Race politics (Part 2)

If a nation is sincere in making its people strong to boost its human capital resources, it must do away with crippling effects of race politics and treat every one of its citizen, irrespective of race, equally. There is only one race in the country – the Malaysian race. It may difficult to change the mindset of those who cherish their own race but it has to be done. Every citizen is a means to an end. The end is a strong nation with a strong people. But attention to detail must be given to the means - which is the individual citizen. We have to perfect the individual self of each citizen and the end will take care of itself. No effort must be spared in ensuring that every citizen, irrespective of race or creed, be giving enough opportunities to grow and realize their full potential. The education system will have to be revamped. The degree of the country’s success should be measured by the degree each one of its citizen’s success. This should be the ideal.

Real progress in a nation is made when its citizens are dominated by hope and courage rather than fear. When all the peoples of the land are given good education, love, sufficient income to keep them away from grave want or anxiety, a home, good health, jobs, the nation will be great. What is also required is a deep respect of human rights of each its citizens and the courage by the government to uphold such rights at all costs.

There should be a collective or collaborative enterprise rather than competition among the races. The government should do away with bumiputera companies (which is race based and promotes division) and implement the concept of “Muhibah” companies instead. By Muhibah companies, I mean companies who MUST comprise of the different races to work together to bring success to the company and to the country. The word ‘Muhibah’ means united goodwill and friendship. When the diverse inherent talents and abilities of the different races work together in a spirit of goodwill and fellowship, achieving success together, the success is 'shared' and this bring happiness to all equally. This happiness will bring purification to all concerned. All past sins will be forgiven. All past resentments will melt away in the euphoria of success acheived by a combined force of the different races. This will serve as an impetus to future successes. This is a policy for building a pure Malaysian race. This concept need not be confined to economics. It should be extended to sports too. Sport is an essential way to unite the people. A nation which excels is sport is a nation which strives on winning. And winning comes when spirits of the different races are united and different strenghts, qualities and abilities are harnessed creatively to make the team a unique and formidable force.

The government has sent a man to space. But it is of no economic consequence. It does not bring economic prosperity to all citizens. It is short term glorification. It’s time to think long term. It’s time to send these Muhibah companies out to reap the opportunities that exist globally. With a combination of the Malay, Chinese and Indian talent, we can conquer China and India – emerging giants in world economy to bring greater prosperity to Malaysia. We should not forget that we also have other races in this country for example the Sikhs, the Eurasians, the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak that can only add and strengthen these companies with their unique abilities. We should follow the British who sent out their East India companies to explore and conquer the world. As a result they became Great Britain. Why concentrate on this small little country of ours economically when we have the world economy to conquer? Instead of competing against our fellow citizens, why not compete against other nations? Why focus on race politics? Why not combine our diverse talents and abilities together and conquer the world? Bring back the wealth from abroad to the country to prosper the nation- then there will be no need for racial politics as everybody is happy, prosperous and secure. For starters, every child in this country should start learning the languages of Chinese, Tamil, Hindi and Arabic as vast opportunities lie in China, India and the Middle East. The Malays can play a very important role when these companies go to the middle east. The study of these different cultures and languages will equip the young generation nicely for future undertakings. Language is a powerful tool in economic conquest.

We need intelligence, creativity, artistic capacity and benevolence. We also need reasonableness, tolerance and the realization of the interdependence of our multiracial people. We need long sighted leaders. Finally we need morality. What is morality? It is judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see truth, the courage to act upon it. It means the dedication to that which is good and the integrity to stand by the good at any price. Race politics is immoral and an evil that must be abolished if this nation is to be strong and prosperous in the future.

Race politics (Part 1)

This country has been dominated by race politics since its independence. After 50 years of independence, it’s time to put an end to race politics. Nothing is accomplished for the nation by any attempt to make one race secure at the expense of another. This only breeds insecurity, envy, hatred and fear. The nation is divided, and that is a recipe of disaster as far as nation building is concerned. As the great Master said “A house divided by itself cannot stand”.

There is also an evil being propagated by race politics –the party that champions the rights of that race only gives handouts to its own race. Thus honestly speaking, there can be no equal distribution of wealth. To wield and stay in power, the party of that race would need to have support of its race and most of the time its supporters are ruled by emotions or passion rather than reason. As they are not ruled by reason, they are inferior in their intellect so they have to be given things unearned. For with limited reasoning powers, how can they excel in whatever they do? Thus allow a system that encourages corruption. Its an easy way to obtain riches. Thus the policy will be the man that has the least to offer wins. Give handouts to stay in power. But how much is there to give? A nation only has limited natural resources and if spent foolishly and wastefully, the present and future generations will suffer. This incompetence and weakness in the management of the country's economic resources are bad for nation building, long term. Further, if one is strong, competent, rational, intelligent, talented and able – one is rejected if one is not of the same race. If one is emotional, mediocre, loyal to race and party leaders one is rewarded with high positions and lucrative contracts. The policy does not strive for human excellence. Rather the race party wants to perpetuate mediocrity to stay in power. After all, if a man raises above mediocrity and becomes intellectual, philosopical and analytical, he will reject race politics for he sees its evil and weaknesses and therefore reject the party which is race based. In the end the race party that wants to stay in power will only serve the needs of the few of the race for they want to keep the majority of the race inferior to stay in power.

With race politics, there will be envy, ill feelings and distrust among the races. This unholy atmosphere will only produce untold evil and wickedness. In order to remain superior all types of policies or practices will be implemented by one race to frustrate or 'kill' the spirit of other race. All this is detrimental to the nation.

Intellectual integrity is anathema as far as these racial politicians are concerned. The media conceals from society true events. Its only duty is to serve as an audience to VIPs who make speeches for the ‘public good’ in phrases carefully chosen to ensure that things remain ambiguous. When one plays the race card, ambiguity is a necessity. Double talk is the name of the game. Deceit in human relations is perpetrated and encouraged. Divide and rule. These leaders who rely on race politics are willing to sacrifice the future of coming generations to their own momentary prosperity. They are the real threat to national security.

Philosophy

So much tensions, riots and wars have been caused by religion and philosophy. Religion and philosophy give people meaning to life. They take comfort in them and react violently when there are conflict of beliefs or when faith or religious institutions are threatened. Recently a blogger and a member of parliament was detained under the Internal Security Act because they touched on religious issues. All this is to me is making much about nothing.

I view religion as a form of philosophy. The purpose of philosophy is not to help men find the meaning of life but to prove to them that there isn't any. How do we know there is a heaven or a hell? How do we know what happens when we die? How do we know what God is like? Or what is God? So many definitions, so many explainations. How do we know which philosopher is right? One seems right until we read or hear another. Then both seems not to have it all right when we read another philosopher. What is truth? - was the question Pilate posed to Jesus and Jesus had no answer....I had often wondered why the great Master had no answer to that question. Here was an opportunity to tell the world what is truth and Jesus remained silent. Perhaps it was the wise thing to do as there is....no answer?

It is this insistence of meaning of life that makes man so complicated and confused. Once there is self reliazation i.e. when man realises that, ALONE, he is of no importance whatsoever in the vast scheme of the universe, that no possible significance can be attached to his activities, that it does not matter whether he lives or dies, succeeds or fails, he will become more humble and the world will be better off than it is now. Blessed the humble, they shall inherit the earth! says the Master.

Religion is based on faith or superstition. Philosophy is based on reason. Reason is the most naive of superstitions. It is delusion to believe that things can be understood when in fact the universe is a state of contradiction. It is in the nature of opposites. The duty of philosophers, religous teachers and thinkers is not to explain but to demonstrate that nothing can be explained. The purpose of philosophy is not to seek knowledge but to prove that knowledge is impossible to man because nothing is ever static in the universe. Everything is fluid, in a flux - impermanent. And what happens when philosophy proves that knowledge is impossible to man? What is left? Instinct. We are like the all other living beings- relying on our instincts. We are of the same kind, different only in degree. When in doubt, trust our instincts. Its the only reliable barometer for truth. It is my instinct (it is subjective) that we have to respect each individual and their beliefs. Love thy neighbor. If we love our neighbor, we accept and respect their beliefs and not make fun or critisize them. We can have a sharing of views and be entertained by such fellowships. We let others have the freedom of expression of differing views and we teach society to accept freedom of expression with no threats of detention without trial. A matured society would value transparency, an open sharing of thoughts and beliefs rather than censorship. Our minds are big enough to accept conflict of views. Unity in diversity is a crucial lesson a developed and civilised society needs to learn ever so badly in a world that is getting smaller by the day.

Detention without trial

Have been most busy lately that I have not had the luxury of time to blog. I have had too many things to do. When I am not thinking of work, and talk with people, I have observed a spirit of depression, of insecurity in those I meet. The country is run by a Prime Minister who is not allowed to have peace of mind to run the country, there is division in the ruling party, there is talk about a revolution and takeover of government by th opposition, there is inflation and there is this fear of racial tensions that can lead up to violence and emergency rule. These contribute to the uncertainty – we don’t know what is coming next. Investors stay away. People don’t spend money, projects are stalled and the economy is sick. Clients delay in payments, people don’t want to spend money on lawyers and I have to work harder leading to anxiety attacks.

I have now read that an MP, a blogger and a reporter has been detained under the internal security Act – that means detention without trial. How can a draconian piece of legislation exist in a country that practices democracy and profess Islam as its official religion? Detention without trial is against the universal principles of natural justice and has no place in any civilized society. This just adds to the depression and the feeling of helplessness to fair minded citizens in society. Where is the superman, the iron man or the batman? We do need them in times like these. But then they are just fantasy. They become blockbuster movies because they reflect our need for superheroes to fight the bad guys and to protect the small guy against the bully and the oppressor.

I am fortified in my view that a government is the most dangerous threat to its citizens’ rights. It holds a legal monopoly on the use of force against legally "made helpless" citizens. Civilization is setting a citizen free from the unjust oppression of government. The only power any government should have is the power to crack down on crime and to protect the minority from the oppression by the majority. (Those in government should also keep its hands off business if there is going to be any national prosperity in the long run). With minimum control and interference by the government, its citizens should be allowed to run the economy and bring prosperity to all. We cannot allow an environment where this government is free to do anything it pleases and digress to the darkest period of human history – where citizens were ruled by brute force to keep them quiet and docile so that the government can carry out its own corrupt practices and remain incompetent, weak and unjust.

There is no basis for detention without trial even if it is in the interest of national security. If a person is a threat to national security– charge him or her in court. There are powers to deny bail if evidence can be produced before the court that the person is indeed a threat to national security. Government decisions to detain an individual without trial should always be subject to review by the Courts – who must be manned by high moral standing and competent judges. The courts are the guardians of the individual’s rights. Judges are gods as far as I am concerned and therefore must act and behave like gods – learned in the law, wise, fair, just and compassionate. Even governments should tremble before these godly judges in the Court of Law.

The real threat to national security is incompetence, weakness and injustice. When these elements exist in government, then the government is the threat to national security, not the opposition, the bloggers and the reporters who criticize the government.

George Orwell wrote – If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever. I hope he is wrong about the future in this country.

The Sacred Ladder

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up upon the earth, and the top of it reached to the heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD was standing beside him." Genesis 28:12, 13. The ladder is also called Jacob's ladder. Jacob was in the wild, asleep on a stone which he used as a pillow when he had the dream. When his ego was away, while he was with nature, the ladder appeared. What is this ladder? My interpretation..

Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, also known as St Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Ecology. He saw every creature as sacred. The world in which he lived or Nature was not something evil to be rejected but a sacred ladder by which he could ascend to his Creator. He saw the sacredness of life even in an ant or a bug. He saw God in Nature. Nature reflected God. His sacred ladder- his compassion for all things in Nature, in the world- kept him in communication with angels, messengers of God, who brought him intuitive wisdom and joy, a profound bliss which is only possible when one is at one and harmony with God, with Mother Nature, as reflected in his prayer-

Canticle of All Creatures

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,

All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong,

and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,

especially Sir Brother Sun,

Who is the day through whom You give us light.

And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,

Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,

In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,

And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,

by which You cherish all that You have made.

Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,

So useful, humble, precious and pure.

Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,

through whom You light the night

and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth

who sustains and governs us,

producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon

for love of You and bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace,

By You Most High, they will be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,

from whom no-one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin!

Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm.

The environment deserves our reverence and compassion as it is part of us. It is alive. Mother Nature has been around longer than us. She sustains us. She is sacred. As we continue to continuously cut down forests, pollute the rivers and seas, pollute the air that we breathe with technology never known before in the history of the world, we are recklessly efficient in causing many species to go extinct. We too may become extinct soon. We are descending spiritually. There will be no peace for the wicked. In my mind, wilful actions or omissions on our part in inflicting harm to Nature is mortal sin - we cause unimaginable torture, pain and suffering to our innocent and helpless fellow brothers and sisters in the forms of fishes, insects, birds, wolfs etc. There is no end to our selfishness and greed in depleting our natural resources. No wonder why God seems so distant from us No wonder why we have so much misery in the world and the many natural disasters that increases by the day. We are heading towards the pit of darkness and gloom because have ignored the sacred ladder. See also the website of:-

Global Disaster Watch - Natural Disasters

Sodomy

Last Tuesday morning i had a pleasant surprise when i entered the office. I saw a very attractive sexy malay girl sitting on the sofa. She was one of my secretary's friends. She was on leave for the day and decided to spend the day with my secretary (yes i am a good boss- what harm is there to allow my secretary to chat with her sexy friends as long as she does her work?). I later found out from my other employee, Mr T, that the sexy lady was not a she but a he - 'a transvestite', a 'pondan'. Then the devil put thought of sodomy into my mind. Now i think the apple in the garden of eden was not an apple but sex, perhaps sodomy sex. Or 'Jijian' the mandarin word for sodomy. 'ji' meaning 'chicken' and 'jian' meaning 'rape' - 'chicken rape'. With sodomy being the hot topic in Malaysian politics these days, i thought i would analyse the law on sodomy.

Section 377A of the Penal Code states "Any person who has sexual connection with another person by introduction of the penis into the anus or the mouth of the other person is said to commit carnal intercourse against the order of nature".

Section 377B, the punishment section states that 'whoever voluntarily commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may exceed to 20 years and shall also be liable to whipping".

As can be seen from the section, oral sex is also carnal intercourse against the order of nature. Most couples have oral sex..The males can be charged with carnal intercourse against the order of nature. If oral sex is acceptable why not sodomy? It's no big deal. These sexual offences are outdated. Artists, fashion designers, gays, the Roman armies and the Greek armies all enjoyed sodomy sex. The only difference is these days the gel used is more potent. You've got the normal gel, the sensational gel and the extra sensation gel - yes my pharmacist told me about that and wanted to sell me some - God forbid. So why is the government so obsessed with sodomy? Just amend the Penal Code, abolish these outdated laws and start governing the country.

Lessons from George Harrison

Ex Beatle George Harrison (25.2.1943 – 29.11.2001) came to my mind this morning. What did the man, whose life was cruelly snatched away by cancer about 7 years ago, to teach me? The best way is to look at his quotes. Here are some of them:-“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much” – Well if everybody would follow this advice, there would be no greed in the world.“As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead” – Loyalty is a rare thing these days. Just look at the Christiano Ronaldo saga. Everyone’s loyalty is to money and materialism. We should be loyal like George Harrison and… George Best.“As long as you hate, there will be people to hate”. Try this out now and we see how profound it is.“The biggest break in my career was getting into the Beatles in 1962. The second biggest break since then is getting out of them” – Nothing is permanent. All things pass away…We all change. We all have experienced how something so good at first can turn out so wrong in the end.“Try to realize it's all within yourself no one else can make you change, and to see you're only very small and life flows on within you and without you”…a lesson in humility. “When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there’. Good one George.. The ego is always the stumbling block to peace of mind. Let go. Let it be. Let it go…Let there be peace. Peace of mind is what we all need to bring peace in the world.“With our love, we could save the world” – This is what all great Teachers taught...“You've got as many lives as you like, and more, even ones you don't want” – Don’t know about this George. I have not had much experience of past lives before. How do we know? I once had a vivid dream about me being a Japanese Astrologer in the Japanese navy during the second world war in my past life. The other astrologer got us all killed with his wrong calculations during an intense battle at sea with the allied forces. The ship was bombed, sank and we all drowned. This one life i would not want again. But I need more experiences to corroborate that experience. Please George, I pray, ask Lord Krishna on my behalf to send me angels with more messages about my past lives, if any.

Well did George have anything to say about the law and lawyers? Surely he did not…Out of curiosity I did my research. To my surprise he did! He wrote a song “Sue me, Sue You Blues!! I did not know that! Here are the lyrics:-

You serve me

And I'll serve you

Swing your partners,

all get screwed

Bring your lawyer

And I’ll bring mine

Get together, and we could

have A bad time

Its affidavit swearing time

Sign it on the dotted line

Hold your Bible in your hand

Now all that’s left is to

Find yourself a new band . . .

We’re gonna play the sue me, sue You blues

We’re gonna play the sue me, sue You blues

Hold the block on money flow

Move it into joint escrow

Court receiver, laughs, and thrills

But in the end we just pay

those Lawyers the bills

When you serve me

And I serve you

Swing your partners, all get screwed

Bring your lawyer

And I’ll bring mine

Get together, and we could

have A bad time

Were gonna play the sue me, sue You blues

I’m tired of playing the Sue me, sue you blues

He must have had quite an experience with the law and…lawyers for him to write this song. Pity he did not give us an alternative to law suits which give us all A bad time.

Finally George’s last words before he left this world, –

“LOVE ONE ANOTHER”

George Harrison, God bless his soul…Hare Krishna.