Mutual respect : 'I Want To Touch A Dog' event

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I was a bit surprise to see this photo circulated in Facebook.

Growing up in Malaysia, I know that my Muslim counterparts are not supposed to touch dogs. Their religion considers that dogs are unclean. If one has to be in contact with a dog, one needs to clean himself in a certain way. Therefore, seeing a Muslim Malaysian getting closed to a German Shepherd with her kid got me curious.

Reading further I found out the 'I Want To Touch A Dog' event recently organized in a park in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysians from different races and religions showed up. The goal was to help address animal cruelty and overcome prejudice and fear towards dogs.

Anyway, no matter what my Muslim counterparts decide, touching or not touching, this is their choice, and I learn to RESPECT. Just like they respect other Malaysians to own a dog at home. If one chooses to stay away from dogs due to religious aspect, one shouldn't be reprimanded.

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Living in France, I learn that believers from different countries have different practices even though they are from the same religion. For example, I talked to a coworker from Algeria. She was surprised to hear that my Muslim counterparts in Malaysia do not touch dogs, as she doesn't practice the same things. The same goes to Buddhism: Buddhists / Taoists in Malaysia do not eat beef in general , but Buddhists in Taiwan do. How about Christian? My Christian friends here were so surprised that some Christians in Malaysia do not drink alcohol. They told me that Jesus drank wine at his last supper (in the photo above there is some red liquid in a wine container on the table). People just have different beliefs and practices and what is important is that we learn to RESPECT their choice.

Coming from France, hubby and his friends discovered that Muslims in France and Muslims in Malaysia live a different life. They were charmed by the colourful traditional baju kurung (costumes) and the friendliness of my Muslims counterparts. One commented that the female workers in Carrefour looked so cute with their blue uniform and blue head scarf. Hubby loves to go to Hari Raya open houses.

In my opinion, Malaysians, regardless of race and religion background, could live in harmony as long as we show mutual respect. I missed those days when we got invited to Raya open house for some satay and ketupat; and Deepavali open house for some Indian breads.

By the way, Happy Deepavali to all Malaysians at home!

He tried his best

So Datuk Lee lost the game and Malaysia got a silver for badminton men singles, which was really not that bad.

I didn't watch the direct games so when I got home I went straight to check the result. Then I watched the replay, and from his performance I had doubt that he could lose. He played so well!!! Actually, both of them demonstrated nearly perfect skills so to gain one point they had to force the opponent to make an error. It was simply impossible to tell who would win until the very last moment.

It was so cruel to see their extremely opposite emotions when the games ended. The dishearted and gloomy Lee vs excited and triumph Lin. All these just because Lin had a better luck that day.

Luckily, there is always hope.
Let's hope for a gold in Rio 2016.

Eager to hear Negaraku in London 2012

The French are thrilling in the Olympics games so we hear their national anthem over and over again. Hubby jokingly said that we might never hear the Malaysian national anthem since Malaysians are generally not strong in sports.

True, but we have one hope tomorrow.

Chong Wai Lee has advanced into final to face his invincible opponent Dan Lin from China. With a little bit of luck we may hear Negaraku tomorrow.

Malaysia boleh!!!

Is Google Translate reliable?

On 28 of April, the Chinese premier Wen JiaBao visited Malaysia. During the welcoming ceremony in Putrajaya, there was a banner written in Malay and Chinese, which horrified almost everyone who knows the Chinese language.


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On the banner, it was written:
In Malay: "Istiadat Sambutan Rasmi Sempena Lawatan Rasmi TYT Wen Jiabao Ke Malaysia"
Translation in English would be: "Official welcoming ceremony in conjunction with official visit of His Excellency Wen Jiabao to Malaysia."

In Chinese: "正式欢迎仪式，与他一起温家宝阁下的正式访问马来西亚."
Translation in English: "Official welcoming ceremony, together with him His Excellency Wen Jabao's offical visit Malaysia."

The translation in Chinese contains huge grammatical and syntax errors. If I was only given the Chinese sentence without the Malay original text, I won't have known what it actually means.


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After the incident, the Prime Minister of Malaysia apologized to the Premier of such an embarrassing mistake. The Premier smiled a said: "It is just a small matter, don't worry about it, it won't jeopardize the relationship within the two countries."

While facing the press about this mistake, the Prime Minister said he would find out the source of mistake and another minister who was accompanying the Premier suggested a ban on using Google Translate on important official ceremonies within the government agencies. Despite all these aftermath talks, for me, the damages were done. The mistake was captured into photos which has circulated within the blogspere. Malaysia always tries to portrait itself as a country that consists of multi-ethnics with people speaking in different languages including Chinese. Now, those Chinese delegates who came with the premier, had their very first impression of Malaysia's Chinese level, that they would later share with their counterparts in China. Surely the photos of the premier's visit were published in the Chinese's medias with this banner as background.

For me, Google Translate is a good tool if you want to find a translation for certain words, but not with a long sentence. If you want to translate sentence, it is better that you have some knowledges on both languages involved. The mistake in the banner would be easily detected by anyone who has basic Chinese knowledge. However, I don't think everyone is capable of coming up with the right translation. For a machine, what do you expect?

I'm disgusted

I'm disgusted. So disgusted.

Our former Prime Minister is having advertisement on his blog, and not any type of classy ad, but a lousy one.

Just imagine, you want to browse through the former French President Jacque Chiraq's blog and you see this on the banner: an ad for safe deposit box? What does it have to do with what the ex-premier going to say?

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Look at the rate. It is not cheap, RM1k per day.


I felt like this who ads thing has deteriorated the image of his blog. I don't think he needs the money after governing Malaysia for 22 years? I'm not sure how rich he is but surely he has enough to survive? I really didn't expect this. I thought he was the wise man giving out his point of view after retired from the political arena. I'm simply disappointed.

Malaysia is 51 years old!

Today is Hari Merdeka (Independence day) in Malaysia. Since it falls on a Sunday, Malaysians get to enjoy a day off on Monday as compensation. Note that this practice does not apply to France, a country that claims to enjoy the most vacations in the world.

I don't know if Malaysians elsewhere in France celebrated this event, but certainly not in Brittany. I only know of a Malaysian in Nantes, it doesn't seem that we have a huge community here. So, the only thing I did was declaring to everyone around that Malaysia is celebrating it's 51 years old birthday.

My wish for my country: peace, harmony and equality.

Ps: In case you don't know, it is not appropriate to bake a cake with Malaysian flag on it. Here's the explanation taken from 5xmom's blog.

Friday August 10, 2007

PM’s Dept: Cakes with Jalur Gemilang disrespectful
By IZATUN SHARI

“Some people think that it is all right to bake cakes with the national flag design on them, but actually, it is inappropriate because later, they will be cut and eaten. The gesture is not appropriate,” a spokesman from the secretariat said today.

Mahathir's blog: Affirmative Action

I strongly encourage everyone who care about Malaysia to read Dr Mahathir's blog (Malaysia X Prime Minister) especially the one on Affirmative Action.

Some interesting extractions:

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33. The Malays must accept that this discrimination cannot be forever. If they fail to respond properly to what is being done for them, they should accept this policy would be taken away.

34. When Malay youngsters, especially boys, failed to study and qualify for university education, when they preferred to play and not study, we cannot expect the non-Malays to patiently wait and give up their opportunities until the Malays decide to become serious and study. That would not be fair.

35. That was why we introduced merit in the selection of students for the universities. Unfortunately, the implementers of Government decisions chose to interpret it differently. By requiring Bumiputeras to sit for the matriculation and the non-Bumiputeras to sit for higher school certificates, they managed to give the impression that the Bumiputeras were actually better qualified than the non-Bumiputeras. With this, the intention of the Government to make the Bumiputeras become more serious about their education failed.

36. There is a tendency among Malays to regard the discrimination in their favour as a privilege, as a recognition of their superior status. I think this is wrong. The discrimination is in order to give them a kind of headstart so that they can catch up with other races. To me, it is shameful to have to be protected because we do not have the capacity to compete. We are not Red Indians to live on reserves. We should regard it as a temporary expedient to be done away with once we have achieved the capacity to compete on our own.

37. However, we must give time for ending the NEP and it should be done in stages. I hope that the time will not be too long. In the meantime, serious efforts by the Bumiputeras must be made to avail themselves of the opportunities. If this is obviously not being done, then, as with entrance into the universities, the discrimination must end.

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I love the blogsphere. Readers now can leave comments directly to Dr M, and I think he reads them as sometimes he will make a post based on some comments. He has explained about a lot of policies in a sincere tone. He did admit he made mistakes.

If you have time, read through the comments. You may understand how other races think about certain policies, something that you will never get if you only read news from the same language source.

Goodbye great aunt

On the right hand side: My great aunt


I called my mother Saturday to talk about the surprise birthday party my siblings threw her, Sunday I had to call her again as my sister informed me that our great aunt passed away, aged 85. How atmosphere could be changed so dramatically in such a short time.

My great aunt is actually my mother's cousin but she was very very closed to us. She bears 10 children and worked her whole life in a coffee plantation. Our childhood memory is fulled of happy moment with her, as she was a loving lady that treat everyone with warmest and kindness. We love to treasure in her fruits farm looking for rambutan, mango, pamelo, durian, star fruit and guava. Our family didn't have to buy any pamelo as she would kindly offer us some during any big Chinese festival.

In her old days, she traveled a lot to China and was bravely inviting my mother to visit me when I was living in USA. Unfortunately, before she had the chance, her health condition deteriorated, mostly she couldn't walk too far due to the legs pain. She left in peace yesterday without much struggle, which is considered "having lived a great life" in the Chinese believe. Her family grows to almost 100 members so I can foresee the conviviality in her funeral.

One of the hardness of living in overseas is that each time I go home, I could no longer see some people who used to be in my life. A childhood friend died a few months ago. A closed family member is laying on hospital, discovered on bed one morning and could never open his eyes. He got stroke and doctor diagnosed that he is just waiting for the end. Seeing people left and down one by one, I couldn't resist to think what if one day it was my parents turn? Would I be able to even say goodbye?

Malaysian with 25 children granted by court to take his fourth wife

He is 49 years old.
He has 25 children.
He has three wives.
He earns RM20k (around 4k euros) a month as property negotiator.
All his wives agree on him taking a fourth wife.

Fact: Muslim men can take up to four wives in Malaysia if the Shariah court believes they can provide financial and emotional care for all their spouses and children. But it is uncommon for Malaysian men to take more than one or two wives.

For full article read here.

I don't know anyone who takes more than a wife legally. I wonder whether any rich man who could show the financial ability could get a permission to take 4 wives. I couldn't understand who his wives are willing to share him with another women. What would his children think? Are they going to do the same when they grow up?

Question to hubby: Would you take 4 wives if you were rich?
Answer: No, one is already required a lot of work. :-)

Good answer.

Malacca strait: The danger of pirates?

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My French family was eager to visit Malaysia again, and this time I recommended them to take a cruise trip, from Port Klang to Singapore. "No way, it will be too dangerous", was the response from my father in laws.

Before I visited France, I had never known that the Strait of Malacca is dangerous due to the devastating piracy activities. Either I was not reading enough, or the Malaysian medias failed to report the seriousness of this matter. Never once I heard a Malaysian said they won't visit the Strait due to the pirate activities. We went to Pangkor, toured Langkawi, boarded on Star Cruise without second thought.

And here, a foreigner is telling me that my country is full of pirate activities. I really don't know what to say. Has anyone heard of people being kidnapped in this Strait? Any pirate story to share?

If you are interested, you can read this piracy report on National Geography.

Men with two wives

Malaysian Islamic allows the muslim to have up to 4 wives. However, in reality, I have never known of any Muslim friends who have more than one wife. Therefore it was shocking to see a politician to have 2 wives in his biodata one day in a local newspaper.

I think it was Datuk Ahmad Said, who is the MB of Terengganu and leading to all the political saga these days. While I couldn't find back the biodata I saw that day, in today's staronline they no longer say he has two wives, instead that he is married to Norliza Mahmud and have 8 children. I thought I was wrong, but then I saw another article talking about how his wife is in stress due to the current situation, and she has 4 children. While, if Datuk Ahmad has 8 children and she has 4 children, that means the other 4 children are from a different mother.

So, is the media trying to hide the fact that he is married to two wives? Are Malaysians less acceptance to bigamy policy now?

Another politician who has two wives is Datuk Seri Hadi from PAS, he has 14 children.

Anyone know of Malaysians who have 3-4 wives?

How will the opposition share the cake

The opposition coalition won 5 states and are forming the new governments.

It is then the time to share the victory cake.

By logic, the party who won the most state seats should be the state government leader (Menteri Besar), but this logic is challenged by the current constitution, where only a Malay Muslim can lead the state, with only exception to Penang.

With this constitution in mind, PAS is going to lead Kelantan, Kedah and Perak, PKR in Selangor and DAP in Selangor. The situation becomes very tricky for Perak.

Perak state seats won by:
DAP 18
PKR 7
PAS 6

But PAS will be the leader for Perak, despite holding the least seats among the opposition.

The reason, DAP has no Malay Muslim candidate even though they hold the most seats. The logic will be to look within PKR. Unfortunately, among the 7 candidates, there are only three Malay Muslim who do not hold too high position in the party. So, PAS will lead Perak.

This general election is giving a strong message to the government that the people is tired of race based politic. And here again, we are limited by race politic.

DAP Perak president could not be the Menteri Besar (MB) despite winning the most seats in the states, simply because he is not a Malay Muslim. DAP is trying to get the Perak Sultan to agree in appointing a non muslim, but I don't know how much chance they have. And I heard that PKR wanted their people to be the vice MB.

Let see how they share the cake, eventually.

Malaysian political blogger gets in to the parliament

Holly shit, the power of blogging! This guy is so popular in the Malaysia bloggerspace and now he is in the parliament representing Malaysians. Cool!

Opposition won over Penang, Kedah and Kelantan

Wow, earthquake in Malaysia!

The opposition has successfully taken over 3 states, created history moment for Malaysian politic.

Until now, the alliance of DAP, PKR and PAS have won 24 seats over 40 in Penang. These three parties will form the state government. It is time for the opposition parties to prove their ability! A lot been said during the election campaign, it is time to act and to prove how they could perform better than the current government. It is very important that they hold on to their promises, as the whole country is watching. If Penang is under good control in their hand, it would be more persuasive that they have the ability to take over other states in the future.

Bravo Malaysia for this change!

I'm happy for this change, but at the same time worried about the future of MCA and Gerakan. Will UMNO punish them and diminish their influence in the coalition?

Malaysia PM getting a new wife

Selamat Pengantin Baru

I read in sinchew-i that our Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Badawi is going to remarry to Jeanne Abdullah on this coming Saturday. Well, this is a great news but a stunning one as the Malaysians have not heard of this until today. There's not enough paparazi to report the personal life about our politicians, let's keep it this way.

Malaysia PM: Abdullah Badawi
Age: 67
First marriage: Sept. 4, 1965
First wife: Endon Mahmood - died on Oct. 20, 2005 after 4 years of struggling of breast cancer)

Name: Jeanne Abdullah (isn't it weird her name sound more western than a muslim name?)
Age: 53
Experiences: administration and hotel sector after being involved in managing several famous hotels in Malaysia, including Hotel Hilton Kuala Lumpur and Hotel Pan Pacific. Worked before as manager of the Seri Perdana Complex (the prime minister's official residence).
Note: Jeanne is the ex-wife of Endon's brother (wouldn't it be weird? He is marrying the ex-sister in laws of his ex-wife).

Personally I don't know why the busy PM needs to remarry, but according to the news he's very lonely. If it's due to love, he has all my blessing.

Sexist remarks uttered in Parliament Malaysia

Please click on the diagram below to see the sexist remarks uttered in parliament Malaysia from 1995.

The latest comment created a controversy in Malaysia as during a debate in the parliament about the leaking ceiling in one of the buildings, one member of the parliaments responded that:"Where is the leak, the representative from Batu Gajah leaks every month too!" Since the representative he refers to is a woman, immediately it was interpreted as a sexist remark and insult.

I'm not sure whether this has/will happened in France or any other developed countries, but certainly the quality of the parlimental debate has to be improved. Notice that all of these comments were made by the Malays representatives? Is it bcos there are less seats hold by the other races or the Malay men are still insensitive enough towards women?




Taken from mybuddies.net

The cute nephew

It was just 8 months ago, he only managed to say: "Papa, mummy, ..."

Yesterday, he was so talkative that he kept grabbing the phone from my mother. He was so eager to talk to me, still remember how I did exercise with him.

I'm so amazed, the differences are so huge. He managed to speak so well now.
"Koko has gone to or or."= Brother has gone to bed
"Koko hit me. "
"Popo hit me."= grandmother hits me.
"I want to drink neng neng" = I want to drink milk.
"I want to take aeroplane."

I have told my husband to learn Mandarin from my nephew, hopefully he manages to take up some phrases with this young kid.