This isn't the Mafia

I only figured out what Hari Raya Korban actually meant less than 5 years ago, before this I always felt it was just a day where Muslims slaughtered a cow in the open before distributing the meat to the poor. (Those were the days of my ignorance).

It was not until my father suggested to a priest that Christians should also celebrate the festival did it occur to me that it a festival sybolizing the day Abraham almost killed Isaac (or Ishamel if you're a Muslim).

For those who are neither Muslim or Christian (and for Muslims and Christians who never knew), Abraham is regarded as the father of Jews, Christians and Muslims. He is the pivotal figure in the book of Genesis which is the first book of the bible/torah and possibly the Quran (though I'm not too sure).

The story goes that God Promised Abraham that this descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky, yet Abraham was without child and his wife Sarah was very old. So Abraham being the faithful servant of God believed in God, but in this case not with all his heart. If you read the Bible, you get the feeling Abraham was a bit skeptical that he would have a Child and even more skeptical that his wife Sarah could bear him one.

So one day Abraham had intercourse with his servant Haggar, who bore him a son Ishmael. Now Sarah his real wife wasn't all too pleased although it was her that suggested the relationship. Finally, Sarah herself was pregnant, and she bore Abraham a son named Isaac.

You would imagine after all of this, Abraham would have been quite happy, he went from no sons to 2 sons. However, God one day asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac on the Mountain. Abraham not understanding, but being a faithful servant of God, proceeded to do it anyway. Of course with a heavy heart.

He took Isaac, brought him all the way to the mountain, prepared the altar and was about to kill him when an Angel stopped him. God then said "because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore."

Abraham then sacrificed a nearby ram in the place of Isaac. This sacrifice of the ram is what is celebrated on Hari Raya Korban.

True it's not the most compelling of stories but this is one of the most important stories of the bible. It's a story of the faith of Abraham that he would sacrifice his only son, something someone else in the bible would do, but I'm not going to reveal the ending, you'll have to read it yourself.

Basically Jews, Christians and Muslim revere Abraham as a patriarch, it's only that Muslims trace this through Ishmael, while the Jews and Christians trace it through Jacob (Isaacs second son) and Isaac. I'm not too sure if the Muslims believe Haggar was a slave.

The point of this blog is that people of different faiths share common beliefs they focus rather on the differences rather the similarities. Things like Ketuanan this and Ketuanan that, vernacular schools and that certain subjects can only be though in a mother-tongue.

Maybe people should focus more on what we have a common and dialogue our differences, the concept of race is a tricky little thing, we've completely mapped our entire Human genome, yet we can find the gene responsible for race. The Belgians invented the concept of race in Rwanda, and a few hundred years later, a violent genocide occured killing thousands based solely on the concept of race.

Now sometimes similarities are good, they us feel connected to someone. It's like going overseas for a very long time, and suddenly you stumble across a Malaysian like you, the excitement and the feeling of closeness is really something. Or lying in a hospital bed, and suddenly finding out the person beside you is also a Muslim/Christian/Buddhist/Hindu..etc.

These feelings help people to re-connect. The same reason why Khairy went on rampage outside the US embassy and delivered an 'ultimatum' to the Israel bombings of Lebanon. It's because as a Muslim he felt connected to the Muslims in Lebanon that connection was strong enough for him to stage a protest. (let's ignore the political games for a while).

It's why Indians in Malaysia feel sadden, upset and angry when Terrorist who are neither Indian or Hindu waltz into Mumbai and target innoncent women and Children for killings. Because Indians feel a connection to the suffering of Indians in India.

The reason for all this ramblings today is because I read this particular blog :
http://www.malaysiawaves.com/2008/12/on-mumbai-terrrorism-islamophobes-and.html

and it really pissed me off. The blog highlights rightfully or wrongfully the plight of Muslims in India and how they are marginalized somewhat institutional in the Hindu populated Country.

However, he makes NO effort to condemn the terrorist, and tries to justify the killing of innoncent women and children based on the economic disparity of Muslims in India.

The terrorist were from Pakistan (it's a WHOLE other country), Pakistan CHOSE to break away from India, to have Pakistani terrorist walking into India and blowing up hotels and hospitals, is the equivalent of Indians from Singapore

1) walking into Bukit Bintang and blowing up the Marriot,
2) then targetting Hospital Besar Kuala Lumpur (specifically the childrens and womens wards),
3) and then blowing up a mosque and killing the Imam, just to be sure.
4) Then Indians in Malaysia, justify the action by their economic disparity.

Absolute BULL SHIT. The President of India is a Muslim, here a non-Muslim can't even be Menteri Besar of Selangor. You can't justify the Killing of innoncent women and children by simply quoting economic statistics. That's nonsense, and to claim that the world doesn't care about Muslims is partially right, the world doesn't care about anyone. Look at the monks who were killed in Myanmar, or the Rwandan Genocide, did anyone care then?

The connections we feel with people are important, it enables us to care about a section of society, because quite honestly, we can't care about everything. We can't shoulder all the worlds problems but we can try to carry some of it. Muslims like Khairy rightfully protesting the bombings in Lebanon (though in the wrong manner).

We cannot (and can never) justify innoncent killing of people as part of a 'message' to the world, this isn't the Mafia.

That's my 2 cents. Don't spend it all in one place.

Hey guess what.....we're not Capitalist

I've always said we should tax our Petrol, I just never thought I'd live to see the day. Gasoline in the US is less than 2 dollars a Gallon, which translate to less than Rm2 per liter here. Gasoline is not the same a Petrol, therefore the cost/price is not the same, but it's a fair comparison.

Obviously, Malaysians aren't to happy with the price of Petrol. They're probably only going to be happy when it Petrol is given out for free.

Today though I read an interesting suggestion from the DAP regarding this:

" AN opposition MP has suggested that petrol stations be allowed to set their own price for petrol and diesel.

They would then be able to compete against each other, Tony Pua Kiam Wee (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) said at Parliament lobby yesterday. " (Taken from the NST)

This guy went to Oxford (I think) , and was CEO of a public listed company in Singapore, so you'll forgive him for being going into details. Obviously he fails to mention a few points, which I will take over from him.

First of, the model for Petrol sales in Malaysia is based on a dealer operating Model. Basically the big oil companies (Petronas, Shell, Esso, Mobil, Caltex, BHP, Sabah Oil,...) own the site, while the dealer (sort of a franchisee) runs it. The dealer purchases fuel from the Refinery at a specific price, and sells it to get his margins. In Malaysia the margin of the Petrol Company and the margin of the dealer is set to fixed level.

The government dictates, not just the pump price, but the Petrol Company margin as well as the dealer margin. Of course this applies just to fuels (Petrol/ Diesel), and everything else you can sell for whatever price you want. What may sound a bit odd though, is the government doesn't allow you to sell petrol at a lower price than the Set price. So a dealer can't sacrifice his margin for volume legally (even if he wanted to). A dealer can't even offer you free mineral water with your purchase. Petrol will always be sold at the same price at every station, and dealers make the same amount of money for every liter regardless of which station they operate.

So you see, the government controls EVERYTHING in terms of Petrol sales in this country. What Tony Pua suggest is we remove some of this regulation, which I'm on board with, but you probably won't be once you hear the facts.

First off, if we let dealers decide their margins themselves what makes us think that they won't send the price higher? Healthy competition in Malaysia is a fools dream, these no-nothing Oxford types like to think about. If Healthy competition exist, then how come a everywhere in Klang the price of a Nasi Lemak (in ALL the mamak stalls) are the same? How come no one thought of healthy competition and reduce their Nasi Lemak Margin to sell more? Because they're all part of the Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners' Association (Primas) and this association sets the price of everything from the Ayam Goreng to Teh Tarik. (proof here)

Every member of Primas sets their prices accordingly, walk into a Dentist and you'll see a Dental Association regulated pricing, or just drop by your Local Tyre Shop and chances are you'll find the same thing. Regulated pricing by an association.

So if you're in association that's selling a particular product, then are you going to say, let's sell it for less? Hell NO.....Tandoori chicken is Rm4.00. by the way.

So since petrol station owners have their own Association (The Petrol Dealers Association Malaysia), what makes us think they won't get together and increase the margin themselves? They're obviously unhappy with their margins based on the fact that some stations stopped accepting Credit Cards because the Merchant service fees ate into their margins. Some of them didn't even order fuel for Raya, because they were afraid the price would go down. They're not happy with their margins currently, what makes us think they'll reduce it??

If we set a ceiling price to their margin, they'll just set the margin at the ceiling price. (DUH!!) and we'll end up where we started in the first place.

Obviously if we want healthy competition we NEED to dissolve these associations, so Bus Drivers , Taxi Drivers, Dentist and even your Local Tyre Shop can set WHATEVER they want individually which encourages competition. To do this we need anti-competitive laws in this country and we don't have that...yet.

So unless there's a shift in thinking in Malaysia, this idea will most likely FAIL...and FAIL MISERABLY.

You can't depend on open-competition in Malaysia if you don't have the laws to enforce them.

Even if we did enforce the law, what happens to small towns way of the coast. I remember 15 years ago, Sitiawan only had one Petrol Station. What's to stop this dealer from setting enormous margins for himself. A company without competition (like an individual Petrol Station) doesn't need to worry about price, they can set it to whatever they want. Some towns are too small to justify 2 stations, and you'll invariably end up in a scenario where one dealer sets a huge premium on his fuel.

Hope Tony is reading this. Haha :)

That's my 2 cents. Don't spend it all in one place.

Vernacular schools

First off, I don't like multiple education systems in our country. My personal opinion is that from primary 1, right up to form 5 we should have just one education system, for ALL Malaysian children (except those rich ones who can afford private education).

So I'm actually together with Mukhriz on this one, I believe that there shouldn't be multiple school systems like Tamil schools and Chinese schools. Yes, the constitution guarantees your right to have them, but it doesn't guarantee federal funding for schools that are not in-line with the national school system. I believe the government gives a VERY small amount to National type schools, but this has to be stopped as well.

I came from a missionary school that was only partially funded by the government, we were very poor. In comparison my primary school was a full-blown Sekolah Kebangsaan, and I had all the perks and facilities I could have wanted. The difference of federal funding was very very clear. Though I just have to look across the road from La Salle Klang, to see a behemoth Hin Hwa High School, a school so large, it has elevators.

The truth is this we cannot go around talking about Bangsa Malaysia, criticizing UMNO for polarization and at the same time prioritize our individual mother tongues so much that we would rather send our children to a completely different schooling system. It is inconsistent, that if we insist that all Malaysians be the same and encourage diversity, yet we send our kids to schools whose populace is 80,90 or even 100% of a single race. That is wrong, we should know better.

However, if Mukhriz really was interested in National Unity, then the MRSM and Maktab Sains Maras need to be opened as well. You can't expect Malay boys and girls to learn about national unity, when they're in a school whose population is 100% malay and 100% muslim. That's not good for unity. This needs to be given up as well.

So my challenge to people is this, if you really want Bangsa Malaysia, and you want a identify as a Malaysian FIRST, then we need to discard our cultural baggages and embrace our Malaysian way of life which doesn't include learning Chinese History in school.

My Challenge to Mukhriz and to UMNO is that if you insist that multiple schooling systems are bad for national unity (which I totally agree), then you also have to accept that the MRSM, and MARA is ALSO bad for national unity and whatever you do to the national type schools (for instance abolishing them) you need to do to the Asramas as well, just to be consistent.

Whether anything will come of this is highly doubtful.

That's my 2 cents, don't spend it all in one place.