TAKUT

1. Kita semua tahu takut. Kita takut sakit. Kita takut kehilangan mereka yang disayangi. Kita takut dicedera atau dibunuh orang. Kita takut iman digugat. Kita takut mati. Kita takut dan kita patut takut. Sedikit sebanyak ia menyelamat kita.

2. Tetapi kadang-kadang kita takut kepada yang kita tidak patut takut. Kita takut gelap. Kita takut makhluk yang sebenarnya tidak wujud melainkan dalam fikiran kita atau dari cerita-cerita yang kita dengar, terutama semasa kecil.

3. Ramai kita orang Melayu percaya ada manusia yang mempunyai kelebihan tertentu – mampu meresap, menghilangkan diri. Dan kita takut kepada mereka ini.

Continue reading TAKUT

MENGENANG MASA DULU

Pulau Pinang negerinya baru

Kapten Light menjadi Raja

Bila terkenang zaman dahulu

Duduk mengalir air mata


1. Pantun ini dikarang oleh “tukang karut” pasukan boria di Pulau Pinang di zaman British.

2. Kita jarang mendengar pantun ini sekarang, Tetapi semasa saya masih budak belasan tahun, saya sering mendengarnya. Sedikit sebanyak saya rasa sedih juga. Air mata tidak mengalir tetapi ia menghantui fikiran saya.

3. Orang Melayu Pulau Pinang pada zaman itu sudah hilang kedudukan mereka dalam pulau yang membangun dengan pantas hasil daripada pengisytiharannya sebagai pulau bebas cukai oleh British. Sementara deretan kedai dan rumah batu seperti mahligai diduduki oleh orang lain, mereka, orang Melayu terpaksa pindah melarikan diri daripada pembangunan bandaraya Pulau Pinang kerana tawaran untuk menjual hartanah mereka begitu tinggi, dan mereka semua miskin dan tidak mampu membeli atau menyewa bangunan kedai atau rumah kediaman yang didirikan, selepas menjual tanah mereka.

Continue reading MENGENANG MASA DULU

DEMOCRACY AND OLIGARCHY

1. America and Europe are the great proponents of Democracy. It is the greatest system of Government. It will make countries great. Democracy guarantees there will be no oppression of the citizens (oppressing and killing other people is okay of course).

2. But now they have demanded that Italy be governed by an unelected Government of technocrats headed by Mario Monti, an economist.

3. So democracy is not the panacea for all political and economic problems. So the will of the majority cannot always be permitted to wield power. In the end democracy has to depend on oligarchy to rescue it from the capitalist abuses.

Continue reading DEMOCRACY AND OLIGARCHY

SEKSUALITI MERDEKA

1. Masyarakat mana-mana pun tahu adanya orang yang dilahirkan dengan jantina tidak menentu. Ada yang memiliki tubuh badan lelaki tetapi bahagian-bahagian tertentu lebih mirip kepada perempuan. Mereka dikenali sebagai pondan atau ponen dan ada yang sebaliknya, iaitu tubuh badan perempuan tetapi mirip lelaki.

2. Mereka diterima oleh masyarakat sejak dahulukala lagi tanpa banyak masalah.

3. Tetapi di Barat, kerana gerakan bagi mendaulatkan kebebasan (freedom), mereka ini digesa untuk menuntut hak supaya diiktiraf sebagai sejenis yang berlainan. Mereka juga manusia dan manusia mesti diberi kebebasan untuk melakukan apa sahaja.

Continue reading SEKSUALITI MERDEKA

PELAJARAN SAINS DAN MATEMATIK

1. Saya telah cuba menjelaskan berkali-kali bahawa penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris untuk mengajar sains dan matematik bukan untuk mempelajari Bahasa Inggeris atau memperbaiki penguasaan bahasa itu. Tujuannya ialah untuk menguasai ilmu sains dan matematik.

2. Sains dan matematik (hisab) bukan seperti mata pelajaran lain. Fakta sejarah, geografi, sastera tidak berubah dengan pengaliran masa. Fakta dalam sejarah, geografi dan sastera kekal dan tidak bertukar.

3. Sains sebagai ilmu berkembang melalui penyelidikan dan kajian sepanjang masa. Sains yang saya belajar di sekolah dan di universiti tidak sama dengan sains masa kini. Dahulu tidak ada sains elektronik, komputer sains, sains angkasa lepas, “nano” sains, sains pembedahan dada, sains perubatan stem cell dan berbagai-bagai lagi. Semua ini di kenali dan diperkenal dari masa ke semasa melalui penyelidikan oleh pakar-pakar sains.

Continue reading PELAJARAN SAINS DAN MATEMATIK

THE FAILED COUNTRIES

1. At the beginning of America’s war on terror, President Bush categorised several developing countries as failed countries.

2. I wonder whether Bush thinks a country like Greece, which is totally incapable of paying its debts after irresponsible financial management, is a successful country.

3. The debt of Greece has not only destroyed the country but it has dragged down all the European countries as well. Such is the disaster brought on by Greece’s impecunious ways that Europe is threatened with the possibility of financial collapse. So far the great economic and financial minds of Europe have not found any real solution. Instead there is the possibility that the failure would spread to Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Continue reading THE FAILED COUNTRIES

ASEAN BUSINESSMEN

*Saya dan isteri mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Hari Raya Aidiladha kepada semua rakyat Malaysia, khususnya kepada jemaah Haji kita di Tanah Suci, semoga mendapat Haji yang Mabrur dan selamat kembali ke tanah air. Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha*

1. Asean businessmen wants to know about the European Union and the Eurozone and the financial crisis plaguing them.

2. For this they invited Tony Blair – the failed Prime Minister of Britain. Blair is the least educated about Europe and its management.

3. What he did as PM of the United Kingdom was to trot at the heels of President Bush. When Bush lied, he came up with an even more amazing lie. He claimed that Iraq could attack Britain with missiles etc within 45-minutes, using weapons of mass destruction which he declared Iraq had.

Continue reading ASEAN BUSINESSMEN

THE TRAGEDY OF LIBYA

1. One is always shocked when someone one knows suffers a tragic end. Maybe for the enemies of Gaddafi, he deserves what he got. But that does not lessen my sadness over the manner of his demise.

2. As Prime Minister I met Gaddafi several times. He was always hospitable. Much of my time with him was spent in answering questions explaining about Malaysia. He seemed to want to learn about developing a country. I believe he wanted to do the same for Libya.

3. In his early years he had plans for improving the lives of the Libyans. He, it was, who initiated the irrigation of the fertile coastal areas through building the great artificial river. A Korean contractor undertook the job, building a huge pipeline to carry underground water from the distant interior to huge tank storage farms and then to irrigate the land.

Continue reading THE TRAGEDY OF LIBYA

BUSINESS ASEAN

**Saya mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Hari Deepavali kepada semua pengunjung dan pembaca blog Chedet.cc**

1. One learns from the successful. One cannot learn much from the failures except to know what not to do, and to reject their creed and methods. Certainly one should not learn how to be successful from cheats, from liars, from people who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands through their incompetence and willingness to lie.

2. It would seem however that there are people in the Asean countries who are willing to pay good money for the dubious privilege of getting advice from a person who is a known liar, responsible for leading his country into a futile war, and has openly been rejected by his own people.

3. Congratulations.