Warisan, Hindraf and Racial Tension

Anak Kecil Main Api
Terbakar Hatinya Yang Sepi
Airmata Darah Bercampur Keringat
Bumi Dipijak Milik Orang

Nenek Moyang Kaya Raya
Tergadai Seluruh Harta Benda
Akibat Sengketa Sesamalah Kita
Cinta Lenyap Di Arus Zaman

Indahnya Bumi Kita Ini
Warisan Berkurun Lamanya
Hasil Mengalir Ke Tangan Yang Lain
Pribumi Merintih Sendiri

Masa Depan Sungguh Kelam
Kan Lenyap Peristiwa Semalam
Tertutuplah Hati Terkunci Mati
Maruah Peribadi Dah Hilang

Kini Kita Cuma Tinggal Kuasa
Yang Akan Menentukan Bangsa
Bersatulah Hati Bersama Berbakti
Pulih Kembali Harga Diri

Kita Sudah Tiada Masa
Majulah Dengan Gagah Perkasa
Jangan Lalai Teruskan Usaha
Melayu Kan Gagah Di Nusantara (3x)


For those who had attended the main boarding schools in Malaysia namely MCKK and all the MRSMs would straight away recognised the above lyrics of a song called...WARISAN. This is a compulsory anthem to be sung during a public assembly on every first day of the schooling week. I myself is from the MRSM stock and for quite some time has forgotten about this song (only a faint recollection of its melody can still be heard inside my head) until yesterday.

Yesterday was just like the other day, during the lunch hour myself and the usual suspects consisting Wautz (the "seni" man), Aza** (our very own pc/ghostbuster who's currently attempting to make himself to be able to fly by not eating chicken), Sham***(the half Bahrain bred), Ily**(the other competing ghostbuster but so far with no intention of becoming Superman just yet) ,Az*** (lead covert operator with the ability of knowing everything about the up and about of Malaysia politics and a fanatic when it comes to anything about French Guinea) and lastly Fit** alias Comot (who has so long failed to realise that he is no longer a salesman). So it was a daily gathering of the minds when ever inquisitive Wautz raised the issue of the recent Hindraf gathering and imminent racial tension that is coming in our way. He quoted the recent research in the Time magazine that as many as 70,000 Malaysian Chinese has left the country plus the recent gathering as being the key statistics depicting dissatisfaction of the non-Malay towards government policy on the issue of Malay rights. Then the next question was, should PAS won the next general election and forming a government how would they tackle this sensitive issue....what would be the most appropriate treatment and how is this issue be handled in accordance to Syariah law.....a question that left all of us perplexed and unaswered!!

The above event was actually the reason why lagu WARISAN suddenly came back to me. The point is that, it does not have to take a nuclear scientist or an Angkasawan to actuall realise that the song is actually about Malay survivability and sovereignity.....and for those who are unaware this has been inculcated in mostly government-backed malay-oriented education establishment. What I am trying to say is that.....will have to try to be very subtle here......conciously or unconciously the government itself has actually propagate the idea of single race dominance over the other. I am not questioning the right of the Malay people as per the social contract and by the way this was agreed by the non-Malays....and I myself is a Malay and a Muslim.

In the nutshell, the racial tension is not new, it has been lurking and lingering probably in many of our subsconcious Malay mind, hence to blame the Chinese and Indian alone for instigating it would be not quite justified.

Am I in trouble for writing this......or whether this be taken objectively in order to achieve a nobler motive.

Film Review #2: Zombi Kampung Pisang

Ok guyz, I know what you are about to say......come on...sape la tengok citer Melayu ni dah sah citer lawak murahan.....


This is obviously a not so recent release (sometimes early 2007), and as normal like any Malay film release...the first thought that would come to me is ...it is so hopeless and insignificant to me to the extent I would regard the industry in totality as being non-existent. That is how bad my perception is to Filem Melayu these days......curse you Yu*** Has***..... (you know who I am referring to) and someone please bring back the P. Ramlee glory days.

Until just recently I was lured to indulge with this piece from the director Mamat Khalid entitled "Zombi Kampung Pisang"...or ZBK for short...or..."the zombies of banana village" in its literal English translation. Considering the flood of zombies and undead themed films coming out from the west a while ago (and still continues), Mamat Khalid may want to capitalise on the genre with a Malaysian twist to the story......still this didn't excite me even in the slightest. Let's cut the crap.....the sole reason why I agreed to watch this film was because someone had lend me a copy of its VCD (which means I didn't fork out any money for this) and commented that it was different from other Malay films and because I did not have anything better to do during one of the weekend. So what the heck....I decided to give it a go.

How should I put this....ZBK was actually (on a Malaysian standard) an above par comedy and fun!!! There I said it......couldn't really believe that I would actually give a big thumbs-up for a nonsensical Malay film and with Awie in the lead role.

The film started with the opening credit trailing on top of an ambulance siren which was a homage to the Jerry Zucker's Naked Gun spoof films, which I think did play well with the ZBK film setting....It was like telling the audience....."hey guyz this is not a serious horror film". Once the opening sequence ended, ZBK if I could recall would be one of the fastest film that really cut the chase and immediately jumped into its actual plot. It was obvious as the first scene of which Zami Ismail (Pak Uda of Kg Seri Wangi fame) seemed to mysteriously drop-dead while scolding Awie and the gang for not attending prayer at the surau. From then on the film went on showing more villagers mysteriously died while the remaining started to go panick. As there were many dead bodies, the village's assistant medical assistant, Sofi had asked them to be placed in the village's Balai Raya. Not long after that, the villagers once again was shocked as all the corpses somehow went missing and it was revealed later by Husin (played by Awie) that all of them had transformed into zombies, who had a first encouter with the zombie flock while searching for a public phone.

The Balai Raya was used as a clever plot device of which it became the central location throughout the film. This was where all the corpses and villagers were gathered while discussing what to do next and it was where the villagers was under seiged with the "otak-craving" zombies. The films continued as the villagers now led by Husin trying to retaliate and just when all hopes seemed to be lost.... suddenly there were a truckload of armies to save the day. Even the zombies regain their humanness when given jabs containing antidotes. It was later told that there had been an accidental spill of chemical disposal into a rendang pot at a warong in the village. Those that happenned to eat the rendang at the warong on the fateful day experienced reactions to the chemical which then turned them into zombies.

The film had many hilarious moments and my favourite would be during the zombie attack on the balai raya. Realising that the zombies were trying to get through the ceiling, Husin had asked the remaining to assemble the tables and armed with sticks and flag pole (complete with the Malaysian flag) they tried to ward off the zombies from advancing.......and from this point the film went into slow-motion showing people climbing onto the tables to help Husin, with some of them fell down and with the flag pole straighthen up the film came to a momentary pause clearly showing the heroic formation of the villagers on the table and the flag pole mimicking exactly like the "tugu negara"......and that was really funny.

All in all, watching ZBK was an interesting experience and Mamat Khalid did a good job in departing the film away from the stereotype Malay comedy. I personally think the film works due to its simplicity. The dialogue was simple yet funny and most importantly it doesn't sound anything like the hopeless Yu*** Ha**** films (mana ada orang cakap camtu in real life!!). Another thing is that film chronicles what happen in only one night in Kg. Pisang and throughout of the film, the costumes were as realistic as they could be...in this case it can be seen that Awie was always in a worn-out t-shirt, kain pelikat and with a "gayong" (as he was about to take a bath at the beginning of the story) and for once I could actually appreciate his talent in acting. As for the special effect....we are definitely still light years away from what those goons can do in Hollywood....but who cares when we have a fine and entertaining nonsensical plot.

So kudos to Mamat Khalid for trying so seriously to ensure that the film not to be seriously taken...just go watch it and have fun!! .......4/5 stars

The Chronicle of Me: Part 3 (Final)

The Working Years......until now (1997- )

Whew! It took me sometime to actually get down on this final chapter....anyway here it goes...

Despite persuasion from my undergraduate project supervisor to stay on and continue doing MSc and then Phd, I decided to go back to Malaysia to start working and earn money, giving reason that my sponsor's (i.e. TM) requirementt for the students to come back and serve the company upon graduation.

It was in Aug 1997 when I first reported duty and me and my batch was enrolled in 3 months mandatory training. It was a good having to re-group with old friends who were scattered all around UK years ago and at the same time there were also those scholars from local uni, hence opportunity to make new friends. It was during this training period I decided to apply for a totorial position in Unitele Melaka as I thought that I would make a good academician due to great love in science and learning.....so off I went to Unitele.

At Unitele I was assigned to a Bangladeshi Professor assisting him teaching Solid State Electronics.....my strongest subject and passion. In a class of a mixture of Malay, Chinese, India and some foreign students I immediately notice a striking gap in terms of academic performance. I wish not to elaborate this further and it is actually well understood. I did ask around why was this happening. One source of the story said due to overwhelming response from the non-Malay to enter the University (who happen to scored excellent results in their SPM), in order to fill in the Malay quota the university had taken the "tangkap muat" approach giving very little priority to the SPM results of the Malay students. No wonder lots of the Malay students did not even have a clear grasp of the basic of solid state theory...let alone to let them ponder on a more complicated physics and mathematical concepts.......it was like a suicide for them.

My stint in a university environment was not a successful one, after 2 months and a few phone calls I was transferred to TM HQ in KL. In my re-assignment letter it mentioned that I will be reporting to Corporate Strategy Division. Being a well-grounded engineering and technical person....I was trying to figure out what the he** is Corporate Strategy Division (CSP)....I was hoping that the HR will put me in network engineering or operation or something similar of which I would be more comfortable.....but why the heck were they putting me in CSP!! Never mind I said ...probably It would be clearer once I was there.

Well as the name suggests, it was not an engineering division, the division is responsible to in developing the high level strategic direction for the company......and how does an engineer fit in this scheme of thing. For a first few months it was hell! As I know nuts what these people are talking abount...all the strategic management, finance and accounting mumbo jumbo..."tolongggggggggggggg!!!!". Nevertheless, I was so lucky to have a good boss and he was once an engineer...so most of the time it was him that was trying to make sense of things that we do in CSP in an engineer point of view.

Years after the above event, I have come to terms ad got used to the working environments and its requirements. It had forced me to step out of my comfortable zone and actually I had leant and acquire a lot of knowledge.....this was actually my strategic inflexion point and for once I realised that there are more interesting things than just the little protons andelectrond. Life was easier from then on and it was time for me to take probably the most crucial step in my life.

I came to know her...well actually we were introduced by a common friend, Kak Nab (more like "kakak" instead of a friend to me) during a end of training function and it was on the 31st Aug 1997 which also co-inside with her birthday. I have to confess here that I was never good at courting women....the idea of having a girlfriend when I was a student was mission impossible! And that really made me an odd ones among my friends. But having said that, I did have a crush on my course-mate at the university but again due to my nature I was too damm scared to say anything....syok sendiri je laaa. Ok let's get back on the track....at first I agreed to meet her out of respect to Kak Nab....same goes to her. From one simple name intro, it led to a very lenghty conversation that night.....and from then we frequently called each other and normally talked on the phone untill wee hour......I used to express my perplexed-ness at those couple who can talk on and on ..hours and hours and hey! look what happened to me myself......I guess people in love have the ability to bend time and space as if it is just a matter of seconds to them.

We got married in 2000 and guess what...on 31st Aug 2000!! So for both of us 31st Aug is really significant as it marks our first introduction, our akad nikah date as well as being my wife's birthday......Subhanallah! We have been happily married for seven years now and Alhamdulillah blessed with 2 kids ...a daughter (6 years old) and a boy (3 years old)....and InsyaAllah one more is coming soon.....at this point as a father, since I already have a girl and boy, what comes after is not an issue to me anymore (but my wife really wants a girl).

- Me & My Happy Family -

So there goes a summarised version of my chronicle. The purpose of this is more to me than anyone else...to remind myself, from where I come from and how I got to be where I am today. We are not sure what would happen in the future except that we always pray to Allah for the very best.....nevertheless the past is for us to cherish and take lesson from it...and those are something that we know.

The Chronicle of Me: Part 2

The Formative/Looking For Identity Years (1987 - 1997)



My notorierity seemed to mellow down towards the end of my early years. As I have said before this I excelled academically and secured a place in a boarding school to continue my secondary education. I spent 3 years in MRSM Kerteh, Terengganu until my SRP exam. Since my scholl was considered as mini-MRSM, so by the end of the 3rd year all of us were re-distributed to the main-MRSMs. I was sent to MRSM Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu, which I regard as being the worst period of schooling due to the bullish seniors and the sweet-extra sugar-take on everything that I eat. Fortunately it was only a short encounter as I was again transferred to MRSM Kulim, Kedah.



It was another 2 years in Kulim until the SPM exam. I guessed this period had in a way exposed me to more than just the academics and somewhat had paved the way or for the first time influenced the direction that I had taken in my future life. MRSM Kulim is different from the other MRSMs as it is also a matriculation centre for UPM, UKM, UUM and USMs for ex-MRSM students. On top of that, there were like only 108 of us in my batch doing upper secondary. So and so, most of the time we mingled among those university-bound students that ranges from the most pious and the most "samseng" one. I had my first encounter with Islamic movements while my stay here....I guess it was that time of Islamic revival among the students. So there was this Arqam group (way before they got banned) whose members have specific penchant to the colour green, as well as to PAS-influenced establishment. Being a happy-go-lucky type of person then, I did not really get myself involved.

Talking about life in late mid 80's to early 90's it reminds me of the "Malay Rock" era. I personally think that no one that had passed through this period of time had not been affected by this phenomenon. The uniqueness of "Malay Rock" is that, on the contrary of the "rock" theme, the songs are pretty much melancholic or in Malay...mendayu-dayu or meleleh beb......most often the songs that topped the chart those days were from these music genre...the more meleleh the song....the higher chance of it to be the favourite among fans. So we have the likes of Search, Wings, MAY, De Fabians, OLAN, Rusty Blade, Junction, Sofea, BPR, Crossfire, Desire (this was an odd one as they hailed from Kelantan as oppose to many others from the Johor) and the list goes on dominating the music scene. Honestly! most of these groups did not fit to be called rock groups except for a few maybe. Besides their appearances (i.e. long hair, leather pants, catchy calling names as well as "thought-provoking" group names) the music was actually a blend of pop (a lot) and rock (very little and only obvius during the electric guitar "goreng" sequence) elements. Songs like "Cinta Bandar Tasik Selatan", "Taman Rashidah Utama", "Realiti & Fantasi", "Isabella", "Untukmu Sayang", "Sketsa Sebuah Cinta", "Intanku Kesepian" and "Bunga Padang Pasir" had become the staple of the music industry.......of which are not rock songs but a desperate and deliberate effort of camouflaging a pop music with an electric guitar sequence so as to capitalise the popularity of these alleged rock groups. Another glaring trait of the so-called rock songs was that 99.9999% dealt with the theme "cinta"....it could be cinta terhalang, cinta tak kesampaian, cinta monyet etc. etc. Having said all of these, I have to admit that I was once being sucked up by the music (which I so despise today).....probably because it was the most natural thing to do back then and there was no time for us to be critical anyway.

Along with their "tangkap leleh" songs, these rock groups also responsible for trendsetting styles. Everyone of us would have recalled when the trend "seluar kaki kecik/seluar ketat" was the most in thing among the youngsters and it is not too extreme that it literally swept the nation by storm. Everything from the jeans, school pants and even Baju Melayu pants had to be altered so as to qualify as being a seluar ketat. I would say that things had become out of control to the extent that the school had devised a clever way to measure the "kecikness" of the students' pants by inserting a glass bottle through the "kaki seluar"......if the bottle passed through then you are safe otherwise your pant would be scissored so as to allow the bottle to pass through it.

Ok enough about that. I had to mention it anyway as I felt that it somewhat affected my of us, when everybody was behaving like a rocker. However, the effect was waned down as time progresses.....there were more important stuffs that I had to ponder such as the SPM. So whay was SPM so big of an issue. While it was important as it would determine your next course of academic path, being where I was (i.e. MRSM Kulim), the pressure had been quadrapled! Why? Maybe some of you that happen to read this blog would know, my school was a special project school where the cream of the crops from all MRSM who had achieved the best of SRP results were put together and undergone a somewhat different curriculum. The objective was to produce the best and most integrated Malay students who are bound for academic excellence. So......for us...to obtain Grade 1 was not an aspiration.....it was considered given!

To cut the story short, after SPM, which I did quite respectably.....but not really astounding as what my other friends had achieved....bolehlah..and good enough to secure me a scholarship with Telekom Malaysia (TM) to do A-Level. As my SPM results were so-so....so I didn't get to fly off to the UK for my A-Level, instead I took my A-Level in MSM Cheras for 2 years before I was off to UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology) to do electronic engineering for another 3 years (1994-1997). It was during this period I got re-acquainted with the Islamic-movement ...specifically the PAS-influenced one and really got myself involved. Frankly, being involved with the group had opened my eyes to other aspects of life besides academic excellence. It certainly had thought and exposed me to many other matters that obviously not covered by the mainstreams publications and text books. I made friends who had guided me to become a better Muslim and I am so thankful to them until this day. On contrary to the popular belief, while being active with the movement, I graduated with the highest honours....Alhamdulillah and I was then ready to comeback to Malaysia and enter the "exciting" working world.

.........to be continued ......final chapter....."The Working Years"

The Chronicle of Me

Just to keep the momentum going, I don't really have anything substantial to blog about at the moment and frankly really not in the mood to engage in a thought provoking subject just yet (sigh! have been having this on-off fever thing for past few days.....not in my best form)...but need to keep things going anyway.

That lead to my decision to write about myself, a chronological incidences of the past 30+ odd years ever since I came to being in this world. Duh! What a boring subject, does everybody has to write and bragging about themselves.......as boring as it may be to many people out there......but again too bad.....this blog is mine afterall.

The Early Years (1974 - 1986)

I hailed from the east coast state called Terengganu of the Malaysian Peninsular. Family-wise, my parents could be categorised under medium income family (read: not rich!) of the Malay ethnicity. An interesting fact about us is that, legend has it....on my mother's side we are descended from Yunnan though it is almost impossible to detect any chinese-like features on me, however, I noticed that my mother's siblings (i.e. aunt and uncles) do have a very fair complexion for a typical Malay. On my father's side, I was told that we have a lineage going back to the palace....not quite sure how it works and never quite bother to ask the details. On a holistical perspective, my family is just a typical Malay family living in a Kampung.

My father was a teacher until he retired in late 1990's while mum is a full time housewife. I have 5 older sisters and 1 youger sisters making me the 6th out of seven siblings. Just imagine! A boy living throughout his early years among girls......how scary can that be. One would have imagined that I would turn up to be one of those "mat lembik" type of person. But Alhamdulillah, thank God that I grew up to become a normal boy and man......I guess I owe much to my father who would normally make sure that I be on his side wherever he goes.....so that I won't be overwhelmed by the girly influences. That also means I don't have to do house chores to the envy of others.........what a great strategy it was...kudos to my Father.

As a little boy I was extremely naughty to the extent that none of my sisters would want to babysit me if my mother had to go away for a certain business. Yea Yea Yea....you people would say that I am a mummy's boy, hey! I did get my fair share of beating and scolding by my mom and dad. There had been a lot of other incidents when I was little (before I start my schooling) that had gained me a reputation as being one of the most notorious boy among my clan, of which I won't bother to deliberate.

Alhamdulillah, despite being "dennis the menace-like" boy, I was and still am (again Alhamdulillah) blessed with good brain....not to the level of gifted or genius but good enough for me to progress through my primary and secondary schooling with good grades....a relief to my parents and sisters.

.....to be continuued..."The Formative/Looking for Identity Years"

Film Review #1: Wrong Turn 2 - Dead end

One of my favourite pastime other than reading is watching films especially those "rare" titles that normally way off the mainstream and most often than not, those that are direct to DVD (i.e. no theatrical screening). Of the many genres out there, horror/mystery/thriller films always catch my attention as I enjoy the scare jumps and most often these films has the "whodunnit" element that keep us guessing until the end who is the real perpetrator. And sometimes I watch these flicks to test how good the filmakers are in delivering the horror as normally suggested by the taglines accompanying the films' posters.

Last week I was at a "pasar malam" near my house looking for something to grab for that night and happened to patron one DVD stall (read: prirate DVD) and came across this film...."Wrong Turn 2 - Dead End". I had watch the first installment of the film so I thought that why not watch the sequel. Well, frankly the film is hardly a sequel as it stands on its own with new characters except for the plot of a family of deformed cannibalistic mutated and no nonsense mountain people wreak havoc upon a group of survivor-like reality show participants in a Jungle. The first film was ok and was given a theatrical release and had its scary ang gory parts. But, the 2nd film......at least for me has taken the goriness off the chart!!! Starting from the 1st scene involving a female character until to the last tensful scene, there was this non-stop human chopping, decapitation, diembowelment, slaugthering and grinding (imagine going to the wet market looking at the butcher chopping, slicing and battering the meat and the cow's organs, except that in this case a human is the subject) activities went on. If you guys out there have seen Hostel/Hostel 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the likes, I personally think that this one offers a few notches above that.

So do I like the film, well, for a film done with a specific reason depicting what the mountain people capable off, yes it serves its purpose and was delivered spot on. While on entertainment value, based on my barometer, it lacks the intelligence, put in a few sexy women and a bunch of deformed mutants which at the end everyone dies except for one or two that happen to posses the highest moral value who escaped the carnage and went home safely......very straight to the point formula. There was no mystery or plot twist which would have helped making the film more interesting. Having said that, the films did have a good production value and setting. Can't really comment much on the acting ...as far as I am concern the actors/actresses appeared and acted way more convincing compared to all Yusof Haslam's films brought together, even the deformed mutants delivered better acting chops than Erra Fazira & Awie.

So, it was an OK film, but I think they overdid the gruesome department, which left me a bit disturbed at the end..... 2.5/5 stars

An Opening Gambit

Assalamualaikum and hello to all cybernetters and bloggers out there.

Call me "the_cook".

This may well be my introduction to the global blogging community but definitely not the first one. Frankly, I have started once before, however due to lack of discipline I abandoned it. Just recently, there was this urge of having a place to voice out my opinion (regardless the subject) and after being encouraged by my wife (who is happened to embrace blogging and relaised its benefits way earlier) and friends so I decided to actually started one of my own.

"The Talking Corner".....which I personally think a good title for my blog. At a simple glance, the title really embodies the very spirit of blogging...that is openness and one-self entitlement for differing in opinion....as G.H.Hardy (1877 - 1947), a prominent English Mathematician once said.."it's not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that". The title also reminds me of the Hyde Park Corner (HPC) in London. Having gone through my days as students in the UK in late mid 90's, HPC is really an interesting blogging space without long before the Internet was conceived. The good thing about the HPC, people get to speak whatever they like and sometime those people there not doing anything except for dancing their way to a rap song. At the end of the day, after much debate and swearing, everybody would disperse calmly. So this space of mine is propagating the same HPC spirit, I talk/write, others would comments or observes (or send me hate mails if I strike it right) but at the end of the day everybody would disperse calmly.

Motivation is a strong pulling factor. I believe that on the onset, people do something driven by certain kind of motivation..good or bad. Same goes for me, I have my own motivation which leads to the creation of this blog. Besides able to voice out my differing opinions, I think the nobler motive would be the propagation of knowledge and information and with the Internet it is free for all, a buffet type..."eat all you can" kinda thing.

I think this would do for an opening, will keep on posting InsyaAllah (God willing) and stay tune for variety of subject matters to be rambled and mused.