HANTU DI RAJA MALAYSIA

Oleh - Hesmel Faznee Faisal.

Salam, kepada para bloggers dan pembaca setia blog syok sendiri ini!

Saya tidak pasti, samada ingin merasa takut, ketawa atau bingung apabila membaca berita yang “menyeramkan” di sini.

Rasanya, saya pernah menulis mengenai cerita hantu di dalam tulisan awal saya dan betapa saya tidak langsung merasa terpegun mahupun tertarik dengan cerita hantu jembalang ini.

Bagi saya, hanya “hantu” sahaja yang mempercayai hantu!

Sebagai seorang Islam, kita harus memahami konsep Khalifah di muka bumi ini. Maknanya, kita telah dipilih Allah SWT untuk menjadi “wakil” Nya di Bumi ini. Kita adalah makhluk ciptaan Allah yang paling sempurna dibandingkan dengan ciptaanNya yang lain.

Masakan Allah menyuruh semua Malaikat sembah dan tunduk kepada Nabi Adam, kerana dengan cara ini Allah “mengiktiraf” Nabi Adam A.S (yang mewakili keturunan manusia, Jose!) sebagai khalifah yang dipertanggungjawabkan untuk memelihara dan menjaga bumi ini.

Namun sayangnya, ramai yang terlepas pandang dan terlupa tentang tanggungjawab mereka sebagai khalifah di muka bumi, terutamanya kepada golongan manusia zaman sekarang!

Berbalik kepada cerita di pautan di atas, saya menganggap cerita ini sebagai satu perbuatan yang hanya merugikan pihak PDRM dan tidak lebih kepada publisiti murahan yang melucukan!

Apakah pihak polis, yang dipertanggungjawabkan melindungi keselamatan dan memastikan kita semua tinggal dalam keadaan aman menjadi takut kepada hantu?

Tidakkah penulisan di atas mencadangkan bahawa polis, selama hampir 200 tahun penubuhannya, serta pernah melalui zaman perit menentang komunis dan kumpulan subversive menjadi ketakutan hanya kerana seekor hantu?

Secara peribadi, penulisan di atas hanyalah sebagai satu provokasi kepada orang ramai agar mereka menilai dan menimbulkan perasaan prasangka terhadap PDRM!

Mungkin, sekadar mungkin ada unsur-unsur yang tertentu ini wujud kerana bertujuan untuk melemahkan karisma PDRM yang kebelakangan ini tercalar, saya tidak pasti.

Apa yang pasti, editor dan juga penulis berita tersebut harus berfikir semula tentang kesan sampingannya terhadap masyarakat.

Kelak, kita mungkin akan terpaksa bergantung kepada pasukan Ghost Busters yang kerja mereka hanyalah menambahkan lagi perasaan takut di dalam diri ini!

Hanya tinggal 10 tahun lagi sebelum mencapai tahun 2020. Sekarang saya faham mengapa pencetus idea Wawasan 2020, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sendiri mulai pesimis dengan sasaran untuk Malaysia menjadi Negara moden menjelang 2020. Beliau sendiri dilaporkan berkata beliau kini hilang keyakinan sasaran itu akan tercapai.

Pemikiran masyarakat Malaysia, orang Melayu secara khususnya walaupun mereka membawa kereta Porsche, BMW, menjamah makanan tengahari di hotel mahupun di restoran mewah, mempunyai perasaan malu untuk berbicara bahasa Melayu, masih lagi membawa mentality nenek moyang mereka yang kalau hendak menggambarkannya ialah dengan satu perkataan, iaitu kolot!

Maka tidak hairanlah, hantu-hantu ini akan terus bersarang di dalam pemikiran kita, hingga ke satu peringkat yang mana kita telah menjadi negara moden namun mentaliti kita persis masyarakat yang hidup 500 tahun nan lampau!

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu - The Salam Connection.

FOREVER AFTER

By - Hesmel Faznee

Salam, to fellow bloggers.

The forever after jam near the USJ Summit traffic light.

I wonder what the authorities are doing to overcome this problem.

And why aren't the Subang Jaya MP do something to solve it?

Dear USJ'ans.. That's what you get when you put a dumb lad in the August house.

LOST IN A PREEMPT BATTLE WITH OUR OWN AMMUNITION

By – Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this self-proclaimed blog!

The intellects are known for their mind boggling quotes.

Martin Luther King, Jr (to those who did not learn history, read more about him here) for instance, quoted; “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

True to its word, all of us are a product of history. Thus, we now could perfectly understand why most of us are likely to repeat mistakes, again and again. The reason is simple; we did not learn anything from the past!

The Government through the National Archive has at last decided to set up a memorial to pay tribute to MCA founder and one of the political figures who fought for our Independence, the late Tun Tan Cheng Lock.

There is however, another flip of the coin. I presume the decision was made only when his families have made the decision to hand out all of his personal documents to a foreign institution.

The fact that the Minister, who is in charge for the Ministry responsible in safe keeping our entire historical treasure can only whine and said something that portray him as a sore loser is something we should look at.

There is no good for him to keep on whining. What he should  be doing now is to lead his Ministry into planning of ways on how to reclaim back other precious historical documents that are now under the hands of people in foreign lands.

If everyone could still remember, we lost our claim for the sovereignty of the White Rock Island (Or Pulau Batu Putih Jose!) to Singapore in the International Court when the Singapore government presented to the court an old documentation signed by the then Sultan of Johore with the British government to say that His Majesty will not or any words to that effect claim the rights of the tiny island!

Someone with a rightful mind would agree with my argument that the pride of our country is slowly depriving if we keep on losing all of the important documents that records important moments of this country!

Does anyone in the Ministry ever realize how important Cheng Lock’s document is for the Government?

Can’t they for once use their creative thinking and start wandering what if, what if some of the documents contain important facts that can later be use to make more claim and demands by Singapore?

I have nothing against Singapore or the people there except that I’m quite disturbed with the laissez faire attitude of Malaysians towards history!

It is said that original copies of precious agreement, such as the Pangkor Treaty and many more are tucked safely in foreign historical institution located in the UK and other places.

Imagine all of this can be done just by accessing those documents, should they decided to make more claims on our sovereignty (If you know who I was referring to, Jose!).

There might be interesting facts and figures written by Tun Tan Cheng Lock on our country. And now all of these have fallen under the hands of Singaporean intellects who would love to do a microscopic research about us. Though Singapore was once part of Malaysia, they have long been considered as foreigners no matter what.

Are we willing to see foreigners do research and find out important facts about Malaysia and later use it against us?

I rest my case..

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection

HANTU H1N1 DAN IMAGINASI MANUSIA

Oleh – Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, kepada para bloggers dan pembaca blog syok sendiri ini!

Imaginasi manusia itu merupakan suatu kuasa yang cukup menakjubkan!

Cara dan kaedah kita menggunakannya itu, bergantung kepada individu itu sendiri. Jika imaginasi itu bersifat “syok sendiri”, ianya mungkin membawa kepada jalan yang agak diragukan.

Namun, ada juga imaginasi yang dibangunkan berdasarkan kepada inspirasi dan juga keinginan untuk melihat masyarakat dan bangsa itu diinjakkan darjatnya ke tahap yang lebih tinggi.

Saya tergerak untuk berbincang mengenai imaginasi ini berdasarkan kepada satu sebab, iaitu rasa ralat dan jelik melihat terlalu banyak drama dan filem yang diterbitkan di Malaysia ini, ratanya berkisarkan kepada kisah seram (baca hantu dan dunia ghaib) dan lain-lain.

Mungkin ramai yang akan berhujah kita diharuskan percaya kepada benda-benda halus. Benar, tetapi aqal yang dikurniakan Tuhan kepada kita juga menyuruh kita berfikir dengan logik, apakah kita perlu tunduk kepada benda halus atau sebaliknya?

Mungkin ramai yang akan berhujah menyebutkan tentang hukum hakam mahupun Rukun Iman. Bagi saya, mereka ini sekadar ingin “menghalalkan” apa yang difikirkan dan ditegakkan oleh mereka selama ini, iaitu wujudnya “entiti” atau kata lain hantu dan makhluk halus!

Saya tidak menafikan bahawa makhluk halus ini wujud. Malah, ianya berada di depan saya, semasa saya sedang menulis pojok ini.

Ianya keluar dan masuk ke dalam tubuh saya, tidak lain tidak bukan ialah udara! Tidak juga ketinggalan kuman dan pelbagai lagi spesis halus yang ada disekeliling kita.

Selain daripada itu, kuman H1N1 yang merupakan salah satu daripada "makhluk halus" yang sudah nyata merbahaya telah kembali menganggu masyarakat kita, seperti yang dilaporkan di sini.

Masyarakat kita pada kelazimannya, lebih takut dan gentar kepada sesuatu yang diwujudkan oleh imaginasi mereka (baca hantu!) dan langsung tidak gentar dengan “hantu” H1N1 ini. Para peniaga misalannya, mereka masih lagi mengamalkan pendekatan “tidak apa” di dalam menjaga kebersihan makanan yang dijual.

Hantu, makhluk halus dan H1N1. Semuanya kian mengganas. Hantu dan makhluk ganas ini hanya mengganas di dalam imaginasi kita, seperti watak Freddie Krueger dalam filem Nightmare in Elm Street (I don’t care whether its the new version or the old one!).

Namun kuman H1N1, mengganas di dalam diam dan jika tidak dijaga kesannya adalah amat lebih buruk dibandingkan dengan “hantu” di dalam imaginasi kita!

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection

THE MALAYSIAN MENTALITY TOWARDS PUBLIC AMENITIES

By – Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this fetish blog!

Let me be frank, I am quite skeptical towards the mentality of Malaysians, especially on their attitude towards public amenities.

More often than not, Malaysians with itchy fingers just love to destroy public property. There is a probability that these offenders might be suffering from mental disorder, we can’t even tell. Even then, there was a research being conducted on vandalism in Malaysia, to determine how bad the problem is!

When the Deputy Information, Commu¬nications and Culture Minister suggests that local museums should feature more interactive displays as reported here, all I could say is that this will lead to more quandary and problem!

There is no doubt that this is another way to increase the public interest to visit the museum (Imagine,  having to view in a 3D display, the final battle between Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, Jose!) and for them to experience it first hand through the reenactment of the Pangkor Treaty via interactive display. Or, visitors are able to “interact” with the late Tunku through the marvelous technology of the hologram!

There are numerous ideas, opportunities to explore with and wonderful gizmos to enliven public to visit the museum and to understand history.

However, there is one point that will always remain unanswered; how to determine those equipments can still be fully functioned, a day after its launch?

This is something for us to ponder with.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection

LESSON LEARNT IN MOVIE MAKING

By – Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this low esteem blog!

I have always enjoyed watching classical movies. Having said that, I wouldn’t go too far and declared myself a huge fan of Charleston Heston (though I enjoyed watching his acting in Planet of the Apes and the Tenth Commandments) or Clark Gable!

My favourite classical movies are basically the ones released during the late 60’s and 70’s. The late 60’s and the 70’s were considered by some as the era of development that help to create the popular culture. A lot of basic foundation for the present culture was molded from this timeline.

Anyway, more often than not I would go and visit the illegal DVD shops (let us all be honest for once and admit that we will never find the rare or interesting movies sold at the mainstream shops!) to look for the rare movies and have always been left frustrated with the result of my finding.

There are hardly any shops that have a catalogue of rare and classical movies sold in their place!

It is frustrating when the owner gave me a blank stare when I asked him movies such as American Graffiti (among the first movie directed by George Lucas and one of the earlier movies by Harrison Ford), Badlands (Charlie Sheen played the anti hero character for this one!), The Night of The Living Dead (the original version directed by the legendary zombie movie maker George Romero!), The Shootist, The Conversation and many more.

They sometimes can't even tell the difference between the title of a movie with the title of a game for the X-Box or PS3!

There have been quite a number of intellectual debates in Malaysia to determine whether movies are made merely for entertainment or with intellectual purposes. It is quite frustrating when there are Malaysians who still perceive that the movie making industry is something that can derive easy profit (or money making, Jose!) and have left out the esthetical value of art or whatever left in it!

A lot of hype has been said on 2 Alam, the first movie produced by DR Movie Production. I dared not said much about it. First of all I hardly know what the movie is all about as the synopsis and plot are very sketchy.

Secondly, I am worried that the so called Fenomena DR Rozmey might wash me off from the popular culture!

I kind of dislike with the way of promotion been potrayed in the media for that movie. It is merely an act of cheap publicity! We hardly even know how well the movie is under the helm of two unknown directors, Hairie Othman and Ed Zarith Z. Lokman. The former was known for his below average acting whilst the latter is the son of the famous director who can make movie just by a blink of an eye!

We need to be realistic sometimes and to study first the social needs. The producer has already made a mockery of himself when he decided to set upon his target of collecting RM12 million from the movie. It is quite intricate to reach the kind of collection with the present economic situation (people rather spend RM11 for a plate of rice) and the producer may need more than 2 Alam to achieve it!

Otherwise, the film will in the end find its fate on the same league with all of the failed movies ever made or produced in Malaysia.

The movie making industry is not only about making profit or gain popularity. It is a visual recorded document that will be viewed and carefully studied by future generation.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection

PEMIKIRAN KREATIF

Oleh - Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Kadangkala, apabila kita terlalu memikirkan soal-soal logik kita akan mengabaikan pemikiran kreatif.

Tanpa pemikiran kreatif, kita tidak mampu keluar dari kepompong kelaziman. Maka mereka yang berfikiran kreatif tidak harus merasa rendah diri dan dipencilkan oleh masyarakat.

Ini termasuk mereka yang mempunyai kelayakan di dalam bidang seni, seperti saya!

Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak mengakui bahawa Barisan Nasional tidaklah sekreatif dan progresif seperti yang dinyatakan di sini. Apa yang tepat ialah mereka yang berada di dalam bidang seni ini kadangkala mempunyai pemikiran yang lebih tajam dan lebih peka daripada orang lain!

Saya yakin, selepas ini akan ada golongan tertentu yang akan mula membuka mata dan telinga terhadap golongan “manusia” kreatif ini.

Saya yakin, akan ada juak-juak tertentu, di dalam usaha mereka untuk berada di dalam “radar” Perdana Menteri, mencadangkan supaya diwujudkan institut pemikiran kreatif atau lebih memberikan ruang yang luas kepada masyarakat berfikir secara kreatif.

Itulah lumrah, rasanya. Sudah terhantuk baru mengadah.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection.

THE UNSANGKARABLE DEFEAT

By – Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this self pitiful blog!

The title above is actually a poor attempted humor by me on which it was originally taken from the word sangka or expect!

It has been a week of callous defeat for Barisan Nasional and for Malaysians generally!

The National Front a.k.a Barisan Nasional has lost its seat in the recent by election, held in Kuching, Sarawak. This is a major setback for BN as it was the first time they lost in Sarawak by election since their formation in 1974.

Our badminton national team had lost to China in the Thomas Cup tournament. To add salt to the wound, it happened on our own soil.

Whilst the latter lost was an expected one, especially when the Japanese team had successfully beaten our team to top the Group B spot in the tournament, the National Front had lost a seat which was considered a traditional seat for them and this was indeed an unexpected one!

In reality, BN can no longer enjoy the comfortable position they have been enjoying all this while in Sarawak, for that matter in Sabah as well!

The Prime Minister himself might have taken aback by the defeat in Sarawak, especially when he once claimed that both Sabah and Sarawak are BN’s “fixed deposit”. It was an unpleasant moment for him as he had to sit through and watched two humiliating defeat; the national badminton team being thrashed out to China in home ground and BN’s crush to DAP by a slim majority in Sarawak.

There are plenty of rooms and spaces for BN to win back the hearts and minds of Sarawakians, especially in identifying and determining major issues that causes them to desert them. Why is it, after so many years, the Chinese decided to reject BN?

Even during the political turmoil that had taken place during the 10th General Election where BN almost lost to the then Alternative Front (AF), it was the vote from the non Malays who had saved BN from being humiliated by the AF!

I quote a sentence from a poem written by the fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad; “What went wrong?”

I am neither a political analyst nor an expert in presenting economic analysis. But as a humble bystander, I believed that the politics of hate, installed by certain groups of people about the Government has slowly begun to bear fruit!

It might be a good moment for the Prime Minister and his cohorts to dwell with and to identify major issues that need prudent attention from the Government! Or perhaps the economic sluggish were one of the issues contributed to these trends of Chinese voting against the BN.

In order to boost the economy, more opportunities should be given to the non Malays with a hope that they will be able to accelerate back the economy performances.

Having said this, we must ensure that all are not lost to the Bumiputera if more rooms are given to the non Malays to exceed in their businesses.

By saying the statement above, some may find me a racist lot but for me, I stand to my words.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection.

PRASANGKA

Oleh - Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Sejak kebelakangan ini, ramai orang mula memperkatakan mengenai intergriti Polis Diraja Malaysia.

Ada yang mempersoalkan mengenai ketelusan mereka, kesungguhan mereka di dalam membasmi jenayah dan tidak kurang yang mula merasa sangsi dengan kecekapan pihak Polis. Bagi saya, ini membayangkan bahawa kebarangkalian untuk orang ramai mulai hilang kepercayaan terhadap polis adalah amat tinggi sekali.

Bagi saya, kes Allahyarham Aminul Rashid yang telah ditembak mati oleh pihak polis baru-baru ini telah menambahkan lagi kebencian dan barangkali terhakis lagi kepercayaan orang awam terhadap polis.

Bagi saya, ini merupakan satu situasi yang amat-amat membimbangkan! Seandainya orang ramai sudah mula tidak percaya kepada pihak Polis ada juga kebarangkalian yang orang ramai akan mengambil keputusan sendiri bagi menyelesaikan sesuatu masalah.

Ini termasuk menjadi seperti seorang vigilante, atau dalam erti kata lain menjadi Paul Kersy, watak yang dipegang oleh Charles Bronson di dalam filem bersiri Death Wish. Paul Kersy telah mengambil keputusan untuk menjadi vigilante selepas keluarganya dibunuh oleh penjenayah dan disebabkan merasa bosan dengan kerenah birokrasi, beliau mengambil keputusan untuk “menghukum” penjenayah tersebut dengan caranya tersendiri.

Kita terpaksa menerima hakikat bahawa jenayah di Malaysia sekarang telah meningkat secara mendadak. Semakin banyak bandar-bandar baru dibuka, semakin banyak kes-kes jenayah berlaku. Ini termasuk dengan kebanjiran pendatang-pendatang halal dan haram ke Malaysia. Ia telah memburukkan lagi keadaan dan menjadikan keadaan ini semakin tidak terkawal.

Saya bukanlah meletakkan satu prasangka awal bahawa pendatang-pendatang ini merupakan punca kepada peningkatan kes jenayah di Malaysia. Tetapi hakikatnya, apabila kurangnya projek-projek yang dibangunkan, mereka yang kebanyakannya datang ke Malaysia bekerja di sektor tersebut terpaksa menjadi penyangak dan penyamun, demi untuk sesuap nasi.

Maka, pihak Polis terpaksa menjadi lebih berhati-hati di dalam mengawasi keselamatan kita. Setiap perkara yang mencurigakan ini akan ditangani dengan pelbagai “precaution” atau andaian. Dengan kata lain, segalanya bertindak berdasarkan kepada “worst case scenario”.

Ada masanya kita perlu meletakkan kaki kita di dalam kasut mereka, atau dalam bahasa lain; “putting our feet in their shoes” dan berfikir kembali, bukankah kita juga ada masanya bertindak atau mempunya prasangka terhadap orang yang tidak dikenali? Sebagai contoh, adakah kita akan menghentikan kereta jika kita melihat sebuah kereta yang rosak berhenti di tepi jalan dan menawarkan pertolongan kepada tuan punya kereta tersebut? Saya jangkakan tak mungkin ramai yang akan berkata ya.

Begitu juga, pada pendapat saya di dalam kes yang telah berlaku di Shah Alam baru-baru ini. Senarionya mudah, apabila sebuah kereta itu dipandu dengan keadaan yang agak merbahaya dan mencurigakan, tiada cara lain yang harus dilakukan melainkan terpaksa bertindak secara paksaan.

Di dalam kes Allahyarham Aminul ini, itulah yang telah berlaku.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection.

A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES

By - Hesmel Faznee Faisal

Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this self proclaimed blog!

It has been awhile since the last time I posted my writing in this blog. I however, did notice a lot of incidents have taken place during my absence from the blogging world. What attracts my attention most was the news of the late Amirul Rashid Hamzah, a 15 year old boy who was shot dead by the authorities (i.e – the police).

The incident above was indeed an unwelcome one, both for the family of the victim and the police. None of this might happened if (just to make an assumption) Amirul had called up his parents first or any of his eldest siblings to follow and help his friend rather than taking the risk of driving the car without his parents’ consent!

I quote John Mc Clane, the anti hero character played by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series; “Man! I am a guy at the wrong place and the wrong time” would be the perfect jargon to describe the whole scenario!

First of all, I would like to clearly state my stand on this incident where Amirul’s parent, the police force and the public should be put on blame.

We can’t put the entire blame on the police force as their reaction was based on the present circumstances. Anyone who is in that position would resort to necessary force to diffuse the present situation they are facing with. The police were responding based on a situation where the late Amirul was driving recklessly and this could jeopardize the safety of the public.

Aminul Rashid was a victim of circumstances. He was a boy who was at the wrong time and place. If we looked at the report made by his friend here, it is clearly showed that the late Amirul had a noble intention of helping his friend, who was having a problem with his bike. All the poor boy wanted to do was to pick up his friend and send him home.

According to the report, in the course of action Amirul had accidently grazed one of the cars parked there. When the owner of the car realized what had happened, he took a chase with Amirul, accompanied by his friends on motorcycles.

I strongly believed that the poor boy was more worried of his safety from the bunch of guys who was chasing him and feared that they might beat him!

The main problem that we are facing in hand is when the public tends to become a vigilante and will take action based on their own judgment!

I am sure we will be seeing the same case again and again in near future, for as long as the society refused to change their mindset, we will forever remain a victim of circumstances.

Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection.