Tiong Lai, please recites the Ratana Sutta

As of today the influenza A H1N1 flu pandemic already claimed 71 lives throughout the country. What is the Ministry of Health up to? The whole country is getting worried day by day and national day parades has been called off or down graded to a smaller scale. It won't be surprising if parents of school children will take the initiative to self declare an extended school holidays for their beloved children.

Did the Health Ministry authorities made a big blunder and ill advised the minister from taking a more proactive action during the initial stage of the flu attack on this country? Flip-flop decisions were made on the roles of the reference hospitals for the H1N1 to the prescription of the Tamilflu drugs. Something is not right somewhere with the top decision makers in the ministry.

Since these guys are already drained of any new measure to eradicate this flu, please paused a while and look upon alternative intervention in the form of divine power.

During the Buddha's time a city by the name of Vesali was afflicted with famine and thence causing death to many people. The huge number of death bodies from the famine causes a epidemic. The people from the city then seek help from the Buddha who was residing at Rajagaha.

The Buddha recited the Ratana Sutta to Venerable Ananda who then went around Vesali with the people of Licchavi doing the same. The city was finally cleared of the plague and all evil spirits roaming the city were excorcised.

If Health minister Liow Tiong Lai do not have anymore ideas or is not getting the right advise from his advisers and top officials to address this pandemic, I think it is time for him to visit a Buddhist temple and recite the Ratana Sutta (Jewel Discourse) together with the Buddhist community to eradicate this killer disease. - Loka

Chinese bogeyman

No matter what the political divides are saying about each other, the signs and voices on the ground is telling the same thing. The rakyat is still supporting whichever party they supported during last year's general election.

With the Permatang Pasir result showing PAS candidate winning the by-election with a similiar percentage point of votes casts, the score is now 7-1 in favour of Pakatan Rakyat after eight by-elections since March 2008. With another two by-elections looming in Kedah and possibly one in Selangor, the stage fight for political supremacy and face saving antics in showdowns between rival parties will be an open show for all, albeit a stressful and frustrated one for the people.

As usual there will a bogeyman in the fight for this political war between Najib's Umno and Anwar's led PKR/Pakatan Rakyat. It it very clear all this by-elections are the platform for ring fights between Najib in one corner and Anwar on the other for the coveted premiership. Other parties are merely ring side supporters. As usual the bogeyman role will be specially alloted to the Chinese community. The losing candidate from Umno already spelt it out in his statement after his trouncing by the PAS candidate in Permatang Pasir. He blamed his loss on the Chinese voters for not voting him.

Since the self declared Chinese "taikor" MCA is in shambles now where internal fire is gutting the Wisma MCA, it won't be too long the party will go through another round of party war between two factions. When the MCA is in state of uncertainty, the vultures and hawks in Umno will strike when the water is still muddy by maneuvering the departure of MCA leaders whom they think are not submissive to Umno bullying and arrogant attitude.

Signs are there to lead to the unseen hand of Umno's meddling in the MCA affairs. One of it is by not defending or even supporting the Transport minister who is also MCA president Ong Tee Keat handling of the PKFZ fiasco. Even the appointment of MCA deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek, who is at logger head with Tee Keat, as the specially created BN coordinator position is an attempt to slap Tee Keat's face in front of all BN component party leaders.

Whatever it is, knowing Tee Keat's strong stance in pursuing any controversial issue as matter of principle and accountability, I suspect that he will be able to survive this round of onslaughts from all corners. The worst kind of all betrayals is when he is stabbed on the back by his own comrades. Another round has just begun when six divisions in Perak demanded for his suspension as party president and minister.

Chinese politics especially in MCA has a history of periodic party upheavals where a line is drawn between two rival factions. MCA may be able to survive from the possibility of the party splitting into two where one group lead a mass departure of members from the party to form another. While the party may be intact after the storm, the same cannot be said about the Chinese community whom MCA self declared as their saviour and protector.

Time has changed. MCA may be able to stay intact after an internal strife, but the grassroot support from the Chinese would have shifted to DAP or even PKR for good. A point of no return. There will be no winners in MCA internal struggle, just losers left to lick their wounds and their pride. - Loka

Where is the land title?

Since the Pakatan Rakyat took over the Selangor state government March last year, about 70 lots of land were approved to non-Muslims to build their places of worship by the Jawatankuasa Hal Ehwal Selain Islam Negeri Selangor.

This should be welcome by all as it provides the non-Muslims more space to perform their religious obligations and study of their own religion. The reality is not what it seems to be as the actual issuance of the land title to the respective applicants has not been done yet, not even for a single piece of land approved by the committee. It seems that all the necessary paper work and documentation were collecting dust at the district land office.

After the committee approved the religious land application, the district land office are responsible to prepare the necessary documentation for the State Executive Council meeting for approval. Once the State Exco approves the application, the documentation will be reverted back to the district land office for the process of getting all the documents ready. Once it is done, the applicant will be asked to pay the nominal premium for that piece of land. After the premium is paid, the district office will take the necessary action to issue the land title to the applicant.

The delay in getting the land title issued for the non-religious groups are creating uneasy feelings amongst them. It is hope the state government will take the necessary action to buck up the land office to provide a more speedier delivery system. Any delay in issuing the land title will not be a good reflection on the performance of the state government.

The Pakatan Rakyat government wouldn't want the rakyat to think that all the current actions are done half heartedly and have to wait until the next general election for the land title to be presented in front of the press as an election gimmick! If this is really the underlying intention, what's the difference between Pakatan Rakyat with the previous government? - Loka

p/s - Even after the land title is issued, the temple/vihara/church/kuil will still have to go through another process after getting their building plans approve by all the relevant authorities which sometimes will take more than a year!

RM500 million for all

After waiting for an apology that did not materialised, at last Ong Tee Keat is suing KDSB boss Tiong King Sing for half a billion ringgit for claiming that he (Tiong) had donated RM10 million to Tee Keat for MCA's activities. Tee Keat had denied that the so-called contribution took place and gave Tiong one week to withdraw his claims or he will sue for defamation.

If Tiong is found guilty and Tee Keat awarded the damages to the tune of half a billion ringgit, many groups will benefit from this suit as Tee Keat already committed to donate the money to charity and education purposes if he wins the suit. Hmmm... all those looking forward for a slice of the half a billion ringgit should holds prayers service for Tee Keat so that he can win the case and distribute the award money to the people.

On the other hand, if Tiong wants to show one upmanship against Ong and seek public goodwill, maybe he should also declare that if he manage to overturn the suit by Tee Keat, he will also be allocating RM1 billion to be contributed to all the Chinese schools in the country in annual instalments until 2050. Considering the value of the PKFZ contract and probable claims and income until year 2050, it should not be a difficult task.

The only question is, in the eyes of the public who is the better bet to win the case and who the public will believe to be more truthful and trustworthy in taking care of the community needs without expecting any favours in return.

Can the schools and welfare organizations submit their application for their share now since the donation will be coming from the same source! - Loka

Nation's day

As of today the national flag is still not fluttering outside the house. Motorists and passers-by has not been taking a second look at the "patriotic" house. The flag has not been raised not because of the haze or the influenza A H1N1 pandemic that is already creating fear amongst the populace. It's not that the householder do not have any free flags from the government. The old but decent looking national flag is still in the drawer. Waiting for the owner to pick it up and raise on the pole tied to the front gate.


Is the national day will be around the corner soon? Not sure about you all but it seems the country is too pre-occupied with other matters. It's not that the people do not love the country or are patriotic, it is just that there are too much things in their head to think and worry about.



H1N1 is now a more popular and widely spoken word in the country compared to "merdeka". People will be jostling for free face mask(if there is any distributed) rather than miniature national flags.Even if they obtained the free miniature flag, people might modified it into a face mask. Why not? Two-in-one package. One can be patriotic and protects oneself from the dreaded H1N1 infection at the same time.



Take a look at the main stream media, online news portal and blogs, many other popular words that can seen easily nowadays includes corruption, by-election, politician and prosecution. The people are facing an onslaught of these words because those in the political circles are so pre-occupied with all these things. At the end of the day it seems there is one word which they uncharacteristically forgotten - the nation.




The people need to take initiative to shake them out from this slumber and remind them that the people and nation should come first and foremost. People first should not be just a slogan on billboards or television jingles. If the powers that be do not take the nation as the priority, all these slogans and lip service will be just like the recently launched Touch "N" Go cards, it will a hot item initially, but once the pre-loaded value is fully utilized, the card will be of no use if you do not load it again.



The flag is already hoisted on the top floor of house and I am proud to remember the birth and spirit of the nation. - Loka