Help us find Salhi

This story was featured in The Star newspaper last Friday, 27 July.

A mentally disabled man, who was recently discharged from a psychiatric ward, has been missing from his home for the past two weeks. Salhi Ahmad, 27, left home during Friday prayers on July 13, wearing a yellow shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. He has not been seen since.

Click on the photo for more information. Budak Koleq, do help your fellow Old Boy. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks Cepe

Labels: social

Of language and dialects

I just came back from my Indonesian friend, Keisha's house since she need some help with her Information Age essay.

Anyway, I always thought she stayed in Cyberia with her friend but it turned out it was her aunt's place. I clicked on her doorbell and her maid opened the door for me. I remembered what Tante Yati said that most Indonesian have maids so it wasn't quite a suprise about it. Most of the Indonesians living here also brought their maid along with them from back home.. I wonder why they don't employ those who are already here. Hurm..

Nevertheless, her aunty and her mom came back a few hours later which I must admit, shocked me since I thought this is just her aunty's place; I didn't expect her to live here along with Keisha's mom! Anyway, I was hungry and her aunties brough back some very thick murtabak and asked me to help prepare the dishes. She must've though that I'm Indonesian too since she speak to me in Bahasa Indonesia throughout the way. Thank God I somewhat understood what she said!

Later I was back at helping Keisha with her work. I spoke to her in English and that must've tipped her aunt because she asked Keisha whether I was Malaysian. Then I overheard her mother and her aunt conversing on the couch behind me. They were whispering so God knows how I overheard them.

Aunt: Eh, itu orang Malaysia iya?
Mum: Iyak, Keisha bilang dia orang Malaysia.
Aunt: Tadi aku ngomong Indonesia sama dia. Dia ngerti kok?
Mum: Pasti, pasti ngerti. Teman-temannya rame orang Indonesia..

I tried my best not to laugh or turn around and smiled at them though I really felt like. I think most Malaysian could possibly grasp some if not all what Indonesian are saying nowadays since we are very much exposed to Indonesian material through our media. Imagine the makciks who spend their evenings watching sinetrons, they could possibly speak perfect Indonesian after the season ends don't you think?

Anyway, after finishing the work with Keisha I told her about what I overheard and she laughed. She agreed that if we really try, slowly but surely we could both understand each other when we speak in our different yet same mother toungue. I remember a friend of mine telling me that for you to learn Indonesian easily is to see it as a dialect, not as another language entirely just like how you percieve Kécék Kelaté and Cakap Utara. Nevertheless, most Malaysians are still being ignorant of these beautiful dialects and dismiss them as being kampung compared to the standard Malay which is actually derived from the dialect of Riau as being more urban. I wonder why..

Sometimes I just feel lucky to be here in Cyberjaya since I am able to be both in Malaysia yet still be able to engage people of different cultures.

Labels: friends, social

Segregation on the LRT?

I thought I was living in Malaysia today.. until I turn on the radio and heard the news about there is a proposal in Parliament that calls for segregation of gender in the LRT. My thought of Malaysia fades and a vision of Taliban Afghanistan appeared. What are these politicians thinking?

I googled on the topic and though it is still new, there are a few alert bloggers who have already written about it. Among other reasons, the most likely one is that there are reports that Muslim couples are 'rubbing' against eachother in the crowded commuter. I was like, what? Just because a few kids are holding on to eachother you want to segregate the whole service? Oh, come on!

The LRT is where you get to see how Malaysians are really is. I've went through a lot of days seeing old ladies being denied of their seat by an irrate businessman who doesn't want to put his bag on the floor or his lap. I've seen a man standing up to give their seat to a senior citizen who refused to take the seat. I've seen people pura-pura tak nampak when a man on crutches embarked the train. It's not all bad though. Last week when I was on the KTM, we helped an elderly couple which the husband is blind and was carrying a bag get into the train. A young lady was even kind enough to give her seat to the couples. Do you plan to segregate these couple as well? There's always a good and bad side of everything. Why don't we think of the positive?

I hate people who talk a lot about something they don't have experience with. How many politicians who frequently use the LRT as a mode of transportation? How many? Do you guys know how is it like to ride it during rush hour where people cramped themselves just to get home in time for dinner? Korang naik Perdana ada driver, ada polis escort cakap senang la. Segregate konon.

Segregation will only make matter worst. Do you think we teenagers are so addicted to sex that we need to do the touchy feely even on the trains? Do you think we are that stupid Mr. Politician sir? If we really need to cuddle eachother, we have a lot of other venues where we could do it. Are you sure your son have never brought a girl back home while you were away Mr. Politician? Are you really really sure? Why do you care too much that boys and girls are holding hands on the train? You suppress them, and the only thing that would happen is them being more curious on why they are being suppressed. Sheesh.. Holding on to eachother on the train is nothing to be worry of Mr. Politician sir. Sometimes, it is a must. Have you heard of inertia? Oh yeah, you ride a Perdana with police escort. Of course you don't know about that.

Malaysia is always trying to do a lot of crazy implementations to better the society. Nevertheless, we still fail to admit that the core of most of our social problems is at school. Our education system sucks. Our classrooms are poorly equipt. Our SmartSchool project is a joke. You want to cure social ills? Implement Sex Education, reintroduce Civic and better the Moral and Islamic courses. Then you can dump that sorry excuse for national integrity you call the National Service and we all can focus on more important issues in the Parliament.

Segregation on the LRT? You can do better than that Mr. Politician.

Labels: Malaysia, politics, social

This is me.. I think

I was reading Layla's blog where I stubled upon this website.



Well, of course it's a Web 2.0 site aimed at social networking just like Friendster and MySpace but Imagini did it with a twist. Well, first you are given questions where you have to pick an answer from the photos given. As you might suspect, each photo tells a different perspective of a personality and at the end of it all, you'll get a 'book' describing yourself

So now you have your personality sorted out, Imagini'll try to connect you to other people who might have the same interest as you. I suspect this thing hasn't really flourished yet since 46% is the most anyone else is exactly the same as me. Talk about being unique.. Haha.

Well, what are you waiting for? I know you're bored. Click it and figure out who you are..

Labels: internet, social

Don't point yer finger at me!

I read The Star newspaper this morning and stumbled apon an article entitled interestingly enough "Police often come under fire".. Well, I had to admit, it's a fine headline and my mind starts to wonder what it is about so I glanced at the subheadline, "Mohd Johari: Local authorities at fault too". Owh.. It's that blaming game again.


It seems that it is now a popular thing to blame other people here in Malaysia. First it was them politicians blaming women's dressing that caused them to be raped, women then blame men for not being able to constrain their sexual fiends and suggest them to be kasi-ed, then they went further and blamed a bunch of clouds for the flood and did you know what the cloud replied? It gives them yet another flood.

Well, I'm not saying that, "Hey, I agree with you cops". No, I don't agree but I don't see why you need to go to the presses just to blame other people. I admit some local authorities are not really doing their job and spend our money attending a 'seminar' at some uphill resort, but blaming people like that wouldn't make things any merrier. Imagine what the local authorities would say then? "We did our job, it's the police to blame". Yeeha!

So what should be the right thing to say then? Let's see.. how about, "Police admit lacks" and the subline would be "Local authorities and Police must work together". Wouldn't that be nice? In fact, kick out the headline altogether and make the subline as a headline, "Local authorities and Police must work together". Now, that's greatness.

Labels: Malaysia, opinion, politics, social