Sikmading's Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

The Millionaire Amah

2011-01-16T23:51:00.004+08:00

If you were an amah or domestic help who has won a lottery worth millions of $, would you stay on in your job? Most people, if not all, would not.

But not in the case of a middle-aged Chinese amah who works in Hong Kong! And she is a Malaysian!

The reason? She works for the 4th wife of Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho (bottom pic). She has served the Ho family for so long that Ho's daughter by his 4th wife practically grew up in the amah's arms; from a baby to an adult.

As a result, she treats the daughter Rosie (top pic) as her own. Rosie, 35, too has grown very attached to her. Some sort of a second or foster mother already.

The windfall by right should be just timely for her well-earned retirement (after raising a billionaire's daughter) but she has become part of the Ho family so it is not easy for her to leave without missing Rosie, now an actress/singer.

Stanley Ho's nickname is the Macau gambling king as he owns a few casinos on the former Portugese colony near Hong Kong. Each of his four wives live separately and each is served by several amahs, of course.

But the Malaysian amah who won the lottery seems to be their favourite. This could seen from the fact that she was chosen over others to look after Stanley, 82, when he was hospitalised after a bad fall.

In view of the above, the Ho family must have treated her well. After all, money has never been an issue.

How much did the amah win in the lotto draw? HK$30 million or roughly RM15 million!!!

But to some people, money is not everything. Friendship and sentiments are equally important, as proven in the amah's case.

For Rosie, she was born the daughter of a billionaire and now she is the foster daughter of a multi-millionaire who is also her amah! How about that? She was proverbially born with a silver spoon in her mouth and now she is eating with a golden spoon as well!

Ex-CM Salleh is new Speaker (Part 2)

2011-01-12T21:54:00.003+08:00

It is not immediately known if Salleh would vacate the Finas post now that he is Sabah State Legislative Assembly Speaker. The Speaker's post is a full-time job and in terms of protocol he is second only to the Chief Minister who in turn is second only to the TYT or governor. He therefore also normally does not hold any other post like that of a chairmanship of another government body.

The Finas job will be Salleh's second appointment to head a federal government agency in recent years. Until last year, he was chairman of the Malaysian Handicraft Board.

Since last year too, Salleh has been Science Advisor to the Chief Minister with ministerial rank. He is expected to vacate this post before being sworn-in as Speaker in front of the new governor Juhar at the Istana (palace). Juhar was the Speaker until 31 December 2010. As mentioned earlier, the Speaker is even more senior than a Minister in terms of protocol.

Who will replace Salleh as Science Advisor, if any? This question will spark off another round of speculations in Sabah. Rumour-mongering is part of every day life in the State and it adds spice to politics especially in the coffeeshops.

Meanwhile, Datin Linda Tsen as most Sabahans would know is the widow of the late Datuk Edmund Chong who was killed in an accident a few months ago. She successfully defended her husband's parliamentary seat of Batu Sapi in the ensuing by-election on a BN ticket.

As chairperson of the Sabah Credit Corporation (SCC), she succeeds Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary-general Datuk Teo Chee Kang who is now chairman of the Sabah Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (SCVB).

Observers noted that since Teo took over the SCVB job from the late Edmund who was from the Sabah United Party (PBS), it is only fair that his former job at SCC be given back to PBS through Datin Linda. Fair and square, as they say.

Ex-CM Salleh is new Speaker

2011-01-12T20:24:00.004+08:00

They say that good things come in small packages, but in the case of former Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Salleh Tun Said Keruak (top pic), they came in big packages.

Only yesterday, Malaysian Information Minister Datuk Rais Yatim annouced that Salled has been appointed Chairman of the Malaysian Film Development Corporation (FINAS) effective 1 January 2011.

FINAS is an agency or statutory body under the Ministry and, as its name suggests, looks after the development of the film industry in the country.

And today, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman announced that Salleh is the new Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly replacing Datuk Seri Panglima Juhar Hj Mahiruddin who is the new TYT or governor.

Musa also announccd, after chairing a Cabinet meeting, that new Batu Sapi MP Datin Linda Tsen (bottom pic) will be the new Chairman of the Sabah Credit Corporation taking over from Tanjung Kapor Assemblyman Datuk Teo Chee Kang.

New Governor's 1st Duty (Part 2)

2011-01-11T22:19:00.002+08:00

I received a comment from a reader who preferred to remain anonymous. He commented on my last post, New Governor's 1st Duty.

He pointed out to me that I missed out mentioning the late Tun Ahmad Koroh, governor from 1977 to 1978. He said when Ahmad was TYT, his younger brother Tan Sri Suffian Koroh was Deputy Chief Minister and his (Ahmad's) son Azmy (Azmi?) was the State Assemblyman for Pensiangan.

He (I assume the it's a man) also mentioned Tun Ahmad's successor, the late Tun Adnan Robert whom he said was related to the Korohs. He also pointed out that both Tuns (the highest award for Malaysian civilians) were Muruts from the Interior of Sabah and that they were converts.

If I am not mistaken, Tun Ahmad was the former Thomas Koroh while Tun Adnan was Mickey Robert. For the full comments of my visitor, please click the Comment ikon below the said post

Well, friend (since he/she addressed me that way), first of all thank you for your comment and taking the trouble to point that out to me.

But you see, I left out both Tun Ahmad and Tun Adnan for two reasons. Firstly, my last post was only talking about new governor Juhar's visit to Tun Mustapha's grave as well as those former TYTs buried at the Heroes' Mausoleum (Makam Pahlawan) at the State Mosque.

The late Tun Fuad Stephens, the late Tun Hamdan Abdullah (the former Datuk Indan bin Kari) and the late Tun Said Keruak were all buried at the State Mosque while, if I am not mistaken, Tun Ahmad and Tun Adnan were both buried in Keningau, their home town. Another former TYT who was buried in his home town of Sipitang was the late Tun Ahmad Raffae.

The second reason why I left out Tun Koroh and Tun Adnan was that I was talking about the father and son teams where the father was TYT and the son Minister or, in the case of the Keruak family, the Chief Minister.

But I do agree with my visitor that the Korohs' case was also unique whereby two brothers were TYT/DCM and on top of that the TYT's son was Assemblyman. That was another first for Sabah.

In conclusion, I once again thank my visitor for his comment. In fact, he just gave me an idea. For the sake of future Sabah generations and our overseas friends, in one or more of my future posts I will chronicle Sabah's TYTs from the 1st (Tun Mustapha) to the current 10th (Datuk Seri Panglima Juhar).

New Governor's 1st Duty

2011-01-09T22:38:00.003+08:00

The new Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sabah, Datuk Seri Panglima Juhar Hj Mahiruddin's (bottom pic) first official duty will be to visit the graves of two former Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sabah, (governor) the late Tun Datu Hj Mustapha Datu Harun (top pic, left) and the late Tun Hj Mohd Fuad Stephens (top pic, right) tomorrow Monday Jan 10.

This will be the first public function of the former Speaker of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly who was sworn-in as Sabah's 10th governor on Jan 1 at the Istana Negeri in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah.

Both Tun Mustapha and Tun Fuad had the distinction of having served as both Sabah governor and Chief Minister. Tun Mustapha was Sabah's first Yang di-Pertua Negeri (then known as Yang di-Pertua Negara) when the former British colony of North Borneo became independent Sabah and one of Malaysia's then 14 States on 16 September 1963. Tun Fuad (then Dato' Donald Stephens) was the first Chief Minister.

After Sabah's first direct general election in 1967, Mustapha became the State's 3rd Chief Minister, replacing Datuk (now Tan Sri) Peter Lo who succeeded Stephens in 1965. After dissolving his UPKO party which lost in the election, Stephens was made the Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia in the late 1960s.

In 1973, Mustapha, still the Chief Minister, made Stephens the State's 3rd governor, replacing the late Tun Ahmad Raffae, father of former Sabah Minister Dayang Mahani. Stephens stepped down as TYT or Tuan Yang Terutama (His Excellency) in August 1975 following the formation of the new Berjaya party which he later led. Two months later, Mustapha gave way to his deputy the late Tun Said Keruak due to pressure from Berjaya.

There was a reversal of fortunes when, in April 1976, Stephens once again became Chief Minister follwing Berjaya's victory in the State's 3rd general election. But alas, the joy of Berjaya members was short-lived as Stephens and almost half of his Cabinet Colleagues were killed in an air-crash. Stephens was succeeded by his deputy Datuk Harris Salleh, a former Minister in the Mustapha Cabinet.

Mustapha, meanwhile lived on to see another new party, PBS, defeating Berjaya in 1985 in a 'history repeating itself' scenario. Following PBS's pulling out from Malaysia's ruling national coalition BN in 1990, Mustapha dissolved his Usno party to make way for the national Umno party to enter Sabah. The majority members of both Usno and Umno were Muslims and to enhance Umno's image in Sabah, Mustapha was made Federal Minister for Sabah Affairs.

The PBS government collasped soon after the 1994 State general election which it won narrowly, due to defections. The Umno-led BN took over. However, by then Mustapha had left Umno, dissatisfied that he was replaced as Sabah Umno chief months before.

Ironically, Mustapha died on 2 Jan 1995 not as an Umno member but as a PBS member! Ironic because Mustapha had challenged PBS president Datuk Joseph Pairin in court after the 1985 election, seeking a declaration that he (Mustapha) was the rightful Chief Minister. Mustapha became the new Chief Minister for less than 24 hours after then governor the late Tun Adnan Robert revoked his appointment. No wonder they say that in politics there is no permanent friend and no permanent enemy!

By the way, Tun Mustapha's grave which has since been turned into a Memorail is at Petagas near Putatan while Stephens' is at the State Mosque in Kota Kinabalu. It is not known if the new TYT Juhar will also visit the graves of two other former governors also buried at the State Mosque compound. The duo are the late Tun Said Keruak and Tun Hamdan Abdullah.

Tun Said also had the distinction of having served as both the governor and Chief Minister. He was made TYT by the PBS government in the late 1980s. He served until 31 Dec 1994, but not before he swore-in his son Datuk Salleh as the new Chief Minister on 27 Dec 1994! In other words, the Keruak family also had the distinction of having produced Sabah's only Governor-Chief Minister team!

The only other TYTs whose children also served as State Cabinet Ministers (but not Chief Minister and not necessarily during their tenure as TYT) were the late Tun Raffae, the late Tun Mustapha and Tun Sakaran. Their children, respectively, are Dayang Mahani Raffae, the late Datuk Hamid Mustapha and Datuk Amir Kahar Mustapha and Datuk Nasir Sakaran.

The late Hamid Mustapha was Culture, Youth and Sports Minister during Berjaya time in the early 1980s while his younger brother Amir Kahar was Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries during PBS era. Again, ironically, none of the Mustapha brothers served as Minister during BN time since 1994 despite their father's influence and sacrifice after dissolving Usno to make way for Umno!

May the souls of all the late State leaders and politicians I have mentioned rest in peace. Their contributions cannot be ignored by Sabahans. Amen.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011 (Part 4)

2011-01-07T08:27:00.003+08:00

As promised, this is the first in a series of videos I took at Bantayan on Christmas Day 2010. I am not sure what the title of the song or who the singer is. Anyone? Anyway, that is not important here. What is more important is the fact that the people dancing enjoyed themselves, thoroughly, although most of them did not even understand the meaning of the wordings which were in Bajau. They did this dance, along with another Bajau song and Poco-Poco, not once, not twice, but at least thrice the short few hours that I was there. Looks like the days of Poco-Poco are numbered. It started with the kids but after sometime the adults couldn't resist the temptation to join in.

The video was shot at the residence of Anderson who is married to my wife's cousin. Although he is from Sarawak, his house is more or less the centre of attraction every Christmas after the morning Mass at the nearby St Philip's, Tamparuli. And he celebrates Gawai in June too, apart from Kaamatan as his wife is Kadazan (oops, I think she prefers to be known as Dusun). Each time there is a large crowd, comprising both Christians and Muslims alike. I think he should be made an honourary village headman of Bantayan. Infact, his popularity already made him a de facto one, despite him having hailed from Sarawak. One of the ladies in the video is also from Sarawak One of the kids is half-Bajau (her father brought the song) while another is half-Tmorese. Another good example of 1Malaysia at work. Or should I say 1Borneo? Or even 1ASEAN? Or may be this fits in well with Dr Jeffrey's Borneo Agenda?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011 (Part 3)

2011-01-04T23:13:00.002+08:00

How did I spend my Christmas Day? As in previous years, went back to my late father-in-law's kampung (village) at Bantayan, Tamparuli to visit Christian relatives.

Bantayan and Damat next to it is unique in the sense that the majority of the villagers are Dusun people (they prefer to be called that instead of Kadazan) but some of them are Muslims. Thus, quite a number of the crowd that day were Muslims. Similarly, during Hari Raya half of the crowd would be Christians. Good example of 1Malaysia, I think.

To be exact they are Dusun Lotud, a unique sub-community of the Kadazandusun found only in the Tuaran district which includes the Tamparuli sub-district. Unique in their dialect as opposed to the Kadazan spoken in Penampang. Unique in their traditional costume and dance, the Sumayau, as opposed to the Sumazau of Penampang. Thus, it is quite understandable that they want to remain as Dusuns. After all, we are living in a free world and it is their right.

As usual on that day, there was of course music and singing. But not just Christmas songs. The ever popular song and dance is still Poco-Poco. The whole afternoon that I was there, this Indonesian song was played at least a few times and each time the dance floor was full., by both the young and old. Mind you, 90% of the people occupying the dance floor were Dusuns - far from being Indonesians.

Which sets me thinking - that Poco-Poco is still very much in fashion ever in our villages, a few years after it first 'landed' in Sabah from our neighbouring country. It's just like fashion. You can't kill it. So just let it disappear by itself over time, just like fashion.

So I just don't understand so was the fuss all about when certain quarters querried, a couple of years ago I think, why Poco-Poco was incorporated as one of the dances during the State-level Harvest Festival or Kaamatan celebration at Hongkod Koisaan, the KDCA building in Penampang. Come all, let us be more civilized and open-minded. Don't be narrow-minded. Gone were the days of Sabah for Sabahans - PBS and more recently SAPP (Batu Sapi) found that out the hard way. A Poco-Poco dance lasting a few minutes among a score of other dances can't hurt, can it? It can't be Sumazau the whole day, can it? Otherwise even the tourists would be bored.

I know some people may not like what I write but I stand by my conviction. To these people, my advice is simple - stop reading and move on to another blog. As the Malay saying goes, "Dunia masih luas" (the world is still wide). Don't waste your time or energy expecting an apology from me because you won't get any. You are entitled to your opinion which I respect but I am entitled to mine. To borrow the words of the late Datuk Felix Golingi: "I won't use my importance to put other people down, but neither will I let other people to use their importance to put me down!"

The Poco-Poco reminds me of my childhood and teenage days as a bandboy. Those days, the 'dance of the day' during parties and other social functions would be Joget or in those days known locally as Dendang. Each time the music starts, the dance floor is full, just like the Poco-Poco. But I am sure the Joget and Dendang were not invented by Sabahans (or those days North Borneons). They originated from Indonesia and the then Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia). Nobody made noise then.

All they care is it is everybody's favourite dance. No problem. But nowadays the Joget and Dendang are no longer fashionable. They have been replaced by the Poco-Poco. As simple as that. So what's the problem? Over time it will pass and the Poco-Poco will be overtaken by something else.

And this change may come sooner than we think. That afternoon in Bantayan, apart from the Poco-Poco, two other songs were played over and over again. Each time these two songs were played, a goup of kids would, without being shy, take to the floor. Before long the adults joined them. And they could not even understand the meaning of the words because they were Bajau songs! One was sung by a Bajau singer called Den Bisa, I was told, and the other by a Kadazan or Dusun from Kota Belud! See my point?

I took video (amateur standard lah) of these songs/dances and will put them in my next posts after I uploaded them to You Tube. Then you will know what I mean.

Till then, bye. Oh ya, by the way, the picture - my family, in-laws, nephews, and nieces at Bantayan. In the foreground (right) is the 'matriarch' of the family.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011 (Part 2)

2011-01-02T22:00:00.001+08:00

So what did my wife and I do after Mass at Rasa Ria on Christmas Eve?

We adjourned to my foster brother's place, an apartment at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP). My brother was the one who invited me to Dalit where he is one of the senior guys. When and how did he become my brother? Leave that for another day lah.

My brother and his family used to stay in a double-storeyed landed property in Kota Kinabalu. They moved to Sepanggar (where KKIP is) because there are only three of them and also so that he would be closer to office.

After high tea and resting for about an hour at my brother's, we moved on to Inanam for dinner. I promised to buy him and family dinner. By the way, his name is Johnny and his wife Rose.

My foster sister-in-law recommended Kim Fah Restaurant at Inanam town proper, a new shop opposite the market and next to the Giant (?) supermarket near the Esso petrol station. The restaurant is 2-storeyed, with downstairs being non-aircon and smoking permittable while upstairs is air-conned and non-smoking, of course. We opted for upstairs for privacy.

We needed two tables, since my two other foster brothers and their kids were also there. We ordered Fish Maw Soup, Steamed Tilapia Asam Pedas, Pork Throttle (Chu Kiok), Yam Ring, Mixed Vegetables, and Steamed Chicken served with Ham and Vege. May be I missed out one more, can't remember what, getting old!

Normally, I would concentrate on the steamed fish since I can put the gravy on white rice, my favourite. My other favourite is of course the chu kiok. But after I tasted the steamed chicken, I did not look at the other dishes anymore except the soup of course. I never tasted such delicious tasting or succulent steamed chicken before, until I asked for more rice.

So, the next time you can't decide where to go for lunch or dinner, try Kim Fah @ Inanam. The restaurant which originated from Beaufort has branches in KK (Beverly and Millennium). But I am not sure if the other branches serve the steamed chicken or if they do, whether it's equally tasty. For me, I can't wait to go back to Inanam.

Beaufort must be the Chinese food centre of Interior Upper (comprising Beaufort, Kuala Penyu and Sipitang). I say this because apart from Kim Fah, at least two or three restaurants (with branches) in KK also originated from there. Leading the pack if of course Beaufort Restaurant itself, then also Man Tai and Foh Chuan. Most of them are Hakka-based and famous for their fried mee Beaufort style. They are known for using only organic vege, especially Beaufort's.

Picture: Some of my foster nephews and nieces photographed at my brother's apartment. This is only half of them. If every one of them came, at least double the number.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011 (Part 1)

2011-01-01T22:25:00.004+08:00

Hi friends! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2011!

Too late? Well, they say that it's better late than never! Amen?

Unlike previous years when I made New Year Resolutions on Dec 31, this year I don't make any! What I intend to do, I just do it on January 1 and hopefully the rest of the year too. Less talk, more work, they say.

Besides, resolutions are not easy to keep. So here I am, back on my blog, writing again on New Year's Day. Wish me luck.

Notice that I call this Part 1. This is because once I start writing I can hardly stop. So by calling it Part 1, at least I know when to stop.

Since this is about both Christmas and New Year, Part 1 deals only with my Christmas. So what did I do for Christmas? Or where did I go for my Christmas Eve Mass?

You may not believe it. It's an unlikely place.

For the second year running now, I have been going to Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort at the scenic Dalit beach in Tuaran, my home district. Hometown Tamparuli is under the jurisdiction of the Tuaran district.

But a Mass in a hotel? Yes, some of the top brass of the resort are Catholics or Christians and they made special arrangement for a priest to say Mass for their Catholic staff, family members and hotel guests. Very thoughtful of them, isn't it?. Thank you Shangri-La.

As expected, most of the Catholic hotel guests who attended the Mass were tourists from overseas. They too were pleasantly surprised.

"My family and I certainly did not expect the convenience of being able to attend a Christmas Eve Mass right here in the hotel. Very thoughtful of Shangri-La," said Mr Brendan Lyne from New Zealand.

He and his family (picture) were on a first-time visit to Sabah and looked forward to returning.

Joan Baez "We Shall Overcome" (2009)

2010-08-09T20:01:00.000+08:00

Just to share with you a 2009 version of Joan Baez's We Shall Overcome made famous by the Civil Rights Movement of Black Americans in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Joan dedicated this version to the Iranian people and therefore parts of the wordings are in Farsi. Why? I don't know. May be to ask the Iranians to be patient just like the Black Americans and that victory or freedom will be eventually theirs. But it looks like the recording was done in her house. Joan is one of my favourite veteran singers partly because she has been around since my bandboy days decades ago. Enjoy and God bless!

World Cup Final: Bird vs Octopus

2010-07-10T20:31:00.004+08:00

On Monday morning or Sunday past-midnight, all eyes (well, almost) on earth will be glued on their TV screens watching the once-in-4-years World Cup football final. Who will win? The frontpage of today's Star, Malaysia's tabloid daily, says it all. Ever since the World Cup started, Paul the octopus had gained worldwide fame by accurately (well,80%) predicting the outcome of matches in which Germany played. But Paul now has a competitor or two - Mani the bird of Singapore says it's going to be Netherlands while Paul says it's Spain. Yet another octopus, Pauline of Netherlands picked her home country to be the new World Cup champions. Looks like the World Cup has turned animals into oracles! (Click on image for better view)

What an Adjutor Bishop is....

2010-06-24T20:58:00.001+08:00

It's from the horse's mouth....I managed to get hold of Rev Fr John Wong after today's Morning Mass and asked him what an Adjutor Bishop (his new post) is.

To avoid embarrassment, I first told him that I couldn't find the word adjutor in two major dicionaries. He agreed with me, saying that it's a Christian/Catholic term.

The humble and friendly as well as soft-spoken priest explained to me that an Adjutor Bishop is just like an auxiliary bishop with the right to succession to a full-fledged bishop when a vacancy arises.

Another English/Christian lesson for me. No wonder it's said that learning is a life-long and every-day process. That's why some parties (not necessarily political ones) including the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) do conduct Life-Long Learning classes.

(Footnote: Rev Fr John Wong was promoted as Adjutor Bishop of the Catholic Archbishop of Kota Kinabalu on Monday 21 June 2010; assisting Archbishop Datuk John Lee. Apart from the latter, there are two other Catholic Bishops in Sabah - Datuk Cornelius Piong (Diocese of Keningau) and Fr Julius Gitom (?) of the Sandakan Diocese.)

It's Coadjutor Bishop John Wong

2010-06-23T21:57:00.004+08:00

Here it is, I reproduce herewith Archbishop Datuk John Lee's letter regarding the appointment of Rev Fr John Wong Soo Kau as Coadjutor Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu.

Yesterday, I wrongly reported it as Adjutant Bishop and I apologize for the mistake. I then based it on my hearing of what was announced only and I managed to lay hands on a copy of the letter only today.

As can be seen, the letter was addressed to all Clergy and Religious communities, and care-taker Parish Pastoral Councils of the Archdiocese.

As stated in the letter, the appointment was made by none other than the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI of the Vatican in Rome.

I still don't know what a Coadjutor Bishop is but I will find out and get back to you. Can't find the word in two major dictionaries. It must be a term used only in the Catholic world. But as I said yesterday the new Bishop must be some kind of a deputy to the Archbishop.

Once again, congratulations Rt Rev Fr John or rather Bishop John!

Fr John Wong now a Bishop

2010-06-22T22:08:00.001+08:00

The Priest-in-charge of the Catholic Archdiocesan Centre of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinablu, Rev Fr John Wong has been made a co-adjutant Bishop of the Archdiocese.

This was announced after the daily English morning Mass at the St Paul's Church at Dontozidon in Penamnpang on Tuesday 22 June 2010.

The announcement was made by regular morning Mass goer Mr Sylvester Disimon just before the concluding hymn. He was asked to do so by Sister Diana of the church.

Sylvester read out a letter signed by Archbishop Datuk John Lee which said that His Holiness the Pope has approved the appointment effective Monday 21 June 2010.

It was just a short letter and therefor most parishioners remain in the dark as to the exact duty of the new Bishop in view of the extraordinary title. At the moment, one can only assume that Rev Fr John (or rather Bishop) will be assisting the Archbishop, which he has been doing for quite sometime since being posted to the Centre anyway. But of course the new title will give Rev (or should I say Rt Rev) Wong more 'ummph' and added clout. Datuk Lee was the Bishop of KK Diocese before his promotion as Archbishop so one can assume that Fr Wong will be taking over Datuk Lee's former post.

Apart from being Priest-in-charge of the Centre, Fr Wong has also been in charge of a group of young Aspirants to the priesthood; twelve of them to be exact - just like the 12 disciples, perhaps co-incidentally. Being an Aspirant is the first step to the priesthood, after which one will enter the Formation Year of the Seminary in Kota Kinabalu before going to St Peter's College, Kuching for the study proper.

Present at the Mass this morning to hear the announcement was none other than Fr John Wong himself. He presides over the Mass most mornings as the Centre is just below the hill where the church is located. Also present were his students, the Aspirants, who served as the Choir.

The church members present gave Fr Wong an applause after the announcement. Fr Wong in his short speech thanked the Archbishop for his trust and everyone for their prayers and pledged to do his best.

The announcement took almost everyone by surprise because Fr Wong was due for transfer back to Sandakan, his hometown, at the end of this month. He infact spent last weekend there.

Bishop John Wong was born on 6 June 1968. His promotion could not have come at a better time as it is the best birthday present for him. He was ordained a deacon at Sacred Heart Cathedral on 8 January 1998 and as a priest on 21 January 1999 at St Mary Church, Sandakan. On 18th Feb 1999 he became Assistant Rector of Sacred Heart.

Congratulations to our new Bishop and a belated Happy Birthday!

What a Father's Day for me! (Part 2)

2010-06-20T22:58:00.003+08:00

Mechanic Jo Jo did not get back into KK until nightfall. I didn't get my petrol drained and refilled them with diesel until 9pm+. He asked for RM30. I gave him RM50. It was a 'dirty' job though it looks and sound easy to most other people who are normally only good at talking. Most people would say "Itu senang saja bah tu" (that is easy enough) but when you asked them to help they would tell you to get a mechanic. This is the world that we live in or the reality that we have to face - that the world is full of people who only know how to talk and insist that they know everything. Jo Jo got his shirt soaked by petrol while underneath my Hi-Lux. Besides, he had an assistant. I figured the assistant would get only RM10 had I gave the RM30 Jo Jo asked for. So I gave RM50. As I said in my earlier post, you pay for the expertise. What is an extra RM20 to buy the goodwill of someone whose services I may continue to need from time to time, including helping a friend in need? Happy Father's Day!

(Footnote: Jo Jo's workshop is just cross the road from the Jalan Lintas Petronas station near the airport. I am tempted to put his tel no here but then I don't have his permission. Today's episode has reminded me that even a mechanic deserves the utmost respect. But if you have an emergency, call me and I'll gladly redirect you to him.)

I'll Never Dance Again by Herman's Hermits

2010-06-20T18:31:00.000+08:00

Another down memory lane song I used to sing as a bandboy in the 60s-70s. In the mood bah, today's Father's Day bah. Apart from this one, other Herman's Hermits songs I used to play and sing included My Sentimental Friend and I'm Into Something Good. My friends who were teenagers between the 60s-70s would find this sentimental and walk down the lane with me. This was a British band whose fame was second perhaps only to their fellow-Brits, the Beatles. Enjoy.

Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome

2010-06-20T18:04:00.000+08:00

Time flies. It has been a month since I posted We Shall Overcome sung by Joan Baez at the White House for President Obama and family.

Today, Father's Day, I chanced upon this original version sung by Joan in 1963, the year her record was released. Notice it says "Original Vinyl 7" Single" on the cover. Yes, it walks me down memory lane. Kids of today have the Internet. They have E-Mail, Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, MySpace, You Tube, blogs and what have you. They also have Astro so that they can see live World Cup matches all the way from South Africa- some in HD, mind you. My generation (I was born in 1954) - we had nothing. No telephone, let alone IPhone or Smartphone. No radio (not the first few years of my life), let alone TV. The only entertainment was the cinema. Itupun pandai putus filem dan kerusi rotan dia ada bangking! The disco was not invented yet, let alone Karaoke. Kids nowadays are using MP3. Ours was the good old Vinyl Record like Joan's, even then it was only for those families who could afford one. The tape recorder came much later, in the 1960s, using literally tapes; unlike now digital. Then you had the big catridge which you play in the car, followed by the casette which was later replaced by the CD. So I grew up (in the 1960s) listening to the Beatles, Bee Gees, Shadows, Ventures, Rolling Stones, Cliff Richard, Elvis, etc on vinyl records or what Sabahans called Piring Hitam which literally means Black Record. If you tell this to kids nowadays, their standard reply will be: "Itu dulu!" (That was before). Sorry there is no picture of the young Joan on the record cover but anyway enjoy listening to the good old Piring Hitam. Kids nowadays are lucky because they call listen or watched what their parents used to decades ago - thanks to the Internet. The guys who invented Internet and You Tube should be given the Sabah Datukship or Malaysian Tan Sriship. Happy Father's Day. Happy listening!

What A Father's Day for me!

2010-06-20T14:49:00.003+08:00

Something happened to me around noon time, a couple of hours ago, which spoilt my otherwise Happy Father's Day.

It took me quite a while to decide whether to share this with you, for it may be embarrassing. I finally decided to share in order not to be selfish - least the information may be useful to you one day.

To cut the long story short, I went to the Petronas station to fill petrol (or rather diesel) for my Toyota Hi-Lux twin-cab, otherwise known as Vigo (a name which UMW Toyota does not recognise, although that may be the name in other countries.)

After I inserted the pump into the petrol/diesel tank, I walked into the station just to see if there was anything I could buy. As I was walking back to my vehicle, a pump attendant asked me "Uncle, you filled with petrol or diesel?"

Alamak! I was like being struck by lightning! I filled with petrol instead of diesel!!! First time in my life!

Can't blame the attendant because he wasn't around when I chose. In any case, it's now supposed to be self-service.

Instead, I should thank him for his alertness as he was trying to help me put the pump back into its place. Had it not been for his alertness, I would have started my engine and that would indeed be a COSTLY mistake!

So, for the benefit of those who do not know, Rule No.1 when you across such a situation is NEVER start your engine, even if it's just to move your car to the side.

The owner of the station (a Malay lady) instructed her workers to push my car to the side. She also gave me the phone number of a nearby mechanic who is supposed to be on stand-by, just like a doctor on call. The owner was very helpful as I am her regular customer. Loyalty pays, I suppose.

I got through to the handphone of the mechanic, whose workshop is just across the road (Lintas highway near the airport). Today is Sunday, so his workshop is closed. But just call, said the lady owner, for he would help as long as he is around.

But luck was not with me. The mechanic (Jo Jo is his name, reminds me of Father Jo Jo) was on his way to Keningau and would only be back late this afternoon. He called his friends but none of them was available, today being Sunday and eve of schooling day tomorrow.

The alert worker, prompted by his lady boss, said he might be able to help if there is a hole below the fuel tank. But this is new model Hi-Lux and there wasn't any. The only option is to pump the petrol out and he did not have a pump. He could actually use a rubber hose to suck out the petrol if he wanted to but since he didn't offer that I didn't want to force him, after all it wasn't his job.

The only other option left is to wait for the mechanic to come back from Keningau, since according to the owner it's his field of specialisation. There is no point to tow the vehicle to a workship or UMW - today being a Sunday. I need the vehicle since tomorrow schooling starts and my wife is a teacher. My two other cars are used by my sons. Nasib si bapa! Happy Father's Day!

I am about to go back to the station to wait for the mechanic. According to the station worker, it should cost between RM20-30. Even if it were RM40-50, I wouldn't mind. You have to pay for expertise or things you can't do yourself! Which reminds me a story of a tourist in Hawaii commenting to a street vendor that his straw hat was too costly at US$10. The vendor took the straws apart and said to the tourist: "What you are paying for, Sir, is not so much the straws or the hat, but rather the expertise in turning the straws into a hat!" The tourist walked away embarrassingly.

Got to go now, wish me good luck. Will report back to you later.

RENEW ME, O LORD

2010-05-20T17:55:00.004+08:00

I first heard this song almost ten years ago when I first got involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) movement. In late 1999 I was introduced to the Friday English Prayer Meeting (now known as the Bethel Prayer Group) of my Church, the Sacred Heart Catheral in Kota Kinabalu. I liked the song instantly because of both the wordings and the music/tempo. Infact, I can spend hours ecah day at home or in the car just listening to this song and singing along softly. In no time I found myself singing this song at the Prayer Meeting or at the funeral parlour while strumming my guitar as I was a member of the Benevolent Ministry, part of the Prayer Group. I also sang it at the end of my sharing at a Life In The Spirit Seminar at the St Simon's Church, Likas a few years back organised by the Prayer Group. I was backed by my sons on the guitar and saxophone then. Howver, for years I only got to hear it through the cassette or CD as to the best of my knowledge no video or karaoke version was recorded. So, minutes ago I was plesantly surprised to find this karaoke version on the Internet or to be exact the Facebook. The power of the Net and Facebook and Youtube! Praise the Lord! Thanks to Linda Cabanlit (I introduced CCR to her and husband Alex) who posted it on her Facebook homepage. I think she got it from one Victoria who in turn got it from Scott's EmulSon. The version I posted here is from someone else, so I don't know who first produced and posted it on the Net. Anyway, the composer is Mr Jude Antoine who was the main speaker at the Seminar where I did my sharing and that was partly why I chose this song to end my sharing, apart from the relevant wordings. Forgot the name of the guy who sang this song but he is a West Malaysian Chinese guy who also sang the theme song in the Proton Saga TV advertisements in the 1980s. And the best part is he wasn't even a Christian when he recorded this song. Nonetheless, he was chosen for his voice. I guess that was why Proton chose him too. He said as he was on his way to the studio, he was still learning the song, being a non-Christian and the song having been just composed by Jude. This guy is also popular at dinner functions or shows throughout Malaysia, having sung in Kota Kinabalu at least twice in recent years. Since 1999 I have learned a lot of Christian/Gospel/Charismatic songs, being a musician, but I guess I like this one best apart from a few others. Even the Filipino doctor and wife team who used to come here to give us talks at seminars liked this song and asked if I could give them the CD so they could learn and sing it in the Philippines while doing missionary work! Mabuhay! Thanks Jude, you coverted a lot of former Christians-in-name through this song, me included. May God bless you and your family.

IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE | Joan Baez - "We Shall Overcome" | PBS

2010-05-19T19:51:00.000+08:00

Here is Joan Baez singing We Shall Overcome at the White House soon after Obama became President in 2009. Decades had past since she first made this song famous at the height of the Civil Rights Movement started by the blacks in the 1950s/60s. Imagine how she must have looked in her younger days and of course her voice then. If I am not mistaken, she sang this song during the March on Washington led by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, during Woodstock and again during Obama's inauguration. Anybody can confirm this? I will appreciate it. I have suddenly become interested in US history especially the Civil Rights Movement because there is a lot to be learnt from it, though unfortunately man's memory is short. Pay attention to the wordings and you will understand why I'm so much into it. Simple though the wordings may be, the song together with A Change Is Gonna Come was enough to capture the imagination of the black Americans which eventually won them freedom from slavery and equal rights with the whites especially the right to vote and education and health. Which reminds me of the song Berjaya which was the 'anthem' of the Berjaya Party which defeated the Usno-led Alliance Party in 1976 in Sabah. During the April 1976 State general election, nobody would dare bet that the all-powerful Alliance would fall to the 9-month-old Berjaya; not with memories of detention at the infamous 'Kepayan University' still fresh in their minds. I mean, before the Federal Government took away the special detention powers of former Usno strongman and former Chief Minister Tun Datu Mustapha, the mere mention of his name or Kepayan (prison) was enough to make the average Sabahan shiver! Indeed, in April 1976 Sabahans (majority of them at least) OVERCAME! although a different song (Berjaya) was used.

New Orleans-- We Shall Overcome

2010-05-18T19:52:00.001+08:00

This video is self-explanatory. It shows scenes of the aftermath of typhoon Catarina (hope I'm not wrong) which devastated South Eastern USA especially New Orleans when George W Bush was still American President. He was criticised by the American people for his slow response to the natural disaster. But that's not the reason why I'm blogging this. The reason is the song or background music sung by Bruce Springsteen. The title of the song is 'We Shall Overcome', a song made famous by black Americans at the height of their fight for Civil Rights between the 1950s-60s. One of those responsible for making this song famous was Joan Baez - though she is white. Since then, many other singers had recorded their own versions of the song - Bruce being one of them. This song was also sung during the famous March to Washington which culminated in the late Rev. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Indeed, together with another song called A Change Is Gonna Come made famous by Sam Cooke, We Shall Overcome became an anthem for the civil rights movement. At least one former (white) US Presidents also used this rallying cry of We Shall Overcome in his speeches. By the way, I can't help but notice that most of the victims of New Orleans typhoon were blacks and I guess that's why the video producer appropriately chose this song. Hope you like the song. Enjoy and please feel free to comment.

"Borneo Comes Together in Cyberspace"

2010-04-06T19:56:00.001+08:00

"Borneo comes together in cyberspace" is the title of the lead story of today's update of Insight Sabah, a State Government-sponsored web site or portal, if you like, with the tagline "The Voice of Sabahans".

And rightly so, for the story is about the historic launch of a new portal dedicated to Borneo called k@Borneo which stand for key to knowledge on Borneo by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman (photo courtesy of Insight Sabah). Next to Musa is Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, whose federal ministry helped fund the project.

The best part is that the birth of this site was the result of the collective effort, for the first time, of relevant organisations from the three countries found on Borneo island - Indonesia (represented by Kalimantan), the Sultanate of Brunei, and Malaysia (represented by Sabah and Sarawak).

I took a look at the new site (www.kborneo.com). Just like anything new, give it time to grow. But what immediately attracted my attention was that there are already more than 140 books/titles about Borneo listed under the Bibliography section of k@Borneo. This is a treasure chest and should be useful to scholars and researchers alike.

Since my site is also about Borneo in general, I feel duty-bound to help introduce and promote k@Borneo. However, in order not to be accused of plagiarism, I leave it to you to find out more at www.kborneo.com and insightsabah.gov.my.

Congratulations to both k@Borneo and Insight Sabah and happy surfing to my visitors.

Thank you.

My Chinese New Year (Part 3)

2010-02-22T19:56:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I wrote about the Yee Sang ceremony as a way to celebrate people or human day known as Cho Chat or the 7th day of the Chinese New Year (CNY).

However, it was a pity that I only managed to show you a sample picture of Yee Sang and a couple of pictures showing a typical Chinese family sitting around their Yee Sang.

Today, I managed to lay my hands on a couple of pictures of people (not necessarily Chinese) tossing the Yee Sang for the benefit of my non-Chinese visitors. However, it is just a co-incidence that both pictures comprise politicians from different political parties. It is not my intention to publicise them.

Meanwhile,today I also learnt a bit more about Cho Chat or People's Day. According to Chinese belief, the hen or chicken was created on the First Day, followed by the Dog, the Sheep, the Pig, the Cow and the Horse on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Day respectively. Then, of course Man on the 7th Day.

Looks like ancient Chinese also have their own version of the Bible's Genesis or 1st Chapter; except that God rested on the 7th day after creation.

Once again, Happy CNY, Happy Birthday everbody and I welcome any comments, corrections, additions, even criticisms, of what I have written about CNY for the past couple of days. I studied Chinese only up to Primary Six level and I stand to be corrected.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

My Chinese New Year (Part 2)

2010-02-21T22:11:00.006+08:00

I was supposed to have blogged this yesterday but circumstances prevented me from doing so.

I wanted to blog this yesterday because it was the 7th day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) or Cho Chat. Anyway, it's still the 7th day of the lunar calender in some parts of the world. (What an excuse!) So what is so special about the 7th day?

Well, the Chinese believe that Cho Chat is a day for all human kind or the day when we were created. In other words, it's everybody's birthday including you and me! So happy birthday everybody!

It is common knowledge that the Yee Sang (also known as Lo Sang or Lau Sang) is part of CNY ceremonies. The Chinese perform this ceremony at the start of the family dinner hoping that the year ahead would bring good luck or prosperity.

(Pix above) A typical plate of Yee Sang. The main ingredient is raw fish. Nowadays, salmon is popularly used but those who can afford even use abalone. Other ingredients include peanuts. Notice the different colours of the ingredients. Some advertisements say "Colourful Yee Sang". I am not sure why the Chinese want their Yee Sang to be colourful but I suppose variety is the spice of life.

In Chinese, Yee means fish and it sounds similar to having extra or leftovers. That's why they use fish including salmon as the ingredient; hoping that there will be 'extra' (money) for the family in the year ahead.

Meanwhile, Sang means to live or to be alive. So Lo Sang means to have an easy life or easy to earn a living. Thus, when they do the ceremony, they try to lift the ingredients trapped by the chopsticks as high as possible. The Chinese believe that the higher you lift, the easier to earn a living or to have a better life.

(Pix above) A Chinese family getting ready to mix their plate of Yee Sang during a CNY dinner.

Thus, in view of the above, and although CNY lasts for two weeks, the 7th day (apart from CNY Eve during family reunion dinner) is a favourite day to do the Yee Sang. It is, afterall, their 'birthday'.

In Malaysia which is a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country however, this ceremony is also participated by non-Chinese (e.g. Malays, Indians, Kadazans) when they visit the CNY Open Houses.

Only yesterday, at Pandamaran near Klang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak joined in such a ceremony at the humble house of an ordinary Chinese folk, much to the surprise and delight of the house-owner. This is the beauty of Malaysia.

1Malaysia!

My Chinese New Year

2010-02-19T22:31:00.009+08:00

Time flies, and it has been more than one month since my last post on 31 Dec 2009; and by the time I am in the mood to blog again it's Chinese New Year (CNY)!

Today is already the 6th day of the CNY but it's not too late for me to wish you Gong Xi Fa Cai (or Kong Hee Fatt Choy in my native Hakka). This is because the Chinese celebrate their New Year for 15 days; culminating in Chap Goh Mei (the 15th day) on 28 Feb which happens to be my birthday, yahoo! So this month alone I will have two double-celebrations - the other being 14 Feb which is both Valentine's Day and Day 1 of CNY.

So how did I celebrate my CNY which is Year of the Tiger? Well, first of all as usual we had our family reunion dinner on 13 Feb which is CNY Eve; except that this year instead of going back to my brother's in Tamparuli we just had a simple dinner here in KK; just the 5 of us - myself, my wife, our two sons, and my mother-in-law.This was because we had a morning flight on Saturday the 14th and therefore did not want to take any chance of missing the flight. Nonetheless, simple though as our dinner was, it was not without the Hakka dishes one would expect during CNY like Kiu Nyuk and Steamed Chicken.

Coming back to the flight, although it was CNY Day 1, we (my wife & I) had to send my mum-in-law to her son's place in Ipoh, Perak where he works - something which we had promised her for some time and so we took advantage of the week-long school holiday (my wife is a teacher).

After spending two nights in Ipoh and leaving my mum-in-law behind as requested, we moved south to Kuala Lumpur where we spent 3 nights before coming home (sweet home) in KK a few hours ago. The first nite in KL was spent in Mutiara Damansara which is quite a distance from downtown KL. There was a reason for that but I will only elaborate in my next posts.

Most of our 2-day stay in KL city proper was spent along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (TAR), known in the pre-Merdeka (Independence) days as Batu Road. The reason was simple - my wife wanted to buy from the traditional Indian textile shops which are aplenty along TAR road and they are all next to each other. Another beauty of TAR road (especially the stretch nearer Merdeka Square) is that once one has finished shopping at the textile shops, there is also the ultra-modern Sogo Shopping Complex selling more luxurious and branded items. If I am not mistaken, Sogo is a Japanese emporium chain just like Yao Han which was popular in the 1980s both in KL and KK but has since 'disappeared'. And both the Monorail and RapidKL are within walking distance too so you don't have to depend on the blood-sucking taxis.

Another characteristics of Jalan TAR is that it is one of the oldest parts of KL so that most 2 or 3-storey shops were built between the late 1940s and the early 1950s after the 2nd World War. Infact, standing at what used to be Batu Road and looking at the old shophouses (some of which look as if they can collaspe any time), one may start wondering if he is actually in the middle of a city. Batu means stone in the Malay language. I am not sure why it was called such but a good guess would be it was one of the first, if not the first, KL streets to be paved after the War.

Most men would not trail their wives when the latter shop for obvious reasons. So while my wife shopped and shopped, I had plenty of opportunity to explore Batu Road and surrounding areas on my own for two days, on foot. When I had walked far enough and was tired, I returned to the hotel by the nearest light-rail transit train.

One of the old shops I managed to explore, rather frequent, was an old Hainanese-style coffee shop while waiting for my wife. By the time we had to go back to Sabah, I had already made friends with the owner of the shop - the Capital Cafe. I did not ask the owner why it was called Capital but my suspicion is that it was because KL was the first Capital of Malaya (later Malaysia) and everybody was proud of the Self-Rule (1955) and Independence (1957) gained from the British then. It must be remembered that the Merdeka (Independence) mood filled the air around that period.

(Pix above) The Capital Cafe situated on the ground floor of an 'antique' 3-storey building along Batu Road in KL. The upper floors served as hotel rooms but I am not sure if the hotel is still in operation.

Another reason why I decided to write about this coffee shop is that after a few visits over two days for lunch and high-tea, I realised that it was unique in the sense that although it was a Chinese-owned coffeeshop and the cook (who fries noddles and rice) at the right entrance of the shop is also Chinese; the Muslims including Malays would not hesitate to eat there, including what the 'Chinaman' cooked. Now this is something very rare in KL. I know because I worked in KL in the 1980s for 3 years.

(Pix above) Another view of the Capital Cafe. Note the 3 Chinese, Indian and Malay stalls on the right, centre and left respectively at the front entrance of the coffee shop.

Although the coffee shop does not serve pork, still it is not easy to convince the Muslims to eat there. To complete the cafe's services or products, there was also a stall offering Indian-style fast food at the centre of the entrance and then an Indonesian-style Nasi Padang stall occupying the left entrance of the shop. So you have Chinese, Indian and Malay stalls all under one roof - this is not easy to find in KL and this is what I call a true 1Malaysia Cafe!

(Pix above) The younger Ling (left) at the cashier counter of his cafe. Behind him (left, with fan) is where Tan fries his noddles and rice. On the right is the Mamak stall selling Indian light food.

However, although the middle-aged Chinese cook only fries Hainanese-style noddles, neither he nor the shopowner are Hainanese. Infact, they are both Foo Chows. The cook, a Mr Tan (Ting to most Foo Chows) was born in China, came to KL as a young man, and has been standing there frying mee for the last few decades! The owner, a Mr Ling, who is now in his 60s was born in British Malaya and his son is assiting him in the shop. In other words, it's already 2nd generation running the shop. But the younger Ling said he wasn't too sure if his children would want to take over one day for obvious reasons.

(Pix above) The senior Ling, in his 60s, still makes the drinks in his cafe although he is assisted by Indian workers. I suppose it's not easy for him to give up something which he has been doing for the past few decades and having built up the clientele over half-a-century some of whom have either retired or even died. But the younger Ling has already been groomed to take over him any time.

The Capital Cafe is also popular with guests staying in the many budget hotels along Jln TAR, so much so that the younger Ling called it "the coffee house of the budget hotels", in an obvious reference to the absence of coffee houses in budget hotels and the Capital Cafe's popularity with such hotel guests.

(Pix above) The Malay/Indonesian food stall on the left entrance of the shop. It's popular with the lunch crowd, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

The day may finally come, may be another couple of decades from now, when even the younger Ling retires and if his children refuse to succeed him, the future of Capital Cafe may be at stake and with it a piece of KL history may be gone. I certainly hope not, for I look forward to visiting the coffee shop many more times, God-willing.

(Pix above) A view from the front of the shop. On the left is the Indian stall while uncle Tan is busy frying his noddles or rice on the right. Truly 1Malaysia!

(Pix above) A close-up of the Capital Cafe signboard which must be half-a-century old. Notice the spelling of Capitol. This must have been the original spelling before it was changed to Capital. It means the same thing though.

(Pix above) Uncle Tan has been practically standing like this frying noodles and rice over the last few decades. Note the notice on the wall - it's the menu which has been there since 1956! Uncle Tan is no longer young and it's a pity if there is no one to replace him. By the way, the noodles and fried rice are much cheaper than in Sabah, although the price has of course gone up compared to the 1980s when I worked in KL.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

My Last Cup of Tea?

2009-12-31T17:08:00.001+08:00

Time flies! It was exactly one year ago that I wrote my post "My Last Cup of Coffee".

I was then writing from the Coffee Bean at Wisma Merdeka late afternoon, waiting for my son to finish work. To refresh your memory, I wrote that I might well be having my last cup of coffee because I was supposed to avoid sugar. I can take tea without sugar but not coffee and hence the title of my post then.

Further, it (no more coffee/sugar) was supposed to be one of my New Year (2009) resolutions! Today is the last day of 2009, did I manage to keep my resolution? Your guess is as good as mine.

As I was saying, time flies and one year later here I am again today at the same Coffee Bean also late afternoon and also waiting for my son.

A friend passed by. He noticed that I was having tea. He asked me why not coffee, especially as it has been raining. So I explained to him about sugar. His reply: "But the acid-level of tea is high!".

So, can't take coffee and can't take tea! What am I supposed to take then? Follow my SDA friends (with due respect) who take Milo? Looks like plain water (air suam in Malay) is the best.

So my 2010 New Year resolution? You can take anything, as long as you do not overdo it! Moderation is the best policy.

Back to more serious business, as I was typing a few moments ago, I received my (Malaysian daily English newspaper) Star sms news alert. It says and I quote: " (Kuala Lumpur High Court declares that (Malaysian Catholic weekly newspaper) Herald can use the word Allah, it is not exclusive to Islam, declares Home Minister order as illegal, null and void." - 4.48pm Dec31.

Congratulations to Christians all over Malaysia over this 'victory'. What a good and happy start to the New Year 2010. Let us hope that the government would not appeal the High Court decison, in line with the 1Malaysia concept of Prime Minister Datuk Najib Tun Razak which says "People First, Performance Now".

Happy New Year 2010 to all my visitors. This year no pics of traffic situation around KK streets as my camera called it a day after serving me faithfully for a few years recently.

The late Moses Eclen Maah Ajuh singing

2009-12-21T20:17:00.002+08:00

Recently I wrote that a friend sent me an e-mail showing the late Maah singing on Youtube.

The same friend taught me to embed the video in my post/blog. Thanks, Ben aka Pinolobo.

By the way, I forgot to mention that the late Maah also chose the name Eclen in his younger days.

Happiness is.....(Part 4)

2009-12-10T21:08:00.003+08:00

Happiness is....well, simply being bald! After all, as the Chinese are very fond of saying, 9 men out of 10 would be rich. The only problem is, I am still at No. 10 - being a wage earner!

For a long time now, I have been the subject of jokes (even abuse at times) by friends (some so-called) due to my bald head. Depending on how much I need that friend, sometimes I of course tell him/her off if the joke is overboard.

As people say, if you don't love yourself, who would? If you don't respect yourself, who would? I suppose one can do without a friend or two who abuse you or who think they are more superior than you anyway. Friends joke but even jokes have limit, mind you. To quote the late Datuk Felix Golingi, "I would not use my position/power to put people down, but neither would I allow people to use their position/power to put me down".

Then, on Sunday 25 October 2009, I read what perhaps was the best 'defence' of a bald head! Management guru and author Ken Blanchard who is bald hit it right on top of the nail when he said: "God only made a few perfect heads, the rest He covers with hair." (See picture above)

I read the quote in Borneo Post in a feature article written by Phyllis Wong aka Yan. Phyllis is a senior journalist and as Yan is also a blogger (http://yanonsecondthought.blogspot.com)

Among Ken's books are One Minute Manager. He is also a religious man, having written Lead Like Jesus, among others. In fact, Phyllis met the management guru at a Lead Like Jesus seminar in Singapore in October. To read Phyllis' full article on her encounter with him, either go to the archive/library and get a copy of Oct 25 issue of the Borneo Post or simply go to her blog and search her archive.

One up for the bald!

In Memory of Maah Ajuh (Part 2)

2009-12-03T10:38:00.001+08:00

A few days ago, I wrote about the late Maah Ajuh @ Moses, our former drummer cum singer.

At that time, all I could produce was an old photo of our band taken in 1968.

Then, yesterday, a friend and fellow-blogger sent an e-mail with a video clip attached showing the late Maah singing My Way (Dr Mahathir's favourite song) early this year. Thanks, Pinolobo aka Ben Godomon.

To view the video clip, please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYoPmHKPKAE#.

Or simply go to pinolobo.com or while on Youtube search for Pinolobo or Maah Ajui. (Note: Pinolobo spelt Maah's surname wrongly as Ajui in the video. He must have confused it with Borhan Ajui, the Sabah footballer.)

May his sould rest in peace.

Happiness is....(Part 3) Updated

2009-11-29T16:00:00.000+08:00

Happiness is....well, it's still getting married. Only on Thursday I attended a wedding dinner (Happiness is....Part 2). Yesterday another one. This must be the season to get married.

Yesterday, Saturday 28 Nov 2009 must have been a good day to get married, although Christians are not supposed to believe in Feng Shui.

At the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu alone, there were four weddings. Pity the priests.

Over at nearby Tanjung Aru, there were two weddings at Stella Maris Church, one after another.

The one that my wife and I attended was presided over by Rev. Fr. Fundes Motiung. We were actually part of the choir. Too old to be a choir member? Well, as they say, as you get older you also want to be closer to God.

Can we sing? That's not important. As a priest from the Philippines once said: "If you can't sing, then all the more why you should sing for God; least he might take notice and take pity on you and turn your voice into a golden (or in Christian terms 'annointed') one."

There was also a bazaar in the compound of the Parish Hall adjacent to the Stella Maris Church, so you can imagine the crowd, the noise, the traffic jam and parking problem. The bazaar was to raise funds for the proposed new Catholic Church at Putatan. But I am not complaining here. As they say, the more (people) the merrier. And I am sure the new couple didn't mind that those going to the bazaar also had a glimspe of their big day!

The newly-weds, Mr Henry Issac Nicholas and the former Miss Marcella Louisa Jinusie in Western & Kadazan attire. Malaysia truly Asia.

The wordings on the cover of the Wedding Mass booklet yesterday was quoted from Ephesians. It was sentimental to my wife and me as we went to Ephesus, one of the Seven Churches stated in the Book of Revealation, in June.

In Memory of Maah Ajuh (Updated)

2009-11-28T20:40:00.000+08:00

Today I take a break from my 'Happiness is....' series. Something rather 'unhappy' happened.

I am referring to the death of Mr Maah Ajuh.

Today, Friday 27 November 2009 is a public holiday in Malaysia due to the Hari Raya Aidil Adha, otherwise known as Hari Raya Haji in conjunction with the Haj season in the Muslim Holy Land. It is also known as Hari Raya Korban (Feast of Sacrifice) to commemorate patriach Abraham's (Ibrahim in the Quran) obedience to God by his preparedness to sacrifice his son. God however was only testing Abraham's loyalty and stopped him from killing his son just in the nick of time.

Apart from that, it was of course Thanksgiving Day in America. Thus, I was in no hurry to wake up. On a holiday, I normally wake up only when my stomach tells me to.

However, Friday morning, I was awaken by a phone call. The caller said Mr Maah Ajuh had passed away in our hometown of Tamparuli a few hours earlier.

I forced myself out of bed, much as I would like to sleep for at least an hour more, washed and dressed up to go to Tamparuli and breakfast.

The late Maah was more than a childhood friend. He was also the drummer cum singer for our band, The Hornbill, in the late 1960s. He is seen in the centre of the picture above, holding his drum sticks. I am seated second from left.

The picture was taken in 1968 or sometime thereabout. It was taken soon after our band won the Tuaran-district level Battle of The Bands. As you can see, the picture, taken at the only studio in Tamparuli, was in black-and-white, which was the norm those days. And mind you, one has to wait for a few days then before you get to see your picture; compared to a few minutes (and in colour) now!

If I remember correctly, the picture was published in the local newspapers to announce our victory as well as the fact that we would be performing at the up-coming Tuaran Tamu Besar. The Tamu Besar, then held annually, was the biggest event of the district. The highlight was the beauty contest, just like the Kaamatan (Harvest Festival).

But the late Maah 'disappeared' just a few days before the Tamu Besar. He apparently left quietly for Kuala Lumnpur to be trained as a policeman! Luckily we had a standby drummer, though not as good as he.

Upon graduating from the Police Training Academy, the late Maah returned to Sabah to serve as a policeman, of course. Whenever he was off-duty, he would still play the drum for us.

Sometime in the late 1970s, the late Maah was seconded to become ADC (bodyguard) to the then Deputy Chief Minister cum Tamparuli Assemblyman, the late Dr James Ongkili.

After the defeat of the Berjaya party by PBS, the late Maah served Ongkili's successor and my classmate Datuk Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing in a similar capacity until recent years.

In between serving as a policeman and a bodyguard, the late Maah tried his hand in small businesses including starting a car-wash business beside his house by the main road which is still in operation.

The late Maah was a younger brother of the late Wugau Ajuh (also spelt Ugau) who was the Ketua Kampung (those days called Orang Tua) or village headman for Bontoi which is just next to Tamparuli town itself. Those days, the Orang Tua was influencial and highly respected by the native community.

Following Berajaya's victory in 1976, the late Ugau was promoted to Ketua Anak Negeri or Native Chief (NC) for Tamparuli. An NC oversees a group of village headmen. Ugau remained the NC until his death in the late 1970s. Co-incidentally, and if I am not mistaken, he also died on Hari Raya Haji day, just like his brother Maah.

The late Ugau was father to two of our singers in the late 1960s, Malim and Maliana Ugau. Malim and Maliana also appeared on local TV in the early 1970s, those days still in black-and-white. Together with our band sometimes, they also sang at various functions. Those days, entertainment or night life was limited (no Internet, no Video games, no Karaoke, no nothing. Even the Disco was not invented yet.) and people would hold a dance party and call a band at the slightest excuse - wedding, engagement, birthday, etc. Yes, the catch-phrase or password those days was 'party' and whenever teenagers or young adults met they would ask each other when and where the next party would be. I thanked God for my musical talent as the payment that we received though small helped me pay my school and exam fees.

Malim is now Datin Hajjah Malim (forgot her Muslim name), married to a successful businessman and veteran journalist Datuk Wahid Norbinsha. Maliana is also a Datin, married to Datuk Jahid Jahim, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports cum Tamparuli Assemblyman. For the benefit of my non-Malaysian readers if any, a Datuk and Datin is something like Sir and Lady in Britain; though not neccasarily the same rank.

I am not sure how old the late Maah was. A few years my senior, he must have been around 60. But all I know is the people of Tamparuli will miss his jokes and antics. There was never a dull moment with him around in any function. Mind you, he was multi-lingual. Apart from his mother tongue of Dusun Lotud, he also spoke Malay, English and even a smattering of Hakka which always amused his Chinese friends. This was partly due to the fact that he actually grew up among the Chinese in Tamparuli town as his late brother Ugau operated a sundry shop. In short, he was a fun person to be with.

Maah became a Catholic before he died and personally chose the Christian name Moses. He must have been facinated by the Moses movie which we used to watch as kids at the Tamparuli cinema in the 1960s. The cinema, which was our only form of entertainment at night although it was in black and white and the place warm, noisy and dirty and they needed to change the film half-way, is now a supermarket, just like most cinemas elsewhere in Sabah.

May he rest in peace.

Happiness is....(Part 2)

2009-11-26T23:22:00.004+08:00

Happiness is....well, getting married; presumably to the one you love. (The father of the groom in his speech tonite reminded that we are no longer living in the age of forced or pre-arranged marriage like before.)

It's not me though who is getting married. Went through that in 1981. As they say, been there, done that.

I am talking about Simeon Sipaun and Rosni Maladu who were married at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu, the State Capital of Sabah this morning. My wife and I attended their reception at Putera Theatre Ballroom at Bukit Padang a few hours ago.

Simeon is the son of Mr Stephen Sipaun, a retired Kadazan senior civil servant from the Kivatu village in Penampang near Kota Kinabalu and Mdm. Betty Kondu.

Stephen, in turn, is the brother of former Sabah State Secretary (Tan Sri) Simon Sipaun. So needless to say, Simon who is now Vice-Chairman of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), was among the hundreds of guests present tonite.

Rosni is the daughter of Mr Maladu Tovodso and Mdm. Mantiling Banjiran from the Rungus community in the Kudat area. A good mix which is in line with the 1Malaysia slogan. Or should I say 1Sabah or even 1Borneo?

Congratulations to Simeon and Rusni.

P/S: Which reminds me of my trip to Turkey in June. Our male Muslim Turkish guide was telling us that a Muslim man cannot marry more than one in Turkey. I then told him that in Malaysia, which is also an Islamic country like Turkey, a Muslim man can marry up to four; albeit with conditions. His reaction: "Tell me, tell me, how to migrate to Malaysia!"

(Footnote: No offence meant to my Muslim readers. The above is just meant to show how liberal we are in Malaysia. Mind you, a few Muslim Malaysian women actually started a Polygamy Club supporting their husbands marrying more than one! Looks like we better be ready for the influx of Muslim men from Turkey! They are, after all, tall and handsome plus with their mixed Bollywood/Arabic/Orang Putih good looks.)

Happiness is....(Part 1)

2009-11-25T20:30:00.003+08:00

It suddenly dawn on me, recently, that in a few months' time I would be 56; even then it's assuming that God will allow me to live that long.

Much as I would like to live for as long as possible (for so long as I remain healthy that is), whether I like it or not I would not be around that much longer. After all, comparing human life to the clock, turning 56 would be just like the clock striking 5.30pm!

Which reminds me of the song 'Beyond The Sunset' which is one of the hymns frequently requested by family members of the deceased when our Prayer Group through the Benevolent Ministry pray for the dead either at the funeral parlour or at their home. But I will dwell more on this in a future post when I have the wordings (and hopefully the tune) ready.

Coming back to the original story, upon realising that I'm getting old (at least in the civil service sense as I will be retiring in less than 3 years' time) I've also become rather sentimental. So I decided to start a series of posts (hopefully once a week or at least fortnightly) based on the heading 'Happiness is....'.

So here is my first instalment. I took the above picture when I was having my breakfast in a Kepayan coffeeshop recently. As you can see, my hand was holding 'Yau Cha Kui' (my non-Chinese friends simply call it 'cha kui') and I was dipping it into my cup (or rather glass) of 'Kopi-O-Kau kurang manis'. As I'm turning 56, my memory is also beginning to fail me so that despite trying hard I can't remember what they call it (Cha Kui) in English. All I know is it should be called 'Fried (something)'. HELP! anyone?

Never mind what it is called in English, but what is more important is happiness is dipping my Cha Kui into my Kopi-O as we used to do during our childhood in the old-style coffeeshop back in my hometown Tamparuli in the 1960s; when even the tables, chairs, and cups were old-fashioned which you can't find nowadays.

I know most people would have their Cha Kui laced with either Kaya or Magerine/Butter or both (kahwin), but to me and my childhood friends, happiness is dipping your Cha Kui into the coffee before putting it into your mouth! While you still can, if I may add, as I turn 56 soon.

Another Malaysian Minister-Blogger

2009-10-15T00:52:00.001+08:00

Another Malaysian Cabinet Minister, (Tan Sri) Bernard Giluk Dompok (pic, dressed in traditional Kadazan attire) has become a blogger, effective Monday 12 October 2009. (http://bernard-dompok.blogspot.com)

A British university graduate, Dompok is the Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities. He is also Member of Parliament for Penampang in Sabah, his hometown.

He is President of the Sabah-based United Pasok-Momogun Kadazandusun-Murut Organisation (UPKO), one of the 13 component parties of the Barisan Nasional or BN (National Front), Malaysia's ruling coalition.

Prior to becoming a Federal Minister, Dompok served as Sabah Chief Minister. He was also State Assemblyman for Moyog.

Dompok has thus joined an increasing number of Malaysian politicians-turned bloggers. Prior to Malaysia's 12th General Election on 8 March 2008 in which BN fared badly compared to previous elections; nobody in the ruling party gave much thought to the Internet, much less becoming bloggers themselves.

But the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) made clever use of the Internet in their election campaign. Most opposition candidates were bloggers or at least had their own sites.

The election results showed that the BN had under-estimated the power of the Net especially in the urban areas where the opposition did well. But it's better late than never and today many BN politicians are already bloggers or at least have web sites for their constituencies.

And the No. 1 blogger in the country? Why, it's the Prime Minister Najib Razak himself (http:www.1malaysia.com.my). Former Prime Minister (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad was of course one of the earliest political bloggers and his site, http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog, has attracted millions of visitors since last year. In fact, some of Dr M's earlier postings had already been compiled into a book!

On the opposition front, their No. 1 blogger is none other than the Opposition Leader in the Malaysian Parliament, Anwar Ibrahim himself (http://anwaribrahimblog.com). Other notable opposition bloggers include 'Mr Opposition' Lim Kit Siang and Jeff Ooi, the blogger-turned-politician who set the trend. And of course you have the news portals, Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today, often seen as opposition symphatisers.

Sikmading says: Welcome on board as a blogger, Tan Sri. Congratulations, although your first posting was in the Malay language. I know your English is powerful and that you are an intellectual and I can't wait to read your first post in English. You have, sir, after all been in politics since 1985 and had even been on the pinnacle of Sabah politics (the Chief Ministership) and therefore your thoughts and views would be valuable to the younger generation and newcomers to politics especially the Youth Wing of UPKO.

I had the opportunity to serve the Tan Sri including during the difficult days of PBS when its leaders were often harrased by Kuala Lumpur. But believe me, if there is any Sabah leader who would dare to stand up to Kuala Lumpur and still win some respect and get some results, Bernard Dompok is definitely one of them. If I say he is the only one you probably would not believe me. So suffice for me to say that he is one of the very few who dared to do so.

When I retire and if I do write a book on my experiences since Usno time in the early 1970s when I started working, an entire chapter or even two will have to be about Dompok. If you can't wait that long, in the meantime let me just tell you that he is not what some Sabahans (especially those who punished him politically) might think. It's just that he has his own way of doing things, just like Dr Mahathir's favourite song - I did it my way.

In conclusion, for the information of his critics as well as the younger leaders: When Sabahans like Dr Jeffery, Dr Maximus and Ben Topin were arrested under ISA, Dompok was the only Sabah MP who dared to speak against it in Parliament with Dr M staring at him. Dr Maximus is now a fellow-Federal Minister of Dompok, how nice!

If anyone is offended by what I just wrote, no offence meant. I just want to put the record straight. But don't take my words for garnted. Go and check the Hansards in Parliament or for that matter the State Assembly and of course the newspapers.

My critics would probably say I angkat kaki (curry favour) with Tan Sri. I don't have to. I stopped serving him since 1994 and had survied until today on my own. For that matter, I have survived since Usno days of the 1970s. The late Tun Mustapha, before he died, asked me why I befriended him (as a reporter) only when he was no longer Chief Minister. My reply was when he was in power I was still a student or had just started working. We both had a good laugh.

Happy blogging Tan Sri.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

2009-09-20T18:23:00.000+08:00

Wishing all my Muslim visitors Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri or Hari Raya Puasa. Thank you for visiting my blog. Please visit again.

Daphne breaks silence...

2009-09-10T21:23:00.005+08:00

Sabah-hailed Malaysian TV host Daphne Iking who recently found herself in the news for the wrong reason, has finally broken her silence.

Daphne, whose husband Ryan has brought her man friend Choy to court for allegedly "enticing" her, spoke to Reena Raj of Malay Mail, Malaysia's only English afternoon daily this week. In a comparatively conservative society like Malaysia's, the Malay Mail is probably the closest you can get in relation to the gossip tabloids of the Western mainstream media.

Reena's article, published Tuesday, was titled: "Daphne moves on with life - TV host not allowing enticement case to get to her".

The full article reads:-

Ravishing TV presenter, host and brand ambassador Daphne Iking is not letting the high-profile enticement case before the courts to get to her.

"It is painful and annoying but I am able to endure it," she said. "I've moved on."

Daphne's husband Ryan Chong has dragged managing director Choy Khin Ming to court in a private prosecution under Section 498 of the Penal Code for "enticing or taking away or detaining with a criminal intent a married woman".

"This is not my case. It's funny, my name is associated with the case, but I've got nothing to do with it and therefore I will not be present at any of the hearings," she said.

Daphne, who is currently seperated from her husband, said her 21-month-old daughter Isobel means the world to her and "keeps me sane".

She refused to say for how long she has been seperated from her husband, as she didn't want it to affect her daughter's life.

"I've lost a couple of jobs because of this publicity, but I have also got some new offers. I am now working in a play, something I always wanted to do," she said.

Daphne is in a play titled Whack's Bar that will be staged from Oct 1 at the Petaling Jaya Arts Centre. She said the court case had revealed the number of true friends she had, adding her parents and siblings were with her, giving her the moral support she needed.

"I'm blessed to have so many caring and understanding friends, but there are one or two who don't understand. But the support of friends and fans is more than I expected."

Meanwhile, at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court yesterday, magistrate Mohd Faizi Che Abu said he would prepare the grounds of his decision rejecting the defence application to recuse him for Choy's defence counsel Jagjit Singh and Akbardin Abdul Kader to be submitted for their appeal to the High Court.

In the hearing on Aug 22, Akbardin sought for the case to be tried by another magistrate on the grounds that Mohd Faizi had heard the statement of complaint and issued the summons against Choy.

He cited Section 128 of the Criminal Procedure Code that stated that an accused shall be entitled to require that the case be tried by another magistrate when a magistrate takes cognisance of an offence upon his knowledge or suspicion that an offence had been committed.

Mohd Faizi rejected the defence's request to adjourn the case, saying he had no personal knowledge of the offence and had followed the law to determine whether there was sufficient grounds to issue a summons.

On Aug 26, Akbardin filed a notice of appeal against Mohd Faizi's decision to try the case. But yesterday, Mohd Faizi said he was being transferred and the High Court would decide on the magistrate who would hear the case from now on.

The hearing on Dec 9 and 10 will remain.

"We will not withdraw the notice of appeal that we had filed and will wait for a decision from the High Court," Akbardin said.

Choy was seated in the public gallery during the hearing.

Welcome & Goodbye 09.09.09

2009-09-09T21:45:00.005+08:00

Come tomorrow, Thursday, newspapers across the world will splash pictures similar to the top three pictures above. These pictures, courtesy of the Sun newspaper of Malaysia, were taken at various locations in the country today, Wednesday during mass wedding ceremonies.

Throughout Malaysia, there must have been at least a few thousand couples who purposely tied the knot on this auspicious day, the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year of the new millennium or more popularly known as 09.09.09. Nine in Chinese also sounds like another word which means long-lasting or longevity.

Thus, what better day to get married for the Chinese than 999 or triple nine? Therefore, if a few thousand Chinese couples got married today in Malaysia, can you imagine China which has not only the most Chinese people but also the largest population in the world? I would imagine that it would run into tens or even hundreds of thousands. In its capital city Beijing alone, about 10,000 newly-weds were registered today!

Bearing in mind that there are Chinese people in every nook and corner of the world, can you imagine the total number of people who got married today? It must be at least a million! However, there is only one catch - in the Chinese or lunar calender, today is the 21st day of the 7th month. This is the month of ghost which is not suitable for marriage. In fact, just a week ago the Chinese especially the Taoists just observed ghost day!

But there is a way to get around it - most of the couples only register their marriages today. They will only hold their wedding feasts after the 'month of ghost' is over! The next month in the lunar calender, the 8th month will be a good date to celebrate. To begin with, the word eight in Chinese has similarity in sound with another word which means prosperity or wealth. In fact, the Chinese are so crazy about 8 that they would pay any amount to have that as their car plate number.

On top of that, the popular Mooncake or mid-autumn festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calender. As it is, the moon is normally full or round (weather-permitting) on the 1st and 15th day of the lunar month. The Chinese believe that the moon on the 15th day of the 8th month is fullest or even rounder! Thus the Chinese saying "when the moon is round, flowers bloom" and thus this is another popular date on which to get married.

In a few hours' time, except for certain parts of the world, 09.09.09 will be no more. Although in ten years' time there will be a 09.09.2109, it's not the same and mankind will have to wait until 09.09.3009 by which time I believe we will no longer be around. By then too, the bloggers will be our next next generation and we can't even imagine the technology then or the gadgets that they will be using!

But 09.09.09 is not just a good day to get married! Even the businesses are cashing in on it, some albeit with a bit of charity thrown in though. The Southern Bakery of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah has even declared a 999 Day! (Please see bottom picture) Not wanting to let this auspicious day gets by just like that, Southern is selling their fresh buns at 90 cents each and is donating to charity through Food for the Hungry International,in which Southern chain (which includes the newly-established and popular Southern Stations/Cafes across Sabah) owner and my friend CK Tan (formerly of Sabah KFC fame) has a role.

Very thoughtful of you, Mr Tan, and what a novel way to raise funds for charity! Keep it up and I hope other business establishments will follow your fine example.

Meanwhile, Welcome and Goodbye, 09.09.09! For those who miss it or not willing to let it go, don't worry, in certain parts of the world (e.g. parts of America), it's still 999 tomorrow!

In defense of SJD (Update 2)

2009-08-30T16:15:00.007+08:00

I read with surprise and almost disbelief a Daily Express front page report Sunday titled "Appointment Is Revoked".

According to the writer, Elizabeth Majaham, the Local Government and Housing Ministry has revoked the appointment of former Sabah Housing & Town Development Authority (LPPB) general manager Sylvester Jomitod Disimon (SJD) (pic above) as Penampang District Chief which is supposed to take effect on Tuesday 1 September 2009.

The reporter quoted Penampang Native Chief Johhny Molijoh who in turn quoted Penampang district officer (DO) William Sampil. (A District Chief or DC is more senior than a Native Chief or NC as he is in charge of an entire district as his title suggests or at least a State constituency whereas an NC is only in charge of a Mukim or cluster of villages. A DC may thus have several NCs under him.)

Johnny claimed that William had told him Friday that a revocation letter was given to SJD through the DO. The Daily Express article was reproduced by SJD in his blog, http://linundus.blogspot.com, today. In fact, SJD's blog had carried almost all the news reports about this 'controversy' from the start; although some of the statements were not favourable to him. I find this rather 'gentlemanly' on the part of SJD.

In his latest posting today (as of my time of writing), SJD confirmed receiving the 'revocation' letter and that he respected the Ministry's decision to impose the "cooling-off" period in view of the 'heat' generated by out-going DC Christopher Mojungkim and his 'supporters'.

Let us start from the beginning. It all started when the Borneo Post reported sometime early August that SJD had the previous day submitted his acceptance letter as DC effective 1.9.2009 to the DO who delivered it on behalf of the Sabah Native Affairs office director.

The incumbent DC, Christopher immediately issued a statement to Daily Express saying, among other things, that he felt embarassed and humiliated that he came to know of SJD's appointment and his impending removal only through the Press; that he deserved to be told personally; that he was not too old to continue serving; etc, etc. Chris' statement was supported and elaborated upon the following days by, among others, the so-called Penamapng Native Welfare Association (wonder if it's registered and can't bother to remember the name of its head) and, surprisingly, opposition figure Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. Even PBS, a fellow BN component party of UPKO whose leaders are both the Assemblyman and MP in Penampang, joined in the fray.

I can't remember who said what, but among the accusations hurled against SJD and the government (I'm just saying it in general) were that the BN parties should have been consulted; that the views of the KadazanDusun Cultural Association (KDCA) and not just Kadazan Society of Sabah (KSS) be considered and so on. Jeffrey even, surprisingly, accused UMNO of "bullying" other component parties of Penampang BN by pushing through SJD's appointment. I won't waste my time and energy to repeat everything here, those interested can either look for old newspapers or visit SJD's blog.

Sikmading says: 1. Looking back and speaking with the benefit of hindsight, SJD should perhaps not brought along a reporter (Borneo Post) when he submitted his acceptance letter to the DO. I'm just assuming that it was he who informed the reporter. It could have been the DO's office or Penampang Native Court. But then again, there was nothing wrong, not legally at least. It was SJD's right to inform the whole world that he has been appointed the new DC come 1st Sept and that he was accepting it, that's all. Some people are Press-savvy, some are not. Some are publicity shy, some are not. It's the individual's right, say what you like. It's also up to the individual to shoulder any consequences of his actions. It's a free world. To cut the long story short, my point is SJD committed no wrong by publicising the event and it certainly DID NOT disqualify him from his appointment which had already been made in the first place.

2. Secondly, again speaking with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps SJD should not have visited his new office after the above event while there is still an incumbent and especially when the latter was not aware of it. I can understand Chris' feelings. But we don't know what excatly transpired during or after the visit to the DO's office that day. SJD could have been prompted by the DO himself and the couple of Native Chiefs who were present. It's human nature to 'angkat kaki' (curry favour) with your new or in-coming boss, isn't it? Whatever it is, the above unfortunate incident, whether it was tactful or otherwise, SHOULD NOT disqualify SJD as he was the in-coming DC anyway. If any 'offence' had been committed, it was at best 'lack of tactfulness or sensitivity', that's all. Perhaps an apology from SJD to Chris (who happens to be his 2nd cousin) would help cool things down but this must come from SJD only if he wants to, nobody should force him. Whatever it is, this unfortunate incident DOES NOT disqualify SJD!

3. Chris said he was embarassed and humiliated that he had to learn of the termination of his appointment through the Press. It was not the job or responsibility of SJD to inform Chris, much less to make sure that the latter had received his termination letter by then. It was the job of the Native Affairs office and the DO office, and we don't know who caused the delay; if Chris' statement were to be believed. SJD was merely submitting his acceptance letter, that's all. He did not commit a crime! Don't tell me just because Chris had not received his letter was enough ground to disqualify SJD?

4. As to the accusations or statements that the BN parties should have been consulted, well, consultations need not neccessarily bring about agreement or a concensus. In the end, no candidate may be agreed upon and the people suffer. In any case, as far as I know, the norm is that it is the prerogative of the Wakil Rakyat or YB (from the governing party, of course) to recommend to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing through the Native Affairs office. In this case, I understand that SJD had the reccommendations of not just the Assemblyman (Donald Mojuntin) but also the MP (Bernard Dompok). Everything was above board. In any case, as SJD pointed out in his blog today, was NC Johnny and NC Adrian Sikawah's appointments discussed with the component parties? I might as well add that did the PBS YBs elsewhere in Sabah discuss with or get the blessings of other component leaders at the constituency level before submitting the names of their nominees, not just for the DC or NC posts but any other political appointees? I say this because the Moyog PBS leader was among those who queried SJD's appointment publicly. Is issuing a public statement against another component party consultation? Was that in the spirit of BN?

5. Jeffrey's statement - how did Jeffrey know that UMNO "bullied" others? Who gave him this bright idea? Your guess is as good as mine. All claimants to the DC throne are supposed to be pro-BN men and therefore if anyone turned to the opposition for personal gain, then this person does not deserve the coveted crown anyway. By the way, Dr Jeffrey, how can UMNO "bully" when SJD's name was submitted by Donald Mojuntin and Bernard Dompok both of whom are from UPKO?

6. The presence of KSS people at the DO office - Was it legally wrong for these people to be present? Was it wrong for these people to share the joy of SJD, their Deputy Sabah President and Penampang head? Charity begins at home. Are KSS members of Penampang not tax-paying citizens too? Don't they pay rates to the Penampang district council? Don't they vote? Are they not rakyat and anak negeri whom the Native Court is supposed to look after? Does bringing them disqualify SJD? Had SJD been a KDCA leader (which he once was) would the KDCA members make noise? Hasn't KSS been well-received by the Kadazans of Penampang as evidenced by the big crowds that turned up during their district-level functions? Jeffrey also singled out KSS president Datuk Marcel Leiking whom he described as an UMNO leader. Poor Marcel! Even if it were true that Marcel recommended SJD, so what? That's his right! He had every right to nominate his KSS deputy president just as Pairin had every right to nominate someone from KDCA! It's up to the YBs to accept or not! The YBs are not children whom Marcel can manipulate! It was just a co-incidence that Marcel was from UMNO. He could have been from DAP but he is still the KSS president! Don't insult our intelligence by suggesting that Donald and Bernard preferred UMNO man Marcel's choice over their own UPKO choice! SJD was accepted partly because of his experience as a head of government department and his family lineage of district/native/village chiefs! Wouldn't it be nice to have a former head of department as the District Chief? It's historic and something to be proud of for the Kadazans! Besides,what is there to stop Jeffrey or the PBS Moyog divisional head to make their own recommendations? The fact that John Masabal did not make one showed that even he understood that it's the YBs', and not his, prerogative! Just as it's the PBS YBs' prerogative to make recommendations in their areas!

Lastly, I don't think it was a permanent revocation letter. From what I understand, it's just KIV or put on hold, I think. As SJD himself pointed out, just cooling-off period. SJD and not Chris here, I think is the victim. He is innocent. He's the scapegoat.

Please also read my visitors' comments below.

Sabah Celebrity in the News....

2009-08-24T23:08:00.003+08:00

You can be in the news either for the right or wrong reasons. If it's for the right reason, then one would certainly welcome the publicity. If it's for the wrong reason, it's certainly not something that one looks forward to, especially if you are a celebrity.

Recently, Sabah-hailed Malaysian TV personality Daphne Iking (bottom picture) found herself in exactly the same situation - being in the news for the wrong reason. It's certainly not welcome news, conisdering that she's a public figure and celebrity.

Just two-and-a-half years ago, Daphne, a former Kadazan beauty queen, got married to fellow-Malaysian Ryan Chong in Bali, said to be one of the most romantic places on earth to tie the knot. I mean, who doesn't envy a friend getting married on the romantic Indonesian island of Bali? Daphne has since gave birth to Isobel who is now 21 months old.

Although I do not know much about Ryan's background or what he does for a living, I had no doubt that theirs would be a match made in heaven and sealed on a romantic island like Bali. I mean, for Daphne to have agreed to marry him when she could have concentrated on her successful career for at least a few more years, she must have loved him very much and vice versa.

As a fellow-Sabahan, I wished the couple well. So imagine my shock when I read in the newspapers last week that Ryan has dragged a businessman to court for "enticing" his wife, citing Section 498 of the Penal Code which reads: "enticing or taking away or detaining with a criminal intent a married woman."

Wow! My immediate reaction (as a former Pressman) was: "This is going to be juicy. The Press, especially the tabloids, would love it." Such is the cruelty of society, bearing in mind that it was the Paparazzi that killed Princess Diana. I had heard of "All Good Things Must Come To An End" but must this happen to a marriage, especially that of a seemingly perfect one?

By the way, although the man accused of enticing Daphne was described as a "Corporate Figure", he didn't turn out to be a well-known tycoon as his name did not immediately ring a bell (to me at least). His name: Choy Khin Ming (upper picture). He looks relatively young compared to other corporate figures and handsome too (which helps explain the alleged enticing). Surprisingly, Ryan's picture was not published; not in the Star at least where I got the above pictures from.

Looks like the case, though juicy since the plaintiff has produced 'evidence' including passport copies, invoices and e-mails, is going to be more complicated and intersting rather than straight-forward as between a plaintiff and defendant. This is because Daphne surprised both parties (or rather both men) when the trial opened by sending two lawyers who claimed they were holding a watching brief for her and may file to ask questions later.

Daphne's lawyers' presence not only took the court by surprise, they indirectly gave an indication of whose side Daphne is on when they told the magistrate that they would make a formal application to challenge the summons and the constituionality of Section 498.

"It is archaic and no longer has a place in society. It is a total affront to women to suggest that we can be so easily enticed and so stupid enough to be enticed," said one of Daphne's lawyers who is a woman.

The case has been adjourned to September. In the meantime, it looks like Ryan has to fight more than just the defendant - but his wife too.

(Footnote: Daphne is the daughter of a former policeman-turned-lawyer/banker Moses Iking who hails from Tambunan in Sabah's interior, best known for producing Huguan Siou (Paramount Chief of the Kadazan-Dusun people), Joseph Pairin whose popularity overthrew the then Berjaya government in 1985. Ironically, Moses challenged Pairin for the Tambunan state seat in the 2008 general election won by Pairin.)

Miss Universe 2009 (Part 2)

2009-08-24T22:36:00.003+08:00

JoannaBelle, from Kota Kinabalu, is of Chinese-Indian ancestry

Although Miss Malaysia 2009, JoannaBelle Ng Li Vun did not make it to the Top 15 in the just-concluded Miss Universe 2009 held in Bahamas this morning (Malaysian time), Malaysians from the Borneo state of Sabah are still proud of her. The 21-year-old model is from Sabah, one of the so-called two east Malaysian states situated on Borneo island; the other being Sarawak.

Infact, the year 2009 has so far been a good year for Sabah beauties. Not only did the Miss Malaysia/Universe 2009 come from Sabah, so did the first runner-up, Cassandra Patrick, pictured above with JoannaBelle (centre). Cassandra is on the left. On the right is 2nd runner-up, Claudia Tania Sibert (this name sounds east-Malaysian too!).

Miss Universe 2009

2009-08-24T19:27:00.019+08:00

Miss Photogenic from Thailand

Miss Congeniality from China

'The Donald' (Centre) with Miss Universe 2009 (left) and Miss Universe 2008, both from Venezuela.

Miss France during the evening dress segment.

The moment of truth...and the winner is...

From Venezuela to Venezuela...

We did it again...two up for Venezuela

The much-awaited Miss Universe 2009 is finally known after the finals held at Atlantis hotel complex in Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas this morning (Sunday night US time).

She is Miss Venezuela, Stephania Fernandez. She is the second Venezuelan candidate to win the coveted world title in two consecutive years. She was crowned by Miss Venezuela/Universe 2008, Dayana Mendoza. When interviewed during her last walk as Miss Universe 2008, Dayana said her proudest moment upon being crowned last year was being able to bring the Miss Universe crown back to Venezuela after 12 years!

The first runner-up is Miss Dominican Republic, Ada Aimee de la Cruz.

There were no Asians among the top 5, but there was plenty of consolation when Miss Thailand won the subsidiary title of Miss Photogenic while Miss China was proclaimed Miss Congeniality.

Although Miss Malaysia did not make it to the Top 15, the consolation for east Malaysians is that she is from Sabah.

Among those present at the pageant was, who else, but the owner of Miss Universe organization, Donald Trump or better known as 'The Donald'.

Photos courtesy of The Sun, Malaysia.

Happy Birthday Sikmading & Berjaya! (Part 2)

2009-07-17T21:30:00.006+08:00

What a co-incidence! Only two hours ago I wrote about the birth of the Berjaya party in 1975 and its demise in the late 1980s. And moments ago I decided to visit Joseph Bingkasan's (JB) blog, Aki Momogun and what's his posting today? - According to him a group of young Sabah leaders are in the process of reviving Berjaya! Even the logo (above) is the same except for the additional thumbs-up sign. Also still there is the slogan or battle cry "Berjaya Tetap Berjaya" (Berjaya always succeeds).

If I remember correctly, the thumbs-up sign was also the 'signal' of Sabah People's Party or Parti Rakyat Sabah (PRS) led by former Berjaya deputy president the late Datuk Dr James Peter Ongkili. PRS was formed in 1989 by mostly former leaders of Berjaya which had by then been dissolved. It made its debut in the 1990 Sabah state general election but failed to win a single seat! PBS led by Ongkili's uncle Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan won a landslide in that election. Talk about blood being thicker than water!

Ongkili, also a former Sabah deputy chief minister, himself suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of his former opponent, Datuk Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing the PBS candidate. 'Humiliating' because Ongkili, also a former federal minister in the Malaysian Cabinet and one of the most educated Sabah leaders, lost his deposit. Bumburing, who was Ongkili's student at the University of Malaya in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s, lost his deposit when he fought as an opposition candidate (Pasok party) against then deputy chief minister Ongkili in 1981. What a reversal of fortunes!

Among the PRS leaders who also lost was former Berjaya minister Datuk Ayub Aman, in Bingkor. The PRS deputy president is the brother of the current Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Musa Aman. Ayub's teaming-up with Ongkili was most unexpected, as the two were at logger-heads during the Berjaya era; with the former leading the Dusun Association while the latter insisted that the Dusun should be called Kadazan. Mind you, when Ayub first rebutted openly against Ongkili, he (Ayub) was only an Assistant Minister while Ongkili was his senior colleague being the No. 2 man in both the government and ruling party! This led to rumours that Ayub had the No.1 (Chief Minister and Berjaya president Harris Salleh) behind him. As the saying goes, there's no permanent friend and no permanent enemy in politics!

Ongkili later gave up leadership of the Kadazans and passed the baton on to his uncle, another former Berjaya minister Joseph Pairin who cleverly used it for political gains and achieved the ultimate prize in Sabah politics - that of the Chief Ministership in 1985 - something which Ongkili must have regretted. Man proposes, God disposes. Pairin, despite being Ongkili's relative, had earlier fell out of favour with Harris and dropped from the latter's Cabinet.

PRS was dissolved after its disastrous debut outing. Ongkili died a few years ago. May his soul rest in peace.

For more on Berjaya Baru, which I myself heard of only today, go to JB's blog: http://akimomogun.blogspot.com. I would like to take this opportunity to thank JB for introducing me to blogging 2 years ago. As far as I know, he is the only Sabah blogger to have appeared in the TV programme Blog over RTM. Congratulations! Well done brother, keep it up.

Footnote: Berjaya president and former Sabah chief minister Datuk Harris Salleh stepped down after its defeat mid-1985. The then party secretary-general Datuk Mohd Noor Mansoor defeated Ongkili for the new presidency, despite the latter being the incumbent No.2. Noor led Berjaya to an even more disastrous outing in the 1986 snap Sabah state general election. If Berjaya under Harris won 6 seats (out of 48) in 1985, the party under Noor won even less in 1986. A few months after the state election, the federal or parliamentary election followed. By then PBS had been accepted into BN along with Usno, the 'survivor' despite losing to Berjaya in 1976. Berjaya under Noor dropped a bomb shell just before the nationwide election - it pulled out of the BN, apparently trying to win votes of Sabahans dissatisfied with PBS' entry into BN. It didn't work. Berjaya scored 0. That sealed Berjaya's fate and the party was eventually dissolved for good.

Happy Birthday Sikmading & Berjaya! (Updated)

2009-07-17T18:55:00.006+08:00

This post was supposed to have been written two days ago on Wednesday. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (favourite excuse of politicians and public relations personnel!) including technical hitches, I can do it only now. So, as you read it, please imagine that it's July 15. Thank you.

Time flies. Without realising and as if it was only yesterday, my blog is two years old! Yes, on 15 July 2007 I started Sikmading's Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. To the best of my memory, I had along the way made a couple of promises (especially on New Year's Eve) that I would TRY my best to blog everyday or at least every other day. I failed to keep my promises, but are promises not meant to be broken? Ha ha, what an excuse!

But, who cares? I might not have blogged regularly and my blog might not have been the best or won any prize, but at least I provided my fellow Sabahans and Malaysians with a blog on our beloved State of Sabah, nicknamed 'Land Below The Wind'. For that matter, I provided the World with a blog on this Borneo state. I helped popularise this east Malaysian state in cyberspace or borderless world, free of charge. For that, I should be given a Datukship (PGDK) compared to those less-deserving! After all, I'm just one step below the Datukship (ASDK). Ha ha, what wishful thinking! No joke no fun, as they say.

Actually, it's not just my blog's anniversary. July 15 WAS also the birthday of (the late) BERJAYA Party or, in the Malay language, Parti BERJAYA. Please see the press clipping above or go to my blog archive and click 2007. Yes, in 1975 a new political party was formed in Sabah which would change the course of the State's history until the mid-1980s. Within 9 months of its formation, BERJAYA swept to power; defeating the USNO-dominated Alliance Party which had ruled Sabah for 9 years since Independence in 1963. What's in a name? BERJAYA means success in Malay.

But BERJAYA's success did not last long, and 9 (months) is not always lucky. In Chinese, apart from nine it also sounds like long-lisitng. But it also sounds like dog! BERJAYA lost to an even younger party, the Sabah Unity People or PBS (less than 2 months old) 9 years later in 1985. And, believe it or not, PBS 'lost' (through defections) to Malaysia's ruling National Front (BN) coalition also 9 years later in 1994! However, the UMNO-led BN managed to break the 'zinx' and has been in power in Sabah for 15 years now! For the record, both USNO and BERJAYA have been dissolved or de-registered. But the irony was that USNO, one of Sabah's oldest party formed in preparation for Independence in the early 1960s, outlived BERJAYA by a few years! BERJAYA was dissolved in the late 1980s while USNO was de-registered in mid-1990s.

To conclude, I don't want to make any more promises which I may not be able to keep. But suffice for me to say that the 2nd anniversary of my blog hopefully will spur me on to blog more regularly from now on and, hopefully too, to continue with the BERJAYA story which I started two years ago. Many of my visitors had urged me to carry on but I explained that will depend on my having the time to get (and money, the photostat that is not cheap) the resources from the archives.

Hopefully too, it will spur me on to continue with the pilgrimage story (Trail of St Paul, Turkey) which was stopped temporarily. Again,my fellow pilgrims have urged me to continue, although we are now safely home. And although by now most of them have got my photos, they say seeing those pix in the Internet is something different. They can tell and show their friends and relatives all over the world about it.

To conclude a second time, we thank God that we are safely home and so far none of us have contracted the much talked-about H1N1 (which our Information Minister insisted should be called Swine Fever although our Health Minister had repeatedly said the disease did not come from pigs).

About two weeks after our return, a local daily newspaper reported that one of the then 4 Sabahans who caught the flu had just came back from Turkey! You can imagine our phones that day! We were busy answering calls and reassuring our callers that none of us was the patient concerned. He (or rather she) turned out to be a teacher in Kudat who had arrived from Istanbul a week later than us and who was not part of our entourage. Looking back, the $75 that we each spent on the jab at Dr Tan's before the trip was well-spent.Thank you Lord, for protecting us, including the safe journey home; what not after receiving news of the Air France plane crash while we were in Turkey!

Cheers! Aramaiti! Yoku boti!

Happy Anniversary Fr. Fundes

2009-07-11T13:30:00.002+08:00

Reverend Father Fundes Motiung (middle) was given a surprise cake in conjunction with his 11th anniversary as a Catholic Priest recently. The occasion was a thanksgiving reunion for 32 Sabahans who made a 2-week pilgrimage to Turkey from 29 May to 12 June. Fr. Fundes was the spiritual director for the pilgrimage which was made in conjunction with The Year of St Paul which ended last month. The social gathering was held at the residence of tour co-ordinator Linus Tokujip in Kinarut. Fr. Fundes was ordained on 6 July 1998 and is now the Rector of the Stella Maris in Tanjung Aru near Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah in east Malaysia, otherwise known as Malaysian Borneo. Among those seen in the picture are Mrs Stella Tokujip (left), Sr. Rose Chew (on Fr.'s right) and Sr. Anna (on Fr.'s left).

One Malaysia at Work

2009-07-11T11:21:00.003+08:00

As I am blogging to you, the new Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak (pic) is speaking at a function in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the 100th Day of his holding office. His speech, which he is still delivering, is being carried live over TV via RTM1.

But it is not his speech that I'm blogging about or which prompted me to write this new post. But rather, true to his promise of a new nation via 1Malaysia, I can't help but notice that protocol is kept to the minimum.

Except for the seats for the Prime Minister and his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin and the minister-in-charge of the function and live broadcast Dr Rais Yatim, it's free seating - meaning even ministers have to find their own seats. This resulted in some ministers who came later than others found themselves sitting on the floor below the stage, amongst students.

This new arrangement must have taken the VIPs by surprise. The Ministers, who are so used to being treated like VIPs or even VVIPs, must have registered their protests, even if quietly or discreetly. Much as they don't like it, some must have just kept quiet when told that it was the PM's directive.

Critics (there is never any shortage of them anywhere in the world) may say that the above was pre-planned or orchestrated to imporve the new PM's image. Well, even if it was orchestrated and of course it was pre-planned, it still shows Najib's sincerity in line with his 1Malaysia slogan where People Comes First. Since taking office 100 days ago, Najib has paid several surprise visits to public areas frequented by the people, mingling with the crowd and sitting down for a cup of Teh Tarik (Malaysia's version of Indian tea). He also told his Ministers and other leaders not to wait for invitations to go down to the ground and not to look forward to things which they are so used to like protocol and other niceties like garland, kompang (Muslim tamborine), red carpet and souvenirs.

Looks like his Ministers better get used to more surprises.

Najib is just about to finish his speech. He has just made 11 announcements, since today is 11th July. Refer to the Internet/Online News /TV and Radio news and tomorrow's papers for details.

Another Sabahan Does The State Proud (2nd Update)

2009-07-10T18:49:00.007+08:00

Yesterday, Senator Armani Mahiruddin created history when she took her oath-of-office (pic) as the first woman Deputy President of the Dewan Negara or Senate, the Malaysian Parliament's Upper House. Malaysia, comprising the former Federation of Malay States or Malaya, Singapore, and the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, came into being in 1963 after gaining independence from Britain. However, the island city state of Singapore left the federation in 1965 and is now a republic on its own.

That was from the Malaysian perspective. But from the perspective of Sabah, the 52-year-old former school teacher created another history - she was the first Sabahan to be appointed to the prestigious post. However, another Sabahan, the late Ben Stephens (brother of first Sabah Chief Minister from 1963-4, the late Donald Stephens, later Mohamad Fuad Stephens after he became a Muslim) was appointed to an even higher post - that of the Senate President in 1985 and remained there for a few years.

Armani's appointment was sort of an icing on the cake for her family's political achievements. She is sister of former Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat or House of Representatives, the Lower House of the Malaysian Parliament, Juhar Mahiruddin who is now Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly of Sabah; one of Malaysia's 13 States.

Armani is a member of the Supreme Council of the Pergerakan Wanita (Women's Wing) of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the major partner of Malaysia's ruling National Front or BN coalition. She also heads the Sabah Liaison Body for the Wanita and is chief of the movement's Libaran Division headed by Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman. Prior to her appointment as Senator, she was a Board Member of the Sabah Housing & Town Development Authority (LPPB).

Her latest appointment came only days after the confirmation of the appointment of another Sabahan, Dr Oh Ei Sun, as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister; another first for a Sabahan. Only weeks earlier, Sabah saw the State's largest and most powerful representation yet in the Malaysian Cabinet headed by new Prime Minister Najib Razak. The new Cabinet now has four Sabahan full Ministers including, for the first time since 1963, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, brother of the Sabah Chief Minister. In the old days, Sabah used to have only one single Minister in the Malaysian Cabinet. What a difference!

Sabah, whose political leverage never really mattered to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian capital) in the past, saw a reversal of fortunes after Malaysia's 12th General Election last year which saw the ruling National Front doing badly; infact almost losing at the federal level and having lost 5 states plus the Federal Territory of KL. Suddenly, the voices of the leaders of Sabah (which has 24 BN Members of Parliament) and neighbouring Sarawak (with even more BN MPs) were being heard seriously for the first time.

The reason is simple - if only half of the Sabah and Sarawak BN MPs switch camps, then BN would lose control of the Central Government. Infact at one stage, a few months after the 8 March 2008 election, that possibility was real! Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had even set 16 September 2009 as the date by which his Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) coalition would take over! That however did not materialise, with Anwar offering a host of excuses of course.

Sabah and Sarawak suddenly saw an increase in their bargaining power which can no longer be ignored by then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad and his successor Najib Razak (April 2009 onwards). Following last year's election, a Sabahan (Pandikar Amin) is now for the first time the Dewan Rakyat Speaker. One of his deputies is also a Sabahan while the other deputy post went to a Sarawakian. And now you have another Sabahan as the Deputy Senate President.

This was something Sabahans and Sarawakians never dreamt of prior to last year's election. Even the Chairman of the Parliament Backbenchers' Club is a Sarawakian while his deputy is a Sabahan (Bung Mokhtar)!

Well done, Najib, keep it up! As your slogan says, OneMalaysia!

Oh's Appointment confirmed!

2009-07-02T21:10:00.002+08:00

Last Sunday, I wrote that academician Dr Oh Ei Sun has been appointed Political Secretary to the Prime Minister; the first Sabahan to hold such prestigous post.

A Bernama report today said an official in the Prime Minister's Department has confirmed the appointment, effective June 16.

Congratulations, Dr Oh. You have done Sabah proud.

As a fellow Sabahan, there is only one thing I humbly ask of you: Don't let success gets to your head and don't 'kacang lupa kulit' (the peanut forgetting its skin). I have worked since 1973 and have seen too many people changed too quickly, just because they are given some power.

I would also like to quote someone: "Be nice to people on your way up because you are going to meet the same people on your way down." Again, I have witnessed this many times over the last few decades - ex-leaders being ignored by people when they become nobody. Some were even cursed or made fun of.

Sabahan Becomes PM's Aide?

2009-06-28T16:00:00.002+08:00

A Sabahan intellectual, Dr Oh Ei Sun, has been appointed Political Secretary to the Prime Minister, a local Chinese newspaper reported today.

According to the Overseas Chinese Daily News (OCDN), the leading East Malaysian socio-political analyst is now one of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's aides; presumably to advise the new PM on East Malaysian and Chinese affairs.

According to the leading Sabah Chinese daily, Dr Oh's appointment was prompted by the recommendation of Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman. Dr Oh used to be a columnist with the New Sabah Times, a local English daily whose Chairman is Datuk Ayub Aman, the CM's brother.

The OCDN reported that Dr Oh has actually started work but there has been no official announcement. Efforts by the paper to contact him for confirmation failed by press time last night.

The 35-year-old Dr Oh who hails from Kota Kinabalu was once described as Sabah's child prodigy. At age 19, he obtained Bachelor Degrees in Engineering, Aviation and German philosophy. He later obtained Masters in International Commerce and an MBA. He became a Doctor of Philosophy at age 24.

The OCDN concluded its short report by describing Dr Oh as "a UN consultant, university lecturer, researcher, current affairs commentator, columnist and speaker".

Only a few years ago, nobody in Malaysia or Sabah knew who Dr Oh was. But today, he is one of the country's most sought after socio-political commentator especially among the Chinese Radio/TV programmes and newspapers.

He had also appeared in many seminars, forums and conferences in and outside Sabah either as panelist or paper presenter; including as Moderator during the DAP-organised Public Forum held in Kota Kinabalu on 16 September 2008. Among the spekaers during the event held at the Kian Kok Middle School was SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee and DAP adviser LimKit Siang. On 17 September 2008, SAPP officially left the BN.

Before he shot to fame, Dr Oh was closely associated with the SAPP. Following SAPP's departure from BN however, it is not known whether he is now associated with the Yong faction or Raymond Tan faction which remained in BN.

Dr Oh's sudden appointment as Pol Sec to the PM came as a pleasant surprise to Sabahans as this is the first time in Malaysia's 51-year history that a Sabahan is holding such post. Although Sabahans had been federal minisaters and deputy minisaters over the last few decades including in the PM's Department, Dr Oh's appointment raised eyebrows in view of the political clout that comes with the post.

A political secretary to the PM is seen as a very influential post as the holder literally walks among the corridors of power. Since the formation of Malaysia in 1963, many former Pol Secs to the PM had gone on to become Parliamentary Sec (a post abolished after the March 2008 election), then Deputy Minister and eventually Minister.

Dr Oh's appointment is also reminiscent of the appointment of Chinese lawyer Mathius Chang to a similar capacity by former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The senior lawyer-turned author retired together with Dr M a few years ago.

Dr Oh's appointment also came after new Home Minister Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein appointed prominent Chinese social worker Datuk Michael Chong as Special Officer. Observers described the appointments of both Dr Oh and Chong as being in line with the new PM's "1 Malaysia" concept whereby no community will be left out. The BN lost heavily in Chinese areas in last year's general election.

Trail of St Paul (Part 10)

2009-06-16T21:25:00.008+08:00

More pics from Antakya (Antioch) on Pentecost Sunday, 31 May 2009.

A group of Turkish youngsters 'lepaking' in front of a building on a lazy Sunday morning. Pic taken as we were walking from our hotel to the chapel; about 10 minutes' walk. Click to enlarge.

Sabah pilgrims inside the Catholic church in Antakya. Click to enlarge.

Photo opportunities not to be missed out before and after the Mass. After all, it's not everyday that a Sabahan is inside a church in a foreign land where post-Jesus era Christianity began. Click to enlarge.

More Sabah pilgrims inside Antioch church. Click to enlarge.

Rev. Fr. Dominique (standing) briefing us on the history of the Catholic church in Antioch as Rev. Fr. Fundes looks on before the Mass. Click to enlarge.

Sr. Rita doing the 1st Reading on Pentecost Sunday. Click to enlarge.

Walking along the narrow street back to the bus. Click to enlarge.

Trail of St Paul (Part 9)

2009-06-15T20:41:00.008+08:00

More pics from Antakya (Antioch on Orontes, Hatay (formerly Alexanderette) province of Turkey. Taken on Day 2 (May 31 - Pentecost Sunday).

Titus' Tunnel at Seleucia Pierea near Antioch-on-Orontes (now Antakya). The tunnel was a tremendous canal dug to divert water from the Orontes River during St Paul's time. Considering that everything had to be done by hand at that time, it was quite an engineering feat. Seleucia Pierea was the port city of Antioch in ancient days from where St Paul set sail for his first missionary journey. Due to siltation, the port was actually a few miles further inland from the present coastline where we visited. So a little bit of imagination was required.

Entrance to St Peter' Church in Antioch, also known as St Peter's Grotto. Early meetings of the first Christians of Antioch were held in this cave church so as not to attract the attention of the Roman soldiers who were persecuting them. Inside the 'church' there was a hole for St Peter and his followers including St Paul to escape should the Roman soldiers come looking for them.See what the early Christians had to endure then? And yet nowadays it is not easy to ask young people to go to church!

An aerial view of some old houses in Antakya/Antioch.

One of the displays at Hatay Museum, reputed for its large collection of mosaics, tombs, jewelry and other artifacts from around the Hatay Province which includes Antioch since ancient times.

The Bell Tower of the Catholic Church in Antioch.

Trail of St Paul (Part 8)

2009-06-14T22:09:00.006+08:00

I said in my previous posts that I would not jump the sequence for the sake of recording our pilgrimage to Turkey (Trail of St Paul) in conjunction with the Year of St Paul which ends this month - thus the timing of our pilgrimage.

However, on second thought I feel it's only fair that I at least inform my visitors/readers that we are home safely. The word safely is used because on our first night in Turkey, the TV news bulletin said an Air France plane flying from Brazil went missing! How's that for a welcoming news! That piece of news spoiled our otherwise happy journey somewhat - to the extent that I didn't bother to switch on the TV again starting the 2nd night.

The only thing which calmed my thoughts (I can't speak on behalf of my fellow-pilgrims) was the fact that I was on a pilgrimage and there was therefore no reason why I shouldn't have faith in the Lord in looking after us. The fact that we had Mass daily said by Rev Fr Fundes also helped. The daily Mass throughout our 12-day stay in Turkey was held either in the morning or afternoon, depending on circumstances. If the Mass had to be held in the afternoon, then we would say the Morning Prayer and Praise on the bus while travelling.

If the journey between two points is long enough, we also prayed the Rosary on the bus - in English, Bahasa and Kadazan, depending on who is leading. It was quite an experience in itself for me - saying the Rosary while travelkling in a bus and attending Mass in different churches/chapels/open spaces over 12 days! After all, it was my first pilgrimage.

Yes, time flies so that before we knew it we are home. We arrived in KK late Friday night after a few hours' stopover in Singapore. We had left Istanbul for Singapore the previous evening. Althought we spent the (Thursday) night on the Turkish Airlines plane, we arrived in Singapore only Friday afternoon due to the time difference (Turkey is 5 hours behind Singapore/Malaysia). Due to the tiring journey from Turkey to Sabah (not to mention the daily walking under the hot sun for 12 days), I didn't wake up earlier than lunchtime both Saturday and Sunday. Much as I wanted to continue blogging on Turkey soon as could, I was just too tired. Besides, after being away from home for two weeks, there were other pressing matters.

I do not want to touch on the details of the trip here so as not to jump the sequnce. My report will continue in the next Part. For the time being, I just reproduce here a Timeline of Turkish history which I downloaded from the Net. Hope it's large enough to be read. Hopefully you can enlarge it by clicking on it. I also reproduce another version of the map of Turkey for your easy reference.

I also reproduce a photo of the scenic port city of Iskanderun which I mentioned more than once in my previous posts. Iskanderun is the modern name of Alexandretta. If you look at this map, you will only find Iskanderun and not Antioch or Antakya where we spent our first two nights. Antioch-on-the-Orontes is south of Iskanderun. You will also not find Tarsus where we had our first Mass in this map. Tarsus, the birth place of St Paul, is near Adana to where we flew from Istanbul on Day 1 (Saturday 30 May).

Thank you for visiting. Please come back.

Trail of St Paul (Part 7)

2009-06-11T13:24:00.004+08:00

Inside chapel at Antioch on Pentecost Sunday.

Group pix in Antioch with Fr. Dominique.

In the compound of the chapel in Antakya (Antioch) on May 31. From left:- Sr. Rita,Sr. Anna, Fr. Dominique, Fr. Fundes and Sr. Colette.

Trail of St Paul (Part 6)

2009-06-11T02:39:00.001+08:00

After a good first night's sleep (after the tiring plane and bus journey) at the Narin Hotel in Antakya, we woke up refreshed on Sunday 31 May 2009. Everybody was anxious to begin our first full day in Antakya or Antioch on the Orontes in Biblical times. There are many Antioch cities/towns in Turkey but when they say Antioch in the Biblical context, most likely they are refering to this one which is in the Hatay province in south eastern Turkey and about 2-3 hours' drive from Adana and Tarsus, the birth place of St Paul.

Briefing for the Sabah pilgrims before they walked from the Narin Hotel to the church in Antioch.

Antioch is though to have been founded in 300BC. First to preach here was St Peter followed by St Paul and Barnarbas whose extensive efforts proved to be very fruitful for Christianity. Incidentally, the word Christian was first coined and used for the first time here. The strong and wealthy community of Antioch contributed to the Christian community of Jerusalem.

The highlights of our first full day in Antioch included a visit to the museum which houses a superb collection of mosaics from Antioch, Daphne and Seleucia Pieria dating back to hundreds if not thousands of years. So you can imagine how priceless or precious they are today. We also visited St Peter's Grotto, the cave church came to be known as the meeting place of the early Christians.

The next site we visited was Seleucia Pieria which was the port city of Antioch in ancient days. The most interesting monument here is the Titus Tunnel which was a tremendous tunnel dug for the diverting water the Orontes River. Another highlight here was the rock tombs with their impressive facades pertaining to the Hellenistic period.

May 31 was a special day for Sabahans especially the KDMs and the Christians in general and the pilgrims in Turkey in particular. First, as we all know it was the highlight or closing of the State-level Tadau Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) at Hongkod Koisaan in Penampang. Secondly, it was Pentecost Sunday. In other words, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday in a foreign land related to the Biblical times especially St Paul; thus making our pilgrimage even more meaningful. It was the first time I celebrated Pentecost Sunday overseas.

Rev. Fr. Fundes said Mass for us in the only functioning Catholic church (or rather chapel) in Antioch. It is run by the Capuchin friars headed by Fr. Domenico. It caters to the 'little' parish of Antioch with about 70 Catholics - slightly better than Tarsus.

Trail of St Paul (Part 5)

2009-06-10T13:36:00.004+08:00

The Narin Hotel as seen from my camera. The hotel declares itself as 4-Star. The symbol of 4-Star is even printed on its front door. However, even before the trip we had been briefed back in KK that the grading system of hotels in Turkey is one grade lower than Malaysia. Meaning if it says 4-Star, you can expect it to be equivalent to 3-Star in Malaysia. Even then, most 4-Star and below hotels in Turkey do not have coffee/tea making facilities in their rooms, unlike Malaysia. It's not that we want free coffee/tea that badly, but Malaysians in general and Sabahans in particular, need the boiled water in the rooms for for their Maggie Mee or quick noddles. Amen?

The Narin Hotel at Antakya (Antioch on the Orentes in Biblical Times) in Hatay Province where we spent our first night in Turkey. This photo is taken from the hotel's web site when it was still new.

Our First Night in Turkey.

After lunch at Tarsus, we drove to Antakya (Antioch on the Orentes in Biblical times) on the south eastern part of Turkey bordering Syria. It was a long drive and we had to have a brief stopover on the way at Alexandretta along the coast. Alexandretta was named after Alexander the Great after he conquered the important port city.

We stopped at a petrol station for our 10-minute break. One thing I notice, by the time we are about to go home, is that most if not all petrol stations, especially those along the highways, have convenience store and even cafe incorporated into them. This is so that apart from using the toilets, passers-by especially tourists can gave a cup of Turkish coffee or tea while the ladies, as usual, do their 'shopping' at the 'market' (souvenir shop) next door.

Trail of St Paul (Part 4)

2009-06-08T02:14:00.019+08:00

A Sabah pilgrim washing her hands with water drawn from St Paul's well.

Turkish chef preparing minced lamb meat for the Kebab.

Mrs Juliet Lui (left) of Faith Tours of Singapore. On the right is Selahattin, our tour guide. Looking on is our tour bus driver.

Don't leave us out lah!

Rev Fr Fundes (right) sure seems to have enjoyed his Turkish meal. On the left is Mr Linus Tokuzip, organiser of the pilgrimage from the Sabah end.

"Take your time and hurry up!", as our tour guide was very fond of saying.

Ini baru lah, smile for the camera! Kebab kambing sedap agaknya?

Why so serious, Sr Anna Dolores? Don't like Kebab?

OK I'm done...Sr Colette seems to be saying.

Family affair...Pilgrim Thomas with his family members.

Sabah pilgrims enjoying the Kebab. In the middle is Sr Rita.

Minced lamb meat, the main ingredient for the Kebab. However, by the time I remembered to take this pix, the rest of the food was gone. I was hungry. Lamb meat is served either minced or sliced in Turkey. The minced version is spicy while for the sliced version you select your own spices.

Turkish boys peddling delicacies to locals and tourists alike at Tarsus.

Selahhattin, our Turkish tour guide who speaks good English. Despite being a Muslim, he knows more about the Bible than me. It didn't take him long to learn Sabah words like Aramaiti!

Sabah Times on sale in Turkey? No, sabah means morning (paper) there. However, in most Arab countries Sabah is a common surname. e.g. Al-Sabah. Just google sabah and you will know what I mean.

Muslim ladies from Indonesia on the same plane with us from Singapore to Istanbul. They were also on a pilgrimage to Turkey. They were on an Umrah (minor Haj) by visiting places like Haran (Abraham the Patriach's place before he moved to Canaan) and Mt Ararat where Noah's Ark is believed to have rested. They might also be visiting Mother Mary's house in Ephesus. Surprised? Well, according to our Muslim tourist guide, they also believe in the above. Mother Mary would be Mariam in the Quran, Abraham is Ibrahim, and so on.

More Pix From Tarsus

We have been in Turkey for more than a week now and I know I have so far blogged only about Day 1 (Tarsus). Despite so, before going to Day 2 (Antakya), I still have more photos from Tarsus to post. There are two reasons for this. First, it will serve as a pictorial record of our pilgrimage and trip to Turkey - least I accidentally delete any of those pix in my memory card or, worse still, have my camera lost. Second, it's to make things easier for everybody - so that all my fellow pilgrims got to do when they return home is to download or save the pics from my blog and print the pix themselves.

I know I'm behind time in filing my posts. We have in fact reached the 2nd last leg of our trip and will be home in a few days' time. However, as I have said, it's better late than never. Much as I would like to blog everyday (that was why I brought along my Netbook), circumstances prevented me from doing so. As they say, man proposes God disposes. Either I was too tired by the time we got back to the hotel or there would be a technical hitch when I tried to blog. Those who have experience traveling with tour groups will appreciate my situation - you only get to sleep for a few hours before you have to wake up, wash, have breakfast, check-out and move on.

OK, enough excuses. Here are the rest of the Tarsus pix. Please bear in mind that I'm not a professional pixman and that being a traveller, I can only take a certain pix at a certain time at a certain place from a certain angle and in a certain weather condition. I didn't have much choice. Besides, the camera I'm using for this trip is only a compact-sized digital cam. So if you want to see more professionally-taken or more exotic pix of Turkey, just google it. Just type the names of the places we visit until the end of our trip. For example, just type Tarsus or Images of Tarsus in the Google or Yahoo serach boxes and you'll get hundreds if not thousands of pictures.

Till the next part, see you. Thank you for visiting. May God bless you.

Trail of St Paul (Part 3) (Updated)

2009-06-04T04:49:00.011+08:00

The Sabah pilgrims on arrival at Istanbul airport. Squatting (centre) is Fr. Fundes. Click to enlarge.

The Italian nuns at Tarsus (centre) with (from left) Sr. Rita, Fr. Fundes and Sr. Dolores and a Sabah pilgrim. Click to enlarge.

A group photo with the Italian nuns inside the Tarsus Church. Click to enlarge.

The Sabah pilgrims led by Rev. Fr. Fundes outside the Church at Tarsus. Click to enlarge.

The Church at Tarsus where we had our first Mass in Turkey. Click to enlarge.

Some of the Sabah pilgrims at St Paul's well. Click to enlarge.

St Paul's well at Tarsus. Water can still be drawn from it. At left is Rev.Fr. Fundes. Click to enlarge.

Signpost at St Paul's well. Click to enlarge.

The ruins of the ancient Tarsus town as seen from the balcony where we had lunch. Notice the road in the middle. In background is the new town. The old town was buried a few meters below where it was discovered. Click to enlarge.

Where we had our first meal, the Kebab, in Tarsus. We were seated on the balcony upstairs overlooking the ruins of the ancient Tarsus town. Click to enlarge.

Signboard explaining Cleopatra's Gate In Tarsus. Click to enlarge.

Cleopatra's Gate in Tarsus, Turkey. Click to enlarge.

Map of Turkey. Click to enlarge.

I would like to begin by saying that I missed out something in my last post. I forgot to mention that after lunch at Tarsus and on our way to Antioch, we stopped by the famous and romantic spot where Cleopatra met Mark Anthony. It's called Cleopatra's Gate. I do apologise for this omission and to make up for it I post its picture in this part. Actually, as my fellow bloggers would know, I can still include it in my last post by editing it. But I choose not to do so because my visitors who had read Part 2 most probably wouldn't want to go back to it. But for the information of those who care to do so, I have updated Part 2.

For this part, I will post pictures from our visit to Tarsus, the birth place of Saul (later St Paul) on last Saturday, our first day in Turkey. I will write less and show more, as 'A picture paints a thousand words'. I know we have been in Turkey a few days by now but as I said it's better late than never. I also include a map of Turkey here so that you would be in a better position to visualise where Adana and Tarsus are in relation to Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey's capital). You may want to search the Net for more or better maps of Turkey.

Trail of St Paul (Part 2) Updated

2009-06-02T09:39:00.004+08:00

Our journey in Turkey begins with our arrival at Istanbul airport on Saturady morning, 30 May 2009. From there we took a connecting flight to Adana in the south eastern part of Turkey.

The flight from Istanbul took almost one and a half hours, something like from KK to Kuching. We arrived at Adana airport late morning. It's just a small airport serving domestic flights, may be the size of the old Tawau or Sandakan airport.

From the airport, we headed straight to Tarsus, the birth place of St Paul (where he was known as Saul before his conversion). Hence, he was known as Paul of Tarsus. Because it was his birth place where he grew up, most Trail of St Paul pilgrimages begin here. It was about an hour's drive from the Adana airport on the tour bus.

Needless to say, Tarsus is an old and historic town; bearing in mind that Paul lived some 2,000 years ago. So I leave it to you to imagine what it must have looked like. I'll of course insert some photos later on, but not now in order to save time as images uploading is time-consuming. However, even though we are here, we still need a lot of imagination as the town during St Paul's time was buried a few meters below the present road level.

During St Paul's time, Tarsus was a university city surpassing even Athens and Alenxandria, named after Alexandra the Great. Cicero was the governor here circa 51-50 BC. So you can imagine how rich Tarsus's cultural and educational history is.

Upon arrival at Tarsus late Saturday morning, we headed straight for St. Paul's church. Rev. Fr. Fundes conducted our first Mass in Turkey there. It was refreshing and sentimental as Kadazan and Malay hymns were sung there. Imagine Kadazan and Malay hymns being sung half-way across the globe from Sabah! It made me homesick. As we entered the Church I felt as if I was filled with the holy spirit. I was humbled and overcome with awe and admiration and thanked God that I was actually there. However, despite its name, don't expect a big building. Just an ordinary-sized church or a chapel.

However, what saddened us what the fact that despite once being the bustling center of Christianity in Anatolia (as Turkey was known during Biblical times), only 3 (repeat three) Catholics remained in Tarsus today! Even then the trio are non-Turks. They are nuns from Italy! They were allowed to stay there by the Turkish government only to maintain it or to be caretaker especially for pilgrims. In other words it's a non-functioning church (there are many of these in Turkey). They exist only for tourists as the Turkish government certainly does not mind the huge revenue from tourism annually. By the way, 99% of Turkey's 70 million population are Muslims, so you can understand why. How come? Ask history! Blame history! And because there are no Turkish Christians remaining in Tarsus, the 3 nuns don't even wear their head dress/scarf when they go out of the church compound as otherwise curious eyes would be on them whenever they went. They would look like aliens to the Turks!

However, before you have a negative impression of the Turkish government, let me tell you this. Despite being a Muslim country, Turkey does not practise Syariah laws unlike in Malaysia. In other words, there is no Syariah court and every dispute goes to the civil court. For this, the Muslim Turks have to thank the father of modern Turkey, Ataturk, which sounds a bit like atuk (grandfather in Malaysia). This is appropriately so, as Ataturk is revered by the Turks and everywhere you go in Turkey you see hjis image or statutes at roundabouts. He is to Turkey what Mahatma Ghandi was to India and Dr Mahathir or our first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman is to Malaysia.

Before you have a negative image of the Turskih government too, let me also tell you this. Despite what I have said so far, there is no religious persecution in Turkey. The fact that there are only few Christians or Catholics remaining in Turkey today is not the fault of the present government or generation. As I have said, blame it on history and the complacency and disunity of Christians then. A fellow-pilgrim agreed with me that sometimes a little bit of persecution can be a blessing in disguise for it unites and strengthens the Christians or for that matter the Muslims if it's put the other way round.

Closer to home, a case in point is Sabah during Alliance-Usno time. To cut the long story short, in the 1976 state general election the majority of Christians in Sabah did not hesitate to give their votes to Berjaya, thus putting the 9-month-old party into power. In 1985, history repeated itself when the majority of Sabah Christians gave their votes to PBS thus putting this one-and-a-half month old party into power. But what happened after PBS was returned to power a second and third time? Its leaders and members began to be complacent and disunite until it was 'toppled' by a new government. I once served a politician who was a historian by training and he was very fond of saying "History always repeats itself". How true! What happened to Christians in Turkey or Sabah, it's all the same.

Coming back to the Turks, they are very liberal despite being Muslims, as they themselves put it; partly thanks to the civil laws and not syariah laws that they practise. Just imagine, our tour guide is a Muslim; our tour bus driver is a Muslim; and so on and so worth. Mind you, I think our Muslim tour guide knows more about the Bible and biblical history/sites than a lot of so-called Christians in Sabah! Even the garderner of the church we visited was Muslim! Can you imagine that happening in Malaysia?

But of course, it is the right of other Muslim countries including Malaysia to practise Syariah laws or be less liberal. What is good for Turkey is not necessarily good for others. What is applicable to Turks is not necessarily applicable to others. Afterall, the Turks are somewhere between Asians and Europeans, including their exotic looks; just as part of Istanbul is in Europoe and the other part is in Asia. But mind you, our tour guide is proud of the fact that he is Asian.

After Mass at St Paul's church, we walked to the nearby St Paul's well where he lived. There is water still from the well and as most pilgrims do, they washed their face with fresh water drawn from it. After which we went for lunch in the nearby Turkish restaurant. It was our first meal in Turkey and so evetrybody was excited to find out what's in store. Well, for our first meal, what's else did our host prepared for us if not Kebab! As our tour guide said, Turkey just like the Arab countries, is the Land of Kebab. Kebab is to the Arab world what the Roti Cenai and Pau are to Malaysians. It's their national dish. And what goes with the kebab? What else? Lamb!

We were told that the real Kebab comes with minced lamb. It can also come with others like chicken but then the taste wouldn't be as authentic or Turkish. For our sake, rice is included but of course don't expect the quantity or taste to be like ours. In order to persuade us to choose the lamb, our tour guide assured as that Turkish lamb is not as smelly as others in the world as they had taken their Turkish Bath before being slaughtered! Our tour guide is indeed a joker. He has to be. Otherwise imagine how dull the trip would be, not to mention falling asleep on the bus.

By the way, we had our lunch on the balcony of the first floor of a restaurant overlooking what's left of the old Tarsus of 2,000 years ago. We could still see a section of the old road and some ruins. But remember, those were a few meters below the present road level. The old road still looks good, it must have be built by the top contractor in those days!

After lunch, we embarked on a long and tiring drive to Antioch in the Hatay province, passing Iskanderun (formerly Alexandria or Alexanderetta named after Alexander the Great) along the way. Iskanderun is on the coast and if you remember your history, one of the many Alexander battles was fought here.

But I won't elaborate about Antioch. That would be the next chapter. Besides, got to get ready for breakfast and tour. I finally found the time and energy to blog, bearing in mind that travelling is tiring. It's now 6.30am Turkish time and I have had my netbook on my lap since 5am. I couldn't blog earlier partly due to technical problem. This is already our 3rd day (coming to 4th) and I'm only reporting the first day's visit. But it's better late than never.

Thank you for visiting.

Trail of St Paul (Part 1)

2009-05-31T23:01:00.003+08:00

We, 32 of us including the priest from Sabah, finally set foot on Turkey to begin our 12-day Trail of St Paul pilgrimage (after minusing the 2 days on the air plane from and to Singapore) on the morning of Saturday 30 May 2009.

Ideally, I should have blogged my first posting from Turkey last night, our first night in the country, before going to sleep. However, there were two reasons why I didn't, or rather couldn't.

Firstly, although the hotel where we stayed at Antakya provided FREE Wi-Fi Internet service in its premises; my fellow bloggers would know that does not necessarily mean you automatically get connected. This is because there may always be a technical hitch, like the modem blinking and so on (those with modem at home would know what I mean).

Then, there was a relief. I saw notice in the hotel room saying you can get connected either through wireless or LAN. I quickly rushed downstairs to borrow the connection wire from the counter - only to find that there was no such socket in my room. Even if there was, it was sealed/blocked (tiada lubang).

To cut the long story short (since I'm supposed to write on the pilgrimage rather than the problem) by the time I finally got connected it was already late at night (wee hours in Sabah as we are 5 hours ahead of the Turks). I tried my best to blog, but while my fingers were on the keyboard my eyes began to half-close until I finally dozed off with the computer still on my lap.

The culprit was the long and tiring journey from Singapore to Istanbul. We left Singapore late Friday night and landed in Istanbul early Saturday morning. In other words, we spent the nite on the plane. Those of you who ever experienced that, on the economy class especially, would know how tiring it is as you can't rest properly, never the fact that you can't take bath.

As if that was not tiring enough, instead of starting our pilgrimage straight away on Saturady morning from Istanbul, we had to take a connecting domestic flight to Adana. Even that after waiting for almost two hours at the Istanbul airport (on top of waiting for half-a-day at the Singapore airport on Friday!).

The flight from Istanbul to Adana took slightly over an hour, something like from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching. Just like Singapore-Istanbul, it was also Turksih Airline which took us to Adana. The only consolation for the extra journey was that despite being a domestic flight, the inflight service to Adana was even better than form Singapore to Istanbul which was an international flight. And the domestic flight crew spoke better English and more polite too!

I have to stop here as we have to go upstairs of the hotel for a briefing/slides show followed by dinner. I will post my Part 2 before bedtime, hopefully no more technical hitches this time. And hopefully my eyes won't be that heavy.

See you. Aramaiti! (Miss the Kaamatan at home)

Blogging from Singapore

2009-05-29T17:46:00.008+08:00

Rev. Fr. Fundes Motiung (standing, left) with some of the pilgrims from Sabah on transit at the Singapore Airport. "Yoku Boti !"

Staff of Maxis Kota Kinabalu celebrating Harvest Festival over the weekend in conjunction with their Open House. Aramaiti!

As you are aware, I have not blogged for quite sometime.

Now that I finally got to doing it, guess where I am blogging from? Changi Airport in Singapore!

I am part of a 32-member entourage on a 2-week pilgrimage to Turkey (Trail of St Paul). This is in conjunction with the Year of St Paul which ends in June, so just in time.

The pilgrims are led by Rev. Fr. Fundes Motiung, the Rector of the Stella Maris Church in Tanjung Aru near Kota Kinabalu. The trip is arranged by Faith Tours of Singapore, that's why we are departing from Singapore.

We left Kota Kinabalu by Silk Air late this morning. Arrived after lunch on board. Have to transfer our luggage from Terminal 2 to Terimanal 1, a bit tiring and frustrating. Luckily there is this thing called Skytrain.

Will only leave for Istanbul tonight; so we have something like a few hours doing nothing at the airport. A bit boring and tiring. Some of the entourage are already napping as I write. Waiting, it is said, is one of the most boring things on earth. However, considering that it's a pilgrimage, no matter how tired also worth-it.

My return to blogging, after weeks, take place as we depart for a pilgrimage to Turkey. I take this as a good sign. Hopefully it will give me the inspiration and motivation to blog more regularly from now on. Remember my New Year Resolution? Ha ha ha.

Ya, I purposely brought along my mini netbook or netbook so I can blog from Turkey, hopefully every night before bed time and assuming that the hotels will have FREE Wi-Fi. Afterall, it's not every day (for that matter every year) that we go for a pilgrimage.

But why Turkey, some of you may ask. Well, we have two weeks ahead of us and I don't want to spoil the soup now. But the title Trail of St Paul speaks for itself. We will arrive in Istanbul tomorrow morning and catch a connecting domestic flight to Adana where our real journey begins. Hope to be able to blog from the hotel at Antioch tomorrow night.

That's all for now folks and thanks for visiting. By the way, since I'm travelling, here's wishing you an early Harvest Festival. This is the 2nd time I'm overseas during Kaamatan (Harvest). The first was in 1980 when I was in US attending a Communications Conference. Do enjoy yourselves but please don't drink and drive. The last thing I want to hear is I have lost a friend. (Palis2)

KOTOBIAN TADAU TAGAZO DO KAAMATAN!

Boleh bah kalau kau!

Yoku Boti !

New Permanent Secretary

2009-05-08T17:33:00.003+08:00

A handing-over ceremony was held at Sabah's Ministry of Local Government and Housing (KKTP) in Kota Kinabalu today.

During the brief ceremony, out-going Permanent Secretary (SUT) of KKTP, Datuk Ujang Hj Sulani handed over duties to his successor, Datuk Abidin Madingkir.

Ujang is being transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry while Abidin was SUT of Ministry of Resource and IT Development. This would be Abidin's second stint at KKTP, having first served there in the early 1990s.

The ceremony was witnessed by Minister Datuk Hj Hajiji Hj Noor. Also present were his two Assistant Ministers, Datuk Ghulam Haidar Khan Bahadar and Datuk Edward Yong. Tonight, Ujang and Abidin will be feted at a farewell/welcome dinner by the Ministry.

The transfers are part of a reshuffle among senior Sabah civil servants. Under the exercise, Ujang replaces Mathius Sator who takes over from Abidin. Others involved in the reshuffle includes Datuk Dr Fowzi Eadzi who is now Managing Director of the Suria Capital group,. the State government's investment arm.

His post as Director of the State Economic Planning Unit (EPU) has been taken over by Datuk Ismail Abdullah. The latter's post as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industrial Development has been taken over by Hashim Paijan, former Deputy Director of the State Public Service Department (JPAN).

Picture: From left:- Ghulam, Ujang, Hajiji, Abidin and Edward.

Welcome Back, Giuk.Net aka The Worm

2009-04-23T20:09:00.004+08:00

Welcome back, Giuk.Net aka The Worm. There was a delay of about two days. It was supposed to have been re-launched on 19th April 2009 but only hit the cyber space a couple of days later. But that was only a minor hitch. What's more important is that it's back. After all, we had waited for so long.So what's wrong with waiting for just two more days.

Yes, the Worm (Giuk means worm in the Malay language, the national language of Malaysia) is back; but albeit with a new tag line. It's no longer "From Sabah to the World". It's now "Crawling The Web For Sabah Blogs", which I think is a more appropriate title for it tells the visitor or potential visitor at once what the site is about.

I also noticed that there was also a change of 'management' (I would not say ownership,correct me if I'm wrong). However, the name or nick of the old 'Big Boss' (to borrow the site's own term) was still listed alongside with the new one. They are respectively mrBadak.com (the old) and WebGrrrl.net.

Thank you for mentioning Mr Badak (Rhino), Lorna aka WebGrrrl. That's the way, for after all without him there would not have been an aggregator for Sabah blogs in the first place. To be ungrateful would be tantamount to being 'Kacang Melupakan Kulit' (The Peanut Forgets Its Skin). Thanks for agreeing to save the Worm from being buried for good too, Lorna.

The only 'disappointment' was 'former' bloggers of Giuk.Net had to re-register to have their posts appear in the new list. But this is a minor problem. I'm sure most local bloggers don't mind. It's a good way to re-launch anyway. After all, some 'former' bloggers of the Worm may not even be still active or no longer interested since so much time had lapsed.

The other 'disappointment' was I couldn't get into Giuk.Net since its relaunch until today. There must have been a heavy traffic since so many people missed it for so many months. Good start for the WebGrrrl. Congratulations, Lorna and not forgetting the founder, the Rhino.

The other good news is that although it was re-launched only on April 21, I noticed that posts of days older were also included. Good thinking on the part of the WebGrrrl and good for the bloggers.

To conclude, I hope it wouldn't take too long for the new administrator to update the posts. It's now 24-hour and Lorna has promised to improve it to 12-hour before long. After which, she should strive for 6-hour. After all, Mr Badak's was 1-hour or the most 2-hour. Challenge for you there, WebGrrrl. Good luck.

Once again, Congratulations, Best Wishes and Good Luck.

Be Patient With The Worm

2009-04-20T19:33:00.002+08:00

Two days ago, I wrote that the much-awaited re-launch of Giuk.Net (aka Worm) or 'From Sabah to the World' would be on Sunday 19th April 2009.

That day came and went, but there was no sign of the re-launch; unless they got a new address which I do not know.

Well, there must be a good reason. For example, technical hitches. Even launching of rockets or satellites get postponed.

We have waited for months, so what's there to wait for a few more days.

Let's just be patient with the web master or administrator, Mr Badak, and wish him luck.

I am sure the Worm will be back shortly and Sabah bloggers will be 'exported' to the world again.

April 19th - D Day for Sabah Bloggers

2009-04-17T22:55:00.003+08:00

My regular visitors would notice that under my Sabah Bloggers column on the left, right down the bottom, there is a web site called From Sabah to the World. Actually, this is just the Tagline. The actual site name and address is Giuk.Net.

As the Tagline suggests, it is a site or rather community for Sabah bloggers and aimed at the world because Internet means borderless world=globalisation. Giuk.Net has at least 100 members, easily more.

However, as most of you especially non-Giuk members would have noticed, for the past few months all you see is a Giuk (Worm) literally when you click on From Sabah to the World. The reason was obvious, it was under attack by the real worm, this time.

That was why it was at the bottom of my Sabah Bloggers list because my list is automatically set according to the most recent items.

I cannot speak on behalf of other Giuk members, although I think most would share my views, but life without Giuk.Net was never the same. This was because I was so used to clicking on it after viewing my home page which is also my own blog. Charity begins at home.

Meaning From Sabah to the World is No.2 to me in terms of importance after my own blog. This is because to be a blogger is one thing (you're on your own), but to be a member of a local community like Giuk.Net gives you a sense of belonging; not to mention the traffic that it brings to your blog. There may be other home-grown communities around started by Sabahans but as far as I'm concerned, Giuk.Net is THE community. After all, it was the first local online community introduced to me when I started blogging almost two years ago.

A few hours ago, as usual I clicked on From Sabah to the World out of curiosity; expecting to see the by now familar worm which I am so used to seeing the past few months. But surprise, surprise, finally I saw something different and positive - a short announcement by the administrator that Giuk.Net will be relaunched "on a computer screen near you" on April 19.

The long wait is over by Sunday. All I can say is: Congratulations and thank you for not giving up to the founder and administrator, Mr Badak (mrbadak.com). Welcome back, Giuk.

Can't wait till Sunday. Before it was attacked by the real worm, I couldn't wait to see my post or article listed in From Sabah to the World each time after I wrote something new in my blog. I would wait patiently, refreshing the page until I see my post listed. And it was thrilling to see my post being among the most-viewed sometimes. So, not just sense of belonging, but also sense of satisfaction or achievement sometimes.

Carry on the good job Mr Badak. Well-done. Happy Easter and may God bless you.

In Memory of Jimmy Tee

2009-04-17T21:41:00.006+08:00

It was only a few weeks ago, when I turned 55, that I wrote I knew how previous life is because I frequently go to the funeral parlour to pray for the dead.

Recently, I received another sad news. A childhood friend of mine from Tamparuli, though he was a few years my junior, passed away.

The late Jimmy Tee was close to me and my fellow bandboys in the 1970s because he liked singing. In the 1980s, when I had stopped being an active musician, he cut his first album; those days still in cassette form.

I'm not sure exactly in what year he recorded the album. The above picture is actually the cover sleeve of his cassette. To read the song titles better, click on the pic to enlarge it.

Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, his eldest brother Johnny used to sing with my band in parties or functions. We also went for recording in RTM, those days still known as Radio Sabah. People still listened to radio then as TV was just being introduced in Sabah.

The late Jimmy was also a younger brother of Datuk Dr Johnson Tee, secretary-general of PBRS party and a local expert on logistics especially maritime; thus his appointment as a Board Member of the Sabah Ports Authority. He is not a medical doctor but a Phd holder.

Jimmy was also a brother-in-law of Patrick Jilan, also a senior PBRS official and Deputy Chairman of the Sabah Parks Board of Trustees and owner of the Linangkit Cultural Village in Tuaran (http://www.linangkit.com).

Rest in peace, Jimmy. You will be missed, especially if I have a reunion with my former bandboys.

Happy & Blessed Easter

2009-04-13T21:11:00.003+08:00

A very Happy and Blessed Easter to all my Christian visitors, wherever you are.

I hope it's not too late. After all, it's Easter Monday. In fact, in certain parts of the World, it's only Easter Sunday.

As all Christians know, Easter is to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ., just as Christmas is to celebrate the birth of the Son of God Hence the world-famous mantra - The Lord Is Risen, Alleluia!

But alas, again just like Christmas, Easter has in recent years become more and more 'commercialised'. Just as during Christmas you have Santa Claus, for Easter you have the Easter Bunny and so on.

The business establishments, including hotels, restaurants, and entertainment spots waste no time in capitalising on these festive ocassions too. Christmas Eve dinner & dance? Easter Egg-hunting contest? I thought we should be in Church praying!

Celebrate by all means, but NOT the way the business establishments expect us to do. Why make them richer at the expense of our spirituality? Perhaps a family meal would be better.

Sabah UMNO Leaders Create History

2009-03-26T23:40:00.005+08:00

Leaders of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from Sabah created history at the on-going party congress held in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. UMNO is the largest of 13 component parties which make up the National Front (BN), Malaysia's ruling coalition.

They achieved many firsts in the party election held over the last two days. Leading the pack is Datuk Shafie Apdal who won one of the three UMNO vice-presidencies, the first Sabahan to do so since the party entered the State in 1990.

The vice-presidency is considered the 3rd highest-ranking in the party heirachy after the president and deputy president. Since there are 3 vice-presidents, the candidate who gathered the most votes at the party election would be considered the most senior among the trio.

The vice-president normally holds a senior portfolio in the Malaysian Cabinet, unless he is the Chief Minister or Mentri Besar of a State. The vice-presidency is also seen as a stepping stone for the deputy presidency and eventually the coveted presidency.

Presently, Shafie is Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage and formerly Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister. Prior to his promotion to the full ministership, he served as Deputy Minister in a couple of Ministries.

Shafie's political star started shinning after his election as a Member of Parliament for Semporna in 1995. He was soon appointed a Parliamentary Secretary (a post which has since been abolished) until his promotion as a Deputy Minister.

Prior to today's party election, Shafie was a UMNO Supreme Councillor. The UK graduate has held that post since 1996, another first for a Sabahan.

Before joining politics, Shafie served in the Sabah civil service and was an officer at the State Ministry of Finance. He is a nephew of former Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Governor) Tun Sakaran Dandai.

Kurup, Yee keep seats

2009-03-13T16:22:00.008+08:00

Despite today being Friday the 13th and earlier speculations being not in their favour, both Tan Sri Joseph Kurup (pic) and Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai have a good reason to celebrate.

The Federal Court which sat in Kota Kinabalu decided that Kurup can keep his Pensiangan parliamentary seat in the Interior of Sabah bordering Indonesian Kalimantan while Yee can remain as the Sabah State Assemblyman for Api-Api which is part of the State Capital, Kota Kinabalu.

For the same reason too, Malaysia's ruling National Front (BN) coalition can also rejoice; for both Kurup and Yee are leaders of BN component parties. Kurup is Sabah People's United Party (PBRS) while Yee is deputy president of Sabah United Party (PBS).

Both Kurup and Yee are also lawyers, but Yee is one up. He is also a medical doctor.

Kurup, a Deputy Minister for Rural and Regional Development in the federal government of Malaysia, won the Pensiangan seat in the March 2008 general election. Although there was another candidate at the nomination centre, he won unopposed as his was the only nomination papers submitted to the Returning Officer before the 10am deadline.

This led to the other aspiring candidate, Danny Andipai of the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR) to lodge a petition with the Election Court in Kota Kinabalu. On Sept 17 last year, the Court ruled that Kurup's election was null and void.

Kurup, a first-term MP, filed an appeal to the Federal Court which delivered its ruling today; quashing Election Court judge David Wong's earlier decision. Although the Malaysian legal system has another tier - the Appeal Court - decisions of the Election Court can only be appealed straight to the Federal Court, the nation's supreme court.

"I am very happy and relieved. Now I can focus on doing my work as a deputy minister," said Kurup, a long-time Sabah State Assemblyman and former Deputy Chief Minister until he switched to federal politics.

In the case of Yee, he won the Api-Api state seat also in the March 8 election last year; albeit with a slim majority of only 174 votes. However, instead of the losing candidate, a petition was filed by a voter, Audrey Karen Barry, believed to be the proposer for Yee's opponent and fellow-lawyer Christina Liew also of PKR.

The Election Court ruled in Yee's favour. Audrey appealed and the Federal Court upheld the lower court's decision today. It is believed that Liew did not file the petition herself so she could act as counsel for Audrey.

Today's court decisions must have come as a relief and consolation,even sweet revenge to the BN as it was only yesterday that the Federal Court in Kuching, State Capital of neighbouring Sarawak upheld an Election Court decision that an opposition MP from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) remained the elected representative.

Sabah BN MP thrown out of Parliament!

2009-03-12T16:06:00.003+08:00

The Member of Parliament for Ranau, Siringan Gubat, was thrown out of Dewan Rakyat, the Lower House of the Malaysian Parliament this morning.

Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Haji Mulia suspended the first-term MP at about 11.35am after the latter interrupted him. However, Pandikar said Siringan could return at 2.30pm after the lunch break.

The incident started after fellow MP Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa of the opposition Pan-Islamic Party (PAS) had asked what the government was doing to curb parties that used a narrow perspective of the term 'social contract' to attack other races in their speeches.

His question created an uproar.

As the MP for Parit Buntar finished asking his question, he said he heard someone call him "bodoh" (stupid).

So he shouted: "Kalau jantan, berdiri sekarang. (If you are man enough, stand up.)"

This led the Speaker to advise MPs to behave themselves.

Just as Pandikar finished speaking, Siringan, who remained seated instead of standing up and seeking permission to speak, said: "Ngam, Tuan Speaker, Ngam.(Correct, Mr Speaker, Correct.)"

The Speaker immediately asked him to leave the House. Siringan asked if he could be forgiven, but the Speaker stood firm.

However, when met by reporters at the Parliament lobby, Siringan said he was not angry over the Speaker's ruling.

"I did not ask for permission when I said that. If it is not right, I am sorry about that.

"It is ok, I am alright," he said.

Although it is common for Opposition MPs to be sent out of the Malaysian Parliament, Siringan was the first government backbencher to be suspended, at least since the current House was convened after the March 2008 election. Another first was that both Pandikar and Siringan happen to be Sabahans.

"In suspending Siringan, Pandikar was also trying to show that being a fellow Sabahan MP and a backbencher doesn't save one from suspension," a political observer commented.

Siringan, also known as Alliance, first shot to political fame when he defeated his former boss, the late Datuk Mark Koding, in a by-election for the State Constituency of Ranau in 1989. The present Ranau parliamentary seat was then known as Kinabalu.

Siringan, a university graduate from the United States, was Koding's political secretary when the former was Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Industrial Development under the Sabah United Party (PBS) government.

Prior to the by-election, Koding was sacked as a member of the State Cabinet by then Chief Minister and PBS president Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan for allegedly undermining the State Government and Pairin's leadership.

Siringan stay put in PBS and was chosen as the ruling party's candidate against his former boss in the ensuing by-election.

Although Siringan remained Ranau Assemblyman until 2004, he switched party in 1994 after the collaspe of the PBS government which had won with only a slim majority in the March election that year.

He joined the Sabah Democratic Party (PDS) led by a former Deputy Chief Minister under the PBS government, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. PDS was one of the splinter groups formed by former PBS leaders and all of which joined the new ruling coalition, BN.

PDS later changed its name to the United Pasok-Momogun Kadazan Organisation (UPKO) by which time Siringan had become an Assistant Minister under the new National Front (BN) government.

Dompok himself became Chief Minister under the BN's unique system of rotation of the post whereby the Muslim Natives, Non-Muslim Natives, and Chinese take turns to become CM for two years. However, Dompok served for only 9 months as he was defeated in the 1999 state election by a PBS candidate. The system has since been scrapped and the present CM, Datuk Musa Aman has been one since 2003.

Dompok was however elected MP after he moved to Kinabalu (later Ranau) in the parliamentary election held a few months later and was subsequently appointed a Federal Minister. Re-elected Ranau MP in 2004, Dompok however moved back to his former parliamentary constituency of Penampang in 2008; thus enabling Siringan to take his place.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-02-28T22:36:00.005+08:00

Yes, Happy Birthday to me. Today is my birthday. So what?, you may ask. It's just another birthday, you may say.

But to me, it's not just another birthday. You see, it's my 55th birthday! So what's the big deal? What are the implications?

The 'big deal', according to my friend who turned 55 a few years ago, is "YOU HIT 55 ONLY ONCE!".

The implications are many. But the most important of which is the Malaysian government classifies those 55 years and above as Senior Citizens. After all, 55 used to be the retirement age for civil servants, me included. But the retirement age has since been increased to 56 a few years ago and, since last year, 58.

After all, the retire at 55 policy was one of the many legacies left behind by the former British colonial government. It is believed that the expatriate officers delibrately set the retirement age at 55 so that when they return to Britain they would still be young enough to enjoy their retirement life.

But even 58 is still young, if compared to a lot of other nations. For example, Malaysia's neighbour Singapore's civil servants retire at 62. Even then, they are talking about further extending it. Filipinos, if I'm not mistaken, retire at 60.

So, coming back to my case, under the old system of 55, I would have retired today; assuming today is a working day for civil servants. But what happened a few years ago was, I think, the Malaysian government finally realised that if one retires when he achieves 55 years of age, he is actually retiring on his last day of 54. So,by extending it to 56, only then the mistake was corrected. In other words, I was "saved by the bell", to borrow the title of a Bee Gees song famous in the 60s-70s.

Then, last year, the Malaysian government finally realised that even 56 was still too young for one to retire; considering that most other countries have higher retirement age. Besides, it would be a financial burden to pay a retired officer his pension and still have to pay his successor full salary.

So, the solution is to increase the retirement age and this the Malaysian government did last year, further increasing it to 58. Going by the present global or at least regional trend, and according to rumours, there is every hope that the Malaysian civil servants' retirement age would be further increased to 60 in the near future. Hopefully, this would become a reality before I hit 58 in 3 years' time. If that happens, I would then be saved by the bell a second time.

Coming back to my newly-gained Senior Citizen status, other benefits include special treatment when you use government facilities. Such as at government hospitals, you get priority when taking a number to wait for your turn including at the pharmacy.

Another benefit, though I am not sure if they still do it, is getting half-price for Malaysian Airlines' economy class tickets.

Though the retirement age for Malaysian civil servants has been increased to 58, a member can still withdraw all his Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) savings when he reaches 55 as the EPF Board has not changed its law. Unfortunately, I am not a member as, being a civil servant, I am on the Permanent & Pensionable scale.

So how did I spend my 55th birthday? Lucky for me, today is a non-working day for civil servants so I didn't have to wake up early. I woke up at 8am only because I was hungry. Accompanied by my wife (my two sons still sleeping), I went to Hilltop shophouses for fish slice soup as breakfast. The corner shop facing the Lintas highway, next to UNITAR at Wisma Prudential.

Read newspapers when I got home and then fell asleep again. I woke up after 2pm, again feeling hungry (the fish soup was not heavy). Wife said she wasn't cooking as she wasn't hungry (women eat less than men). So I helped myself with biscuits I found in the kitchen, then took my bath and get ready to go to Church for evening Mass.

But what made me so sleepy? Last nite I waited the clock to strike 12 when I would be officially 55. I wouldn't want to miss that moment, just like people waiting for New Year. Then I knelt down before the altar in my house and prayed. I thanked God for allowing me to live until 55 and, hopefully, many more years to come. Then only I went to sleep.

I am not trying to potray myself as a holy man here, but, after seeing my brother-in-law died suddenly at the age of 46 ten years ago, I know how precious life is. It was also his death which brought me closer to God and converted me to a 'renewed' or so-called 'Born Again Christian'. After being a member of the Benevolent Ministry (whose job involves praying for the dead at the funeral parlour and the deceased's home) of my church's Prayer Group for almost 10 years now, I know how fragile life can be and how God can take away anything anytime. How can I ever forget, for example, one Christmas evening a few years ago, when most Christians were celebrating, I found myself praying, playing the guitar and singing religious hymns at the funeral parlour for a young air hostess killed in an accident on Christmas eve.

So I am now a Senior Citizen now! But am I ready to accept that? Am I really that old? Isn't age just a number? Do I want to be called old? Or even an uncle? The first test was the Evening Mass at the church a few hours ago. The front rows were reserved for Senior Citizens. But would I sit there? No way! After all, those sitting there are normally those in their 70s or at least 60s. May be I'll join them in a few years' time when I officially retire but certainly not now. Pride? Ego? Blame it on human nature. I am human, remember? As they say in Malay, 'kalah malu!'.

After Mass, my family brought me to the King Hu restaurant in Tanjung Aru for dinner. They knew it was my favourite. They also knew my favourite dish there was the Peking Duck which comes with complimentary duck-bone soup. The way to eat it is you put the duck meat slice on a popiah skin toigther with onion leave, add the special sauce, wrap it, and put it in your mouth. Not cheap though, one duck RM70. Then went home, then only they took out the surprise birthday cake. I spent the next few hours until midnite writing this post which you are reading now.

Some of you might notice that my last post was in January, despite my New Year resolution of one post a day. They say that promises are meant to be broken. But they also say that it doesn't matter how many times you fall but what's important is getting up each time after you fall!

So, my birthday (55th, remember?) gave me another chance to make amends. Let's see if I can do it this time. Give me another chance, will you? Even God forgives people. Even prisons give inmates a chance to lead a new life after their release by rehabilitating them. That's why USA calls their prisons correctional facilities. Even drug addicts are rehabilitated by the government.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Do come back. Give this 'old man' a chance. Thank you and God bless.

Sandakan, Tawau get new Presidents

2009-01-16T15:35:00.006+08:00

KOTA KINABALU: Engineer James Wong was today appointed as the new President of the Sandakan Municipal Council (MPS).

Hajiji (left) handing over appointment letter to Wong

Ir. Wong, 53, took his oath-of-office before Sabah's Minister for Local Government and Housing, Datuk Haji Hajiji Haji Noor at the Ministry in Kota Kinabalu.

Ismail (right) receiving his appointment letter from Hajiji

He later took his pledge of good conduct (Akujanji) as a civil servant in front of the Ministry's permanent secretary, Datuk Haji Ujang Haji Sulani; witnessed by the Minister.

Wong taking his oath-of-office before Hajiji

Also present were Hajiji's assistant minister, Datuk Ghulam Bahadar Khan and deputy permanent secretarty, Haji Ahmadshah Talib.

Wong signing his acceptance of appointment

Wong, who has been the General Manager of the Sabah State Railway Department for the past 2 years, replaced MPS president Yeo Boon Hai who has been appointed the new Director-General of the Kota Kinabalu Municipal Council (DBKK).

Ismail taking his oath-of-office before Hajiji

It is a promotion for both Wong and Yeo.

Hajiji is the minister-in-charge of all the local authorities in Sabah including municipal and district councils and the Kudat Town Board but excluding DBKK which is under the Chief Minister's Department.

Ismail signing his oath-of-office before Hajiji

At the same ceremony, Ismail Hj Mayakob was appointed acting President of the Tawau Municipal Council. Both Sandakan and Tawau are on the East Coast of Sabah.

Ismail taking his Akujanji (Pledge)

He took over from Haji Salsidu Ibrahim who is now the Director of the State Government Printing Department. Ismail has been Salsidu's deputy before this.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Hajiji advised the two new presidents to work hard and be people-friendly. He urged them to identify the urgent problems without neglecting the basics like cleanliness and garbage collection.

A group photograph with the two new Presidents

Congratulating the two gentlemen on their appointment, he however expressed confidence that they with their vast experience would be able to meet the people and government's expectations.

The 2 new Presidents - Ismail (left) and Wong

Conrad gets 6 months

2009-01-02T17:39:00.003+08:00

Former Sabah Minister Datuk Conrad Mojuntin (pic) was jailed for six months by the High Court in Kota Kinabalu today for criminal intimidation.

The former State Minister for Culture, Youth and Sports under the former Berjaya government was jailed for criminally intimidating businessman Doughty Disimon, 30, outside the SJD Cafe & Sports at about 3.30am on Oct 23, 2005. behind the Public Bank in Donggongon, Penampang near Kota Kinabalu.

However, Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli allowed a stay of execution of the sentence pending appeal and fixed bail at RM5,000 with two sureties.

Abdul Rahman also fined Conrad, 60, and his nephew , David Mojuntin, 44, RM2,000 in default three months jail each for voluntarily causing hurt to businessman Chee Hee Fatt, 45, at the same place at 4am on the same day.

They paid the fines.

On Dec 17, the High Court allowed the prosecution's appeal and overturned the Magistrate Court's acquittal of the Mojuntins on all charges in March last year.

In allowing the appeal, Abdul Rahman held that the magistrate had seriously misdirected himself when he ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Mojuntins were represented by counsel Zahir Hussein Shah while deputy public prosecutor Salim Soin appeared for the prosecution.

Conrad is the younger brother of the late Kadazan leader Datuk Peter Mojuntin, the former Minister for Local Government and Housing who was killed along with the Chief Minister, Tun Fuad Stephens and two other Sabah Ministers in an air crash on June 6, 1976.

Stephens' 9-month-old Berjaya party had just won the State general election two months earlier, ousting the Alliance party (Usno-Sca) which ruled Sabah from 1967.

Conrad was chosen as Berjaya's candidate in the ensuing by-election in his late brother's constituency, Moyog in Penampang, considered the heartland of Kadazan nationalism since the early 1960s.

Upon winning, Conrad was made Assistant Minister for Finance before being promoted to full minister in the early 1980s. Berjaya lost to the one-and-a-half month old Sabah United Party (PBS) in 1985. Conrad was among the election casulties, failing to defend his Moyog seat.

Doughty is the son of former Sabah Housing & Town Development Authority (LPPB) general manager Sylvester Jomitod Disimon. The SJD Cafe, which has since ceased operations, was named after him. Now a retiree, Sylvester is the Chairman of the Penampang branch of the Kadazan Society of Sabah (KKS).

(Source: Bernama and Sikmading)

First Day of 2009

2009-01-01T22:02:00.003+08:00

Today is Thursday 1 January 2009, the first day of the New Year. Hopefully, it's also the beginning of a Blessed, Prosperous and Fruitful year for all of us; especially you my beloved visitor.

As I begin to write this post, it's already past 10pm. By right, I should be in bed by now; considering the late night last night (or rather morning) to usher in the New Year. Plus the busy and tiring day that I have been through today. But then I remember my Resolution which is more or less an indirect promise to you my faithful visitor - One Post A Day! To break a new year promise on the very first day is - well, I leave it to you to think of the right word.

By right too, I should have been in Church first thing in the morning. Apart from being New Year Day, today is also an important day in the Catholic calender. May be not as important as Christmas Day or Good Friday, but the fact that it coincides with the first day of the new year makes it easier to remember and more significant.

Today is observed by Catholics the world over as Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Mother Mary has an important place in the hearts of or for that matter the daily lives of Catholics. They honour Mother Mary and ask her to intercede through the recitation of the Holy Rosary, another thing unique to the Catholics.

However, the time of the Mass coincided with the time I had to send my in-laws to the airport. In other words, not on purpose. Please forgive me, Mama Mary. My in-laws who are based in Ipoh, Perak were back on holidays this time of the year for the past 3 years. So last night, we held a New Year eve cum farewell party for them.

After my in-laws flew off, my wife told me to send my mother-in-law back to her hometown in Tamparuli. She is a Dusun Lotud in her 70s and sure has a lot of Dusun legends to tell. Will try to document one for you soon.

After coming back from Tamparuli, it was time to wash my car which was quite dirty. Lagi pun Tahun Baru bah. Kereta pun mesti bersih. While the car was being washed, sat down at Multibake/Delicafe next to Coffee Bean in Damai. Although they are a cake shop, they do have a few sofa seats for those who order drinks. I just wanted to try whether can receive 'free' wi-fi or not. After all, the coffee and tea served by Multibake cost only half of that charged by Coffee Bean next door. The verdict? Forget it, all got password one!

Spent whole afternoon trying to fix wife's desktop and printer. Result - late dinner plus tiredness and sleepiness 'carried forward from last night. Soon as I finish this post, will jump into bed. After all, tomorrow is the first working day of the year.

In conclusion, as always we look forward to the dawning year with much hope for something new and better. We also talk of resolutions. As the Filipinos say: "Bagong taon ay magbagong buhay" which means New Year, new life.

I leave you with a quote from the Bible: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the laws, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of His son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!". So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. - Gal. 4:4-7

Coffee or Tea, Sir?

2008-12-31T21:44:00.005+08:00

My previous post, My Last Post for 2008, uploaded a few hours ago, was supposed to have been my last for this year.

However, a comment by a visitor and fellow-blogger,Ben, prompted me to post this one. He was referring to my plan to stop taking coffee come tomorrow. He said and I quote: "Why no more coffee? Can't be that bad for you, is it?" (Obviously he is a coffee fan.)

Well, you see brother, it's not just the coffee. With it goes the sugar and that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I'm a diabetic brother.

But that's not the only reason. I have with me a newspaper cutting with the heading: "What Can You Do To Prevent Bad Breath?" In it is listed 8 Dos & Don'ts - one of them being: Drink plenty of fluids and avoid coffee.

That's not the end of the story. I know that at least one church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA), forbids or at least does not encourage its members to drink coffee. The reason? Strictly health. Coffee has caffeine. It is for the same reason that SDA followers do not smoke. I am not a SDA church member but the point is: If a church deems it fit to include it in their Don'ts list, just imagine the harm that it may bring.

People at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Starbucks, SF Coffee, etc may not like this. But this does not mean that I will not patronise them anymore. I will, especially Coffee Bean. The reason? They still serve tea. I can take tea without sugar but not coffee.

I have another press cutting which says: "Tea is good for the brain, slows down cell degeneration and keeps the mind sharp into old age, scientists in Singapore say after 4-year study."

When I'm at Coffee Bean and the others, of course I will take the opportunity to taste the mostly imported brands of tea. But when I'm at home, I drink Sabah Tea to support our local product. Or if I run out of Sabah Tea, then it would be Peninsular Malaysia-grown tea like Teh Boh or Lipton's. Charity begins at home.

Before I conclude, just a couple of jokes on coffee and tea. In the good old days of MAS and before the birth of Air Asia, coffee and tea were served even on domestic flights. Joke 1 - Air hostess: How would you like your tea served? Passenger: In a cup! Joke 2: Coffee or tea, sir? Passenger: Milo!

By the way, I'm at home and it's now 10.30pm, one-and-a-half hours away from 2009. My family members and in-laws are having Bar-B-Q. Once again, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

My Last Post for 2008

2008-12-31T16:30:00.007+08:00

In a few hours' time from now, we will be saying goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009.

I am not supposed to be posting anymore until tomorrow, 1st January 2009 - New Year, New Beginning. Also in line with my New Year Resolutions which, among others, will say at least One Post A Day for my Blog.

But it's also my New Year Resolutions which made me write this post which I didn't plan to. You see, one of my resolutions is no more coffee and sugar starting 2009!

I have an hour or so to play around with while waiting for my son to finish work. And what better place to pass the time than Coffee Beans at Wisma Merdeka which is just a stone throw from his office.

The smoking area of Coffeebeans on the pavement of Wisma Merdeka.

Yep, I am blogging to you from Coffee Beans - complete with my last cup of coffee for 2008 and hopefully the rest of my life. The place is almost full inside but the few tables outside (smoking zone) are surprisingly empty; considering that we are a few hours away from the New Year.

The empty seats on the pavement as I'm blogging after 4pm.

As I was walking to Coffee Beans from where my car was parked, I noticed that the streets are not as busy as other working days. This is not only because people are already busy getting ready for their New Year Bar-B-Q or whatever, but also because it's Sabahan civil servants' nature to give themselves half-day off on eves of festive holidays.

An almost deserted Pantai street after 4pm on New Year's eve.

A traffic-free street after 4pm on New Year's eve.

I see two young adults next table with laptops. Wonder if they are bloggers too. Places like Coffeebeans, Starbucks, SF Coffee or for that matter any place with wi-fi are sure hits with young people who are IT-savvy. What they do - blogging, gaming, e-mailing, chatting, live messeging, watching movies, or just showing off their new netbooks - doesn't matter. What seems to matter nowadays is to be seen to be IT-savvy in public places like these.

I plan to post again just before midnite to wish all my visitors a Happy New Year. But experience tells me better to do it earlier, just like texting or sms.Everyone tends to post or send sms when the clock strikes twelve to usher in the New Year and therefore the lines may be jammed.

So, here you are, to all my visitors and my fellow-bloggers from Guik.Net (From Sabah to the World) - here is wishing you a very very Happy, Prosperous and Blessed New Year 2009!!!

Hope to have you back visiting my blog soon. And if you don't see a new post each day, please feel free to 'tegur' (reprimand) me.

Cheers! (with my last cup of coffee).

Have a Blessed Christmas

2008-12-24T23:59:00.002+08:00

Just got home from the so-called 'Midnite Mass' or Christmas Vigil Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

"So-called" because in my younger days the Holy Mass on Christmas Eve would really be held around midnight, or at least end when it was nearly midnight. But in more recent years, the 'midnite mass' seemed to have started earlier and earlier. But this was more for logistical reasons than anything else, bearing in mind the size of the crowd and traffic control and to make it easier for children and the elderly.

In the case of tonite, the Mass started at 9.00pm as scheduled and, despite the huge crowd, ended at around 10.30pm. A weekend Mass would normally last just slightly over an hour.

Just like other Christmas or Easter occassions, the parishioners strated entering the church (or rather cathedral) as early as 6.00pm, 3 hours before the Mass was to begin. By 7.00pm, the Cathedral was already almost full. How I wish they are equally faithful throughout the year, as pointed out from time to time by the priests themselves.

In order to keep the crowd entertained, the Children Liturgy staged a play at 7.15pm and it lasted for about half-an-hour. The Sacred Heart English Choir then sang from 8.00 to 8.45pm and won big rounds of applause from the congregation. Infact, celebrant Monsignor Primus Jouil at the end of the Mass requested the crowd to give another round of applause to the choir. This time it was thunderous.

Just like other Christmas and Easter occasions, the big crowd spilled out onto the church compound outside and closed-circuit television sets had to be installed to enable the late-comers to follow the proceedings inside. And, needless to say, after the Mass traffic control was a headache for the wardens. So what better way to pass time while waiting for the traffic congestion to ease than paying homage to the crib inside the Cathedral after the Mass. Many also took pictures for rememberance.

The St Simon Church in Likas, the Stella Maris Church in Tanjung Aru and the Church of Mary Immaculate in Luyang, all in Kota Kinabalu, were equally packed and over-flowed. The English Mass at St Simon started at 8pm while the Chinese Mass began at 8.30pm. Traditionally, the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sabah (formerly Bishop of Kota Kinabalu Diocese), the Rt Rev Datuk John Lee would say Chinese Mass at CMI on Christmas eve and at Sacred Heart English Mass on Christmas morning.

So, to conclude, I wish all my Christian friends and relatives, and of course you my visitors, wherever you are, a Blessed Christmas. I refuse to say Merry Christmas because that seems to imply that Christmas is a time for merry-making and nothing else. As it is, Christmas is already getting more and more commercialised, with the help of Santa Claus which is just a legend. As you open the newspapers lately, there are advertisements everywhere with headings like "Christmas Eve Dinner and Dance" or "Christmas Party with Live Band", as if these take precedence over going to church. And of course, you have the big Christmas Sales and Bargains since November!

May God bless all of us and safely usher us into another new year which is just days away.

(Picture: Pope Benedict XVI blessing children at Vatican on Christmas eve.)

Windfall for LPPB Staff

2008-12-23T21:43:00.013+08:00

The almost 200 staff of the Sabah Housing and Town Development Authority (LPPB) received an early but timely Christmas and New Year present from their employer today. They will receive a 2-month extra 'bonus' soon. This was announced by LPPB general manager Jenar Lamdah at the annual gathering of the state government agency in Kota Kinabalu, state capital of Sabah today.

Jenar (2nd right) presents a souvenir to Hajiji. In the centre is Rubin.

The Guest-of-Honour at the inaugural gathering was the Sabah Minister for Local Government and Housing, Datuk Haji Hajiji Haji Noor who according to Jenar had approved the payment.

Maimunah receives her award from Hajiji. On the left is Ghulam.

"However, not every staff will get the 'bonus' based on their 2 months' basic salary. This is because it is a performance-based incentive rather than actual bonus," Jenar clarified.

LPPB Employee of the Year 2008 - Ahmad Shah.

The LPPB incentive payment is in addition to the one-month bonus announced by the Malaysian federal government and Sabah state government some months ago. However, the government bonus was paid in two instalments, with the 2nd half paid recently together with the civil servants' salaries for December.

Badariah receives her award from Hajiji. Others are (l-r) Ghulam & Rubin.

But that was not an incentive payment and every government officer gets one month's basic salary as bonus. This means that if a hard-working LPPB officer qualifies for two full-months' incentive, he would have altogether receive a total of 3 months' bonus this year alone. So for example if an LPPB officer's basic salary is $5,000, he would altogether get an additional $15,000. Not bad working for a government agency huh?

Nancy getting her award from the Minister. Others are (l-r) Ghulam, Rubin & Rosnani.

The Minister said he appoved LPPB's request for the incentive because the agency's new management managed to increase its profit for 2008 to almost 5-fold comapred to last year! In 2007, LPPB only made $3.1 million but this year the surplus jumped to$16.8 million.

Harry....Long service - 32 years. On the right is Rosnani.

Jenar attributed the major increase to, among others, agressive collection of arrears owed by tenants and buyers of LPPB's houses. There are two types of houses built by the government for the lower-income group - those for rent (at a low rate) and those for sale (at an affordable price). Jenar took over as General Manager of LPPB middle of this year and Hajiji said he was impressed, so far.

From Minister to Judin. On the left is Ghulam.

Also present at the gathering were Hajiji's assistant minister, Datuk Ghulam Khan; LPPB chairman, Datuk Rubin Balang; and Jenar's deputy, Hajjah Rosnani Hj Asmat. Hajjah Rosnani, LPPB's former Administration & Human Resource Manager, took over Jenar's former post as Deputy GM when the latter was promoted.

Dayang with her award. In the centre is Rubin.

Meanwhile, eight staff of LPPB were given the Excellent Service Award for 2008. They received their awards from the Minister. They were Ahmad Shah Yacob, Hajjah Maimunah Hj Daud, Judin Sitin, Badariah Tanakal, Dayang Asimah, Nancy Johnson, Harry Sibungkil, and Siti Mukini. Ahmad Shah, a Town & Regional Planning Officer, was also named the LPPB Employee of the Year 2008.

No Datukship for Politicians

2008-12-02T18:10:00.003+08:00

I know I have not been blogging for almost a month. I was taking a year-end break, so that come 1 Jan 2009 I would 'relaunch' my blog with new vigour as part of my New Year's Resolutions.

However, the frontpage headline story of today's Star, Malaysia's 'people's paper', caught my attention and I can't help but write something about it and hence this post.

The banner headline says "Datuk freeze" while the sub-heading is "Sultan: No awards for politicians this year". The 'Sultan' referred to is His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah (pic). For the benefit of my non-Malaysian readers, Selangor is one of the 13 States which make up Malaysia. Out of these States, only 9 have Rulers including Sultans (who take turn every 5 years to become the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong or King) while 4 are governed by the Yang Di-Pertua Negeri (Governor).

As the heading suggests, the Sultan in an unprecedented move is not going to award any Datukship (roughly equivalent to Sir in Britain) to any politician on his birthday next on Dec 11. The conferment of State awards (as opposed to Federal titles in the case of the King's birthday) has been a tradition by the Rulers and Governors and the King on their official birthdays. Although the awards are also given to non-politicians including foreigners (honourary titles), nonetheless politicians make up a large portion of the annual lists.

What also attracted my attention in today's Star was the fact that the frontpage story was written by the leading paper's editor Wong Chun Wai himself. Wong, himself a Datuk although he was too humble to add it to his name, was granted an exclusive interview by the Sultan. This speaks volume for the credibility of the story, the writer and the paper. Wong, to me at least, is one of Malaysia's most senior, if not the top, journalists and is influential. His weekly column, On The Beat, and his blog, attract huge following.

Now back to the story. Appearing alongside the frontpage story and below the headline is a quote together with the Sultan's picture. It goes like this: "There is no such thing as a quota for the MB or myself. We agree it should not be freely given to maintain its prestige."

Now let us relate this statement of the Sultan to my beloved home State, Sabah. It is an open secret that out of the 20-30 or so Datukship awarded annually, at least a few would fall under the Governor's 'quota' - meaning decided by the Governor himself while the rest would be the choice of the State Government or to be exact the Chief Minister. Normally, people who get their Datukship through the Governor direct would have slimmer chances if their 'applications' were to go through the Chief Minister. These 'privileged few' would normally not be politicians or veterans from the NGOs or industry captains who would qualify under the State Government's list. In other words, it is up to the Governor to give his 'quota' of the few Datukships each year to practically anybody, except criminals may be, but including businessmen from a neighbouring State who failed to become Datuks in their own State. It is, after all, his birthday.

But only a Sultan can make the kind of statement or decision as what the Selangor Sultan did. This is because the MB (Chief Minister) will have to listen to him for he is the Ruler of the State FOR LIFE unless he abdicates. He can sack the MB anytime if he wants to even if the MB's party controls the House (State Assembly). But not so in the case of a Governor as in the case of Sabah. Although officially the Governor is appointed by the King after consultation with the Prime Minister, the ruling party in the State through the Chief Minister technically makes the choice. The Sabah Governor is appointed for a four-year term and must not serve more than two terms. So, the Governor, though being No 1 in his State protocol-wise, normally listens to the Chief Minister unless he is nearing the end of his 2nd term or does not intent to serve more than one term. So, there is indeed a CM's quota and a Governor's quota in Sabah and most probably in the three other States with Governors as well.

Another quote from the Selangor Sultan which caught my attention and which I cannot agree more with is: "There will be no politicians - either from the past or present State government.

"The present state government is barely right months old. Even a pregnancy is nine months.

"I am sure there are deserving cases in the present state government but let us wait first. Let them focus on their work, not awards or rewards. Titles need not come with positions," he said.

The present Selangor state government of Pakatan Rakyat or People's Alliance comprising Keadilan, PAS and DAP defeated the UMNO-led BN which had ruled the state or for that matter Malaysia for half-a-century since the birth of the nation. The Menteri Besar or Chief Minister is from Keadilan or Justice Party led by Malaysian Opposition ledaer and former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Change has come to America

2008-11-05T15:50:00.011+08:00

To understand the above cartoon, please read my post on 27 Feb 2008 under the heading "Obama for Malaysia?". Go to my Blog Archive on the left column and click on Feb 2008.

Barack Obama waving to supporters after claiming victory in Chicago. "Change has come to America," he said to thunderous applause by a quarter million people. He had campaigned on a platform of 'Change We Can Believe In".

Some say the American dream is fulfilled. Some call it the Impossible Dream having come true. Some say history has been created in USA. Some call it a victory for the American people. Some say the defining moment is here. Some call it a victory for racial equality and freedom in America. Barack Obama himself, in his victory speech in Chicago just hours ago, said "Change has come to America".

Call it whatever you like. Say whatever you want. The important thing is Barack Obama has won and USA will have an African-American president come January, the swearing-in date. The 44th President of USA is black, or at least half-black (Barack's mother was white), just imagine. Just last year, when Barack launched his bid for the presidency, this seemed almost unbelievable if not impossible. Even becoming the first black Democrat nominee for the American presidential election would in itself make history and a remarkable achievement. Getting elected as the first black president? You must be joking, many would have said just a year or two ago.

Whatever it is, thank you Lord for answering my prayer. I believe this was also the dream of millions of Kenyans, Africans, Indonesians and Malaysians (the husband of Barack's half-sister is from Sabah in east Malaysia). But, more importantly, it was the dream of millions and millions of US citizens especially African-Americans. After all, it's their dream - the American Dream made famous by the late Dr Martin Luther King when he said "I have a dream....that one day an American will not be judged by the colour of his skin..."

Today, Nov 4 2008, the American Dream seems to have come true. May be not entirely but at least it was a big, big step towards the realisation of that dream. As I had written yesterday, it's a far cry from the day when the first African slaves set foot on America soil. It's a far cry from the day when a black lady was fined or jailed for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white, the incident which gave birth to the civil rights movement. It's a far cry from the day when Dr King led almost a million people to march to Washington DC to deliver that famous speech of his. By the way, thousands of members of the church founded by the late pastor Reverend King turned up at their church compound to celebrate Obama's victory. To them, a fellow African-American has finally completed the journey that Dr King started. Praise the Lord!

Once again, thank you Lord. May your will be done. And to those who voted for Obama, thank you and may God bless you. For those who did not vote for Obama, may God bless you too, for our God is a loving God. Halleluyah!

Final Appeal to Americans

2008-11-03T21:01:00.003+08:00

This is my final appeal to the Americans in general and US ladies in particular - vote for Obama.

As you all know, Obama is good husband and father; apart from being a good leader with vision and proven quality and popularity. On the other hand, McCain left his first wife for his present wife. McCain's first wife was a beauty queen or model when they married. Then McCain left for Vietnam. Then the first wife met with a terrible accident which disfigured her. Even shortened her, literally. She suffered for months if not years on a hospital bed. Luckily a good samaritan paid for her bills. Then McCain came back and found out that she was no longer the beauty that she used to know. Finally he left her for his present wife whose father was wealthy.

(Click on image for a larger view)

Dear Americans, if McCain can do that to his wife, what wouldn't he do to you? Just think, before you cast that precious vote. If he can betray his own family, whom wouldn't he betray if he becomes President? Ask yourself this question, especially the women voters.

Thank you and God bless America. Have a pleasant Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas in advance.

(Click on image for a larger view)

You Americans pride yourselves as model, leader and champion of the world. You talk about justice. You talk about freedom. You talk about equal opportunity. You talk about racial equality and religious tolerance. You pride yourselves as a Superpower and advanced country. Preach what you say, prove to the world by allowing a black (after all his mum was white) to be your President. If you can do that, you have my respect as well as that of millions if not billions across the world.

(Click on image for a larger view)

Will you make history? If Obama wins, it will be a far cry from the day the first African slaves landed on American soil. It will be a far cry from the day when a black woman was fined or jailed for refusing to give up her seat on the bus for a white, which sparked off the American human rights movement. It will be a far cry from the day when the late Martin Luther King Jr led millions in the march towards Washington DC. If Obama wins, Dr King's "American Dream" would finally be fulfilled and his assasination would not have been in vain.

May God bless and protect those who vote for Obama.

And the scamble begins...

2008-10-10T19:01:00.000+08:00

Now that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has announced that he will not defend the UMNO presidency in March, the scramble has began for the party's top posts. This is best summed-up by the frontpage headline of today's New Straits Times, Malaysia's oldest English daily which is linked to UMNO. (See image above. For a larger view, click on it.)

(To be continued shortly...)

My Living Wall Features Me!

2008-10-09T19:10:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I wrote a post titled: "M'sia PM: Guessing Game Over" following the announcement by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that he would not defend the UMNO Presidency in March 2009 and would step down as premier by then.

Today I received a comment on my post. It was from My Living Wall (http://mylivingwall.com) which greets its visitors with the tag line: "You are now looking at Malaysia's best blog spots, commentaries & cartoons."

My Living Wall's comment on my post read like this: "Excellent post, Mr Sikmading. Will feature your post in our website: http://mylivingwall.com and link our readers to your blog. All the best!"

Upon checking this site, I found that they reproduced my whole article under their Featured Post on their Home Page; except they changed the heading to : "Malaysia PM: Guessing game over, scrambling begins" and changed my photograph of Pak Lah and Najib to the image above. But of course, they credited my blog at the end of the article, as they said they would.

I mention this not to show off. It's more because for a blogger who has yet to earn a single cent from advertisement like me, this is the best consolation one can get. There is no greater satisfaction than knowing that there are people who actually appreciate or think highly of your blog or posts or writings to the extent that they feature it in their sites or blogs. That, I think, is even better than a few miserable dollars from the advertisements, no offence meant.

Infact, by rewriting or expanding the original title of my yesterday's post, My Living Wall just gave me an idea for the tile of my next post which I hope to write after posting this one if I won't fall asleep. Age is catching on with me. When your are in your fifties, you can't pretend that you are still in your 40s, let alone thirties.

Hope to meet you again shortly.

M'sian PM: Guessing Game Over

2008-10-08T17:41:00.004+08:00

The guessing game on whether Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (right in pix, seen with deputy Najib) will defend his presidency of UMNO, backbone of Malaysia's ruling coalition BN in March 2009, is finally over.

After weeks of speculation and intense speculations and lobbying by interested parties even right up to the last minute, Pak Lah (as he is fondly referred to) told the BN supreme council in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon that he had decided not to defend the post he first held in 2003 after taking over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister.

The UMNO president is normally also the Malaysian Prime Minister. Similarly, the deputy president is the deputy premier. This has been the tradition since Malaya gained Independence from Britain in 1957. Malaya teamed up with former British colonies Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963. However, Singapore left the federation in 1965. No Sabahan or Sarawakian has ever been Prime Minister. UMNO is non-existent in Sarawak while the highest post in UMNO held by a Sabahan is that of Supreme Councillor, above whom you have the 3 Vice Presidents, Deputy President and President.

Dissident voices calling on Pak Lah to step down first surfaced soon after the premier led the BN to its worst disastrous election outing since 1969 in March 2008. In the March election, BN lost its control of two-thirds of the 222 parliamentary seats as well as five state governments, something unprecedented. But we are not even talking about calls from the Opposition here. We are talking about calls from within his own ruling coalition of BN and UMNO.

Among the earliest to call on Pak Lah to resign were former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who has also made known his intention to contest he UMNO presidency. This would be Razaleigh's third attempt to wrest the presidency, after narrowly losing to then PM Dr Mahathir in 1987. That contest led to the creation of Team A and Team B in UMNO. Interstingly, Pak Lah was in Razaleigh's Team B, running for the vice-presidency. Both Razaleigh and his running-mate for the deputy presidency, Tun Musa Hitam, lost. Thus, Pak Lah was the highest party official from Team B to win. In the 2004 party election, Razaleigh again made known is intention to contest the presidency against Pak Lah but failed to get the minimum number of nominations required from UMNO divisions. But why would Razaleigh 'sabotage' his former B Team mate instead of supporting him?. An observer pointed out this was probably because Razaleigh was sore that Pak Lah, his former 'junior' in both Team B and the government, did not make good use of Razaleigh's vast experience and seniority by appointing him to a senior post in both the government and party, for example a minister in a senior portfolio. Razaleigh was also once Trade and Industry Minister, a senior portfolio.

Another dissident who openly called for Pak Lah's resignation after the March election was Jerlun Member of Parliament, Mukhriz Mahathir. Mukhriz is son of Dr Mahathir who was Malaysian PM for 22 years from 1981. But why would Mukhriz attack his father's chosen successor? The answer is simple. While the first year was 'honeymoon' period, Dr Mahathir started criticising his succssor openly starting the 2nd year of Pak Lah's reign. The former Premier accused Pak Lah, among other things, of deviating from established policies and cancelling major projects started by Mahathir. Matters came to a head when Mahathir left UMNO a few months ago, saying he would only return when Pak Lah was no longer president.

But while Razaleigh and Mukhriz's public outbursts were understandable as they had an axe to grind and nothing to lose, what raised eye brows was the subsequent calls by Muhyiddin Yassin. This is because apart from being one of the 3 UMNO vice-presidents, he is also a senior minister in Pak Lah's Cabinet. Infact, ever since his public outbursts, Malaysians had expected Pak Lah to remove Muhyiddin from the Cabinet while others expected Muhyiddin to resign. "In Western countries, when you disagree you disassociate," said an observer. But then again, this is Malaysia. Pak Lah, being the 'Mr Nice Guy' that he is, did not sack Muhyiddin and neither did the latter resign.

As if that was not enough, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), a component part of BN, had on 18 June 2008 declared it had lost confidence on Pak Lah as PM and threathened to move a motion of no-confidence against the premier in Parliament. SAPP left the coaliton on 17 September 2008.

In July, Pak Lah announced a transition plan whereby he would hand over power to Najib by June 2010. He would in the meantime defend his UMNO presidency in December. But that did not stop the critics. Instead, criticisms intensified, saying that the transition period was too long and wanted Pak Lah to leave after the December party polls - meaning Pak Lah should not even defend his presidency.

Then last month, Pak Lah postponed the party polls to March 2009, saying that it had something to do with hastening the transition plan. Although he still did not say when he would go, his action was understood to mean that he would not defend the presidency in March and hand over to Najib by then. He said he would announce his decision by October 9, the day UMNO divisions begin nominating candidates for the party top posts including that of the presidency. He had one day before the September meeting handed over the important Finance portfolio which he has held since becoming PM to Najib, a move seen as pacifying dissidents.

With Pak Lah's long-awaited announcement today, Najib is almost certain to be the next PM and UMNO president come March. This is assuming that he would not be challenged for the presidency. So far, only Tengku Razaleigh has made known his intention to contest the post. "But even if Najib is challenged, he is expected to win hands down. After all, Razaleigh may not even get the mimumum nominations required to contest just like 3 years ago," said the observer.

Will UMNO under Najib be rejuvenated and will the Najib-led BN deliver a better showing in the next election, just like Pak Lah's good showing in 2004? Only time will tell. In the meantime, Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said his plans to seize power through defection of BN MPs is still on although no new date has been fixed. He missed his first dateline of 16 September 2008 by which time he said he would be the Prime Minister.

A Tale of Two Photos

2008-10-01T20:42:00.000+08:00

The above photo was e-mailed to me by a friend. It is the front cover or sleeve of the debut album of a band from Tamparuli called Papier Mache released in September.

Band from Tamparuli releasing an album? This was unheard of during my bandboy days between the late 1960s ad early 1970s. Those days, for a local band like ours to go for recording at RTM, Sabah's radio and tv station, was already a big deal. Releasing an album would be beyond our wildest dream, among the reasons being lack of sponsors or opportunities and facilities.

Don't get me wrong. I am not jealous of Papier Mache. On the contrary, it is still a dream come true for me in the sense that at long last a band from my hometown has cut an album, or rather CD which was of course not yet invented during my time. Those days, it was still the black or vinyl record or 'piring hitam' in the Malay language.

But of course we are talking about a different generation here. Most, if not all, of the 7 members of Papier Mache were not even born or at most were toddlers when I was a bandboy. All the same, congratulations guys! You kept the flag flying.

The best part of it is that two of Papier Mache's songs were even in English, which means they may even penetrate into the global market. You never know. Remember the story of the Korean (or was it Japanese?) guy who posted his song on YouTube and became famous worldwide? So to the Papier Mache, all the best!

For more infor on Papier Mache's debut album or to purchase their CD or cassette go to http://bengodomon.com.

By the way, in view of the title of this post, you may wonder where is the other photo or what is it about. Here it is, below. This photo was taken in a studio (those days still black-and-white lah!) in Tamparuli in 1968. Name of the band? The Hornbill.

Why were we called the Hornbill when that is the national bird of our nighbouring State of Sarawak? Honestly, I don't know. The leader of the band said so and we just followed. Anyway, the Hornbill was my second band. My first band, in 1967, was called The Scorpions!

By the way, you must be wondering how come got two middle-aged men (seated left and right) in the photo. They were neither musicians nor singers. They were our Managers! Both of them have since passed away, so did the band leader cum lead guitarist. May their souls rest in peace. But of course, way back in1968, they would never dream that one day their faces would appear on the Internet which was of course unheard of those days.

Which one in the picture was me? No price for guessing.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

2008-09-30T19:05:00.002+08:00

Time flies and it's that time of the year again when Muslims all over the world including Malaysia celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. It is also known as Hari Raya Puasa. Puasa in the Malay language means Fasting. Thus, Hari Raya Puasa celebrates the end of a month of fasting which began on September 1.

Hari Raya Puasa is one of the two most important days in a year for the Muslims; the other being Hari Raya Aidil Adha which will be held later this year. It is also known as Hari Raya Haji, named after the Haj season in the Holy Land of Mecca. Both Hari Rayas (which means Day of Celebration) are public holidays in Malaysia. Islam is the official religion of Malaysia but the practice of other religions is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.

I wish all my Muslim friends, wherever they may be, Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri!

(Note: Selamat literally means 'safe' but Selamat Hari Raya would be better translated as 'Happy Hari Raya' as in Happy New Year.)

Fly Me To The Moon

2008-09-30T18:30:00.000+08:00

When I was a kid, among the many fairy tales that I learned in the Chinese primary school was the story behind the Mooncake Festival, otherwise known as the Mid-Autumn Festival as it is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calender.

There were a few versions of the story, but the most popular of which concerned a Chinese King or Emperor who became a tyranny or dictator. He was growing old and was afraid of death. So he instructed China's best medicine men to find him a magic pill which would make him immortal and live forever. Never mind the King's name, I forgot. Even if I didn't, it would be difficult to translate Chinese names into English. He was a tyranny anyway.

After some time, the magic pill was found and delivered to the Emperor. His wife, the Empress, found out about it. She became worried that if the Emperor swallowed the pill, the Chinese people would suffer even longer under his reign of terror. So she swallowed it herself!

When the Emperor found out, he was of course mad. He chased her, apparently to cause her harm. Then, suddenly, with her new-found power, and out of desperation, she flew to the moon. Thus, the Chinese people made and ate mooncake yearly to remember her. This year's Mooncake Festival was held a couple of weeks ago.

That, of course was just a fairy tale, or as they say in the Malay language, cerita dongeng. But who would imagine that hundreds of years later, the Chinese would be able to fly to the moon, literally.

I am referring, of course, to the success of the recent Chinese space mission. Although it was just a 15-minute space walk, it was nonetheless half the battle won and I am sure walking on the moon would be next on the agenda of the Chinese. Infact, because it was the first space walk by the Chinese, an English dictionary even adopted the Chinese version of the word Astronaut, which is Taikonaut!

The three Taikonauts have since returned to earth safely, needless to say to a hero's welcome. At the time the first mooncake was made hundreds of years ago, who would have imagine that the Empress may soon end her lonliness on the moon by receiving Chinese visitors!

The success of the Chinese space mission came hot on the heels of another recent success by China - that of the successful hosting of the Olympic Games. Only a few decades ago, when millions of impoverished, hungry and sick Chinese were dying under the new Communist government of Chairman Mao Tze Dong, who would have imagine that one day China would host the Olympic Games and send astronauts into space!

Of course. I regret to add that in between these two historic events in China, there was the unfotunate incident of the tainted milk scandal which caused thousands of children to be sick or down with kidney stones. But then again, which country in the world did not have a scandal or crisis? America? After all, the milk scandal was not the doing of the government but a few selfish individuals, just like the present financial crisis in the US was not the doing of the government.

I am sure millions of Chinese living outside China all over the world, me included, are proud of the two recent Chinese successes. Well done, China. Keep it up and congratulations!

Happy Silver Wedding Jubilee

2008-09-22T15:21:00.000+08:00

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Mass at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu; being part of the choir. The Mass was in conjunction with the Silver Jubilee of the Wedding Anniversary of Mr Saniban Amphila and Winnie Francis, both of whom originated from Tuaran but have now settled down in Kota Kinabalu where Winnie works. Saniban is a Native Chief, a community leader of the Kadazandusun people in Tuaran.

The celebrant of the Mass was Rev. Monsignor Primus Jouil while music was provided by the Benevolent Ministry of the Bethel Prayer Group of Sacred Heart.

In his homily, Fr. Primus said one should not take a Silver Wedding Jubilee for granted anymore for in this modern world more and more marriages ended up being broken. This is especially true among the younger generation especially those who are less deeply rooted in religion and less forgiving. In this respect, he congratulated Saniban and Winnie for being still together after 25 years.

Needless to say, those present and happiest were children of the couple, relatives, close friends and colleagues.

Congratulations!

Saniban and Winnie with their lovely children

One for the album in front of the Chapel

The couple flanked by family friends and priest

The Holy Communion

The Offertory

The priest said "You may now kiss the bride". But I guess after 25 years it is not easy huh!

Take my ring, Saniban....

You're still mine, Winnie....

Blessing of the rings

Let us be joined again....

Till death do us apart....

Saying I do all over again....

Can't wait for the ceremony to begin....