The Mandela Memorial

This is fine art.

Great Capture of Mandela's Profile

The Mandela Memorial-steadfast and durable reminder of man's treachery to one another.

USM Reunion Lunch at Kelab PJ

The Group Photo 3 February 2013

A group of alumni members met for lunch at the Kelab PJ to renew their bonds for the alma mater.

At hand were two alumni association members to cover the event as well as the New Straits Times.

Saw Aim,Kee Teck, Yau Kok and Param

While waiting for the other attendees to turn up, those who came earlier mingled around to trade stories of old.

James,Gim Ooi, Lee Kiang,Chee Kiang  and Rajan Moses

After brief opening remarks by Bala, lunch commenced.

Jalil,Yau Kok, Rajendaran and Gim Ooi

By 2.00 p.m., we all stepped out to have a group photo taken.

Louis Vincent, and Francis Khor

I met many people who I have not seen for ages such ad Kee Teck, Saw Aim, Jimmy Fok, James Seow, industrial  court judge Rajendran, Mangai, Leela and Meenaloshini.

With Leela Thevi Ramadass

There was Louis Vincent which I have not seen since my teaching days at Likas in Sabah and Francis Khor who is now a PR in Montana.

Jenny, Mangai, Leela and Meena

Well, it will be another year when we meet up again.

Kee Teck, Saw Aim and Richard

Here are some of the photos of the reunion.

The Group Once More

One for the Road-Kee Teck, Saw Aim, Gim Ooi and Yau Kok

With Siddharta Raja Kumaran

Opening Remarks by  Gentle Bala

Yeoh with Lee Kiang and Chee Kiang

Home-going?

Sweet Farewells and to another year

Love and the Fatal Folly of Anna

An Unsalvagable Romance

In 19th Century Russia of Leo Tolstoy, values of family holds strong.

There is little place for romantic love once you are married, with child and married to a high-ranking officer of the Russian apparatchik.

Paying a high price for extra-marital romance

When Anna Karenina played by Kiera Knightley, decided to abandon societal values for a dashing man in uniform, she had her moments. While she caused a tumultuous upheaval in the life of her family particularly to Alexei Karenin played by Jude Law with the patience of Job, she will have to sacrifice almost everything for a few fleeting moments of sensual love.

While she dies under the wheels of a train, Lord Vronsky whom she had a dalliance with, just moved on with  other beauties on his arm.

Jude Law as Gentle Karenin

The message rings true. Know what you want. Experiment on the social dating scene. Have a fling or two before marriage and once you have settled down, sacrifice to the boredom of everyday living sans the sexual romance you once had.

The message-to go against that will be fatal.

RAM-Into the Looking Glass

Mirror,Mirror

As usual, we have the optimists and then the doomsayers.

What will 2013 be like  after the year is over?

Will there be disastrous world events with butterfly effects on our economy? Will the impending elections paralyze investment?

This is RAM Berhad through its looking glass.

The economy is expected to grow by 5.3% year-on-year in 2013 before accelerating to 5.8% next year on robust domestic demand and the gradual revival of external environment.

Domestic fiscal policy is  expected to remain accommodative as the implementation of key projects related to the Economic Transformation Programme  to pick up speed during the year.

Medium-term growth projection for the country ismaintained a 5.5% to 6% , supported by a stable expansion of the underlying factors of production.

As for domestic private consumption, it is anticipated to chart healthy growth due to favourable labour-market conditions instrumentally aided by a slew of Government initiatives and handouts.

RAM expects  that with an  improved business environment and relatively accommodative interest rates, private investment will expand further.

RAM is expectant that global conditions will gradually recover this year as policymakers in systemically important economies adopt an accommodative stance in an attempt to combat their respective structural deficiencies.

Malaysia’s export performance is expected to improve, in line with the revival of certain advanced economies. Similarly, import growth will likely be sustained by the resilient domestic economy, so they predict.

RAM foresee a fiscal policy that remains supportive of economic activity while the growth of public expenditure should moderate to meet the Government’s longer-term fiscal-consolidation objectives.

RAM notes the larger role of the “public-private partnership” method of financing in funding various development projects.

According to RAM's economists,“Conversely, the nation’s current-account surplus is expected to narrow as the acceleration of domestic investment closes the private sector’s saving-investment gap and increases imports."

They added that domestic monetary and financial conditions will remain relatively stable this year while inflation would likely increase at a modest pace due to healthy domestic demand conditions.

As such RAM sees  inflation to be moderate in the short term, with certain recently implemented policies  exerting some longer-term upward price pressures, The foresee the central bank  likely to adjust upwards the benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points this year from 3%.

[I have yet to see BNM in such a mode for a long time! Mostly it played 'chicken'.]

RAM opines that the ringgit might be more volatile in the short term due to global risk aversion but would retain considerable upside potential because of the currency’s strong fundamentals.

Meanwhile, they expect the global economy to expand by 3.5% this year largely due to growth from the emerging economies, with advanced economies expected to continue with their fiscal consolidation.

RAM's caveat:  They assume minimal occurrence of and impact from negative demand shocks in the advanced economies, along with limited disruption to global trade and supply of essential commodities.” 

Finally, this rating agency expects the US economy to accelerate to a pre-crisis growth pace of 2.5%, Europe to stagnate due to the enforcement of the European Fiscal Compact, which would improve the short-term sustainability of public finances  at the expense of immediate economic growth, and 8.1% growth in China from intra-regional trade even as global economic weakness weighed on the country’s economic expansion.

Do you believe RAM?

I think like most rating agency, they tread the middle path with all provisos and caveats right to the hilt!

The Death and Death of MCA in Johore

The Short Good-bye

With the recent Ponggol by-election win in Singapore by the Opposition in the city state, can we expect also such a turning in the  hinterland state of neighbouring Malaysia?

At the current moment, less than 40 days from the potential dissolution of the Johore State Assembly, there are no strong indicators that MCA has done anything that is substantive and significant to change the perception of the Chinese people in Johore. The best scenario is confirmed death to the party. No coroner is required

Why so?

The current crop of leaders such as the MCA President and his son as well as the other leaders in Johor continues to play second fiddle to the goliathic juggernaut brother, the ride-roughshod-over-you UMNO which continues to treat the sterile MCA as a good for nothing party except to take away potential UMNO seats. The best thing, these MCA leaders can do---continue to appear unperturbed, moribund and in hibernation mode;obviously oblivious to Chinese issues and its urgent resolution.

As long at the Chinese itch is not scratched, MCA will lose almost every seat it cares to stand.

The battle is set. The only thing to happen soon is engagement... and the resultant bloody nose for MCA.

There will be no Roland nor a horn for Roland to blow for quick rescue!

As a party without any great surviving leaders nor any promising second-echelon replacement, its bye-bye MCA.

Will you rest ten thousand years. 

Bridesmaids-On the Side of Female Melodrama

The Bridesmaids and their own exploits

The is a really a hen-party of a movie.

A maid of honour and a bridesmaid competed in one up-manship to plan a wedding of their friend, Lilian.

Beginning with  the hilarity of an engagement party that really went uncomfortable when Helen (Rose Byrne) competed with Annie Walker (Kristin Wiig) to show their close friendship with the Lilian, it went into  high note with the group literally crapping at a dress selection event due to food poisoning, then it soared to a  high drama unfolding on a flight with Annie going cuckoo and finally, Annie causing a rampage at a bachelorette party.

Rose by any other name....

While most part of the movie of predictable and lack zing, there were some smart dialogue.

Smart  Aussie Charm

The persona played by Kristin Wiig as the unfortunate lass in love and Rose Byrne  as the unsatiated wife in social disguise were brilliantly played.

It is great to see the vivacious Rose playing a softer role and a comical one at that.

Some dull moments but generally  good fare.

I Am Khan-From His Heart

Man in the Middle

Sharukh Khan is a megastar in India where Muslim is a minority. Oftentimes he has been singled out to be the one spokesperson that will help to soothe raw nerves between the minority Muslim population and the larger Hindu mass when things gets a 'bit tricky or rough'.

Here are his thoughts and reflections and the issues he and his family face each day when controversies arise. 

Read on.

I am an actor. Time does not frame my days with as much conviction as images do. Images rule my life. Moments and memories imprint themselves on my being in the form of the snapshots that I weave into my expression. The essence of my art is the ability to create images that resonate with the emotional imagery of those watching them. I am a Khan. The name itself conjures multiple images in my mind too-a strapping man riding a horse, his reckless hair flowing from beneath a turban tied firm around his head. His ruggedly handsome face marked by weathered lines and a distinctly large nose. A stereotyped extremist-no dance, no drink, no cigarette tipping off his lips, no monogamy, no blasphemy. A fair silent face beguiling a violent fury smoldering within. A streak that could even make him blow himself up in the name of his God.

Then there is the image of me being shoved into a back room of a vast American airport named after an American president-another parallel image of the president being assassinated by a man named Lee not a Muslim thankfully nor Chinese, as some might imagine. I urgently shove the image of the room out of my head. Some stripping, frisking and many questions later, I am given an explanation of sorts “Your name pops up on our system we are sorry”. “So am I ” I think to myself “Now can I have my underwear back please. ” Then there is the image I most see-the one of me in my own country being acclaimed as a megastar adored and glorified. My fans mobbing me with love and apparent adulation. I am a Khan. I could say I fit into each of these images. I could be a strapping six feet something — ok something minus about three inches at least though I don’t know much about horse-riding. A horse once galloped off with me flapping helplessly on it and I have had a “no horse-riding” clause embedded in my contracts ever since. I am extremely muscular between my ears. I am often told by my kids and I used to be fair too but now I have a perpetual tan or as I like to call it ‘olive hue’ — though deep in the recesses of my armpits, I can still find the remains of a fairer day. I am handsome under the right kind of light and I really do have a “distinctly large” nose. It announces my arrival in fact peeking through the doorway just before I make my megastar entrance. But my nose notwithstanding my name means nothing to me unless I contextualise it. Stereotyping and contextualising is the way of the world we live in a world in which definition has become central to security. We take comfort in defining phenomena objects and people — with a limited amount of knowledge and along known parameters. The predictability that naturally arises from these definitions makes us feel secure within our own limitations.

We create little image boxes of our own. One such box has begun to draw its lid tighter and tighter at present. It is the box that contains an image of my religion in millions of minds. I encounter this tightening of definition every time moderation is required to be publicly expressed by the Muslim community in my country. Whenever there is an act of violence in the name of Islam, I am called upon to air my views on it and dispel the notion that by virtue of being a Muslim I condone such senseless brutality I am one of the voices chosen to represent my community in order to prevent other communities from reacting to all of us as if we were somehow colluding with or responsible for the crimes committed in the name of a religion that we experience entirely differently from the perpetrators of these crimes. I sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India. There have been occasions when I have been accused of bearing allegiance to our neighbouring nation rather than my own country — this even though I am an Indian whose father fought for the freedom of India Rallies have been held where leaders have exhorted me to leave my home and return to what they refer to as my “original homeland” Of course I politely decline each time citing such pressing reasons as sanitation words at my house preventing me from taking the good shower that’s needed before undertaking such an extensive journey. I don’t know how long this excuse will hold though I gave my son and daughter names that could pass for generic pan-Indian and pan-religious ones Aryan and Suhana. The Khan has been bequeathed by me so they can’t really escape it. I pronounce it from my epiglottis when asked by Muslims and throw the Aryan as evidence of their race when non-Muslims enquire. I imagine this will prevent my offspring from receiving unwarranted eviction orders and random fatwas in the future. It will also keep my two children completely confused. Sometimes they ask me what religion they belong to and like a good Hindi movie hero. I roll my eyes up to the sky and declare philosophically “You are an Indian first and your religion is humanity” or sing them an old Hindi film ditty “Tu Hindu banega na Musalmaan banega — insaan ki aulaad hai insaan banega” set to Gangnam Style. None of this informs them with any clarity it just confounds them some more and makes them deeply wary of their father.

In the land of the freed where I have been invited on several occasions to be honored, I have bumped into ideas that put me in a particular context. I have had my fair share of airport delays for instance. I became so sick of being mistaken for some crazed terrorist who coincidentally carries the same last name as mine that I made a film subtly titled My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist to prove a point. Ironically, I was interrogated at the airport for hours about my last name when I was going to present the film in America for the first time. I wonder at times whether the same treatment is given to everyone whose last name just happens to be McVeigh as in Timothy. I don’t intend to hurt any sentiments but truth be told the aggressor and taker of life follows his or her own mind. It has to nothing to do with a name a place or his her religion. It is a mind that has its discipline its own distinction of right from wrong and its own set of ideologies. In fact, one might say it has its own “religion”. This religions has nothing to do with the ones that have existed for centuries and been taught in mosques or churches. The call of the azaan or the words of the pope have no bearing on this person’s soul. His soul is driven by the devil. I for one refuse to be contextualised by the ignorance of his ilk. I am a Khan. I am neither six-feet-tall nor handsome. I am modest though nor am I a Muslim who looks down on other religions. I have been taught my religion by my six-foot-tall handsome Pathan ‘Papa’ from Peshawar where his proud family and mine still resides. He was a member of the no-violent Pathan movement called Khudai Khidamatgaar and a follower of both Gandhiji and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan who was also known as the Frontier Gandhi.

My first learning of Islam from him was to respect women and children and to uphold the dignity of every human being. I learnt that the property and decency of others their points of view their beliefs their philosophies and their religions were due as much respect as my own and ought to be accepted with an open mind. I learnt to believe in the power and benevolence of Allah and to be gentle and kind to my fellow human beings; to give of myself to those less privileged than me and to live a life full of happiness, joy, laughter and fun without impinging on anybody else’s freedom to live in the same way. So I am a Khan but no stereotyped image is factored into my idea of who I am. Instead the living of my life has enabled me to be deeply touched by the love of millions of Indians. I have felt this love for the last 20 years regardless of the fact that my community is a minority within the population of India. I have been showered with love across national and cultural boundaries from Suriname to Japan and Saudi Arabia to Germany places where they don’t even understand my language. They appreciate what I do for them as an entertainer — that’s all. My life has led me to understand and imbibe that love is a pure exchange untempered by definition and unfettered by the narrowness of limiting ideas. If each one of us allowed ourselves the freedom to accept and return love in its purity,we would need no image boxes to hold up the walls of our security. I believe that I have been blessed with the opportunity to experience the magnitude of such a love but I also know that its scale is irrelevant. In our own small ways simply as human beings, we can appreciate each other for how touch our lives and not how our different religions or last names define us. Beneath the guise of my superstardom I am an ordinary man. My Islamic stock does not conflict with that of my Hindu wife’s. The only disagreements I have with Gauri concerns the color of the walls in our living room and not about the locations of the walls demarcating temples from mosques in India. We are bringing up a daughter who pirouettes in a leotard and choreographs her own ballets. She sings western songs that confound my sensibilities and aspires to be an actress. She also insists on covering her head when in a Muslim nation that practises this really beautiful and much misunderstood tenet of Islam.

Our son’s linear features proclaim his Pathan pedigree although he carries his own rather gentle mutations of the warrior gene. He spends all day either pushing people aside at rugby, kicking some butt at Tae Kwon Do or eliminating unknown faces behind anonymous online gaming handles around the world with The Call of Duty video game. And yet he firmly admonishes me for getting into a minor scuffle at the cricket stadium in Mumbai last year because some bigot make unsavoury remarks about me being a Khan.

 The four of us make up a motley representation of the extraordinary acceptance and validation that love can foster when exchanged within the exquisiteness of things that are otherwise defined ordinary. For I believe our religion is an extremely personal choice not a public proclamation of who we are. It’s as person as the spectacles of my father who passed away some 20 years ago. Spectacles that I hold onto as my most prized and personal possession of his memories, teachings and of being a proud Pathan I have never compared those with my friends who have similar possessions of their parents or grandparents, I have never said my father’s spectacles are better than your mother’s saree, So why should we have this comparison in the matter of religion which is as personal and prized a belief as the memories of your elders, Why should not the love we share be the last word in defining us instead of the last name, It doesn’t take a superstar to be able to give love.It just takes a heart and as far as I know there isn’t a force on this earth that can deprive anyone of theirs. I am a Khan and that’s what it has meant being one despite the stereotype images that surround me. To be a Khan has been to be loved and love back — that the promise that virgins wait for me somewhere on the other side