Blogging from Blackberry: Ugly Face of Malaysians

The firewall at work does not allow access to blogspot.com and I don't subscribe to broadband macam KNO so let's try to blog with Blackberry.

People have started to make jokes about the whole thing in our Male-ing List and I can laugh at it.

It started with Idzam's email:

"Mangkuk vision aku selamat tak? Hehehe"

...referring to mangkuk vision that Ayu used to bake bread and butter pudding for our last get together after Raya (yeap until today I have not returned it!).

Khalid was more direct:

"Perlu cari rumah baru la camtu. Takpe take your time. Kalau boleh yg corner lot".

Then here comes Bochap buat cacamarba:

"Kalau boleh siap dengan orang rumah sekali.."

Lepas tu discussion melencong ke persoalan siapakah yang wajar mendapat sijil pingat emas sbb dah kahwin lebih dari satu in the next reunion.

I have to admit I am entertained. Coming from them, knowing how close we are and that they are trying their best to cheer us up.

It's a complete contrast to what I watch on TV in a forum discussing the landslide and from the comments online, including from Kadir Jasin.

Generally it's along the theme:

"Padan muka korang, ingat korang kaya sangat nak duduk kat bukit. Dah kaya tu pandai-pandai la, sapa suruh pi duduk tepi bukit".

I was sad yet unsurprised, because as a group of people, we ourselves always identify ourselves to the syndrome called PHD - perasaan hasad dengki. We are very quick to pass judgment, forgetting that these people - despite their financial status i- are human too who have to work hard to earn a decent living. It's the very basic human desire to want what is good - so long they do it honestly, they are entitled to their choices, so long they make calculated choices within the limits of their knowledge at that time.

The tragedy is not about them being financially better off than others - it's about people in dire need of help, having loss their livelihood. But we as a society always choose to show the ugly face, rather than take the moral high ground and show the compassion.

Many of our own citizens, including the learned ones like Kadir Jasin, as if forgets that one section of our society's prosperity is partly the reason that the humungous government that we have now has been sustained all this while. Sometimes we forget that these people that we so easily scoff at, in their greatest hours of misery, are also the small number of people who pay income tax in the highest bracket. In their small way, no matter what we think of them, they could have indirectly contributed to our own livelihood. But alas - we are living in a society where small-mindedness rules.

Kadir Jasin made a good comparison on why there is not so much fuss about the flood victims.

What if I ask this question (to apply the same logic of questions that have been rained on the poor residents of Bukit Antarabangsa):

Who asks all these people to live in this flood-prone area? After all flood is an annual event - why did you continue to live there?

If that logic is being applied, the whole of Terengganu should have been vacated, Japan is inhabitable completely due to the threats of earthquakes. All the nice fishing villages have to be vacated.

Perhaps it is not so much a question of the naïve citizen's choice of dwelling - but what kind of trust that we can have in our authorities to protect the citizens; and the reliance in the due process to make sure that all that should be in place; are in place.

While the Japanese and Hong Kong governments legislate and made sure all precautions are put in place, we continue to engage in finger pointing. While Japanese islands become habitable; we live with the same tragedy year in and year out.

Points to ponder.