Treasonous Ingrates

During the course of an FB chat, a friend asks for my comments on a former reporter colleague’s posting of choosing between peace and prosperity, or freedom, rights, integrity and transparency.

In the Malaysian context, this is supposedly a Hobson’s choice.

As it was close to midnight, I yammered some incomprehensible reply before logging off but an article on the massacre of 57 people, including 31 journalists, on a November morningthree years ago in Maguindanao got me thinking again on the question.

Yes, we have been blessed with relative – the main blemish being the May 13, 1969 riots - peace and prosperity throughout the 54 years of the nation’s existence.

Why couldn’t we, then, put in place principles that upholds one's freedom and rights, governing integrity and transparency – and if I may add – moral and ethics into the way we administer the country?

Can’t we have both? What is it about the latter that is so threatening to the former that co-existence is supposedly impossible?

We are not talking about unbridled freedom and rights but in the context of the proper adherence to the Rule of Law; i.e. where EVERYONE knows exactly where the boundary lies and the penalties for transgressing this line.

Realistically, it is here that we have been found wanting for quite a while now with seemingly two sets of rules being in play: one for the politically favoured and, another, for the rest of us.

That, and the seeming politically-expedient way of our execution of some laws: the most recent being the charging of a Border’s bookstore staff over the banned Irshad Manji’s book.

At least, there is a Judicial Review on the matter.

The retroactive nature of the alleged offence and the seriousness of its outcome (for the staff’s livelihood and freedom) means that there shouldn’t be any other way forward than to contest the charge brought against her under the Syariah Enactment.

So, can it be argued that the Rule of Law is alive and well as such?

Before we come to the said conclusion, do remember that Borders is owned by Berjaya Books and in Malaysia, Berjaya is a biggie.

There shouldn’t have been a charging in the first place had the Rule of Law really been adhered to.

All things said, I have to admit that the country is a relatively peaceful place to live and work in.

Not necessarily play, though, (pun intended) – what with the, ahem, increased perception of lawlessness apparent amongst some of the populace.

What is also true, however, is that some of the natives are restless; a sentiment simmering just below the all-glossy,shiny surface of the nation’s peace and prosperity facade.

Restless over perceived and actual bias in the implementation of national policies, over the seemingly accepted culture of rent seeking as a valid method of earning a living, over a more apparent division of class on top of the already well entrenched polarization of race, over the increasingly burdensome chase of economic over social well being…

Perhaps these are just the middle class / urban suburban / Gen X manic responses to the crushing economic malaise of late.

Or mere ravings of the disgruntled, treasonous ingrates as purported by some of our politicians.

Sadly, the peace we’ve held for so long did not see the putting into place a system of governance where such grievances could have been amicably tackled.

I’ve often asked this question: how and when did the country go off tangent in its nation-building to come to this sad state?

When did we make peace and prosperity, and governance, rights, integrity and transparency a Hobson’s Choice?

To some, this was when the Doctor was in the house.

Was it? Why did we let it be so?

Did we want our people to be forever in hand outstretched for crumbs mode?

The Tyranny of Thanos the Titan

Early Morning Brew

In vain he hoped the creaking is the bed’s spring

The ticking, the three hands of the clock in the corner standing

He damns the window glass thin panes, silently screaming

Letting in the God-awful resonance of traffic’s busy buzzing

Or is it a leftover headache from days gone still brewing

Slight sweaty palm careens lightly off a patch balding

A malaise common, a signal of years swiftly moving

Not that old, he thinks, gray matters fully awake now pulsing

One day short of a month, a year less of six decades of living

Really? Of pandering to EVERYONE, his own convictions notwithstanding

He caught a whiff of a scent most wonderful so scintillating

To his left, there on the console table, natural wood, shines unflinching

A cuppa, China white with flowers red, yellow and bluish green, enticing

Making him forget, the longest of moments from all that foreboding

Coffee? He wished it so; black no sugar plain and simply

Neatly stacked were daily newspapers he’d gave up reading

For so long, there were simply there doing nothing but parroting

Headlines a day old, spread earlier by fingers crafty so darn irritating

Making everything so open so transparent, a world so galling

Now, if only we can switch tech off for one day from one fine morning

He knew he needed to rise, needed to cap a restless excuse of supposed sleeping

Too much bickering, too many issues, much too big a stake that needs tending

A nation torn, its soul scarred its community divided from years of peddling

 Of so-called development, alas only the surface begets substantial tinkering

By a perpetually pontificating of a pathological polywacker practiced in the pocketing of pennies

Isn’t it?

A headache consuming

A cuppa brewing

A mind aching

And psyche creaking

Talking Pixs

In between “work”, I’ve been revisiting old issues of Marvel’s Avengers, covers and reading the storyline synopsis.

Somewhere in my memory banks, there are off on recollections of plotlines and intermittent appearances (cameo?) of non-traditional characters including Starfox and Thanos (to name but two).

I know I can easily Google the keywords for possible hits, but, heck, the (online) flipping through of each issue is way more fun.

(Of course, it would be even better if I actually had the physical copies in mint / near mint condition TQVM!)

Anyway, re-reading the old issues reminded me again why I fell in love with the (old days) Japanese Manga, especially Kazuo Koike’s Lone Wolf and Cub and Kasuhiro Otomo’s Akira & Domu.

Typical of Americans (apologies for the crude generalization, but it is true’s isn’t it?), their comics are talky.

They yak and yak.

The villains, for example, will often explain at great lengths whatever nefarious scheme to conquer the world / destroy the Avengers / carry of Mantis / rule the universe etc etc.

Or they’ll try to wear down each other with words before fights: “I will pummel thee with my bone-crushing, boulder smashing, steel bending fists of death!!!” against “Bah!! I have withstood the death dealing / worlds’ destroying / armada wrecking rays of XXXXX that you puny fists will be less than nothing!!!”

Something like that.

Like I said, great fun. Corny but fun.

The aforementioned Japanese works though worked differently as the story flows almost seamless with the words complementing instead of telling the tale.

I was literally dumbstruck when I picked up my first ever copy of Koure Okami (Lone Wolf & Cub), reveling in the simplicity of its storytelling.

Before that (remember I was still quite  teen then, ya), I didn’t realized that you could actually gets the pictures to tell the story.

Of course, the modern day Avengers have curbed (not totally, though) most of these, urm, flair.

And, yes, they are still great fun.