Surviving in a Flat World

The other day I had a problem with my laptop. It was after office hours. I dialed the company’s IT helpdesk number and a man with a foreign accent answered the call at the other end. He asked me a few basic computer questions, requested me to do a few simple steps and within seconds he took control of my computer screen. He copied files onto my laptop, deleted old ones and replaced them with new ones. About 15 minutes later, the problem was fixed and I was back at work again. Well, nothing so unusual about that except that I was sitting comfortably in my office in Kuala Lumpur and he was controlling my cursor from Bangalore, India!

It turns out that, as a global company constantly looking for the cheapest way of doing things, the company I work for has outsourced some of the operations which used to be done here in Kuala Lumpur to India. For IT support, during normal office hours calls are directed to Cyberjaya but after hours calls are transferred to other call centres around the globe. When I want to invoice customers for completed work I just need to send an e-mail to instruct the accounts team in Chennai, India to prepare an invoice. They will process the invoice, print out a hardcopy in Chennai, courier it out via DHL to the customer, even though the customer office happens to be only 3 floors below my office here in Kuala Lumpur. Now you may think it does not make sense to have the invoice issued out from another continent when the recipient sits in the same building as you. And perhaps you are wondering why I’m telling you this story and what lessons can we learn from all this? The answer is in the word “globalisation”.

In an interconnected world where business is conducted at the speed of light there is no guarantee that we will keep our job. Millions of qualified people in India, China and other emerging economies are eager and willing to take our job if we do not equip ourselves with specialized skills that differentiate us from them. Already they can do the same job much cheaper. Any job that can be digitized and discretised into packets of data can be sent over a broadband cable to find the cheapest place where it can be done. Transfer of data is virtually free. As an economy which has been growing steadily since the early 80s, we are no longer a country with cheap labour. We must realize this and we have to prepare our people to move up quickly on the technological ladder. Otherwise, we’ll lose out to them just like we lost to China, Vietnam or Laos in manufacturing.

Thomas Friedman in his book “The World is Flat” wrote about the emergence of countries like India and China and the forces that enabled them to compete with industrialised countries like the US and Europe. These forces, which he calls flatteners, feed the next stage of globalisation or Globalisation 3.0. He observes that while Globalisation 1.0 turns big into medium, and Globalisation 2.0 turns the medium into small, the third stage of globalization is turning the small into tiny. And unlike the first and second stages where the forces rested with countries and companies, it is now driven by individuals. What this means is that, with the IT and Internet revolution, millions of people are now able to work and collaborate with other people sitting half a world away and produce results which are far better than the sum of each of them working alone. Work is no longer confined by distance or geographical boundaries. A Malaysian company cheque for a customer here in Malaysia, may be prepared in the Philippines. An American secondary school kid’s homework may be checked by his tutor in India; or perhaps in future your house sales and purchase agreement will be prepared by a lawyer in Eastern Europe whom you never meet. The bottom line is if you have the necessary skills and can offer the cheapest service, you can be in any corner of the world, yet will still be able to perform jobs for customers from half a world away.

Friedman’s book is aimed at his fellow Americans whom he thinks have been sleeping while the rest of the world is stealing their jobs. He was referring to the waves of outsourcing and offshoring jobs that went to India and China because of much cheaper labour costs in the two countries. What he says in his book sometimes can be a bit of an exaggeration but he has made a loud wake-up call for Americans to realise that the rest of the world is catching up while they are losing their competitiveness. There are lessons for us too. Malaysians, especially the Bumiputras and Umnoputras, should wake up as well and realise that the big wave called globalisation is affecting us all. We cannot live in a protected environment forever. The rest of the world is preparing themselves with boats and ships to ride out the storm. We have not even started learning how to swim because we are scared of water. In a flat world, the faster we hit the water, the better are our chances of survival.

Balik Kampung

It was the time for the exodus again! Not because the Sun would not rise from the East, nor because of an impending hurricane. But because the new Syawal moon was coming out in a day or two.

I made my northward journey together with my family on Sunday before Raya starting from Kajang around midday. I had not visited the kampung for almost 8 months. The last time I was back in Pasir Mas was in February for my aunt’s funeral. That visit was unplanned and was a very brief one.

The journey from KL to Pahang was surprisingly smooth despite the fact that thousands of vehicles were using the trunk road going through Bentong, Raub, Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang. The new road from Raub to Kuala Lipis cuts the distance by more than 30 km and straightens what used to be winding tracks and dangerous curves along the way. More needs to be done to improve its notorious safety record but for now we just need to take more care.

Along the way, perhaps because of fasting, everyone else fell asleep. I kept to the speed limit rolling up and down the hills of interior Pahang while listening to the radio and some podcasts I had downloaded from the Internet. This year Raya falls in the middle of the week giving people more time to make their journey home. There were no accidents or long queues along the road unlike in previous years when everyone had to rush home only one or two days before Raya. I saw Raya greetings from politicians from both sides at strategic junctions in towns along the way. This is the time to show to the people that they care. In Pasir Mas, our own independent MP, the maverick Datuk Ibrahim Ali, back in the lime light after winning the March 8 elections on a Pas ticket, had put up banners at the entrances of mosques in the town affirming his rise and fall with his people (“Jatuh Bangun Bersama Rakyat”). I am quite sure I can get one or two pieces of 50 ringgit notes if I go to his open house. I was told he is a very rich man.

The early break I took gave me some time to spend the last days of Ramadhan in the kampung. I have always enjoyed Kelantanese kuih for its sweet taste but this time I was shocked to find that the price of my favourite Kuih Akok had gone up to KL level just because of the influx of cash-rich city folks coming back for the big day. I did communicate with her in Kelantan-speak but it did not help. May be she knew that I was not one of her regular customers and that it would be fine if I did not buy her kuih next time. Makes me think that when it comes to money, folks in this Ulamak-ruled state are anything but generous! Pak Lah’s gesture in reducing fuel price just before Raya and his plea for traders to bring down goods prices did not seem to work. The often repeated phrase - what goes up must come down – simply does not apply here.

I spent the first day of Raya visiting relatives in the kampung. I only get a chance like this every other year as my nurse wife has to work on alternate Raya. Hospitals always seem to be busier during festive seasons! I took the opportunity to see cousins, uncles and aunties. The eve of Raya was the time to pay my dues in the form of zakat. Four of my young cousins have just lost their mother, four years after losing their father. They are now orphans and in need of monetary support from the extended family. I thought growing up with divorced parents was tough for me. Difficult to imagine that the four of them have lost both parents at such a young age. I remember how happy I was as a child wearing new clothes during Raya, going round from house to house playing firecrackers. I wanted to make sure that they too enjoy the same experience in their childhood.

On the second day of Raya I paid a visit to the graves of my mother, grandmother and father, the three most important people in my life. Their graves lay silent waiting for visits from their children and grandchildren. It was late afternoon and nobody else was around. The quietness seemed to understand the sadness of their loss many years ago. I cleared some weeds that had grown wild since I visited the place last Raya Haji. I read some verses from the Quran and spread out my hands while utterring some doa. After so many years, the sadness of their loss is now bearable. It was almost maghrib time and I had to leave. I looked back at the graves as I took my steps out of the graveyard area. I could not help but feel very sad again as I was leaving them behind. It will probably be another year when I come and visit them again. But this I’ll always remember. I may be working in the tallest buildings in the world, but I'll never forget my roots are here. You people were the ones that made it all possible.

Ulasan Buku: Tuhan Manusia – Faisal Tehrani (2007)

Novel ini adalah novel yang bukan novel. Kenapa saya berkata begitu? Sebenarnya novel ini adalah sebuah perbincangan tentang agama dan kelahiran golongan liberal di kalangan penganut Islam. Ia hanya diolah menjadi novel dengan menyelitkan sedikit kisah dan watak-watak supaya menjadi sebuah cerita. Namun lebih 90 peratus isinya adalah fakta-fakta agama, sejarah, falsafah dan ayat-ayat suci al-Quran dan Hadis. Jika tiada diselang-selikan dengan cerita, watak dan dialog, ia akan menjadi hambar dan mungkin tidak ramai yang akan membacanya.

Novel ini menyelam dalam ke lubuk masalah yang menimpa sebahagian umat Islam terpelajar di Malaysia di mana mereka lebih cenderung kepada ajaran yang dilabelkan sebagai Islam liberal. Golongan ini adalah golongan yang terdidik dengan asuhan dan pandangan yang mengatakan bahawa semua agama adalah benar dan Islam hanyalah salah satu daripadanya. Watak utama novel ini dijelmakan dalam diri Ali Taqi, seorang remaja Islam yang pintar dan amat sedar dengan masalah Islam liberal kerana abangnya sendiri, Talha menjadi murtad selepas dipengaruhi Encik Aris, seorang intelek yang memperjuangkan Islam liberal. Bapa Ali, Mohamad menjadi seorang pendiam akibat teramat sedih setelah anaknya sendiri murtad. Watak Talha tidak banyak diceritakan, malah disentuh sedikit sahaja. Talha hanya wujud dalam dialog Ali Taqi dan watak-watak lain di dalam novel ini.

Kisah berkisar sekitar perbincangan intelektual Ali Taqi dan kawan-kawan sekolahnya tentang Islam, sejarahnya, falsafah dan hubungannya dengan agama lain. Keseluruhan dialog mereka adalah selang-seli antara ayat al-Quran dan kupasannya serta fakta-fakta sejarah Islam yang diolah lancar dalam perbualan dan perdebatan yang dipaparkan di dalam cerita ini. Cerita ini juga mengemukakan watak Andrew Tse, kawan karib sekampung Ali Taqi yang akhirnya memeluk Islam kerana terpesona dengan keindahannya.

Walaupun watak utama ialah seorang remaja namun soal cinta remaja disentuh sedikit sahaja. Zehra, anak intelektual Islam liberal Encik Aris, jatuh hati dengan Ali Taqi. Mereka selalu berbahas dan berbincang tentang Islam liberal di dalam pertemuan mereka. Zehra banyak mengajukan soalan seakan menguji pengetahuan dan hujah-hujah Ali Taqi yang mengganggap Islam liberal adalah suatu barah yang merosakkan umat Islam. Hubungan mereka tidak mekar kerana Ali Taqi tidak boleh menerima orang yang menganut Islam liberal. Kesudahannya berakhir dengan mereka menuju laluan hidup yang berbeza; Ali Taqi kemudiannya menjadi professor ilmu Islam dan falsafah dan watak Zehra tidak diceritakan dengan jelas laluan hidupnya.

Buku ini sarat dengan kupasan ayat al-Quran, hadis, sejarah Islam dan pertentangan dengan dunia Barat. Ia ditulis pada tahun 2007 di mana isu murtad dan penghakiman Lina Joy diperkatakan dengan hebat di laman-laman perbincangan Internet. Saya berpendapat, watak Encik Aris dan Talha mewakili golongan cendikiawan Muslim yang membela Lina Joy, IFC dan isu-isu sepertinya manakala watak Ali Taqi adalah mewakili sebahagian besar Muslim yang berada di pihak yang menentang. Novel ini mengambil persamaan dari apa yang berlaku di dalam hubungan Muslim dan non-Muslim di Malaysia. Ia berhujah membela pihak yang menganggap Islam liberal adalah ancaman kepada keharmonian umat Islam di Malaysia. Sebagai seorang yang berpendidikan bidang syariah Islam, Faisal Tehrani sememangnya dididik dengan pandangan sedemikian.

1 Jun 2008.

Ulasan Buku: Kekasih Sam Po Bo – Faisal Tehrani (2007)

Buku ini adalah salah satu kumpulan cerpen yang dihasilkan oleh Penerima Anugerah Seni Negara, Faisal Tehrani. Di dalamnya termuat 30 cerpen yang membawa berbagai tema dan latar. Memang boleh dikatakan semua 30 ceritera yang dihidangkan oleh Faisal adalah unik dan berisi. Semuanya membawa mesej yang tersendiri, mengupas isu penting Masyarakat Islam-Melayu di Malaysia dan cuba menawarkan suatu penawar kepada masalah muslim sejagat. Antara yang paling saya minati ialah Bulan Mengambang Di Langit KL, Setelah Diciptakan Adam…, Sultan Alauddin Belajar Tasawuf dan Nenek Negro di Kota Mekah.

Suatu tema yang amat kerap dibawa oleh Faisal ialah Islam dan sejarah. Saya amat mengkagumi pengetahuan beliau terhadap Islam dan sejarah. Penulisannya menggambarkan lautan pengetahuan beliau yang dalam mencakupi bidang ilmu Islam, falsafah, sejarah dan politik semasa. Beliau merupakan seorang penulis sepenuh masa yang saya anggap berjaya dan telah menghasilkan lebih 10 buah novel dalam usia baru 34 tahun. Anak muda lulusan bidang pengajian syariah dan sastera ini juga menjadi penceramah sastera dan penyelidik dan sekarang sedang berjuang di bidang akademik untuk menghabiskan PhD. Beliau pernah mendapat bimbingan SN A Samad Said dan SN Shahnon Ahmad. Pandangan politiknya mungkin tidak sehaluan dengan sesetengah orang tetapi beliau berjaya mengemukakan bukti terhadap setiap apa yang dipegangnya. Mungkin kita tidak bersetuju dengan hujahnya tetapi kaedah dan rujukannya kukuh dan jitu.

Novel-novelnya bukan novel picisan cinta remaja yang berlambakan di kedai buku, tetapi sarat mengandungi persoalan yang dianggap berat. Kisah kembaranya padat dengan pencerahan diri serta penghayatan nilai-nilai sejarah dan pengajaran daripadanya. Daya imaginasinya yang cukup luas dan pelbagai itu lincah menerobos dunia di sekelilingnya.

Buku koleksi cerpen dan novelnya agak susah didapati di kedai buku tetapi senang dipesan di kedai maya Internet. Tinjauan saya di beberapa kedai buku hanya membawa saya kepada buku-buku cinta remaja yang saya rasa sudah melepasi waktu untuk orang seperti saya. Di perpustakaan juga saya tidak menemui buku-bukunya. Namun di dunia siber beliau cukup popular dengan laman sesawangnya iaitu tehranifaisal.blogspot.com.

26-5-2008

Meeting Pipeline Guru

Recently I met with a very prominent pipeline engineer when he was here in Malaysia for discussions with an oil company. I was also invited to the meeting. I had always wanted to meet him having read one of his three books and some of his more than 180 papers. Professor Andrew Palmer is well known world wide as one of the most famous pipeline engineers in the world. To my knowledge he is the only pipeliner with the title FRS – Fellow of the Royal Society, the oldest and foremost learned society in the UK. It’s equivalent to National Academy of Sciences in other parts of the world but because of history it held to its current name. It was first established in 1660 and among its most famous fellows were Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Kelvin, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin and more recently Stephen Hawking. Its current president is Sir Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal. The fellowship is a recognition given every year to about 40 of the best scientists and engineers from the UK and a number of foreigners who are regarded as world authority in their own field. If they ever gave a Nobel Prize to a pipeline engineer, Professor Palmer would be one of the favourites to win.

Professor Palmer was a professor of petroleum engineering at Cambridge University from 1996 to 2005. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard in 2002-2003 and a number of other universities in the UK and US. Almost fifty years ago, he was an engineering student at Cambridge graduating in 1961. After compulsory retirement at Cambridge, he decided to move to the Far East and has taken a chair of visiting professorship at National University of Singapore. One might ask why would NUS take a retired old foreign professor to occupy the chair of one of its professorships. Here I think is where Singapore is again going far ahead of Malaysia in lifting the standard and reputation of its universities to become a world class academic institution. They invest a substantial amount of money attracting eminent academics and researchers to their country, providing the right infrastructure and world class facilities. Singapore’s investment is starting to bear fruit. So far their biotechnology enclave, Biopolis has attracted some big names in biotechnology research and push Singapore into biotech world map. NUS is one of the top 50 universities in the world in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) list (no. 33 in 2007). So if our Higher Education Minister is looking for a model to follow, he does not have to go on lawatan sambil belajar (or is it belanja?) to Europe or America for ideas and inspirations. Just look down south across the causeway. Come to think about it again, NUS used to be University of Malaya in Singapore. The big gap in ranking between our Universiti Malaya and NUS now tells us something about how Singapore and Malaysia manage their most valuable asset (i.e. brain, bright people) and develop it to achieve its best potential.

After the meeting in the morning, I took the opportunity to have further discussions with Professor Palmer over lunch in a halal Chinese restaurant. I told him how I wished I had met him when I was in Cambridge from 1993 to 1995. But during those years, he took his time off from academic world and spent his time in the oil and gas industry. He set up his own consultancy company, built it up and eventually sold it off before joining the academia again. It’s one good thing all our academics should do – spend some time on the field and learn to appreciate how equations and computer simulations actually work in the real world. It’s easy to pressurize a pipeline or smash it to pieces in the lab or on a computer simulation. But it does not necessary mean that it can be done when you are out at sea hundreds of kilometers from shore.

Despite being optimistic and enjoying his life in this part of the world, I noticed he had some reservation about academic institution in Singapore, and in this region generally. Because of its rigid, rule-based society and limited academic freedom, it does not encourage new ideas and creativity, two important elements in innovation and advancement of knowledge. And despite its energetic push to be at the forefront of research and technology in the world, Singapore is still lagging behind in freedom and democracy. The effects have already been felt in certain areas where some academics and scientists who accepted good monetary rewards and had been working in Singapore for some time decided to leave because of lack of freedom. Singapore probably thinks that it is necessary at the current stage of its development to impose controls on everything. But sooner or later, people are going to demand more individual freedom. Make no mistake. No amount of grain can persuade a bird to live in a cage.

In the middle of our discussion, I noticed that it was Friday prayer time. I excused myself and left the learned professor to continue his lunch with my Chinese friend. It was an honour for me to meet such a great man in my own field of work. He is not just a prolific researcher and successful entrepreneur, but also a dedicated educator who loves his work. Now when I read his book again, I feel as if I could hear his voice talking to me over lunch.

Life Certainties

They say two things in life are certain: death and taxes. I’m not sure if I am prepared for the first one but with a definite deadline on April 30th, I had to spend almost whole of last weekend going through my purchase receipts and financial papers before submitting my tax return form (Borang BE) on-line. It’s good that it’s now possible to fill our tax return form via the Internet, have our taxes calculated using on-line applications and even get confirmation receipt from the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN). This year LHDN expects more people to use the on-line applications and reduce congestion at its offices close to the deadline.

After 15 years of working life and slowly crawling up the salary ladder I finally find myself paying quite a substantial amount of tax. Like all sensible people, as much as legally possible, I tried to reduce my taxable income. I tried to claim reduction on every item in which I was entitled to. Yet after all the deductions, I still think that my tax amount was too much. With the kind of service I get, I feel I should pay much less.

To be quite honest, I will not have any qualms about paying taxes to the government if I know exactly where my money goes. If I know that my tax money is going to help the poor rakyat, I’m quite happy to contribute. But that is not the case for now. As long as there is no transparency in our government, we never know whether our money is being sucked into a black hole and enrich a few cronies. We see a lot of mega projects which don’t really benefit the people but put a lot of money into someone’s pocket. We see them build roads and highways but they collect tolls. They build five star airports and facilities but goods and service there are also 5-star. They distribute free goodies to kampong folks but only to people with certain political inclination. They use people’s money to pay for TV and radio but throw slanders on their political enemies. When will they ever learn that fairness and goodwill bring more support for them than hurling dirt on their enemies?

I’m not sure whether in the present circumstances taxpayers are getting their fair share. One way to make sure our hard-earned money go to the poor is by paying zakat. Zakat paid to a state religious authority is entitled to full rebate i.e. deduction from tax amount and not just from taxable income. We know zakat will be distributed to certain categories of Muslims who are entitled to part of our wealth and it does not include rich cronies. So it’s a way of fulfilling our religious obligation and at the same time also a really good way of preventing our money from going into the pocket of the rich. And with zakat you can pay it to any state government of your choice, not to the federal government, if that’s your wish. My zakat always go to the state which I think is poor and least corrupt. I would advise my friends to do the same. It does not matter which state you pay your zakat to, but make sure it will not go into enriching rent-seeking cronies.

There are ways not to pay tax. You can either migrate to a tax-free country like the Middle East or Brunei, or earn below the threshold, or put your money in a bag and carry it with you to Australia. Don’t worry too much about being caught. Even if you were, in Malaysia, you could still become a cabinet minister! Looks like for many of us there is not much choice not to pay income tax. So, despite all this anger, I still have my salary deducted every month by the LHDN and come April still have to file my tax return. It’s one of two certainties in life. No escape. Period.

Sedetik Bersama Sasterawan Negara

Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur pada tahun ini berakhir petang tadi di PWTC Kuala Lumpur. Sungguh ramai manusia yang rata-ratanya umat Melayu bersesak-sesak mengunjungi pondok demi pondok di dewan pameran. Mungkin anggapan aku sebelum ini yang orang kita tidak suka membaca buku meleset. Mereka datang bersama anak-anak dan isteri dengan semangat ingin menambah ilmu. Semacam ada pesta hiburan di sana. Dan memangpun ada seorang dua selebriti yang dijemput khas samada untuk mempromosi buku mereka sendiri ataupun sekadar tayang muka di depan kaunter untuk melariskan jualan. Diskaun ditawarkan untuk banyak judul buku. Hampir setiap kaunter menawarkan pelbagai hadiah dan pakej istimewa untuk menarik pelanggan.

Aku datang sendirian dengan komuter. Lokasi stesen Putra amat mudah sekali untuk aku menapak ke PWTC di Bangunan UMNO. Dan aku rasa tindakanku tepat kerana dengan kesesakan yang sebegitu teruk, kalau anak-anak aku bersama, aku mungkin terpaksa menghabiskan masa melayan kerenah mereka sahaja daripada menumpukan perhatian kepada buku dan jurujualnya.

Di kaunter Bernama aku nampak orang ramai berkerumun. Lalu perasaan ingin tahu aku membawa aku ke sana. Rupanya dengan membeli sebuah buku yang berharga RM5 sahaja pembeli diberi peluang mendapat autograf dari angkasawan kedua negara Dr Faiz. Ramai juga yang mengambil peluang bergambar dengannya. Di situ juga bahan cenderamata Radio 24 “Radio Berita Pertama Negara” dan siaran Berita Bernama di Astro dijual. Nasib baik angkasawan pertama negara Dr Sheikh Muszaphar tiada bersama. Kalau tidak lagi sensasi dan sesak jadinya.

Setelah hampir 3 jam membelek-belek buku, aku melewati depan kaunter Wira Bukit Sdn Bhd. Di kerusi sofa di tengah-tengah pondok pameran, aku nampak pemiliknya sedang menyain buku-buku yang baru dibeli orang. Wajahnya memang dikenali ramai. Masakan tidak dialah Sasterawan Negara Datuk A. Samad Said yang mengekalkan penampilannya sejak dari dulu. Rambut putihnya panjang ke paras bahu, janggut dan misainya dibiarkan berjuntaian. Beliau selesa berbaju-T, berseluar slack dan berselipar jepun. Kali pertama aku melihatnya ialah lebih kurang 15 tahun yang lalu sewaktu beliau menunggu bas mini wilayah di stesen Bangkok Bank di tengah-tengah bandar Kuala Lumpur. Lima belas tahun lepas juga beliau berpakaian begitu. Statusnya sebagai seorang sasterawan negara dan gelaran Datuk tidak langsung mengubah zahirnya. Beliau tetap dengan penampilannya yang santai. Bagiku itulah uniknya A. Samad Said selain kata-kata puitis yang lunak menghiasi karya-karya sasteranya. Sebelum aku meminta beliau mengautograf buku yang baru aku beli, sempat aku berbisik dengan jurujualnya apa panggilan yang sesuai sebelum aku mula bercakap dengan orang besar sastera negara itu. Panggil saja Pak Samad jawab jurujual tersebut. Lalu aku terus mengambil tempat di hujung sofa di sebelah Pak Samad dan memintanya menyain buku nipis berjudul “Ilham Di Tepi Tasik”, sebuah koleksi esei sastera Pak Samad yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2006 dan kini dalam cetakan kedua.

Mungkin generasi muda kini lebih menggilai novel cinta remaja. Pak Samad sendiri pernah melahirkan rasa kesalnya dengan tindakan Kementerian Pendidikan yang memilih novel ringan untuk dijadikan bahan rujukan sastera di sekolah dan menyisihkan karya-karya agung sasterawan negara. Kekecewaannya itu diluahkan dengan tidak mahu lagi menggunakan gelaran Sasterawan Negara yang diterimanya itu. Walaupun beliau tidak mahu lagi dipanggil Sasterawan Negara, namun di hati peminat sastera beliau adalah sasterawan negara yang tulen.

Pada usia 73 tahun pena sasteranya tidak pernah tumpul dan karyanya yang merentasi beberapa dekad masih segar untuk dinikmati generasi muda. Beliau telah menghambakan seluruh hidupnya untuk menyuburkan sastera Melayu di rantau ini. Aku merasakan di kaunter jualan petang tadi aku bukan sahaja membeli sebuah buku, malah memetik salah satu dari bunga sastera Pak Samad. Semuga ilham Pak Samad akan terus menjelmakan karya-karya tinggi untuk dinikmati pencinta sastera.

13-4-2008

The Day when I was a Polling Agent - Final Part

The aftermath of typhoon “Anwar”

At 5 PM, the school gate was closed and our party security worker stood guard just in case the 2004 two-hour illegal extension of voting time happened again. The counting process started right after 5.00 PM and only EC staff and counting agents were allowed in the room. The rest of us waited outside in our pondok just outside the school. There was nothing else we could do apart from praying to Allah to take care of the rest. We were ready to accept any outcome.

Supporters gathered at our pondok while the counting was going on inside the school. At 6.22 PM an SMS came that said we led Channel 2 for state seat by 168 votes. I read aloud the results to supporters and instantaneously a loud “Allahu Akbar” broke the silence. The blue pondok stood still. Seventeen minutes later another SMS came in for parliamentary seat, with BN left behind by 84 votes. Another cry of the takbir pierced through the evening air. The other pondok stood its ground. Exactly half an hour later both state and parliamentary results for Channel 1 came and by that time BN was trailing even further behind. Some youngsters on motorbikes started leaving the blue pondok and we knew we were winning the count for the polling centre. Around 7.30 PM our counting agents walked out of the school gate smiling, bringing the good news to the waiting crowd. It was going to be a long night for BN.

That night supporters gathered again at the local stadium which was used for the nomination two weeks ago. The final results for both state and parliamentary seats would be announced there. After dinner I joined thousands of eager supporters from both sides at the stadium. Again, they were split into two groups each one taking up one side of the stadium with rows of policemen standing guard in the middle. The atmosphere was volatile. The stadium lights were off but everyone’s heart was on fire.

Around 10 PM, all sorts of news and rumours were spread across the field about the fall of big names including some ministers. The crowd on our side of the stadium was getting very excited while the other side fell silent. Out of the darkness, somebody brought in a laptop, connected to wireless Internet and started an impromptu breaking news desk getting feeds from Malaysiakini and PAS websites. Soon people gathered around him like moths around a light and we could not believe our eyes when the preliminary results started rolling in from cyberspace. Early unconfirmed results delivered the son-in-law that everyone loved to hate, KJ, a defeat. It was too difficult to believe but it blew everyone’s mind. Final results were however in his favour. Later, we heard about Khir Toyo losing his seat but it turned out that he didn’t. Things were getting really wild. Then Samy Vellu fell, Zainuddin Maidin was also out and Shahrizat followed suit. A Malaysian friend who was working in the UK called on my mobile phone to confirm the incredible news he was reading on his computer half way across the world. Apparently, the call only cost him 1p or 7 cents a minute. His voice was frequently drowned by the instant burst of takbir amidst the euphoria. I ended up giving him live commentary of the political drama that was unfolding here in Malaysia.

Soon it was clear that the strong wind that blew at my local school polling centre that evening was developing into a full-blown typhoon. And this typhoon is what I’d call Typhoon “Anwar” for this man has galvanized all the various forces of wind, heat, moisture and pressure into a political storm that brought destructions to arrogant power across five states. Many would liken it to a tsunami, but a tsunami has no name. On the other hand, meteorologists would give a name to hurricanes and typhoons. Like Hurricane “Katrina” that humbled the mighty US against forces of nature, Typhoon “Anwar” also knocked the powerful BN off their ego. The people had spoken and their voices could no longer be ignored.

Locally, preliminary results showed we won both state and parliament seats by huge majority. The EC did not announce official results even until I drove home from the stadium late that night. And back at home I had my eyes focused on my TV monitor and laptop as official results streamed into the bedroom. My head did not hit the pillow till 3 o’clock that night. The full-scale destruction of Typhoon “Anwar” would only be known the next morning.

Two weeks after, much of the dust has begun to settle. Most state governments have been sworn in and the losing parties have had to do some serious soul searching. It turns out that the all-powerful BN which has been ruling this country since Independence almost lost its seat of federal power. Their share of popular votes dipped from more than 64% in 2004 to just over 50% this time. Were it not for postal votes and the cancellation of the use of indelible ink, they could well have lost the simple majority as well. No wonder the EC chairman looked even more depressed than Pak Lah when announcing the results that night. The massive vote swing had taken him by surprise too.

Looking back at the night of the 8th of March, I realised it was the beginning of a new era. Anwar himself called it the dawn of a new Malaysia. The old Malaysian politics that we used to think was unchangeable disappeared overnight. The threat of repeat of May 13 violence vaporized into the air. It was an empty threat to put fear into people not to change the status quo. Now that the seat of power in some states has changed hands, all eyes will be focused on the five states led by what is now referred to as Barisan Rakyat. Many hope that the newfound power will not turn them into arrogant, corrupt leaders like the ones that they had just pushed out. Demonstration of good governance for the next five years will strengthen their appeal and the once invincible BN also will be pushed to change for its own survival. It has been a blessing to us that we remain peaceful despite the initial implicit threat of chaos and instability if BN was not returned to power with overwhelming majority. People did not fall into the trap and have instead moved on to a system with more check and balance. Perhaps in the next two or three general elections a more stable two-party system will emerge following the model of Washington or Wesminster. This is going to be good for the people.

Across the field that night, many of us screamed so hard that we almost lost our voice. But nobody seemed to mind. We knew that from that day, people’s voice would be heard loud and clear by those in power. I know our democracy in Malaysia is still fragile and like a toddler it is bound to stumble before it can walk properly. But I am optimistic. I believe we are heading in the right direction. Years from now, when I look back on this momentous event, or if my grandchildren ask me about what I have done to this country, may be I can tell them that I contributed in my own small way in bringing this change. That change happened on the day when I was a polling agent.

The End.

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 3

…Part 3 – Witness to democracy

On the night before the polling day, two friends and I spent the night at the pondok keeping watch. There was a lot of valuable stuff – audio visual equipment, VCD etc. – that would surely go missing if they were left unattended. There was no time to pack up as we were going to open early the next morning. In my ten years of married life, this was the first time I had had to spend the night fighting off mosquito attacks under a tent by a roadside. The mosquitoes were 100% on the BN’s side that night. I didn’t remember whether there was a full moon in the sky but we were certainly surrounded by full moons all around our tent...and the shampoo girl posters with a rocket on it.

The morning of the 8th was a beautiful day. The weather was going to be bright all day. After a short trip home to wash and change, I was back at the pondok again by 7.30 AM. By 8.00 AM the school gate was opened and we received our first customer who came to check his name on the electoral roll. The first batch of polling agents went in to start their duty for the next 3 hours. More people arrived at our pondok and some unknown supporters brought nasi lemak and kueh for party workers. Later mineral water came and by lunch nasi tomato was delivered. I never knew who paid for the food and drinks but I am sure they did it with sincerity and not hoping for any monetary reward from us. After all we are poor man’s party. No big company would support us for fear of reprisal from the powers-that-be. Our support came from grassroots who would give but not expecting anything in return. I believe all they want is to see change and contribute to it in their own way. If anybody stopped at our pondok and asked for money, we would just show them the blue pondok where their chances of getting it were a lot brighter.

By 10.30 AM the first batch of polling agents finished their duty and the next batch took over. I helped friends canvassing for votes as voters were walking to the polling station. We took one side of the road and the guys in blue took another. There were occasional chorus of shouts and jeers from both sides but the police were standing close by keeping the situation under control. I could see people were feeling a bit uneasy with the constant touting from both parties. Some quickened their pace into the school as they already made their mind who they would vote for. Many would just give a brief smile, nodded their head and walked past us into the gate. I doubt how effective this strategy would work as I don’t think voters would change their mind just because we stopped them by a roadside and sweet talked them into putting a cross against a certain candidate. But it was fun and the other side was also doing it.

Just after mid-day I cast my own vote. I had waited until the queue became short so I didn’t have to wait too long. Soon after zohor, I went in again to take over as a polling agent from my friend who had been in there for 3 hours. I would be sitting in Channel 1 for the next 3 hours verifying voters’ IC numbers and names and striking them off the electoral list once they’d been given ballot papers. As the electoral list was arranged according to birth date, Channel 1 was made up of elder voters, Channel 3 the youngest voters and Channel 2 those in between. We were told to be extra alert because there had been allegations of phantom voters using other people’s IC to vote, or multiple voters who voted more than once. We were determined not to let them deny us fair results.

There were three polling clerks, each with their own specific task. The first clerk checked the voter’s IC, read the number and name aloud so that the polling agents from all contesting parties could verify and strike out the name off the list. The second clerk would tear off two ballot papers – one for parliament and one for state seat – and give it to the third clerk for punching. The voter would then proceed to polling booth, mark their choice and then slot the papers into two transparent ballot boxes right in the middle of the room. The presiding officer kept everything under control and his decision in case of dispute was final. As polling agent, we watched every step of the voter and made sure that he did not take the ballot papers out of the room. Election rules say that it is illegal to take out ballot papers from polling station or bring in any ballot papers from outside. The serial number on the ballot papers and the pattern of punched holes on them are used as a check against cheating. We were told to raise objection with the presiding officer if we saw that the conduct of voting did not follow proper EC procedures. I didn’t raise any major objection, nor did the other side apart from our demand to take a closer look at temporary IC used by a voter who had reported loss of IC with JPN. The other case was when somebody whose age was 70 plus came in looking like she was 40 plus. However, one of the clerks said she knew the woman and that she was a registered voter there, so I accepted her explanation. I suspect Botox did the magic on her.

There was a concern about the serial number on the ballot papers which could be traced to individual voters. But it was unfounded, as for the first time in this election, the clerk would not be allowed to write the serial number against the name of the voter in the electoral roll. Hence it was not possible to trace which serial number belonged to who. This ensured total confidentiality of voting and people should thank Bersih for demanding this although the use of indelible ink was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

The three hours in the polling room felt very much like sitting for final year exam. In the beginning people were coming in around one every 30 seconds, but after 4 o’clock there was hardly one every ten minutes! There were a total of 350 voters in Channel 1 and by the time I finished my duty 300 had turned up for voting. The turn-out rate was more than 85% and I think that was very good. The other channel registered much less turn-out. It seems like old folks are more responsible citizens as more of them exercised their right. By 4.30 PM, I passed the baton to a fellow party worker and went out the room to sip some badly needed fresh air. The polling centre would close at 5.00 PM sharp and the gate would be locked. I came out of the centre with an experience which was going to be memorable for the rest of my life. Those three hours were the moment when I was a witness to democracy in action.

…to be continued in Part 4

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 2

…Part 2 – Election fever bug in the air

Official campaigning started right after nomination and no time was to be wasted in the next 13 days. We called for first ceramah a few days after nomination. Given that it was on working-day night, the turn-out was fair. Our second ceramah clashed with BN and since our Bilik Gerakan was quite close to theirs, in the interest of security, the police decided to cancel our permit and gave it to the BN guys. Nothing new there since the police had to be fair to them. Determined to hold the ceramah anyway, we moved to a new location and, due to last minute change of venue, the turn-out was less than expected. Not that I mind because there was plenty of extra nasi ayam left.

Two days before the D-day we set up our pondok panas under a big tent by the roadside close to the polling centre. The ruling party had already set up their pondok taking the best spot right next to the junction going to the school which would be used for polling. Their pondok was an airconditioned portacabin sitting firmly on concrete foundation under big blue aluminium roof. We were told that it cost 10 thousand while our pondok was a makeshift tent rented at a cost of around 500 ringgit for 3 days. Clearly we are a poor man’s party!

According to EC rules, the location of pondok panas has to be no less than 50 meters from the polling centre. A draw was done by an EC representative to allocate which party got which spot to build their pondok. We made best use of whatever spot was given to us. Again we set up big screen by the roadside and treated motorists and passers by to our nightly recorded ceramah. While people were watching the ceramah, our volunteers distributed pamphlets and leaflets to housing areas. We got plenty of materials, which came from various sources, to be distributed to houses around our taman. Most were about condemning the present government including pictures of Pak Lah cosying up with some beautiful women – pictures which were widely distributed over the Internet just before the elections. Some were in Chinese and Tamil with pictures of pigs and clippings of articles from Chinese newspapers which we could not understand. We had to practise some form of censorship, lest our aggrasive approach would backfire. Personally I’d rather dissiminate information about our manifesto and what changes we would bring if we manage to govern. But then again, may be it’s fair afterall because they even used taxpayers-funded TV and radio to paint bad image of Opposition leaders.

While distributing the campaign materials, some got rare hostile response but mostly we were given an encouraging smile. At times, dogs barked at us when we approached the postbox in front of the house to slot in the leaflets when their masters were fast asleep. We could tell from meeting people around the housing area that the Indians were very angry with the Government’s treatment of the Hindraf affairs and their own leader, Samy Vellu’s response to it. Many vowed to support the opposition parties as a sign of protest. Their leaders even came to our pondok and promised that he would urge his people to support opposition candidates. The Chinese were less political prefering not to take sides. As business people, they are very pragmatic and would support any party that wins.

The state seat (DUN) in my area was contested by ex-UKM lecturer representing PAS and a contractor Datuk from UMNO. PAS choice was very appropriate as this constituency included two major public universities, a number of IPTs and government research centres. This area probably has the most educated voters and PhDs in the whole of Malaysia. For parliamentary seat, the fight was between BN’s MCA candidate and DAP. The BN candidate was a middle age man while the DAP candidate was a 27 year-old, beautiful single woman lawyer. Her campaign poster was mistaken for a shampoo advertisement! The choice was sooo obvious! They did not even need to campaign hard. But in the spirit of cooperation, we helped look after the rocket posters as well.

There were no untoward incidents in our area. No reports of tearing down opponents posters or bringing down of banners. This I think was a sign of maturity in our politics. In the days leading to the 8th, slowly the roadside turned into green and blue walls of posters and banners especially around junctions and roundabouts. The election fever bug was in the air everywhere.

...to be continued in Part 3

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 1

….Part 1 – “Be prepared for the battle”

I was at the office on the day Parliament was dissolved. Shortly after the announcement, an SMS from a fellow party worker arrived on my phone.”Parliament has been dissolved. Be prepared for the battle”, it said. Before that members of our party in the residential area where I live had been mobilised to prepare ourselves for the imminent announcement of the 12th General Election. Pak Lah had been hinting at it for some time and everybody was expecting he would announce it before April. We knew he wanted to deny Anwar the right to contest and we also knew he could not wait to raise fuel price after getting new mandate.

The next day the much awaited date was announced by the Election Commission. Nomination day was 24th February and Polling day was 8th March. There was to be 13 days of campaigning. Thirteen days of juggling between working in the office during the day and climbing trees to hang posters and banners at night. I tried to contribute in whatever capacity I could. I did not think we would win big but it was fun to be at the Bilik Gerakan every night, putting up posters, distributing campaign materials, watching VCD of ceramah projected onto the big screen over the roadside, and simply talking politics into the early morning when our work for the night was done. The big white screen used for the VCD screening reminded me of the 1970’s when Ministry of Information van would go to villages, put up an impromptu cinema in the village field, play the Hindi blockbuster “An Evening in Paris” and stop the show to talk about how to prevent cholera epidemic when the hero was about to give the villain a good bashing. Campaigning on TV had started way before the official campaign period and nobody gave a damn anymore what came on, as the overdose of government propaganda began to cause numbness on the people.

I forced myself up early on the nomination day even though I had slept around 3 o’clock the night before. It was Sunday and the stadium in our area was used as the nomination centre. I joined thousands of people from both sides marching towards the stadium around 7.30 AM. Calls of ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Hidup BN’ were heard from across the stadium with each side trying to outscream the other. One side with green flags chanting the takbir and the other side waving blue flags singing ‘Inilah Barisan Kita’. The only barriers separating them were about a hundred meters of green grass and rows of policemen in blue uniforms standing guard. Each side was ready for the battle and the battle cry filled the otherwise peaceful morning air.

At 9 AM, nomination was opened and only candidates and their seconders were allowed to see the EC officers. It closed an hour later and from 10 AM to 11 AM the session was opened for objection. We waited on the field with hope and nervousness. We knew we were up against the other side who would try to find any mistake in the form to disqualify our candidate by any means. Our worries were not at all unfounded. There was last minute ruling handed down by the EC that looked like sabotage and the candidates on our side were not taking any chances. They complied with every single ruling made by the EC for they fear being disqualified. The EC head had been under fire for making a U-turn on mandatory Inland Revenue stamping of nomination forms. Initially, it was announced that there was to be strict enforcement of the mandatory stamping. The announcement itself was given at 3 PM on Thursday. This caused a lot of inconvenience to the candidates in Kelantan and Terengganu as they only had a few hours to do the stamping before close of business for weekends on Friday and Saturday. There would be no time on Sunday because nomination would start at 9 AM and close at 10 AM. Some of them had to fly to KL on Friday to get their forms stamped just so that they were not disqualified on technicality. But at the last minute, the ruling was cancelled for no reason. We learnt later that many BN candidates in Johor did not manage to get the Inland Revenue stamps and if the ruling was strictly imposed the Opposition would have won the state of Johor uncontested. That perfectly explained the last minute about-turn by the EC.

By noon on Sunday the 24th, the names of qualified candidates were announced. There was a sigh of relief from both sides as none of the candidates was disqualified. They were to fight as gentlemen.

Book Review: Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

This is yet another exceedingly popular book by economists for the layman that has sold 3 million copies worldwide (up to 2007). This book actually came out before The Undercover Economist. It is co-authored by Steven Levitt, a University of Chicago economics professor, and Stephen Debnur, a writer for The New York Times. The book does not have one single theme and its chapters are independent of one another, so for people like me who like to flip books or magazines from the back, it’s a blessing. I can read the chapters in any order I like and each one offer its own story. Levitt’s research into obscure subjects proves in most cases that conventional wisdom is not always correct and the so-called experts are as guilty as politicians to say things that serve their own self-interest.

His research into everyday issues includes topics such as the effects of legalising abortion on crime rate in America, how teachers in some schools in Chicago cheat in their students’ exam to boost up their own rating and match fixing among Sumo wrestlers in Japan. He also asks why most drug dealers live with their mothers and probes how much your name is connected with your success in life. Although political correctness does not allow people to admit the positive effects of abortion on reducing crime rate, the authors have shown that by terminating unwanted pregnancies, future crime will be reduced. Babies born from these unwanted pregnancies are poorly raised and are likely to become criminals when they reach their teenage years. By cutting off a major supply of potential criminals (killing them before birth), crime rates can be brought down within two decades. Controversial it surely is, but that is what the data shows. And he can say it because he is a researcher, not a politician.

Crime rates and drug dealers go hand in hand. Drawing from a student’s research into the world of crack, the book discusses elaborate corporate-like structure within the hierarchy of drug dealers’ organisation. While those at the top enjoy great rewards, those at the lower rungs can barely pay for their own apartments, hence forcing most of them to live with their mothers. The book also shows trends in babies’ names and their correlation with level of mother’s education. Less successful communities (African-American in US) tend to imitate and adopt names from more successful ethnic groups (White American). Here in Malaysia, for reasons still a mystery to me, many in the Chinese community adopt Christian names even though they are not Christians. Could it be that the names sound more modern, Western and more cultured? It does not quite catch on in the Malay community though because it’s our belief that a good name should have good Arabic meaning. Hence the trend from our forefathers’ time with names like Bulat, Hitam, Kenit, Minah and Timah gave way to Aiman, Danial or Fathihah as the level of education of the Malays improves.

The findings of the studies are mainly from the US and may not apply here. I wish these were replicated here by our own geniuses to suit our own local problems. Alas, we simply do not have enough money to sponsor such things, nor do we have enough supply of freaks like Levitt to crack their head on solving such seemingly useless problems. We are more likely to spend our money on how high tech stuff like brewing teh tarik at zero gravity or flipping roti canai at 350 km above the Earth than looking into such mundane matters.

Book Review: "The Undercover Economist" - Tim Harford

I rented this book from Quereazant, a book rental store in Bandar Baru Bangi. It was on non-fiction best seller’s list for quite some time. The author, Tim Harford is a young thirty-something British economist who works for Financial Times and as a presenter for the BBC. He has since come up with another economics-for-layman book called The Logic of Life which is currently on best seller’s list in major book stores. You can listen to his radio show More or Less which is downloadable free as podcast from the BBC Radio 4 website.

In Undercover Economist, he looks into everyday phenomena and tries to explain them in terms of economics. According to many, economics is a dismal science but he puts it in such a language that even laymen can understand and relate it with everyday choices that we make.

The one subject that always crops up in his discussions is coffee. I would say this is a clear influence of American culture infiltrating into British life as the British are usually identified with tea! Take coffee and capitalism on the left hand side of the equation and you get inflated prices plus enormous profits on the right hand side. In economics parlance, you may call the equation the Starbucks equation. There are numerous auxiliary equations which Starbucks itself would not like you to know. These include exploitation and price manipulation on one side and Third World countries plus poverty on the other. You can name this equation Capitalism if you like. I am digressing a bit here because as an economist working for FT, a Scripture of Capitalism itself, Tim Harford would not be allowed to venture into this sort of socialist rubbish. But as an economist and heavy coffee drinker (which I imply because he’s so obsessed talking about coffee) he does explain why in a busy London train station, with hundred of thousands of commuters rushing to step into the office before their boss does, there is only one coffee shop with long queues, charging premium price for a caffeine shot. It seems to run counter to conventional economics theory that there should be many more coffee outlets trying to sell coffee when there is obviously a pressing need for more coffee shops (supply) in the face of so much demand (caffeine addicted commuters). He calls it the power of scarcity – the ability of that one coffee outlet to charge high premium due to unavailability of competition.

Of course he does not just talk about coffee. Economics is not just about that black stuff that people put into their mouth while they start reading e-mails in the morning. He also talks about big things like the mind-boggling pace of development in China and why Third World countries like Cameroon remains stagnant. While economics gives choices to millions of people in China to lead the life they want to lead, corruption is identified as the single biggest problem that is plaguing poor countries like Cameroon to lift themselves out of poverty.

His book has been very popular. He has surprised even himself in selling more than 600,000 copies so far. His initial estimate was that he would be satisfied if the sales figure reached 7,000 copies. With his talents of looking at why people make certain choices and not the other, perhaps in his next book, he can give an analysis of why people choose to spend their money on his book and not others. Or perhaps, why people like me, just choose to rent rather than buy.

The Best Prime Minister We Never Had – In Memory of Adlan Benan Omar (1973 – 2008)

Malaysia lost two great people on Thursday 24 January 2008. One of them you would by now know very well, and another you probably have never heard of. One had filled the pages of major mainstream newspapers but the other, being on the other side of the political devide, only managed to fill the blogosphere. One was known by the name of Tan Sri Megat Junid and another affectionately called Ben by his friends.

Browsing through the pages of Malaysian bloggers’ community, Harakah-daily and Suara Keadilan, one would not have missed the news of the death of the young Malaysian intellectual, Adlan Benan Omar at the age of 35. He was a man with extraordinary intellect. Educated at MCKK, then Abingdon School in Oxford and later graduated with double degrees in Law and History at Cambridge University. He was the first foreign head boy in his high school having won student’s election beating both Conservative and Labour student candidates for the top post. He was co-founder of Cambridge University Malaysian Association (Cumas), founder of student body UKEC and the 1997 recipient of Malaysia Youth award.

He was known among his friends as a walking encyclopedia because of his wealth of knowledge and his ability to memorise facts. Back in 1994, over a weekend night in the dormitory of one of our friends at Cambridge, we had a conversation about Malaysian history and Ben pointed out that there were a lot of errors in our history books. His knowledge of Malaysian history left deep impression on me as he dived into the depth of it and gave us impromptu lecture with the flair of a story teller. His room at Cambridge was full of books. His love of books and his powerful neurons absorbed everything he read like a sponge. I still keep the book on British politics that he gave me as a souvenir. I was doing engineering and had little interest in history, but he did spark my interest in that subject. I still cannot figure out what he was saying to me as he signed the book in Latin!

He was an excellent debater too, with words flowing smoothly out of his mouth in both Malay and English. On one occasion when the Malaysian Deputy Education Minister visited Malaysian students in the university, he started his speech in English but later switched to Malay because he said, to everybody’s laughter, it was an official function and thus must be conducted in Malay. Since I left Cambridge in 1995, I had not seen or heard of him but I knew that one day this guy would become a great man. Reading from the blogs, people who knew him spoke favourably of him. Everybody who had met him spoke of how impressed they were of him. One of the blogs said that even Dr Mahathir joked to him about how one day he would fill in his (Dr M’s) shoes i.e. becoming Prime Minister. He would be a perfect match for UMNO’s own Oxford-educated whiz-kid Khairy Jamaludin. In fact, some years back Ben and Khairy had faced off in a famous debate at John Hopkins University, USA.

I remember he was telling us back in 1994 that he would die young because of his illness which he had since he was 18. I thought it was brave of him to face the reality of his life and yet still managed to live a happy life, going around telling jokes as if he had no serious health problem. He contributed much to his chosen political party, his ideals and his vision for the development of his race and country. Even while he was quite ill, he gave his ideas in helping how to develop the economy of Kelantan, a state often overlooked by Putrajaya because of politics. Ben, you would have been a great Prime Minister but Allah loved you more. May Allah bless your soul. Al-Fatihah.

Anger over a cup of coffee

It was raining very heavily outside my office building at the time I was about to leave for home. There was no way for me to get to my car parked in an open space parking a few blocks away without getting myself soaking wet. Without an umbrella, I’d have to wait until the downpour stopped. I made my way down to the shopping mall attached to the building, found a seat at a western-style coffee shop, ordered two doughnuts and a cup of latte while hoping for the rain to stop. I paid 12 ringgit and 50 cents for the snack and quickly settled in a comfy cushion seat to enjoy the expensive drink.

As I was sipping the cocktail of milk and ground coffee, I wondered how much of the money I just paid actually got to the poor farmers of Colombia, Brazil or Ethiopia. According to the BBC, there are as many as 25 million small-scale coffee farmers producing coffee around the world. The market for take-away coffee has trebled from USD30bn to USD90bn over the past decade, and shows no sign of slowing down. In the US alone, it increased 10% last year, when compared with 2005. In recent years however, coffee price hit a 30-year low.

It is estimated that the coffee shops can get 80 cups of coffee for every kilo of coffee beans, each cup can cost up to USD6 in Europe while farmers in developing countries are paid around USD2 per kilo. Some coffee farmers in Ethiopia are earning less than USD1 a day. And it did not make sense that I just paid about USD2 for a cup of coffee when the farmers there had to do 2 days of hard labour to earn the same money.

The Starbucks Coffee company, one of the biggest coffee chains in the world, opens a new Starbucks Coffee shop somewhere in the world every four hours. The company denies any practice of unfair trade and its website speaks proudly of its record of Corporate Social Responsibility. But behind the huge image building PR through the media, lie some less rosy pictures. In 2006, Starbucks was accused of trying to block Ethiopia’s move to trademark three of its homegrown premium coffee in the US. I imagined how powerful a global corporation like Starbucks could be if it could even take on a Third World government to ensure its maximum profitability. What chance do the coffee farmers have of getting fair deal from their hard labour? It sounds scary when you think about that and imagine how vulnerable our government position would be in the face of fierce negotiation for a bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the government of the most powerful economy in the world.

By the time I emptied my cup, there was so much anger that I felt I needed another cup of coffee to drain out the feeling. The sweet taste of the doughnuts calmed me down. I finished the last bits of the honey coated crumbs and stepped out to check the rain. I saw the mamak stall across the street and thought to myself I should have gone into that shop instead. The coffee would be cheaper and I would not have fed myself with so much anger.

1 Muharam 1429.

Keeping up with Rumour Mongers

I welcomed the new year with a phone call from my brother a few hours before mid night urging me to go and fill up my car before 12 o’clock. He said that petrol price would be raised by 40 sen at midnight on the new year. He had heard rumours going around and people started queuing up at some filling stations across KL. I said I didn’t see anything unusual when I was driving back from office on New Year's eve. Besides, it would not make much difference if I filled up then or on the next day because the most I could save was only on a tankful of petrol. I would have to fill up the whole of water tank in my home to realise any significant savings from a sudden fuel hike.

Now just days into the new year, people are queuing up again at supermarkets because of rumours that cooking oil price would be hiked soon. It is a pity that we are the world’s largest producer of palm oil yet the government has had to ration it because of panic buying due to rumour mongering. Almost two years back there was severe shortage of sugar in some parts of the country because of rumours that the government would allow the price of sugar to go up. The shortage was severe then, as it is now, closer to border areas because of hoarding by traders hoping to make quick bucks when the price is actually increased. There are also a lot of smuggling activities along our porous border. Utusan Malaysia reports that it is now easier to get cooking oil in the town of Sg Golok on the other side of the border than in Rantau Panjang.

The issue here is not the price hike. Prices will always go up anyway because of inflation. The real issue is people’s tendency to believe in rumours and act irrationally upon hearing them. To me, this underlies public distrust of official sources of news and their natural tendency to believe in pseudo-news spread by SMS or chain e-mails. Recent spread of false SMS about ethnic riots in some parts of KL is a manifestation of this phenomenon. The mandatory registration of pre-paid mobile number does not seem to have the intended effect of controlling the spread of false rumours via SMS. And you cannot blame the public either because our official sources of news have thrown their integrity out of the window and at times they themselves become rumour mongers. If you ask me who started all these rumours, I will not be able to give an accurate answer. But in all likelihood, those who gain most from the spread of a rumour are the ones most likely to start it.

7 January 2008