It is Sunday, the Raya atmosphere is slowly fading, the TV and radio are still airing Hari Raya special, perhaps a repeat....so we would still be in a sort of a Hari Raya mood....it is always like this with this special Aidil Fitri....there are still plenty of cookies and cakes left and still display on the main table for those that come to visit on a later date.. The rendang is still there but the ketupat and lemang [ ketupat is rice cook on container made of woven coconut leave whereas lemang is rice with coconut milk, cook in bamboo on slow fire, both are traditional and we still cook the ketupat as part of an on going tradition, for rendang [beef or chicken cook with traditional herb, a specialty of the Malay, the only non spices dish that the Malay cook during this festival].It is not a curry because it does not contain spices of any kind, as such it has remain one of the really tradition dish pass down from generation to generation. The rendang is a must for the ketupat, it goes together all the time, thus the saying 'ketupat and rendang'...It is one of most tasteful combination and no Aidit Fitri would be complete without the ketupat and rendang...If ever you visit Malaysia, try the rendang at the Malay buffet section in the hotel food buffet and I am sure you would love it, but the ketupat might not be there since ketupat is only made at this special festival of Aidil Fitri.....Any way if you are having Satay [special Malay beef of chicken kebab] then some time it is served with the traditional ketupat, but most of the time it would be served with another type of pressed boiled rice, it look almost the same but it do not have the flavor of the coconut leaves, anyway it is always eaten with satay and the satay's gravy....one should not miss trying the satay when dining out in Malaysia, for satay is available throughout the year....it is a delicious food, that is traditional Malay....you would love it, I am sure......

It is Saturday again and the Hari Raya atmosphere is still in the air, my edit you blog page is still not working hundred percent.....it is doing other thing more often, like sending twice posting to my email address, in the past sometime it send and sometime it did not, it did not bother me that much, but when my writing did not appear after posting, that worry me....and it is still happening, why....I do not know for I am not that literate on the computer technology.....those people at blogger say something is still not right and they are working to put thing right.....hope it get done sooner....anyway it work when I post and published....thats is a relief.....at least I get my thoughts on my Weblog, daily like before......writing blog has been my daily ritual and I love doing it, it keep my faculty healthy and at the same time it really makes me happy....and I hope that those that took time to read my blog, would be happy as well.....Just as I was writing this blog, received an email from a friend from the south....in his long mail he advise me and others not to postpone thing, as well not to procrastinate....it is indeed a good advise, for we should get going with life and not to put thing off with all sorts of reasons....like we would do it the next time, or we are still having many problems to solved and the reason are endless, we will try to visit you the next time.....well it is a good advise and I hope the person who send this mail would practice what he preaches...not like this Malay saying 'cakap tak serupa bikin'..... Do it now and be happy about it.....

trying again

The Edit your blog page is still not working properly but it is better then before, well it is evening now and the kids are playing play dough, making make believe cake and the like and enjoying every minutes of it....The kids, they have nothing to worry and take the day as it is.......it is us that worry, sometime too much...but as we grow old, we began to have more wisdom and began not to worry too much and would continue to enjoy life and appreciate every minutes of the time in our golden age.....It is friday again and today I went to the Friday prayer at the local mosque and meet friends, there not many people at the mosque this weekend, it is because most city dweller are not back just as yet from their balik kampong episode....soon the road would be jam again with cars and buses bring back holiday maker back to their homes in the cities and soon the cities would be alive like before.....the balik kampong would begin again when Christmas holiday came and cities folks would once again head to holiday resorts or their kampong for a holiday as usual....most of these holiday maker are young people who are just starting a family life and would take the opportunity of the festival holiday to take their family for a holiday to the many holiday resort all over the country......A friend from the Volvo club told me the other day that club member would do a convoy of old Volvo to a holiday resort in Malacca and invite me to join them.....well the last time I did join them...the trip to Cameron Highland was indeed interesting and we enjoy the holiday....most probably We would joint on this trip to the holiday resort in Malacca.....this particular resort is at the foot of a famous and legendary mountain, call gunong ledang.....I believe it would be an interesting weekend get away......Most of those who took part in the Volvo club affair are senior like us, with a few young couple....it would surely be interesting to attend the bar b que that evening at the resort hotel....I am looking forward to the trip....some time in the middle of next month....meeting old friends and enjoying the get together......in our golden age.

Went out with the kids, our daughter and the grandchildren to the Mamak shop to have tosei [ as south Indian breakfast delicacy] now Malaysianised......Now tosei has come in varieties, there are the masala tosei, the tall masala and of course the traditional crisp one....as usual I love the crisp one, anyway it is a great way to have breakfast with the grandchildren at a Mamak shop.... with teh tarik...., let me explain to non Malaysian, Mamak shop is run by those Indian Moslem Malaysian, teh tarik is steamy hot tea mixed with condensed milk and served in tall glass, it would not taste that good if served in cup.....as usual all these Mamak's breakfast do, would not taste the same if you take out home.....It sure taste great in the atmosphere of the Mamak shop....today like any other days, the Mamak shop is crowded with people having a great breakfast with families and friends......where else one could have such a wonderful breakfast like this, but those Mamak shop in Malaysia........Once we took an Indonesian and a Bangladish friends of our daughter to breakfast of tosie at this place and they sure enjoy it and had a great time...well that the Malaysian way of life......a great place to eat all sort of foods....an Asian delights....under one roof....thats Malaysia....a blend of the culture of the Asian people....Have a nice day.

Trying to write today, but the blog does not seem to work right, so am trying again and hope that it works this time, I wrote a long one yesterday but was unable to post and so I lost my thoughts in cyberspace, where has it gone....I do not know, I tried to recover but to no veil, well that is one of those thing that can happen in everyday life, felt bad that I lost a whole page of writing, but what can I do...but try to write again and hope that it would work this time.....The computer is our creation and since it has no sense of emotion, it did not feel anything, but as a writer I felt angry that I lost everything that I wrote...anyway those people at blogger say that something is not right at the server and they are trying to get it fixed, like before they really work fast and I hope they would find a way to recover those thoughts that I lost in cyberspace, anyway thanks to them that I am writing this now and hope that I could post it....well that is what happen in real life....sometime it never work like what you want.....most of the time it do... I guess that I have to live with it for when dealing with computer we have to accept the fact that like us human, the computer also make mistake from time to time....the only difference is that we have emotion and the computer does not have, I still feel bad at loosing those thoughts....Well as I have said before, I have to live with it and forget about it and continue to enjoy life.....to those people at blogger, thanks friends for making life so wonderful with blogging.....have a nice day...

pramleeraya.mid....friends enjoy this great Aidil fitri song....

A very good morning, again a Happy Aidil Fitri and Selamat Hari Raya to all, well... we all had a great Aidil Fitri yesterday and hope that everyone enjoy the day like we did. Today is the second day of the festival and if Moslem wanted to, they can do another set of fasting for the next six day, this is a special fasting named the Six day fasting after celebrating the Aidil Fitri festival.......It is one of the most significant fasting days after the Ramadan....and do not be surprise went you visit the house of a friend on this second day of Hari Raya, the host would be fasting, this is normal and you should continue to enjoy the food and the hospitality accord....It is a cultural thing that Moslem are doing and it is not a show of disrespect for those who visit such house or the host themselves, so friends do continue to visit your Moslem friend's house this Hari Raya season.....actually the Hari Raya goes on for the whole month of Sywal....so do enjoy...for that is the Moslem way of hospitality.....Renew old acquaintance and makes new friends and be happy about it....for God wants us to be happy on this planet of ours....Have a great day.....

The Aidil Fitri or Hari Raya Puasa is celebrated today. It is a rejoicing day for all Moslem after fasting for a month during the month Ramadan....On the evening before the day, after the Isyak prayer we visited houses in neighborhood to say prayer, and this goes on until midnight and on this morning of Aidil Fitri we went to the local mosque to attend a special prayer, call the Aidil Fitri Prayer, thousand throng the mosque and pray...... and listen to the special sermon, which among other thing asked Moslem to follow the teaching and do good all the time ......also hope that peace would come sooner in all the trouble spot in the world, especially in the middle east.....This special prayer at the mosque is indeed a colorful congregation, where man and women all dress up in their best dress of the day to attend this special prayer. Immediately after the prayer everyone would wish each other peace and hope that their close brotherhood would continue to foster and that they would continue to be friends and work with a common goal....that is a peaceful community and continue to work as a productive work force so that the country would continue to prosper.....Immediately after the special prayer we start to have an open house for visitor to come and enjoy the celebration with us. This year we had all our children and grandchildren celebrating together with us....our youngest daughter who is still studying in Boston, came back for this auspicious day, so it is indeed a great day for our family......soon visitors came and together we celebrate the day with sumptuous foods, that had been especially prepared for the day, and of course the traditional dish 'Rendang and Ketupat' is there for everyone to enjoy.....Meeting friends with their families were indeed a great pleasure....We talk about all things and renew our already great friendship.......It is now late and as usual after the whole day entertaining visitor.... Me... personally are indeed dead tired.....so after having a great dinner....take time to rest with satisfaction...that this year Aidil Fitri was celebrated with great joy......As I had said earlier that we had fasted for a month and today on this Aidil Fitri's day Moslem are forbidden to fast...This day must be celebrated with eating and joy...and if one want to fast again, the next day is a great day to continue to fast for another six day and then stop.... until the next Ramadan.... . and Insyak Allah another Aidil Fitri.........

......... Happy Aidil Fitri and Selamat Hari Raya to all....... have a great day...... Yesterday was the last day of fasting during the month of Ramadan.....and today Moslem all over the world celebrate the first day of Sywal.... the Aidil Fitri festival....let us all enjoy this auspicious day and at the same time do not forget all those people that are not so fortunate like us Malaysian, who live in a free and a prosperous country....Let us give thanks to Allah for all the good thing that He has bestowed up us, that makes this country Malaysia such a wonderful place to live.....To all Moslem and non Moslem all over the world, let do our little bid to make this planet of ours a better place to live and a great future for our children and grandchildren. Let us all work toward peace in all the trouble spot of the world.... pray and hope that everyone on this planet would be able to enjoy this Aidil Fitri .....To Malaysian...Selamat Hari Raya and to the rest of the world Happy Aidil Fitri, Have a nice day....

Friends, Selamat Hari Raya, Have a nice day......from me and the family, in Ampang, Malaysia

Well... It is Balik Kampong time again, Balik Kampong in Malaysia is going back to one's village or hometown, it happen every year, when Malaysian celebrate it special festival like the Aidil Fitri, the Chinese New Year, the Deepavali, the Christmas and other ethnic celebration like the Gawai Dayak in Sarawak. It is a phenomena only happen in Malaysia where people would go back to their hometown to celebrate these festival. It was once a traditional way of celebration by the Malay of long ago..... now it has catch up with other Malaysian of different races and religions and hence today has became a Malaysian culture. As festival approaches Malaysian families would drive in droves to their kampong and this would normally happen a week before such festival.... the roads and highway would be pack with cars, and buses heading to different direction to get the people back to their respective kampong. The other mode of transport such as the trains and the airplane would be as crowded as well......Such is the way Malaysian celebrate their holidays......the kampong could just a distance away and some are a bid far such as those remote kampong in Sarawak, Sabah, Kelantan.....Now that the traditional kampong are slowly diminishing with families moving to towns and cities, the concept of kampong has change with times....now one's kampong could be Ampang, Petaling Street, Kampong Baru which are modern housing area, but still Malaysian would use the term balik kampong to mean going back to their home town such as those places......Well that is the Malaysian way of life, all the races and religions have somewhat merged their way of celebration into one balik kampong way....truly Malaysia is a melting pot of different culture and tradition of Asian....thus evolving a truly Malaysian culture.....the Balik Kampong is an example....a great way to celebrate one's festival......As Aidil Fitri approaches...let all enjoy and visit each other with a Selamat Hari Raya......Have a great day....

Got a mail from a friend saying the she is not really in the mood to talk or discuss and a bit antisocial for the week, well that is the nature of thing, we human are moody and from time to time, we would go into a period of distress, depress and the like from time to time, my answer is that take it easy and thing would get back to normal, for we cannot change the world but we surely could change ourselves.....for we are actually in control of ourselves....In life things are never the same everyday, it changes as the days goes and we should take it in strike and try to make the best of it, for if we lament, we would be the looser, for time pass and during all those time we did not enjoy life, we would never be able to get back the lost time, it would just pass by and became history, so we should be smart and try to be as productive as possible with the way we use time, for time does not wait for anyone.....get on with life and take a thing a time, for we surely would not be able to solved all the problems at one time....as the saying goes.....cross the bridge first....for if we refuse to cross the bridge or contemplating to cross we could surely loose precious time and it is us the would loose....so in any endeavors do cross the bridge first and once you get to the other side.....think of a way to go forward, the smart way is to develop a strategy....for in any event, it is the right strategy that would get us there... Moslem are taught that Ramadan is an auspicious month and during this month God gave man the chance to refresh themselves in their belief and correct the wrong and try to put oneself on the right track of the teaching, do all the good and avoid doing evil, for God want us to be good messenger on this planet. We are told to share all the goodness of this planet with our fellow being and all the other inheritance of this planet, this includes the plants and the animals and the insect and all living creature on the earth, for we have to share it and as we know for the eco system to work every elements on this planet has a part to play.....Fasting teaches us to be able to appreciate those that have noting to eat all days and with that the understating of what hunger meant, at the same time it teaches us that if we set our mind on doing things, we would surely achieve it we great result. We are given the whole month to learn to live in harmony with our surrounding and our fellow being, so that we may learn to enjoy and appreciate the gift of God to us everyday of our live on this planet.....God want us to share our happiness with all...so share it, and with that, take it easy and enjoy life....for that is life......Have a nice day....

Selamat Hari Raya

It is almost the end of Ramadan

This is the last week of the month of Ramadan of the Hijrah [Islam] calendar and soon Moslem all over the world would be celebrating the end of fasting with a festival call the Aidil Fitri, it could be on the twenty fifth of November two zero three, but for Moslem this date is tentative until it is confirmed that there is a sighting of the new moon, once it is confirmed, then the day would be celebrated as the festival of Aidil Fitri..... and to celebrate it Moslem home would be preparing cakes, cookies and biscuit to be consumed on this auspicious day, where everyone are welcome to the house to enjoy the celebration...it is normal for Moslem in Malaysian to have an open house where Malaysian could visit friends and relative including those from other religion to the house to celebrate this festival together, the open house concept is unique to Malaysia for during this festive days anyone even without invitation could visit house to take part in the celebration of Aidil Fitri the Malaysian style......not only the ordinary folks have open houses, the national leaders all over the country do the same, this includes the Prime Minister and the state Chief Minister and leaders of Political parties.....Everyone including foreigner who happen to be in Malaysia at that time are welcome to these open houses held at major places, like the Prime minister's resident, major hotels and the like all over the country.....Those that went to these open house not only get to sample Malaysian food, but also would be able to me the Prime Minister in person or other dignitaries.....it is the Malaysian way of celebrating a national celebration.....this kind of celebration also happen during the Chinese New Year and the Deepavali and other ethnic festival....so in Malaysian if you happen to be at any of these festival, you are welcome to visit....as no invitation is necessary....all are welcome....it is our way of celebrating great festival day....the Malaysian open house has today became part of the Malaysian culture.....a great way to celebrate the festival together among all Malaysian all races and religions...in harmony in the great Asian tradition.......Well friends....if you happen to be in Malaysia at the time of this festival.....do make a visit to any home or the official open house, you are surely welcome.....do it and you would surely enjoy this unique celebration....and of course the foods which includes the special 'Rendang and Ketupat' and I am sure you would not forget this day and would cherish it all throughout your life.....it is the Malaysian way, a great people that love living and sharing....so come this Aidil Fitri.....Selamat Hari Raya my friends.....

Why?....... I guess why we human have gone this far is that we keep asking the question Why and eventually got the answer to it....but at time we just simply did not want to take the trouble to look for the answer .....we are just satisfied with the effect of things..... like why is the my teh tarik taste better in a glass and not that tasty in a cup or the roti canai taste better at the Mamak's stall, then eaten at home..... I personally never like my teh tarik in a cup, it a no no to me, I love it served steaming hot in a tall glass ....to me it look and taste better.... as for coffee to me it taste better in a cup then in a tall glass...why???..... I do not know... what I do know is that it just taste better. It is the same with foods, like the sandwich, the triangular shape one seem to taste better then the square one....Again try eating burger, not with two round bun but with two pieces of square bread.......Not that good eh!!!....Why....In Malaysia we have this food that is served on banana leaves, a south Indian dish, a complete food, a sort of a buffet on banana leaves...It would not be the same if served on plate....that is served on banana leaves taste better....Why... Thinking of it make me want me to rush to the nearest banana leave's restaurant and enjoy those tantalizing food, with rasam and tiaru........Why is that we enjoy eating with friends more then eating alone......Why is that Chow Kwai Teow taste better if fried in front of us and eaten at the hawker's table....Pack it and bring it home to eat, it just not taste as good...Why.....Why is that the mamak's Kepala Ikan [fish head] curry so tempting and delicious when eaten with a group and end off with a bowl of cendol......Why is that this mamak's cendol taste great and out beat others......It would not be the same if we bring it home and eat it in our own environment,... it still taste better at the Mamak's road side stall under the shade of trees....Remember the last time you were there enjoying those Kepala Ikan curry....Its was delicious.....Forget the Why....just enjoy it ...that's is Malaysian way of life....eating is part of our culture....enjoy.....

The common factor among Asian is that they all take rice as their staple food. It has been cultivated for thousand of year and eaten daily by billion of people all over Asia and yet we Asian have never got fed up of eating rice. A Godsend food that have made Asia what it is today....Just take a pause... Today.... and Think... what would happen to Asian if there are no rice around, could we imaging a day without rice......Well think....would we be satisfied by just eating other foods and continue of being Asian....no way....the reason we are Asian is because we all eat rice and we should be thankful that this crop call Rice that has fed us for generation and makes Asia such a wonderful place to live....Rice is a simple crop, this golden grain when ripen could be convert to rice is just one processing step...the golden rice is separated from it husk and then steamed, it could be eaten without much fuss..... unlike the wheat, in wheat after it is harvested it has to go to many process before it could be eaten as food, first the grain had to be separated from the husk,then it has to be grounded into powder and even at this state it could still not be eaten, it has first to be made into a dough and only after this could it be cook, either by baking, frying, or steaming and only then it could be eaten..... as we all know too well with rice it is just steam it and you can already eat it.....the process from planting to eating for rice is only three step, whereas for wheat it take at least four step....so to Asian and the rest of the world be thankful that we have this miracle plant 'RICE" in our culture and because of it, that we have survived all throughout the century.....a simple Godsend plant that is a staple food for all Asian......

........We always have cats as part of the family and enjoy having them around the house, it all start when the children were small and growing up, they would pick a stray cat and bring it home, so we as parent would take care of it and eventually it became part of the extended family....The Malay did not like to keep dog, so the cat is the next best animal to have around and the cat stay......When I was posted to Sarawak we did not bring our cats, so for a while we did not have cats in our house....we did not have to wait long before some stray cat would walk into the house and we took pity of it and eventually adopt it to be our pet, and some time later on another came and we took him as well, so now we have two, a male and a female cat....as usual they grew up to a beautiful and fluffy cat....and it continue to stay with us all the while when we are in Sarawak, then I was transferred to Pahang, at first we decided not to bring along the cats to Kuantan but as the day for our departure getting closer, we felt sad, we knew we just could not left this cats that had been with us for almost three years, be left behind in Sarawak, so we decided take it with us to Kuantan and for that we had to get some sort of a passport for both cats since transporting animals across the sea to Peninsular Malaysia is prohibited unless we have document to prove that the animals are healthy......we did all the papers and brought both the cats to Kuantan but unfortunately after a few months in Kuantan both cats died and for once we were left without cat....well we live on and then a neighbor gave us a beautiful mix Persia cat, so we took it and when we eventually move to Kuala Lumpur we took it along and raised it in our home in Kuala Lumpur, it soon became a part of the family.....And this cat die of old age later on...since that time we decided not to have cat anymore......and life goes on as usual but without the cats....We eventually got use to not having pet...we switch to gardening and now we spend our spare time growing some greens and flowers.....As a person who love cats, I can assured others that cat is indeed a good pet to have around, it is loving and a great therapy when depress....It help when you have a loving cat to be around in time of need..... Some time this bossy cat do help to keep us sane........

.....Cat, I guess we all love cats, it is adorable and loving, but we never heard the phrase or saying that we use to describe dog...."Dogs are man's best friend"....We have no such phrase or words describing this loving creature of ours, we keep cats and continue to give our love to this domesticates cats........Why is that dogs got the best man's friend description whereas our dear cat, are just 'great' 'good' 'charming' and on and on, but no........ Human have refuse to give any credit to this pets of ours...Any way I think the cats does not mind all this......The reason I guess we all know too well.......The story goes that cats came from another planet and while on the planet they use to send mission to the blue planet earth and there they saw dog everywhere and being trained to do many things for their master, man....well man found it is easy to train dogs then any other animals on the planet and soon with all the training dogs began to obey all the instructions and order by their Master....As usual we human love giving order and take control of thing and soon dogs would do any thing for their human master and in return man give food and love to the dogs.....All these time the cats watch with interest this happening on earth and eventually they decided to migrate to this planet earth......on arrival they were chase by the dogs and had a difficult time, but since they can ran fast and also could climb, they managed to escape and eventually the dogs gave up...but as we all know too well that dog would always chase cat whenever cat is seen, so we have the saying..... 'like cat and dog'..... The cats had a meeting and they found a way to get around this problem.....they decided to makes friend with man, the master of the dog and with their intelligent they managed to capture the heart of man and soon man began to give their love to the cats but unlike the dogs man could not make the cats to do any work or to obey orders...but because the cats were smart....it keep giving love to man whenever it likes and soon man was taken over by the cats....And eventually these cats start giving order to man......and in return give all the love to man whenever it likes......soon this type of relationship blossom and man continue to love and feeds the cats, despite the cats refuse to do any work for man, like the dogs...Who who fetch newspaper, or catch stick that are thrown to them and the like..... but no way, the cat would not do all those things except playing whenever they like to and not under any command by human...so this is how the cat came to earth and conquered the human till this day.....Smart eh!! Those cat.... They soon became the boss in the home with the human and the dog doing all the works for them.....Those of us who have cats in the house would surely know that we cannot makes the cats do anything that it do not want to do, it would come and sit on your lap when it want to or are put by us, they would surely not come if call upon to sit on the lap or obey any instruction, like, sit, stand and dance or chase some stick thrown away to a distance and to fetch the stick and bring it back to us.... no way, the cats would not do it, like dog did to its owner, cat thinks that they are the Boss, so they act like one, we the human are the one that had to obey their every directive, like when they meow..... Asking for food or the sand is wet and dirty and had to be change......and when they want to show love, they would be the one that would jump into your laps and show affection, truly they are one of a kind..... proud and always bossy......the cats are indeed a smart creature.....and they show it their way and despite all those bossiness we all still love cats......Since life on this planet are so good they have decided to migrate wholesale to this planet and taken over own homes and cities as their home.......And the dog keep obeying orders given by their master, the Man and the Man keep obeying the order by the Cat, the Big Boss.......Well I think we human are not that smart after all..... the cats are actually smarter then us..........Purr............

Well I went out to buy another cel phone today, it is not that I did not have a cel phone, I do in fact have two, one for me and another for my wife, the reason I went to buy another one is that the one my wife is using is out of date, I meant the model is out of date, it is an old Nokia, still in good working condition, the one that is black in color and have antenna, it is considered obsolete now and too big to carry along now a day, although when it was first introduce it was a cel phone that one would want to brag about....it so small at that time, that was about two years ago, but now cel phone that have antenna is considered out of date and people felt shy to carry it along, the new model is much smaller and has no antenna and have many features and ringing tone, beside it has Multiple language usage, English, Malay and the Chinese language......One is considered out of place if one does not have or carry one, in Malaysia it is a norm that one carry a cel phone now... when someone ask for your phone number, it is the cel phone number is the one they meant and not the fix line telephone number.......what a change, where once it is difficult to get a fix line telephone into one's house now a day, telephone company advertise to get user to use fix telephone....When the cel phone was first introduce in this country the unit was bulky, the size of an attache case, it is heavy and the life span's of the battery is so short that one had to re charge it frequently...and it take two person to carry if you are taking it out door....the year then was nineteen eighty six, I was then working in the state of Sarawak and since at that time fix telephone was not available everywhere in the remote part of the country, government officer would carry a cel phone call Atur when they went on an extension services to the rural area, and this Atur cel phone was at that time a Godsand communication instrument, but now with the advance of technology in computer and miniaturization, the phone has became so small and easily carry as part of the user basic carry on, with a longer battery life span's, it has became so useful to use anywhere and any time of the day. In Malaysian today the whole country is covered by transmission of cel phone, so to Malaysian it is a part of there daily communication tool, the cel phone, they now cannot do with out it.....even children now carry cel phone to the school, as for the teenagers, in this country almost every young person carry a cel phone, it has became a sort of a toy to have with all the time, it is estimated that in Malaysia today there are about fourteen million set of cel phone, that mean except for the kids, everyone of Malaysian at least have a cel phone......The cel phone has indeed make communication much easier and in a way have increase productive of the Malaysian work force......Now more new model are coming our way, there are now cel phone that one could take moving picture and send it to friends locally and overseas, another aspect of the cel phone that has became popular is the SMS [Short Message Service]......this is indeed a fun way of sending message to others without bothering the receiver, other then that there are many music tone available to user and one has only to download it through the internet or the phone itself to get any music tone one like at a small fee....Well to get the new phone that I am looking to replace the old one use by my spouses, I decide to scout around for the best price and eventually found one that fit my budget, it is a small Nokia and I guess we would use it for a while until the model became absolute.......Well that is part of the story of the coming of the cel phone into our life style....that I believe is progress...we Malaysian have actually quantum leap into this new world of cel phone.....you cannot leave home without one....the cel phone....it has become part of the Malaysian culture .....Communication have never been that easy.....the cel phone a Godsend tool for the benefit of mankind....

Today we decided to go to Sg.Buloh to look for more potted plants and orchid to redo our garden, there are many nursery in this part of the city, north of Kuala Lumpur... we took the highway and reached the nursery half an hours later. This place was once a leper colony and surrounded by rubber plantation, but now the leper hospital has been turn into an ordinary hospital, since there are no more people suffering with leprosy, once a dreaded disease, now beside this old hospital a new hospital complex is being build to served the population of this part of the city. Once completed this new hospital would be able to provide additional health care service to the general public in and around Kuala Lumpur.... All services in government hospital, except for a small registration fee, are free for the general public.. with that Malaysian can now boast of having one of the best healthcare service in this part of the world.......coming back to the subject of the nursery, here one could find all varieties of flowers and orchid at a reasonable price. On weekend this place would be congested with city folks browsing around the many nursery looking for potted flowers and other gardening accessories, like clay pots and garden compost.... at time this place are so crowded that it is difficult to find parking space to parks one's car, and the whole area would turn into a sort of a fair like atmosphere, with people mingling around making their purchases. It is indeed fascinating to see city folks on a buying spree of plants that they love, taking it home to do landscaping of their houses..... with Malaysian becoming more affluence, home gardening has became a part of a Malaysian home culture now, Since we have summer whether all throughout the years, growing flowers are a whole years affair unlike in the west where planting of flowers are only done in spring and summer only. The only problem here is that the rain would come off and on and this would be at time unhealthy to the plants, so Malaysian have manage to overcome this by arranging plants in shaded area around their houses...with that gardening has become a part of the Malaysian culture....a beautiful home have always been the dreams of every Malaysian...and it is indeed a dream come true for more and more Malaysian....as the country prosper.....Today Malaysian flowers farmers not only supply the home market of its products to beautify Malaysian home but also export it to other parts of the world and it would not be a surprise to see Malaysian flowers and orchid in display in the lobby of major five star hotel in cities all over the world....thus enriching the life of people all over the world...a delightful contribution by Malaysian to make this world a better place to live and enjoy life.......

Surfing the net the other day, I read a blog where an exited father announce his first born, a baby girl, it is indeed glad to hear of a new arrival and I know pretty well that these parent and others like them have great responsibilities as parent. I have gone through this and I know for sure that children are our greatest asset, the more children we have the better, but unfortunately some couple thence to have less and less children, my advise to them do have at least three and it would be better to have five, for I believe the present generation would easily be able to support the number of children and provide them with good parenthood. It is only when we grew old that we found, which is too late that having more children when we are young are good for our future, as well as the children's future and on the top of it you would be able to enjoy seeing the grandchildren grow as well......Grandchildren are such fun to have around and they are the joy of our golden age and to the grandma and grandpa it is indeed a bonus, which in turn makes our life so wonderful.......Sometime how you wished that you had grandchildren first, which we all know too well is an impossible thing....Anyway ask any grand's and you would surely get a glowing answer, that grandchild are indeed Godsend, that would cheer our golden age, days in and days out....In the midst of writing this, just got a news that a friend from a far just got her twelfth grandchild... I guess that these families are indeed enjoying every minutes of the arrival of this new bundle of joy...a baby boy... Another advise I would like to give to the new married couple is that do have children as early in the marriage as possible and then if they want to, they can decide to stop, this would give them time to enjoy raising their children while they are still young, I find that there are young couple keep postponing having children and some have children rather late and at time because of the prolong postponing they are not able to conceived and thus left them childless...do not be selfish, like want to enjoy first or the career first and then have children later, this actually would not really bring happiness to the new married couple, instead its in a way might ruin the marriage itself, for one factor that bind the marriage is actually the arrival of the new one to the family, for the arrival of a baby are not only a joy on arrival, it is also a joy to have around everyday of your family life, seeing them grow in front of your eyes are things that childless couple miss in their marriage life and remember you are only young once .....As far as Malaysian are concerned with the present prosperity it look like more and more young Malaysian are having a big family....I guess this augur well for the future of the country itself....at present the population of Malaysian is twenty three million and as any economist know this is not an economic population for a country, so the government is encouraging for a growth of the population, so that in not too distance future Malaysia would have a population of around seventy million and then it would be much easy for the country to plan the economic programs when local consumption would be one of the engine of growth of the economy and hence would makes Malaysia independent of out side factor in the growth of the wealth of the nation........Have a nice day.......

Went out this morning to do some shopping at the near by Mall, the whether was fine with clear blue sky but at this time of the year in the tropic the whether is a bid unpredictable, all of a sudden it may rain, not light rain or drizzle but a heavy shower which would drench you if you happen to be in an open space..... well that is the tropic at this time of the year, one minute it is clear blue sky and the other minutes it would be dark rain clouds and all of a sudden it pour, filing all the drains and at time the roads would floods for a moment, we call it flash flood here, since it just got flooded in a few moment and then subside.....In the east cost of peninsular Malaysia, where I grew up in the forties, this is the monsoon period, where it would rain for days without end with strong wind coming from the China sea, the whether would get rather cold for a period where sometime coconut oil would frozen, but to us children it was fun, to play in the rain and to swim in the flooded fields, that was then, but now with rapid development everywhere, shopping mall and housing estates sprung up everywhere, the floods that we once enjoy at the end of the year affair has became a sort of a danger zone, for housing estate's area would get flooded and this brought great inconvenience to the people....Cutting off trees and leveling of hills for development has it side effect and I guess this is one of it....floods and the destruction that came with it.......well when we tempered with nature, this is what we get......Well one thing in the tropic, we do not have to worry about the type of clothing to wear throughout the years since the temperature are all round constant between twenty six degree Celsius in the early morning to the highest thirty one degree Celsius in the mid day and it is always humid, since we are used to this kind of whether, it has never been uncomfortable for us and we actually enjoy this kind of whether......Except when we are in the house, a confined space of brick wall, then we would feel a bit uncomfortable, hot and humid, so to get around it we use fans a lots and now with the availability of air condition unit much cheaper they before, more and more houses are equipped with air condition, and in my home I have fully air condition it and use it only at night when we go to sleep, it give us more comfort to sleep the night away.....well that is progress and we are enjoying every minutes of it.......As for the shopping Mall, all are now air condition so are the Light rail transit, the city buses and the commuter train, so Malaysian are now living in a relative comfort all throughout the year.. and of course the cars are all air condition too.....so my friends this the modern tropical country with the comfort of the temperate climate....That's what technology is all about when use for the benefit of us human.......

I sat down as usual with my laptop ready to use, but then the grandchildren came, all five of them, well their first target is the computer, I have two, one a desk top and another a lap top, with three of them all exposed to the world of computer in their school, they slowly took over both my computer to look for their email or play games, the youngest of them is my grandson Nua, he was exposed to the computer from the age of three while we were living in Boston, USA, so to him the computer is part of his life and he took to it like duck to the water. I am indeed please that these generation are geared to the computer age coupled with the Malaysian government policy of getting as many people to be exposed to the computer, we now have broadband and this makes it easy for us to surf the net, faster then ever before, moreover with broadband many user in our house could surf the net at one time, not like before with the dial up system where it is not only slow, it also bogged to a single user at a time. now with broadband surfing the net became so much a pleasure, so today my grandchildren has taken over the computer and surfing the net, sending mail and the sort to their friends and of course for little Nua, he is with playing game and excited with wining all the time....Amazing three generation in cyberspace and enjoying every minute of it.

When I grew up in the forties, there was no electricity, no running water and other modern amenities, the only tool we use to write at school were the slate but now these grandchildren are born with everything, electrical and electronic are at their sight, it is indeed amazing that within a short span's of time, Malaysian have quantum leap to become a modern society with all the facilities of a developed world, in fact what those people in the west like the USA have, we have them all and at a much cheaper rate. We are supposed to reach a develop world status in the year twenty twenty, but from the look of it we are already there, just look at all the gadget that the children and grandchildren are using with the computer already becoming a part of their life and as for the Malaysian society at large, their homes are full of all the electronic like dvd player, big screen TV, twenty four house satellite TV with more then fifty channels, walk into the kitchen at an average Malaysian home and you would see all those gadgets like microwave oven, rice cooker, a big fridge, smart cooker and the like to make thing easy for the Malaysian spouse. We even have a cybercity and all the cities and town are link with the net, every other Malaysian now carry a cel phone, so in fact we have everything for this is the result of good governance and hard working and a productive society....so with continue political and economic stability Malaysian would continue to prosper with a great life style....a wonderful Malaysia for the grandchildren to inherit........

This morning after having my last meal of the night at just after five in the morning, [ during the fasting month we had our last meal just before the morning prayer, it is call syhor, an important meal during the fasting month, for by taking this early morning meal before sun rise, one is kept healthy and would have enough energy to sustain oneself throughout the day's fasting from sun rise to sun set] I set to watch the TV and turn on the international channels, well the first channel I watch is ABC's forum and there were discussing about peace and war and the role of religions, those speaker from the main religion in Australia gave great insight as to the role that religion could play in making this world a better place to live and in one instance a speaker blame Bush the American President for all the problems in the middle east now...it look like it is becoming true and then on another channel, I think on CNN, they were discussing about the survey regarding anti Semitic taken in Europe recently which show more than sixty percent of the European blame Israel and the USA for the present situation in the middle East, with no peace in sight but instead more and more problem, well I hope those people in Israel and America take note that they have to do something to bring more peace to the world. While watching another program this time on BBC, came another news that there is a big bomb blast in Riydhad, Saudi Arabia, up till this morning, I am still not sure of what really happens in the Saudi Kingdom.....Well it look like the situation in the Middle east is not getting better, with Iraq look like becoming another Vietnam for the American, almost everyday young Americans get killed and equipment costing Million of dollars got blown away, like the helicopters that got shot done recently and the blowing up of pipe line and the destruction of building in Baghdad itself.....the Red Cross and the United Nations have decided to pull out of Iraq for security sake and coupled with the decision of Turkey not to send troops to Iraq.....well it does not look good to the American occupier .....Like we all say, war is not the solutions to all the problem in the world especially the middle east, war has never being able to create total peace except in few cases....well it look like we human never learn....They still think might is everything and that with might would solved everything....I do not believe so, the only way toward peace is through talking.....human must communicate...only by communication and using our wisdom would we be able to bring peace to the world especially the Middle East,......to me the only way is for the American who has influence on Israel to quickly established an independent Palestine state and get the Israel to return to it original boarder before the nineteen sixty seven war....only with the establishment of a Palestine state and the return of the situation before nineteen sixty seven would peace prevail in the middle east. As to the situation which is in the mess now, I think the American should leave now before it became another Vietnam and let the United Nation run the show for a while until the Iraqi elect their our leader to lead the country....well people like me can only advise....but some time it is the small people that have no vested interest that makes the difference...Bush and Blair would have to make the decision, they started this war and like all honorable man they had to made the honorable decision for the sake of peace of the world.....we all can only pray and hope that peace would come soon before more youth get killed....Without any cause.....

Out of the blue came an email from my friend from the UK, Pak Ken, I was wondering where has he gone this time, have not been in contact with him for some time, sent a couple of mail but did not get a respond.....well sometime old folks like us are so busy that we forget to write or just keep procrastinating .....any way it indeed great to get news from him, well this British guy was at one time serving with the British Army and served in the then occupied Malaya, a British colony. well the British say they came here to civilized us.....I do not understand.....Why do they have to civilized an already civilized people, surely everyone know that Asian was civilized long before the west.....we already had good governments and were contented with life, and then they came and say they want to civilized us.....well we all know too well that....the real reason being economic, like Iraq now, so they came and soon colonized us and take all the wealth of ours to their home and became richer. Since we had no way of fighting them and had since being colonized from fifteen eleven, first from Portuguese, the Dutch, the Portuguese again and then the British follow by the Japanese and then later on by the British again and all through they plunder our national asset and did no development of any good, except that the British did set up a good administration to govern the country from the district to the federal level, other then that there was no real development for the benefit of the people especially for those that live in rural area... back to my friend Pak Ken.... In his youth he join the British army and was sent to Malaya to fight the militant communist, according to him it was hell for those young British soldiers to fight in the tropical jungle, full of mosquito and humid, well as an obedient soldiers he had to do his part, getting bitten by mosquito, leeches, got rashes all over his body and some of his friend even got malaria and of course like any other soldiers, some got killed, well that was his youth......Despite all that he still love this country and keep coming here for holiday especially when it is winter in his homeland....he love the sun and the humidity and for that most winter he would be flying to this part of the world and spend most of his time in this country once call Malaya, now Malaysia and independent and prosperous country. This year according to his email he would be here sometime in early December and as usual he would come over to our home and meet my family, well after all those years, we have become close friend with this 'mat salleh'....in Malaysia we refer to the white as 'mat salleh', so the next time you hear Malaysian speak among themselves and mentioned 'mat salleh' then most probably they are referring it to a 'white man'. I do not know why this term 'mat salleh' is use to refer to all those white man......of course there are many theories as to how this terms came about....let me tell you one of it...it is said that long long ago the white man's sailors use to frequent our harbour and loiter around those small shipping port towns and in one incident in a port at Penang, as usual these young white sailors would get drunk and wonder in unruly manner and misbehave themselves. Well obviously the local do not like it and sometime they would be a fight and this scene of unruly and drunken sailor soon became a frequent happening at small town at the sea ports....as the stories goes the Malay like to refer to those that they do not know their names as just only simple... Mat...so whenever these Mat got drunk and disturb the peace of the town, the local would just say that the Mat is on it again...and eventually they added the word 'sailor' to the Mat and since they did not know how to pronounce the word sailor they just say it 'saler' and eventually it soon sound as saaleh, so the story goes that this 'Mat Sailor' became Mat Salleh, which refer to the white man..and now when Malaysian speak among themselves they would use this word 'Mat Salleh' to mean the white man..... it is just a reference and it does not mean anything bad, so to the Mat Salleh do not felt offended when you hear this word uttered by Malaysian. It is just the way Malaysian refer to the white man and nothing else......actually I am not that sure whether this is the true version of the Mat Salleh's story, anyway let takes it at that this time until you hear another version.....well my friend Pak Ken would be here soon and we would go out roaming the streets of Kuala Lumpur and end off having the usual Teh Tarik and Roti Canai which he has learn to love to eat when he is here....so goes the story of the Mat salleh's friend of mine......Spending his winter in the tropic, smart eh!!!........

It is Friday, a bright morning with blue sky, so I sat on my flat rooftop patio and enjoy the morning sun, it is indeed nice to feel the sun ray which is rather mild in the early morning as well refreshing, well the sun....our source of energy, how great it would be if we human could harness this energy directly and not through a third party source like we are doing now....it is an interesting thoughts that makes me to start thinking of this noble ideas....so how and when do I get this idea of trying to get the energy directly from the sun.....well it all start when I was attending an invitation to a dinner in our daughter friend's house in New Haven, USA. We all had vegetarian dinner that night and it was real good and delicious, I was not aware that those dishes were vegetarian, had I am not told of it, I would have just taken it just like any great dishes and enjoying it... it was a sort of a 'chilly' like dish and a young American youth did the cooking, when asked, he say he is a vegetarian and later on I found that most of those youth that attend the dinner were vegetarian as well, some just became vegetarian quite recently....well they all are student doing their master study in environment and forestry and in the course of their study, they somehow got converted to be a vegetarian....as usual I asked how is that they decided to become vegetarian and here the answer lies..... as to the relation between the sun and the energy that we use....according to them that it is the plant that first convert the sun energy into another energy source that we human could consumed and got the energy from the sun since our body by itself could not convert the sun energy like the plants do.....well we all know that.... it is the plant that convert energy from sun and the rest we all know too well what happen....but we all never thoughts like that....we just assume that it is the nature of way of things...the plants convert the sun energy, the animals eat the plants and got the energy and we eat the animals and got the energy and on and on the food chains.....well why do we have to go all the trouble to get to the energy via those process, we could just get all the energy by just eating vegetable and other plants to get all the nutrition that are needed for us to survived, our forefather did and they survived.....Anyway that is that and now we all began to like eating white and red meat as well, so life soon became more complex, just because we have a choice, if not we would have stick to being a vegetarian like our forefathers and things would be different now.....so we evolve.....to the present situation......what would we do next.... it is anybody guesses.....we human would always find a way to survive......thanks to the energy of the sun......

Receive an email from a friend from the east coast, it was a long emal describing of her predicament, for she was in hospital for a month and we did not know about it, well... we thought that 'no news is good news', but in this case it was not a good news at all, she and her family are real good of friends of ours, came to know them when we were living in Kuantan sometimes in the late eighties. It was indeed sad to hear of such news from such a fine lady and a very healthy one too, we never thought that she would ever get sick, may be a bit of a headache or the like but not to be confined to the hospital for a months!!....and according to her she is ok now and on the way to complete recovery, well we pray and hope that she would recover soon and be running again like before, a real active lady, I guess it is the Arab's gene in her that make her full of energy and robust.......like us all her children have grown up and except for one or two, the rest have gone to do their things in their youth... further study and the sorts in other places. well Fad.... We are indeed sorry to hear of this episode of you life....but that is life, we all never know what is going to happen next, and at the same time glad to know that you are back in the comfort of your home, a great home on that beach of yours, I envy you for having that home with a beach front and river near by, it is everyone's dream to have such a home, you are among the lucky few....well we all can only dream....but you have it all and enjoying every minute of it....Your home is a great place to recover, so take it easy, enjoy a little and I am sure you would be back to square one like before, may be this is a hicc'up in the journey of life or a time to reflect....do read the ' interview with God' on my webblog and it might do you some good.....Kak As... and me wish you well, have a nice day.....

Well let me talk about moving houses, I guess many of us some time or others have move houses, that is the nature of thing, we human move from one habitat to another from time to time, sometime are of our choice and sometime because we had to, well... we human would love to stay put and do not want to part with our home except occasionally, for the love of traveling and to see new places, if possible we do not want to move at all, but ii is just impossible especially when we are working for an organization and in the midst of one's career and one is ask to be transferred to another place and for promotion sake one had to go, so the move began, as for me I have move many times and find it not that difficult when you are just start to have home, most of the times you do not have much things to move around, so it is just easy, you just pack your things and off you go, rent an apartment and settle down and that's it, no problem..... but as your children began to grow and you began to settle in a semi permanent home, you would soon accumulate more and more things, buying new furniture and other necessities to make your house a home, so you start to accumulate things and hardly your realized, you have so many things that you like and would not part with it, even if you had to move again. Well it happen to me, I love all those thing that I had bought from my teen age's days, like the old seventy eight record, the one that play great music on a turntable, I still have many of the these old music records and have kept them ever since, I would not part with it..... the same things with my book, since I first bought a book, I have always kept it and today at this golden age, I have accumulate thousand of books in my personal library, I just could not part with all those books and the music record that I use to listen in my teen and now great to hear from time to time..... well you can say it is nostalgic and it bring back sweet memories of my youth.... it was great for I had a wonderful time in my youth,..... to the present generation my advise is that.... makes full use of your youth for your life as a youth come only once and there are no way you could relieved those great days....You know what I have decided to keep my old Sony Beta VCR and a National VHS VCR for the future, so are with the few set of cel phone that I have, still in good condition but out of model, so I kept this too, in the years to come, may be not in my life time, it would be great antique and would be sought after by antique hunter, how I wished that I had kept the newspaper of bygone days in my youth especially for the issue when my children was born, it would be interesting to see those newspaper again, so now I try to keep some of those thing that would be useful in some way for the future generation.......you might say it is the crazy old man idea eh....., well at this age some time we think of what we should have done but did not, so I guess that it would be wise to keep something for the next generation, some people who have land plant durian [king of the fruits] trees and their grandchildren and great grandchildren would enjoy the fruits of their labor, but I do not have such land, so no durian trees....some useless gadget that would be of value for the future......Crazy idea it may be.....but it is fun and I enjoy doing it at this age.....and keep collecting, like my friend Hendry of Pucuk Rebung and look what happen, it has made a museum of it and he is enjoying every minutes of it.....have a nice day.....

Well yesterday I decided to wait and watch the pre recorded maiden speech of Pak Lah in the Malaysian parliament, it was telecast just after ten thirty in the evening. Personally it is important to me, for I had know him from our youth and I knew that today's speech in parliament would be special, for he would be speaking for the first time as the Prime Minister of Malaysian, the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia. Indeed He did delivered a great speech to the members of parliament. It this maiden speech, which will go down in history as a very important speech, for in this speech he, other then thanking Dr.Mahathir Mohamad for making Malaysian what it is today, he also gave Malaysian a broad view of what kind of Malaysia he would want it to be during his tenure as Prime Minister of Malaysia, He assured Malaysian that he would continue to pursue the policies that had been laid down by his predecessor, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, one of it is to see that Malaysia became a Develop nation by the year twenty twenty... he promise a clean and good governance as well, which I believe would be his trade mark during his period as PM of Malaysia.....He stood up well compose and full of confidence, deliver his speech like a statesman, true to a great leader in the making. He articulate well all throughout the speech and choke with emotion a few time especially at the end of his speech when he ask God for guidance in making his leadership a success. He was indeed charismatic in his presentation this time, I have never seen Pak Lah in such a presentation before and it augur well for his leadership as the new Prime Minister of this country....

Well my blog have being listed on the Rice Bowl Journal's site, an Asian journal site exclusive to Asian, which includes Asian living in countries other then their home country, I found thousand of blogs from all over the world registered at this site, it is indeed an interesting site. It has facilities to interact with other blogger via it's forum site one of which I visited recently and discuss the Mahathir of Malaysia's era. I found those in the discussion are matured in their thinking and this augur well to the bloggers which are mostly in their youth. As a senior I am able to provide thoughts from another generation, which I think would help this new Asian generation, to understand and appreciate their past and what they can hope for in the future. As can be seen Asia is set to make a come back to the world scene which it has 'pause' for some time, perhaps due to past failure. We all know that Asian was a very civilized countries with great development in all fields of human development, of infrastructure building, of the construction of great buildings and great temples and other monument, like those that are still exist till today, i.e the Barabador in Indonesia and the Angkor Watt in Cambodia, the Taj Mahal in India, the Great Wall in China and the likes all over Asia left behind by the past great Asian civilization. In the aspect of human resources, Asian can be proud of their past achievement in science, philosophy, literature, mathematic and the social science, Civilization exist in all the Asian countries long before it happen in the middle east. When Asian countries were at their height of civilization, most of the countries in the west were still in the dark ages, they was no the America then although there already exist the civilization of the Inca and the Mayas in the countries of the present Latin America, but the coming of the European destroy all these civilization. As we all know too well for some unknown reasons the great civilization of the Asian countries took a 'pause' for some time and when the west came to colonized this part of the world, one by one countries in this part of the world began to be colonized by the west and it remain so until the early nineteen century. The present young Asian must understand that they had great civilization and tradition in the past and they should not forget their past glory and should continue to make Asian a great place to live and enjoy life, for we have a very great history indeed......We now have Asean,with ten Asian countries working together and now we have the Asean plus three, soon I believe we would have an Asian Nation like the EEC in Europe, the formation of an Asian Economic Community is not an impossible thing and I believe in the next decade it would materialized and would became a economic and political power house that would play a more meaningful role in the global arena... Asia would rise again.....like before....to achieve this the present generation of Asian must acquire more knowledge and with that it would be able to participate more effectively in global affair in the future.....for our asset is today's youth....they and only they could make all these happen......

On browsing through the New straits times and Metro yesterday, I found in both newspapers old photos of the happening in the seventies that are related to the activities of the present Prime Minister Pak Lah, in both the newspaper I was delighted to see myself in the black and white photo of the Prime minister meeting some youth leaders, what a day to see oneself together with the young Pak lah in the seventies,now the new Prime minister of Malaysia, as I had said before, I was then his Assistant Director and work under his able leadership for almost five years and indeed it was one of the best and challenging period of my career in Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Malaysia.....With him gone into politic in the late seventies, we a professional government officer still continue to work in the same Ministry for the rest of our career in the government, I did met him from time to time and the latest was last March this year where he invited some forty couples of those that served with him in the Ministry in the seventies, my wife and me was included in the invitation for a dinner at his resident at Putra Jaya, Well we all had a prayer secession with him that evening and then had dinner together, it was indeed great to be able to meet him in person as the Deputy Prime Minister of the country. Well at the meeting that evening he told us of his aspiration for the country and that when he headed the states then he would govern it will full responsibility and commitment to the cause of the people, the country and the religion....we were indeed glad to meet him and hear of what he has to say....knowing pretty well that he is the right man for the job and now that he has became the Prime Minister of Malaysia, I believed that he would surely bring this country to a greater height .. for Dr.Mahathir Mohamad has left a well and prosperous country for him to carry on, and I am sure he would be able to shoulder the great responsibility bestowed upon him by the people of Malaysia.. sybas to the new Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Yesterday afternoon Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia in a colorful ceremony at Istana Negara [National Palace]. I am indeed please to see my former boss and a friend became the new Prime Minister of this beloved country of our. I was his Assistant Director when He was the Director of Youth in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in the early seventies. He was a great leader then and I am sure he would be a great leader to this country now...We all who have work under his able leadership, knew from day One that He would go places and now he has indeed made it to the top most place in the country leadership, as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia. I am sure he would take Malaysia to a greater height........He is popularly know as just Pak Lah, so to Pak Lah congratulation and May God bless you ....We all know you would be a great leader...[for more information, a piece on Pak Lah is at my Link, please click the Link, and take some time to read it, it is my small contribution to this great man, a boss and a friend], Thanks you.....