Bersihkan diri sendiri dahulu ... sebelum nak gi join Bersih 3.0

Baru-baru ini macam dah jadi "trend" bagi ramai orang berprihatin terhadap hal politik di negara kita. Beribu-ribu post FB boleh dilihat setiap hari - membalingkan kritikan terhadap parti kerajaan dan memberikan sokongan padu terhadap parti pembangkang. Topik minum kopi setiap hari tak lari lari lagi la - mesti berkenaan   dengan sama ada sumbangan yang dibuat oleh pihak pembangkang ataupun terhadap kes kronism terbaru yang didedahkan.

Sentimen ini agak baik sebenarnya, ini menunjukkan bahawa orang ramai bukan lagi katak di bawah tempurung. Tapi kadang-kadang terfikir juga - dalam ramai ramai rakyat prihatin ini, berapa peratus kah yang betul betul faham dengan perjuangan parti pembangkang ini - atau kebanyakan cuma sokong dan tambah api sahaja kerana nak menurut "trend".

Macam di kilang tempat saya bekerja, ramai jurutera sekalian yang menyokong Bersih. Masa Bersih 2.0 ada jugak colleague yang di berada di US keluar tunjuk perasaan kat tempat mereka. Bawak anak isteri sekali. Yang di tempatan tak usah cakap lagi la. Pakai baju kuning tiap tiap hari. Setiap topik perbualan mesti kaitkan dengan bersih. Tapi yang menariknya...tak tahu kepala hotak depa ni bersih ka tak.

Dan kini Bersih 3.0 dah sampai pulak. Kita lihat banyak kawan kawan sekalian terhigeh-higeh dengan semangat Bersih. Terserempak saja tanya " This Saturday got join ar?" Ataupun " You got buy dy, the Bersih 3.0 T-shirt? RM20 only, brader."

Bersih sebenarnya memperjuangkan "keadilan". Itu matlamat utama Bersih. Kita tak mahu wakil rakyat dipilih melalui sistem yang di "rigged". Kita mahu keadilan.

Berapa ramai brader brader yang pakai baju kuning tu faham dengan konsep perjuangan ini? Tak ramai kalau kita tengok di kilang kita ni. Ramai yang sanggup ambil kredit kerja orang lain. Ramai yang suka "backstab" rakan sekerja untuk naik pangkat. Ada juga yang saja saja forward email CC sedunia supaya boss boleh tengok mereka ini berapa pandai. Pandai? Pandai tipu la mungkin...

Dan kita tengok orang orang yang sama ini bercakap pasal Bersih. Bercakap pasal nak join tunjuk perasaan duduk kat Padang Kota. Ataupun post kat FB gambar diaorang pakai baju kuning Bersih 3.0 yang dibeli kat Batu Maung - berdekatan OCBC sana. Aksyen macam diaorang ni "bersih".

Walaupun di ofis tak pernah fikir langsung tentang kekejaman terhadap rakan sekerja sendiri. Tengok boss datang saja, tiba-tiba jadi macam bapok. Dan orang orang yang sama ni - yang konon-nya menyokong keadilan - menyokong boss depa yang cukup tak adil. Orang yang betul betul kerja dilihatkan bagai sampah. Dan sampah macam depa ni kononnya 100% komited terhadap kerja.

100% kepala otak! Tengok saja boss expat dari US la, Pakistan la, mula la bodek macam bapok. Semua nak rampas peluang pergi "relo" kat US. Email mesti CC sedunia.

Pada pandangan saya, beruk-beruk ini tak layak langsung cakap pasal Bersih. Kalau you orang nak pi join Bersih pastikan you orang korek keluar jantung hati yang hitam macam taik tu dulu...dan basuh supaya bersih dulu.

Dan ofis yang jual T-shirt Bersih kat Batu Maung tu...pastikan you orang jual baju tu pada orang orang yang layak saja. "Toksah" jual kat babi babi hutan yang tak faham langsung apa maksud "clean fight". Jual pada diaorang tu ibarat bakar baju saja. Mempersia-siakan nama bersih "Bersih".

Akhir sekali, ingin saya "clarify" di sini, saya takkan pi mana mana tunjuk perasaan esok. But trust me, saya memang sokong sebarang konsep "keadilan". Saya berani mengkritik beruk beruk takda otak itu depan orang ramai. Majoriti tak suka tak apa, yang penting, saya tahu - hasrat saya bersih. Tak ramai kawan pun takpa, yang penting satu hari nanti, saya boleh tengok bukan saja negara saya ni, tapi tempat kerja saya sekali pun - "bersih" daripada sampah masyarakat hipokratik macam mereka ini.

Brand New Pen

Boy...looking at the date of my last entry, it's been almost a year and a half already. 18 months - 2 babies could have been made and born in that period. I am almost at a lost here - it's like at one point of my life, my pen ran out of ink - and I went to look for a new pen or ink to fill - and now that the ink find its way into that pen of mine - I took a glance at the calendar and voila! It's 18  months later.

So what have I been up to? Looking for a new pen? Something that lasts longer? Indelible ink?

I would wish that I had been up to something fun, but it's been more frustration than fun. For the past 6 months or so, I had been busy with my new house - my 4th properties (5th if I count that flat I bought when I was just barely out of high school). With all these properties, you would have thought the renovation and moving in would be as easy as a breeze. You would have been wrong.

The thing about me is I always strive for perfection. I hate to screw up. So I planned till my hair grow white. Then when I turned my plan into execution, I was all fired up. But in a world like ours, there's always some people pouring water into your fire. Or rain - which is an act of nature. And plan all you want, there's always a need to improvise. And you become wiser when all this is over. Right?

The thing about us (as human beings) is we always hope that once something is over, we move to something new (with a break in within). We set a date and once we reach that date, we start a new phase of our life. But the truth is, thing never get over cleanly. We have shit we have to clean up - and sometimes this shit dragged itself forcibly into the new phase of our life. A crappy relationship for example. Where your ex always appeared out of nowhere to fight for your kids love and custody. And how to deal with that?

There's always crap like that. We deal with it - but don't expect it's fun. It's not.

That's what I have been saying. It's been more frustration than fun.

Ok now, let's not get carried away. Let me get used to my new pen first in coming days and hopefully my next entry would be something less philosophical. Haha.

Shotgun Marriage

Back in the old days, shotgun marriage is a term used to refer to marriage resulting from pregnancy. I don’t know how the term comes around but I can imagine. Probably the shotgun barrel are not what the guy see when they are humping their future bride - most likely that comes after the parent got wind of the pregnancy. In countries like Malaysia where guns are outlawed, perhaps the similar term would be “parang” marriage.

I remember a time when it’s a trend for older woman to wed younger guy. That was about the time when our former Miss Malaysia Arianna Teoh got married to our F1 rejects Alex Yoong. People looked at them in awe, people talked about how older women have more experiences when it comes to enjoying the bedroom times – and they decided to follow suit. Younger dudes date older women willingly – but what they don’t get is older women usually have different needs - like the urge to tie the knot ASAP – therefore they ended up in the wedding altar – rather unwillingly. In essence, this sort of marriage is very similar to shotgun marriage, perhaps the notable difference is the fact that usually it’s the older bride who is holding the shotgun.

What these young dudes didn’t get also was the fact that in Malaysia, you can get married as easy as tossing a coin, but when it comes to divorce, you will tossing yourself into deep shit. Maybe you can use the shotgun, but then – usually it’s the older wife who keeps the gun. What started off as a great bedroom experiences with older woman usually ends in tragedy. But hey, if celebrities like Arianna and Alex can’t even keep their marriages, who are we pheasants to keep ours?

People learnt their lesson, so now younger dudes no longer looks for older women – except for some cases where the older women transformed into cougars and are immensely wealthy. In these cases, the dudes would eventually become a trophy husband if the older women don’t get sick with them. But there was no forcing here. Instead of shotgun, these are gold plated marriage. Lavish lifestyle awaits – only for young dudes who have six pack.

For those who doesn’t have six packs, they would rather wait – because the trend now is where older guy married younger women – much much younger women. Trendsetters, as we know, are always some celebrities. So it doesn’t come as a big surprise when Amber Chia married an older men who is even married before with kids. Lee Sin Je did the same, earlier.
Older men with baggage (kids from former marriages) – used to be shunned – suddenly become hot cakes. They get their trophy wife and lives happily ever after – just like the fairy tales they read to their kids from former marriage. But we all know fairy tales are craps, don’t we?

With our social network getting more complicated by the day, so is our relationship. Many people decide to wait till their 30s before getting hitched. Perhaps they have learned their lesson from history. Marriage is never designed for people below 30, just like Iphone4 is never designed for people above 60.

People are more careful with marriage nowadays. They prefer to take it easy. Let’s hope shotgun marriage is a thing of the past – with people getting more thoughtful and conscientious. But wait a minute…just last week, I heard of a friend getting married. The thing is they had just been dating for barely 3 months. Then there’s this girl who we always admire from afar. She just got married, people say, after meeting the now-husband in a beach party 2 months ago. Recently also, this gorgeous HR lady who we always drool after – she just changed her relationship status to “in a relationship”. Surprisingly all these people have one similarity, they are in their 30s.

Perhaps shotgun marriage is not dead after all. It just evolves into another form. Careful or not, desperate people are still desperate people.