First Blog Post to Start The New Era

Photo : Wikimedia/Simon Burchell

Hey! What do you know? We're still here! Everyone was holding their breath at the stroke of midnight few hours ago for the impending doom according to some people who prophesied our end based on the Mayan calendar that ran its course few hours ago. Then again, we're ahead of the Americas by a few hours and I assume the Mayans made their calendar based on their time zone and the Mayan kingdom was in South America, so who knows, it might happened in a few hours from now hehehe...

Oh yah, History Chanel aired this documentary called “Countdown to Apocalypse” last evening and it carried these viewer discretion advisory, “This programme contains views from Non-Muslim perspective. Viewers discretion advised”.....................................*pin drop*............................................................... What? You're expecting me to say more about this? LOL. Oh ok! Just to clarify, History Chanel was not the one who put up the advisory, it was Astro.

Richard Sokial for Sindak Pangazou 2012 (Burning Warrior)

This is my friend, Richard Sokial. I got to know him through my activities in North Borneo History Enthusiasts (NBHE). Granted that our 'friendship' (if he allows me to refer to it as such :P) is less than a year but I think I am a good judge of character. I have nominated him for the 2012 Sindak Pangazou, an award of sort given by Voice OUT Kota Kinabalu which is an annual youth art festival organized jointly by Youth-PREP Centre (YPC), Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP) and Sabah Women's Action-Resource Group (SAWO). 

This year their theme is 'Breakout'. To quote them about their concept: 

"Voice Out aims to reach out to the young people through art as its medium. The music and art piece which will be contributed by both local talents and local artists will portray the social problems faced by the young people of today. We will also be conducting art events throughout the month of May in different locations and the Voice Out Concert will be the highlight and climax for all the programs."

And quoting them again about Sindak Pangazou:

Finding Huminodun is a search for one female youth who had contributed to the local communities and deserves an appreciation. Alongside the Finding Huminodun, we are also awarding another potential male youth as our Sindak Pangazou (Burning Warrior) The female youth will be awarded as the Voice-Out 2012 Youth Huminodun.Voting on facebook will close on Thursday 17 May 2012. 50% of the marks will be based on the likes in Facebook and another 50% will be decided by the judges during Voice-Out 2012 at Suria Sabah 19th May 2012 .The participants will be presenting a cause (eg. Indegenous Rights, Music, etc.) of their choice.Let's vote!!    

Now, why did I nominate Richard for Sindak Pangazou. First thing you must know is that Richard spent his childhood in New York at a young age! However, when you meet him, you will not hear any American accent from him. He is a down to earth fellow of Dusun Tatana (Kuala Penyu) and Tambunan parentage.

He is an architect by training but chose social activism as his vocation. Sure, he could get a 9 to 5 job and sit in some air-conditioned office and get his fat pay check every month but an inner voice told him that there must be more in life than just money! Perhaps his thinking was partly influenced by his environment while growing up in a foreign country. He saw things perhaps, we didn't see while growing up! Anyway, he was deadset about what he will do with his life and he 'breakout'! He decided that he would go against the flow. The conventional thinking is, you slog in University and when you graduated, you get a high paying job, drive an expensive car and marry a beautiful wife. He could get a beautiful wife by the way, the guy is suave looking :D. But he went the opposite of Sabahan or Malaysian conventional wisdom for the matter! 

He chose instead, to be involved with his community. To pay back to his community no doubt. He chose instead to fight to preserve his community's architectural heritage; Sabah's architectural heritage! He traveled extensively most of Sabah and record whatever he could on the subject. As a result, he has written and in some cases, commissioned to author a book or two on Sabah's architectural heritage!

He founded Heritage Sabah which was recently successfully registered as an NGO with our Registra of Society. Heritage Sabah is of course widely reported in our local papers for their mission to preserve the Atkinson Clock Tower. If anyone deserve the Sindak Pangazou title, I think Richard should be it! This is not only about him but also the people behind Heritage Sabah! This will validate their cause. They didn't do this for the money or glamour. Trust me, there's nothing glamourous about this activism. Plenty of long hours which extended beyond sanctioned working or overtime hours but they still doing it for us!

Therefore, vote for Richard. Click on this link and click LIKE.

*UPDATE*

Seems like I have erred in some of the facts that I presented. For example, Richard spent his childhood in UK and not New York! :P Now how did I got that two mixed up?? Since I'm very bad at telling his story, I'm just going to let him tell his story himself.

Astaga ging. Okay erm - I was in UK, not NYork. Sino Dusun but Chinese Hokkien from Kuala Penyu (not Tatana) and Dusun Tambunan...took up architectural heritage conservation cos in my final year at University I was shocked to find there were not many resources on Sabah traditional architecture at all! Additionally always got teased by West Malaysians about the lack of architecture we had in Sabah (tinggal atas pokok, etc). I did research on heritage architecture and documented it so that future young Sabahan graduates would not have to go through this kind of humiliating treatment from others, so that they could know their heritage and hold their head up proud. I believed (and still do) that those who have the privilege of obtaining higher education should use it to give back to the local community in some way. There are many forms of leadership, not just politics and i believe that through public awareness and sharing of information, we can empower young people to make the right choices for the future.

Richard has an impressive credentials too. Amongst them, being chose to represent Malaysia at the IVLP 2008 : Cultural Heritage Preservation Program in Washington DC! Read here for his experience at the event. 

P.s/- The profile description about Richard in the Facebook Finding Sindak Pangazou page was written by me. I've also erred about his ethnicity which he already clarified above. My unreserved apology to Richard for the mistakes.

BERSIH 3.0 : The Sabah Experience

Sia malas mau reproduce tu blogpost di sini. Jadi kalo ko mau baca tu post, pigi sini :D

An Omen? Mom remembers 48 years ago..

It rained heavily this afternoon and the thunder was so scary! Whenever it cracked, the house reverberated! In once instance, I could have sworn the thunder exploded right above our house. I hate thunder... I turn into a wuss whenever there is thunder..

Having nothing better to do and to distract myself from the 'mayhem', I sat down with my mother. Then my mom started reminiscing. She told me to close the front doors. She said, "In the old days, the old folks say you must close the door whenever there is thunder. They say the thunder could come into the house in a ball of lightning. Betul bah tu. Old folks swore that it happened before and the house was burned down. Luckily the occupants escaped in time!"

Size of States in Malaysia

Someone said something yesterday that had me interested in the subject. It was about the size of our states. This is what I got.

Sarawak
Land area : 48,050 Sq Mile
Population : 2,420,009

Sabah
Land area : 28,429 Sq Mile
Population : 3,117,405

Pahang
Land area : 13,953 Sq Mile
Population : 1,443,365

Perak
Land area : 8,122 Sq Mile
Population : 2,258,428

Johor
Land area : 7,420 Sq Mile
Population : 3,348,283

Kelantan
Land area : 5,830 Sq Mile
Population : 1,459,994

Terengganu
Land area : 5,033 Sq Mile
Population : 1,015,776

Penang (Seberang Prai is not shown here)
Land area : 3,800 Sq Mile
Population : 1,520,143

Kedah
Land area : 3,700 Sq Mile
Population : 1,890,098

Selangor
Land area : 3,129 Sq Mile
Population : 5,411,324

Negeri Sembilan
Land area : 2,581 Sq Mile
Population : 997,071

Malacca
Land area : 642 Sq Mile
Population : 788,706 (2010)

Perlis
Land area : 317 Sq Mile
Population : 227,025 (2010)

Note : I have checked and rechecked the land areas to the best of my available resources. Admittedly, for example Sarawak, some claim its size is this size and some by that size. However, these differences are noarmally by 100 to 300. So I think it is safe to say we have at least very close proximity of its actual size.

Sarawak, at  48,050 Sq Mile, is the largest state in Malaysia. While Sabah takes second place. You could fit Pahang, Perak, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang and Kedah into Sarawak. That is about 64% of the Peninsula Malaysia! Did you know that? I didn't! I never thought of looking at it that way. 

Meanwhile, Sabah at 28,429 Sq Mile, could take in the remainder four Peninsula States, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Perlis and still have extra room of 21,760 Sq Mile to wiggle. Therefore, Sabah and Sarawak combined, are bigger than the Peninsula Malaysia. However, according to TV1's display, the Peninsula Malaysia is bigger than the two Malaysian Borneo states :P 

Note the map at the background?

Now let us look into the districts in Sabah. 

Beaufort
The district of Beaufort is 670 Sq Mile in size with a population of 75,900 (2000). The district is bigger than present day Malacca and also Perlis. Malacca has 788,706 population and Perlis has 227,025!

Kinabatangan
Kinabatangan is 2,550 Sq Mile big! Population - 86,783 (2000). It is only about 31 Sq Mile smaller than Negeri Sembilan and definitely way way bigger than Malacca and Perlis combined!

Lahad Datu
At 2,562 Sq Mile big, need I say more?

Nabawan
2,351 Sq Mile. 

So that concludes this post. 

What is wrong with this picture?

Woohoo. First it was that East Coast of Malaysia which was Terengganu yesterday and today what do I see?

Have we (Sabah and Sarawak) shrunk in size? Since when Pahang became almost half the size of Sarawak? Sarawak itself is about 80% of Peninsula Malaysia's size! Is this some kind of sinister ploy to send subliminal suggestions? What is the meaning of this?

Here, Pahang is only about a third of Sarawak's size

As though tv1 is saying, "Oh! They look bigger because of the distance. If we put them side by side with Peninsula Malaysia, you would see that they are actually smaller than they look!" 

No, we are actually that big.

This is so maddening.  

RTM Bloopers.

This just happened about half an hour ago, around 2:30 p.m. I was driving back from the bank and was tune to channel 99.10, I don't know which station it was but I just tuned in to the only English speaking channel I could tune in to. That's how it is with the signal here in Beaufort, sometimes I can get more than two English speaking channel, sometimes none at all. 

Anyway, I came to a halt at a railway crossing because a train was on the tract. It was a long train, so it was a long wait. Then a program came on air. The lady broadcaster said that the program was a joint collaboration between RRI (Indonesian radio), RTB (Brunei Radio) and RTM. It is called Malaysia Delight. 

Radio : .......today, we are going to talk about Ikan Lekor.....from the East Coast of Malaysia....

Me    : East Coast of Malaysia? Hmm... Perhaps they going to talk about Semporna or Tawau. Ikan Lekor?

Radio : in the state of Terengganu.... 

Me     : huh? *facepalm*

 

Nurul Nadirah Abdullah

I'm blogging this for the benefit of my overseas followers. The missing 5 year old Sabahan child, Nurul Nadirah Abdullah, whom had been missing since 1 March 2012 has been found. However, the happy ending that most of us have been rooting for is not to be. 

Dirang, as she was affectionately called, went missing on 1 March 2012 when she went to a nearby store to buy some eggs and instant noodles. The store was within walking distance from her home in the Seri Delima apartments, Bandar Seri Alam. 

The mother, a Sabahan, had been criticized heavily for letting her child go out by herself, explained that she had been allowing her child wander about their housing area because a lot of her relatives stay in the area and she felt safe.

Dirang's charred remains were found in some Oil Palm estate recently and the police announced on Monday, 12 March 2012, that through DNA testing, they have ascertained that the remain was that of Dirang's. 

Dirang's mother, Roselyn Alan, is understandably inconsolable; Who could? I won't criticize her for being too trusting of her neighbourhood. She is already paying the price it. 

Nonetheless, let this be a cautionary tale to every parents out there. When it comes to the safety of your child, being extra vigilant is better than being sorry. How often have we heard that we should not turn our back for even a second when it comes to the safety of our child. A lot of thing could happen in a second! Especially if you live in the city. This is not the first girl that has been murdered. Couple of years there was another case which was highly publicized in West Malaysia. The girl was reported to have been sexually abused before being murdered. There are perverts out there who prey on children.

Investigation is ongoing and I hope the police apprehend the murderers soon. The full weight of the law should be brought upon the perpetrators of this heinous crime against a helpless child. 

Rest in peace Dirang.    

Help Nab Muhammad Saad Ali Hassan

We need to help the police to apprehend a foreigner who was allegedly to have assaulted a fellow tourist from Canada and two local women recently in Kota Kinabalu. He is said to be an Arab, country unknown. His reported name is Muhammad Saad Ali Hassan. 

The cause of the provocation was reported to be because the Canadian tourist gave his local Chinese girlfriend a kiss on the cheek on the lounge area of a Bed and Breakfast establishment. He was reported to have gone into a tirade about the couples' action having insulted his belief. Coverage is here.

To be fair to all parties, subject has to be apprehended to help the police conduct investigation to clear the air so that no party is maligned in this matter. To be able to do that, the police has to get him into their safe custody. I would advise that you do not apprehend him personally should you encounter him but to call the police immediately, that is 999. If not, call the President of Sabah Backpackers Association, Mr Tommy Chaw at 010 982 9693. 

Do not endanger yourself or the subject by apprehending the subject yourself, let the authority do their job and have faith in the police. 

Please help broadcast this so that we have closure and justice to all parties concerned including the subject.

Alleged video grab: 

Bonding With Gaya Street - The Program

About 5 more days to Bonding With Gaya Street(BWGS). The BWGS team has been working round the clock to make this event meaningful to the community in Gaya Street and the city of Kota Kinabalu and to larger extend, Sabah!

Briefly, there will be free movie screening on 10 February 2012 at Padang Merdeka, starting from 8pm to 11pm. 

BWGS will be officially launched by the Lord Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir on 12 February 2012. Then in the evening, A Go Go concert by our local veteran bands. I've seen them practicing, I tell you they will rock your world! 

Check out the details of BWGS program.

Bonding With Gaya Street

Phew! It's been a while since I write anything, I wonder whether this blog still have followers :P. Why the absence? If you read yesterday's Daily Express, you would have seen this :P 

Yup that's me in the centre! LOL. I'm serving as the advisor of the Bonding with Gaya Street community heritage exhibition organized by our group North Borneo History Enthusiasts (NBHE).

RCI is evil?!

Dr Chong Eng Leong said it accurately when he described how a certain Datu Akjan Ali Muhammad's press statement stirred 'intense revulsion' among concerned Sabahans regarding foreigners who have obtained Mykad via dubious means; I am one of them. 

www.freemalaysiatoday.com

This man and his antics really annoy me, intensely! How on earth would a Royal Commission Inquiry(RCI) "will only cause misunderstanding, ‘incite hatred’ and create disunity among the various ethnic groups in Sabah" as he said it?

He object to the calls for the establishment of the RCI to probe the extraordinary increase of Sabah’s population and the issuance of Malaysian citizenship to foreigners?? 

What???????? 

It all started with a can of Stewed Pork..

Puzzled with my choice of a title for my post? What I meant is the subject I'm going to blog about was inspired by what transpired when I went to the local hypermart to buy a can of stewed pork hehehe.

So there I was, looking for a cashier that I could go to pay for my stuff. Alamak! All wearing tudung (headscarf) ler... Then my eyes scanned for a non-Muslim cashier, ah!... I saw an Indian girl cashier sticking out like a sore thumb because she was rather on the plus size. What the hell?! How come everyone's making a beeline to her counter!? Her queue was long!!! "No choice", I thought. Then I spied a Muslim cashier who was serving the last customer at her counter. So I went to her counter hesitantly and put my stuff on the counter. Without even batting an eyelid, she promptly picked up the can of stewed pork, scanned it and put it in the plastic bag. I gave her my RM50/- note and looked at her face to see any expression of disgust, zilch! Rather amused by her non-chalantness, I engaged her in small talk,

Township of Sarawak, Ontario, Canada

Did you know that there is a town called Sarawak in Canada? I didn't but there really is and if you think that is intriguing, the history behind its founding will knock you off your chair!


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Pot calling the Kettle black

I don't know whether you guys have heard the news about PAS Deputy President, Mat Sabu, who got himself into hot soup for his comments about the contribution of our security forces in pre-independence day. He was reported to have said that the real freedom fighters were the communists because they were fighting the British and the security forces were working for the British. 

Google Image

That's like telling me that Korom was not a patriot because he was with the North Borneo Armed Constabulary which was under the payroll of the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In my humble opinion, I consider Korom as a patriot regardless to whom his allegiance was. He was fighting for the freedom of North Borneo from an oppressive invading force i.e. the Japanese Imperial Army. It's just a matter of semantics. 

To be fair to Mat Sabu and the Communists, people seemed to have forgotten that the Communists did participated in guerilla warfare against the Japanese during World War II. 

An excerpt from Times, 

A Communist long before World War II, Chin Peng earned his O.B.E. honestly. British Intelligence Officer Lieut. Colonel F. Spencer Chapman, who spent 3½ years dodging the Japanese in Malayan jungles, called him "Britain's most trusted guerrilla representative."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806357,00.html#ixzz1WrT9LkLF

Yes, I know later the Communists would be responsible for thousands of deaths in Malaya, I know about the atrocities they committed in their attempt to liberate Malaya from the British and set up a Communist Malaya. 

Of Control Freaks and Confused People

Credit : sophia_soshow - Photobucket

My friend was complaining to me about certain people in her live recently. That person has an opinion on everything and just about anything and stubborn to a fault. 

She was beginning to suspect that he was just a sad, confused and lonely small man. She said many times he caught him contradicting himself and that whenever she said something, she was certain that he would have a different opinion about it. Poor woman, she said she's developing teeth deterioration from grinding her teeth too much in an effort to prevent herself from stranggling the snob LOL. 

She said the snob disagrees on everything just for the sake of disagreeing. I asked her why she continues to torture herself by hanging out with the snob? She said she wished that life is like Facebook where she could just unfriend him and blocked him permanently :D. 

Congratulation to Sabah Publishing House

Sabah Publishing House Sdn Bhd (SPH) is the owner of Daily Express and Overseas Chinese Daily. The former, a bilingual daily (English and Malay) and the latter, yes you guessed it, a Chinese daily. 

I grew up reading the Daily Express, my mom subscribed to it since heaven knows when, like forever.

The Daily Express was founded by the late Tan Sri Yeh Pao Tzu in 1963. Its first issue was on 1 March 1963. Yes, that means the paper was pre-independence. Before someone points out to me that I'm mistaken about it, I'm talking about North Borneo's (Sabah) independence day lah. Please refer to my earlier post.

Greeting

I've posted my Hari Raya Aidilfitri greeting to my Muslim brethren just days ago but I'll repeat that again, SELAMAT HARI RAYA to my Muslim brethren in Sabah including those in West Malaysia and I also would like to wish all Sabahans HAPPY 48TH INDEPENDENCE DAY tomorrow and HAPPY 54TH INDEPENDENCE DAY TO MALAYANS!

If you're watching TV3 right now, it said that our country is celebrating it's 54th year of Independence, no doubt referring to Malaya but hey, tomorrow is also the anniversary of the nation of Sabah's 48th Independence Day! Don't we deserve to be congratulated on national tv also? I hope TV3 extend the same courtesy to Sabah next year in the spirit of 1Malaysia. 

Don't forget to fly the Jalur Gemilang on 16 September Malaysians!

Happy 54th Merdeka Day?

While on my way to KK yesterday, I passed by a big billboard that read "Hari Kemerdekaan Malaysia ke 54" and over the past few days, I also read about a Sabahan minister and officials lamenting that flying the Jalur Gemilang has not caught on with Sabahans.

I don't know what they grumbling about because I see loads of our national flag lining on both sides of the road while on my way to the farm everyday. Perhaps these people are referring to city folks whom are generally not gullible and know their history than kampung folks do.

Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia

www.kedairakyat1Malaysia.com.my

Yes, my choice for a subject for my post is unusual this time around but my curiosity finally got the better of me this morning. I was enjoying my breakfast at my usual haunt, Kim Wah Restaurant in Beaufort (hehehe.. Doing some free advertisement for my former classmate) this morning. Slowly sipping my Kopi-O, smoking my Gudang Garam as I read the Daily Express.

I hardly read the malay section of the paper usually but today, the headline "Kedai Rakyat 1M'sia akan diperluaskan : Najib". I've been hearing a lot about this Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) but never bothered to find out more about it. Do we have KR1M in Sabah?