Sunsets

I have been very busy off late and going to be a lot busier by the end of the year. Although I rely a lot on the internet for work purposes but I have to cut down my blogging activities. I think this is the last entry for the year.

A lot of business tasks to be done, business trips and wedding ceremonies to attend to. As most of the ceremonies are family-related, they made me the wedding committee member. Being in the committee means I am now considered in the ‘elderly’ group … yikes.

For security and practical purposes, I have to turn off the comment sections. Hopefully to see you guys next year.

I may however post new music videos of my older songs at:

www.youtube.com/azer64

and some greeting cards at:

http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

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Sunsets

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

Special thanks to gmg, the guy everybody loves to envy. He gets to travel all over the world. I only get to make music out of his pictures … hehehe.

The Other Malaysia

This entry is brought forward by Citizen Journalism.

The Other Malaysia is a site set up by a number of Malaysian scholar-activists and volunteers with the simple aim of providing other sources of information for those who are interested in unearthing aspects of Malaysian history, politics and culture that have thus far been sidelined, marginalised or erased in the official historiography of the post-colonial state. It is a resource site that will continue to post articles, columns, travelogues and samples of creative writing by the members of the othermalaysia team and readers of the site. Its aim is to construct a database for those who wish to learn more about Malaysia’s complex and plural history, and to offer a space for young researchers, scholars and activists who wish to contribute to the store of subaltern knowledge in the country.

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Happy Deepavali

Deepavali, or Diwali, (Markiscarali) is a major Indian festival, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. [3] Many legends are associated with Diwali. Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Light," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being . The festival is also celebrated by Buddhists of Nepal, particularly the Newar Buddhists.

This blog wishes HAPPY DEEPAVALI to Malaysian Hindus, Jains and Sikhs particularly and the rest of the world generally.

HAPPY DEEPAVALI
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
HAPPY VACATIONING
HAVE A NICE WEEKEND

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Pains of Stress

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

Read – Part 2/3

This entry is a continuation of a previous entry.

Reading is a multi-dimensional cognitive process of decoding objects (primarily texts and symbols) for the purpose of deriving meaning. I repeat, it is a process to decode objects to understand the meaning. This is where the problem is – most people (myself included) don’t even bother to understand the meaning of what being read. The politicians know well this kind of situation and always take advantage of our reading disabilities. Therefore, there is no other way to read but to read critically.

There are many types of reading – text reading, reading through observation, psychic reading, comparison and contrast reading, reading via intuition etc BUT still no matter what types there are, it is about a process to decode objects for the purpose of deriving the meaning.

As said, we have no choice but to read critically as politicians can be very tricky:

Politicians – We are not telling lies.
This could also mean – We are not telling the whole truth.

A Politician – Not everything about democracy is good.
This could also mean – Not everything about dictatorship is bad.

A Politician – Our economic fundamentals are stable.
This could also mean – It is just that our economy is managed by the funny mentals.

Reading and understanding what is being read is IMPORTANT.

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Greeting Cards

More Greeting Cards at http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

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YouTube

I have posted a new music video My Angelina Jolie.

UNFORTUNATELY, I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO COMPOSE A NEW SONG FOR THIS ENTRY.

Competent Leaders, I Agree!

The operating word is “competent”.

This entry is adapted from TDM aka Che Det aka Tun Dr. Mahathir the ex-Prime Minister’s Blog with the entry titled "Do We Need A Strong Government."

Previously, TDM did wrote "A multiracial country needs a strong Government". And I did blog on somewhat opposite to his view.

This time, this entry will not disagree with the fact that Malaysia as a multi-racial country do need strong leaders … no …. Competent Leaders. This entry however will point out how Competent Leaders can build competent Malaysians which in the end is good for multi-racial Malaysians.

So what does it take to be a Competent Leader?

A Competent Leader is Competitive

A competent leader views competition as healthy. He encourages competition so he destroys nepotism, and cronyism. He promotes openness and meritocracy to a higher degree. He will value his people and the works by performances done. Titles are granted with a lot of respect. He will stop money politics immediately.

A competent leader is an exemplary leader. He will fight for justice so he does not have to fix the judiciary unlike the other way around where most probably good people might be found guilty and bad people might be found not guilty.

He values Human Capital. To those who mocked that there is nothing new in Human Capital Development shall be put their political career ended. This is because he knows that Human Capital Development is always a continuous process so there is always something new.

He does not view any human being based on the colour of skin, language, religion, culture etc because he views any human as human. He does not belong to any Racial Based Political Party because he is not a racist. He knows that God creates humans into tribes and nations because God wants us to know and learn from one another. He ends political careers to those who do the keris-waving and gave out racial remarks. Oh, he will also end those who are so arrogant that says, “We have been ruling this nation for 50 years and even without your votes, we can still rule this nation”.

As he promotes competition, he does not favour anyone but those who are competitive. Should his own sons might be in corporate financial troubles, he will not bail them out. He knows well that Government money are people’s money especially tax-payers money contributed by every working beings.

A competent leader inspires a shared vision. He promotes freedom of speech and dialogue not monologue. He is a loving type not hatred type. He will not put anyone to jail without trial.

He searches opportunities in fair manners. He grows, innovates and improves. He dares to be different from the rest of the world and take risks. He is so innovative that even the global fuel price hike will not affect the nation financial stability. In fact, as a net oil-exporting nation, he will make the nation even richer not the other way around by introducing fuel price hike to the people.

He never gives up. He encourages everybody to keep going with high morality.

A competent leader is so competent that he enables others to lead. He does not worry about his own position should there is a rival or competitive politicians. He builds more leaders so that his successors are not sleepy leaders to be. When he finally resigns as a leader, he will not criticize the management he once led simply because he has made them competent.

And the operating word is “competent” :-)

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Colours of Friendship

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

Read - Part 1/3

I have registered myself as a voter (courtesy of The Fuel Price Hike). The study of socioeconomics to me then has becoming more important than before as a voter has huge responsibility.

The First Step in my studying, I understand that I am God’s perfect creation thus I am so not to be a racist. With that, I am not to vote for any racial based political party. The Second Step is to understand that I am created to worship God in order to be good. Therefore I must support candidates with good morality and political parties that prioritize morality.

Step 3: Acquire Knowledge.

So what is the basic foundation of a voter? It's a state-of-MIND! Anybody can induce it - but only if one is willing to drive oneself enough!

A good voter is always a knowledgeable or informed voter else a voter may just another mere follower. Mere followers are easily fooled by the Political Campaigns like:

CLEAN, EFFICIENT, TRUSTWORTHY

OR

VOTE FOR US, VOTE FOR THE COUNTRY

OR

CEMERLANG, GEMILANG, TEBILANG (whatever) …

The Living Contract

“Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists),” (Quran, 96, 1)

Read is the first word in Islam and the above verse is the first verse in Islam.

So to read is the very first commandment from God because only through reading, one can acquire knowledge. I’m not going to point out types of reading here or else this entry is going to be lengthy. Anyway, text reading is a methodology of reading.

So reading yield knowledge which makes someone becomes knowledgeable or informed or educated. Unfortunately, having education is one thing but being educated is another thing. That’s why to me, even though someone is Oxford graduated but by saying that bloggers are BUNCH OF chimpanzees, that’s not an educated person. Racists, no matter what level of education they do posses are never educated people.

So what does it takes being a voter?

Anyone will be soooooooo amazed at how easy most things are if one just try to read first! The truth is: Most people don’t bother to read at all or worst – can’t read. Should a voter can’t really read...STOP BEING A VOTER. GO learn to read first. If you can't read, you SHOULD NOT BE a voter and forget about being a politician. Reading is the basic skill one must have to do EVERYTHING BEYOND ANY POINT.

So everyone has to start somewhere, and since voting will continue, there will always be new voters. Those new to the scene like ehem ehem … moi, to get started on their foray into voting, the best way to start, and continue, building knowledge base is to read up on material. I will try locating everything I can, on and offline, about politics and all - Read it. Study it. Understand it no matter what Puteri UMNO of a Racial Based Political Party and alike may say.

After all, no matter how much we have read throughout our lifetime, there is no such thing called KNOWING TOO MUCH.

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Greeting Card

I have updated the Greeting Cards at

http://a-cards.blogspot.com/

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At Youtube

I have posted a new Music Video titled “Rosse”.

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Wayang Kulit

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa

M. Bakri Musa

This entry is brought forward by Citizen Journalism.

I have bumped into this name, M. Bakri Musa so many times particularly at Malaysia Today but being an ignorant as always, only recently I bother myself to his blog and his website.

Just before Hari Raya, I downloaded one of his complete articles:

An Education System Worthy of Malaysia

“It is never a smart idea to stop anyone from expanding opportunities”.

Above is a statement written in the first chapter of the article that have caught my attention and from then onwards I just can’t stop reading.

The article or also sold as a book is his effort to make Malaysians look at their education system from a perspective different to what they have been accustomed – without much surprise, politics and racism of course.

So to those Malaysians (myself included) who prefer to look at a different perspective than those of the racial based political parties and racists, I highly recommend his blog and website.

About M. Bakri Musa

Malaysian-born Bakri Musa writes frequently on issues affecting his native land. His essays have appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, International Herald Tribune, Education Quarterly, SIngapore's Straits Times, and The New Straits Times. His commentary has aired on National Public Radio's Marketplace. His regular column Seeing It My Way appears in Malaysiakini. Bakri is also a regular contributor to th eSun (Malaysia). He has previously written "The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia" as well as "Malaysia in the Era of Globalization," "An Education System Worthy of Malaysia," "Seeing Malaysia My Way," and "With Love, From Malaysia." Bakri's day job (and frequently night time too!) is as a surgeon in private practice in Silicon Valley, California. He and his wife Karen live on a ranch in Morgan Hill. This website is updated twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays at 5 PM California time.

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On YouTube

I have posted a new music video with a song Keretapi Malam (The Night Train).

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Greeting Cards

My greeting cards blog is updated:

http://www.a-cards.blogspot.com/

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The Evil, The Light and The Heat

Song and Music by Azer Mantessa