I Felt So Insulted.

I recently stumbled upon someone I admired for a long time and one of my favourite comedy heroes. The funny and lovable Harith Iskander. 

I have always been a big fan of him. Attended his Netflix Special show in person (see if you can spot me in the show). I once got fired back when I was 19 years old. I was working as a banquet waiter. It was a corporate event in a room full of engineers at Palace of the Golden Horses. Harith was the stand up comic for night. He nailed it so hard that I neglected to do my job. Mesmerised by his funny jokes, I just stood there and enjoyed the performance all the way to the end. By the time the whole event ended, my supervisor told me, “Don’t bother coming to work tomorrow. You are fired”. But it was worth it to see Harith live for the first time ever in my life.

Recently, he got in a bit of a spat with the general public. To be blunt, I don’t find that it’s his fault at all. He made one funny joke about coffee. He also used a pretty “on point” word that somehow involved in a controversy about nothing. 

Here’s the funny joke in question. 

There are so many layers in this joke. But the message went over the head of soo many people. 

For me, that posting have some of the funniest jabs at things we can all relate to. The jabs..

  • Subtle but pretty obvious jab about the hullabaloo that is halal ham sandwich found at my Alma Mater where a non religions and racial issue is turned into one, 
  • A not so subtle jab at the ever so fragile religious scholar (should it be scholar or something else since they are so fragile when it comes to their ‘Iman’), 
  • A pretty on point jab to the politicians and politician wannabe who’s job is more often to make police report on trivial matters than to work on the big and important stuff for nation building, 
  • Lastly, a pretty cool jab on the ever Islamic Kopi Jantan, Kopi Songkok, Kopi Angguk, Kopi Malam, Kopi Abang Yes and many more Ham Sap type Kopi lah. These are what the Malay Muslims really love to have, if not why do we have so many of them?

I’ll comment on the whole halal ham sandwich situation separately. They involved some of the rather typical stupid politician type. It’s now stuck at my Editor (read: wife). When I can convince her that I won’t be thrown in jail for posting my comment, I’ll publish it.

Coming back to the topic at hand. We have this Shahrol Shiro guy, who is a fellow funny guy himself. He should have known that the number one rule of comedy is nothing is off limits. Especially joking about those in power like our politicians or the government. Especially on those in power. Who are ever so crazy in dividing our nation. Splitting the Rakyat between the right and left rather than uniting us.

But he, likened himself to be a politician. Kununnya, working for the public. Made such a big hullabaloo of the whole thing. Why is he making this such a big hullabaloo? For the simple reason of using social media for political clout, more like a religious and personal opportunism. I mean look at this follow up video he recorded. See that songkok next to him. That’s the trick lah. Songkok must be there in plain view.

He can hide it behind “I’m protecting Islam from being insulted” statement. But we all know that is a load of bulls. 

A load of bulls Shaik? Really? So you are saying protecting Islam from insults is a load of bulls?

My dear friends, here’s what the Quran said about protecting Islam from being insulted. I’ve provided several translations from some of those I typically read through to better understand verses from the Quran.

Quran 3:186

 You ˹believers˺ will surely be tested in your wealth and yourselves,1 and you will certainly hear many hurtful words from those who were given the Scripture before you and ˹from˺ the polytheists. But if you are patient and mindful ˹of Allah˺—surely this is a resolve to aspire to.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

Ye shall certainly be tried and tested in your possessions and in your personal selves; and ye shall certainly Hear much that will grieve you, from those who received the Book before you and from those who worship many gods. But if ye persevere patiently, and guard against evil,-then that will be a determining factor in all affairs.

A. Yusuf Ali

Demi sesungguhnya, kamu akan diuji pada harta benda dan diri kamu. Dan demi sesungguhnya, kamu akan mendengar dari orang-orang yang telah diberikan Kitab dahulu daripada kamu dan orang-orang yang musyrik: banyak (tuduhan-tuduhan dan cacian) yang menyakitkan hati. Dalam pada itu, jika kamu bersabar dan bertaqwa maka sesungguhnya yang demikian itu adalah dari perkara-perkara yang dikehendaki diambil berat (melakukannya).

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

In essence, we will be tested with a loads of insults that will hurt our feelings. The word Azan in the verse means hurtful things or insults. But we must persevere patiently because that is the resolve that we must aspire to. Because that is what matters most and what Allah wanted us to do when we felt insulted. We just need to be patient and be reminded of Allah.

We aren’t supposed to go and insult others back or go make police report for the insult.

Another one…

Quran 2:262

Those who spend their wealth in the cause of Allah and do not follow their charity with reminders of their generosity or hurtful words—they will get their reward from their Lord, and there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. 

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

Those who spend their substance in the cause of Allah, and follow not up their gifts with reminders of their generosity or with injury,-for them their reward is with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

A. Yusuf Ali

Orang-orang yang membelanjakan hartanya pada jalan (ugama) Allah, kemudian mereka tidak mengiringi apa yang mereka belanjakan itu dengan perkataan membangkit-bangkit (pemberiannya), dan tidak pula menyinggung atau menyakiti (pihak yang diberi), mereka beroleh pahala di sisi Tuhan mereka, dan tidak ada kebimbangan (dari berlakunya kejadian yang tidak baik) terhadap mereka, dan mereka pula tidak akan berdukacita.

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

This is Quran telling us, don’t keep telling and reminding people about your generosity when you give them charity. And don’t go and insult (the word Azan again) the people when you give them charity. 

Example, we all probably have watched a lot of dramas where someone throw some money to the face of some poor guy. And then, he insulted the poor guy “Tu la, mati tak mahu, dah hidup ni nyusahkan orang. Amik duit ni pastu pi mampos”. We can’t do this folks. We can’t insult those we we give charity to.

What else does the Quran says about being insulted?

Quran 3:111

They can never inflict harm on you, except a little annoyance. But if they meet you in battle, they will flee and they will have no helpers.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

They will do you no harm, barring a trifling annoyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help shall they get.

A. Yusuf Ali

Mereka (kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani) tidak sekali-kali akan membahayakan kamu, kecuali menyakiti (perasaan kamu dengan ejekan dan tuduhan yang tidak berasas). Dan jika mereka memerangi kamu, mereka akan berpaling lari membelakangkan kamu (kalah dengan sehina-hinanya); sesudah itu mereka tidak akan mencapai kemenangan.

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

Here, Quran clearly stated that an insult is nothing dangerous. It’s just a trifling or small annoyances, sakit hati hang sikit ja. Tak sakit lebih2 pun. Sikit2 ja. Takdak physical violence pun.

Quran never said that Islam is insulted when people say bad things about it. And again, Quran never said “Go make police report whenever someone is insulting you or Islam”.

I would like to stress again, an insult can never harm you if you are a mature person. A mature person understands what an insult is. They are just words with the intention to make us react the way they want us to react. You reacting immaturely, impatiently, and not persevering through the insult is the one in the wrong based on what’s in the Quran.

Grow up please.

But Shaik, what else can I do other than being patient? That can’t be all there is to it? Just be patient? There are so many things being thrown on the internet, YouTube and TikTok saying bad things about Islam. It can’t be that we just need to be patient and let it happen like that only? 

Ok lah, let’s read one more verse from the Quran. The answers are there if we read. We just need to read. Baca. Baca bagi paham. Don’t just read complete with tajwid mendayu2 but not understanding anything. Read to understand.

Quran 33:48

Do not yield to the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Overlook their annoyances, and put your trust in Allah. For Allah is sufficient as a Trustee of Affairs.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran

And obey not (the behests) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in Allah. For enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.

A. Yusuf Ali

Dan janganlah engkau menurut kehendak orang-orang kafir dan orang-orang munafik dan janganlah engkau hiraukan usikan dan celaan mereka, serta berserahlah kepada Allah (memelihara keadaanmu); dan cukuplah Allah menjadi Pelindung (yang menyelamatkanmu).

Abdullah Muhammad Basmeih

Here, again Quran telling us to just ignore the hurtful talk of the unbelievers and the munafikun. Especially the munafikun I believe. Pakai songkok kopiah semua, but did not do what the Quran says. And the munafikun just continue to divide the Rakyat with stupid race and religion division tactics.

Not enough that we need to ignore, overlook, hiraukan their hurtful words and insults. We ALSO need put the trust that Allah will be sufficient in disposing our affairs and protect us.

This is not the first time I write about Islam being insulted and we ourselves feeling insulted. I’ve written about this before way back on 13 February 2020, Almost exactly 5 years ago. There is a nice video about how to handle insult at the end of that blogpost I made 5 years ago. Still very relevant today.

History tends to repeat itself. Don’t let the bad things happens again. Especially due to our own stupidity. Where we are not mature enough to handle insult. Or when we listen to and follows what the disbelievers and the munafikun wants us to do. Especially when what they want to do is to further divide the Rakyat even further.

Have a great weekend folks. Peace be unto all.

Paternalism Failing and Children Who ‘Rotan’ the Negligent ‘Abah’

Two odd months ago I deleted all social media apps on my phone. Back then according to the Screen Time App on my phone, I spent wasted on average 2+ hours a day on social media. Fortunately, I’ve successfully got rid the habit of scrolling through my social media feed. Nowadays, I no longer have the urge to scroll through my social media feed. Alhamdullilah.

Unfortunately, with Covid-19 making a resurgent, I have no choice but to start scrolling on my social media feed again. Information seemed to travel faster on social media rather than the mainstream media. You tend to get the news straight from the horses’ mouth. Yeap, I meant it both literally and figuratively. Be it the horses such as the YBs and the ministers. Or official outlets such as the KKM, media and journalists.

Fortunately, we have one of the best things happened to us during this rather panicked-stricken time. Being the good samaritan I am, I’d like to share it with you.

It’s is the story of our Prime Minister Muhyiddin. He claimed that he is the Abah that we never asked for, but the Abah that cared for us. I never liked the idea of anyone acknowledging oneself as Abah. It’s fine if I looked up to you as my Abah. But it’s a whole different thing if you start looking down on everyone of us, and think of yourself as our Abah. We have had a Prime Minister who’s been on the job for 22 years and he never once claimed to be our Abah, our Atok (grandfather) or even our Tok Nek (Great-grandfather).

Imagine if someone at your office goes around and starts referring to himself as Abah. Isn’t it weird? To top it off, he thinks he knows what’s best for you. Yikes!

Having at this as our news headline is shockingly stupid.

Muhyidding did this officially mind you! Several times in his PC on Covid-19, he referred to himself as ‘Abah’. The most recent PC on Covid-19, Muhyiddin again referred to himself as Abah when he said “Maaflah jika abah ini mula menggunakan rotan” (loosely translated as “Sorry if this father need to start caning”). It’s the ultimate ‘vomit blood’ (a term my good mentor used to say when she just couldn’t stand someone’s cringy-ness).

I actually disliked this ‘Abah’ thing right from the start. This is a gross Machiavellian nature of Muhyiddin and his propaganda factory. There’s a reason why I dislike hate this. This is straight up, a feature of government paternalism. I’m not against of all forms for paternalism government but I am against of what Muhyiddin is doing with this ‘Abah’ thing. There are specific reasons why I hate his usage of “Abah”.

Why I hate Muhyiddin referring to himself as Abah

Portraying himself as the father and everyone else as infantile children.
This entails several unintended (in this case, definitely intended by him and his propaganda team) consequences. Chiefly, it portrays everyone else as infantile children, and he himself is the one and only person who’s an adult. And as children go, we don’t know enough and him as the parent, know best. This is an insult to the us, the Rakyat as a whole. Especially when the Rakyat thinks it’s the politician who created most of the mess that we have today. Remember the stupid Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities? The facepalm Kedah Exco? The decision to not enforce mandatory quarantine by Ismail Yaakob even when the experts said otherwise? Or the gross incompetence in following SOP by our Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli even when he’s preaching for folks to follow SOP. It’s no wonder he received the short end of the stick from the the people.

So who’s the children creating all of these mess now? Muhyiddin and his Pak Long, Pak Ngah and whatever Pak? or us the Rakyat? It certainly looks to me that the politicians are the one behaving like children and created a bunch of the mess we have today.

Politicians behaving like children is normal. When Abah acting like an adult for all the wrong reasons, we need to call it out lah.

Trying to nullify disagreement and opposition
Malaysians have deep values in respecting elders. Especially our father, mother as well as our uncles and aunts. When Muhyiddin starts to refer to himself as Abah, little by little we will all succumb to his manipulative ploy to make the public see him as the ‘Abah’ to all of us. And us being strong in our Asian values, ‘we can’t oppose him as he’s our father’. The more people accept him as Abah, the harder will any dissent be, because the dissenters will be deemed as going against the general public. So much so, it’ll soon be taboo to say anything bad about our dear Abah. Soon, we can’t even comment negatively, because it’ll be deemed impolite to say anything not nice about him. And soon enough, we need to prostrate to the Supreme Leader Muhyiddin! Yes, that’s a sarcastic sentence. I need to stress it because People seemed to have lost the art of enjoying sarcasm and parody these days.

All hail to Supreme Leader Abah Muhyiddin.
I’m not alone in this

It is encouraging to see that I’m not alone in this situation. I’m not the only one who’s fed up of all this manipulative endearing Abah ploy by Muhyidding and his propaganda machine. Immediately after his most recent infamous Covid-19 PC, a throng of netizen expressed their anger, disappointment, laughter, of which all of them are definitely not positive towards Muhyiddin’s Abah ploy. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Some media outlets even used it as a headline for their news story and tweet. Check out this Awani quote tweet and the comments on Awani Facebook post of the same story. You’ll see just how fed-up the people are with Muhyiddin’s Abah manipulative antics. Even Twitter is trending with #MuhyiddinOut and #KlusterMenteri.

Don’t let Politicians decide who our Abah is

You Mr. Politician, will forever behave like a kid, so don’t pretend you are like a father to us. Just look at the daily parliamentary sitting to have a taste of their children behaviour. Even my youngest daughter kindergarten class is not this childish and she’s only 4 years old. Muhyiddin should stop degrading the word ‘Abah’ by associating himself with it. Just be Abah to your own kids, not the Rakyat.

Only us, the Rakyat, have the right to hold someone high up there, and honour them the with word ‘Abah’, ‘Bapa’ and the likes. Do not let the politicians take this away from us. We are the one who decides who our ‘Abah’ is in politics.

Till next time. Be safe and remember our SOP for Covid-19. It’s getting worse by the minute, thanks to our politicians behaving like children and not following the SOP.

Peace be unto all.

How My Family Stopped Eating One Particular Fast Food Brand and the Lost Art of Service Recovery.

Today marks a full month since my whole family stopped having burgers, fried chickens and fries from this one particular brand. It the quintessential fast food brand. People can’t talk about fast food without mentioning the brand.

Our family loves fast foods. We really really love them. We probably can’t go through the week without the crunchiness of a fried chicken, that juicy greasy burgers, that crunchy and fluffy fries with that oh-so-sweet chilli sauce. I picked up this habit from my Yed (father). The memories of him taking us to KFC Jam Besaq Sungai Petani in the 80s is still fresh. He would also picked up random kids (whose parents were probably hawkers in Jam Besaq food court) playing on the street in front of KFC to come and eat with us. We had KFC so often back in the 80s that I have somehow made it a habit of mine as well and this continues with my kids.

You can see the aforementioned KFC Jam Besaq in the photo above. This is a photo from the 90s.

Back to the matters at hand, I have this habit of quitting a restaurant, shop or even brand if I encountered a very bad service recovery. The wife thinks I may have overreacted sometimes. And you know the wife is always right, If the wife is wrong, remember that they are not wrong, they are right.

Notice I said ‘bad service recovery’. Some folks describe service recovery as ‘complaint handling’. I personally prefer the term service recovery. We want to recover the customers from their bad experience. We don’t want to just handle the complaint.

So, it’s not the initial bad service, product or situation that caused me to quit them. It’s bad the recovery that made me quit them. We all make mistakes. We are all human being. Even experts in their fields make mistakes, much more us, normal folks working minimum wage salary in fast food joints. I am very tolerant to bad service and bad product. I just can’t tolerate bad recovery. And when the bad recovery is done by a high ranking management team, I more than happy to quit the brand/shop/restaurant.

The bad service and product

I’d like to share what caused me to quit this brand entirely. My kids have a Tae Kwan Do class every Saturday afternoon. Right next to the dojo is this big huge fast food joint complete with drive-thru. We make it our habit of enjoying lunch before class or having a snack after class together there. At the very least, we would just get a drive-thru snack. Every week I would spend at around 5o bucks. Not including mid of the week snacks and dinner in case both of us come home from work a little late and the kids are hungry. Easily 300 bucks a month on this brand alone.

Black belt kaler biru. Don’t play play ya.

Exactly 32 days ago, I went through the titular drive-thru lane and ordered the usual order of their spicy fried chicken and some burgers with fries. I will always change the drinks to Iced Milo as that is what the kids love. It was at this point the cashier Mr. Diaz (Not the real name – I borrowed the name from my current favorite TV show Cobra Kai), started to get on my nerves. He said there’s no Milo, but there’s a chocolate drink. I just need to add RM5+. Asked him if Milo is permanently no longer available? Mr Diaz said yes and only Chocolate Drink is available. I agreed to take up this chocolate drink since the kids really wanted Milo. Then I added a kid’s meal with a spicy chicken, Mr. Diaz said nope. That kid’s meal only came with the non-spicy meal. Disappointed again I just agreed lah. Total bill comes up to RM55. I paid and drove off. Kids tried the chocolate drink and both of them hated it. Not disliked it, but hated it. My youngest actually made this face where she almost throw up. I tried it, yup, hated it as well. I guess we aren’t fans of the chocolate drink. We discarded the drink after only a few sips. Well, it’s fine I guess, sometimes we got something we liked, sometimes not so much.

Here’s how one can screw up a service recovery

Disappointed, I then texted a former colleague of mine. He’s now working as one of the big shot there. Asked him if it’s true that Iced Milo is no longer there and replaced by this Chocolate drink? He said nonsense, they are still selling. I was happy to hear that. He added it could be that they ran out or perhaps not available due to there’s this water supply issue happening now. I said ok lah like that. Then I told him about that ‘no spicy chicken with kid’s meal’ issue. Of which he replied my text with a reply of a facepalm (🤦🏻‍♂️) emoji and followed up with a “terrible service bro”. I then shared a copy of the receipt so they can trace the cashier Mr Diaz and perhaps coach him for improvements.

No more replies from my friend. No apology, no thanks. That’s Strike one.

This is the last reply from one of the highest ranking person there. Cool!

Strike two is when someone from the outlet called me a few hours later. They called me and introduced themselves as XXX from outlet XXXX. Did not tell me if they are the supervisor, cashier, or manager. Just XXX from XXXX outlet. Their first question was “I understand that you have a problem with our outlet. What is the problem?”

That really hit it for me. I politely asked, “Did you not have the details of my feedback?”. Only then did they started to tell me the details they got from my former colleague and started giving excuses after excuses why their service was so bad. No water supply, bad cashier, bad drinks barista and a few other things. I tuned out of the conversation towards the end. I’m just allergic to excuses.

At this point I no longer am interested to hear them giving more excuses. I didn’t complain to hear excuses. I give feedbacks to tell them to improve the gaps since I’ll be frequenting the more place in the future and I’d like it to be better next time.

At this point, I felt that it’s a waste of time giving them my feedback. I even regretted it. I then told them “Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore, I passed the feedback so that you can improve and close any gap you may have. Not to listen to excus…” I got interrupted.

Strike three happened while I’m talking to them about giving them feedback for improvement and they interrupted me with some empty talks and asked me to come again and eat for free for the same amount I spent earlier. Never interrupt an angry customer folks. Never.

The moment they finished talking, I waited for a few awkward silence then replied, “Thanks but no thanks. After talking to you I’ve decided stop spending money at your place and your brand altogether. Please tell my friend that.”

What to do so we don’t screw up service recovery?

So many things went wrong in the service recovery I experienced. It should be very simple. How simple? Let me share three QSR companies service recovery steps based on their training manual. I can verify that these are all correct at least since the 90s and 2000s. Huge thank to one of the best MIT trainer I have had the pleasure of learning from.

LEADS – My favourite pizza place!
1. Listen – Listen to the customer intently. Listen to understand, not to reply.
2. Emphathise – Express empathy. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes
3. Apologise – Say you are sorry and mean it.
4. Do whatever the customer needs – Solve their problems.
5. Stand by your promise – Make the customer happy. Give them a bit more than just solving his problems and thank them.

LAST – My favourite Fried Chicken place since I was a kid!
1. Listen – Listen to the customer intently. Listen to understand, not to reply.
2. Apologise – Say you are sorry and mean it.
3. Satisfy – Satisfy the customer. Solve their problems.
4. Thanks – Thanks the customer for their feedback, time and understanding.

TAALDTT – The place to get a Bigmac perhaps?
1. Thank the person – Thanks the customer for their feedback.
2. Apologise – Say you are sorry and mean it.
3. Ask for suggestion – Get from customers what we can do better.
4. Listen – Listen to the customer intently. Listen to understand, not to reply.
5. Don’t pass the buck – Don’t blame others, don’t pass the problem to others.
6. Tell the person what action you will take – Tell them you’re committed to it!
7. Thank them again – You can never thank your customer enough!

If you looked at the three examples above, we can see striking similarities. They all shared four main steps. They are Listen, Apologise, Solve/Satisfy and Thanks. So very simple, and yet so many failed to do it right.

I didn’t get any sort of listening from my former colleague. Obviously no apology. He didn’t solve my problems, and forget about thanking the customer lah. He did none of that. He did one thing though, he passed the buck to the person from the outlet. Good job there. He’s Director level mind you. Perhaps I’m just a lowly customer, so no need to entertain me that much. I totally understand that you probably have many more important things to do than recovering a single customer’s bad experience.

From the person who called me later that day, definitely no listening, I was interrupted in fact. You may ask, “How can they start the conversation and show to me that they actually listened?” One way to do it is by telling me the details that they received from my former colleague and then confirming if they got it right. If they got everything right, that means they really listened to my feedback and really understand them. So simple right?

Then she did apologise and promised to solve the problems they are having. Good that they did this. Though she did blame the cashier and the barista. It’s so easy to blame others right.

I may sound like I’m nitpicking. Of course lah. We are going through a case study on service recovery, remember? So we need to nitpick lah.

Let’s take this positively and learn from it. My wife will kill me for writing this as she told me not to write it. I feel I want to write this, by writing this, I need to really put my money where my mouth is. That is to continue not giving them my money and not succumb to temptation the next time CNY comes (that Prospe….be strong Shaik! Stop it!). And if somehow, in the future, I were to go back to them, they can be very happy to have recovered a customer. So it’s a win-win situation right?

That’s it folks. Remember, it’s not hard to Listen, Empathise, Apologise, Do it and Stand by your promise. It’s just a phone call away to listen intently and empathise. It’s not hard to apologise on behalf of your brand. Solving it was so simple in my case. Tell me you’ve got the product/service gaps sorted out and that Mr Diaz the cashier is coached for improvements. And lastly, you just need to thank the customer for their patient, their love and care of your brand (if they don’t love and care, they wouldn’t have taken their time to give you their feedback) and the time spent talking and giving you feedback. How you thank them is up to your creativity.

Till next time. Be safe and remember our SOP for Covid-19. It’s getting worse by the day thanks to our government incompetency and politicians lacking the discipline to follow SOP.

Peace be unto all

Malay Businesses are doing Far Better Than The Chinese

I just got back from my home state Kedah. Over the weekend we went up north to my second wife’s hometown in Alor Setar and Jitra. With MCO and whatnot, it’s been a while since we were back in Kedah.

An amazing photo of Jalan Raja Post Office in Alor Setar. Just a 5-minute walk from Pekan Rabu.

Growing up in Sungai Petani in the 80s and 90s, you get to see Penang progressed from where they were to northern economic powerhouse.

Of course growing up in the good old Kedah with 76% of the population are of rural Malays, spending more than a decade in government school with 90% of my friends being Malays, one tend to filter one’s view through a kinda racially-driven lens.

Growing up, we were made to believe that the Chinese took all the lands, buildings and whatnot in Penang and drove the Malays out of Tanjung, towards Balik Pulau. The Malays sold their lands to the Chinese as the Chinese made them an offer they can’t refuse.

I remember back in the day, I asked some of the elders around me, how come the Chinese can afford to offer the Malays that much money for their land?

The answer was simple, “Depa kapiaq takdak agama, depa menega boleh menipu. Kita Islam tak boleh menipu. Depa boleh rasuah sini sana, kita tak boleh. Sebab tu depa kaya pastu beli abih semua.”. Loosely translated to, “They (The Chinese) don’t believe in Islam so they can lie and cheat in doing business. We Muslims can’t lie and cheat. They can bribe here and there, we can’t. That’s how they get to be so rich and bought everything up.”

“Depa kapiaq takdak agama, depa menega boleh menipu. Kita Islam tak boleh menipu. Depa boleh rasuah sini sana, kita tak boleh. Sebab tu depa kaya, pastu beli abih semua”

I believed we Malays have caught up to the Chinese. We are now as good as them if not better, than the Chinese when it comes to running a business. Don’t believe me? Let me share with you some of the amazing success stories I’ve read in the news lately.

A business with people at the heart of it.

Let’s start with the proud folks from down south. Knowing that Malaysia is growing rapidly and in need of cheap labours, several high ranking government officials and high ranking uniformed officials banded together and started a business to smuggle Indonesian migrant. These astonishingly innovative businessmen and businesswomen are of course all Malays. Chief among them is the Asst’ Director of Immigration Department, a Malay lady, her right hand man, a Malay; Construction worker, a Malay as well; ferry ticket agent, also a Malay; and a security guard, you guessed it right, a Malay as well.

The poor Myanmar refugees can’t pay to be smuggled in so these Malay businesspersons, can’t make money that way. Hence they don’t really care about the Myanmar refugees lah. But the Indonesian can pay them good money, so they smuggled them in by the truckloads. These people smuggled into the country definitely helped the economy to grow. How else would we build the roads, houses and buildings? Of course they are taking valuable jobs for Malaysians in the country but the we the Malays make money in smuggling them so it’s okay lah. With the Myanmar, we can’t make any money. So this is better lah.

I’m pretty proud of them, they have successfully helped to grow Johor and supported the businesses there with cheap foreign labour by smuggling human beings into our country. This really is an import export enterprise here. Importing and exporting people that is.

Hidup Melayu! Long Live Malays!

A business with our children at the heart of it.

The second case, is close to all our hearts. It involves our kids and our schools. The schools has always been a Malay friendly industry. Canteen provider are mostly Malays. Security guard suppliers, Malays. Stationeries, Malays. Teachers, mostly Malays, Headmasters/Mistress, Malays. Officers in PPD and Ministry, mostly Malays as well.

So when I read in the papers that ‘Boarding schools supplied with food items past expiry dates, no expiry dates, no halal certification, non approved food supplies, dirty kitchen based on the recent Auditor General report’, I can only imagine that our Malay teachers, headmasters, assistant headmasters at government religious schools, technical, vocational, residential schools are doing a mighty fine job in inspecting and supervising the kitchen, stocks and purchasing from great suppliers. Let’s list down some of the innovations introduced by these contractors and school administrators that have catapulted the Malays to the forefront:

  1. 30% of the schools have expired food items more than 1.5 years past.
  2. 71% of the schools have food items that’s not certified halal by JAKIM.
  3. 55% of the schools have unapproved brand of food items.
  4. 21% of the schools have expired food items more than 1.5 years past.
  5. 30% of the schools have dirty kitchens.
Just a photo of a nicely cooked and arranged food in a canteen. Definitely not a photo of the non-halal certified, expired and non-approved food cooked in dirty kitchens.

And the suppliers to these government religious schools, boarding schools and other schools are mostly Malays as well. So these Malays business man are definitely upping the game to be on the same level as the cheating and lying Chinese businessman who aren’t Muslims. I’m incredibly proud of my Malay brethren here.

Especially when these brethren of mine are teachers and headmasters/headmistress and school administrators. Kudos to the Malay suppliers as well. They definitely got the contract after dealing the said Malay Headmasters, Teachers, PPD and Ministry Officers and probably a few Division Heads of a certain political party. They are definitely people with super strong fibre optics cables. They are not people like you and me ladies and gentlemen. They are folks with connections to those in power.

In any case, they are really doing a mighty find job of educating our kids on the way to run an enterprise and get rich faster. May our brights kids who are eating non-halal certified, non approved and expired food cooked in dirty kitchen get all the blessings and barakah from the teachers and school administrators.

Hidup Melayu! Long live Malays!

A business that is definitely made in heaven up above.

The last one is the most successful of the three examples I’m sharing. It is none other than the business ran by our Mama-san. The business of “makan atas angin” or “Ali baba”. This is where the Malays excel way better than the Chinese. In fact, it’s probably the only industry where 100% of ownership of all “makan atas angin” businesses belong to the Malays.

Based on the ongoing trial involving the ever lovely Kak Mah, the court was told that Kak Mah “makan atas angin” RM5,000,000, while her aide RM500,000 for helping a company secured a RM1.25 billion diesel solar hybrid project. Court was also told that the company has been paid RM63 million in July 2017 to start the project but nothing had been done since then.

A Malay consultant between Kak Mah and the company also “makan atas angin” RM1,000,000. He was promised another RM10,000,000 by the company director (Saudi Abang Samsurijal, Malay?). Court was also told that, Kak Mah demanded 15% or RM187,500,000 worth of “makanan atas angin” to help the company secure the project to supply solar hybrid energy to 369 schools (Awwww, it’s for the lovely schools AGAIN. They really do love schools) in Sarawak. Then the aide to Kak Mah, an amazingly talented business negotiator named Rizal, also demanded more “makanan atas angin” of RM 25,000,000 in instalments of RM5,000,00 a year, over 5 years.

These are some incredible state-of-the-art business deal techniques employed by Mama-san and Co. Great negotiation skills to get better deals, even Trump who wrote the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal”, could not have closed the deal the same way Mama-San, the aide and the consultant did.

Not only do these towering Malays did better than the Chinese, they did better than Trump!

Back in the 50s, P. Ramlee has us in stitches with the famous scene below:

Now Kak Mah gave us the sequel,

  • RM5,000,000 untuk aku
  • RM500,000 untuk engkau
  • RM63,000,000 untuk engkau dan tak payah buat apa-apa
  • RM1,000,000 aku terima
  • RM10,000,000 engkau janji
  • RM5,000,000 engkau bayar dulu
  • RM500,000 aku bagi dulu
  • 15% atau RM187.5 million aku mintak
  • RM25,000,000 engkau mintak
  • Nah beg penuh dengan RM1,500,000 untuk engkau
  • Nah rasuah untuk aku RM5,000,000
  • Amik ni 10-15% bayaran untuk engkau
  • Eh…“Actually it is a commission but it is not nice to say that…” untuk aku
  • Eh…“Actually it is a commission but it is not nice to say that…” untuk engkau

If it’s not commission, it’s political donation. Donation for what? Untuk kerajaan isle la.

Hidup Melayu! Long live Malays.

The Malay businesses have progressed to a new level that has far surpassed the Chinese. Not just the Chinese but the west and Jews themselves can’t do things like these. This is the art of the deal! I’m incredibly proud to be a Malay.

Peace be unto all.

Let’s Think It Is Enough

Editor’s Note: It’s been some time so as you may have guessed, this will be a long one. Perhaps my long time friend Mat Not will be able to draw this whole for the challenged readers.

I don’t comment much on politics nowadays. It seemed there’s already so much going one where the country’s government changed hands, state governments changed hands, more than 70 ministers and deputy ministers get appointed, more than enough politicians get appointed to professional positions, people with political connection gets away from being charged, motion of no confidence, and so many more politicking.

With this much politicking going on, we can pretty much ignore the calling for less politicking since the leaders in the country are pretty much ignoring the call as well. Nothing is further than the truth when it comes to the Malay saying, ‘Abah borek, anak rintk’, right?

At this point, I think that ‘enough is enough’. Let’s all follow ‘Abah’ footsteps and let’s all all ignore the call to stop politicking. Just like ‘Abah’, the right way to go is “ALL IN” and make the change you wanna make.

Okay Abah, let’s all follow your footsteps in igoring the calling to stop politicking.

One thing that apparently is not enough and really grabbed by attention is how most Malaysians reacted to the issue of refugees from Myanmar. Granted this is an old topic but the solution is something that is apparently new to everyone. Pray to read on till it’s the part where we talk about solution to the problem.

The hatred seeps in.

A huge majority of Malaysian, and to my surprise, even the Malay Muslims reacted the same. I expected differently from my Muslims brethren since majority of the displaced refugees are fellow Muslims. Majority of the general public felt that the Myanmar Refugees, The Rohingyas to be specific, overstayed their welcome. More than that, many felt that it’s better to kick them all out of the country and let them be somewhere else. Here are some example what the netizens are saying.

This guy got 14.4K likes. You can look at the replies of the tweet above and see how racists we can be even to folks of the same religion. To illustrate, let’s change some words,

Aku dulu kesian la jugak dengan Melayu ni cam oh shit miskin kesian depa ni. Tapi bila duduk KL, bersepah Melayu curi Obike la curi pokok orang la, mintak sedekah lepastu bila orang tak bagi dia maki dalam bahasa dia(ini jadi kat aku) dia siap ludah lagi. Jadi? Makanya?

Let’s take a look at another one. This is a story that make the rounds in WhatsApp groups and Facebook postings.

Dulu ada satu orang tua pernah bagi tahu saya, ada 3 bangsa dalam dunia ni yang takkan ada negara sampai bila-bila

1. Bani Israel
2. Gipsi
3. Rohingya

Rohingya ni bangsa tak ada maruah, tak ada harga diri. Apa yang jadi pada diri mereka sekarang adalah balasan kerana lari dari perang. Mereka pernah lari tinggalkan raja dan ulama mereka di Bangladesh, mencari kesenangan hidup di Burma. Tergamak buat macam tu. Lepas tu Burma bagi senjata suruh lawan musuh, mereka jual senjata. Mereka pernah jadi talibarut British lawan Burma. Sebab tu orang Burma (nama baru Myanmar) berdendam.

Kita orang Melayu mana pernah buat macam tu kat raja kita. Apa yang kita nikmati hari ni mungkin balasan baik dari Allah atas pengorbanan tok nenek kita yang tak pernah lari dari perang walaupun asik kalah.

Bermula dari serangan Chola, Siam, Burma, Portugis, Belanda, Inggeris, Jepun, Komunis, militan Sulu, terbaru virus Covid 19, kita tak pernah lari. Kita lawan walaupun ada polis dan askar kita terkorban.

Tak macam Rohingya, sikit-sikit lari, sikit-sikit lari..

Bayangkan lah di Langkawi nuu.. orang kita bagi rumah atas bukit kat Rohingya ni, dibakarnya rumah tu, taknak, takde standard katanya. Dia orang demand nak duk rumah taman ada aircond. Mujur jauh, kalau depan muka saya, memang saya terajang tang muka tak kira jantan betina, tua muda.

– copy paste –

You guys can do the same exercise, change some words and replace it with Melayu. See if it sounds racist.

Apparently Rohingya is now at the same level of the Israelies. They hated the Rohingyas so much that they grouped the Rohingyas together with Israelies. Oh my…That’s one way to rile up the Malay Muslims. They immediately gobbled it up. It’s so easy to get under the skin of the Malays.

Remember when this was making the rounds. That is why now no Mulsims consume any of these products. Eh…Wait, did the Muslims really boycott these brands?

I’m also mildly entertained by the fact that the story above conveniently forget about our own history as a nation. With Malayan Union, we go against the what the Sultans and Rajas have decided. Of course we make it nicer by telling everyone that we are protecting the royalties lah. When in fact, we didn’t like what the royalties was doing and we were going against them.

Talk about “bangsa takdak maruah”, the Malays are well know to be running RM2 Alibaba businesses, well known to be oh-so-easy in accepting bribes. But I guess when the Malays are doing it it’s not an issue. We Malays give and accept bribe in full dignity. It’s so full of dignity that we call it ‘sedeqah’. We runs RM2 Alibaba businesses proudly without any shred of shame. But the Rohingyas…they are a shameful bunch.

Not Hatred but it’s the limited resources

Now, In my ‘debates’ or ‘discussions’ with my fellow friends on the topic, they denied they are being racist. They flat out denied. Okay, let’s agree to disagree there. So I asked why are you so hung up about helping the Rohingyas? They claimed it’s about resources. Our country have limited resources, those resources must be spent on Malaysian instead of the refugees.

The first of the resources the Rohingya Haters claimed is limited is Job Vacancies. One of the request from the refugees is to be given some form or permit to work here in Malaysia so they can get some form of income. Rohingya haters claimed that we have limited jobs hence we shouldn’t offer these jobs to them. So many Malaysian have yet to secured any employment so why are we giving these jobs to them. More so during this Covid-19 period. We shouldn’t give them things that even we ourselves don’t have enough. That’s what the Rohingya haters are saying.

Second example, money. Governments have limited amount of money. Hence if we spend the monies on the Rohingyas, there would be less money for the Malaysian people. Government doesn’t even have enough for us Malaysian, so again, we should not give them things that even we ourselves don’t have enough. That’s what the Rohingya haters are saying

Then a good friend of mine said this;

Minta kat ayah sendiri x dapat… Pas2 dengar cerita ayah jiran sebelah baik… Try pi minta.. dapat la plak… Nak buat camna dpt ayah baik… Syukur la… Harap2 ayah ingat/bantu anak sendiri dulu… 😁

Harap2 ayah x bagi ayam panggang jugak la… Nant tersalah anggap plak anak sendiri… Anak pun manusia jugak… Ramai plak tu… Susah jadi ayah ni… Kena adil..

Some folks claimed that it’s a matter of resources and not race.

Many of the Rohingya haters felt that they themselves didn’t get enough from the government so why should the government give to others than Malaysian?

That is the crux of the matter. We always feel that we don’t have enough of something, everything, anything. Mind you the people that I debated/discussed with are people who are educate and have university degrees, own house(s), families, a stable and good jobs/businesses, have a good future waiting for them and their kids, and clearly are in the M40 and a bunch of them are in T20.

Yet compared to the Rohingyas who only have the clothes on their back, no home, not even a rented home, no education for them and their kids, no jobs, no country to go back to and worst of all, no future for their kids.

These haters feel that they still deserve more compared to the Rohingyas. They still feel they don’t have enough things yet especially compared to the Rohingyas. They still feel that they must get what they wanted first before giving to the Rohingyas.

Among the most viral and verified demand of the Rohingyas was the letter by MERHROM. It’s mainly revolves around them wanted to earn a living in Malaysia with proper permit and with proper insurance paid by the employer along with lower treatment charge at government hospitals. You can see the scanned letters here. I purposely linked it to a website that echos the Rohingya haters so you can see just how bad these website that promote hatred against Rohingyas.

The real problem

Now that’s a long intro to come to a point that I want to make. We need to change our minds from this ‘scarcity mentality’ to ‘abundance mentality’.

Let’s try to understand the two mentalities. First up is Abundance Mentality. This is a state of mind that believes ‘there is more than enough’. And because there is ‘more than enough’ we can all enjoy the what we’ve been given by Allah. Since we can all enjoy it, we can all win. It’s Win-Win for the both of us.

The second one, the bad mentality that we want to lose is ‘Scarcity Mentality‘. They believe that ‘we only have so much of this pie‘. ‘If you take some, there will be less for me‘. So in their mind, they will lose if they give it away, or if they other party get some, the other party wins. It’s a Win-Lose or Lose-Win situation.

The scarcity mentality is what these Rohingya haters really believed in. They believed that we don’t have enough on this world. And that God didn’t give them enough to live on this world so they can’t share. If they share this wealth, they will lose out.

Let’s examine what Islam says about these two states of mind. Let’s look at Quran 2:268

Syaitan itu menjanjikan (menakut-nakutkan) kamu dengan kemiskinan dan kepapaan (jika kamu bersedekah atau menderma), dan ia menyuruh kamu melakukan perbuatan yang keji (bersifat bakhil kedekut); sedang Allah menjanjikan kamu (dengan) keampunan daripadaNya serta kelebihan kurniaNya. Dan (ingatlah), Allah Maha Luas limpah rahmatNya, lagi sentiasa Meliputi PengetahuanNya.

Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing

Quran 2:268

Here the Quran likened scarcity mentality as the devil’s tricks or threat. It causes us to feel jealous, hate, anger and pettiness. The Quran condemns these feelings as the trick of the devil.

In the example of the Rohingyas haters I shared above, they are jealous of Rohingyas to get a work permit? Pettiness of the Rohingyas to get more affordable hospital treatments? Just how much hatred are in your heart my dear friends? You have a job, you have a house and a family. You have a country that loves you and takes care of you. None of the Rohingyas have these. Will we lose our work permit? Will you lose your homes? Will you lose your country? Do you feel threatened? by the devil? and you succumbed?

In the same sentence, Quran highlights the abundance mentality through His bounties and forgiveness. The Quran promises abundance if we’give’ and ‘share’ His wealth. Not if you ‘keep’ and ‘hoard His pie just for you’. Here the Quran stresses that we should discard the scarcity mentality and adopt the abundance mentality so that we received God’s forgiveness and unlimited bounties.

For comparison sake, Let me also share what the Bible says about the same abundance mentality.

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back

Luke 6:38

Even the Christians preach the same thing. Give and you will get God’s unlimited bounties.

The solution

I don’t want to talk about the isolated cases where the Rohingyas, were found to steal, rob and behaving in a bad manner. These occurrences do not represent the whole of the Rohingyas. Moreover, these are the symtoms of a larger problems. If there are those who break the law, take them to task. It doesn’t matter if they are the Rohingyas, Malays, Chinese, Indians or even the Martians. Take them to task. we have the police to take care of these issues. Don’t use this as an excuse to succumb to the trick of the devil.

My dear friends, you all pray 5 times a day, you all say your prayers. Some of are are teachers, headmasters, business owners, government servants, and some of you even lead the prayers at your congregation and yet you easily succumb to this simple trick of the devil. Don’t talk and preach the devil’s trick. Stop.

Start talking about giving more to the Rohingyas because they need it more than us. Then don’t stop there, give more to those in need no matter if they are the Rohingyas, Malays, Chinese, Indian, Caucasian, heck even if they are the Romulans. And in turn, you will get Allah forgiveness and his bounties. Quran guarantees it.

Please read up more on Abundance and Scarcity Mindset. I love what Stephen Covey wrote in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people’. It changed my world when I first read it during my college years. Let’s hope it’ll do the same to you.

Peace be unto all.

Yup, even the Romulans.

To Continue the Fight or Put Nation’s Interest Above All Else?

I was driving home from our escapades to the countryside farm together with my better half’s school mates. Their group of probably around 10 close-knit friends since they were teenagers. The almost always have two gatherings a year, one during Hari Raya and another to spend the night somewhere talking about the good old days. Although they are friends of my better half, they have been so nice to me that they have included me in their group to talk about stuff. Throughout the years, it now felt like I was there in the same school with them back in the 90’s.

Among the group, we have one guy whom I actually have little respect back in the day (him as a politician) but now have enormous respect. As a friend, he’s the best you want to have around. Funny as hell, love to feed his friends with great food, love to gossip about old friends, always there if you need help, and never stingy when it comes to money. A great guy all around. Currently he’s a staunch supporter and is a personal aide of one of the President of a party in PH.

That Sunday morning was a power breakfast morning. We exchanged stories about the going on in PH. Stories from a few months ago, stories of what happened during the eventful PH Presidents Council Meeting where everybody came out agreeing that it’s up to Dr. Mahathir to decide when to step down as PM. The meeting was said to be a very very hot meeting. It was hot because of the pressure within PKR for Dr. Mahathir to step down and Bersatu being defensive about it. Stories from PH President Council meeting where Dr. Mahathir did not attend and they decided to have Anwar as PM. Stories when Dr. M again became PH choice of PM. Stories of how Muhyiddin and co orchestrated the play between PH parties. Fascinating stuff indeed. We all agreed that, if it’s not because of Bersatu and PKR camp just can’t seem to agree when Dr. M should step down, all of these could’ve been avoided, among other things lah.

My friend agreed that both sides were not of their right mind. The other parties in the coalition realised it as well. But politicians being politicians, they will still fight about it. True indeed, that I agree with him. They won’t be politicians if they aren’t fighting for power.

We can’t deny that there is still bad blood between Dr. Mahathir and Anwar camps dated since 1998, much more between the two gentlemen themselves. I personally am happy to see them reconcile their differences and can only hope they will really let bygones be bygones. But one can only hope. Deep down, both my friend and I agreed that there will forever be bad blood between them.

So where do I stand? he asked. I told him, I’m torn. On one had I feel PH needs to fight one last time when Parliament reconvened. PH have fought too hard to back down now. There are still a lot of things to be done and reforms made. Get enough numbers and motion for parliament to decide the next PM based on numbers of MP supporting the current PM. This is the easier way for PH to be the government again. PH already have 92, add Dr Mahathir, Warisan+Upko and lost Bersatu lot (Saddiq, Maszlee and etc), that’s 108. Just another 4-5 seats to close the deal. It’s the easiest way to win without a doubt.

If PH goes for snap election, PH would lose in a big way. I told him, the typical Malay folks would vote for PN in a heartbeat. Why? For Abata lah. That will be the raison d’etre for the typical Malays. Even now these Malay folks are jumping with joy since the two biggest Malay-based party joined ranks. Do you think by simply branding them “pengkhianat” will win them support? The typical Rakyat don’t see the party hoppers betraying their wish, they see it as the Malays coming together. They see two biggest Malay based parties who have been at war with each other for a long, long time, working together again for a better Malaysia. The typical Rakyat don’t see them betraying the people’s mandate because the mandate has always been for a better Malaysia and Islam. This may not necessarily how I see it, but it’s definitely how a typical Malay is seeing it. So yeah, if PH goes for snap election, PH would lose in a big way.

My barometer is simple, let’s look at some hard data, and some soft data. Hard data would be the results recent by elections. Let’s just take 2019 onwards. There has been 6 by-elections from 2019 onward. Four Parliament seats and two state seats. Of these six, PH lost five of them. Two of the lost seats were actually PH seats. These hard uncontestable data shows that PH is on a losing streak. PH were the government of the day. Promised millions of development projects for the constituencies and yet PH still lost 5 of these seats. People hate PH that much.

Tanjung Piai by election.

Soft data is easier. Look at social media timelines and WhatsApp group chatter. There are way too many talks of people hating PH and whatever it is that PH do. This is way different that the euphoria of 2018 where there were so many praise coming through the timelines. Remember Tabung Harapan? People actually give politicians money. Yeah, now you see it right? I will not get into the why because that’s for PH to find out and fix. They can read my previous posting if they need some pointers where to start looking.

So, to me, if PH wants to get the PM position and cabinet back, the best way to go is to get a vote of no confidence going in Parliament.

That’s on one hand. But I’m torn, remember?

On the other hand, this will put the country back into a state of disarray. We will then have another round of drama, u-turn, back stabbing and frog-hopping. More money and promises will be dished out and more under the table dealings will be dealt. This is so that they can secure the number of seats required. And it’s all to get that PM and cabinet power in their hands. This will happen in both camps.

The stock markets and economy will once again plunge into the abyss. Oil prices have already hit rock bottom with the largest one-day percentage decline since 1991. Ours is an oil-based economy, where some 30% of government revenue are oil related. A 25% reduction in oil prices means government may not have a huge chunk of that 30% revenue anymore. Coupled with our declining export in Palm Oil, which saw a 42% decline in palm oil shipment export values over the last five years, and of course the impact of Covid-19 across the world economy. We are in no position to be have our politicians fighting each other and forgetting about the nation and the impending multitude of issues.

Being different is beautiful.

We also have lots of local problems, we still have race relation issues to fix. There has been way too many Malay vs Chinese, India vs Malay, Semenanjung vs Sabah/Sarawak, Islam vs Non-muslims situations. Even within Islam, Sunni vs Syiah, Wahabbi vs whatever that is not Wahabbi and so many other. I don’t have to link them. I would hate myself for linking them.

Is another power struggle the answer? That is why I’m torn. That was why I stated in my last posting that these leaders need to put away their differences and find a workable solution. I meant Unity government. Work together to solve immediate problems. It’s not that hard.

Should we have another power tussle? Is this the best for the country at the moment?

Thank god I’m not a politician. I don’t have to burden myself with these decisions. However, we can’t really trust the politicians to make decisions that will put the country first and foremost right? They always put themselves first right? Quite a conundrum we are in.

I’ll leave you guys there. Think hard and then tell your representative what you think they should do. Think really hard.

A friend once told me, “Politik ni kena tamak dan gamak” (In politics, we must be greedy and have what it takes to do something that might be bad). Another good friend (which I really need to connect back with) told me this saying from China “If you wait by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemies come floating down”.

Peace be unto all.

To Snap or not to Snap.

Thanos wouldn’t ask this question, he would just snapped and be done with it. However, we need to think about it. Or the Avengers will come and kick our collective asses.

Based on what our Interim PM said yesterday, “The King has asked all MPs to make a statement… in front of him. The result is that he can’t find anyone with a distinct majority. Since there isn’t a distinct majority, he says the right forum would be the Dewan Rakyat”.

This is very astute of our King. He understands that the power belongs to the people. This is one of the many reasons why I love our current King. He’s a people person who doesn’t think he’s a know-it-all, clairvoyant and above the people like some other royalties. He believes that the people have elected these representatives to represent them, and that they are the best group people to decide on the next step. A true example of the saying “Raja dan Rakyat berpisah tiada”. Meaning the ruler and the subjects are inseparable. The King knows that we the people have chosen our representative for each of our constituency. So he let these representative decides.

Our King, Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin of Pahang wants the people to decide.

Unfortunately, our representatives are at an impasse. Who should be PM and lead them. One minute it was Dr. Mahathir, then it wasn’t, then it was Anwar. Then we hear Hishamuddin Tun Hussin, and now we hear it’s may be Muhyiddin though I think that is just Mahathir saying it as an example. I don’t believe that is what he wants. Why would he want’s someone who betrayed him? Knowing Dr. Mahathir, he probably wanted it for himself. Whoever it is, the impasse is, who should be PM?

You hear these politicians talks about, this is what the rakyat wants lah, they want this PM lah, and that PM lah, this mandate lah, and that mandate, this manifesto and that manifesto lah, this party lah and that party lah. This is all what they, the politicians want.

In actual fact, many of the manifestos and promises have now become secondary. We are now facing a much more immediate problem that needs fixing. It may have overtaken many other promises that was made more than 2 years ago.

Our economy is tanking

We now have a tanking economy, Stock market is at a 10-year low. Our 2019 GDP growth was at 10-year low. BNM even had to unexpectedly announce a cut in interest rate recently. Crude oil prices are at a one year low. The list go on and on. When this happens, everybody loses and we the rakyat lose more the the politicians and the rich people. Jobs creation halted, people loses jobs, purchasing power weakened, more shops will lose sales, means more jobs lost. The cycle is vicious.

The tanking economy is now made worse with the impending epidemic of Covid-19. It’s not yet an epidemic, just at pandemic level now. However, with Japan closing their school through March, North Korean is following suit by extending school break, and the latest even Saudi have halts pilgramage over Covid-19. What all these point to is a bigger negative impact on our economy. IMF will downgrade global growth. This is like a double whammy for our economy, or as the saying goes, “it never rains but it pours”. I like it more in Malay, “Dah jatuh ditimpa tangga, dan terpalit tahi ayam”, the “terpalit tahi ayam” is me adding on to it.

We will need the best people to steer the ship through these dark waters. We will need to be working together in getting through these dry spell. This is above party politics, this should be a bi-partisan issue that everybody agrees above anything else. Yes, even above who should be PM. If the person can’t steer us through this, then he better not be PM. Let the leaders think who is the person. Use this one thing that we all can agree upon to decide who’s the best person.

What if we can’t decide and we go for snap election?

What if Thanos snaps and we have a snap election? Let’s hypothetically entertain this idea. First of all, it will probably cost upwards of 800 million ringgit. That’s almost a billion. These are money that our government doesn’t have. Heck, even the recently announced Covid-19 stimulus package have already put a dent to the projected fiscal deficit from 3.2% to 3.4%. This isn’t even including political parties spending several hundred millions to fund the snap elections. More money down the drain. Do you really want this my dear leaders and readers?

Azhar Harun (Art), our Election Committee Chairman.

How fast can the EC organise the snap election? I reckon between 1.5 to 2 months including a 1-2 weeks campaign period. This means the country will be without a fully functioning government for another 2-3 months throughout this dangerous waters that we are going through. You really want this my dear leaders and readers?

And assuming we have this snap election, this effectively means we will have two full months of campaigning. The politicians are desperate for power, things will get ugly. Race relation in Malaysia is worsening. Think of what 2-month long of desperate campaigning will do to us? Think of just how much race and religion fanning sentiments will be thrown all over the place. Do we really want this my dear leaders and readers?

People are also fed up will all these politicking, back-door government, power tussle and the likes. A snap election may very well have the lowest turnout ever. Politicians will display their worst due to desperation, people will get more fed up, and may ended up not voting. Do we really want this my dear readers and leaders?

What I’m proposing is, all parties must work out theirdifferences. Put the immediate and real problems ahead of your ego, your vengeance, you hatred and whatever it is that is clouding your better judgment. Put the well being of the people going through the dark waters first.

Use these few days before the parliament sitting on March 2, and work out your differences. Present to the King a workable solution that will not end up in a snap election. Show to the people that you, the elected representative, knows better. That you will put the country and the people well being ahead of your own self.

This is what I implore you the readers, to tell your representative. This is what I implore you the leaders to do. This is what I, the rakyat wants.

Peace be unto all.

The Promise is Fulfilled. Dr M Resigned and Gave Way for Anwar to be the next PM. Or has he?

Several friends asked why hasn’t I written anything on Pakatan Nasional (now known as Perikatan Nasional as what has been mentioned by LGE in DAP press conference). I have actually written a long one but decided not to publish it. Why? because I felt that people aren’t ready, and also perhaps partly because I felt I’m not ready. But after what has happened yesterday, I felt I may want to get it out there as a sign of support to Dr. Mahathir. What was the point of the article? Well, the gist of it is that I myself am not really a fan of all-powerful-all-Malay coalition.

I’ve, all my life, lived in a home where I have a Chinese family home next to us, and in front of my home I have another Chinese home. Not even five doors away I’d have an Indian family living and somewhere along my street, I’d have a Singh, Mamak, Malays families. I’m fortunate enough that, when I bought my first and only home more than a decade ago, I know beforehand, that the unit will have a Chinese owner next to it. The salesman said people usually wants to know that detail. Damn right we want to know, because we want to live in a multi-racial neighbourhood. I told my wife that let’s get this unit, it will be perfect for our kids.

Even in my career, I’m blessed to have great non-Malay bosses, superiors and colleague. One non-malay lady was such a great person that I decided to call her Mummy. Till today, I still address her as Mum or Mummy. I’ve been blessed to have both Malays and and Non-malays helping me to be better as a person in my life. So to have one all-powerful-all-malay political entity is not something I want to be looking forward, much less be a part of. I’d like to have an all-powerful-multiracial political entity that cares for the all Rakyat in fairness.

If you don’t love the fact that we are all different people. There must be something wrong with you.

Now that the question of Perikatan Nasional is out of the way, let’s move on to the big elephant in the room.

We have a slew of big-ass news yesterday. First, the good Doctor have resigned as the Prime Minister. He apparently has also resigned as the Chairman of Bersatu. Then we have Bersatu leaving Pakatan Harapan but still supporting Dr. Mahathir as PM. Add to the mix, Azmin, Zuraida and some PKR leaders were kicked out of PKR. A total of 11 PKR Mps is now an independent bloc not affiliated with PH. And by the end of the day yesterday, we have the King declared that he accepted Mahathir’s resignation and that he also wanted Dr. Mahathir to be the interim PM while we all figure out who will be the next PM.

So let us break this down.

  • Bersatu left PH together with 26 MPs
  • Azmin, Zuraida and 9 other MPs left PH
  • PH reduced to 92 seats (minus 26 Bersatu and 11 Azmin bloc)
  • Perikatan Nasional or Opposition is the same with 83 seats
  • Independent bloc have 47 seats (26 Bersatu, 9 Warisan, 1 Upko and 11 Azmin)
  • Important to note that DAP, Amanah, Bersatu, Warisan, Upko and Azmin still supports Dr. Mahathir as PM.
  • Dr. Mahathir Resigns as PM
  • King wanted Dr. Mahathir to be interim PM
  • DAP, Amanah, Bersatu, Warisan, Upko and Azmin still wants Dr. Mahathir to be the PM even after he resigned.

The big thing that wasn’t discussed or mentioned a lot yesterday is the fact that Dr. Mahathir has fulfilled his promise to let go of his position as the Perdana Menteri Sementara under Pakatan Harapan Manifesto. He has done his part. Through and through. He clearly resigned and king accepted. He has fulfilled his promise as a Prime-Minister-in-waiting under Pakatan Harapan Manifesto.

Anwar Ibrahim can, today, go to the King and said that he has enough support from 112 MPs or more for him to become PM. Nobody is stopping him to do this.

Yesterday that Anwar stated “I am satisfied with his stance that we must give priority to the continuation of the reform agenda”. Anwar didn’t mention that he will go to the King to seek and discuss his succession and 112 MPs supporting him

As for DAP, they have clearly stated that they will continue to support Tun M as the PM. Amanah also did the same. Mat Sabu still wants Dr. M to continue to be the PM even after the resignation.

Mohamad Sabu. I like him. No, I really like him. I do. No, I actually do like him!

So, in one fell swoop, the good Doctor have TOLD OFF, all of those PKR and DAP, Umno and whoever else that have questioned his willingness to resign and let Anwar be the PM. He did resign and fulfilled his promise. It’s a masterclass stroke

We have seen before so many people asking for Mahathir’s transition date. Be it from PKR, DAP, Umno, PAS. So many lah. So now, all of you lot have your answers. Dr. Mahathir have resigned and fulfilled his promised under Pakatan Harapan to be the Prime Minister in waiting. Oh and Lim Kit Siang can still be in politics since Dr. Mahathir did quit and give way to Anwar. It’s just that Anwar didn’t have the balls (or seats) to go and see the King about it.

So what happens next? Assuming Dr. Mahathir still have the support of Bersatu, Amanah, DAP, Azmin and Pas. And since the Sheraton-gate, probably Perikatan Nasional supports Dr. Mahathir as well.

This effectively means Dr. Mahathir can be the PM again. This time it won’t be under the mandate of Pakatan Rakyat PM in waiting. This time he can be the PM based on a new mandate from Bersatu, Amanah, DAP, Warisan, Perikatan and whoever else that supports him. This time he can be a more effective PM because he wont’ be asked to resign or pass the baton to Anwar or anyone else anymore. He is then free to govern however he sees fit. Which is what I personally wants.

I’m so blessed to have seen this happen in my lifetime. He is the good Doctor indeed.

Peace be unto all.

Oh Royalties, Politicians, Religions and Racist Parasite; Where the Bull ‘Art’ Thou?

Editors Note: It’s a long one this round. Please bear with me.

We all know by now that for the first time in Academy Award History, a non English movie won the most coveted award Best Picture. Not only that, it won arguably second most coveted award Best Direction as well. Altogether, it won 4 Oscars (the physical award itself, the gold bald standing guy, is nicknamed Oscar) including Best International Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

It also won Golden Globe Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language award, BAFTA Best Screenplay (Original) and Best Film Not in the English Language, SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement and many more awards from the world’s film industry. To date, the total awards have reached 202 Awards in various categories. It’s such an achievement.

Bong Jun Ho with his Oscars.

Personally, I love Parasite. I’ve watched 7 out of the 9 nominations for Best Picture and in my non-academic and non-expert opinion, it deserves the Award. They are all great films but Parasite is indeed on top of the heap.

Not everybody agrees with Parasite being a great movie though. Flipping through social media timelines and talking to friends, many believed 1917, Joker, Marriage Story or the Irishman should’ve won instead. Many saw Parasite as something you can get easily on TV3’s Cerekarama slot. Not even good enough for a proper film. Just a telemovie.

I don’t know much about Malaysian movies to be completely honest. I do however have a few favourite Malaysian Directors. They are P. Ramlee, Mamat Khalid, Yasmin Ahmad and Aziz M. Osman. That’s all I will say about Malaysian film industry.

This creation of Mamat Khalid really hit me hard. I love it so much.

The Politics Surrounding Our Arts

On the politics surrounding our art however, I have much to say. Let’s start with the big elephant in the room. Censorship. This has been the bane of art and freedom of expression in Malaysia since forever. I still remember in my younger days when Malaysian can no longer appreciate ghost movies just because someone in FINAS/Jakim/Cabinet believed watching ghost movies can somehow cause Muslim’s to distort their belief in God. This is a load of bulls

I’m sure those who lived through the 80’s and 90’s remember the time when we can no longer enjoy those great Chinese ghost movies from the 80s. I was too young to understand politics back then but to have ghosts stories banned is still something that I feel was unwarranted.

The great Lam Ching-Ying as the One Eyebrow Priest. He was in so good in many of these Hong Kong horror movies that everybody in school wanted to be him back in the day. We all wanted to either be him or Jackie Chan.

Fortunately today we no longer have that ban in effect. Since the ban was uplifted we had an explosion of creativity with all those Blok 404, Kem 505 and more recently with Hantu Kak Limah franchise.

Ghost stories is a part of our culture here in Malaysia. Ever since we were a small kid, our parents would tell us, “Haaa! Pi la kat situ, ada hantuuu”. During slumber parties we exchanged ghost stories with our friends. During our days in boarding school we heard lots of ghost stories, some even dated back during Japanese occupation of Malaya. Everybody must’ve heard of Hantu Jepun (Japanese Ghost) in the form of dead Japanese soldiers marching down the street. We have all sorts of ghosts. These ghosts in our culture is very charming and interesting to me.

Hantu Pocong, one of the many types of ghosts in Malay culture.

It’s not so much the ghosts that fascinates me but it’s more of the expression of creativity. How one sees horror, how one interpret these ghosts and how it interacts with our daily lives. How much they influence the way we lives. From there we would have the Pawangs, the Bomohs, the good and the bad. It’s nothing more than an expression of art.

People would ask, what if people really believe in ghosts and bomohs and pawang Shaik? Well, we have been having ghosts movies and stories since the beginning of time. If we were to compare current situation to say 50 or 100 years ago, we actually have less and less people believing in them. Is it because we have less ghost movies in cinemas and TV?

No, it’s because of the advancement in technology. We now have lights, camera, and all sort of technological advancements. So much so that ghosts are finding it hard to exists. That’s why. We are more educated. We now realised it’s not what it is. No amount of movies will change our mind. And we certainly don’t need someone in Finas/Jakim or Cabinet to protect us from these ghosts movies.

The Royalties, Politicians, Ulama and Race censorship

The second part of censorship, which has a bigger impact on our lives, is of those people who have a higher status or caste in our lives. God forbid if we do a story, movie, book or even painting on the politicians, royalties, ulama and race.

These four topics are off limits even today. There are so many ways we can express ourselves with these four topics and from there everybody can learn a thing or two. Unfortunately, nobody can come close to these four topics. Till today have not seen much art concerning some of the more pivotal times in politics, be it during Malayan Union times when the people opposed what has been agreed and approved by the Royalties and British nor the more recent stuff like Memali. I hope we will one day have a movie with Malayan Union and the royalties as the central theme.

Similarly, God forbid if we ever make movies on corrupt politicians of yesteryear or even of today. Some of these stories we hear could really make it big in the movies. Some of the big corruption and abuse of power cases would’ve made some darn good movies. If you complained about our film industry not making enough money, these are the stuff that will make the money rains.

Then we have the issue of equality among the people of different races. There has been many work of arts regarding the conflict between the black and white in Hollywood. Stuff like blacxploitation and black power. Change it to Malay, Chinese, Indian. Heck, we should have more coming out from Sabah and Sarawak fighting for their rights to be equal on all field. All of these are off limits it seemed.

Why are these topics off limits?

One has to wonder, why are these off limits? Politicians keep saying we are not there yet as a society. We, the rakyat, apparently, can’t handle it yet. We apparently will start killing off each other if we have all of the above topics be made movies the way we want it.

Are we really that weak that we can’t handle any of these stuff? Let’s take a look at some of the more contemporary art that may help to tells us whether we can handle it or not.

First up, Drama Band performance during AJL. It has a spin on social and political commentary touching on Najib and Rosmah and their handbags, PU Abu and the issue of him leaving his wife while she’s still pregnant with his child. Dai’e Farhan who got married with his second wife in Makkah and lastly all the people who love/hate the above folks.

The public were up in arms about the show. Furious! TV3 took down the Band’s performance on their YouTube channel. Censored. Saying they are checking with MCMC if this is in their performance is against the code or not. Just tell the truth that you don’t want to piss off your lords Najib and Rosmah please. This is just a load of bull.

Next, we have these art pieces by Ahmad Fuad Osman. Apparently National Art Gallery (Balai Seni Negara) removes 4 pieces of art that portrays Anwar Ibrahim in it. Ahmad Fuad learned that National Art Gallery justified its decision based on the complaint of a single board member who found the works obscene and political. One person of power didn’t like what he sees and he removes them. Censored. Again, this is a load of bull.

One of the four art pieces taken down. This is entitled ‘Missing’.

Fortunately, Deputy Minister of Arts, Tourism and Culture have instructed NAG to reinstate those art pieces.

Next, who can forget the shitstorm that Fahmi Reza had to go through for the infamous Clown poster of Najib. He was expressing his politically charged opinion of what a clown Najib is. That is all. And yet the shitstorm he has to go through is crazy. Censored. A load of bull indeed.

On the subject of race, we have Engku Iman excellent experimentation on labeling our beloved Lee Chooong Wei as Jaguh and/or Pendatang. This is an excellent piece of art experimentation and how it makes us think and react. Quite a few folks were taken aback by her experiment. Why were you taken aback? Triggered? And she was called out on it. It’s a load of bull.

One of the few local authors and writers I like, Dr. Faizal Musa or his pseudonym Faisal Tehrani. He has written several books and many of his books has been banned by Jakim on the basis of having Shia elements. He has denied it multiple times but you know lah. Censored. It’s all a load of bull.

Lastly, the drama caused by a movie made by the wealthy businesswoman Sajat while she was in Mekah performing umrah. The whole nation went apeshit. Everybody talks about her. I don’t need to share more as the whole nation just went totally apeshit and I’m sure you got to see it all unfold as well. People were and still are so angry because she has apparently insulted Islam, Mekah and the whole ritual of umrah all in one fell swoop. Everybody was asking for Sajat to be taken out of Mekah. And they succeeded. Sajat Banned. Censored. It’s a load of bull indeed.

Apparently the politicians are correct. The Rakyat can’t handle it.

Let’s prove we can handle it

It’s up to us, the Rakyat, to be able to be clear-minded and be open. Many believes to be open is a western thing, hence not a good thing. Being open is often labelled as liberal and it carries this negative connotation with it. What many ulama have said is Liberal Islam is bad. I’m not sure if there is such a thing as ‘Liberal Islam’. Islam is Islam, there shouldn’t be anything else right?

Now to me, Liberal is a good word. To me, liberal means the notion or idea of liberty and equality. Anas Zubedy have written about how Liberal in Islam is a good thing. Go read it. The point is, we need to encourage others to be able to listen better and be emphatic to others. Encourage others to explore and discover their potential.

What if the art insult YOU Shaik?

What if that piece of Art is an insult to you Shaik? Would you just listen and be emphatic still Shaik? Well, I got a simple answer for that. Islam teaches us how to handle insult. It’s very easy to follow.

The Quran tells us how to handle insult in 33:48.

And incline not to the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Disregard their noxious talk, and put thy trust in Allah. Allah is sufficient as Trustee

Quran 33:48

So easy right? We just need to disregard their noxious talk. We just need to ignore their insult. It’s so easy, we basically just need to DO NOTHING. Just a simple nothing. Ignore them. It can’t get any easier than this. Literally do nothing.

Then what do we do?

The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend

Quran 41:34

It’s so easy, repel, push away, reply the bad deed with a good deed. If you do this, you and the person who insults you will become good friends. When someone insults us, we shouldn’t go and kick him in the balls. We shouldn’t scold him/her. We also of course shouldn’t jail the person. Those are not a good deed. We just need to reply the insult with good deeds. Very easy to do as well.

This is exactly where the problem lies

The problem lies with us the Rakyat. Quran tells us to ignore the insults. Quran tells us to repel bad deed with good deeds. However we continue to not ignore the insults and use more bad deeds to repel bad deeds. We continue to care about the insult and throw some more insult back to them, ban, scold, get angry, hit them, or worse threatened to kill the person who insulted us through their words, movies, paintings, comics and whatever form of art they use.

Let’s all learn to ignore these insult and repel bad deeds with good deeds. Rise above enmity and insult. Go back to what the Quran says.

So the next time you read a comic, or watch a movie, or see someone performed some form of arts in a manner that insults you, your religion, your mom, your family, your whatever lah. Remember, to ignore them and reply the bad deeds with good deeds.

Take a look these non-believers, non-muslims. They actually do what the Quran says and see how it results in something great.

It’s great to see what Allah says works on everybody be they muslims or non-muslims. But we, decided not to do what Allah have said. That ladies and gentlemen, is where all bullshit is.

Peace be unto all.

Editors note: If you made it here, a big big thank you. I apologise for the super long one this round. I’ll try to keep it shorter next time.

China Eats Bat while We Muslims Do What!? Not So Different Eh?

I really need to get better at being inspired to write. Currently, I only am inspired or motivated to write whenever I find something that irks me. Things that make me anxious and frustrated. I’m now irked with this small-ish issue, hence I’m writing a little bit about it.

Since the recent outbreak of Novel Corona virus. Much have been talked about the fake news, false news, I-told-you-so-because-I’m-a-know-it-all-rich-boy news. I don’t have anything more to say on the issue except maybe on the last bit but that’s in another post. The guy needs a separate post just for him.

What I to share today is just how easy it is, we Muslims, find fault in others but not in ourselves. We then call them out to show that we are better than them. This is typical of Muslims in who live in a Muslim majority countries. Like us in Malaysia or the folks in the Middle East. Since I’m Malaysian, let’s talk about ourselves. As Malaysian Muslims it’s our duty to always look at ourselves and see how can we be better. Before looking at others and telling the how can they be better.

Let me start by sharing what Muslims in Malaysia has been saying to the Chinese regarding Corona Virus.

These are just a glance of what folks are sharing on social media. It’s typical among humans to compare between themselves and show that they are different or better than others. We like to show other people that we are indeed better. To always try to spot the differences and try to one up each other. We do it all the time, we probably just didn’t realise it.

This is a bad practice. At least, in the grand scheme of uniting the people. This practice divides us. I like to bring some balance and show to all that we Muslims aren’t any different. Once we know that we are not that different, then the magic happens. Let me share with you that we too, are similar to the Chinese in consuming stuff that cause harm to our body. But we choose to only point our fingers to non-Muslims.

Let me take you back to 2014, There was an outbreak of Mers-Cov, causing what was know at the time Middle East respiratory syndrome. It partly shares the same name with the more recent Wuhan Corona Virus outbreak. Both have the word Corona in it. I’m not a virologist, so I’m not going into the similarities and differences in detail. Suffice to say that the one from Middle East have were transmitted through contacts with camels and later through humans albeit with low possibilities. Mers-Cov have a mortality rate of about 35%. This means 35 deaths in 100 cases of MERS-Cov. In Contrast, Wuhan Corona Virus mortality rate as of 30 Jan is just under 3%. Of course this will change as time passes.

What irks me is that we Muslims have the same habit of consuming stuff that harms us. And we also believe that it’d do great for our health. Science have proven that it’s dangerous but yet we still do it.

A few friends of mine who just came back from their Umrah trip shared their experience in drinking Camel’s urine. You heard it right, Camel urine. More specifically Susu Tarik Kencing Unta. Camel urine mixed with camel milk. I’m not kidding. Here is a video about it.

Where does this come from? It came from a Hadith. It’s an authentic hadith and not a weak one. To confirm this you can find it on Federal Territory Mufti Page. Let me quote a few lines from the page.

Terdapat dua pandangan ulama’ dalam hal ini. Pendapat yang pertama, bahawa air kencing unta bukanlah najis di sisi Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad dan sebahagian salaf. Pendapat ini juga disokong sebahagian ulama mazhab al-Syafie seperti Ibn Munzir, Ibn Hibban dan lain-lain.

Pendapat yang kedua mengatakan air kencing unta adalah najis. Ini adalah pendapat Imam al-Syafie sendiri dan jumhur ulama’. Lihat Fath al-Bari (1/338).

Taken from muftiwp.gov.my

It is very interesting that ulama from Mazhab al-Syafie went against the opinion of Imam Syafie itself. This proves that one can go against or disagree with one’s Ustaz or Imam without much scientific proof.

The page above continues and I quote:

Air kencing unta ini dipercayai mempunyai kelebihan yang banyak sepertimana dibuktikan dalam kisah kumpulan arab badwi berdasarkan hadis yang dinyatakan.

Selain daripada bukti yang disebut di dalam hadith, terdapat banyak kes-kes yang membuktikan air kencing unta ini mampu merawat penyakit. Air kencing unta ini dikatakan mengandungi kalsium yang tinggi. Lihat al-sunnah al-Muthaharah (79), al-Tib al-arabi (1/278) al-I’jaz al-Ilmi fi Sunnah Nabawiyah (833)

Taken from muftiwp.gov.my

So, the Fatwa said you can drink it if it’s for treatment. We are not that much different from the Chinese in China. They believe that eating some of the weirder stuff are to treat themselves, or to make them healthier and with more vigor. You can google why are some of them eating those weird stuff like snakes, certain types of bats and whatever other weird stuff.

I am writing say that it’s not helping to point out that just how ‘kafir’ the Chinese are just because they eat those things. That is bordering gloating. Gloating is to dwell on one’s own success or another’s misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure. Nothing good can come out of this. It’s not going to help the situation. Gloating is bordering insult. Don’t insult other people belief or be ready to have them insult your own religion.

Quran 6:108

And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.

Dan janganlah kamu cerca benda-benda yang mereka sembah yang lain dari Allah, kerana mereka kelak, akan mencerca Allah secara melampaui batas dengan ketiadaan pengetahuan. Demikianlah Kami memperelokkan pada pandangan tiap-tiap umat akan amal perbuatan mereka, kemudian kepada Tuhan merekalah tempat kembali mereka, lalu Ia menerangkan kepada mereka apa yang mereka telah lakukan.

Quran 6:108

As much as the Chinese have some things we consider to be weird, we too have the weird things we do day-in and day-out. Not all of China do the stuff we find weird. So stop all these holier-than-thou acts and let’s pray for ALL to be safe and take precautions to stop this Wuhan Corona virus outbreak from spreading further.

Peace be unto all.