Friday, November 29, 2019

Isu Debu Chin Peng: Petanda Masyarakat Yang Keliru


A Kadir Jasin

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

MUKHADIMAH: Pandangan yang terkandung dalam tulisan ini adalah pandangan peribadi saya. Saya menulis dalam kapasiti saya sebagai seorang blogger. Ia tiada kena mengena dengan apa-apa jawatan yang mungkin saya pegang.

Perjanjian Damai Tiga Pihak di Hatyai tahun 1989
BAGI orang Islam, mereka tentu tahu bahawa perintah pertama yang Allah Taala turunkan kepada Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam ialah supaya menyuruh umat manusia membaca – “Iqra”.

Tetapi rasanya itulah perintah Allah yang paling diabaikan oleh orang Islam – tidak terkecuali orang Melayu Malaysia.

Orang Melayu Malaysia ini unik kerana mereka adalah anggota satu-satunya bangsa di dunia yang wajib beragama Islam.

Arab yang sebangsa dengan Rasul Allah itu pun tidak diwajibkan beragama Islam. Maka ada orang Arab yang beragama Kristian dan tinggal di negara-negara Arab sendiri.

Kalau orang Melayu Malaysia membaca, tidaklah perlu mereka bertegang leher berbahas secara tidak rasional mengenai debu Chin Peng yang dibawa balik ke Malaysia untuk disemadikan.

Tetapi betullah kesimpulan bekas Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor bahawa orang yang berbahas itu tidak pun membaca sejarah Perjanjian Hatyai tahun 1989.

Seperti kata Abdul Rahim, orang yang membantah pembawaan balik debu mayat Chin Peng patut baca baik-baik kandungan perjanjian tiga pihak yang membabitkan kerajaan Malaysia, Thailand dan bekas Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM) itu.

Malangnya orang Malaysia, khususnya orang Melayu, bukanlah manusia yang gemar membaca, utamakan sejarah dan berbahas secara rasional.

Maaf cakaplah kalau saya kata, majoriti orang Malaysia adalah manusia yang malas membaca, malas berfikir, tidak gemarkan sejarah dan sangat mudah lupa.

Sebab itulah saya berulang kali kata, Malaysia tidak akan menjadi negara maju atau amat sukar menjadi negara maju dalam pengertian sebenar.

Untuk menjadi negara maju, kita mestilah bertamadun. Untuk menjadi negara bertamadun, kita mestilah banyak membaca, kita mesti berilmu dan kita mesti berbudi pekerti tinggi.

Fakta Sejarah

Abdul Rahim seorang bangsa Malaysia yang amat patriotik. Kalau ada orang yang berhak membantah kepulangan debu Chin Peng, maka orang itu adalah Abdul Rahim.

Sebelum menjadi KPN, beliau adalah Pengarah Cawangan Khas yang sejak sebelum Merdeka lagi berada di barisan hadapan dalam peperangan melawan komunis.

Tetapi Abdul Rahim juga adalah orang yang diberi kepercayaan oleh Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad pada akhir tahun 1980-an untuk mencari penyelesaian mutakhir kepada isu PKM.

Untuk setahun lebih kami, para pengarang waktu itu, mendapat taklimat “off-the-record” daripada Abdul Rahim mengenai kemajuan rundingan dengan PKM. Kami kemudiannya pergi ke Hatyai bagi menyaksi dan melaporkan penandatangan perjanjian itu pada 2 Disember 1989.

Sekarang beliau diberikan pula tugas oleh Dr Mahathir untuk menjadi orang tengah dalam usaha membawa perdamaian dan keamanan ke Selatan Thai. 

Malangnya, hari ini orang yang tidak tahu apa-apa mengenai peristiwa itu, termasuk sesetengah pengarang dan wartawan, bertindak seolah-olah mereka adalah pakar yang tahu segala-galanya.

Inilah masalah dan petanda kepada sebuah masyarakat yang tidak membaca, tidak berfikir dan tidak artikulat. Bangsa yang emosi dan naik angin tanpa sebab.

Minda Terjajah

Di sinilah saya sentiasa mengutuk Inggeris sebagai bangsa penjajah yang amat licik sehinggakan racun minda yang mereka suntikkan ke dalam jasad bangsa-bangsa yang mereka jajah masih berkesan sampai hari ini.

Minda ramai orang di negara-negara bekas tanah jajahan mereka, termasuk yang lahir selepas kemerdekaan, masih terjajah. Segala sesuatu mengenai Inggeris masih disanjung.

Realitinya adalah PKM menjadi parti politik sah dan bersenjata atas kehendak dan ikhsan Inggeris sendiri.

Inggerislah yang memberi senjata kepada PKM apabila ia berjuang bersama Inggeris menentang Jepun. Kemudian senjata itu digunakan untuk melawan Inggeris selepas Perang Dunia Kedua.

Tidak ada yang lebih jelas mengenai penaklukan minda oleh Inggeris ini daripada ketaksuban orang Malaysia terhadap bola Inggeris.

Walaupun bola Inggeris tidak cemerlang namun ia terus menjadi sanjungan orang kita. Mereka tidak peduli atau tahu bahawa bola Inggeris adalah jauh lebih inferior daripada negara-negara kecil di Eropah, Afrika, Amerika Selatan dan Asia.

Tapi mereka sanggup tidak tidur malam untuk melihat Manchester United yang tidak hebat mana pun berlawan dengan Liverpool atau Arsenal.

Manakala mereka kutuk kekejaman Israel dan Amerika Syarikat, mereka lupa atau tidak tahu pun bahawa yang merampas bumi Palestin dan memberikannya kepada orang Yahudi adalah Inggeris.

Inggeris pegang mandat ke atas Palestin tapi diserahkan kepada Yahudi
Natijahnya, kalau orang Malaysia, khususnya Melayu, tidak mahu terus bodoh dan diperbodohkan, mereka wajib membaca, berfikir dan berhujah sebagai manusia yang bertamadun.

Kalau tidak, janganlah marah atau kecewa seandainya mereka sekali lagi dijajah dan diperhambakan bukan oleh mana-mana bangsa penjajah tetapi oleh kebodohan mereka sendiri yang kian hari kian terserlah dipamerkan di media sosial.

Ketakutan atau kebencian terhadap debu Chin Peng dan perkara-perkara abstrak ini adalah simptomatik kepada sebuah masyarakat yang lemah sejarah, emosional dan, mungkin juga seperti kata Abdul Rahim, rasis.

Wallahuaklam.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Me and My Muses the Daughters of Zeus

A Kadir Jasin
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
PREAMBLE: Views expressed herein are entirely mine. I am writing in my personal capacity as a blogger. It has nothing to do with whatever position I may hold.
 
My Muses have gone missing, hopefully only temporarily
TO THOSE who sent me messages asking about my wellbeing, I say, thank you very much. I am grateful.

My answer is still the same: “I am never not ok.”

Like I told officer of the Malaysian Armed Forces at the Maktab Ketahanan Nasional on November 20, though I am 72, I could still stand at the rostrum to address them.

That, to a very great extent because my health is generally good, but more importantly my superior is 20 years my senior. That makes me very young.

As for my general silence, the blame is on my missing Muses.

For not-a-very-strange reason, all the nine daughters of Zeus decided to abandon me all at the same time.

I don’t know why. Maybe they too are confused with what is going on in our beloved Malaysia.

Maybe our politics has become even more complex than when the Greeks originated them.

Politics is generally considered a Greek invention. The Oxford dictionaries describe democracy as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.”

Wikipedia says, democracy is from Greek δημοκρατία dēmokratía which literally "rule by people" is a form of government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation.

It adds that who the people are and how authority is shared among them are core issues for democratic development and constitution.

Some cornerstones of these issues are freedom of assembly and speech, inclusiveness and equality, membership, consent, voting, right to life and minority rights.

I don’t blame my Muses if they are confused with our practice of democracy - the lack or the excesses of it. Maybe because we are not as wise as the Greeks as we don’t have the likes of Aristotle and Socrates.

Unlike Socrates who chose to die an honorable death by drinking poison than suffer the indignity of retracting his alleged misdeeds, our politicians seldom own up to their mistakes and misdeeds.

Instead, having committed dastardly crimes against their constituents, they shamelessly claimed that they are victims of politically motivated conspiracies.

Now that I am away from my beloved homeland and in an Alpine location that is only 1,640 kilometers from Athens, I hope my Muses will come back to me.

Like the lyric of the song “My Friend the Wind”, which was made famous by the Greek singer, Demis Roussos, my Muses will come back to me like the wind from the hills.
(My friend the wind will come from the hills
When dawn will rise, he'll wake me again
My friend the wind will tell me a secret
He shares with me, he shares with me

My friend the wind will come from the north
With words of love, she whispered for me
My friend the wind will say she loves me
And me alone, and me alone…………).
Or they will not come back instead slowly and softly seek out their Adagio.
(I don't know where to find you
I don't know how to reach you
I hear your voice in the wind
I feel you under my skin
Within my heart and my soul
I wait for you
Adagio

All of these nights without you
All of my dreams surround you
I see and I touch your face
I fall into your embrace
When the time is right, I know
You'll be in my arms
Adagio……..)
Who knows, I too may have to look for my Adagio.
Thank you.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Time to Re-evaluate the Civil Service, GLICs and GLCs


A Kadir Jasin

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

PREAMBLE: Views expressed herein are entirely mine. I am writing in my personal capacity as a blogger. It has nothing to do with whatever position I may hold.

FAA downgrade could affect our MRO activities
THERE is no harm evaluating the motives and reasons for the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) downgrading the ratting of the Civil Aviation Commission of Malaysia (CAAM) from Category 1 to Category 2.

But the more urgent task is to understand the implications of the decision and how CAAM can claw its way back to the top.

The commission was quoted as saying that it would get back the Category 1 rating in 24 months.

I don’t know what is going on in the heads of the CAAM people. Unless they are high on “ketum” (Mitragyna speciosa) they would have known that we don’t have 24 months. In fact, we don’t have a minute to spare.

This downgrade sabotages the government’s latest effort to make the aviation industry one of the key drivers of the economy.

It affects not only the access of Malaysia-registered aircraft to US airports and airspace. It could also cause negative effects on our MRO services, pilot licensing and flight training, aircraft registration, code-sharing, air travelers’ confidence and aircraft insurance.

We are not in the mood to wait or tolerate the inefficiency of the CAAM or, for that matter, any department, agency and government-linked company (GLC).

In very simple language, heads must roll. The entire board and top management of the CAAM must be held accountable. Even the Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, must assume responsibility.

This is no laughing matter. Even the opposition parties, who are laughing at us, have a strong reason to do so. For 60 over years under their watch, the CAAM (previously the Civil Aviation Authority), did not get downgraded.

The saving grace is we still have friends in and outside the country who are willing to help and have offered their assistance.

We must treat these offers positively and urgently because unless we are seen to be doing the right things, the CAAM may face scrutiny from other international and national aviation regulators.

In a broader sense, the government must seriously examine itself and its machinery. It has been more than 17 months that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is in power.

Even if ministers feel secure in their jobs because the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had repeatedly dismissed rumours of cabinet reshuffles, it doesn’t mean that the people are fully satisfied with their performance.

Scrutiny must now be made of top-ranking civil servants, chairmen and women of the government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and GLCs, their board members and top management.

The non-performers, laggards and the “gunting dalam lipatan” type must go.

Most of these people were appointed by the new government. So, it is its prerogative to remove them if they don’t measure up to its expectation – starting with those in the aviation sector.

Wallahuaklam.


About Me

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I was born in 1947 in Kedah. I came from a rice farming family. I have been a journalist since 1969. I am the Editor-in-Chief of magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd. I was Group Editor NST Sdn Bhd and Group Editor-in-Chief of NSTP Bhd between 1988 and 2000. I write fortnightly column “Other Thots” in the Malaysian Business magazine, Kunta Kinte Original in Berita Harian and A Kadir Jasin Bercerita in Dewan Masyarakat. Books: Biar Putih Tulang (1998), Other Thots – Opinions & Observations 1992-2001 (2001), The Wings of an Eagle (2003), Mencari Dugalia Huso (2006), Damned That Thots (2006), Blogger (2006), PRU 2008-Rakyat Sahut Cabaran (2008), Komedi & Tragedi-Latest in Contemporary Malaysian Politics (2009) and Membangun Bangsa dengan Pena (2009).