red Sea itself, by divine intervention, and subsequently the natural 'mummification' of Ramses and now on public display in a Cairo museum.To appropriate clowns like Bush, Mubarak and the rest at this same level would be doing Firaun a major disservice! The closest anology for comparision I could think off hand is just our biblical and Quranic friend, Qarun....just my thought. And I know I am not entirely correct and stand corrected.
Qarun[ Korah ] was not on the same level as Firaun, being mentioned only once in the Quran but nonetheless his name has been put on record for lessons to all of us, mere mortals not to follow , from Mosses time up to to eternity.
Definitely not on the same level as Firaun of course. If one study Firaun carefully, he had no equal.He was so powerful , to the point he was able, without much difficulty, even to delude himself as 'God reincarnate' on this planet earth.
A good friend of mine, quite erroneously of course, also put good old Dr M as 'Mahafiraun'. So angry this 'young-old' man with Dr M !
I beg to differ
'Aad,' I told him ,'Let us be generous with Dr M. Let Allah decides on him. He is not that bad you know, and Malaysian politics is not that easy...soo convoluted! Unheard off things like HINDRAF even going to war on the usage of the word PARIAH, Amenu and everything..... If you are too soft , you get Pak Lah.If you are always moving with the wind, we get The First Lady.'
Putting Dr M aside and coming back to our principal actor this time, we all know Qarun was contemporary with Prophet Mosses.
I tried looking in the Quran and seerah regarding Qarun. Probably more stories on him in the Old Testament and old israelite hadiths ....trying to decipher what kind of personality...'sembahyang ke dia, 'hypocrite kah dia'?, 'jahat kah dia'?..'tak bayar zakat kah dia?'....the Quran and relevant seerah and hadiths are pretty quiet on these characteristics...No mention.
The only outstanding thing mentioned about Qarun in the Quran was : HIS ARROGANCE
" I am a billionaire because I am damn good. I am brilliant. My business prosper because my business acumen is above average. I have nothing to be thankful about.
It has nothing to do with the NEP bastards! I am damn good"....
It can also be... " I am Richard Dawkins and I know everything that is to know about molecules, cells and organisms and evolution...and it is my considered opinion that God is not there! "..an extreme example of intellectual pompousity and arrogance!
More commonly though it would be...." I am Yang Ariff and this is the 21st century. How can we judge and adjudicate with the primitive and tribal laws of Arabia of the 7th century...or Kelantan will be inundated with 'SUP Tangan' "....and so on and so forth.
Qarun was damn good at what he was doing ie and that was 'making money'. We were told in the Quran, he had troops of strong men to carry just the keys to his dozens of massive godowns. Damn rich and damn arrogant. The Sultan of Brunei or Bill Gates would salivate looking at Qarun !...Much richer than them, all in CASH and diamonds and gold and silver ! No need for overdraft or huge bank loans or looking over the shoulder for an errant brother making afast run for your money..
I am not worried about us being Firaun. No one can equal to Firaun in history. I am worried about us, especially myself included, sometime feeling and behaving like Qarun, Allah forbids !
Intellectual prowess, wealth, skills, position in life : Tan Sri, Datuk Sri, King , Queen or even for that matter First Lady, etc etc and etc. All of us can fall into the 'Qarun' mental trap, if we are not careful.
Mashaallah.
Allahualam.
Nik Howk
PS: I stumble this morning on this good tafsser of Surah Ad Dhuha by Shaykh Riyadh Al Haq, that is in part related to the position of 'Qarun' on our need to always be humble....First, rendition of Ad Dhuha by world famous qari, Abdul Bassit. Enjoy them both :
Ad-Dhuha
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
By the morning hours
And by the night when it is stillest,
Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee nor doth He hate thee,
And verily the latter portion will be better for thee than the former,
And verily thy Lord will give unto thee so that thou wilt be content.
Did He not find thee an orphan and protect (thee)?
Did He not find thee wandering and direct (thee)?
Did He not find thee destitute and enrich (thee)?
Therefor the orphan oppress not,
Therefor the beggar drive not away,
Therefor of the bounty of thy Lord be thy discourse.
Qari Abdul Bassit ,Surah Ad Dhuha, click here
Tafseer surah Ad Duha, click here
TQ for sending me the articles on Firaun.
The 'battle' between Firaun and Prophet Mosses[ pbuh] was at the spiritual,intellectual, and physical level and of epic proportion. It started with Ramses saying to Mosses,
"What!!, dont you scum know that I am God!"...to the culmination of the split of the Red Sea itself, by divine intervention, and subsequently the natural 'mummification' of Ramses and now on public display in a Cairo museum.To appropriate clowns like Bush, Mubarak and the rest at this same level would be doing Firaun a major disservice! The closest anology for comparision I could think off hand is just our biblical and Quranic friend, Qarun....just my thought. And I know I am not entirely correct and stand corrected.
Qarun[ Korah ] was not on the same level as Firaun, being mentioned only once in the Quran but nonetheless his name has been put on record for lessons to all of us, mere mortals not to follow , from Mosses time up to to eternity.
Definitely not on the same level as Firaun of course. If one study Firaun carefully, he had no equal.He was so powerful , to the point he was able, without much difficulty, even to delude himself as 'God reincarnate' on this planet earth.
A good friend of mine, quite erroneously of course, also put good old Dr M as 'Mahafiraun'. So angry this 'young-old' man with Dr M !
I beg to differ
'Aad,' I told him ,'Let us be generous with Dr M. Let Allah decides on him. He is not that bad you know, and Malaysian politics is not that easy...soo convoluted! Unheard off things like HINDRAF even going to war on the usage of the word PARIAH, Amenu and everything..... If you are too soft , you get Pak Lah.If you are always moving with the wind, we get The First Lady.'
Putting Dr M aside and coming back to our principal actor this time, we all know Qarun was contemporary with Prophet Mosses.
I tried looking in the Quran and seerah regarding Qarun. Probably more stories on him in the Old Testament and old israelite hadiths ....trying to decipher what kind of personality...'sembahyang ke dia, 'hypocrite kah dia'?, 'jahat kah dia'?..'tak bayar zakat kah dia?'....the Quran and relevant seerah and hadiths are pretty quiet on these characteristics...No mention.
The only outstanding thing mentioned about Qarun in the Quran was : HIS ARROGANCE
" I am a billionaire because I am damn good. I am brilliant. My business prosper because my business acumen is above average. I have nothing to be thankful about.
It has nothing to do with the NEP bastards! I am damn good"....
It can also be... " I am Richard Dawkins and I know everything that is to know about molecules, cells and organisms and evolution...and it is my considered opinion that God is not there! "..an extreme example of intellectual pompousity and arrogance!
More commonly though it would be...." I am Yang Ariff and this is the 21st century. How can we judge and adjudicate with the primitive and tribal laws of Arabia of the 7th century...or Kelantan will be inundated with 'SUP Tangan' "....and so on and so forth.
Qarun was damn good at what he was doing ie and that was 'making money'. We were told in the Quran, he had troops of strong men to carry just the keys to his dozens of massive godowns. Damn rich and damn arrogant. The Sultan of Brunei or Bill Gates would salivate looking at Qarun !...Much richer than them, all in CASH and diamonds and gold and silver ! No need for overdraft or huge bank loans or looking over the shoulder for an errant brother making afast run for your money..
I am not worried about us being Firaun. No one can equal to Firaun in history. I am worried about us, especially myself included, sometime feeling and behaving like Qarun, Allah forbids !
Intellectual prowess, wealth, skills, position in life : Tan Sri, Datuk Sri, King , Queen or even for that matter First Lady, etc etc and etc. All of us can fall into the 'Qarun' mental trap, if we are not careful.
Mashaallah.
Allahualam.
Nik Howk
PS: I stumble this morning on this good tafsser of Surah Ad Dhuha by Shaykh Riyadh Al Haq, that is in part related to the position of 'Qarun' on our need to always be humble....First, rendition of Ad Dhuha by world famous qari, Abdul Bassit. Enjoy them both :
Ad-Dhuha
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
By the morning hours
And by the night when it is stillest,
Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee nor doth He hate thee,
And verily the latter portion will be better for thee than the former,
And verily thy Lord will give unto thee so that thou wilt be content.
Did He not find thee an orphan and protect (thee)?
Did He not find thee wandering and direct (thee)?
Did He not find thee destitute and enrich (thee)?
Therefor the orphan oppress not,
Therefor the beggar drive not away,
Therefor of the bounty of thy Lord be thy discourse.
Qari Abdul Bassit ,Surah Ad Dhuha, click here
Tafseer surah Ad Duha, click here
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Mawlidurasul....
People are divided on the issue of celebration of Prophet Muhammad's [pbuh] birthday. Purists[ Salafis, Wahabbis etc and etc ] contend that this is an 'innovation', not done during Prophet's time....some young 'punks' amongst the Wahabis shout it down as heretical..[ click here ]
Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad aka TJ Winter and Shaykh Yusuf Hamza offer an explanation here on Mawlidurasul amongst the British Muslims as a way of Darul Daawah, nothing more nothing less:
Part 2, click here
Part 3 : Islam and Globalization, click here
We are 1.5 billion souls on this planet earth. There is no necessity to simplify people within the faith as heretical and non heretical over 'ranting' issues and finger pointing one another , let alone questioning people's aqidah on the basis of 'ranting' issues. The heart of the matter is the Qalb.
Personally I think TJ Winter aka Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad is a great contributor to Islam via his involvement in daawah and thru academia. As to the young 'punk' in this video above , I felt like 'pucking' listening to him, his oversimplification of people and their aqidah. Sadly we have many like him now in Malaysia.
Huwallahualam.
Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad aka TJ Winter and Shaykh Yusuf Hamza offer an explanation here on Mawlidurasul amongst the British Muslims as a way of Darul Daawah, nothing more nothing less:
Part 2, click here
Part 3 : Islam and Globalization, click here
We are 1.5 billion souls on this planet earth. There is no necessity to simplify people within the faith as heretical and non heretical over 'ranting' issues and finger pointing one another , let alone questioning people's aqidah on the basis of 'ranting' issues. The heart of the matter is the Qalb.
Personally I think TJ Winter aka Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad is a great contributor to Islam via his involvement in daawah and thru academia. As to the young 'punk' in this video above , I felt like 'pucking' listening to him, his oversimplification of people and their aqidah. Sadly we have many like him now in Malaysia.
Huwallahualam.
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