Snake In The Grass

Snake In the Grass

September 7, 2009

James McCormack
men's health

I read recently that Swedish scientists have apparently discovered a commitment-phobia gene.''' I can see this being a potentially scary development if, on first dates, women begin asking us men how many allele-334 vasopressin 1a receptors we have.

There are some who might say I could have been a case study for the research. At 41, I've never settled down to a single career, a mortgage scares the absolute bejeezus out of me, kids are out of the question (not that I don't like kids, but you've got look after them for 18 years at a minimum) and I remember being terrified when I gave my girlfriend a kitten for Christmas because it seemed like the greatest commitment of my life.




Over the years, though, I've worn this apparent commitment-phobia as a badge of honour. I've seen it as flowing from the death of my father when I was eight. At an early age, I learnt life was short, often brutally so. Make the most of it now. Suck its very marrow while you still can, before you get too old or have it tragically cut short.

For me, in large part, this meant combining dodging responsibility with a life of travel and adventure. Ski-bumming around the world for six years, then spending another six in Japan. Settling down seems like a slow death when there's still so much of the world to discover, so much to experience.

If growing up, at least in the traditional sense of the word, means settling down, narrowing my experiences in a bid for stability, then the only sensible response has been for me not to grow up. The more I watched mates succumb to "growing up", the more pride I felt in being a holdout.

That's why, until recently, the knot remained untied after seven years in one relationship and then 10 years in another.

I'd never really, deeply, truly stopped to think about why this should be, though. The explanation of commitment-phobia seemed valid enough to please others, so I was happy enough to believe it myself. And it wasn't like it was wholly untrue. But I'd never considered there was a deeper, less palatable reason. Until I ate Mexican on a summer's evening.

Chaos theory can be defined simply as minor changes in variables that produce wildly disproportionate effects. Putting chaos theory in human terms, we might rephrase it as "small decisions, huge consequences." Edward Lorenz, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorologist, was an early pioneer of the theory and his work spawned the never-intended-to-be-taken-literally hyperbole to illustrate it. You've probably heard it: "The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas", or simply: "The Butterfly Effect".

I like to think of the tiny choices that dramatically change our lives as Butterfly Effect moments. And for me, in Byron Bay a couple of years back, it was a decision as small as where to dine that led to my greatest ever Butterfly Effect moment.

It was a balmy February night, and my girlfriend Alexis and I were wandering the streets in search of food. We saw a Mexican restaurant; with the night heat, Coronas seemed apt.

Now when it comes to Mexican, I'm a willpower-devoid glutton. That night, notwithstanding the several enchiladas and half-dozen beverages I'd already downed, I kept scoffing away on corn chips and salsa till I could barely move. When Alexis couldn't finish her meal, I stuffed that down, too.

Feeling dangerously like Monty Python's Mr Creosote, I vetoed our romantic post-dinner stroll on the beach. I needed to walk, or rather waddle, on the road, where the going was firm and far easier.

It was 10.30pm and the streets were dead as we ambled down the middle of the road. Alexis chastised me for canning our moonlit beach stroll.

"You're so unromantic," she told me.
"I'm not unromantic," I protested. "It's just that, well, you know I always eat too much when I eat Mexican. And this was good Mexican." Even to me, it sounded unconvincing.

"If you were romantic, you would've married me by now."
Silence.
"It's been 10 years."

When I first met Alexis, I'd foolishly told her how never again would I, as I had previously, let a relationship run past five years without getting married.

"Ten years," she helpfully reminded me.I fumbled to steer the conversation elsewhere.

"Hey, I'm not trying to change the topic, but there's a sign over there saying to beware of snakes."
"Where?"
"Over there, in the park."

We were wandering down the middle of the road, where the double white lines would have been if there had been any. I took my eyes off the dimly lit tar, off the road I never would have been walking down had I not eaten Mexican and been so outrageously full, to point to a sign warning park-goers of snakes.

I kid you not, it was at that moment, with my arm outstretched, that I trod on a snake. Karma, eh?

It happened so quickly, I wasn't even sure I'd been bitten. I discovered later snakes can bite up to five times a second, but all I knew then was that the snake was tangled around my foot. Unfortunately, I was wearing thongs. Seconds later, I began seeing blood.

But I still wasn't worried. The snake seemed quite small; only a metre long - it was difficult to tell in the darkness - and I felt no pain from a bite. Maybe it had only grazed me, I thought. I told Alexis I'd just go home and sleep it off.

"Stop being such a bloke. Get it checked out."

Women - ever so sensible.

Now, any fool knows the correct procedure if you're bitten is to immobilise the limb. I, of course, set off on foot to the taxi rank a few hundred metres distant.

Halfway there, my head exploded. Walking had sent the venom coursing through me, setting off a cranial sledgehammering like I'd never experienced. KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM! Sweat dripped, poured, streamed off me. And my already full stomach just exploded, swelling out like a woman's in late pregnancy. And like a woman in labour, I felt like I was going to split in two, like my belly would simply rip right open. I was more scared than I'd been in my entire life. Strangely, I was far less worried about the poison killing me than I was about dying from a ruptured stomach. Near delirious with pain, I began thrashing about.

Thank God for morphine. But Byron Hospital, unbelievably, lacked a snakebite test kit. An hour after arriving, I was bundled into an ambulance and shunted off to Tweed Heads, 45 minutes distant. Around 3am my stomach finally burst. Well, it wasn't my stomach really, more my rear end, exploding with diarrhoea, fetid and malevolent.

At 6am, eight long hours after I'd been bitten, a doctor delivered the authoritative verdict: "We think it was a tiger snake."

"You have two choices," he continued. "You may take the antivenom, and you might die. Or you may not take the antivenom . . . and you might die." With that, he turned on his heels and left.

But then the nurse explained. "We have to make you aware that antivenom may result in anaphylactic shock. Potentially, it can kill you."

"But I don't really have any choice, do I?"
"No," she replied. "Not really."

She returned minutes later to shove a gargantuan needle into my arm. "It's just some adrenaline," she casually told me. "We just want it on standby; if your heart stops, we'll be able to jolt it back into action."




At precisely that point I realised I should have married Alexis. Yes, should have married, not should marry. I'd heard the words "heart stop" and immediately began thinking of myself in the past tense. It now dawned on me for the first time the extent of my irredeemable selfishness.

In the face of potential death, I saw that my aversion to commitment, my desire to never grow up, was a completely, utterly bullshit reason not to get married. It was a mere façade. I was already committed; I loved this woman with my heart and soul, and had done so for 10 years. If I truly had been afflicted with commitment-phobia, I never would have been in a relationship this long. No, I'd used commitment-phobia as a mask for the fact that I was inexcusably self-centred, enough to let something as minor and as feeble as a point of philosophical pride stand between my and Alexis's happiness.

This was not a slow-dawning realisation; the epiphany was instant. And I can't ever remember feeling like a bigger dickhead.

What's worse, I couldn't be sure I'd even get the chance to redeem myself; I still had the anaphylactic-shock bullet to dodge. The fact they'd assembled a team of six medical staff to be on hand when they gave me the antivenom didn't exactly bolster my confidence.

But I pulled through, and then spent two nights in intensive care resting up. Alexis returned to Byron. She hadn't slept in days and, anyway, with the morphine I was out of it. By the time I returned to some state of mental clarity, I was alone.

I lay there wondering why it takes our personal worlds to descend into chaos before we admit we love and need and depend on those around us? Or in my case, and that of many other men, to commit?

And each time I thought about it, I came back to the same reason, the one that I saw so clearly in the emergency ward: pure self-centredness. Well, at least that's what I saw as my reason. I suspected I wasn't alone, though. So many men worry about being seen as too soft. Some, like myself with my commitment aversion, run from feeling too grown-up. Lying there, I saw this as nothing more than an indulgence of pride.

In retrospect, I see this episode, my greatest Butterfly Effect moment, as a blessing. Many men aren't so lucky - I almost wasn't - as to experience a crazy chain of events that leads to an epiphany that changes their behaviour forever. I still don't want a mortgage, nor to be tied down in terms of experiencing the world. But I realise now that commitment-phobia-gene or no gene-can be used as a mere pretext for selfishness. Some things really aren't much to give up for those we love.

Three nights after deciding to eat Mexican, I was released from hospital. I took a bus back to Byron and returned to our hotel. Alexis was asleep. I gently woke her and gave her a hug. And then I proposed.

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mens-health/sex-relationships/couples/article/-/6219647/snake-in-the-grass/

Wild Elephants Rampaged / Gajah Liar Menceroboh

Gajah Liar Serang FELDA Sungai Tekam Utara

JERANTUT PAHANG 14 Okt, 2009
Hampir 500 keluarga peneroka di tanah rancangan Felda Sungai Tekam Utara di sini bimbang berikutan kemunculan tiga ekor gajah liar yang telah memusnahkan tanaman sawit muda dan pisang di situ sejak sebulan lepas. Seorang peneroka, Ibrahim Omar, 57 tahun, berkata, beliau kerugian RM5,000 apabila tanaman pisang serta sawit di kawasan tiga hektar miliknya musnah dimakan gajah tersebut. Katanya haiwan itu menceroboh masuk pada waktu tengah malam dan awal pagi dan dipercayai dari kumpulan beberapa ekor gajah yang datang dari Hutan Simpan Berkelah yang bersempadan dengan tanah rancangan tersebut. Mat Nizam Yaakub, 60, pula berkata, anggota Jawatankuasa Kemajuan dan Keselamatan Kampung dan Rela kini bergilir mengawal setiap masa kerana bimbangkan haiwan itu menceroboh ke kawasan penempatan. "Pelbagai cara telah dilakukan untuk menakutkan gajah itu termasuk menembak, membakar mercun dan menghidupkan unggun api serta membakar tayar lama namun haiwan itu tetap berdegil dan terus menceroboh,” katanya. Mat Nizam berharap Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara (Perhilitan) Pahang supaya bertindak segera bagi menghalau haiwan itu bagi mengelak kerugian serta kejadian yang tidak diingini berlaku terhadap peneroka.

Nearly 500 families of FELDA land scheme settlers at FELDA Sungai Tekam Utara near Larantut are worried after the appearance of three wild elephants which had destroyed young newly-grown oil palms and banana trees in the area over the past month. A settler, Ibrahim Omar, 57 years old, said he suffered a loss of RM5000 when his three hectares of planted banana and oil palm trees were destroyed after being eaten by the elephants. He said the beasts had raided in during the night and early morning believed to be from a herd of a few elephants coming from Berkelah Forest Reserve bordering the FELDA land scheme. Mat Nizam Yaakub, 60 years old, said members of the Village Development & Security Committee and RELA are now on rotational shift duties guarding round the clock, worried if the animals will raid the settlement (housing) areas. "Various methods have been done to scare away the elephants including shooting, igniting fire crackers, and lighting up bonfires, and burning of old tyres but the animals were still stubbornly rampaging" he said. Mat Nizam hoped that the Pahang Department of Wild Life & National Parks will immediately take action to chase away the elephants to avoid further losses

http://www.pahangdaily.blogspot.com/

Beri Peluang UMNO Untuk Benar-Benar Berubah?

Umno perlu diberi peluang lagi untuk benar-benar berubah?

Ahmad Lutfi Othman
harakahdaily.net
Monday, Oct 19, 2009

AMALAN rasuah dan UMNO memang sudah sinonim, melekat kuat, dan sukar untuk dicerai-tanggal. Bagaimanapun ada pihak melihat bahawa rasuah - kegiatan jenayah yang paling sukar dibuktikan itu - jugalah yang menyebabkan Umno berkembang dan sehingga kini masih berkuasa walaupun digugat hebat dalam pilihan raya Mac 2008.

Melalui rasuah, aktiviti Umno dapat digerakkan secara lebih aktif, terutama untuk 'menggula-gulakan' rakyat, di samping memastikan jentera propaganda parti berjalan licin!

Rasuah yang dimaksudkan bukan sekadar politik wang atau membeli undi semasa pemilihan kepimpinan UMNO, seperti yang dihebohkan pemimpin parti berkenaan. Ia meliputi gerak kerja lebih meluas, khususnya dalam setiap kali kempen pilihan raya, tidak kira pilihan raya kecil atau pilihan raya umum.

Hal ini jarang, atau lebih tepat, tidak pernah dibangkitkan pemimpin dan ahli UMNO. Yang sering didebatkan hanyalah politik wang semasa memilih barisan kepimpinan parti.

Dana politik

Sedangkan amalan rasuah semasa pilihan raya, seperti ditunjukkan di Bagan Pinang dan mana-mana jua pilihana raya sebelum ini, adalah lebih serius, kotor dan memberikan kesan cukup buruk kepada negara.

Kos projek meningkat berkali ganda bagi menampung "dana politik", malah kualiti diabaikan untuk menjimatkan perbelanjaan. Natijahnya, banyak bangunan runtuh di sana-sini!

Melalui perhimpunan agungnya baru-baru ini, perlembagaan UMNO dipinda bagi membolehkan lebih ramai perwakilan akar umbi dapat menentukan barisan kepimpinan parti, kononnya dengan itu meminimumkan amalan rasuah yang sudahpun membarah.

UMNO-BN yang hampir tumbang dan hilang kuasa dalam pilihan raya ke-12 seolah-olah nampak serik dan bersedia mengambil tindakan drastik bagi memulihkan semula keyakinan rakyat terhadapnya.

Memang kepada UMNO, kuasa adalah segala-galanya. Tanpa bergayut dengan kuasa, UMNO sudah lama rebah. Dr Mahathir Mohamad sering mengingatkan apa gunanya menjadi pemimpin kepada parti yang tidak berkuasa lagi.

Jatuhnya Umno di Selangor, Perak dan Kedah (juga Pulau Pinang) pada 8 Mac 2008 cukup memeritkan. Apa juga usaha, termasuk taktik jahat, direncanakan bagi merampas semula negeri-negeri berkenaan dari Pakatan Rakyat. Bertubi-tubi dilancarkan serangan.

Akhirnya Perak dapat direbut semula, Kedah pula digoncang hebat dan Selangor tidak henti-henti digugat. Siapa percaya tiga ADUN Pakatan di Perak dan seorang di Kedah mengkhianati perjuangan tanpa sebarang sogokan atau rasuah?

Aneh,parti yang cakap berdegar-degar mahu membanteras rasuah secara sedar dan proaktif membelit dan menyelimuti diri mereka dengan korupsi dan salahguna kuasa.

Ajar cukup-cukup

UMNO sebenarnya belum "diajar cukup-cukup" sehingga lumpuh tempat pergantungan dengan sumberkuasa dan punca ekonomi. Pada pilihan raya 1999, UMNO mendapat tamparan cukup dahsyat. Pengundi Melayu secara terbuka mempamerkan aksi protes, didahului siri demonstrasi disekitar Kuala Lumpur.

Namun, UMNO masih berkuku di luar Kelantan dan Terengganu serta terus ghairah membolot khazanah kekayaan negara. Pelbagai langkah perubahan dilakukan.

Bagaimanapun, apabila menang besar pada 2004, belang UMNO muncul kembali, malah ia menjadi lebih angkuh, sombong dan lupa diri.

Tsunami politik Mac 2008 memang memedihkan UMNO-BN. Lima negeri hilang, antaranya negeri paling maju. Majoriti dua pertiga di Parlimen dinafikan. Presiden UMNO, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi terpaksa berundur awal. Perubahan menjadi istilah popular di zaman Najib. Akta-akta menekan dan mengongkong seperti ISA pun khabarnya mahu dipinda.

UMNO berhasrat untuk dilihat dekat dengan nurani dan degup jantung rakyat. Semuanya - hanya dengan satu tujuan - untuk mengembalikan sokongan yang telah hilang.

Berdepan masyarakat bukan Melayu, UMNO bagai tidak percaya lagi dengan MIC dan MCA, ia mahu berbicara langsung dengan mereka, tanpa melalui parti-parti komponen itu.

Di Bagan Pinang UMNO mendapat suntikan semangat baru. Walaupun ia hanya mempertahankan kerusi tradisi - bukan merampas kubu lawan, seperti dilakukan PAS di Kuala Terengganu - namun sudah cukup untuknya berpesta.

Najib Razak sendiri akui kemenangan Isa Samad itu menceriakan suasana perhimpunan UMNO dan memudahkan pindaan perlembagaan diluluskan. Mungkin bagi Najib, pengundi masih boleh dikelirukan dengan satu dua azimat palsu.

Perasuah disanjung

Ironinya, ketika UMNO mahu memerangi rasuah, tiba-tiba sang perasuah pula disanjung sebagai hero. "Hipokrasi UMNO untuk banteras rasuah terdedah. Segala yang dibuat hanya untuk mengelabui rakyat sedangkan perangai UMNO tetap macam dulu," kata seorang pemerhati politik.

"Selagi UMNO tidak ditumpaskan sepenuhnya, dan merempat sebagai pembangkang di seluruh negara,maka ia tidak akan berubah, percayalah. Usah disambung hayatnya sebagai parti pemerintah jika kita mahu melihat UMNO benar-benar berubah!" tambahnya.

Tentunya kepada rakyat, jika Pakatan Rakyat dan BN berlumba-lumba menjaga kepentingan dan kebajikan mereka, ia menguntungkan semua. Soalnya, untuk kali ke berapa peluang harus diberikan buat UMNO-BN?

Ruang 2004-2008 dibazirkan begitu sahaja; tiada perubahan yang menguntungkan rakyat dilaksanakan selain penciptaan slogan demi slogan. Kini UMNO merayu kembali agar ia tidak direntap dari puncak kuasa, dengan turut menjanjikan deretan perubahan.

Pengundi pastinya lebih matang menilai. Sambil mengharapkan Pakatan Rakyat mengotakan janji dan menambah-baik sistem penyampaian di empat negeri, rakyat mahu melihat segala teguran yang disampaikan, misalnya melalui keputusan Bagan Pinang, dipandang berat.

Jangan mengulangi tabiat buruk UMNO-BN yang sentiasa dalam keadaan "menafikan". Seperti BN, Pakatan Rakyat juga dinilai dari dekat dengan kacamata kritikal. Bukankah selama ini yang membentuk dan menyemai sikap kritis rakyat adalah Pakatan Rakyat sendiri? Pedang yang menusuk musuh, ia juga boleh menikam diri sendiri.

Home Of The World's Highest Via Ferrata

October 19, 2009

Mount Kinabalu, Home Of The World's Highest Via Ferrata

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama)
Ask the man on the street on whether he knows what is 'via ferrata' and it is highly likely that he would return a blank look and say "sorry, no idea".

Repeat the same question to a mountaineer or rock climber, you may get a passionate reply with some glowing experience on it thrown in.




The via ferrata, or 'iron road' in Italian, is a mountain path that consists of a series of steel rungs, rails and cables embedded into the rock face on a mountain slope. It opens up routes for the average hiker that were previously only accessible to experience rock climbers and mountaineers with specialised equipment.





Via ferrata on the Dreitorspitze (Austria)

This leisure mountaineering sport had its roots in World War I. The first via ferrata was constructed and used by the Italian military to move troops and equipment across the Italian Dolomites into to Austria.

Climbers can follow the via ferrata without needing to use their own ropes and belays, and without the risks associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing.

The via ferrata are found in a number of European countries, including Italy, Germany, England, France, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Poland as well as a few places in the United States, Canada and Malaysia.

Mount Kinabalu in Sabah has the first via ferrata, not only in Malaysia but also in Asia. Opened in December 2007, it is an alternative route to the top of Mount Kinabalu at 4,095 metres above sea level.

Located at Mount Kinabalu's Panar Laban rock face, the via ferrata is also the world's highest. It begins at 3,411 metres and ends at 3,776 metres above sea level. This was certified by the Guinness World Records.

The via ferrata is a four to six-hour hike from the Mount Kinabalu Park Headquarters.

The company responsible for bringing via ferrata to Mount Kinabalu is Mountain Torq Sdn Bhd, a Kota Kinabalu-based entity that promotes adventure and mountaineering activities in Asia.

MOUNTAIN TORQ'S VIA FERRATA

Mountain Torq's via ferrata is approximately 1.2 km long and traverses routes of varying difficulties. It thus caters to all levels of experience, from beginners to intermediate hikers and climbers.

The company's sales and marketing director Quek I-Gek said that this 'iron road' on Mount Kinabalu is suitable for almost all ages, from 10 years old and above.

"The via ferrata is devised to give people with little or no climbing experience the excitement of being above the clouds. You don't even need to be a seasoned or experienced rock climber or mountaineer," she said.

Families, school children and climbers of general fitness levels are particularly fond of one of the activities called 'Walk The Torq'. Measuring 430m long, participants can witness the beautiful natural scenery of Borneo and capture breathtaking shots during the two to three hours walk.

But adventure-loving mountaineering enthusiasts who are craving an exhilarating, adrenalin-charged experience should opt for the hike up to Low's Peak, Mount Kinabalu's highest point at 4,095m.

This is a four to five-hour programme, with a length of 763m, designed for those with above average fitness levels.

Other highlights include walking on a 22m footbridge suspended at about 3,600m above sea level.

"As long as you know how to climb a ladder and are still able to do so, you will be able to negotiate the via ferrata. All that is needed is a spirit of adventure, the average fitness level of a normal mountain hiker and no fear of heights," Quek said.

SAFETY STANDARDS

When it comes to enjoying extreme sports like this, safety standards are normally the prime concerns.

However, Quek said that it is the safest of all mountaineering sports including hiking, scrambling, abseiling, rock climbing and alpine mountaineering.

Mountain Torq's via ferrata enables climbers and non-climbers to experience the thrill of mountain climbing in complete safety as it conforms to the highest international safety standards.

The via ferrata is able to withstand up to three tonnes of weight. It was constructed by a team of preeminent via ferrata builders from Europe.

Safety practices developed and prescribed by the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) for mountaineering sports are also adhered to strictly.

All equipment used in the sport is UIAA-certified and participants are guided at all times by trainers who have undergone rigorous training, with regular skills upgrading based on a syllabus endorsed by UIAA.

In addition to that, a continuous belay system is employed throughout the via ferrata route where climbers are hooked up to a guideline, making any deviation from the route virtually impossible.

OTHER SERVICES

Besides operating the via ferrata, Mountain Torq is also South East Asia's first mountaineering training centre, offering other mountaineering activities like sports climbing, rappelling and alpine rock climbing.

Mountain Torq's alpine-style accommodation at Pendant Hut, located at 3,270m above sea level on Mount Kinabalu Laban Rata rock slab, offers its guests a cosy, eco-friendly hut with a combination of dormitory, VIP and private rooms.

From this location, it is a mere 15-20 minutes walk to the start of the via ferrata.

Needless to say, Mountain Torq's via ferrata has played a major role in raising awareness on Mount Kinabalu among mountain climbers around the world.

With the availability of this mountaineering activity, one can confidently say that Sabah is now a world-class adventure destination with a myriad of ocean and mountain activities.

More information on Mountain Torq's via ferrata is available at http://www.mountaintorq.com.

By Sakina Mohamed
BERNAMA

1:600 Doctor-Population Ration By 2020

October 19, 2009

Government Targets Doctor-Population Ratio Of 1:600 By 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- The government aims to achieve a ratio of one doctor to 600 people by 2020, from 1:1,145 currently, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

Responding to a supplementary question by Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (PKR-Machang, Liow said the government was aware of the shortage of medical officers in the country and had taken various steps to address the problem.

"One of the problems is the outflow of trained doctors from the government service. Every year, between 200 and 400 doctors leave the government service to join private hospitals," he added.

He said the ministry was now looking into ways to pool the resources of doctors in the public and private sector to work as a team so that the people would get the best medical and health service.

BERNAMA

More Than Two, But It's Still Khalwat

More than two, but it's still khalwat

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Block F of Indah Condominium at Prima Damansara
Vice raid by 'officers' from residents' association allegedly leaves man with black eye

Teoh El Sen




NOT AWARE: Mohd Yusuf said he was not told of any beatings

IF you think that you can’t be nabbed for khalwat (close illicit proximity) just because you are found together with more than one other member of the opposite sex, think again.
Aqmal (not his real name) and four of his friends found this out the hard way when their durian-eating session at their condominium unit in Block F of Indah Condominium at Prima Damansara came to a halt when several men from the local residents’ association came knocking on their door.

He claimed that the men were not only aggressive and thuggish, but also hurled insults at him and his friends.

To compound his misery, two of the men also punched him three times, leaving him with a black eye.

But the worse part for Aqmal is not about whether he was beaten or not; it was that the men who knocked on his friends’ home did not even identify themselves.

“I had just sat down to watch a DVD while my friends (three female and a male) were preparing food, others were in their rooms and one was on the computer when there were loud knocks and rattling of the grilles,” said Aqmal.

When his female friend opened the door, the shouting men, numbering about eight to 10, barged in and demanded their identification.

“They were without tags or any identification and they wrote on exercise books; one even called my friend a prostitute for inviting over male friends,” said Aqmal, who said he followed their directions without complaint.

But when they were bringing him and his three friends (two males and a female, as the other female was apparently a Christian), out the door, one of them told Aqmal he acted like an American — to which he replied: Lebih kurang lah (maybe).

This prompted an immediate reaction.




BRUISED EYE: Aqmal showing his police report, his medical report and the bruise he alleged was caused by people from the raiding party

“That was when they got angry and one of them punched me twice on my left eye and another punched me once on my head,” said Aqmal, who said he did not fight back but blocked their attack — which left his arm scratched too.
Aqmal said he later had to drive himself and the “officers” to their operations room at Lestari apartment where they “gave me a lecture and told me what I did was wrong” — but no khalwat charge was pressed.

Aqmal said he admitted that he may be wrong but he is not satisfied with how he was treated and questioned the authority of the men. He lodged a police report at 3am while another friend lodged a police report yesterday.

Meanwhile, when Malay Mail met the alleged assailants, the Lestari Apartment Residents’ Assocation president Mohd Yusuf Abdullah confirmed the “operation” but denied the beating.

“We had full authority as, after we received information of the suspected khalwat (close proximity), we linked with Jais (the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department) and informed the local mosque imam who was called to help in the raid by the Indah Condominium mosque chairman Raja Shaharin Sahar.

“We do not do such things without information or without authority,” said Mohd Yusuf.

He said they had actually been lenient and had allowed the four individuals to go after advising them.

“I was not informed nor I am not aware if they were hurt in any way. This can be witnessed by others,” Mohd Yusuf said.

He added that such operations were common and it was done to curb maksiat (immoral activities), which he claims could become a worrying trend in the neighbourhood.

Prima Damansara chairman and mufti Raja Shaharin Sahar, who had called for the inspection, said he went over to the operations room to advise the four individuals, but he said the beating was “beyond my knowledge”.

“They looked fine when I spoke to them and they went home after everything was resolved cordially,” said Raja Shaharin.

The Malay Mail

The New God Of UMNO

The New God of UMNO

By M. Bakri Musa

In his celebrated novel Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan (RSJ – Spikes Throughout the Pathway), Shahnon Ahmad chronicles the seemingly endless traps of poverty endured by a kampong family. Or in his elegant words, “bencana-bencana yang tidak bisa langsai selagi jantung berdegup [dan] nadi berdenyut … ” (never ending cycle of calamities endured as long as your heart beats and pulse throbs). Shahnon asserts that the pain could only be felt by those willing to reflect on and empathize with the struggles of our pap-pak tani (peasant farmers).

This thought haunts me as I reflect on the hoopla surrounding the recent UMNO General Assembly. The soaring rhetoric of “1-Malaysia” and of reform is a universe away from the world inhabited by RSJ’s main character, Lahuma. The irony strikes hard as the Lahumas are the very people UMNO professes to champion.

The biting irony does not end there. Many of the Assembly participants, including the high-flying ones, are only a generation or two away from the deprivations so painfully detailed in RSJ. Those agonizing memories must have been seared into them by their parents and grandparents. That should motivate anyone to do something to alleviate the debilitating poverty still experienced by so many today.

Yet I did not sense even an inkling of that sentiment at this grand gathering of self-declared “defenders of the Malays.” Even more bizarre is that these UMNO delegates still have friends and relatives in abundance who continue to suffer the pain of peasant life. And let’s face it, stripped of their political patronages many of the currently high-living delegates would be reduced to a Lahuma existence overnight.

I doubt that many of the delegates have heard of Shahnon Ahmad, let alone read his novels. Hence they would not know what I am writing about. I once tried to buy his books at one of KL’s major bookstores, only to be greeted by the sales clerk’s response of, “Shahnon siapa?” (Who?) A stinging indictment of our education system!

Thus a brief summary of RSJ is warranted before proceeding. The book describes the endless cascading calamities of droughts, floods, and infestations suffered by one poor farmer (Lahuma). His tragedy (but not the book) ends with his unnecessary death, from an untreated trifling sliver injury. His demise compounds the anguish of his wife, who goes berserk and ends up being locked in a cage by her fellow villagers.

Shahnon’s depiction of the tyranny of poverty is a universal theme. We see this in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the travails of a sharecropper’s family in drought-stricken Oklahoma of the Depression era, and Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, also about a peasant family, this time in pre-revolution China.

Today, the descendents of Steinbeck’s Tom Joad are busy running the thriving agro-businesses in San Joaquin Valley, while Buck’s Wang Lung’s grandchildren are actively trading in US Treasury papers.

In contrast, Lahuma’s cicit (great grandchildren) are still scraping a harsh living in their disintegrating kampong; his fears of their being reduced to begging painfully prescient. Over half a century of unchallenged UMNO leadership, Malays are reduced to begging: begging for handouts from their government, begging for economic scraps from non-Malays, and begging for respect from others.

UMNO leaders may have been to Oxford and resided in sophisticated capitals of the world, alas scratch their hide and the ‘kampongness’ oozes out of the pores. They are still trapped by the same cultural genes as Lahuma’s. Where he is crippled by religious fatalism – “Mati hidup dan susah senang dipegang oleh Tuhan” (Life and death, hardship and ease, are in Allah’s hands) – UMNO members are ensnared by the political variety. They believe their fate is in the hands of the party; it is their savior, their new god – UMNO dulu, kini, dan selama nya! (UMNO – Then, now, and forever!)

To UMNO folks, the party has replaced Allah as the source of bounty and benevolence, as well as the punisher and decider of their fate. Corrupt leaders are forgiven not by Allah but by the party. The benevolence does not end there. Isa Samad had his political corruption sentence reduced, and then he was rewarded to be the party’s election candidate. Khairy Jamaluddin had his “money politics” conviction essentially pardoned, and then blessed by being head of UMNO Youth!

With such compelling examples, no wonder UMNO members turn to their new god with the gusto of a fresh convert. Just as Lahuma would never question Allah’s design, UMNO members too would not dare question their god and risking his wrath.

There was one obvious departure with this recent Assembly. Gone were the obligatory race-taunting theatrics, shrill calls for defending the ‘honor’ of the Malays, and other ugly chauvinistic displays. Time will tell whether this shift represented a change of heart or tactic.

My take is that this is more of the latter. For one, UMNO leaders have not been known to utter anything sensible. When they do, one wonders whether it comes from within or merely the parroting of poll-tested printouts from their public relations hire. For another, there is a huge gulf between what those leaders preach and practice.

UMNO’s latest obsession is combating corruption and rejuvenating the party. At least that is the impression their leaders give. Yet when given an opportunity to demonstrate its resolve, as with the recent by-election in Bagan Pinang, the party chose a tired and tainted character to be its standard bearer. I would have thought that it would pick someone who best exemplified the “new, rejuvenated” UMNO.

In judging UMNO leaders (and thus Prime Ministers), there was only one who understood the plight of our Lahumas. Because he understood them, Tun Razak was able to craft imaginative and effective policies, such as his massive rural development schemes, in particular FELDA.

The Tun’s massive expansion of educational opportunities (Gerakan Lampu Suloh – Operation Torch) brought light to the families of the Lahumas, enabling them to escape the trap of poverty. His expansion of health facilities in rural areas (Klinik Desa) ensured that they would not die unnecessarily from simple treatable diseases.

Tun Razak did not belittle or poke fun at the cultural beliefs or biological heritage of the villagers. While they fervently believed that their fate was in Allah’s hands, Tun Razak demonstrated there was much that his government could do to persuade if not prod Allah to alter that destiny. He was more persuaded by another Quranic verse: Allah would not change the condition of a people unless they first make an effort at it. As leader, Tun Razak felt a great obligation to help his people change their conditions by bringing education, health care, and development to the villages.

He could not care less about Malay leadership, Ketuanan Melayu, Glokal Malay, or any other cutesy slogans. Take care of those three basics (health, education and economic development), and the rest will take care of themselves. There are no shortcuts; stunt or showy development projects cannot replace the real need for improving our schools and healthcare, or bringing development to rural areas.

Now that the delegates are back home to savor the memories of their brief moments in the limelight, I am left wondering what specifically did they do that would directly impact the lives of our villagers. None! The Pak Lahumas would continue enduring their dreary life, one that has remained unchanged for the past half a century under UMNO rule, save for Tun Razak’s brief tenure. If UMNO gets its way, that life will remain the same for the next few generations.

Pondering the fate and empathizing with the plight of our pak-pak tani are furthest away from the thoughts of these UMNO leaders. They will however, make a brief and perfunctory show of both come election time, when our Lahumas can expect gifts of kain pelakat, in return for their votes of course.

MT