As requested, one of my comments in the previous entry elevated to a Status Update, with additional points:- Following up to the Kak Ani story (and the larger issue of economic upliftment of the Malay grassroots), Ahmad Cendana correctly stated three key factors -- I call them building blocks -- for one to escape the vicious cycle of debilitating poverty and a state of helplessness exacerbated by lack of education and total ignorance of everything beyond the confines of one’s kampong. These are Opportunity, Knowledge and Resources. Now, how and where do we procure these and other building blocks such as positive attitude, tenacity, mental toughness, drive and focus? Via seasonal politicians? Via the government? Via loud-mouthed syiok sendiri pemimpins and pembela bangsas? No on all counts. First and foremost, let’s not place too much hope -- or even take seriously -- the politicians, their respective parties, even the government of the day. Except for the very few who actually tried, by and large these opportunists of all shapes, stripes and persuasions and the organizations they ride on do not provide the sustainable solutions to our societal maladies, not here and not even in America, where millions of people have lost the will and skill to live in independent dignity and have become dependent on government largess just to exist in a meaningless life. Now, in our country, the government may launch programmes and throw money here and there, but these are just fleeting window dressing, a distruptive aberration that may prove even more destructive in the long term as our society gets trapped in an infinite cycle of institutional dependency. So to who should the poor and downtrodden and disadvantaged (+ the lazy, indisciplined and plain stupid) seek help? Nobody. Nobody but yourselves . . . you give and get help within YOUR OWN communities. Really people, instead of depending on the government with their short-term vested interests, where you are nothing but cheap pawns of convenience in their political merry-go-round, the community must help itself. The haves must assist the have nots. Local community leaders must be committed to improve the lot of their respective kampungs, towns and districts. Attitudes and mindsets must change. How to change? Who drives it? When? Where? We ALL must work at it. Conceive the solutions. As a community. As an ummah. That’s why I often ask our people to go travel the world and live in and understand the socio-dynamics of other communities. No need to go far. Hop across Parit Golok and see how the Malays of the Patani Region (Rump Patani, Menara, Jala and Singgora) organized themselves, how they thrive in spite of warfare, with a foreign occupation government hostile to their very existence as Malay Muslims on their conquered land. Look at the traders and merchants of Sungai Golok, Tabal, Bukit Ta, Mundok and the major towns further north towards the Patani Delta. Prosperous people making do with whatever opportunities they have, without government help, indeed, in spite of persistent harassment by all sides of the ongoing insurrection. See, any sustainable upliftment programme must emanate from WITHIN the communities themselves. And the model is not to be found in the confines of Malaysia. Study the industrious Malays of the aforementioned Patani Region, the people who have conquered our warong food sector, in places beating the mamak joints to a hasty retreat. In the Klang Valley alone, over 30,000 Tom Yam shops and stalls dominate the landscape, funneling billions of ringgit annually back to their troubled land. Go a little bit further north and study the Malays (albeit now Thai-speaking) of Ujung Salang/Bukit (Thalang/Phuket) all the way to Ghraibi (Krabi), Pulau Semut (Ko Samui) and beyond. Again, you’ll see hardworking Malays excelling in all manners of trade, from food to crafts to tourism. Why them and not us here? For one thing, mosques and suraus for these folks are truly community centers, an integral part of their social existence. A place where the young are taught Bahasa Melayu, where war widows are taught a trade to earn an independent living, where the menfolk share ideas about improving their lot. Now, how about OUR own suraus and masjids back home on our peaceful soil? Yes, for the most part, nothing much happen there beyond the prayers, recitations and rituals peppered with noisy angry ceramahs by paid transient clerics and pendakwah bebas. Is this what a surau and masjid is all about? A stage for noisy pantomimes of the mullahs over issues and stories rehashed again and again and again? In my KB neighborhood, at least three large masjids and a half dozen suraus compete for attention, and engage in a loudspeaker war of the ceramahs that breaks every conceivable tenet of Islam . . . about being good neighbors, about being courteous, about being tolerant, about being reasonable, basically of not being a nuisance to others. Really, we MUST seriously relook at the role of suraus and masjids -- and the paid full-time staffers -- dotting our land. Start with OUR own suraus and with our fellow congregants. Demand knowledge beyond the endless compendium of punishments awaiting us in the afterlife. And to the penceramahs, can we captive audience in there be spared the samseng-like tone, the incessant childish shoutings and threats, although based on your pathetic physical being, I could pulverize you into a little ketupat with two or three moves without dropping my sarong . . . And please ask the attendees to park their cars and MPVs and 4X4s and timber lorries and kapchais the pious way . . . and not haphazardly as I certainly dont think that is a righteous path conducive to a heavenly afterlife. Now, the window between Maghrib and Isyak – with literally hundreds of captive congregants – should be put to better use. Really, preaching oft-repeated stories of glorious past desert battles and belittling one’s own race as “nothing compared to the great Arab warriors of old” and threatening hellfire and God’s wrath to an already sedate, pious group of believers via loud, fiery rhetoric is NOT the way to improve the lot of the Malays. All these brouhaha just create – night after night after night – a race of guilt-ridden zombies laden with inferiority complex and a nagging feeling that they are not quite up to par with those great mythical race of superhumans and should just accept their fate as bit players, imperfect little minions in a massive global powerplay involving the Great Arabs and the Devilish Jews and the cunning Yellow Races and the Great Satan itself, Amereka. Cukuplah. Dah letih dan jemu dengar cerita-cerita sedemikian. Now really, these suraus and mosques should use the time and captive audience to instill practical values and life skills to equip the congregants to be better parents, better spouses, better sons and daughters, better neighbors, better citizens, and ultimately better Muslims. Use the platform to instill life values, teach living skills. Things like personal money management, savings and investment, time management, diet and nutrition, the dangers of smoking, the benefits of exercise, the disease timebomb in a sedentary lifestyle, interpersonal skills, frugal living, basic budgeting . . . and so on and so forth, . . . endless real life, terrestrial issues and challenges to be dealt with. And by all means, add a religious dimension to these topics. Islam is after all a way of life. That’s how the three million Patani Malays survive and thrive on their land in spite of over a century of ruthless colonial rule. And that’s how my aquaculture co-op there can survive and now thrive to the point of exporting its products throughout the region (and soon to the U.S. west coast). All through self-help programmes by the people themselves, with the suraus and masjids as key centers of community involvement, resource collection and dissemination, and as impregnable beachheads for a successful economic battle against all the odds. Through community self-help, the local populace builds personal tenacity, economic resilience, societal cohesion, a sense of shared destiny . . . all key to character building and competitiveness. And I’ve not even touched on the quarter billion members of the larger Malay Race of the Nusantara, the vast Austronesian linguistic family across the Malay Archipelago. My agriculture co-op in Lampung Barat on the southern tip of Sumatra thrives without a single rupiah of government assistance. The populace work darn hard to clear and toil the land; to process, store and ship the produce to market; to retail it in village squares and along roadsides tens of kilometers away via treacherous mud-bath tracks. Again, they survive, they thrive, they build their communities to become full fledged desas and pekans with functioning self-administering mechanisms, fund raising and lending systems, and an indomitable spirit of gotong royong, in planning and constructing community water supply, building suraus, day care centers, produce warehouses and roads and bridges. All self-assisted, self-help. They are independent, and proud of it. My little programme with the Kak Ani-types is just a drop in the bucket of real need in communities across the land. Whether you are in Chuping, Kulim, Balik Pulau, Batu Gajah, Serendah, Raub, Dungun, Bachok, Juasseh, Merlimau, Labis, Ranau, Limbang or where ever, there will be the Kak Ani in need of a break in life. Let’s do our part. For a start, where possible, buy more of your daily requirements from the Kak Ani types, your fruits and vegetables, your kitchen supplies, the services you require. Be patient. They may not be as efficient, or as wily and energetic as the newly jatuh tongkang PATI competitor, but regard it as your own little jihad for your race and religion and ultimately your homeland.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 14:49:03 +0000