Malaysia is secular - said Karpal Singh

Karpal Singh quoted Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn that Malaysia is a secular state. He also quoted the Supreme Court ruling in Feb 29, 1988, 'We have to set aside our personal feelings because the law in this country is what it is today, a secular law...' Is it that people have short memory? Or perhaps the ruling of the Supreme Court in 1988 was written in English and some cannot read English today? Malaysia is a secular or Islamic state. It cannot be anything in between, a halfbaked state, not knowing what it is. This will be a good opportunity for the Malaysian govt to state it clearly what it is so that all Malaysians do not live in a state of make beliefs, believing what they want to believe but totally different from realities.

Since when has Pakistan become the 52nd state?

George Bush and many US officials categorically said that if need be, the US will send their military into Pakistan to wipe out the Al Qaeda. And they is no need to inform or seek the permission of the Pakistan govt. Hmmm, when has Pakistan become a state of the US and the Americans can do anything they want in that country? Unwittingly, the US is doing a great disservice to their strongest one man ally in Pakistan, Musharraf, by undermining his standing in the eyes of Pakistanis. What kind of leader is Musharraf that the Americans can ignore him completely to operate military forces in Pakistan? Or is the US intentionally doing so to discredit him and has someone more congenial in mind to replace him? Or is Pakistan already in the complete control of the US? One thing for sure, the resistance of the Pakistanis and their anti American feelings will only grow with this kind of American rhetorics. How not to sow anti American sentiments when they do not have the slightest respect for the sovereignty of a nation?

Can bus captains think?

We have upgraded our transport system to world class quality, and going to get better with more improvement in services. Have we also been thinking about the upgraded title of bus captain and making them behave and act a bit like a captain? Though there is nothing much to expect from such captains, at least they should be able to think a little and be empowered a little to make simple decisions instead of behaving like unthinking labourers. Or they are trying to provoke the commuters to thrash them? A school girl in uniformed was made to pay adult fare insisted by the bus captain just because she forgot to bring her student pass. Even if there is an error of judgement, assuming the girl put on school uniform to cheat the bus company, how much would the bus company lose? Given the way things are, no right minded youth would want to put on a school uniform if they don't have to. And what flimsy excuse did the bus CAPTAIN gave to make the school girl pay more than she needed to? Maybe it is time to re designated bus drivers and call them something more appropriate, like bus drivers.

A different sacrifice

What is this foreign worker statue being honoured by the side of Raffles? From the look of it, it looks like a recent foreign worker with the hard hat. If this is the case, we are over exaggerating the contribution of these foreign workers to our economy. And do we owe them a debt? Who were the real workers who sacrificed their blood, sweat and tears to build this little island? The famous red hat samsui women immediately came to mind. And there were many of the living testaments still haunting the streets of Chinatown and some heartlands. Those were the real pioneers that we have taken for granted and forgotten. The Singaporean labourers and construction workers as well. Just because we are hyping about the greatness of foreign workers and foreign talents, let's not get carried away and forget our forefathers who sweated and bled for what we have today. It may be an ominous sign that the statue was knocked down as an appeasement to our forgotten and belittled forefathers, the people who really sacrificed for this island and got very little in return. They missed the good times and the millions that should be rightfully theirs. Spare a moment of your thoughts to those pioneering men and women.

You want to eat in restaurant?

The beggar asked for another dollar as $2 could not buy him a bowl of noodles. Prices of everything have gone up. The giver was annoyed. What, $2 not enough? You want to eat in the restaurant like me? Beggars cannot be chosers. They should know their station in life. Got things to eat is good enough. If they want to eat at restaurants, they must be real smart and earn smart money. Then they can snap back at beggars who ask for $1 more. Who ask them to be beggars and not smart alecs?