Category: Daily Whatevers

So much has been said by many parties about the Causeway/Bridge fiasco. The latest salvo was unleashed by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the PM’s Department against former PM, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. My father’s written about it several weeks ago in one of Sunday Star’s editions. Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Khoo Kay Kim has also spoken about it. Some people asked me what I thought of the whole issue.

To me, the question of building half a bridge on our side and then connecting it to the present causeway on Singapore’s half should not be a problem to us Malaysians. I don’t see any legal issues there as far as International Relations goes. As long as the Malaysian side can guarantee that Singapore’s water supply from Johor is not affected. We are not asking the Singaporeans to play along and build their half to match ours, for God’s sake! I’m sure had the bridge been built, it would have helped alleviate some of the traffic flow problems the causeway is notoriously known for. When the Singaporeans reclaimed part of the straits that would have put the Royal Malaysian Navy’s recruit training center at Tanjung Pengelih, and the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in jeopardy, did Singapore bat an eyelid when we protested? No. I don’t think so. Why? It was perfectly within their jurisdiction to do whatever they please within the confines of their national boundary. So why should it have affected us had we continue to build the half-bridge?

To me, the only sound the Singaporeans would make would be due to economic and military interest. First, coastal traders from the west coast no longer have to sail through Singapore’s southern waters to get to the east coast. That may also help boost coastal trading between the east and west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Secondly, a causeway is a more solid channel for Singaporean tanks to get to Segamat in the case of hostilities with Malaysia. A bridge would have been easier to be blown up in the event of hostilities.

Maybe we are all still half-past-six…

Saw this boat as I was walking back to Nazri 2. The owner must have once been so proud to own this boat. Now, as you can see, it is sunset for this boat…

That is how love and life is for us too…

Very stormy day today…

Storms will come, I’m sure…but tell me can you stand the rain?

10 years ago I participated as an exhibitor of this exhibition…at that time trying to sell a GPS-tracking and fleet management system that is made in Malaysia (which was why no Malaysians found it interesting…but Hughes Satellites was very interested to know how we got the accuracy then in 1996).

By the way, it has been a fruitful visit, met lots of old friends, both from the Air Force and the Army (still serving as very senior officers, and those who like me, are somewhat still serving the King). I’ve found one half of what I was searching for and found and extra interesting thing.

Let’s see what I can do with these infos.

Tun Ghafar Baba passed away this morning. He was 81 years old. He was the Deputy Prmie Minister of Malayisa from 1986 to 1993 when he was challenged by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim fot the UMNO’s Deputy President’s post and subsequebtly lost to the latter.

When Anwar was sacked from UMNO in September 1998, Ghafar was seen going around giving speeches and although many thought he would return to mainstream politics, he never made his mark as Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah could.

Although his life towards the end was shrouded in some personal controversies, Malaysians should remember him for his deeds as his political life spanned both pre-independence and post-independence.

This picture of me landing at the North Pole was taken 8 years ago (21st April 1998 at 1.48am), and made me the 3rd Malaysian to land at the North Pole by parachute. I was into my second month of unemployment then as the company had to cease operations due to the Asian economic crisis.

8 years later I am in no better position…

Today I had had two good meetings on the same issue with the core members of the project group. However, one bad news came in at the end of the working day. Though it’s not over yet but the attitude of certain people is now the same as one systems integrator we worked with two years ago…and that has given me some thoughts as to what kind of game plan they’re playing. I can guess and some of those guesses have gone smack on the mark.

Let’s see how the world spins…on its own, or as I will it to?

Songkran festival originates from the Dtai people who still live in Northern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The word Songkran originates from the Pali language of the Buddhist scriptures. In Pali the word is Sankhara. In Sanskrit it is called Sankranti, which was later changed to Sangkran (Thai), and later to Songgran (Thai pronunciation) and Songkran(Thai spelling). It refers to the movement of the sun from one zodiac to another (Aries to Taurus).

The festival stretches over 4 days:

April 13th – Wan Sangkhan Long: People clean their houses and prepare for the new year festival on this day.

April 14th – Wan Nao: On Wan Nao people prepare cooked and preserved food to be used in Buddhist merit making on the next day.

April 15th – Wan Payawan: On this, the first day of the new year, people gathered at the wat in the early morning to offer the food prepared the previous day, fruit, new robes, and other goods to the monks. Traditionally this was the day when subdued water play started, but this has devolved to the exuberant water throwing that stretches over the four days of the festival.

April 16th – Wan Park Bpee: On this day people pay respect to their ancestors, elders, or people worthy of respect due to advanced age or position. Scented water is poured over the hands of the individuals being paid respect who in turn bless the participants in the ceremony.

In the past people might sprinkle a bit of scented water on your shoulder to wish you a happy new year, but this has deteriorated to getting dowsed with a bucket of ice water by an individual on the back of a moving pickup truck.

One of the memories of the Langkawi deployment two years ago was this installation trip at the top of the Alor Setar Tower. The wind was extremely strong that day, and I remember catching this spout that came from a large storm cell and almost touched down. Luckily it dissipated before it could touch down.

That’s me (taking a photo of Alice who was taking a photo of us) on the left, Rozamin (a very loyal soldier who used to be under my command twice when I was inthe Air Force), and Muaazam.

Sweet memories…of good times.

Should have pondered on this issue some time ago…