Beer-drinking - again

I am very surprised there are large numbers of people in support for Alcoholism.

I am living with the English people and they have a very strong beer-drinking culture and are these Malaysians trying to adopt this kind of 'healthy' culture from England just to look 'cool'?

Almost every Thursday there will be a drinking session (some call it Happy Hour in Malaysia) at about 4 p.m., and I do join them whenever possible.

My drink? Non-alcoholic cider, Coca Cola or Non-alcoholic cocktails.

Do they find me weird for not drinking? Probably not. After I told them I don't drink alcohol.

Do I get their respect? Yes. Because I was being honest and strong-willed when comes to practicing my religion. They even said that it's good I don't take alcohol because it's unhealthy.

These are the same people who have been drinking for thousands of years you see. And yet they concede it's unhealthy!

Okay, other letters in Malaysiakini might suggest the writers are atheists, by suggesting that 'it's up to the individual to decide to drink or not'.

My decision not-to-drink was first based on the teaching of my religion, Islam, and as I grow older, I know alcohol is bad for everyone when consumed as drinks.

I have seen their faces, how some can be quite blunt, volatile, randy and aggressive when they are drunk... and I am supposed to accept the fact that he's drunk that's why he groped my girlfriend when dancing?... Or rape my cousin?

Hell no! They shouldn't drink at the first place. It's like people nowadays (many Malaysians included) are being in-denial about the bad things about alcoholism, simply because they love drinking it. They don't want anyone take their love away from them. Quite obvious innit?

So, what about drugs? Ecstasy, shabu, marijuana (weed as they call it), they are easily available now in the clubs in Malaysia. They make you feel good and they seem 'harmless', so you are saying its up to the individual to decide?

How about a 12-year old kid, being introduced to smoking weed, and he thought it was harmless. You just let him decide? You don't need law-enforcement to ban drugs or alcoholic drinks to people like him?

Self-regulation MY FOOT!

Do you think the banning of cigarettes in convenience stores to under-18 actually works? These people are only interested with maximising profits!

Now, I am not suggesting a full ban on alcohol. Maybe there is a need of a certain law that will have the CCTV cameras picked and viewed randomly to see if the stores are not selling alcohol to Muslims and cigarettes to under 18s. I think that's the best we can do at the moment.

Oh by the way, there is one thing missing with the budget 2010. The increase in tax for demerit goods like alcohol and cigarettes.

In conclusion, I do not smoke, I do not drink because I think its unhealthy and I don't want my children to do those as well. I am not pious, an Ustaz or someone from PAS, but I don't do alcohol because I believe there is Allah, I am a proud Muslim and I fully understand why its bad for everyone.

So stop trying to 'convert' us non-drinkers with your petty human rights to decide what is right or wrong. I do have my right to practice my religion and so does Kartika. Now that is human rights.

Beer-drinking is bad. 'Nuff' said.

Jeg Hui

Kartika vs Kahar

Kesalahan:
Kartika = meminum arak di khalayak ramai
Kahar = mengajar dan mengetuai ajaran sesat sehingga menggelarkan diri 'Rasul Melayu'

Pengendali kes:
Kartika = Mahkamah Syariah Kuantan
Kahar = Mahkamah Syariah Shah Alam

Mengaku bersalah?
Kartika = Ya.
Kahar = Ya.

Mahu merayu?
Kartika = Tidak
Kahar = Tidak

Hukuman dikenakan:
Kartika = dirotan 3 kali serta denda RM5000
Kahar = penjara 10 tahun dan disebat 6 kali serta denda RM16,500

Status pesalah
Kartika = Umur 32 tahun, berkeluarga (dua orang anak)
Kahar = Umur 59 tahun, berkeluarga

Pandangan media dan orang ramai
Kartika = Sisters in Islam, Malaysiakini, TheStar, CNN, pejuang hak asasi manusia, komentar bukan Islam dan lain-lain media telah mengutuk hukuman Kartika yang dikatakan 'barbaric' dan ketinggalan zaman padahal Kartika sendiri berhak menentukan bagaimana cara dia mahu diadili mengikut hukum syarak. Adalah hak Kartika untuk menjadi seorang Muslimah yang tawadduk dan beriman kepada ajaran Allah.

...... Kahar?

"Biarlah orang tua tu mati dalam penjara. Menyusahkan orang saja!"

Pandangan saya:
Jika anda fikir mereka ini semua betul-betul mahu perjuangkan hak asasi manusia, fikirlah sekali lagi. Bukankah mudah jika kita berlaku adil kepada semua, bukan kerana sesuatu kes itu mendapat liputan meluas sedunia baru nak terhegeh-hegeh mencari nama demi kepentingan peribadi? Tidak ketahuan pula saya apakah hukuman sebaiknya kepada 'Rasul Melayu' ini. Adakah lebih baik jika berpandukan kepada ajaran Islam yang sememangnya adil?

Kepada orang bukan Islam atau orang Islam yang cetek ilmu pengetahuannya tentang Islam (SIS khususnya), selidiklah diri sendiri dan tanyakan, 'siapalah kita untuk memberi pandangan kepada sesuatu isu yang kita sendiri tidak arif? Bagaimana pula anda rasa jika agama dan pegangan anda disoal sebegitu? Tidak marahkah anda jika orang yang tidak berpengetahuan tentang agama anda mempersoalkan mengapa anda perlu 'menyembah patung' atau pandangan sekular yang telah menjadi pegangan anda selama ini?

Hormati dan sayangilah orang di sekeliling anda. Fahamilah tentang agama dan budaya masing-masing supaya tidak ada lagi perbalahan sesama kita.

Tak kenal maka tak cinta.

p/s: Saya juga menghormati pandangan SIS namun oleh kerana mereka ini melabel diri mereka sebagai pejuang Islam (padahal bertentangan dengan Islam), saya terpaksa kecam mereka sama sekali kerana cuba mengubah Islam yang sentiasa asli dan adil.

Wallahualam.

Ungrateful and wrong

National STPM Top Scorer, Jia Hui had her father wrote to TheStar dated 16 July 2009:

"The prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) was not on its new prestigious university list, dated March 30, 2009. In fact, foreign university applications for the 2009 intake closed before the date on the list.

I explained to its officer that the approved University of Melbourne, which my daughter had rejected earlier, was much easier to enter. My daughter said LSE is famous for actuarial science and is one of the top three universities for social science, ahead of Oxford, Cambridge, and Melbourne.

The officer said that PSD based its selection on overall university ranking, not on specific courses. The officer added that all the 20 students chosen in this round were Chinese and there was no issue of racial quota. As a national top scorer, my daughter lost to 20 students of the same race.

My daughter is disappointed and has lost her confidence. She is confused on what is defined as achievement. As a parent, I am unable to explain to her what is fair and justified. I am also unable to tell her whether our national education system is inferior or if the scholarship award process is faulty?"

Jeg Hui to Jia Hui:

1. I don't think PSD literally said that LSE is not a prestigious university. I think what they meant to say was that LSE is not the best in providing Actuarial education in terms of syllabus cover and potential exemptions offered.

2. Why reject Melbourne Uni? This is a selfish, ungrateful act. People are finding so hard to get scholarships nowadays. Just because you are one of the best students you think can always choose where to go? This is quite arrogant of you. The fact that you said LSE is better than Melbourne is not right at all.

3. As an actuarial student, he/she would go for a university that offers maximum number of exemptions, mostly maximum of 8 for Core Techniques subjects from their degree. Currently, the Actuarial Profession offers:

London School of Economics
Exemption from Core Technical Stage subjects: CT1, CT3, CT4, CT5, CT6, CT7, CT8
7/8.

Oxford (Said)
Exemption from Core Technical Stage subjects: CT1, CT2, CT3, CT7, CT8
5/8

Cambridge
Exemption from Core Technical Stage subjects: CT3, CT6
2/8

Melbourne University (SURPRISE SURPRISE!)
Exemption from Core Technical Stage subjects: CT1, CT2, CT3, CT4, CT5, CT6, CT7, CT8
All 8.

4. I don't think racial issues played the part if that's the father is trying to imply here. Please bring this Malay-hatred-because-PSD-is-Malay attitude somewhere else.

5. Of course your daughter is confused, she didn't even get it right about which university is the best for actuarial studies.

6. My only question is, will you be in Malaysia after you finished your studies? You might say you want to qualify first in the UK/Aussie before coming back that's what most people say, which is fair, but will you actually come back and serve the people of Malaysia? The very people who support you through JPA scholarship?

7. Why LSE? I'm not even promoting Cass anymore because what they do now is ONLINE Lectures which is such a lazy-ass attitude from the lecturers to teach the students. Why not Heriot-Watt? Because it sounds like 'Herot-berot'?. Why not Kent if you still want to go to the UK for the power of pounds?

8. This is more of a personal glory to Jia Hui. I bet she never fails in her life and when this happened, it was hard to see other people 'getting' more than her.

9. I know this entry is so outdated. I wonder where is Jia Hui now? Melbourne or London?

10. For this case, JPA was right to offer Melbourne Uni to Jia Hui over LSE. Nothing against LSE, but if I were the JPA officer, I would do the same.

p/s: you can consider yourself lucky you won't be able to apply for PNB scholarships (Bumiputra only). You might be tempted by the money they are currently offering but you can forget about qualifying under their programme.

EK 346 to Gatwick

It was a different kind of flight this time when I was travelling from KUL to DBX for a transit back to London when there was the three of us, Singaporean Mr Wong, Iranian Max 'Miller' and the Malaysian me sitting in the same row 15-right.

They didn't give me the right first impressions as they were busy discussing about Max's personal encounter with some 'extreme' Malays during his 4 months stay in Malaysia.

Mr Wong, commented further on how he disagrees with some 'extreme' Muslims being so 'rigid' on eating in the same table as non-Muslims because of some pork-issues.

"Cannot touch pork!"

Max kept on repeating how Muslim Malays can be so extreme.

I only offered my opinion in regards with 'extreme' Muslim Malays when dealing with the Zakat fund in which Mr Wong agreed, adding that religious leaders, be it Muslims or Christians or Buddhists (Dalai Lama was mentioned) are 'fat cats' making money out of their respective religions.

We also talked about social problems in our countries but Mr Wong, being outspoken over racial issues in Malaysia had given some strong but sensible comments about how Malaysia can improve as a nation.

We also talked about the crooked bridge with Mahathir being the center of our discussion.

When asked if Singapore is paying so cheap of a price when importing water from Malaysia, Mr Wong agrees. "There is always a room for renegotiation. We know that we are paying at a very cheap price, but Mahathir was not using the right method to discuss. He threatened to switch off the tap but Lee Kuan Yew retaliated by saying 'we will go in and take the water'. We are always willing to pay more since we are a rich nation, but there was no discussion during Mahathir's time. Only fighting."

Mahathir has always been at odds with LKY. No discussion!

Meanwhile, I finally realised why Max was angry with Malay Muslims. It is because that Max is quite a liberal Muslim, his lifestyle will not suit Malay Muslims as most Malay Muslims don't drink alcohol and are biggest fans of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Max is having troubles going in and out the country. Being a lecturer who loves travel he has every reason to disagree with Muslim Malaysians who support the Iranian President.

"We are paying the price for his 'boldness'!"

Apparently Max real name is not Max nor Miller. But Mahdi. He is about 30-40 years old.

Mr. Wong is a big fan of Zaid Ibrahim and also Nik Aziz, although he sometimes dislike the latter's Islamic views.

Mr. Wong is around 50 to 60 years old, a wise old man with a big smile as a weapon. Being a travel agency director that is like a checklist item.

There is one thing that I find really interesting when he told me about a story of an Indian MP in Singapore questioning the 'Special privileges' of the minorities which regards to education and called this privileges to be scrapped.

Yes, there is a special rights for Malays in Singapore I didn't know that.

LKY ticked off the Indian MP by slamming him that he had touched the 'sacred cow'. "This special privileges is enshrined in Singapore's constituency." In a country like Singapore, after a full force of demonising by Mahathir, people in Malaysia, Malays in particular, think that Malays are marginalised in Singapore.

"Under this special rights, Malays are given free education up until university," Mr Wong said.

Yes, PPSMI was also discussed. Mr Wong thinks Malaysia is going backwards by abolishing PPSMI. I added that it should be PPSMII with IT subject included.

"Is this a Mouse or Tetikus?" I barked in annoyance.

I saluted Singapore's brave move to unify all schools into one national school. Some Chinese schools in Singapore kept their Chinese names, but most subjects are taught in English. They can learn Mandarin or Tamil as a third language. Malay language is a compulsory subject.

No wonder the Singaporeans speak English better than us, Singlish or not.

Wa lau wei!

The 2-hour 3-way discussion ended when everyone fell asleep or started watching their favourite movies during the night flight.

I came to a conclusion that again, it's all about respect and knowing each other. Never ever give hate and prejudice the chance to take over our judgments.

Just because Mahathir taught us to hate Singapore (or Lee Kuan Yew), doesn't mean we have to hate Singaporeans.

Just because someone is Iranian, doesn't mean he supports the current President.

We all know that Muslims aren't supposed to eat pork or drink liquor. What you can do is respect their faith and don't simply brand these people extremists since you do eat pork and drink liquor.

We all know that Hindus don't eat beef and they believe that cow is a sacred animal and they do build temples to pray. What you can do is respect their faith and don't simply ask them to go back to India or slaughter this animal in front of them just to provoke them.

We all know that Christians do have their missionary brigades around the world that doesn't mean we should slaughter them and eat their meat just like an incident in Samoa many-many years ago. We also shouldn't allow Al-Islam journalists to snoop around the Christians activities to sell their magazines.

We all know that there are aethists around the world but that doesn't mean they can condemn people's belief in God. They should learn to respect other people's beliefs since most of these people believe in God since they were very young and vowed to have faith in God till the day they die.

"To you be your religion, and to me my religion." Al-Kaafiruun (Ayat 6)