Some examples of the ugly Malaysians ..

Today I happened to witness 3 examples of the ugly Malaysians rearing their heads in the Parkson supermarket in Subang Jaya. One is a couple with 2 infants and a baby in a pram. The couple was simply oblivious to the presence of some people who have been waiting to be seated and to order foods at the Kenny Rogers outlet. Instead of ordering quickly they fussed about as to what to eat. They were indecisive as to what to order - a whole chicken, or a half chicken, or 2 quarter chickens. They took an unduly long time before finally making their decisions. Next comes the side orders to go with the main meals. Not only did they take  a long time to order what they wanted, they ordered a great number of side dishes that made me wonder whether they could finish the meals. If the waiter taking the order prodded them to take a particular side order, they ordered the particular side order without thinking that they have already made a substantial number of side orders to make me puke. The drinks were still to come. The funny thing was that the waiter taking the order did not have the curtsey to tell me to wait. I was fed up with the whole thing that I decided to go to Nandos that served more or less the same thing as Kenny Rogers. The couple perhaps ordered meals for 6 adults when in fact all they had were infants. I was sure that they would not be able to finish their meals and would leave plenty of leftovers.

The next example was a family of 4 who were seated to the left of my table at Nandos. A middle aged couple with 2 teen-aged daughters were served with what look liked to be half-chicken for each of them plus a variety of side orders on their table. The sloppily dressed man behaved equally sloppily towards the waitress who had to change the dish two or three times before the man got what he wanted and the wife seemed to be encouraging his boorish behaviour. At the end of the meal, the man walked to a table and took a piece of tooth pick. Without as much as covering his mouth with his hand or napkin like well -mannered diners, he laboriously worked the toothpick into his gaping mouth. Its typical of his race to do such things. Just because he thought he was rich, he could behave in an uncouth manner. As expected, the family were unable to finish because they ordered large portions and had to pack home the meals.

A third example was at the car park. Two cars were ahead of me in the side road waiting to join the queue on the main road to the pay booth. Cars on the main road gave way to the 2 cars from the side road. When it came to my turn, 5 cars did not give in to me. The 6th car, an MPV, was so selfish that its front bumper was just able to avoid knocking against the back bumper of the car in front - to ensure that my car could not budge in. The driver, a woman of obviously low upbringing, did not even bother to glance at my car to signify at least she had to do it. The car at the back was however more accommodating and let me join the queue. The MPV's car plate number was WRL 8174.

These are 3 examples of the ugly Malaysians that one encounters every day. If not in the supermarkets, its at the train or bus stations, or anywhere else if there's a queue involved, no matter how short the queue is. 

Time stood still ....

The other day, the local media reported that FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) had approached FIFA, the world footballing body, for help in preventing Malaysia's decline in football. Far from improving from a situation when Malaysian football was among the best in Asia, it had regressed so much for more than 2 decades to become among the worst in Asia. Just imagine countries like Nepal, Vietnam, Philipines are now better than us and let's not talk about Singapore and Thailand who are miles ahead.

Countries like Pakistan ( which is more into cricket and hockey) and Palestine (which cannot fend for itself due to constant skirmishes with Israel ) have overtaken Malaysia in the FIFA ranking. Where once before the stadiums were almost always filled to capacity when interstate games were played even in the preliminary rounds, now you can see that they are almost empty except for the presence of die-hard fans and officials of both teams. Perhaps in the finals would the stadium be filled to capacity. The Malaysian population is not interested in the game anymore. The fans have lost interest when they  see their football team losing year in and year out in international competitions. Ask anyone the names of the current footballers in the Malaysian scene and most probably he or she does not know who, though he or she may venture a guess by saying Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh, Arumugam, Ghani Menhat, Sow Chin Aun, Bakri Ibni, Zainal Abidin, and many other footballers of yesteryears

The reason for the decline in Malaysian football is not far to see. A big factor causing the near-demise of the country's football is the stubborn attitude of the chairman to stay at his post for years and years. Getting rid of him or getting him to step down voluntarily is one big step in the right direction. 

The rest are then technical problems such as developing a system to start football among the schoolboys, having inter-school (college, university, whatever) competitions from which footballing talents can be spotted earlier, and encouraging football clubs to sprout. Promote love of the game rather than providing monetary incentives. The process is slow but is a sure way of improvement. It will take years to nurture once again the footballing culture in the country when presently its the English Premier League that takes centre stage.

Exact location of KAUST..

The site of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is not in Singapore but in Thuwal, a town on the Red Sea Coast, about 80 km to the north of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The article from whom I based my article on the KAUST was seriously in error. No wonder Malaysian media do no report it. In fact it's already under construction and is expected to be fully operational in 2009 with Shih Choon Fong, a Singaporean, as its first president.

The university takes in graduate students only. My uncle is absolutely right when he said that it was unthinkable for Saudi Arabia to invest in a Jewish state like Singapore. It's as though King Abdullah is investing in Tel Aviv.

What are you waiting for ...

The dim-witted PM of Malaysia is still keeping to his chest the date of the country's general election. Unlike in Thailand when its people know the date of election months ahead, this PM tells the country that he is waiting for divine inspiration before he announces the date. It shows that the PM of Malaysia is superstitious, waiting for the right feng-shui, and many other animistic beliefs, besides believing in God before he makes a decision. He  bases his decision on feeling rather than his brain like any political leader.

Because of this, the country is rife with speculations on the election date. Some say that its sometime in March 2008 because 3 is the PM's lucky number, and during the school holiday. Others confirm the March date as Chinese New Year in early February is incovenient while April introduces the Anwar factor. The PM is scared that Anwar might be a force of influence against the PM's party.

Worms and maggots for you ..

These last few days, the local media was full of stories on the death of 2 politicians. An earlier story concerned the death of a Malay politician by the name of Megat Junid. Notwithstanding what the news and politicians said about him being a "great contributer and a loss to the country",  a "man of of humility and dedication" and many, many epithets about his virtue, what the media and others failed or did not want to say was that this man was a crook. He enriched himself while in power as a member of the ruling political party,  flaunted his ill gotten wealth with many luxurious cars, houses, and extorted funds from many a businessman to support his chronic gambling habits in the local casino, and generally abused his position as Deputy Home Minister.

There was a story, linked to him,  about the brutal murder of a young Malay woman by an assassin using an axe. The investigation petered out and the murderer was never found. There was also a story about him being involved in the lucrative business of importing foreign workers. He became so unpopular in the constituency that he represented and would certainly be voted out in the 1999 General Election that the PM then transferred him to another "safe" constituency. Even then he was voted out because of his unsavoury reputation. His only asset was that he was a close buddy of the then PM.

The other Malay politician was in fact an Indonesian dictator by the name of Suharto. When in power for more than 30 years, he amassed billions of dollars and enriched several of his cronies who are still now stashing their ill-gotten wealth in the banks of Singapore. Western media claimed that he was responsible for the death of more than 600,000 though I personally doubt that this was true since the western media liked to exaggerate things out of proportion to reality. Like Megat Junid before him, his death was reported as a "great loss to the world" when in fact it should be a "good riddance". Suharto behaved liked many dictators in Asia. Remember Marcos in the Philipines, or the Shah of Iran. In the end, their own countrymen kicked them out. All the fortunes that they stashed in Switzerland or Singapore only made the banks richer, not their people to whom they owed their position.

So in the end, they become fodders for the worms and maggots ...