PRU 13

Sudah cukup lama saya tidak membuat entri dalam blog ini. Cuti sabbatical yang agak lama tetapi tanpa penghasilan ilmiah yang boleh dibanggakan. Sejak entri terakhir, berbagai perkara telah berlalu dalam hidup saya. Terasa rugi kerana tidak merekodkan peristiwa-peristiwa penting ini.

Salah satu matlamat asal membangun blog ini ialah untuk mengabadikan peristiwa dalam hidup saya yang tidak signifikan ini untuk dijadikan sempadan oleh anak-anak dan cucu-cucu pada masa saya tiada lagi didunia ini nanti. Ketiadaan entri buat beberapa bulan pasti mencacatkan "sequence of events" dalam hidup saya. Tetapi mungkin juga ia memberi kelonggaran pada pembaca dimasa hadapan untuk mencorak cerita saya mengikut selera dan fahaman mereka.

Ah..saya telah tersasar jauh dari tajuk entri. Ini pastinya bukti yang saya perlu mula rajin menulis kembali kerana banyak yang ingin dikongsi. Kembali kepada tajuk (mengapa perlu kembali kerana saya belum lagi kesitu sebenarnya). Pagi tadi saya mendapat panggilan dari guru sekolah anak saya yang bongsu (sebenarnya mereka telah menjadi sahabat saya bukan lagi guru kepada anak saya). Dia berkata bahawa dia dan beberapa kawan-kawan yang juga guru disekolah yang sama dalam perjalanan menghadiri taklimat pengurusan pusat mengundi. Adakah ini bermakna PRU 13 akan diadakan semasa cuti penggal akan datang, hujung Mei dan awal Jun? Saya rasa begitu kerana lagi lambat ia di adakan lagi bersedia pasukan dari Pakatan Rakyat. Oleh itu eloklah kita bersedia untuk berubah. Usaha dari setiap mereka yang ingin melihat perubahan kearah kebaikan di negara ini amat penting.

This is the time for change. We cannot afford to wait any longer. Let us start by recruiting one new Pakatan supporter each. Semoga usaha kita diberkati oleh Yang Maha Esa.

Hari Raya terakhir

Bersama Haizir pada Hari Raya 2010


Aidilfitri 1431H merupakan Hari Raya terakhir buat Busu Jalil, suami kepada adik bongsu arwah ibu saya, Busu Lijah. Busu Jalil telah kembali keRahmah Allah pada hari Isnin 22 Ogos 2011 bersamaan 22 Ramadhan 1432H. Allahyarham memang telah lama tidak sihat dan sering keluar dan masuk hospital.

Minggu lepas, sepupu saya memaklumkan kepada saya bahawa Busu Jalil tidak sihat dan berada dirumah anak beliau di Kajang. Saya yang dalam kesibukan (bila agaknya kita tidak sibuk?)tidak sempat menziarah beliau. Malah saya beranggapan akan dapat bertemu beliau semasa Hari Raya yang tinggal tidak berapa hari lagi. Saya sebenarnya lupa bahawa ketentuan Allah tidak mengambil kira perancangan kita.

Akhirnya saya cuma sempat menziarah jenazah beliau pada hari Selasa, 23 Ogos 2011. Syukur juga saya sempat berbuat demikian walaupun terpaksa berhenti dua kali dalam perjalanan Kuala Lumpur ke Melaka dan sekali dalam perjalanan pulang kerana terlalu mengantuk.

AlFatihah untuk Busu Jalil. Semoga dipermudahkan jalan bertemu Pencipta.

A small part of Dubai in Pictures

Uncle Didi commented in my earlier post why there there was no photos of Dubai. So here goes.

Burj Khalifa (in the background), presently the tallest building in the world

A giant aquarium in Dubai Mall, purportedly the largest mall in the Middle East or was it the world?

Another image of the aquarium

In an area called the "Gold Souq" where there were numerous jewellery shops

A waterfall in the Mall

This was what I had for Iftar in my hotel room

One of the mosques that I went to for my tarawikh prayers

Inside the mosque, after prayers

Outside view of the mosque

The hotel where I stayed in Dubai

At the restaurant where we normally had our Iftar

With my hosts at Iftar

At our Principal's office

Sunrise as seen from the plane just before reaching KLIA

Dubai was too hot when I was there. As such, I only left my hotel when going to the office for my meetings except for the one day that I went to Dubai Mall.

First Ramadhan in Dubai

It is the first of Ramadhan 1432Hijri and I am in my room at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai. I arrived yesterday, Sunday, 31 July 2011 for a meeting which was scheduled to take place today. The meeting was however rescheduled for tomorrow as my colleague from Beirut will only arrive later today. Travelling from Lebanon, he needs a visa but being Malaysian, we can just hop onto a plane from KLIA and get into Dubai with no questions asked.

The temperature outside is more than 40C, so I have no intention of walking around in the heat. This trip reminded me of my first trip to Dubai in 2004. I arrived at around 2:00am and the flight captain announced upon our arrival that the outside temperature was 42 degrees C. It really caught me by surprise as I was in a jacket.

Initially I thought I would go to the office for a while today but later decided to do some work in the room instead. The office hours in our Principal's office in Dubai during Ramadhan is between 10:00 am and 3:00pm. Maybe they need the short hours as the temperatures can be uncomfortable.

My hosts have promised to take me to a good Lebanese restaurant for iftar today and I am looking forward to that. Since the restaurant is part of their group, we always have good food and service.

Have a good Ramadhan and May we be Blessed.

For heaven's sake......please

It is really going to happen. UiTM is going to have an award named after PERKASA's founder, Ibrahim Ali.

Now, I have always had high regards for the graduates of UiTM. In fact I recruited a few of them in my company and they are a credit to the university. Of all the local universities, I think UiTM produces graduates who have the best English proficiency. Closer to home, my wife and daughter were the products of UiTM. Presently my son and a few of his cousins are studying in UiTM campuses all over the country.

To name an award after maybe the most racist Malay in the country is definitely not sending the right message. I feel it is a disgrace to the esteem institution. I am very sure the winner of the award will not be employed by any private company without a political agenda which is in line with the present government. So why would anybody accept an award if it is going to be a liability?

To my son and his cousins, I have this to say:

"For heaven's sake please make sure you do not win this award because it is going to be detrimental to you"

Peristiwa 25 Jun 2011

Sudah beberapa minggu berlalunya peristiwa yang sangat bersejarah bagi keluarga kami. Hari berlangsungnya majlis resepsi sempena perkahwinan anak sulung kami Nurlina bersama pasangannya Zarizi.

Banyak perkara yang berlaku sebelum dan sesudah peristiwas tersebut. Saya bercita-cita untuk membuat beberapa entri mengenai peristiwa ini tetapi masih belum tercapai.

Untuk permulaan saya memuatnaik satu video yang diambil oleh adik ipar saya, Tuan Haji Zahidi.

Terima kasih Pak Ngah.

Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah

News from Malaysiakini
4 July 2011

Seventeen Malacca PAS leaders and members have been remanded for three days while they are being investigated under Section 47 of the Societies Act for possession of Bersih T-shirts.

The 17 arrested yesterday at around 2.15pm included state PAS Youth chief Yuhaizad Abdullah, PAS' Jasin division information chief Fauzi Maelah and 15 other party members.

Malacca PAS commissioner Adly Zahari told Malaysiakini about 50 PAS members were engaging in normal activities at Kemendur, Jasin about that time yesterday, when some decided to go back while others stayed behind.

"Those who stayed behind waited for the afternoon prayers and then suddenly 20 policemen raided the markas. The police found some Bersih t-shirts and leaflets. The members do not know how the t-shirts happened to be there and they were certainly not selling them.

"Nevertheless, the police arrested them and are investigating them under Section 47 for being in an unlawful organisation," he said.

Party premises crashed by police

Though yesterday's event was a closed door affair, the authorities raided the PAS premises, Adly said, adding that several women were arrested but later released by the authorities.

"It seems the authorities are phobic over the Bersih rally, but I have to stress here they were neither promoting the rally or selling the T-shirts at that time," he said.

Their lawyer Damian Yeo said the arrest took place around 12.30pm yesterday, according to the police.

"The police also recorded statements from all 17 of them between 5pm to 7pm and, hence, we are puzzled why they need to remand them further. I objected to the police applying to remand them further," he said.

Adly said police applied for four days' remand, but the magistrate only granted three days.

Yeo said those remanded are between 30 and 72 years-old and they will be remanded until Wednesday July 6.

Ya Allah Ya Tuhan kami, Kau berilah kemudahan kepada saudara kami yang teranianya dan kau hancurkan mereka yang menzaliminya.

This post is dedicated to my brother-in-law who was among those arrested.

UPDATE:
I received news from my sister that my brother-in-law and his 16 friends were released by the police today (6 July) without them being charged. I think there are about 30-40 voters within my immediate family. It is my believe that, after this recent incident, at least 95%, if not 100% of these voters will vote against those who are responsible for my brother-in-laws's detention.