For Love’s Sake

How some women ended up feeling empty in their relationships is because they like to impose conditions and expectations before getting serious with their partner. And are prepared to forsake love if their requirements are not met. They did not marry for love’s sake alone, the so called ‘unconditional love’, or attempt to walk the journey of adventure, of discovery and of acceptance. They marry to please themselves.

Many tied materialism with love. Craftily scheming for the bungalow and Mercedes their friends have without wanting to strife for it. And when they finally got married to a partner who have all that they possibly wanted, and their contribution to the relationship is a meagre suitcase, they compromise on pertinent matters which includes compatibility. Thus when the toil and strife and involvement which makes relationships complete, sweet and fulfilled aren’t there, the void they feel is very real, just when they thought their anxiety is over.

And that’s why God always emphasise on unconditional love. Something they can’t give. Nor accept. Though it is gospel truth.

Ego or Spirit

A person is either led by ego or by spirit.

When a person is led by ego, it simply means that they believe peace, love and happiness only happens after they have surrounded themselves with everyday material things they possibly ever wanted. And so their endeavour in life, or in friendship is to surround themselves with people whom they think can help them accomplish their goal or be of benefit to them. Otherwise, they’ll keep a distance.

If a person is led by the spirit, they believe that everything will fall into place once they have found love. And with love, nothing is too hard to accomplish. Beginning with peace and happiness.

We will not get anywhere with a partner who thinks otherwise of us.

As Christians, we are all called to be led by the spirit. And with spirit comes love. Our bible preaches love. And Jesus did famously once say that ‘Love is Enough’. So are two lines of God’s Ten commandments which Moses carried down from Mt Sinai. And if we could all trust in the spirit to guide us, so it was promised that love, peace and happiness would eventually flow into our lives. Some are even convinced that it doesn’t stop there. It includes trivial things that matters to many, like materialism.

However, in today’s society, the ego led far outweighs the spiritually guided. The same woman who squats up and down the pew every weekend year in year out to give praise and thanks to God is ironically the same woman who wouldn’t tie the nuptial knot with a man who could only offer them a glimpsed hope of financial stability. They will reason with him why love is not enough and that they couldn’t be possibly feeding on sunshine and fresh air alone. Any man who professes their love without backing up with financial stability to them is not being realistic. This same woman will forgo character faults and imperfections for as long as the man is rich enough. Even if the man is taken.

And thus, one ponders if their faith in God is grounded without so much as trusting in God’s words? And why go church then to give thanks and praise when his words they refuses to heed? Are the teachings of the church to blame? Having faith is one thing. But being spiritual is another.

Churches may have grown bigger and bolder in size. But did the faith of the laities grow in tandem? If not, why then must it outgrow its waistline if it bleeds in contrast to the meekness and humility of Mary, the bedrock and mother of the church which Peter was assigned to build? The church has fallen under the weight of naivety, and hypocrisy is central to its sin. Old wine will certainly burst in new skin. It has grown in darkness because it manifests the shallowness, and understanding of its laities. There are many eggs around but what’s the use if they are all rotten? For a good tree will bear good fruit. And a bad tree, bad fruit. Does this explain the attitude of parents who discourages their daughters to marry the poor? Or that the parents are merely being protective therefore they are proactively guiding without understanding that the ways of the world are not God’s ways?

If you ask me, right now as I am deep in my thoughts, I think that women who latches onto men for material comfort a.k.a. ‘Conditional Love’ instead of genuinely loving him for love’s sake, is going to wean herself off once the milk and honey no longer flows. Facing with that kind of situation, it is better for a man to stay single, work hard and stay happy than being married to a miserable woman who nags and craves for something more than the intimacy of hearts, but are not willing to strive through hardship together.

This explains how a women who is ego led, who surrounds herself with material comfort, will keep on searching for happiness in her relationship. Because if she could recall, she wasn’t acquainted to the man just for love alone. So her relationship sad to say, has no substance. And there’s always emptiness in her heart and a void in her soul. And bless all the woman who took the leap for love and toiled with him till success rains down from heaven. Because to this kind of woman, the promise of God is always there, for as long as one is spirit led.

The speaker of truth has no friends.

And I am a purist.

If the same consolation is used year in year out, that all have sinned, maybe the church should be reminded that it had already been two thousand years. Is the church thriving on sin to remain relevant? Or should the laities stay uninformed so that the mystery of the holy trinity remains till perpetuity? And hypocrisy is allowed? If all have fallen thus the need for God, then why single some people out over your own self and nail them to the cross when it should be your own bitchiness that should be nailed? To pacify your imagery holiness as gatekeepers of heaven? My ember did not fade. I was also chosen by God and not by you. And my blood still runs. And for as long as my grey matter still works, I will still continue to unravel the mysteries of the unpleasant. And for as long as I can reason correctly, no, I won’t return to church.

I don’t need it.

Merry Christmas.

The Progressives Against The Regressives

There now exist two large group of voters in our country. The progressives, usually from the bigger towns and cities who thought all the races should integrate, and the regressives, usually sub-urbanites and village dwellers whom are against it.

To the progressives, each and every race has its own strength and goodness. And if all the races could work together and integrate, they believe that our country would forge forward faster and become stronger because unity as they say, is strength.

As for the regressives, their rejection towards social integration is chiefly marked by their fear of losing out in competitiveness when measured against other races, whereas others fear that their ‘special position’ could be weaned off in time, which of course is imagery because their rights are embedded inside our constitution. Amongst those regressives are the ones who did not approve of social integration not because they fear, but because they have benefited from the handouts giventh them by those in power and there are those who thought their special position is a good option, as security for their childrens’ or own failure, but still were absorbed into the civil service. Because of reasons such as these, most will protect their special positions at all costs. So much so that it becomes a target for exploitation by irresponsible politicians and racists parties; by sowing hatred to garner votes~ that this land belongs solely to them, thus power sharing is non-negotiable.

In the minds of these regressives, they’d rather abstain from voting than to hand them to multiracial parties or parties that associate themselves with other races. That explains how a third of Malays did not vote this time round. But for those who did, they move in flocks and shifted to another stable, but again of their own kind, giving alternative racist parties an unexpected vote boost. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, these ultras are not comfortable with multiracial parties or Malay parties that associate themselves with other races, but that is how it is.

It is difficult to comprehend their simplistic view. But blood is nevertheless thicker than water. Unlike the Chinese and Indians who hast giventh their core representation, MCA and MIC, the boot a long time ago for being self enriching rather than standing up for their rights. To these ultras, a single corrupt minister does not make a corrupt party be. And when it comes to push and shove, they will continue to vote for others from within the same party until it is proven that the majority within that same party is corrupt before they collectively shift their votes.

Co-existing within this flummox exists the religious fundamentalists whose unequivocal reverence to their God has veiled their perception of the world. To them, utopia means getting this country to adapt to their way of life because to them, only one God exists, is all perfect and so, should his teachings never be wrong. This concept of tuning to God for solutions and ramifications appeal to many a believer. Settling first in the east coast, the once tiny blot now stains the entire region and beyond. To the religious, their popularity is an exoneration by God and an affirmation by the people that they are doing something right. The consequences, they have built many religious schools to groom their young whilst blinding them against all things un-Islamic. With one anomaly. Right or wrong, these youngs ended up venerating these religious heroes to cult like status, ready to do at will what is commanded them at the flick of a finger which explains the recent online spat splattered with blood spewing threats that led to the nationwide road block which beckons one to question if the curriculum and syllabus taught are deviant? If so, who are governing these kids?

Anything else is beyond the comprehension of the country. But if we tie these fundamentalists with the regressives, the potent may be lethal if and when exploited by ruthless racists and religious bigots who carelessly incite hatred for their own political gain. Because every Malay is a Muslim, it is futile for anyone of us to compromise their race and religion. The remedy, charismatic moderates learned enough to coax and allay their fear of progress through rightful interpretation of their holy books.

Statistics will reveal lot. And whoever wanted a more cautious explanation should scrutinise the statistics and make up of each state within every electoral constituency, weighted against age groups and margin of losing. Except for certain seats which in no uncertain way fell by a bigger margin to heavyweight candidates, it will be comforting to know that there are as many progressives as there are the regressives, staring at each other from the opposite side of the poles. Same religion, different outlook at life. Just what went wrong?

Many progressive city-folks have made good progress convincing their kampung elderly to embrace change; whilst the lest successful were chastised, resulting in family divides. But the hard question staring at us in the faces is are there anything to correct? Or should our Islamic and education ministry make more effort to monitor these schools besides devising newer curriculums and syllabuses to be placed directly under the purview of the respective sultans and governors whom constitutionally happens to be the rightful head of their religion? One thing is for sure. If the regressives and fundamentalists are comfortably left to themselves, sooner than later, these pseudo religious bigots will ruin and reign over our lives and our country will backslide in contrast to the wish of our Agong which is to unite and progress for a better Malaysia.

That’ll be unfortunate.

PM10

For those not in the know, ministers positions in our cabinet are not spelt out inside our Federal Constitution. And so is the DPMs position. In our Societies Act, a deputy’s position has always been a position ‘without’ portfolio. Specifically, it is not a key position, and the job function is mainly to assist the busy head of a club or society or PM in executing his duties. At best he becomes the acting PM until the tenure is over just in case the PM for some reason or another, cannot complete his term eg. due to death. At worst, the DPM is being given nothing to do.

Inside Anwar’s cabinet, all his DPMs including him holds two positions. Since they are taking a salary cut, holding two job functions means they are executing two duties side by side for the price of one. It is a very smart move to ensure his DPMs still earn their full pay and since it is a unity government, PHs election manifestos will also take a setback, because Anwar now has to share the government with other component parties whom may not hold the same ideology as PHs, thus Anwar also needed to sacrifice the many seats which could very well be distributed to his own deserving loyalists, if not for the hung Parliament.

(I believe that his component parties have also all agreed to have it pro-rated acccording to the number of seats each party garner, therefore the one seat Muda earns is hardly significant to deserve one full ministerial position inside the cabinet.)

As the Prime Minister, we can all agree to disagree that Anwar doesn’t need any other portfolios. But Anwar did, hang on to Finance, because someone needs to police the illicit cash outflow streaming out of our country causing severe monetary loss. And he took it upon himself a job that could risk offending many parties. For those not in the know, Anwar is one ‘Mr Clean’ seldom encountered in the history of Malaysian politics. And because of his nature, no robbers would want him in the way and thus, many prefer to work with PN. History has proven that Tun M needed to pin Anwar down with fabricated sodomy charges because they found nothing on Anwar that they could use to boot him from his position. Anwar also went against Tun M’s idea of giving ICs to refugees just to win the Sabah elections, which made Tun M suspect him as a traitor to Umno, a liability to his cabinet, and a threat to Tun’s position since a loss could mean Tun can be replaced. During his first stint as Deputy Prime Minister to Tun M long Ago, Anwar made a public appeal to the rakyat to report any known corruption to him personally, by promising them safety in return for being whistleblowers. This action of his nevertheless infuriate Tun M who then instructed Megan Junid Megat Ayub to plot his downfall.

Finance, is a far better alternative than the all powerful Home Ministry considering all the dramas acting out recently in our political arena. If Anwar is power crazy and fear others would topple him, he could have given himself the Home Ministry instead, since the Police, Immigration, MACC, the judiciary, are all within this portfolio. But he did not. As the PM, I suspect Anwar knows he should not be seen as the PM who could puppet the outcome of the court clusters or to press charges against financial discrepancies happening during Mahiaddin’s or Sabri’s tenure, if there are any. The judiciary, the MACC and the police force, has to be seen to be independent therefore he cannot afford the accusation in case any of them are brought to court, albeit they win or lose. As a step towards the independence of our judiciary, the Majlis Raja Raja has proposed to relief Anwar, as PM, from appointing the remaining five federal court judges.

Yes, all of us secretly wanted to see the all familiar faces in this new cabinet. And we are also concern with two names that sticks out like a sore thumb. Zahid and Zafrul. But for those who favours Zulkefly Ahmad, Yeo Bee Yin, Gobind Singh, KJ, etc. or even Syed Saddiq for that matter, I’m sure they are not left out as deputies except KJ who I believe would have accepted Anwar’s offer if not for Tok Mat in the cabinet.

Only that when the quota for cabinet positions is small for every party, compromises needed to be made, and in such cases, it is very usual that party presidents, deputy presidents and their Secretary General will get first priority as full ministers in the formation of the cabinet. Anwar too needed to ensure a fair distribution of woman inside his cabinet as well as the representation of the various ethnic races and states. And that is exactly what’s happening now. It is not an easy job sorting out the list of potentials, and naming the wrong person could very well break Anwar’s integrity but in the end, we should all be happy that 12 key full minister positions fairly went to PH party members since they earn the largest mandate, followed by BN and GPS.

No one, not even their own party members could imagine that PH and BN would one day become odd sleep mates. Zahid needs to consolidate his position after BNs bad showing and his party’s call for his immediate resignation, and Zahid knew only a stronger UMNO can regain back the spillover of votes to PN and PAS whom benefitted substantially from their failure. With this, he now finds solace with his new found partner, and hopefully work wisely and repent from his misdeeds, until fate would eventually decide his worthiness. A strong UMNO will be the downfall of PN and PAS. PH on the other hand, right now needed the numbers to form a solid government.

And all else, is yet to see. We should not be too hasty to judge this time around. We should learn to discard our ‘once an opposition, always an opposition’ mentality and go with the flow. Since it is a blue ocean cabinet, our Agong and Raja Raja’s also made some surprisingly wise blue ocean decisions, and we should be grateful that no untoward scene happen in the aftermath of GE15 through their intervention. Cos none of us initially thought that Anwar will be PM10 with all the resistance he face from PN.

Without fear nor favour

By right, Parliament is the correct platform where the choice of PM is selected by virtue of federal constitution rules. Either by ‘show of hands’ or ‘secret ballot’. And by right, an MP when Parliament convenes, becomes the mouthpiece of his electorate and the rakyat, not his party. So he vote for whoever he deems fit without fear nor favour, without being penalised or answerable to his party. His decision is based upon who he, as an MP thinks is fit to lead our country from the candidate proposed and seconded on the floor by the party whom ‘commands the majority of seats in Parliament’, in this case PH. Because PH is a legitimate registered political party. And if PH has only one name, there is no need for a vote of confidence. Parliament just has to endorse Anwar. The Agong then approves it. Parliament seems to have screwed up the entire electoral process of choosing for a Prime Minister and our Agong, ill advised.