There are many cure-all snake-oil merchants out there who are offering us a one-cure-for-all remedy. HIV, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart trouble, gout, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, asthma, etc., all can be cured with just one pill. Take this pill once a day for three days and all your illnesses will disappear.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I am wary of those who blame everything wrong with the country on the government, Barisan Nasional, Umno, the Prime Minister, the Malays, Islam, Prophet Muhammad, the British Colonial masters, etc.

And why is that? 

Well, the reason is because this becomes a very convenient copout. It allows us to shift the blame and not take responsibility. It enables us to look for a scapegoat (kambing hitam) rather than accept the fact that we are to blame for what is happening and for what is going wrong.

Poor feller. He murdered 25 people because as a child his father mistreated him (denied him ice scream). He is not to be blamed. His father is to be blamed for the 25 murders. His father taught him violence (caned him on one occasion for stealing RM1.00 to buy ice scream) so he grew up into a violent person. That is why he murdered 25 people. In fact, his father should be sentenced to death for the 25 murders that the son committed.

Sounds a bit exaggerated, I know, but when we are allowed to shift the blame for our wrongdoings and shortcomings to someone else then there is really no limit to how far we can go with this. And that is why I am wary about this ‘shift the blame to others’ game.

There are some things we can blame on the government, Barisan Nasional, Umno, the Prime Minister, the Malays, etc. But not all things are the fault of the government, Barisan Nasional, Umno, the Prime Minister, or the Malays.

More importantly, not all ills can be cured by a ‘simple’ change of government because some of these ills are in our heart and in our mind. And if we simplify the problem by thinking that a change of government is a cure-all solution, then we are never going to see Malaysia change for the better.

There are many cure-all snake-oil merchants out there who are offering us a one-cure-for-all remedy. HIV, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart trouble, gout, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, asthma, etc., all can be cured with just one pill. Take this pill once a day for three days and all your illnesses will disappear.

That can never happen and neither will the one-cure-for-all solution of changing the government to turn Malaysia into a Paradise on earth.

Let me relate a story about the time I used to live in Taman Purnama, Kuala Ibai, Kuala Terengganu back in the 1970s (I lived there for around 18 years until 1994).

When we first moved there, Kuala Ibai was not yet under the jurisdiction of the Kuala Terengganu Town Council. Therefore, we were spared the council tax but that also meant there was no rubbish collection.

Taman Purnama, Kuala Ibai, Kuala Terengganu

We then formed a residents’ committee (with me as the Chairman) and called for a meeting to discuss what to do about rubbish collection. It was agreed that we would employ someone at a salary of a few hundred ringgit a month and each house would contribute a couple of ringgit (the price of a pack of cigarettes) to this person’s salary.

We bought a pushcart and every day this employee would go house-to-house to collect all the rubbish from our dustbins and go and bury it at a vacant lot behind the neighbourhood.

There were two Chinese families in our neighbourhood. One was quite wealthy. They owned a hotel and nightclub and were involved in all sorts of businesses. The ‘old man’ of the woman of the house was a ‘Datuk Bergelar’ (not just a Datuk but a titled Datuk) and very close to the then Sultan of Terengganu. When he was still alive he was in fact the wealthiest man in Terengganu.

But this Chinese family refused to pay anything. So, of course, the rubbish man did not collect their rubbish. And when their dustbin was full they would just throw everything over the fence into their neighbour’s garden. And, because of their ‘power’, no one dared reprimand them or say anything.

Nevertheless, I still visited them every Chinese New Year and acted as cordially and neighbourly as I could in the spirit of kejiranan. Eventually, thank God, they left the neighbourhood although that meant we ‘lost’ one of the wealthiest families in Terengganu.

Now, whom do we blame for the attitude of this very wealthy and renowned Chinese family? Can changing the government bring positive changes to Malaysia if we still have wealthy Chinese who act like this and who think that just because they are very close to the Istana they can act like small Rajas?

And this is what I find very wrong with some of the wealthy Chinese. Once they have too much money they lust for pangkat (position). So they are prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit to buy titles such as datukships and whatnot. And once they have these titles they act worse than even members of the royal family.

And this is why what happened, happened, as reported in the news item below. And it serves these people right. Many rich Chinese have been cheated in the pursuit of these titles. And most are too ashamed to report the fraud because it makes them look silly.

So, if you want to talk about change let us talk about change. But what change do you wish to talk about? Not everything wrong with Malaysia is entirely the fault of the government. We have a serious attitude problem that needs addressing. And this has nothing to do with the government.

Was it not the Chinese in Pakatan Rakyat’s Selangor who threw 600 dogs into the sea to drown off Pulau Ketam? What has Umno or the Malays got to do with that?

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‘I was told to pay RM90,000 for award’

A week after his face appeared in the newspaper, a recipient of the unrecognised Dato Kehormat Undang Naning award has claimed that he was led to believe the award was genuine and he almost paid RM90,000 for it.

Sebestian Koh, 49, said there were over 100 recipients that day receiving one of three titles – Datuk Seri, Datuk Paduka and Datuk.

Koh also refuted a statement by Malacca’s Undang Luak of Naning, Dato’ Seri Raja Merah Dato’ Abdul Latif Hashim, that he did not confer the title.

Showing photographs of him receiving the award at the “balai rasmi” in Simpang Ampat, Malacca, on Feb 16, Koh said: “I think the confusion must have arisen because there were so many people being awarded titles that day, so he (Abdul Latif) might not have remembered me.

“I was told by a friend, who also received the award, that it was recognised by the Government. He said I could even include the title in my MyKad and passport.

“Although I had never heard of the award, I decided to accept it since they were conferring it on me anyway.”

Koh was speaking to reporters at the MCA Public Service and Com­plaints Department yesterday.

The Star had front-paged the issue of questionable titles conferred by Naning chieftains and interviewed Abdul Latif and Ahmad Shah Raja Noor Jan Shah, who claimed to be the “Malacca-Perak Sultan”.

Abdul Latif had said that the investiture ceremony to confer titles was purely customary and the awards were merely customary titles with no connection to those bestowed by the Malacca Government.

In November last year, Koh said his friend, a certain “Datuk” Teoh, had called to inform him about the Datukship and handed over a “surat watikah”.

He said he was also informed about the RM90,000 “standard donation” for the title, which would be “contributed” to the Naning territory.

Abdul Latif presenting an award to Koh at an investiture ceremony at the ‘balai rasmi’ in Simpang Ampat, Malacca, on Feb 16.

Before the investiture ceremony, Koh said he paid RM6,000 for a yellow sash with red stripes, a medal with the words “Dato Kehormat” and a card identifying him as a title holder.

When asked if he knew that the award was dubious, Koh admitted that he did know that the historical state had no sultan.

“The one conferring the title claimed to be a descendant of the Malacca sultanate and I asked around to check if this was true,” he said, confessing however that this was not done thoroughly as whatever information he had, coupled with Teoh’s persuasion, made everything “look very real”.

A few months after he accepted the award, Koh said his friends asked if they could advertise their congratulatory messages, to which he agreed.

“Only after The Star article on the Datuks of Naning was published did I realise that I had received an unrecognised award. My friends are laughing at me for being a recipient of a fake award. It is very embarrassing.” 

When asked about his next move, Koh said he would not lodge a police report but had set aside the award and moved on.

On whether the award might be revoked if he did not settle the “standard donation”, Koh waved it off as a non-issue, adding that “it was not recognised anyway”.

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这怎能算是巫统的错呢？

外边有很多卖些所谓的‘万用神丹’的江湖佬会讲说他们的药什么病也能治。艾滋病，癌症，糖尿病，高血压，心脏有问题，痛风，勃起功能障碍，记忆力减退，哮喘等，都难不倒此神丹。每天你只需服用一颗神丹，三天后包你药到病除。

 

我替那些把一切错误都归咎于国家政府，国阵，巫统，首相，马来人，伊斯兰教，先知穆罕默德，英国殖民者等等等的人感到担心。

为什么呢？

原因是这已成为一个非常方便好用的借口。它使我们能够推卸责任，不必去承担责任。它使我们能够寻找一个代罪羔羊（kambing hitam）而不是去接受我们于某件事上应该受责备的事实。

可怜的倒霉鬼啊，他杀害了25人，因为他的父亲在他还是个孩子的时候虐待他（不给他吃冰淇淋）。他不应该受到谴责，他的父亲应该对这25起谋杀案来背上骂名。他的父亲教会他暴力（他曾偷窃一块钱来买冰淇淋而被他父亲鞭打），所以他长大后变成一个暴力的人。这就是为什么他杀害了25人。事实上，他的父亲应该为儿子犯下的25起谋杀案而被判死刑。

听起来有点夸张，我知道，但是当我们被允许把我们的错误责任推卸给别人时，我们有时就真能去得很尽。这就是为什么我很担心这个“把罪推给他人”的游戏。

有一些事情我们可以责怪政府，首相，国阵，巫统，马来人等，但并不是所有的东西都是政府，国阵，巫统首相，或马来人的错。

更重要的是，并不是所有的弊病都可以靠一个“简单”的“换政府”来治愈的，因为这些弊病都已根深蒂固地处在我们的思想人格里了。如果我们简单地认为“换政府”是可以治愈所有弊病的解决方案，那我们永远也不会看到马来西亚好转。

外边有很多卖些所谓的‘万用神丹’的江湖佬会讲说他们的药什么病也能治。艾滋病，癌症，糖尿病，高血压，心脏有问题，痛风，勃起功能障碍，记忆力减退，哮喘等，都难不倒此神丹。每天你只需服用一颗神丹，三天后包你药到病除。

这在现实世界里是不可能发生的，正如“换政府”这个方案是无法把马来西亚变成一个地球上的天堂。

让我讲一个故事来给你联想，70年代中期我曾经住在登嘉楼 Kuala Ibai 的Taman Purnama（我在那里住了约18年，直到1994年）。

当我们第一次搬到那里时，Kuala Ibai 还不是在瓜拉登嘉楼市议会的管辖下。因此，我们不需缴议会税，但这也意味没有市议会来收集垃圾。

我们过后组织了一个居民委员会（我作为主席）讨论如何做垃圾收集。经过开会我们同意以几百令吉的月薪来聘请某人，而这几百令吉将由每家每户一起‘公司’出的（一包烟的价格）。

我们买了一个小推车，这名员工每天会去收集所有家庭的垃圾，然后再埋在附近的一块空地里。

在我们住宅区里有两个华人家庭，其中一个是相当的富裕。他们拥有一个酒店和夜总会，并参与各种生意活动。这家女主人的‘老头’是一个‘Datuk Bergelar’（拥有拿督头衔），而且还非常地亲近当时的登嘉楼苏丹。在他还活着时他确实是登嘉楼州最富有的人。

但这个家庭拒绝支付任何费用。所以，那个垃圾收集的人也没有为他们这一家收集垃圾。当他们的垃圾桶堆满时，他们就把垃圾从栅栏倒进他们邻居的花园里。因为他们的“权力”，没有人敢谴责他们什么。

尽管如此，我还是每逢农历新年就去拜访他们，和凭借kejiranan精神来做个最佳的亲切睦邻。最后，感谢上帝，他们离开了我们的住宅区，虽然这意味着我们“失去”了嘉楼州州最富有的家庭之一。

现在，就这个富有著名华人家庭的丑陋态度，我们该责怪谁呢？当马来西亚还存在着这种富有的华人家族，他们的思想是仅仅因为他们都非常接近皇室他们就可以像小王子般我行我素时，换政府是否能为马来西亚带来正面的变化呢？

这就是我觉得一些富裕的华人非常错误的地方。一旦他们有太多的钱，他们就渴望得到pangkat。因此，他们准备花上数十万令吉来购买拿督或其他的头衔。一旦他们有了这些头衔，他们的行为比起王室成员甚至还要更为糟糕。

这就是为什么发生了以下新闻报道所发生的事情了，这些人都是活该的。许多富有的华人追求这些头衔时都被这些骗局给骗了。而且大多数人都是羞于向警方作出投保，因为这使他们看起来太愚蠢了。

所以，如果你想谈改变，那就让我们来谈论改变。但你想谈的是什么样的改变呢？马来西亚的弊病不一切都是政府的错。我们有一个很不好的态度，而这个态度急需被更改，而这与政府无关。

之前不正是华人领导的民联雪兰莪州把600条狗丢入吉胆岛附近的海域淹没的吗？巫统或马来和这有什么关联呢？

 

‘我被告知需要付9万令吉来取得我的头衔’

在出现在报纸上一个星期后，一名被封不受承认的拿督头衔的人士声称，他是被他人误导才认为那个拿督头衔是真的，而为此他几乎付出了9万令吉。

（下文省略）