August 2005 Editorial

What is the most challenging period in our life time ? This may sound philosophical but in reality it is not at all. We all face it every step of our life time, from the moment we are born, not counting the period before birth when it is our mother that faces it. Today in this ever changing and fast world , what with our technological advance and inventions that supersedes our very own imaginations, we are all facing tremendous challenges trying to adjust and live with the time we are in today. The ordinary man is baffled by the things that affect his life. For one thing, he has no more privacy, if that is even the correct word to use any more ! Just take the simple My Card that all Malaysians must have by the year’s end. With all the inbuilt features that it has, and we all subscribe to it for the sake of convenience, it seems, we have virtually sold our life privacy to the authorities that be. However, that is what we all seek for and want for ourselves these days. We all want convenience. Convenience to have others do things for us, seek for us, think for us and imagine for us and in the end we become exhausted without realizing that we are ourselves at fault from the very beginning for letting others intrude on our privacy.

These days, to get myself "drift" from all these happenings, I choose to go back in time. For instance I recall the time when Izzat was twenty six when he came home from Melbourne after completing his studies. For over six months he had no permanent job apart from helping us manage our meager direct selling business at home. He became restless and while away his time with his former classmates. It was at one of these outings with them that he found and developed a friendship and liking for a girl who was originally a friend of his best friend. Their friendship developed into love and Izzat started to hint wanting to get married. At first we took it lightly thinking that he must be jesting but when he started to be more naggingly persistent on it, we started asking him questions about his intentions. One thing led to another we decided to let him get married despite the fact he did not as yet have a job. The decision was made out of religious consideration since he was dating her everyday and traveling all the way to her home which was 40 miles away during the day and night. We became worried of untoward event that might happen if the situation was not immediately placed under control. Anyway, we finally made all the arrangement to initiate meeting his girl friend's, Aida’s parents and thence later to fix the date and venue for the wedding itself.

When it comes to wedding arrangements and the preparations that lead to such an event, nothing could be more arduous than a Malay wedding preparations. Close family members would be consulted and their assistance sought after to start looking for suitable clothing and materials for same , suitable jewelry, personal adornments, reception venue, guests lists, and other logistics for the wedding reception proper etc. All in all, these would take so much time and energy by all involved but it is amazing just how patient all these women would be when it comes to a wedding event. Whatever took place for Izzat 's wedding, I was only the driver at times to send and fetch my wife, Ainul, from wherever she was at her errant, whilst at other times, she was entirely in the company of her sisters in law. Anyway, the wedding went off well but what I am saying here is, we have spoiled our son by financing his marriage almost in the entirety. Of course we can only assume that he feels grateful that we did. Only the other night I met a young friend who said he divorced his wife after a year's marriage, and it was financed in the entirety by his parents !

Izzat's wedding reception was a unique one. Instead of holding it at a posh hotel, or at home, we had his at an Indian restaurant. Number of guests was limited to immediate family members only and up to 150 pax which was what the restaurant could take in. Instead of the usual 'tabur bunga rampai and beras kunyit ', we had all the guests to line up all the way from the entry gate to the restaurant entrance with each one having a handful of multicolored ticker tapes we earlier received all the way from the States sent by Farah, our daughter. Of course Farah and Arman could not make it for the wedding. Everyone had great fun throwing the ticker tapes on the bride and bridegroom as they marched in ! The menu for the dinner too was unique. It was northern Indian foods all the way and almost limitless too with everyone feeling very full and satisfied when they left.

And that reminded me of another unique wedding reception for my nephew Akasyah. Instead of having someone read the background of the newly weds which always bored the guests, we had it done differently. Farah meted the idea of a stage play instead. It was a tableau of sort and narrated in the Kedah dialect with my wife Ainul and our niece Fadlinatun as the main actors and the pantomime readers Mahatun and Sharifah Faridah. That was great fun indeed and to top it all, no bersanding but a speech of thanks by Akasyah himself, which again is very original ! The comments by Dr Sabri’s friends , ( Akasyah’s dad ) it was as if they had attended a show and very entertaining !

Which brings me to the subject of just how fragile and flimsy things are built and sold these days. Gone are the days when a manufacturers, carpenters, artisans, are proud of their work and ensuring that whatever they make these are for long lasting usage. However in the fifties and sixties it was different then. I recalled a wedding present from my very close friend Ibrahim Ariffin. It was a small National refrigerator, which served our modest needs at the time of our marriage. The amazing thing was the fridge remained in good working order for over twenty years. It was only the body frame which started to break down in the later years whilst the other mechanical parts remained in good working order. If not for the total negligence of the repairer who completely delayed and neglected to replace the worn out body work, the refrigerator could have been restored but unfortunately this never took place and our poor fridge simply got rotted away, much to our annoyance and regret. This was the living proof of how good and lasting the goods were those days. These days, a refrigerator's life span seldom exceeds more than five years and so are most things of value too. We can only conclude, manufacturers are getting wiser and they have discovered the way to make money faster. Gone are the days when the inventor is proud of his work and wants it to last. The same inventor now invents something that seems very attractive and useful too meet modern requirement but they are not made to last or get out of fashion fast for faster turnover in business.


Back to my early village life, I recalled how inventive the old folks were then when it came to meeting day to day necessities. Our main water supply in Sri Menanti came from either the nearby river or directly from the mountain stream. Apart from the water sourced from duged wells, water was also collected from rain which was directed from the roofs drain pipes to a specially made bricks and cement containers. To obtain fresher water from the mountain stream, hollowed bamboos were joined together to direct the water to a big container. Somehow, whatever water was obtained and collected those days, they all seemed somewhat clean and fresh looking and they did not have that murky muddy look like the water we get nowadays. This was perhaps because the water sources of those days were not contaminated by any form of pollutions. that pollute ours these days. Nowadays it is not only our water sources are polluted, even the air that we breathe in are highly polluted ! What with the open burning of forests and rubbish heaps in neighboring countries and our own doings at home, plus the continuous smokes of vehicles exhausts in their thousands on the road every day and smokes that emit from factory chimneys, all of them help to contribute to the density of pollutants in our air. It is altogether a sad state of affairs for all of us. Little wonder, we all get all those coughs and cold and not to mention skin allergies too for children and adults as well.These days in our own house, we have to instal triple filteration from the water mains so as to ensure clean and hopefully clear water for our daily needs. As for drinking water, we instal a special reversed osmosis machine. Added expenses to all those continuing spiralling costs of water these days. We cannot imagine what is it going to be in a few years time !

Which reminds me of our visits to Switzerland and Austria just a few years ago at which countries we were marveled with the extreme pollution measures that they get their people committed to in their daily lives. Much noticed was the streams and flowing rivers both in the country sides and those that flow into the cities. They were all freshly clean looking - the water - I mean ! Tried as I might to find any kind of rubbish at the river banks, or even the main drains, I just could not find any. It is the contrary to our own rivers and streams which are full of everything that you can name floating therein. Well, what of the air next ? Just as clean too and we can feel it to be so when we breathe. What we noticed and experienced was that all vehicles would turn off their engines whenever they are at red lights on the junctions., and despite the queues that could build up , nobody fuss about being delayed at take off , because everyone is concerned about keeping the air clean. At one little town called Zemit, a town village situated at the bottom slope of the Matterhorn, in Switzerland and what a beautiful place it was too, every form of transport in this place , was battery-operated ! And of course the place smells of clean air throughout despite the overcrowding of tourist all over the place ! It was simply marvelous !

Both of us got hooked up on overseas travels since the year we decided to forget about spending those money that we could spare to renovate our house. Prior to that, there was always something we wanted done to improve our house and resulted in our not having any money to spare for holidays. Hence one bright day we decided to put our foot down to all those renovations and chose to travel instead ! Our first trip together was on a European tour which covered England, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. It was one of those whirlwind tours which made us get up very early in the morning, traveled all day and ended up at a different hotel each late evenings or nights. We saw a lot of places but we could hardly recall any details of things and places we saw and been to. Such indeed was the hard pace tour that we did. Nevertheless it was a memorable one and became the pace setter for all our subsequent overseas travels in the years that followed. In short we both got caught with the travel bug ! However, being young then , it was no big deal and on looking back, it was indeed very enjoyable although we can barely recall the details of the places we visited ! Later trips took us to Sweden and Norway and down under to Australia and New Zealand and even to the then Soviet Union of Russia, East and West Germany, Poland and Hungary. The visits to the United States was initiated by my first visit there as a visiting University Undergraduate in 1960.

I was then a sophomore or in my second undergraduate year at the University of Malaya, of which I had the privilege of being amongst the first batch of Malayan (the then Malaya prior to the Malaysia of today) students to experience the first local University in the country. Previous to that all our students studied at the University of Singapore or the Raffles College there apart from those who studied in the United Kingdom. Thus I was amongst the first batch of pioneer undergraduates for the University of Malaya at Pantai Valley, Kuala Lumpur. There were only three hundred or so of us then, with the majority in the Engineering and Science Faculties leaving a hundred or so in the Arts Faculty .As was the norm in those days, there were only thirty eight Malay undergraduates and all doing Arts whilst only one solitary Malay in the Engineering Faculty ! The Malays were really backward in the academic fields those days and hence for those who made it to the Universities, they were considered the cream of the society then ! This situation was no better at the then Technical College, which in later years became to be known as Universiti Teknologi. Such imbalance in the academic fields for the Malays, became in the later years a political issue.

However in those days, there was never any feeling of inferiority amongst the ethnic races in Malaya. Everyone seemed to accept the fact that we were what we were ! The Malays a contented race and easy going, the Chinese a business community, the Indians as estate laborers whilst the English and Europeans, the Master group who were always at the top of the ruling ladder, apart of course from the traditional Sultans and Chieftains of the Malays. Hence, the intermingling of the races was the norm then and each minding their own business - so as to say ! but of course, this did not last, when politics became an active pursuits of the freedom fighters of Malaya - seeking Independence from the colonial English rule.

With the country's 48th Independence Day this 31st August 2005, Malaysians have a lot to ponder over the country's success in terms of its political standing amongst Independence Nations of the World. First of all, having a Monarchy democratic rule by Parliament is a unique system, fully adopted through the British. After all it was the British who gave us our Independence without bloodshed as compared to our neighboring countries. We had had hard times all the way until this day to maintain political and racial tranquilities and stability. The only racial riot which marred and to a certain extent spoiled our smooth record of harmonious living amongst our varied racial composition was the 13th May incidence of 1969. However, that's the past and we no longer look back apart from looking at the incidence as a blessing for the country. It made everyone fully aware and concerned that the wealth of the country must be equally shared between the haves and the haves not and recognition to be given to the indigenous people, the Malays to ensure their stable future in terms of education and commercial enterprises.

Full credits must be given to the four earlier Prime Ministers for ensuring that the country continues to remain politically and commercially stable for everyone, irrespective. The first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, was the Father of Independence, who gave way to Tun Abdul Razak, the 2nd Prime Minister who uplifted the economic status of the rural people with the opening of vast acres of jungle lands for rubber and oil palm, whilst Tun Hussein Onn maintained political stability. The greatest achievements came however through Dr. Mahathir , now a Tun, with his daring ventures in all fields of endeavors such as commerce and industry. Great highways were built, the World's tallest twin towers became synonymous with the country, whilst the World's Tallest Flag Pole too was something to be proud of. However, the greatest success came over the country's stubborn stand to remain independence of the International Monitory Funds effort to make the country succumb to its policy wishes and turn back the clock of independence to colonial rule. Mahathir's firm stand in the matter by pegging the US Dollar to a controlled value against the Ringgit made exports attractive to the country whilst imports were greatly reduced, which resulted in ensuring economic stability for the country as a whole, and this was despite the numerous prophets of Doom predictions for the downfall of the country.

Thus the 48th Independence celebrations of the country become more meaningful to the Malaysians because everyone has contributed in his own major or small ways to ensure that the country remains majestically stable and successful, to the envy of our neighbors and other super powers ! Malaysians are proud of our achievements although these may be seen as nothing very significant by some others out there. Does that really matter after all. What really matters are our own feeling and satisfaction that we've done well for ourselves. We have had almost absolute peace and harmony, peace and stability for the past FORTY-EIGHT YEARS of Independence; we have made peace with virtually every nation of the world except for Israel but even to that we are saying that we are not its enemy. It is just that we cannot have any diplomatic ties due to Muslims world opinion on Israel's policy towards Palestine, and the instability of the Middle East by its foreign policies. We have achieved economic and social progress beyond the expectations of the skeptics worldwide; we have lived in peace and harmony despite our diverse racial compositions ; we practice free religion although we are an Islamic country by creed and Constitution ; and most important of all, everyone is free to pursue his education of choice to have and to live in an environment of free enterprise and democratic rule. In short, we have it all for the harmonious existence of our people - something that has been hard to achieve by most of our neighbors. We are PROUD MALAYSIANS and rightly so too !

With the technological advancement and achievements that our people have attained today, we have a responsibility to the world to ensure peace and stability through an economic policy that transgress racial and ethnic considerations. I feel proud myself when I compare my computer literateness to most of my classmates who shy away from the PC with the excuse, "Ah! That’s not for us. Let the young people handle that !" And the irony of it is, these guys were the CEOs of companies and top government servants ! Learning to use the computer was made easy for me by Farahat who initially let me play around with his discarded note book which was black and white those days. I started to learn to write letters and things of the sort and got frustrated many times when by a mistab, I would lose all my materials. I had forgotten to save ! Over the years I did improve but remained forgetful to save but saved by the PC’s own automated saver. I am no expert and remain basic user till today. However, my accomplishment with the PC suits my requirement. It was the mails which intrigue me. Over time I got to see and experience a lot of gains and mostly losses on so called investments on the Internet. I always believe my PC must pay for itself. Hence my search for business on the Internet.

The other day I did come across a very interesting Internet networking business venture. It is the offer of web site as a business building venture. Just click on http://www.my.ws/pagaruyung38

And you will see what I mean ! When I mention this to Farahat, he cannot see the logic of having to monthly pay $10 to maintain a web site and the same is of no use to most people anyway. What Farahat fails to see is, this is what business is all about. It is not about logic because if you take a moment to think, just how often do we reason out things before we purchase anything ? We go to the movie or buy those dvds. Do we ever think of the costs and such waste after all when these give us no material gains ? In the direct selling world, more often than not, the ones who succeed are the ones who do not reason too much . They simply do the business the way they are programmed by the owners. Is it logical, for instance, to have to maintain a certain amount of sale volume each month before one is entitled to the groups sale bonus returns. Take for instance the health products of Sunrider that we distributors have to consume each month to get qualified for the bonus returns. Who would ever imagine buying for oneself, products worth in excess of ringgit three thousand each month ? When my brother-in- law mentions certain medicines costs more than a ringgit, it is nothing compared to a Sunrider Fortune Delight packet that costs more than three ringgit and it is for a mug of beverage ! Crazy ? Well, that’s business for the MLM business builder. It’s the end that counts and they do not fuss about it with academic reasons. For you folks out there, why not have a look at http://www.my.ws/pagaruyung38 and after reading it, go for it, because if not , just ponder on the quote below :-

"

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk and philosopher, Thich Nhat Hanh, writes about enjoying a good cup of tea... You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea. Only in the awareness of the present can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup. Only in the present can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, and appreciate the delicacy. If you are ruminating about the past or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea. You will look down at the cup and the tea will be gone.

Life is like that. If you are not fully in the present, you will look around and it will be gone. You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life. It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished. Learn from it and let it go. The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless. When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment. Then you will begin to experience joy in life."

Thus I bid you farewell for this time around until God willing the next time when we touch base again, Good luck, Good health and God bless us all !