Great Wall

Somehow my wife and I get addicted to China since the first time we visited Shanghai a couple of years ago. So when it comes toward the end of the year we will start thinking about where to go, surveying the available China tours and calling the tour agencies for more details for comparison. I suppose the autumn is calling us, and somehow the chilling weather although is killing, it is something that we kind of looking forward to.

Just came back from Beijing after a weeklong tour. The weather was fine during the first few days although it turned somewhat hazy and becoming cooler by the end of last week. Fortunately both of us were not affected by stomach upset unlike our first visit to China a few years ago notably due to very cool weather especially when it was approaching winter and also oily food.

The sky was as clear as ours when we arrived at Beijing on 19 October albeit a bit cool. But as usual, it was walking after walking as there were too many interesting places to cover in a day. It was very tiring on the first day as after a 6-hour flight from KL, we straight away went to the Museum Palace a.k.a Forbidden City. A very elderly gentleman was actually lost his way when we visited the Forbidden City ending up the local tour guide had to spend almost an hour to locate the 78-year old man. It was so crowded in the Forbidden City, you could easily get lost if you go a bit slow. In another instance when we visited the Temple of Heaven, an elderly couple were unable to get into the temple as they were too slow at the back and the guard refused to let them in as the tour guide was holding the tickets and the guard was just counting the number of people following at the back of the tour guide who held the tickets.

Beijing is such a wonderful place to visit especially after the Olympics as there are more tourist attractions such as Bird Nest, the Cube and etc. But what I like the most is the Great Wall. It was amazing to see the Great Wall which was built in the Qin Dynasty to protect the empire against the intrusion of the enemies could last the centuries of sandstorms and also the kampong folks of digging the bricks for their own use. But then again most of the Great Wall that can be seen today is actually that built and rebuilt during Ming and Qing Dynasty. The wall around Beijing is especially strong to protect the Capital City of Beijing for so many centuries. It was very windy at the Great Wall, rendering it a bit unsafe to climb. My wife was only able to reach to the second stage and thereafter she was afraid of height and unable to proceed further. “不到长城非好汉” despite of my leg aching, I continued to climb further up to the summit to fulfill my dream of being a tough guy (好汉).

Perhaps vote buying is not as bad as being caught pants down

Bagan Pinang is just a stone throw from my new office in Lukut. For the past few days, the town of PD had suddenly become so busy, so many police patrolling and roadblocks here and there. As usual, by election, the police need to let their presence felt.

The result of the Bagan Pinang’s by election is not at all surprising to me despite the landslide victory of Tan Sri Isa even though the Parkatan Rakyat had a good streak of winning the past 8 by-elections. But did the huge majority of over 5000 votes signal the return of the voters’ confidence on BN or it simply because Tan Sri Isa is such a heavyweight figure that is incomparable to his featherweight opponent? The chief minister of Pinang, when asked about the chances of Pas candidate winning the by election a couple of days ago, replied; susah, susah, susah. Three times susah surely means extremely difficult and that was proven to be true, as Pas candidate lost with a huge margin as compared to the general election last year.

Despite of Tan Sri Isa being associated with vote buying during the UMNO party election and subsequently being suspended by the disciplinary committee, it doesn’t stop over 8000 people in Bagan Pinang from voting for him. Perhaps many of us will wonder is there any politician that is truly clean. Perhaps being caught for vote buying is not as bad as being caught with the pants down. After all, we Malaysian, a truly Asian are a bit shy in nature, simply cannot accept a person to be a leader when we have seen his ding-dong in action. Perhaps the Pakatan people should take a hint or two from this defeat, as there are many issues cropping out in Pakatan led state governments in Penang and Selangor recently that threatening the credibility of the partnership.

So How, MCA?

The MCA delegates have spoken loud and clear. OTK and CSL had been given the mandate by the delegates about a year ago to drive the party through the political Tsunami after 2008’s general election. But sadly, these two gentlemen simply cannot work with each other, they differ in so many ways but sharing a common character, both equally hard headed, and that ultimately lead to unavoidable split.

The central delegates of MCA had made yet another painful decision in the recently concluded EGM. If the president and his deputy cannot see eye to eye, it is best that two of them go so that a new leadership can be formed to steer the party and more importantly to better serve the community.

In any organization, people can come and go. Some political leaders for some reasons are hanging around for far too long. Some are so thick-skinned, reluctant to handover the leadership of the party despite being defeated in the general election. But if Ong did decide to step down, which I think he surely will, it is simply too short a time for him to make a noticeable impact and significant contributions to the Chinese community especially. He is simply making himself a record of the shortest-life president in the history of MCA and all the reforms that he was talking about will come to a natural death.

Ong and Chua started up the war, the central delegates voted for a ceasefire and that resulted in both of them have to go. It is now time for MCA to pick a new leadership that can garner the support of its member. Time has running short, MCA is urgently needing a new lease of life. For the interest of the party and Chinese community, MCA should form a new leadership that can start on a reform. Too many infighting over the past many decades has rendered MCA becomes the laughing matter in the coffee shops.

Are you coming over, Benteng?

Interesting but what a joke? A group of Indonesian calling themselves Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat is planning to attack our people in our country with primitive weapons like bamboo poles, parang and sticks and so on. Why are they doing so? They are accusing that Malaysian are stealing their cultures and abusing their people who work as maid in Malaysia.

I don’t know since when people become so emotional over some misunderstanding on culture sort of things. In the past, there were wars arising on dispute on religions or related matters but claiming people for stealing their culture and waging war arising from that is something quite rare. In the modern world nowadays where globalization has slowly opening up for the growth of cross-cultural development, it is laughable that some of our Indonesian friends are making hell lot of big story simply because “we steal their cultures”.

Wouldn't it be more meaningful if Benteng can divert their 1300 good people to Padang for the humanitarian work rather than seeping into Sarawak to attack the innocent people.