Bodhi Park 2

[Building committee chairman Goh Seng Chai (center) explaining the project to the press ]

A press conference was held today by the Bodhi Park Building Committee to invite devotees and members of the public to attend the Bodhi Park ground breaking ceremony. The ceremony will be officiated by the Minister of Housing and Local Government, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Chuan at 9:00am, 20th July 2008 (Sunday). A Devotion of Lights and Chanting of Parittas by members of Maha Sangha will also be held on Saturday night 19 July at 8:00pm.

Present during the press conference includes Most Venerable B. Saranankara Maha Thera, Chief Adhikarana Nayaka Maha Thera of Malaysia, members of the Bodhi Park Building Committee and other devotees. The Bodhi Park chairman, Goh Seng Chai also urged all devotees and members of the public to support this project. For details on how you can help, visit the project website at http://www.bodhipark.org/

The committee members later surveyed the site in preparation for the ground breaking ceremony.

[ The site for the Bodhi Park project at Seksyen U12, Shah Alam, Selangor D.E.]

[Goh Seng Chai briefing Ven Saranankara at the project site]

Bodhi Park - Rejoice

July 20th will be a significant day for all of us who hold in confidence the sanctity of the constitution that guarantees religious freedom for all. That will be the day the ground breaking ceremony will be held for Bodhi Park (http://www.bodhipark.org/.), a project by the Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia to build a Buddhist centre in Shah Alam.

This project was delayed for 16 long years due to problems in securing a fair and reasonable development order from the State government of Selangor. The approval process went through the doors of at least four Menteri Besar's, many State Secretaries and heads of Shah Alam local authority, now known as Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam. Politicians from state and national level were approached to assist YBBM in solving this ridiculously long overdue issue. Not forgetting those who took the opportunity to create publicity and political mileage for themselves in the press.

The development order without any limitation on the height of the temple was finally approved on 24 April 2008. The earlier approval on 31 July 2005 had limited the height of the temple to 30 feet and two storey which the Bodhi Park building committee had rejected and submitted an appeal.

Just in case some people might have the assumption that the final approval was given by the new state government, let it be known that the preliminary approval was already in place on 4 March 2008, four days before the 12th General Election. In the many months before the general election there are already many behind the scenes efforts by the Bodhi Park Building Committee led by Goh Seng Chai to obtain the final approval. Meetings after meetings, telephone calls and short message services with political leaders from MCA and Gerakan were some of the efforts put in to get the project moving.

Those who strongly believes in the freedom of religious practice and building our respective places of worship might tend to raise these questions. If there is religious freedom why the need to go through so much difficulty and unnecessary obstacles in building a temple of our choice? Why the need to go through politicians to solve this issue when this is an administrative matter?

There is a need of a policy which clearly states the right of every religious community to build and manage their places of worship as per the nation's constitution and not at the discretion of politicians and narrow-minded civil servants. A law must be enacted to deter any person or persons from taking any measures, directly or indirectly, that will hinder the development of legally constituted places of worship. Those who flout this law should be charged in the court of law for dishonouring the nation's constitution.

All are welcome to rejoice the occasion of the ground breaking ceremony at 9:00am, 20 July 2008 at the site, No. 1A Persiaran Serai Wangi, Seksyen U12, 40170 Shah Alam. A Devotion of Lights and the chanting of Parittas by the members of Maha Sangha will be held on Saturday, 19 July 2008 at the site at 08:00pm.

A Buddhist Wedding

Wah lang lai kiong hee sin neoh kar sin neoh koh.

Well, that was "lets us together congratulate the bride and the groom" in Hokkien. Last night I was asked to lead the toast during the wedding dinner of my juniors from UKM, Sim Keong and Phaik Loo. Since both the bride and groom families and many of their close friends speaks the Hokkien dialect, it will be more "culturally correct" to use Hokkien on top of English and Mandarin.

After been together for many years, Sim Keong and Phaik Loo decided to join the married club. Earlier in the morning they had a Buddhist wedding ceremony that was consecrated and blessed by the Chief Adhikarana Nayaka Maha Thera of Malaysia, Most Venerable B. Saranankara at the Chempaka Buddhist Lodge.

It was a very a meaningful and spiritually enveloped Buddhist wedding with the presence of the Maha Sangha, relatives and many kalyana mitras (spiritual friends), mostly from our former university. As a Buddhist couple, it is very encouraging indeed to have wedding vows in front of the Buddha and members of the Sangha to begin their new chapter of life.

For a married couple, the support for each other as the closest kalyana mitra in walking the path of the Buddha is a requisite in developing a Dhamma-based Buddhist family.

Both of them are indeed blessed to have so many family members and spiritual friends to rejoice, help and support them in planning and organising the Buddhist wedding and the dinner.

Anyway, other than those in the above thirties, I am not sure whether those younger ones understands those words I spoke in Hokkien. Are we gonna miss the dialect in 50 years time?

Hokkien lang teoh ai kong hokkien wah. Kiong hee kiong hee knor eh sin lang. Lu lang ai hor hor cho lang! (Hokkiens need to speaks Hokkien dialect. Congratulation to the newly wed. Both of you need to be/make good people!)

I will be awaiting for the next round of Buddhist wedding of my kalyana mitras who are still undecided. (Those who are reading this and knows I directed to you, if you act fast I will be your Hokkien toast master!)

Two sides of history

The school project requires the primary school students to write about the history of Melaka and my son duly asked for my help. He is seeking for a book on history of Melaka as a reference. I asked him to pick a specific book from my collection in the book shelves. That particular book was one of the reference I used during my studies in university many years ago.

It is a good reference on history of Malaysia and the authors had updated it since then. The book , "A History of Malaysia" by Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Y. Andaya was published by Macmillan Press Ltd.

Being a history buff and a degree in History, for sure I was very happy to help out my son for his school history project. What happens next was something unexpected from a primary school kid. After he read some parts of the book I picked for him, he commented that the facts in the Andaya book is inaccurate and not the same as what he read in his school books!

I was startled initially but then I told him, in reality it was the facts in his school books which is misleading!

This is serious matter and not a small matter indeed especially when there are people who is still insisting the country's independence was fought by only one particular race and other than the Malays, all Malaysians are pendatang or immigrants!

Many people has the tendency to assumed that Malaysia's history started from Melaka since 1400 and this had also gives credence to those who linked the starting point of Malay history with the beginning of the Melaka Sultanate. Factually this is arguable. The Andayas wrote in the book mentioned above,

"But Melaka's rise from a quiet fishing village to a world-renowned emporium and centre of Malay culture cannot be explained unless one realizes that behind the splendour of its court and vigour of its commerce lay traditions of government and trade which had evolved over centuries. The story of Malaysia does not therefore begin at Melaka but stretches back deep into the past. An examination of Melaka's heritage provides not only the context essential for an understanding of later events but throws up themes which continue to be relevant as Malaysian history unfolds."

If certain people intentionally re-intepret and re-writes history with the purpose of glorifying their own kind and at the same time denies other people's contribution and historical background with this country, it will be a sad day indeed for our nation building process and more than 50 years of nationhood.

Changing lifestyle, what's next?

Its about a month now since the last petrol and diesel monstrous price hike. The man in the streets lifestyles already changed but I am not so sure about those in the corridors of power or those power maker wannabes.

Last few weeks has been a economically and socially challenged indeed. I will leave politically challenged aside to those politicians with their stage shows or sandiwara.

I was shopping around for new household items and the usual statements from the shops sales people or shop towkays or '"seetaopor" (wife of the boss) is," You better buy or order now or the price of these items will increased next month." Some even showed me circulars from their suppliers on the impending price increase from 1 July onwards. So being the usual "kiasu" or should it be "kialiau", deposits were paid to put caveat on the "old price" for those desired items.

On the other hand, the petrol price increased had also socially challenged those who seek out donors for their fund raising projects. It is getting tougher nowadays to ask for donations for our community projects. My children's school PTA which was raising funds to pay the balance owed to the contractor that built the school hall and auditorium were hard pressed to sell tickets for the 600 seats musical show at the new auditorium. The show was presented by the acclaimed Dama Orchestra featuring lead singer Tan Soo Suan. Understanding the current financial climate, I just couldn't hard sell the tickets to my friends.

Another fund raising project which I was involved also faced the similar trend, the donors are just not taking out their wallets as easier as last time. The increasing cost of living already affected the generosity of Malaysians in supporting community and welfare projects. I can't deny this may also due to people already contributed to the disaster funds linked to the Szechuan earthquake in China and the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.

With the petroleum price per barrel still increasing, greater challenge is still awaiting all the men in the streets. At the end of the day, no one will bothers who sodomized who; or who will be the PM; whether a politician wife watched a girl blown away by C-4; who will be the president of which party; who is snooping at who; whether a pu'er tea is better than whisky; to wear or not to wear the songkok and et cetera et cetera.

The question lingering in many heads nowadays is, how can we manage the rising cost of living?