Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Buy Elections and Shoot-Outs

The Hulu Selangor By Elections; was it an expected result?
To many, it was perhaps an expected result though not an anticipated one.
The Hulu Selangor Buy Elections is what its considered to be to put it more appropriately.
I was particularly disappointed with the results, not so much that Zaid Ibrahim lost, but that once again, money seems to be the greatest motivating factor. Well, at the very least, they tried to with the Chinese voters; see the pledged funds for the Chinese medium schools in Bukit Beruntung and Rasa.

I wish that much money was given to my alma mater, St Michael's Institution.

Should't parties have expenditure cap for by elections? Perhaps this is something that the EC over-sighted. After all, these are 'donations'. Come on, seriously, why 'donations' at this hour? Unfortunately we have accustomed ourselves to accept this as 'election campaigning propaganda'.
A friend of mine said, that it is a good thing for the chinese schools. I agreed. But it is only a temporary gain, and not one in the long run. Unfortunately, this is a referendum that money still buys into the hearts of people. That our politics, is still race based, no thanks to MCA and MIC for upholding that fact. And then you have PERKASA, making racial statements all day long without going unpunished. Punishing the Chinese for not voting BN by not fulfilling the pledges that were 'pledged'? Punishing under what circumstances and under whose authority?! COME ON?!!

My friends, such is the sad state of our politics in this country.

With the personal attacks on Zaid Ibrahim's 'alcoholic problems', it goes to show how hypocritical politicians really are. I'm sure all the other politicians have lived absolutely perfect lives.

So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her - John 7:8, King James Version

Perhaps that above sums it up appropriately :)...and yet they continue to cast the stones...

It is a sad day for the rakyat as a whole once again.

And to compound perhaps a week of general misery,once again, we have news of the nation's police force once again, being all too trigger happy. The shooting of Aminulrasyid Amzah will once again bring Malaysian minds where, too often, the police have acted as the Judge, Jury and Executioner. Aminulrasyid never even had a chance to appear before any juvenile court for his offense (driving without a license) which seems to me, now, carries the death penalty. It's simply too tragic and crazy.
To the family of the deceased, the RM10,000.00 compensation(how little the life of a young boy seems to cost)is nothing compared to the trauma that they go through at this very moment. The loss of life and the loss of a son.
I only hope that the Bar Council's push for a public inquiry on this does not fall on deaf ears as we so often have seen in the past...

This is another blow to the image of the civil defense service, and I mean the police here, if it's not tainted with doubt and distrust already.

If anything, it further makes a mockery of 1Malaysia...

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Poetry and Prose




Was listening to Tourniquet's Vanishing Lessons just a while ago. It was a piece of good music and i was reminded of an excerpt in the interlude of the song, quoted by....I don't know...Vincent Price maybe? But it was from Edgar Alan Poe's Masque of the Red Death, a symbolic tale of the Black plague if I'm not wrong...

"There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless, which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost , to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made." - Edgar Allan Poe, the Masque of the Red Death

This is a random post...or is it?

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Oh The Wonderful Cross


As we go through the season of Lent and this week in particular, of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, let us just remember the journey of Christ, from the time of the Passover Feast(the Last Supper) to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, to the events when Jesus was betrayed and sentenced to be crucified, and yet all this was done, for the salvation of you and I. At the Cross He died, so that we may live. The Death was not in a glorified fashion, for anyone would know or perceive, that the crucifixion was a devastating and gruesome encounter. But it is His death for US, which makes His resurrection even more so glorified.
Thank you for the Cross.
As we reflect on this time, let me just share this song, which has been a constant comfort in needful times for me. :)

WHEN I SURVEY

WHEN I SURVEY the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Oh, the wonderful cross,
Oh, the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
That I may truly live.
Oh, the wonderful cross,
Oh, the wonderful cross,
All who gather here by grace
Draw near and bless Your name.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Music: Lowell Mason (1792-1872)