RMC - A Bridge Too Far

So PM Najib wants the Royal Military College (RMC) to increase the intake of non Malays students to 30% as a boost to his 1Malaysia concept. Good move PM, but how many students RMC will actually take in after their PMR (lower secondary public exam)? Even if it is 1,000 students per intake, that will be only 300 non-Malays students. How to achieve 1Malaysia concept when there are more than 600,000 PMR students each year!

If he is dead serious about 1Malaysia and wants it to flow down to the people from all walks of life, he should also ensure the 30% or more intakes of non Malays into the MRSM ( Residential Science College), Matriculation courses, Polytechnics and other colleges and institutions funded by the taxpayers money.

If this is just another piece meal action for scoring political points, the meaning of 1Malaysia will just remained within a few in the Prime Minister's Department. And of course minus Nasir "jual tubuh" Safar. - Loka

Anwar is to blame

With the departure of MP for Bayan Baru Zahrain Hashim from Parti Keadilan Rakyat two weeks ago, it added another round of woes to PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim who is facing second round court case on sodomy charges.

It will not be surprising if one or more of PKR's MPs decided to walk out from the party that seems facing unending problems in maintaining discipline  and loyalty amongst its elected representatives. Anwar himself already admitted his mistakes in selecting the wrong candidates for the last general election. Well, at that time he don't have much choice isn't it?

PKR's membership can be pooled into three main baskets. The first group are those who jumped ship from another party particularly from Umno. The initial batch of Umno members who switched allegiance to PKR are mostly those with third level of hierarchy in Umno, except maybe for Anwar himself, Azmin Ali, Ezam Nor (who left earlier) and a couple of others. There were so many positions for grab and opportunity to stood as election candidates which will remain a dream if they are still in Umno.

The second group are those who are Anwar-infatuated people like those involved in Abim (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia), namely Mustaffa Kamil Ayub and Mohd Nur Manuty. The third group are those who were involved in "reformasi" and NGOs like Tian Chua, Elizabeth Wong, Sivarasiah, Irene Fernandez etc. Later, after the "merging" with Parti Rakyat Malaysia, a small group of people led by Syed Husin Ali were absorbed into the party.

It is clear that Anwar is having a lot of headaches with those who were formerly with another political party. Current problematic PKR elected representatives who are formerly from Umno includes Kulim Bandar Bharu MP Zulkifli Noordin, Zahrain Hashim and Indera Mahkota MP Azan Ismail. Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong who claims a Selangor state exco from DAP was involved with the mafia was the founding Secretary General of the mosquito party Malaysian Democratic Party after his fallout with DAP and Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng was formerly with Gerakan.

Not forgetting the duo that partly caused the fall of Pakatan Rakyat's Perak state government Jamaluddin Radzi (Adun Behrang) and Osman Jailu ( Adun Changkat Jering) and also Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham who quits PKR to become BN friendly independents, whatever it means!

It seems like these people could not forget their old flames which they had cohabited for so many years even after tying the knot with a new partner. As people says, they can have a new party but their heart is still with the former party. There will be more test cases to see if political frogs can be depended on their loyalty and commitment to their new party. Those on the watch list includes former MCA vice president Chua Jui Meng and wanita deputy head Dr Tan Yee Kew. We will see where their heart lies when PKR selects the next election candidates.

Anwar is right in putting the blame on himself for selecting these political frogs and frogs-to-be. Another thing which he has not openly apologised was his haste and dream to becomes the PM by encouraging political betrayal of BN MPs so that he can secure enough seats to take over Putrajaya. While he was scheming this, he was blinded by the dream for power and blinked while his enemy BN took the opportunity to snatch Perak under his nose and created continuous problems for his PR governments in Selangor and Penang. - Loka

Happy Chinese New Year

Wishing all a Happy Chinese New Year. May every moment be filled with Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.  May all be blessed with Good Health, Great Joy and Fantastic times with Family and Friends. Gong Xi Fa Chai.

                                                                                                        - Loka & family

Interfaith Dialogue UKM

It was almost 20 years ago since I last stepped on the stage of the Dewan Tun Abdul Razak (DECTAR) in UKM. Two days ago I walked on the stage again, where I received my graduation scroll in 1990. Not as a graduating student but as a panelist for an interfaith dialogue organised by UKM students.The event was organised by Kelab Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam UKM and with the cooperation of the UKM Buddhist Fellowship.

Maybe due to the recent controversy on the usage of the term "Allah" by the Catholic Weekly Herald and torching of some churches and throwing of wild boar heads into two mosques compound, the organiser managed to invite representatives from only three religions namely Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. I was informed that the organiser had approached many Christian speakers but were politely declined.

Other than having a decent discussion on respective religious beliefs, I had the opportunity to meet up with an UKM lecturer who was staying in the same hostel as me during my student days. He was also the moderator for the dialogue.

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Dectar is the main hall used by UKM for many important events especially the annual convocations. The presence of about more than a thousand students (and some outsiders too) can be considered good but the representation was rather disappointing as most if not all who were there are Muslims. I did not notice any Hindus (except the Hindu panelist of course) and most probably no Christians were there too. I met some Buddhist student leaders who were involved in organising the dialogue and some juniors whom I had  met in other programs.

The audience did asked some interesting questions in a friendly and respectful way. The last interfaith dialogue which I attended in UKM 20 years ago was furiously heated with a very confrontational audience. Since this dialogue was conducted in the Malay Language, I think some the words used might be alien to the non-Buddhists who are exposed to Buddhism for the first time.

The organiser took my suggestions to record on tape the proceedings of the dialogue as a reference and also to pre-empt any interference from unreasonable or rowdy audience.

It was a courageous effort by the students to organised such an event as I was informed it has been many years since an open interfaith dialogue was last held in UKM. Since nearly all the audience are of the Muslim faith, it can be deduced that they are also keen to know and understand the nature of their fellow Malaysians beliefs. But what about those other than Islam, are the students not interested in interfaith dialogues?

Having interfaith dialogues is not to convinced others to convert to one's faith or ridicule others but as a platform to know each other better and learn to respect and celebrate the differences as fellow human being and man of faith. - Loka

Note : Due to some miscommunication by the students, the information on the backdrop/poster was inaccurate. I was formerly the Secretary General of YBAM, not as stated in the poster.

Serpent-like racial monster within

What is so surprising about this guy who allegedly make racial remarks and threatened to take away the citizenship of fellow Malaysians? We didn't hear these nonsense for the first time, aren't we?  And surely we do not expect this to be the last anyway. Lurking underneath the smiling faces and shout of unity under the Malaysian umbrella, lies the vicious and serpent-like racial monster within their subdue conscience.

Waiting for the moment to unleash itself from the grinning teeth and bear-hugs of comradeship, these inner serpent-like subdue conscience will be spurting out wild fire of unhappiness, hatred and displeasure during moments of unguarded tongue and a disillusion state of mind.

The serpent-like conscience has been there for a long time amongst many living around us, has been continuously nurtured and developed by those who will do whatever it takes and at all cost to maintain their political and racialistic dominance in a country that adopts parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

These serpent-like racial monster can be a colleague sitting next to us in the office; a neighbour who mind his own business all the time; a loyal customer of the mamak stalls that we patronized regularly; an old friend from our school or university days and can even be amongst those with the YB titles. Hopefully these YBs can be Yang Bertaubat soon if the serpent monster is still lurking within.

We need to show our compassion to these serpent-like racial monster who can't even develop their own heart and mind in a state of mindfulness and peace. If this fails, we better continue to pray harder  and harder for a better Malaysia tomorrow.  - Loka