Month: May 2008

UMNO revealed a new anthem yesterday during the celebration of its 62nd anniversary. In his speech, Pak Lah as party president asked every member to fight for the cause of not only the malays, but of the other races as well.

Timely? I don’t think. But it is better late than never. This statement is applicable to all political parties and politicians.

Politicians represent their respective political party when they are with the party. They put forward the party’s ideology, and in the manner of direct selling, the one who sells better, gets more customers. Political parties, like multi-level marketing or direct-selling companies, have to sell their product (ideas). The only difference is the winning political party gets to form a government, be it at state or the federal level. Once they form a government, then they no longer represent a party, but they become the servants of, not just those who elected them, but also those who live within the jurisdiction of their executive powers. I purposely added the word ‘executive’ there to remind all that that is all the power does. To execute the mandate and trust of the people; not to become powerful.

Pak Lah talks about the relevance of UMNO to the malays; to me Pak Lah is still in a state of denial, that is my humble opinion. Many of the malays who form a bulk of UMNO members, and those who voted for UMNO, voted against UMNO during the last general elections. Sincerely, Pak Lah has to step down. There should not be any talk of power transfer to a deputy. Let the party members decide that. Pak Lah should remember that the central working committee and the members of the working committee, are all administering the party on behalf of the members: the party is not some monarchical institution where democracy does not exist – and denigrating those who do not conform to the “norm” or “mainstream” should not be allowed in the party. It is better, as I have been saying since 2004, for me and other non-conformists to dissent within the party, than to do so without. But dissenting does not mean one is against the party; it only means that as a member of the party, I exercise my democratic right to speak out – and that my views should be looked at seriously, not in the negative manner, not to be scoffed, but to be taken in point to be included in the whole general discussion.

Today, YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Pulau Pinang, has announced that a senior Penang UMNO member, have agreed to hold an office as appointed by the State Government. Seriously, like in the case of former VP of Gerakan, Datuk Lee Kah Choon, this should not be looked at negatively. One of the reason people vote is for the betterment of things – improving of things, a better way of life. I fail to understand why did the leadership of the BN, Gerakan in particular, had to view this appointment so negatively. When the BN had the chance to play a role, to be represented in a state it lost badly, it chose to remain incalcitrant and become a sore loser, by asking Kah Choon to toe the line or face party punishment. Kah Choon probably thought of the best for the people of Penang and carried on with accepting the appointment, and had to resign from Gerakan in order to be able to work.

Let me just ask a question: what about those thousands of BN supporters, office holders, who now work in the various state governments’ agencies, especially in those 5 states now controlled by PR? Do they have to give up their job? Or should they, too, resign from the party?

Wake up! If we want to serve the people, it doesn’t matter where or on which platform, as long as there is a legitimate platform where we can channel aid and development to the people at large. Working with a PR-held government does not mean that you are a traitor to the party. You are only a traitor if you leave your party and join the opposition, or if you work with the opposition against your party. We must always recognise that the states’ government of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor, are all chosen by the people. Now that they are there, they no longer represent the party, as the people have chosen them to work for the people. The government is by the people, for the people – if you have forgotten historical quotes that is.

Pak Lah should really go. Now…not later. Let members of the party decide the path the party should take, and whether rehabilitation of the party is to take place, it should be decided by its members. How can there be talk of succession when party elections is around the corner? It can only mean that people, the party presidents and the sycophants have refused to acknowledge reality, and is still of want of power to cling on to. Why?

I cringed when I cast my votes on March 8th; luckily for me, my candidates of choice are all from MCA, knowing that if the BN won then, certain buffoons and their cohorts would be gloating and bragging even more.

In a way, I am glad BN got the punishing, and those chosen to administer UMNO (they are not leaders – they are just administrators as given in a proviso of the UMNO constitution) on behalf of its members have only themselves to be blamed – not the party members.

MPs, ADUNs – you are our servants. You jump when we tell you to.

Don’t you ever forget that!

Piss

Peeing: the act of excreting urine from the body system.

There is that sense of relief once urine has been passed. You no longer have that added urgency that was suddenly added into your routine, and almost always at critical times. Alan Shepard Jr had had to pee in his spacesuit after his first flight into space was delayed by some technical uncertainties. Adult diapers were not there yet for NASA’s astronauts to use.

How many of you have peed in your pants or knickers after the age of 18?

Oh, own up, people!

There was a time when I almost peed in my pants. This was in Hong Kong, and I was caught in the channel tunnel in my limo heading out from the island towards my hotel in Kowloon, on the mainland; and I had just had 16 mugs of pure orange juice sans ice without going to the toilet. After lunch, I went back to my hotel in Kowloon via the channel tunnel that links Hong Kong island to Kowloon on the mainland – and was caught in lunch-hour traffic. I remember struggling to tell my body to hold back that 16 mugs of fresh orange juice firmly in the bladder. After 20 minutes I began to wonder if the driver could smell my urine if I peed inside the limo. Common sense prevailed and I held on, agonisingly, and ran straight to the hotel’s washroom at the lobby without closing the limo door.

Holding back your pee can be disastrous if you suffer from Rhinitis like I do. There I was, rushing to the gents. As I stood in front of the urinal and fingers fumbling with the zipper, the sudden change in temperature from cold to warm, caused me to sneeze. KABOOM! Wet the front of my pants a bit.

Peeing can also be painful. I had had my renal stones removed via a procedure called Ureteroscopy. Basically, it is an intrusive procedure. First, after knocking you out with General Anaesthetic, they stick a guide wire through the dick’s little hole, through the urethra and into the ureter. Then they stick in a Ureteroscope and grasp the smaller stones into a basket, and pull them out of the ureter. For the bigger stone, they actually used electrohydraulic lithotripsy. Sounds complicatingly technical? You must wonder how on earth can all that go through the dick’s opening. Well, at least someone knows why my dick’s girth is big la.

So why is that painful? When I came to, I had the biggest headache, I was disorientated because of the after effects of a GA, and because of all that water that was pumped into my bladder, I felt like I wanted to pee. My lower back ached like hell. I stood by the toilet bowl and tried to pee. Initially, there was nothing. Then there was a kind of blowback, maybe because of the Double-J stent they had left inside my ureter to keep it from swelling shut after the procedure. Imagine all that urine blowing back inside…painful! Then as it passes through the urinary tract, down to the dick, the dick already had cuts inside…arrghh…burning sensation…then I hold my urine back…another blowback. And it wasn’t just urine. Because of the wound, I was also peeing blood…lots of it. Frothing blood filled the toilet bowl, and I was moaning in pain, my hands squeezed whatever I could grab hold of, just to overcome the excruciating pain. For more than a week I was peeing blood.

Two weeks after the procedure, they repeated the process to remove the Double-J stent. Painful…painful. At least someone’s benefiting from the pain I had to go through. Hahaha!

And if you are in a public area, like a mall, do carry enough coins with you to pay for ‘toilet fee’. I had one 20-sen coin and thought it was enough for me. Then when my bladder was threatening to burst, I rushed to the mall’s toilet, only to be refused entry by the Indon female gatekeeper because the fee was 30 sen. God! I did not realise that inflation has caused not only petrol and essential goods prices to go up, but the cost to take a leak as well? As I argued with this Indon, a fellow Indon male and two Bangla male colleagues of hers decided to turn up with menacing look on their faces. They looked a bit like that poster from the movie ‘Pendekar Bujang Lapok’ where Pendekar Mustar, Sudin, Ajis and Ramlee walked towards the camera in unison to confront Ahmad Nesfu and his cohorts. I wasn’t going to be bothered over a fee that costs ‘3 kupang’ (30 sen in Perakian), nor was I going to pee laughing looking at their facial expression.

So I rushed for the stairwell and peed behind the fire-resistant door. Those bujang lapoks can always mop the floor after.

At least I got to pee for free…