[A kind note from AhYap: Grammar and Spelling don’t matter as well. What’s really matter is whether I can communicate the message to you. Sorry for the lame excuse to not write proper English, kekeke.]

Does democracy really matter? Is it an important factor to the success of a country? Well most people believe so. For me, I don’t. It doesn’t matter. I will explain why it doesn’t matter and tell you the 2 factors that are really matter. Please give me the time to explain before your “religious” political believes try to block your mind.

Democracy means every people has the right to choose whatever they want, which bring us to another magical word freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom to do…

Most people think democracy is good because they think it is fair. But is it? Nope, sorry. Democracy doesn’t equal to fair, democracy simply means the majority win. If the decision is always made by the majority, how can it be consider fair to the minority?

Example: A family with 4 children can vote someone to wash the dishes, clean the toilet, throw the garbage, massage the other kids… The 3 old brothers voted the youngest brother to do all the job. So everyday they vote the same, so everyday the small boy will be bullied to do everything for his elder brothers. Is this fair? Nope. But this is call democracy and this is the weakness of the system.

Now the second thing is, there is no such thing as 100% freedom. 100% freedom simply means 0 freedom. Why? If everyone can do whatever they want, they will definitely do something that you don’t want them to do. If a man can do anything they want, they can rob from you, they can rape your woman…

Freedom never exist, the closest thing to freedom is just half freedom. You can do this, but not this. Everyone can drive on the road but you need to obey the traffic lights. You can speed but there is speed limit. You can sing Karaoke loud but after please shut up after 12. So if there is no such thing as 100% freedom, democracy simply cannot be freedom. It cannot be something that never exist.

Now, the most scary part on why democracy sucks. If you give a man the freedom to choose, most people will choose a foolish or selfish choice. If you let your son choose whether he wants to play PS3 or study, what will he choose? If the government let the people decide whether they want to pay tax or not, which will they choose?

As written in the Bee and the Fly post (please read if you haven’t done so yet), most people on earth are flies. So if you give them a choice between honey and shit, what do they choose? SHIT!!!

That’s why democracy doesn’t really work that well, at least it doesn’t matter at all when it comes to determine the success and prosperity of a country. So what’s really matter to a country? Two things – VISIONARY LEADERS + GRIP OF POWER.

The best examples are China and Singapore. China has 0 democracy but they have full grip of power and they have the most visionary leaders in the world. Singapore is a “democracy country” with an “emperor”. The old one was Lee Guan Yew and the new one is his son (passing throne?). And both of them are visionary leaders with full grip of power, they can execute all the plans without interruptions/distractions from the opponent. Their country prospers.

Malaysia? We used to have an emperor for 20 years who have full grip of power. Yet, he lack the first factor – VISION. We do have something call “Vision 2020” but that is better known as “Dream 2020” [Dream is something that you hope is real but is not].

A leader with full grip of power and yet not visionary can be very destructive to a country. Look at our own country, look at Myanmar who is lead by a junta (at least they don’t have snatchers and don’t need to live in iron grilled house and you can jog around the street 5am in the morning and leave your bag unattended in the airport while you got to the toilet), look at the pre-reformed Indonesia under Suharto. Indonesia now has visionary leaders with grip of power. India has one now. Malaysia?

There might be visionary leaders in Japan, but none of them have a firm grip of power. They change their prime minister more often than we change our car lubricant. Japan has had 0% interest rate for so many years because they still can’t find a way to boost their economy yet. Without power, no matter how visionary you are, you are useless. Abdullah Badawi might be more “visionary” than the other prime ministers but he didn’t have the power. So as Tengku Razaleigh.

Look at Thailand, a democracy country. It doesn’t matter. Instead, it is too democracy and too much freedom that everyone can wear red shirt and go BBQ your car on the street [freedom?!!]. As I say, too much freedom = no freedom. If everyone has the freedom to voice their dissatisfaction, there won’t be any freedom for others. There is no one that is 100% satisfy with anything. Look at Greece, the origin of democracy!!! What happened to them now?

We live in a world that everyone has their own thought. What you want is not what other people want. This has been discuss in my post why the world cannot be perfect with thousands of examples (please read). If A wants X and B wants Y, how do we decide? How to be fair? The democracy system try to address this by letting the majority win. But as I have said, how can this be fair to the minority? Can an Indian be the Prime Minister of Malaysia if everyone votes? Dream…

Not only that it is not fair and as inspire by the story of the bees and flies, most people are FLIES and they only want to eat SHIT. They make foolish and selfish decisions when they can choose. Ask everyone should we just have 4 workdays and 3 rest days. Or even better, 3 workdays and 4 rest days. Or maybe just don’t need to work and get pay by the government.

That’s why the brutal truth is that, you can’t let people choose too much for their own good. This didn’t sounds good to the ear but unfortunately it is the reality. Most people don’t have the discipline, they are still like kids. Be democracy and let your kid choose whether to go to school or go to play and see what he chooses.

Take Singapore as an example. This country has one of the strictest rule in the world with the most heavy punishment for all sort of offences. Littering is one of them. You can be fined thousands of dollars and asked to sweep the street wearing colorful T-Shirt. I am sure they have the less littering problem in the world BUT still everyday the government can collect thousand of fines from littering and every week you can still see people “volunteer” to clean the street for free. Why? Most people are stubborn. Most people cannot discipline themselves. You have to really kick their ass and let them feel the pain before they can wake up.

Democracy has failed miserably in many European countries. The government can hardly do a shit because the flies people are too strong. In America, most news are political news, a lot of time and effort are spent by the leaders to strengthened their grip of power, instead of how to make their country better. This is similar to all other democracy country where the leader need to focus their energy to fend off their opponents. [Just see how much effort and time is wasted by BN and PR to attack each other before they can do real things for the people? See what happened in Perak assembly?]

Why we can always hear story such as China can build a new hospital in 2 weeks, build hundreds miles of railroads in a year, execute a disaster rescue plan within hours … and yet why Malaysia need 6 years (guaranteed to be extended with over budget) to build only 60km MRT network from KL to Kajang?

Without the grip of power, nothing can be done. Politicians will need to spend their effort on protecting their rice bowl. China and Singapore doesn’t have such problem. They can focus on doing the right thing all the time. So they can have full efficiency and productivity.

With the grip of power, you need to be able to do the right thing. And this rely on the ability of the leaders. It may depend a lot on “luck” and Singapore and China has been very “lucky” so far. Leaders with grip of power and yet not visionary (or brutal) can be very destructive to their country and even the world. Look at North Korea. “Same” government system as China with strong grip of power and yet lacking visionary leaders.

Any suggestions for Malaysia? Sorry none. At first I got high hope when Najib took the seat. He can easily have the grip of power and at first he is able to do a lot of right things, but after the last announced budget…

How about our opposition party? They first need to worry about the power, then only then can do things. But who and how many can be the visionary leader(s)? haha. You think yourself.

Pakatan Rakyat announced their missions to be accomplished within 100 days if they win in the coming election. Please bear with me that I don’t really read newspaper so I only got a few points from glancing that day.

- Raise teacher salary by RM500 each
- Waived water bills
- Waived toll!!!

How interesting? Why they offer to do such things? Because they don’t even have the grip of power! They need to offer sweets to flies rakyat in exchange for the power. Of course all flies rakyat will be happy to get those shits sweets but those are not what visionary leaders will do!!!

Did Singapore waive toll fee? They build more tolls. If our leaders are visionary, they should focus on the traffic jam issue and the poor public transportation system. Not waiving toll! Why still need to “touch” then only can go? Why can only reload on so little places? Why no setup some side reload station upon the road so everyone from every entrance can reload instead of just somebody who enter at specific entrance?

I rode KTM for 3 times and it broke down twice. For the one severe broke down, I got free sauna for 1 hour inside a sealed cabin with no aircon and I can see my sweat dripped on the floor. If you already have traffic jam when you need to pay, what if you don’t need to pay? More cars will be on the road.

Did Singapore waive the water bills? They increase their tariffs. They spend so much money on creating their NEWater from shit water. Why? Because the government is visionary. They don’t want to rely on their neighbor for water but on their own. For us? We take things for granted. Free water will only create more water wastage.

Singapore did pay teacher very very fat salary but that is because they pick the best people to become the teacher! Can you increase someone teaching ability by simply paying them more? No, it has to start early with a lot of planning and choosing. There is no magic pill worth RM500 that can do that.

If you look at the history, most prosperous country are usually lead by strong king/emperors with strong grip of power. And to get that power, a lot of people have to die including killing their own brothers and sisters and anyone that is consider a treat. In the modern world, the treat is the opposition party.

Is there any hope for Malaysia? Let’s look at what rakyat we have right now.

1. Rakyat who simply don’t care 
2. Rakyat who care but don’t know what to do or lazy to do (AhYap)
3. People who care and thought they know what to do but actually THEY DON’T KNOW!!! [Most of our politicians]
4. People who care and know what to do but don’t have the power to do. [Abdullah? Kuli?]

Unless the fifth type of rakyat appear, we might have some tiny hope.

5. People who care and know what to do and have the power to do.

Who? Who? Who? Masih tak ada lar bang.

And what did I do? I invest all my money in China (learn why) . And if our country become unsafe one day, I will migrate to Singapore.

Am I selfish? You can say that. But this is a reality to me. There are so many things happening within the 27 million people in our country and how can you possibly control all of them? I once read an article that said why many people choose to leave Malaysia instead of asking the trouble makers to leave? Wow wow, tell me how to ask a snatcher to leave. Tell me how to ask a corrupted cop to leave. This is their heaven. If you can’t change them, change yourself. It is more easy to change one man (yourself) than to change 27 million people.

And how can 1 man AhYap changes something when there are only 9 people who LIKE AhYap.com in Facebook?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? Click the LIKE button now damn you!!!

The story is quite simple, I am getting my hands dirty on photography. Like everything I have learned, I learn from reading (books, internet…). But reading can make you that good only on theory! I need more practical opportunities and I hope to have more guidance from experienced photographer.

There are many outings that I can find but most of them are in KL (some in Penang). Ipoh? We do have some where 300 photographers trying to shoot 4 models. What can you learn?

Then I found a guy who is in the business (a ‘pro’) for a very long time in Ipoh. So I went to see him and offered to be a FREE mobile-light-stand and bell-boy for him in exchange for his guidance. This is the first time I did this kind of thing so it is very fresh to me. I didn’t know what is going to happen.

Usually I can easily grasp the character of somebody after some chat, especially 2 hours. But this guy, I am unable to do so at all. Proud? Don’t look like. Humble? Don’t look like? Ego? Sometimes can see sometimes cannot. Do I like him? No. Do I hate him? No. It’s quite hard to understand and connect. A feeling of ‘so near yet so far’. [we will know why at the ending]

He invited me over, so I jumped out of joy and went straight to his office. He welcomed me too and we started to chat. Remember I am a stranger and he didn’t need to layan me at all but he ended layan me for 2 hours.

The first question was what camera body I am using. I told him I got a 7d before but have sold it. He was very shocked and asked me why. I told him I want to upgrade to 5d mark ii, a full frame camera. He kept showing his “unable to take it” look and make me so uncomfortable. He asked me why I need to upgrade since 7d is already a very good body. [In canon terms, 7d is a prosumer body, between consumer and professional. 5d mark ii is a professional body. Lower series are ‘consumer’ and higher are ‘flagships’ or simple ‘high end’]

Since I have done lot of homework and my “theory” in extremely good. I can basically write an essay on why. I can of course answer and tell him my reason but based on his “unable to take it” look earlier, you know that the point is not to be able to explain and make myself right. I don’t win by being right. Because I am the “student” here and he is the “teacher”, you want to challenge him? Especially you want to learn from him? So my explanation will be useless and I didn’t really say anything, just pretend to be an idiot.

He asked me, “Do you know what camera I am using?”. How do I know right? But I think everyone is smart enough to guess that he is going to tell you that he uses some low end gear, to create a big contrast about my choice and his. I said I don’t know.

He said he is using Nikon D70 to shoot all his works. He never uses “professional” cameras even he is a “professional”. D70 is more low end than I expected. It is the first consumer level digital camera from Nikon launched in 2004 (!!). We are in 2010.

He even told me that he can shoot his work using kit lens [cheap lens that comes with the body]. But luckily he did admit that lens is more important than camera body. Luckily.

He then asked me why I want to learn photography and what I want to shoot. Again, I am not a gugujiao who don’t know the answer. I already know what I want to shoot and I can write the exact list out, 1, 2, 3 and 4. And also the list of things I don’t want to shoot. So I am clear. [I won’t explain what is the meaning of gugujiao to you so if you don’t know, ask a 1Malaysia friend to make us closer to each other, but ask a guy not a girl]

Luckily he seems to be happy. My first answer is people. So he asked me why I choose Canon if I want to shoot people. My brain was like (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????????).

The reason why my brain looked like that is not because I don’t have an answer, but I thought isn’t the answer is very obvious to everyone? Why this question from him?

I told him the exact answer and also the main reason why I like Canon so much. I said, “I choose canon because of the skin tones. It looks better to me. Nikon skin tones look too orange to me”.

He answered me, “So you like the plastic skin of Canon?” He said that until today [very big conviction from his voice and physiology], Canon cannot produce the correct skin color of the people. He said if you print a photo out and put it side by side on the real skin, Canon cannot match the color but Nikon can.

The attack of Nikonian that said Canon skin look like plastic and the Canonista said Nikon people look like “orange man” is not rare. I do agree to a certain extend of it BUT there are many variables to it other than just the camera – white balance, color of light source, JPEG profile settings, etc.

I started to learn about photography March this year. There is a time where I get totally confused about what photography is all about? Is it trying to capture the “correct” and “real” image? Will Photoshop or changing color saturation make a photo “incorrect” and “fake”? Struggle for sometime… and later I wrote an article in my diary with the title – “Photography is a deception” which is stolen from a popular phase “Art is a deception” [mainly refer to drawing].

The article is not a good read so I am not wasting your time here. Mainly what I realized is, everything you see in a photo is fake, is a deception, no matter how you take it. No matter if you photoshop it or not photoshop it. Once you bring this 3d world into a 2d picture with 4 borders, it can no longer be real no matter what. Think about drawing. If you draw the Twin Towers, are the twin towers real? If you draw my face, is me real? So photography is also art. Its purpose is not about right or wrong, real or fake. It’s purpose, is about getting beautiful pictures. Exactly like drawing.

Just to extend my shit philosophy a little bit. Just look at black and white photographs. Are our world in black and white only? NO! Black and white itself is a deception. Because the “correct” world got color. But who cares? As long as it looks beautiful! Photography is an art. Understand this make me even more interested in photography.

So for the skin tone debate, there is no right or wrong skin color for me. It is a personal preference. I want good looking skin color, not the “correct” color.

He told me he used to use Canon but has switched to Nikon because of the skin color. Switching a system because of the skin color, you got to know how big is his conviction!

The main reason why this part of the conversation him is so important is because last month, I also spoke with another professional photographer who also make a lot of money taking pictures. He told me exactly the opposite thing!

He told me he is a Canon guy for a long time. Later get itchy because everyone told him how good Nikon is. So he switched to Nikon but later switched back to Canon. I asked him why. He told me that Nikon cannot get him the skin color he want no matter what!

2 professional photographers! 2 talking about the same thing! 2 different convictions! My God!

Because of this, it makes it clearer that photography is an art and is very subjective. It is your camera. It is your photo. Just make it the way you like it disregarding what other people is going to say about it! It is our choice! Our art! Our “master-piss”!

Suddenly remind me of religion too. I am Buddhist, you are Muslim, he is Hindu. All of us are doing what we think are right. None of us are wrong. What the best we can do is to stop telling other people that they are wrong and start respecting their choices!

When somebody tell you your decision is “wrong” and he is “right”, just tell him, “I respect your choice and I hope you will respect mine”.

That’s useful when debating in writing (such as internet forum) but I didn’t use it in real life. I do tell him the story of the other photographer I met, but I still let him have most of the ‘winning’.

Then later he told me the hierarchy system of his photographers team. I can’t remember the exact naming but it is roughly like this – newbie, assistant, standard, junior, senior and professional.

Newbie can only sit in classroom, doing lecture. Assistant can carry lights and bags only [which I am trying to interview for]. Standard can carry camera but can only be 2nd shooter and shoot non important stuffs like cakes and bridal shoes. Junior onwards can represent company to go out and take photograph. He himself is the ‘professional’ of course. Differences between them is the ‘quality standard’ and pricing.

He is very proud and satisfy with his team, so he shown me the sample of a junior work. Sample that is also shown to all potential customers when they come to the office. He keep saying things like, “We always maintain our quality”, “Customers like our work”, “If you can get this kind of quality, you say not good enough?” blar blar blar. What I want to say is that he is very confident with his works and standard.

I carefully opened the album and looked at the photos. This is the most struggling part in the whole conversation. God want to test my acting ability? I am totally unimpressed with the photos. If I am a potential customer, I will not want this photographer to take my pictures (he is not the photographer of this album, it is one of his junior, the lowest standard, and the cheapest).

There are photos that are blur/missed focus, all photos look yellowish and orange, they shoot a lot of white overexposed sky and there are telephone poles in the background and the wires crossing over bride and bridal head. For me, they are ordinary, like those photos we took with compact camera and print 3R and put in the free album the photo shop gave us.

I was so struggling. I wanted to comment but I feel difficult. He kept on repeating, “Like this not enough ar? Customers very happy lor”, “See our standard, see our standard”. For me is very clear, if I can only learn to shoot this kind of photos, I don’t want to learn photography. This is not want inspire me to become a photographer.

Then I beh tahan a bit and started to comment. I asked him why the photos so orange and yellowish. He is shocked a bit. He didn’t expect me to comment since he is so confident with the ‘standard’. He looked at the photos and said it is because of the clothing and wall. Then I asked him why so many blur photos. He said that is acceptable because the guy was using Nikon D90 and kit lens. He said that it is a trade off between kit lens and good lens. So this was not the photographer skill problem. I then talked about the white sky and telephone wire. He said these photos are used straight out of the camera without processing. If go through processing they can remove them or even make sky blue. He said again, “Customer like it”.

Since I am not impressed with the photos. I was feeling that if I were “pain in the ass” going there to get lectured. But I am very confused. He said he has shot for 20+ years and he has 3 generations of customers. Most customers are from mouth to mouth introduction!

I thought, maybe this speak for himself? Something wrong with me? He is still in business with lots of photographers and he always has new business. Maybe I have missed something. Maybe he is really very good. Maybe if I really follow him I can learn real things…

It was a 2 hours conversation, there are still many more similar sub stories. Like he told me that a photo on his wall win a competition. I asked him is that skin color correct [is it Nikon color] because it didn’t look good to me [composing is good, color is not]. He said no, it is already greenish. Hmmm, a picture that win competition with greenish skin. Many many more sub stories which I don’t want to bore you with …

I went home very depressed. Look like small matter but very depress to me. Very confuse. Very angry some more. Lots of mixed emotions. It is like suddenly I am no longer interested in photography and want to quit it for all.

At night I chat with my old course mate aka housemate in University, who is a good photographer shooting wedding days part time every weekend! He is a Canonista. We began our conversation with “Why you choose Canon over Nikon, especially you admire people like Joe McNally and Louis Pang so much?” [both are super heavyweight pro Nikon shooters. Pang charged more than 10k per shot!]

Our conversation went into my story of the day and I show him some of the photographs he has taken. I want to know if there is really something wrong with me. Fortunately I am not. His comment is that his photographs is so so only and he is “old style”. I immediately agreed with the “old style” description, thanks to his 20+ years repetition works?

And it reminds me that he is so confident with himself that he said he already gotten bored with taking photographs. He said he will not travel with an SLR anymore. Remind me of a Friends TV episode where Rachel met a gynecologist [doctor who deliver babies] who don’t want to have sex. He said, “You know, it is like drinking coffee every day for so long until you saw that coffee and felt, ‘what? coffee again?’” [got the humor? ]

So this guy seems to lose his interest and passion in photography. For him it is more on business and work. ‘Maybe’ he is already full and no longer interested in exploring new things as he always like to say, “Every time go there, so familiar, close one eye can shoot already”. Familiar might be a curse word for creativity and passion.

But I am still confuse about whether I should follow him to learn. Maybe the opportunity is worth it, especially in Ipoh? Especially I am a good ass kisser and can easily pretend that I am OK with everything while in my heart is not? Because my level so newbie, any teacher will be a good teacher? Is there something for me?

My lovely girl friend came to look for me. Again, she is the type of girl that is 100% opposite of me. While I need to worry about everything, she is not worry even if the sky fall down tomorrow.

I told him the story and why I am so depressed. I asked him should I learn from him. This is the kicker! She didn’t even need to comment on Nikon or Canon, plastic man or orange man, new style or old style, blur or not blur, telephone wire or no telephone wire … [she know nothing about these and she has 0 interest and problem holding an SLR].

She just said, “Your frequency and his frequency not the same lar, you better don’t stick with him”. Again, whether he shoot good or bad photos, use Nikon or Canon, is not a matter of consideration to her. For her, it is so simple, the frequency not good, both not matching, don’t stick together, sure won’t end up nice.

She then mentioned the other photographer that I chat with [the one who switched from Canon to Nikon then back to Canon]. She reminds me of how great my experience is when with him. The feeling is so good and I learn so much from him in 1 short day. Now I understand that is because we have matching frequency. She said I should learn from people like him.

This is absolutely brilliant to me, just a simple opinion from a few words and make my decision so much easier and feel so good about it.

Trust your feeling more. Feeling is hard to lie. Logical debating and rational thinking make no sense sometimes and can be totally useless [like my debate earlier]. It is the feeling that count ultimately. The most important is to be able to “feel good” [which means you got the right frequency].

To bring it a level higher, even if I am very impressed with his photos and that is exactly what I like to learn and shot, the decision should still be the same, if frequency not same, stay away. Have really nothing to do with who is right or who is wrong.

Feel more, think less.

Use wisdom, not knowledge.

Use heart, not mind.

My Favourite Photographers

Hassas

Hoffer

Ooi Eng Wah

Manny Librodo

The Vegetarian Shop

You know, Buddhism teach us not to kill any living beings, including the chicken you eat. Last time I thought that vegetarian shops are doing a great deed because they ask us to eat vegetables so we don’t need to kill animals.At first glance, it looks like a good deed. But when I look deeper, I notice that YES, they don’t kill animals anymore. BUT, they are now upgrade they “bad deed” by killing human beings! The so-called healthy vegetarian food they cooked are mostly junk food/toxins. They are mostly deep fried and oily. I can’t even see how it can be termed as ‘healthy’. And I think killing human is WORST than killing animals. Making people sicked are a bigger sin than eating meat!

The Monk and the Butcher

A monk and a butcher are roommates (haha). They stay together as best friends. Everyday if the monk wake up earlier than the butcher, he will wake up the butcher so he can go to work. If the butcher wake up earlier than the monk, he will wake up the monk instead. So time flies and one day both of them are dead. The monk is sent to HELL while the butcher is sent to HEAVEN. Why?

Because the monk wake up the butcher to go for KILLING everyday (bad deed) while the butcher wake up the monk to PRAY everyday (good deed)

Emperor Qin Shi Huang

Almost everyone wants to kill Emperor Qin because he is a brutal leader. They call him the ‘bad’ guy. Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who play the top assassin in the movie Hero, break through all the defense barrier of Emperor Qin until the final (like Lee Chong Wei playing badminton entering final with Lin Dan), placing his “parang knife” (it is really a parang if you watch the movie) on the neck of Emperor Qin. He can just chop his head down like a coconut but at that moment, he got some realization. He didn’t kill him and left. He said, “One shouldn’t kill Emperor Qin”. (I hope Lee Chong Wei won’t say “One shouldn’t beat Lin Dan”)

Why? He might be a “bad” guy but he united the whole China under him and ended the war and ends the people suffering of the long war. If Qin is killed, people will need to suffer in war again.

“Mongolia” Najib?

No one, for sure know if Najib is really the killer of the Mongolia girl (did you see it yourself?) If indeed it is really him, then you need to respect him that he can be so good on ‘cleaning his mouth’  even sharks like Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim can’t do a thing to proof it. I also know how to blind-talk (I always do in my blog), just attacking people with no proof is boring.

Najib is on the right path of liberalizing Malaysia, and if he keeps doing it and at a faster pace, I am sure I have no problem voting him on the next election. I am simply tired of seeing Malaysia monkey show where politicians are crazy for their power. I don’t want Malaysia to end up like our neighbors – Thailand, Philliphine and Indonesia.

Human deserve “Freedom” and “Democrazy”?

We all want freedom. But think about it, if everyone has freedom, then we really don’t have any freedom! If everyone can do what they want to do, how on earth can you feel safe! If you let your kids to decide if they want to go to school, all of them will say NO. And school can close shop without H1N1. If you ask the adult if they want to work, all of them will say NO too. If you ask the people if government should pay every citizen RM5,000 monthly, all of them will say YES. “Freedom” on highway with no speed limit? You dare to use the highway anymore?

And you think democrazy is right for everyone, right for every country? Look at Thailand, look at Philippines. Too much freedom and  too democracy are crazy. Something that work in a country might not work well in another.You can’t give freedom to everyone. No freedom = prison. Too much freedom = crazy. We can only give half freedom.

No Casino, No Alcohol, No Pork?!

This is not a sensitive issue, I am just giving examples. You see, I don’t go to casino, I don’t go to pubs, to discos.  I don’t drink alcohol and I seldom eat pork either. I even seldom eat chicken and beef! So I am 5 times more extreme than Muslim! Is it good to shut down casinos, pubs, disco, ban gambling and alcohol and eating of pork? Of course I fully support it 100% because it won’t affect me at all.

But what is the problem? The problem is that we as human LIKE to put our values onto other people. We like to FORCE our values into other people. Which you might not sense anything “wrong” because you think you are doing the “right” thing. As I have written in a long post why the world can never be perfect, something that is right to you is always wrong to somebody.

If today there is a religion who worship god with alcohol and pork (there are many!) and they are the majority in our country while Muslim is a minority,  think how it feels when they FORCE their values to you, to tell you the correct way to worship god is by using alcohol and pork? To tell you that what you believe in now is “wrong”? What if there is a religion who think COW is sacred and cannot be killed (there are many!) and INFORCE rules in the country where we can’t slaughter cow because it is “wrong”? Then what do you do in Hari Korban?

More interesting is what if the religion who thinks killing anything is “wrong”, forbid you to kill everything in the country? No more turkey on Christmas?

Trying to Change People or Not To?

If we think something is “right”, should we convince people on it and make people think the way we think? If we think something is “wrong”, should we tell other people? This is an important question for everyone to ask themselves. It is also the the biggest challenge to religions. Should I tell everyone that cancer is not a disease? Should I tell everyone that doctors are liars?

When I blog, I am LOUD and BOLD. But if  I see you in person, I rarely rarely rarely rarely will talk about this. I don’t even talk much to my parents about this nowadays. Because this thing will just make you an “unfriendly creature”.

My point of guidance is simple (that I learn from reading newspaper! ahh, sometimes “Newspaper is better than AhYap.com”), you can try to change people, but you need to make sure you don’t piss people off! If you are sensing anger out of the fella, you better stop (including your mum!). Let them stay the way they wants. Don’t make people angry and unhappy.

There is also no need to get angry when something you expected happen. “See, ask you not to drive so fast, now accident already lor”. “See, ask you not to eat KFC so much, now got cancer already lor”… People, no matter they listen or not, no matter the do the “right” or the “wrong” thing will suffer all the consequences as a cause and effect. It is their path whether it is their choice or not. A guy who has lung cancer might already been enjoying smoking for 30 plus years and he may thinks the pleasure for so long  is worth it! Maybe for them to live until 100 years old without cigarettes is more suffering.

The Soldiers and The Villagers

The soldiers are chasing for the runaways villagers. They have killed almost all of them in the village, the ‘lucky’ ones managed to escape and hide in a cave nearby. The soldiers are still searching nearby. One of the baby keeps crying! He is ‘innocent’ but his crying will get everyone killed including his mum and dad! What should his mum and dad do? If you are one of the villager, what do you do? If you are one of the villager and your wife and you mum and your dad and your 12 kids and your 108 year-old grandma and your mother-in-law  is with you, WHAT DO YOU DO? To kill the baby, or not to kill the baby? 1 dies or 30 die? Or we have no right to kill no matter what, even we will be killed?

If You Kill Yourself And You Will Save Another Man’s Life ….

If there is a gun and you point it to your head and pull the trigger and you can save a stranger life, will you do it? What if it is your mum, or your kids? What if it is not 1 stranger but 10 strangers? What if it is 100 strangers? 1,000? 1 million?!

Will You Eat A Cockroach?

People in “fear factor” eat a lot of cockroaches. But will you do that? Some people eat cockroach without you asking because they say it tastes good! What if I pay you RM10 to eat a cockroach? You might not be interested but the beggar might do it, for him eating cockroach is nothing but RM10 is a big thing. What if it is RM100? RM1,000? RM1 million? I WILL EAT ONE and I don’t know about you. Every value has a price!

Gone Baby Gone

A baby has a fucked up mum who is a drug addict. The baby doesn’t have a father (I think the mum don’t even know who is her father). Then someone came to “steal” the baby and give the baby a good and happy life like other kids with a “father” and a “mother” and a “loving house”. If you know about this stealing, what do you do? To inform the police so the baby can get back to her mum? Or to pretend that you see nothing? Morally it is “wrong” to steal. But is it morally “right” to send the baby back to hell?

To Report Police or Not To?

If your house is broken in and you lose your laptop, you LCD TV, your Japan AV DVDsand your RM10,000 Poh Kong jeweleries, should you report to the police (assume you don’t have any insurance and you don’t need to claim one)?

I did report (Disclaimer: I didn’t lose any AV DVDs). What happened next was a bunch of policemen came to your house and me your house like a big crime scene. They then tell you that this is very common and it happens twice everyday in the neighborhood. Then an “investigator” sprayed a lot of black powder onto your cupboard to get finger prints. Then they left, like they are very pro.

Go to police station, take time. Wait for them to come, take time. Wait for them to ‘do’ their ‘pro’ work, take time. Clear up the mess (and the black powder) after they left, take more time… After 7 fucking years, nothing recovered.

My notebook got stolen due to my sohainess on leaving my notebook in my car in KL 100m away from the police station. Since the police station is so near, I went to report. First thing, they scolded us and say we were “bising” (noisy). Then I have to wait a long time before it is my turn (2 officers working, only 1 person reporting). He took my report like I had nothing better to do but was there to waste his time. The wall at his back was “MESRA, CEPAT DAN BETUL”. Puiiii Puii Puiiiii. Mesra my donkey cock.

He then asked me to come back to collect the report next day! Come back? I said I have a seminar tomorrow that I paid thousands for and they say I have to skip the seminar to come back for the report sharply at 9am in the morning. Come back your head lar, come back!

Let say you sell gold and your gold shop is robbed. When they recover the jeweleries, they won’t give it back to you! They will keep it as ‘evidence’ until the court case is over (take years). And then how much gold is really recovered and how much is given back to you is another question.

If you shop is being robbed and you have CCTV installed, prepare to buy a new set because they will take your CCTV away and give you back after the court case (but there are no court case because they don’t  manage to catch the thieves!). So your property become Bukit Aman property.

If you have a car accident and your car is in the police station, haha, you either be smart enough to know how to get your car back quick or you may want to wait for some documentation work that never seems to be able to finish.

Even if they recover my notebook on search, do you think they will try to find me and give it back to me? A lot of pirated DVDs, notebooks, firecrackers and even drugs are items being “resold”. And guess where is the source.

You Don’t Feel Like Going Out With Someone

If you don’t feel like going out with someone, do you say, “Hey I don’t like to go out with you” or do you say, “I got something to do today”. But actually you have nothing to do the whole day!

“Your Baby Is So Cute!”

Do you say “Your baby is so cute!” or do you say “Your baby look like a lizard?” when indeed it look like a lizard?

When You Are Claiming Warranty

“Was it strike by thunder?”
“No ar, I don’t think so. I always unplug the wire one wor. ”

“Did you wet it?”
“No ar, this morning trying to turn it on already like this.”

“Did you drop it on the floor?”
“No ar! I open the box it is already like this.”

Should We Abolish ISA?

Hahahahahha. Hahahahahha. Knife can be used to cut apple and knife can be used to kill people. And if a thieve enter your house and want to rape your wife and your daughter, do you still use your knife just to cut apple? Do you think our country is free of troublemakers and our people are mature enough?

If A Plane Crashed And There Is Only One Survivor…

Is that a ‘good’ news or a ‘bad’ news? It is a ‘good’ news if you compare it with “no survivors”. It is a ‘bad’ news if you compare it with “no planecrash”.

The Death of Michael Jackson

Is it an “accident”? Or is it a “pattern”? Should you be surprised or should you not? 8 drugs, multiple operations, extreme life stress …

What If You Are Not “You”?

You always think you are you. You think the voice in your head is you thinking. WHAT IF, the voice is not you? The voice that you think is you is actually a disease? Like HIV? That come and attack you and take over you? The voice seems to know nothing, it doesn’t control our heart beat, it doesn’t control our digestion, sometimes the voice couldn’t even ask us to wake up in the morning. Is the voice really the owner of the ‘body’? And where do the voice go when we fall asleep? If the voice is you, why can’t you make it stop? And if you make it stop, who make it stop? Another “You”? And I suppose all human is the same  in the deeper level (we eat food, breath oxygen, have DNAs…) but why some voices are “English”, some voices are “French” and some voices are “Japanese”?

The Car Seller and The Coffin Seller

Is it “right” or “wrong” for the car seller to hope that people get richer? Is it right or wrong for the coffin seller to hope more people die everyday? Is it right or wrong for the doctor to hope more people get sicked?

They Ate The Corpses!

True story 37 years ago. Plane crashed in the moutain full of ice in Andes. Half of them died instantly. No food, no rescuers, and si-beh cold (si-beh = very). The only chances of survival is to eat “meat”. What meat? The meat of the guy sitting next to you before the plane crashed! And ‘luckily’ the weather is so cold that it becomes a natural fridge to the “meat” to keep their “freshness”.

If you decide to eat, you will surely start with a stranger. What if there are no more strangers? If you have a dead family member, do you allow others to .. (i can’t even type the word)… it? Is it “right” or “wrong” to eat corpses to survive? If it is wrong then why do we eat chicken corpses, cow corpses and pig corpses? If it is right then why you don’t you let people e.. your wife? (yucks) You have to imagine that you are si-beh cold and si-beh hungry in the middle of the mountain for several days. You may not want to eat, but what if you have kids with you that are si-beh cold and si-beh hungry? How do you decide for them?

They are rescued 72 days later and many live until today. Story here.

Titanic and The Safe Boats

If a safe boat can only takes 30 people and you already have 50 on it and then there are 1,000 people more in the freezing sea trying to climb up to your boat, what do you do? Whacked everyone who try to climb up the boat? What if the one who try to climb up is your husband? Whacked him too? Or whack the one trying to whack him? What if you are in the water? Are you going to try to climb up the boat too (and being whacked) or will you say, “Let me die here so I won’t sink their boat. It is not ‘that’ cold anywhere.”  When you are in deep pain, when you are struggling deeply, can you still think? Or maybe you will try to bribe the boat to let you in?

Sent Him To The Police Station?

If you catch a thieve, will you send him to the police or let him go? The theive recognize your face (and your wife, your daughter and your baby). He knows where you live and tell you that, one day he is going to come back to you. If you are heroism where everything must be ‘white white white’ type of guy, you will send him to the police. But what after that? Will you be wondering is you house still safe? Is he coming back? Why your wife haven’t come back yet …

If You Eat The Pig… If You Slaugther a Cow…

If you are a muslim and there is no food for days but only pork, and you have wife and kids with you, do you eat? Do you let your kids eat? If you are a Hinduism and a cow is the only food you have for the entire village, do you slaughter it? If you are a Buddishm who can’t kill and there is a lion chasing after a group of shool kids, can you kill the lion?

What Happens At The End?

At the end, life is so fucking challenging. We all seems to be so confuse in this world and we have to make all sort of decisions everyday that we don’t know if it is right or wrong. And then some more somehow, someone will come to your blog, read your post and get so pissed off that he wrote this comment to you

your web suck fuck cibai lancau teo your mother. your mother whole family are prostitue gigolo. cibai u what the fuck you do. hamkaling think u so geng a cibai. hamkachan teo your mama really a prostitue many people teo wan. you are not your father children la cibai !!!!!!!!!! fuck you bitch

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I know I am “wrong” but I still want to give him ..l..

CHANGE WE NEED!

Related:
Resurrection of Racism
Slaves to Racial Bondage
PKNS – Get the Best Person for the Job
Race and Islam

Soufulow described that I have 2 characteristics, which interesting enough, contradict with each other! But both are true at the same time!

#1 – Stubborn! Never Listen and Always Think That I Am Right!

He said that I am stubborn and never listen and that I think I am the smartest people on earth. That I think I am always right, always instruct and teach people what to do and never listen to other people.

#2 – Keep On Changing! Today Say This, Tomorrow Say Another Thing!

Haha. This is fun. First I am said to be stubborn, now I am always changing. Soufulow say today I ask him to invest in real estate, tomorrow I ask him to do options trading, and the next day I ask him to invest in the stock market.

I find this very interesting too, so which is the correct description for me?! The stubborn and never listen one? Or the keep on changing one? Both sounds right and both sounds wrong! I am confused!

After thinking and thinking and thinking, I finally get my answer.

We can ONLY think the BEST we can think using all the KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE we have at THAT MOMENT of time.

• You can’t ask a Standard 3 kids to do calculus because at that moment of time, his knowledge and experience only allow him to do basic math.
• You can’t ask Soufulow to describe how does sex feel when he is Standard 6 because his knowledge and experience of sex at that moment of time was just some porn video and magazine (龙虎豹). Of course, he has no problem teaching you how to da fei kei (masturbate) at that time.
• If you have never been to a place that is freaking cold (something like negative 40 Celsius) and the coldest weather you have experience is just the kindergarden-level-cold of Genting Highland, you may never be able to describe or even imagine how to live in negative 40 celcius. You may wonder will your pee become ice immediately when it come out? Will you dick freeze when you pee?

So, I figure out how my brain works.

In my life, especially the pass 5 years, I have been constantly learning, reading over 200 books, accumulated a lot of knowledge and life experience.

At one previous moment of my time, I think I should put all my money in real estate to generate rental income for me. At that moment, I think real estate is the best investment. (keyword – At That Moment) Because at that moment, my knowledge and experience are limited only to real estate. And I have experience from my parents that the stock market is very risky and buying stocks is nothing but gambling.

So at that moment of time if I am blogging, I will tell you how good real estate investing is and why you should put all your money in it.

And if someone come and tell me, at that moment of time, that real estate is not the best and I should invest in the stock market, you will see me in mode #1 – Stubborn and Never Listen. I will probably responded with, “Don’t be Sohai lar, stock market where can play one!”

At that moment of time, my knowledge and experience only allow me to think real estate is the best. Everything else that come contracting with my believe will be rejected.

Fortunately, I am really not that stubborn. I have another important characteristic called OPEN MINDED and a gifted skill known as THE ABILITY TO INVESTIGATE.

If you tell me me the stock market is good, and after scolding you as a sohai, I will actually get curious about the stock market. I am curious because I am open minded. If I am really a stubborn ass hole, I will shut my brain off and reject everything in fully automated mode (you will see lots of people like this).

When I get curious, I will start to investigate and think, “Why the heck he say stock market is good?”, “Why my mum and dad burn their fingers (actually the hands, legs and hairs) in the stock market and he can still say it is good?”

The guy who told me the stock market is good planted a seed into my brain. Then there might be a few more guys come to tell me the same thing! They are watering the seed and it grows in my brain. I became more and more curious and I started to investigate more and more.

I usually learn by reading. So I started to read, 1 book, 2 books, 3 books …. 20+ books!

AT THAT MOMENT OF TIME, after reading 20 books, my knowledge and experience are totally different than that moment that I tell the whole world real estate is the best!

After my investigation on the matter, I change my believe and dump the “real estate is the best” believe and replace it with “stock market is the best”. That’s why what I am blogging now is about stock market and not real estate.

So am I stubborn or constantly changing? You can’t fit me into either one because I am both!

If I encounter new things and after investigation, I think my old believe is better, then I will stick with the old believe and reject the new knowledge. Not only that it never becomes part of me but it also helps strengthened what I am believing right now!

On the other hand, if after investigation, I think the new knowledge is actually better than my existing one, I will not hesitate to dump my old believe and replace it with the new one!

I am ready to change any second if I find something better to replace my old believe. And I will be stubborn enough to reject everything that after my investigation, didn’t sounds better than what I have already known.

This is the correct description of me. My ability to investigate determine whether I should be stubborn or changing.

If you come to me today and tell me value investing sucks and I should trade like playing in BursaPursuit because the #1 winner grow his RM250,000 to RM1 million in less than 2 months (400%!) and I sucks because I can only compound my money 20% per year, do you think I will be stubborn or changing?

People Who Doesn’t Have The Ability To Investigate and Change Frequently

If you look at most aunties, you will notice that they change very frequently. Today she listen to this aunty says tomato is good, tonight she cook all-tomato-dinner for her husband and children – tomato rice, tomato soup, tomato dessert, tomato juice … yucks …

They are too open minded! They don’t investigate much before they accept new things. And these group of people will easily fall into SCAM and the hand of the marketing guys.

• He believes that Maxis is really giving him 500 free SMS is he forwards the message to 10 of his friends!
• He believes that Friendster and Hotmail is really too crowded and will delete his account if he didn’t forward that message to 15 of his friends!
• He believes that someone really want to borrow his bank account to transfer 5 million US Dollar and in return give him 5% commission!

While you may be laughing on these and tell me that only sohai will fall for these and you are not one of them, what about these -

• Do you believe that drinking milk will give you more calcium? Do you believe on what Anlene says, “2 cups of Anlene will give you the calcium you need a day”? (两杯Anlene给你一天所需要的钙质) What if I tell you that the more milk you drink, the more calcium you will lose! Wow!
• Do you believe that cancer is a disease that kill? What if I tell you cancer is a CURE that heal instead of kill and cancer patients should thank God that thay have cancer? Wow!
• Do you think eating fruits after your dinner is good for your digestion? What if I tell you eating fruits after your FOOD is actually bad for your digestion? Wow!

Are you open minded enough? Do you have the ability to investigate? At this moment of time, your knowledge and experience may be telling you that drinking milk will give you more calcium (so you drink more), cancer is something that kill (so you should hate it), fruit is good for digestion (so you should eat more papayas after your dinner).

At this moment of time, you may think milk is the best source of calcium, so you drink it yourself. You also force your innocent child to drink it and you force your old mum to drink it! You are not wrong, because at this moment of time, your knowledge and experience tell you that it is right and that’s the best.

In the next few posts, when I start to plant a seed on your brain and tell you the other way, you will have more knowledge to allows you to think differently. And that, will depends on whether you are open minded and have the ability to investigate, and the conclusion of your investigations.

People Who Is Not Open Minded

If the first group of people is the people who don’t have the ability to investigate and thus keep on changing (and keep on being conned and fall into marketing gimmicks), who is the second group?

The second group are those who are stubborn ass hole who are not willing to change and always think that they are right. They don’t need to investigate because they don’t even open up their mind! Instead of accepting everything, they accept nothing. They think they already know everything they need to know. They are very ego-type. They probably think they are the God or the Prophet. They always want to teach people what to do and how to do and will never listen. Terrorist is the extreme example, they kill with the name of God.

Worst! Sometimes even when everything prove that they are wrong, they still refuse to admit it and still want to say that they are right and others are wrong! Politicians do that all the time! Hishammuddin and Nazri do that all the time! Most of the time they realized that what they have said should not have been said, but because they have said it, they will need to stubbornly keep their old stand.

Referring back to the phase “We can ONLY think the BEST we can think using all the KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE we have at THAT MOMENT of time”, if one is not open minded, his thinking will always be limited to his limited knowledge and experience at that time. Since he never learn new things, he never growth. That moment of time will be a long moment of time because he is almost the same all the time.

• A smoker will smoke until maybe he has lung cancer. His knowledge and experience tell him smoking is OK for decades. But when he got lung cancer, his experience change dramatically and so he can change almost immediately now. If he is open minded and start investigating at the good and bad about smoking, he may have more chances to quit smoking earlier. (Smoking not only burn holes in your lung but also burn holes in your wallet and make Barisan Nasional rich!)
• Do you think homosexual is a sin and bad? This is what his knowledge and experience at that moment of time tell him so. (Religion? School education?) If he is really open minded and investigate into the matter, he may find out that homosexual is not even a choice! If you are a guy and you feel ’something’ when you look at a sexy woman, it is not a choice! it is your body reaction because of your genetics and hormones. Whether you want to do something (sex, rape …) is a choice but the initial feeling is not a choice! For a gay man, he don’t feel that ’something’ when he see a sexy woman BUT he feel that ’something’ when he see a sexy man! It is not a choice! He can choose not to engage in homosexual acts BUT he can never choose to feel ’something’ when he see a woman instead of a man. He is born like that.
• Do you think prostitution should be banned? Read my post on Prostitution. Read the comments as well for examples of people that is not open minded enough and want to kick my ass without any supporting facts other than some bible clause or telling me ‘Malaysia is a Muslim country’.

Understand the phase “We can ONLY think the BEST we can think using all the KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE we have at THAT MOMENT of time” can gives us 2 different ways to look at the differences of religions.

#1. A religion fanatic (someone crazy with his own religion) may grow up his whole life knowing and practicing only 1 religion. All his knowledge and experience are limited to 1 religion and he might not be open minded enough to learn about other religions. Not only that he think his religion is the best but he also think that his religion is the ONLY ONE that is right. Other religions are just wrong, wrong, wrong. With this kind of thinking, how much room can he gives to other religion?

#2. If he knows that everyone can only think the best they can think with all the knowledge and experience they have at that moment of time, EVEN if his religion is REALLY the best and the true one in the world, he should be able to understand and accept that someone else might also think that their religion is the best and not his. Because for that man, his knowledge and experience limited him to think that his religion is the best and not yours! You are able to pick the right religion because your knowledge and experience are better than him. You will be more open minded and can accepts other religions to co-exist with yours.

If you are not open minded, you will not even want to investigate on things, which means you will never grow and never learn new things. Finance, health, relationship, spirituality … we all have our best at any moment of time with all our accumulated knowledge and experience and we can only do our best using what we know at that moment of time.

As we are still living, we will be constantly growing and we will encounter more knowledge everyday and gain new experience everyday. And you, have to decide if you want to be like the aunties who keep on changing frequently without investigating, or the politicians who are stubborn and never listen, or you want to be an open minded person who has the ability to investigate on new knowledge and decide whether you want to keep your old believes or replace it with the better one.

You should also be able to understand why some other people are so different than you because that’s what the best they can do, with their knowledge and experience at that moment of time.

Disclaimer

Today when I look at myself yesterday, I laugh at myself as being so stupid yesterday. I can’t believe I can be so stupid thinking that way just a day before. And tomorrow, I will laugh at myself being so stupid today!

I am constantly learning and growing everyday. Today what I write is the best I can think of Today (using my limited knowledge and experience accumulated up to today), tomorrow I will have new knowledge and experience that I will decide which one to take in as part of me and which one to reject stubbornly. So funny enough, my blog should have a disclaimer!

Take your own RISK if you read AhYap’s blog because he changes so fast that he may not think the same tomorrow! You understand that you might run the RISK of Brain Damage if you read on this blog. Read at your own RISK! Be open minded and investigate all the information yourself before you accept anything AND please don’t kick my ass just because I write something that contradict with your religion, because I am still not as smart as you leh!

Here is his comment

fuck off!!!

i couldn’t read it all because it is so bullshit!!! it is so wrong and just a piece of shit…!!! hey ah yap, please go to other country before i kick your ass!!! maybe you are the one with an extreme sex desire..a.k.a. sex maniac… malaysia is an islamic country la idiot!! islam is the official religion…negaraku is the official song, bunga raya is the official flower…islam forbid prostitution because it never benefits anybody or anyone except sex maniac like you..what the fuck you said?? prostitute in singapore has 3 monthly medical check up??? you are so stupid, you know..if they contract any STD, HIV or hepatitis germs they can transfer it to other people immediately…3 months ago clean report is very useless…as useless as you…

I am showing you his comment because this is a very good example of what I am trying to tell you in my post “Why The World Can Never Be Perfect!“. Tokbi’s perfect world is a world without prostitution and from his words, you know he wants a world that practices Muslim laws. And he goes to the extend that if you don’t agree with his perfect definition he will fuck you, chase you out of ‘his country’, kick your ass, remind you that Malaysia is an ‘Islamic country’, accuse you as a sex maniac, tell you that you are an idiot, useless and stupid.

He is still consider a nice guy because he didn’t come and bomb my house or kidnap my mother. There are people in this world that if you don’t agree with their prefect world definition, they will come and cut your head in front of the camera and upload it to YouTube! Don’t play play ar!

I’ve seen other Malay bloggers mentioning my post in their blogs and they find that my post is funny. And yet, how come the very same post can make some other Muslims so angry? As I’ve answered in the same ‘Perfect World‘ post, there are people who knows how to respect and accept things especially those that they don’t agree or dislike themselves. While there are also people who will never tolerate a single thing that doesn’t fit his ‘perfect definition’.

This is the world. This is Malaysia. What will Malaysia look like 50 years from now? Will Malaysians learn how to respect and accept each other? Or we are just going to selfishly demand more for our own, our races and our religion, pushing others to the cliff?

But then when Negaraku is being sang in R&B by a Malaysia student studying in Taiwan, it is discussed so many times in the parliament, and has been commented by so many ministers and government officers. Chinese papers have a few pages on it everyday.

There are people who want to revoke his citizenship. There are people who want to forfeit his passport so he can’t return home. There are people who say he must be punished although they don’t know exactly which law to use (Oh!). They say, they can definitely find one to prosecute him.

Our government had built the highest building in the world, and yet their heart is so small. They are extremely sensitive and is unable to tolerate small little things. And yet, they ignore all the big issues and pretend they don’t see it. They like to make small issues big and keep quiet about the big issues.

What is the use of celebrating our 50th year-old birthday when there are still double standard on so many things?

Why is it that someone with status apologized, thing can be settle and why a small citizen apologize, he still have to be punished?

Why the UMNO representatives who make sensitive comments LIVE on TV only get some ‘discipline action’ from the party?

Why someone who build a multi million castle without permit can settle by a few tears saying that his old house is too small for his family? He only needs to pay a small sum of fine.

Why my Primary School Sam Tet Ipoh doesn’t even have a small field and a hall for so many years? And we only have a basketball court for our assembly. While other school have big halls with air-cond and big football fields!

Why our Minister of Education, Mr H (I don’t know how to spell it so I don’t want to spell it because if I spell in wrongly, I might end up in the jail! This is Malaysia) can be a hero and make the headline of Chinese papers when he allows 2 Chinese schools in Malaysia to reallocate?

He can be a hero just by giving the ‘permission’ to relocate and not the money! And the Chinese society have to find money themselves to relocate. Poi Lam and Wan Hwa Ipoh has been trying to relocate without sufficient fund for more than 10 years.

And yesterday paper, why some schools have to pay for their own electricity and water bills while some schools can be paid by the government?

Why we need to build the highest building in the world that has never been occupied fully until today WHILE we don’t have enough seats in our local Universities?

The government want to sue YouTube because of the Negaraku video. This shows how intelligent our leaders are when it comes to understanding the internet. Youtube has hundred of thousands videos online and how they are going to monitor all of them?

Even if they monitor all of them, you really think Negaraku is so popular in the world that they know what is it? Mr Nazri, how many countries National Anthem can you sing and recognized? How do leaders like that can build a good internet infrastructure for us when their understanding on how the internet works is so little.

Some leaders (ahem, leaders) says the Government should stop sending Chinese students to study in Taiwan. Oh! Chinese students who study in Taiwan are those who can’t get into the local universities and they are actually paying for themselves! They thought that the Government is paying for them because they got so many JPA and government scholarships for themselves! They are just slapping their own face. And the lyrics of the song does talked about this and it proofs again that they didn’t listen to the song before they comment.

I am not voting on the next election. I am not celebrating our 50th birthday day. If I have to go to jail if I don’t vote, then I will go to vote. If I have to go to jail if I don’t celebrate our national day, then I will celebrate. Don’t play play! You can go to jail for a lot of reasons in Malaysia. Our government is hypersensitive on a lot of small things.

Nazri , “We cannot be like the West where you can have the underwear with the design of the Union Jack. In Britain, you can insult the Queen or the flag, I don’t care, but in this country we have laws and we cannot create a precedent where you commit an offence, apologise and get away with it.”

We have the highest building in the world but we have the smallest heart! We always criticized the value of the West and yet we are the one with the smaller heart.

1. Respect for KL Drivers in Traffic Jam.

KL people can spend a few hours in the traffic everyday. Usually they will have to drive 1 hour+ to work and 1 hour+ back to work. At least 2 hours a day is wasted in the car. This number is scary if you multiplied that with the number of people driving everyday.

2. Respect for KL People Carrying Laptop while Shopping and Dining.

KL is popular of laptop thieves. Leaving your laptop in the car is unsafe and thus you can see a lot of KL people carrying their laptop while walking in KLCC and dining in SS2. Those who go clubbing after work also need to carry their laptop along.

3. Repect for KL People Paying for Parking Fee

Parking everywhere cost money. Parking at KLCC can cost more than RM10! Parking outdoor at Bukit Bintang area is RM5 on weekdays and RM7 on weekends. Parking fee at Mid Valley is now per hour basis instead of per entry. And more scary, parking at night at some places that should be free are now required to pay as well because the heavily-tattooed guard will tell you, “We take care of your car and make sure no one will scratch your car”.

4. Respect for KL People Paying for lots of Toll.

Thanks to our Minister of Toll, Sammy Vellu on this. If I drive home to Bangi using Jalan Cheras I have to pay 3 tolls.

5. Repect for KL People Queuing for Cinema Tickets

KL has the biggest cinemas and yet people have to queue so long for the tickets. The KLCC queuing line is especially shocking to me where the cinema waiting area can be full of queued up people waiting to buy their tickets.

6. Repect for the KTM Komuter that always break down

Ride it 3 times and it broke down twice. In one occasion it broke down over 1 hour without air conditioning. Baby is crying non-stop and everyone is sweating like shit. Rude words can be listen all the time. I am OK because I am staring at a pretty girl for that 1 hour. Wahahaha. Later they need to send another komuter to pull our broken komuter back to the station and we have to ride another komuter.

7. Respect for the non-standard price Taxi Drivers charge

Taxi drivers in KL are very interesting. They can charge multiple ways, such as pre-negotiated rate, meter rate or mouth rate. Mouth rate means he don’t use the meter nor the pre-negotiated rate but after you reach, he open his mouth and tell you how much he wants. Short distance in KL can cost RM10! Passengers always feel like they are overpaying while drivers always feel like they are undercharging.

8. Respect for KL People Sense of Direction

Ok, this is a real respect. With so many roads and so many places in KL. I do really respect KL people who can navigate everywhere in KL and didn’t get lost.

9. Respect for KL People who Live So Near to Highway (and Electric Cable)

This is suggested by Ernest in his comment and I totally agree with it! Especially the highway near Sri Petaling. Some also live very near to Electric cable tower where they can hang their cloths there free of charge.

—

Here is why I love Ipoh. Sometimes there will be traffic jam but it is bearable. You will wish to have our type of traffic jam. Not much high-tech people here so not much people carrying notebook around. Parking is easy and cheap everywhere. Parking at Ipoh Parade is RM1 per entry and parking at other shopping complexes are free including Jaya Jusco, Tesco, Giant, etc. There is no toll in Ipoh. And you don’t need to queue 100 meters for your movie tickets.

Need a taxi? Call the taxi call center 2534188 and all prices are fixed. And the town is so small that there is no need for LRT or KTM komuter. Although a little sense of direction is required, you won’t get that lost in Ipoh. The last time I wanted to go to KLCC, the two jagung were very big and near to me. I made a bad turning and I lost until the jagung were missing from my eyesight. That’s KL.

But don’t feel disappointed if you are a KL people, because Streamyx in Ipoh is as fucked up as yours.

However, newspaper sometime can be very busybody and disclose information that I think SHOULD NEVER be published on newspaper.

An Ipoh girl was raped and killed in Sg Long, Kajang.

Why the newspaper need to publish the exact road and house number of the crime scene? Because it is Visit Malaysia Year 2007 so everyone nearby (my KL house is near) can drive there and pay a visit?

And why the newspaper need to publish the victim’s parents restaurant name and location? So that the whole town can pay a visit and eat there? My girl friend stay in walking distance to the restaurant. Thanks to the newspaper, now the whole township knows exactly whose daughter get raped and killed and know exactly where they work. This has become the hot topic of the town. Every time they drive pass the shop, they can say, “This is the shop that the daughter get raped and killed”.
Newspaper, give them a life!

They don’t deserve all this troubles. They already have enough pain. They don’t need a few thousands people reminding them the death of their girl for the rest of their life. Even for people who are not busybody, it is quite hard to ‘talk’ normally to them again when they know about what happen to their daugher. Their business will also be affected.

There are also people who will go to them or call to send their condolence. This is also a BAD thing that actually gives more burden. Every call will remind them of the pain. While you might have a sincere heart to call to ‘care’, for them it is just another burden. You are doing nothing good to them.

If one of your family members die today, and one thousand people with a sincere heart come and say to you, “Don’t feel too upset ….”. Do you really think it will make you better?

Yucks, newspaper. Busybody. Give you my middle finger.

I am a guy who like to eliminate things. I don’t keep a lot of things. 

I used to be like my mum, who will hold on to everything. For example, I used to keep all my primary scholl textbooks, PMR and SPM reference books many many years. I used to keep all of my old cloths, all my exam papers, all exercise books, etc. I refused to thow any away or give to anyone. I felt like ‘They are mine’. I always thought that ‘Someday’ I will need them.

My mum even better. She keeps lots of old shoes and cloths that she no longer wear. She doesn’t allow me to throw away my faulty 14″ CRT monitor that I used with my 486. She keeps a lot of new bowls, forks and kitchenware in the cupboard for years and only use the 2nd grade one because she wants to keep the ‘new’ one for use later. The later is always become never.  And the new always become old.

My grandmother (my mother’s mother) even better, she keeps chicken cages until today although she has not been raring chickens for decades. My mother is definitely her daughter.

I once want to throw away a table that I have disembled long time ago but lost all the screws. So it cannot be assembled back. She, on her own, carried all the table boards from upstairs to her car when I was not at home and fetched all of them to my grandmother house. She did that again with my old 486 computer table.

My behaviour, used to be exactly like my mother and my grandmother. I even used to keep a lot of my childhood toys!

…

Last few years, I begin to change. Instead of hanging to things, I have learned to let go. I feel guilty that I have not given my PMR and SPM books to someone because I never touched them at all after all these years. I were hanging on these books because I feel like they are my properties. I thought that ‘one day’ I might need to read them again. But when I realized I no longer need them anymore, it was too late as the books were obsolete and the only meaningful thing to do is to sell them to old newspaper collector.

I bought a lot of original books in Universities because I realize if I have a new book that smell good, I am more willing to study it then a photocopied 2-page-shink-to-1-page book. I donated all of them to my library 1 year after I left my University.

Realizing that I had a lot of old cloths that were in mint condition but I never wore anymore, I packed and donated all of them in the last 2 years. I also had a lot of shoes and in the recent Chinese New Year, I donated 8 pairs of shoes that I were keeping for years but never wore! One pair of the shoes is a RM200+ Dr. Cardin. It is the most expensive shoes that I ever bought when I were Form 5. I am guilty that I only wore it a few times. I bought it because I used to have the mindset, “I need to follow others people style and fashion”. I got a pair of jeans that I have donated as well because again, I bought it because someone say it is the fashion but I didn’t like it at all. I just wore it a few times.

Now, I only have 3 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of Jeans.

I have given my favorite remote control car to my newphew after keeping it untouched for more than 10 years!

I also have the tendency to keep things very neatly. My room doesn’t look ‘pretty’ but it is extremely neat. If you rate a guy’s room, mine will be in top 1% in terms of tidyness. I can always find something easily because I simply don’t keep a lot of things.

All my important documents are kept nicely in a few files.

All my books are keep nicely in a few book shelves.

All my cloths are keep semi-nicely in my cupboard. (I don’t have much cloths)

Even my computer! I have all my filed arranged very nicely and I will delete everything that is not important. I delete emails after I read them too. My important data, is less than 2GB and I can migrate them back and forth from my laptop in 2 minutes.

Why suddenly I like to elimate things and keep things nicely?

The reason, is weird.

If I die tomorrow, my parents don’t need to be bothered with all my stuffs. I don’t want to leave a mess after I die. I want to give them the minimum troubles. Almost all my stuffs are in my room. I have

1. A few shelves of books
2. Cloths in the cupboard
3. My computer
4. Files that contain important documents arranged nicely (my will, insurance policy, financial info, etc).

So, if I die tomorrow, they can just donate my books and cloths. Keep my computer for their own use, and open my files to get all my important documents. They don’t need to waste a lot of time looking for things, figuring where I put my stuffs, and going through a lorry of stuffs and documents one by one just to know what they are.

At 27, AhYap has prepared to die.