Common Mistakes during Ramadhan

Ramadhan Kareem!

Let's share some of my observation about common mistakes made by us during this blessed month for us to improve the quality of our ibadah during this beautiful month:

1) We put fasting (siam) higher than prayer (solah)
We can abstain ourselves from eating, drinking & having sexual intercourse during the day yet at the same time 85% of us are not performing the prayer.

2) We chase the non-obligatory (sunat) ibadah while neglecting the obligatory (wajib) ibadah
We race to reach the mosque in time for tarawih but could not be bothered to stop by mosque for our obligatory 5-time-a-day solah.

 3) We are so pumped-up during early Ramadhan but eventually fade out before the end of Ramadhan
During the first week of Ramadhan, mosque is overflowing but what happen during last week of Ramadhan?

4) We spend excessively during Ramadhan

5) We eat like there is no tomorrow

6) We become lazy & uninspired during the day
During Prophet SAW Muslims are actually going to war but today we can't even fast while competing for meaningless Olympic, what a shame!

May ALLAH grants all of us blessing (Rahmah), forgiveness (Maghfirah) and ultimately free us from hellfire (An-Nar) amen!

EURO 2012

Salaam Jumuuah Mubarakah!

We are now reaching mid point of 2012, how time flies!  With  Ah Jib Gor still can't make up his fickle mind, the election talks are stale now.  So let's talk something more interesting than the color of Big Momma's handbags, the European Championship 2012 @ EURO12.

We have reached the end of EURO12 and the stage is set for Spain and Italy to battle it out for the ultimate price as the King of Europe in three days time.  Before i give my prediction for the final let's give my first XI based on preferred system of 4-4-2 (I'm a traditionalist & nobody really knows how to play "false 9" unless Pep is your manager & Messi is in your team!) ;

Goalkeeper: Casillas
Left Back: Alba
Centre Half: Hummels
Fullback: Pepe
Right Back: Arbeloa
Left Wing: Ronaldo
Defensive Midfielder: Schewieni
Offensive Midfileder: Pirlo
Right Wing: Silva
Forward: Ozil
Forward: Balotelli

Spain:  As a avid Espana supporter i want them to win it all.  But so far they have been boring team which will keep the ball for so looooooong & frustrate the opponents via tiki-taka.  There is no element of surprise in their style of plays & this is boring to watch.  Also Vicente Del Bosque's emphasis on defending make them look like the old fortress Italian team.

Italy:  Italia had been the most outstanding & entertaining team for EURO12.  The old Italian way of building a team with the defense had been successfully discarded by Cesare Prandelli.  With Andrea Pirlo @Steven Tyler's Twin pulling the strings in the middle of the park & Crazy Balatolol keep scoring from impossible angles they are joy to watch. Their style of play makes them the most interesting team to watch.

Result:  Italy will win the final by 2-0 IF Balatolol can keep his cool & be on the field for the entire match!

What can u do with 500K in Malaysia?

Salaam, Jumuah Mubarakah!

Top Ten things u can do with 500K in Malaysia! (dedicated to David Letterman)

1) u can buy 250,000 packet of nice nasi lemak bungkus kosong for rm2 each!
2) u can buy 20 unit of PPRT housing for RM25k a pop!
3) u can buy 10 entry level proton wira 1.5 auto for about rm50k each!
4) u can sponsor about 100 tahfiz students for a year for RM5K per year!
5) u can settle about 3300 speeding summons at rm150 per summons after discount!
6) u can buy 100 kriss modenas for rm5k each!
7) u can buy about 50,000kg of ikang kembung for RM10per kg!
8) u can sponsor about 25 haji & hajjah for about 20K per head!
9) u can buy about 100,000 kg of sawi for about rm5 per kg!
.....and the best thing that u can do with 500k in Malaysia is u can buy a plate number!

Knowledge: The Basis of Islam

"Read, in the name of your Lord who created (all things)" Al-Quran 96:1

Jumuuah Mubarakah! Today let us go back to the root of Islam, knowledge.  The Almighty ALLAH's very first revelation in Quran is read ie to seek knowledge! HE asked all of us to seek knowledge first before anything else.  HE knew that this will be biggest problem faces by Muslims.  Most of us will follow blindly what was being practiced by our forefathers without even understanding the purpose of ibadah.  For example, most of us (myself first & foremost) blindly pray 5 times a day without even understanding what is being recited during our prayers.  Net effect, we pray but still committed multitude of sins due to the fact that we do not understand the very purpose of our prayer. So today, ask ourselves how much do we really know about our own religion?

ps; sorry for one week MIA, just got my new laptop :)

Hanif Omar: Tikus Membaiki Labu

The desperate Najib government announced that ex-IGP, Genting Director, Quran quoting Hanif Omar will be heading a six-man panel to investigate police brutality during BERSIH3.0. My my my what do we have here? An ex top cop investigating the current crop of cops to determine whether police had breached its' duty & acted beyond its' power during that fateful rally.  With all the video evidence on the web, you tube etc why the hell do we need this panel.  Another wayang kulit melayu show with same old story & tok dalang.  Pls spare me the misery!

ps:  i finally have followers, khir 1 & capt amizi ahmad!  thank you & the rest feel free to join thanks!

Rahim Noor: Ex-IGP, Convicted Criminal & now Mufti

Suddenly out of the blue, Rahim Noor the ex-IGP, Anwar's beater, PERKOSA'S patron & convicted criminal came out of his hiding & gave his edict(fatwa) that our beloved Tuan Guru Nik Aziz(TGNA) is the father of non-believers("bapa kafir') for supporting & promoting BERSIH3.0.  So now he's a mufti! Few days before that his old puppet master ("tok dalang''), che det had denounced TGNA as collaborating with Anwar Ibrahim in using BERSIH3.0 to topple democratically elected government.  Yes, only in  Malaysia we can topple a government & all its' might by using yellow shirts, mineral water & salt (maybe pepper will be useful here)!  We know that you a dog & a dog will always obey its' master.  Just please make sure your are obeying the correct master for you'll answerable to HIM on the judgement day not to UMNO, che det or anybody else! Salam!

Fatwa: Irony

So going to the demo to ask for clean elaction is haram but beating defenseless rakyat who are asking for clean election is halal?  this is the problem with islamic clerics when they start pussy footing with the leaders, the corrupt ones that is.  mufti is supposed to give his edict based on what Quran, Hadith & Ijma' agreed upon not what your political masters wanted to hear.  Islam is above & beyond everything! Islam controls its' followers not the other way around.  Also where are these muftis when the corrupt leaders screwing with our money, country and future; PKFZ, NFC, SCORPENE et al!.  Just a word of reminder to the so-called muftis; your size of the brains are not determined by the size of your "serban".  People are watching your words & you better be careful with what you say for your are supposed to the learned ones not the laughing stocks. Salaam!

Henry Butcher Art Auction 2012: Paradox

Salam, sarzosky is gone & his putrajaya submarine buddy will take a dive (pun intended) with him very very soon insyaALLAH amen!  Went to HB Art Auction yesterday & highlight of the day was the late Ibrahim Hussein "Red, Core & Orange" went under the hammer for a new malaysian record of RM725,000 (not inclusive of 10% Buyer's Premium).  Folks, we are talking about people with serious money to burn here & yet at the end of other spectrum we have people who can't even afford to buy painting paper for their kids' art class.  This is a scary prospect.  Yes, there will always be the rich and the poor as ALLAH had pre-ordained everybody before the were born.  But the gap between the have and the have-nots should never this big.  Let's do something about this by giving the opportunity to the new people to take over in next GE.  Have a good week ahead & keep your chain up come what may!

ps: last week the iconic painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch  sold for USD120m in NYC!

My BERSIH2.0: Me & Ron (Unfinished)

My BERSIH2.0 Story: Me & Ron

After one month of planning & talking about it, July 9 is finally here.  The day started with quiet breakfast of Nasi Kerabu at home with wife and kids.  Eldest, eight years Aimi was asking why am i going to "perhimpunan haram" because the police will lock me up (damned TV3!).  I told her i am going because i want her to have better life than mine.  Not too sure whether she understands me because for her better life means more ice-creams & sweets.  Here i can see the parallel between eight-year old kid's thinking & fifty eight years old umnoputras' thinking.  Five years Nadya is asking how am i going to run with bad knee (i had my knee op in january & i'm officially on disabled list) when they start chasing after me.  I told her she doesn't have to worry because malaysian police are obese, we laughed. Youngest, 11-month Muhamamd was too young to understand & Mama was too understanding to stop me after 10 years of marriage &  countless demos attended.  After reassuring everybody (which me myself wasn't quite sure)  that i'll be back in one piece, i'm off to pickup other comrades, Zahry & Bad.  At this point of time, Ron was not part of our journey yet!

The journey from Shah Alam started at 9am & it was very pleasant one (no kidding here).  We managed to avoid all the police roadblocks from Shah Alam to Kelana Jaya LRT due to planning & my knowledge of the areas.  Now I know why God send  me to this world as real estate agent! When we arrived in Kelana Jaya LRT station, we can smell the tension in the air.  Lots of police, regular faced SBs & young & old Malaysians testing their wills against each others.  Noboby is talking to strangers & everybody is keeping to himself with not even slight hint of eye contact.  We managed to catch 930am train to Masjid Jamek & this is where Ron joins our journey.

When we arrived at Masjid Jamek, the smell of tension turn into smell of fear. There are more cops than civilians in the street.  Unlucky rakyats were arrested because they just don't look right to cops.  Students were shouted at for chatting & walking along the street with their friends.  Pedestrians with bags were search as if they were al-qaeda operators.  Mosque was chained.  Jaywalkers with cameras & handphones were stopped & asked to show the contents of their films, memory cards & sms.  This is how is it feel to live in police state & makes me more determined to show the whole what's going on in this country.    Most of the shops were closed or rather asked to close by men in blue to show how damaging BERSIH2.0 was to our economy.  We just could not walk futher without being asked where are we heading.  With nowhere to go & nowhere to run & the threat of being arrested coming from all corners, we were saved by the bright yellow neon light of Ron's house for temporary refuge.

We spent about thirty minutes there strategizing & discussing our next move.  We were so proud to see a lot of students with us.  We were talking to them & giving them motivations & the do's and the don't of a rally.  They came in fear of losing their scholarship, losing their hostel, losing their parents' love and ultimately losing their future if they ever get caught or being reported to their alma mater for the involvement in 'perhimpunan haram".  Yet they came & the future is bright for a better Malaysia! After lenghty discussion & observation that police can arrest anybody without any justification, we decided against walking to Merdeka Stadium.  We decided to go back to LRT & take monorail at KL Sentral & stop at Maharajalela or Hang Tuah before walking to Stadium Negara.  That's when we decided to bring along Ron as our decoy.

My BERSIH3.0: UMNO's Perfect Game Plan

My BERSIH3.0: UMNO’s Perfect Game Plan

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, People will eventually come to believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the People from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its power to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension the truth is the greatest enemy of the State” Joseph Goebbels

Before 428

There was no news on BERSIH3.0 on national (read: BN’s owned) TV, radio and newspapers! Something amiss here!  There was no banning of anything yellow from the men in blue! It can’t be right! There was no restriction order for certain personalities from entering KL on 428. Something fishy here! And for Utusan Malaysia not demonizing BERSIH3.0, it was too good to be true! Ultimately, the big mouthed son of UMNO’s founder declared BERSIH3.0 had no traction and was not a threat at all. When discussing these rather seemingly unlikely reactions from the establishment with like minded friends, they tended to believe that government had learnt the lesson from BERSIH2.0 and will allow BERSIH3.0 to proceed without disturbance as with HIJAU2.0 last month.  I did not buy this for one second because leopard does not change its’ color overnight.  I strongly believed UMNO had sinister plan in place but I was more than happy to be proven wrong.

During 428

There was no police around! There were no early morning roadblocks leading to the city!  There was no jamming of commuter and LRT lines.  There was no morning arrest as soon as you come up from LRT station looking remotely like PAS member.  There was no shouting from men in blue to clear the station.  There was no SB loitering around pretending to be a “tabligh”.  There was no fear in the air; it was so surreal yet unreal!  I didn’t have that nervous anticipation that I normally experienced in all previous rallies.  It was so easy and smooth.  People were not scared or people were made to believe that there was nothing to be scared of?  What an amazingly calm Saturday morning or was it calm before the storm?

At Kelana Jaya LRT station, people, young and old were happily donning their official yellow BERSIH3.0 t-shirts.  Others were wearing green HIJAU3.0 t-shirts.  Some came with that hideous yellow and green permutation (sorry, going to rally doesn’t mean you have to wear ugly shirts).  All was in good spirit.   Pretty girls were carrying yellow roses and sportingly posed for pictures with those requested (me included), sorry I digress here.  Group photos were taken, Malay, Chinese, Indian and DLL (Dan Lain-Lain) all in one big group, this is the real 1Malaysia in action. People were giving knowing look of “we are going there too”. “Stay safe!” were ringing all around from strangers.  This was Malaysia that I knew as a Kampong boy.  It was an incredible pre-game party, but will someone crash our party?

At Masjid Jamek, more carnival atmosphere!  I saw yellow Power Rangers, Batman, Angry Birds, Upin and Ipin joined the party. Heck even Telly Tubbies was there, off course the yellow one.  The chanting started early, “Duduk Bantah”, “Bersih! Bersih! Bersih Pilihanraya”, “Bersih! Bersih! Bersih Malaysia”, “Bersih, Bersih, Bersih SPR”, “Bersih! Bersih! Bersih Polis”, “Hidup, Hidup, Hidup Rakyat!”, “Hancur, Hancur, Hancur Barisan!”  The winner though got to be “Undur! Undur! Undur Isteri Rosmah” what a diabolical chant.  The atmosphere was almost like watching a live football game with everyone supporting the same team.  Inching closer to the heavily cordoned Dataran Tak Merdeka, the chanting grew louder and reverberating throughout KL. “Negaraku” and “Barisan Kita” were sung non-stop.  It was an incredible march, but will it rain on our parade?

At Dataran Tak Merdeka, crowd from all corners started to converge.  Sea of yellow can be seen as far as Parliament House.  It was body-to-body crowds and space was premium.  The air was thick and people were getting restless after few hours under blazing sun.  I was taking my front row seat just across the barbed wires.  The chanting turned more forceful into “Buka! Buka! Buka Dataran”, “Undur! Undur! Undur Polis”. PAS Unit Amal managed to control the restless crowd and even apprehended the troublemakers. The provocation started in earnest with police ramming their trucks and patrol cars through see of people for no apparent reason. On the protestor side, bottles were thrown and shout of “Polis Bodoh!” heard out of frustration.  They were urged by the mean looking beefcakes to push forward.  These were the agent provocateurs in action.  However there was no concerted effort from the crowd to storm the barricade even at the urging of some dumb politicians like Azmin Ali.  The barbed wires were as thick as my thumbs; there was no way anybody can move beyond them without getting seriously hurt.  About 245pm, Husam Musa was telling anyone who cared to listen that the police had agreed to allow the protestors into Dataran by 5pm but the leaders were negotiating with the police to allow us in earlier.  I began to relax but feeling of uneasiness lingered.

Right on cue 3pm, Anwar Ibrahim finished his speech, out of nowhere a group of professional guys with steel cutters and full protection heavy duty gloves started cutting the barbed wires.  Behind them, a group of mean looking “protestors” making a dash to the barrier and amazingly they were allowed in by the police manning the frontline.  Unknown to the protesters that they were SBs, some of the naïve protestors were following their leads.  Frontline policemen started to withdraw in drove behind the Federal Riot Unit (FRU) instead of catching the perpetrators.  No warning, no siren, no bell, pop pop pop heard all over and KL skyline were covered in smoke.  FRU and water cannon taking over front line.  They fired incessantly and directly into the crowd.  There was no way they were trying to disperse the people.  They were trying to hurt the people and teach them the lesson.  People had nowhere to run because it was sardine packed, some fainted on the spot.  Going forward you were facing with FRU I their signature combat gear, going backward you need to run through cloud of tear gases.  There were a lot of shoving, screaming and crying because people were trying to escape the melee.   Some of us ran all the way to Dang Wangi and in the process lost their shoes, BB and sprained their ankles.  My worse fear was unraveling in front of me, they planned this.  They planned this and the victims were in the lair ready to be slaughtered.  The blame will be squarely pinned on the opposition for not respecting the law.

I was lucky because I left the front row seat looking for a drinking water just before they started firing the gas.  The FRU came charging towards people and beating the hell out anybody who was on their rampaging trail.  They were marching all the way to

Petaling Street

without even missing a beat on the tear gas.  They weren’t there for shopping!  They charged the people all the way to KLCC and they weren’t shopping there either!  We were dressed for costume party but they were going for war!

Witch hunting sessions started in earnest after that when rumors made their round that one of the policemen was killed in the line of duty.   The policemen were moving like a pack of mad dogs baying for blood in exacting revenge for their fallen brothers.  They simply picked up people from the streets, isolated them and beat the crap out of that unlucky soul in a large group.  Some of the brave cameramen and journalists managed to get close the action, they too got whacked and their equipment smashed to the ground.  Some of the policemen were seen challenging the crowd to fight with them.  It was now free for all.  Sections of the crowd started retaliating by throwing objects in the police’s direction.  That was what the evils in Putrajaya would like to see in tomorrow’s newspaper and their political wet dreams came through!

In all this madness, the true caring spirit of Malaysians showed.  Strangers were consoling each others, they were crying in each others’ arms.  Old Indian Achi was washing the face of young Chinese from tear gas.  A Malay boy was offering salt and water to the panic stricken protestors.  A young Bangla even offered to share his mango juice with me.  Some were carrying the injured comrades to safety.  I was overwhelmed with all these niceties all around me; it brought tears to my eyes.  This was Malaysia that we longed for and why can’t our government behave the same way?   

After 428

Newspapers started to churn the stories that police had no choice but to take action to protect themselves. TV started showing group of protestors throwing things to the angelic police.  The most damaging of all, a you tube video purportedly showing Anwar and Azmin instructing the crowd to breach the barricade making its’ round.  The old broken record by the name Che Det started singing old tunes of opposition trying to topple democratically elected government.  Last but not least, Ah Jib Gor came out of his hiding place and praising the professionalism of the police.  Now the wayang is completed with Tok Dalang slowly showing their hands.

All these got a very familiar feeling to it.  That was what they planned all the while, lull the protestors into believing that police will not act against them.  Herd the protestors into the slaughter house and when the time comes cut their throats off without them knowing that they were being slaughtered.  That will teach them painful lesson, never to challenge the authority.

You got to give this one to UMNO and evil geniuses behind it!  If only they were this meticulous in planning for the well being of our country we will not need a clean election.  Hell, we don’t even need an election, they can rule Malaysia forever! If only….

“So never mind the darkness

We still can find a way

‘Cause nothing lasts forever

Even cold November rain”

Guns N’ Roses, November Rain, Use Your Illusion I, September 17, 1991