Just Do It ...

Hahaha ... tiba-tiba terasa nak mengekspresikan perasaan yang terbuku di dada dalam Bahasa Melayu (or Anglo-Melayu). Lama ya tidak menghasilkan sebarang nukilan.. Terasa janggal pulak nak menulis dalam 100% Bahasa Inggeris ... "feeling" dia lain sikit. Well, memang pun 2-3 minggu ni penulis seems to be under the weather ... biasalah kan "climate change" makin teruk sekarang ni.

Sepi tidak bererti "senyap" yer tuan-tuan, puan-puan, Dato'-Dato', Datin-Datin ... Terlalu banyak yang berlaku sepanjang penyepian ini. Kalau rajin menjenguk Facebook ... tau lah apa yang berlaku. Hehehe

Sepanjang bulan April, penulis sebenarnya sangat-sangat tertekan dengan penganjuran Malaysia Books of Records untuk Persembahan Boria Teramai. Untuk makluman, tekanannya bukan sebab ia adalah penyertaan pertama tetapi disebabkan penulis dan team penulis kena pecahkan rekod sebelum ini iaitu 2020 peserta. And then semasa meeting, pengelola bersama Festival Boria, Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Keseniaan Negara dah awal-awal bagi tau peruntukan tak mencukupi dan set minimum peserta 2500. Mula-mula penulis agak tidak berpuas hati juga sebab peruntukan Festival pun datang dari Kementerian penulis tetapi entah mengapa, jauh di sudut hati penulis ... ada seakan suatu suara yang mengatakan .... "Just Do It" (ok .... perasaan ini tidak ditaja oleh Nike yer)

Dengan hati yang masih ragu dan sedikit tidak berpuas hati, penulis teruskan jugak dengan penganjuran acara tersebut. In fact, if i know it is not going to be easy ... awal-awal lagi I surrender. Dengan keadaan politik di Pulau Pinang yang sedikit berbaur perkauman, dan di kalangan yang sama kaum pulak berbaur keagamaan (dan wang)... penulis teruskan jugak sebab someone must show what it means to be 1Malaysia. As expected, a certain group of people that supposed to support us didn't even care actually (after we supported their event). But we get support from groups of people that I least expected ... local medias ... tak kira lah mainstream, tabloid, commercial, free circulation .... they seemed lebih excited and wonder .... could it work? Heard this idea was mooted many years ago.

Secara jujurnya, in between, penulis juga menghadapi tekanan dari pegawai-pegawai atasan. Mesyuarat, laporan, taklimat dan macam-macam karenah yang buat penulis menaikkan suara dalam satu mesyuarat sebab with the type of pressure that we are in penulis would prefer seniors yang accommodating rather than commanding.

Tetapi suara ini masih bermain lagi di fikiran penulis ... "Stop arguing! Just do it"

Memang sangat tertekan mengenangkan hari-hari menjelang Festival Boria. Syukur, rakan-rakan sepasukan di pejabat pada tahun ini memang sangat bagus. Sengaja penulis tak bagi semua terlibat dalam perancangan acara untuk membolehkan beberapa pegawai menjalani kursus dengan tenang, menghadiri mesyuarat dan melaksanakan tugas-tugas hakiki. Timbalan penulis juga seorang yang sangat berpengalaman dan "wise".

Sesungguhnya penulis tidak menyangka Festival Boria 1Malaysia mendapat sambutan yang di luar dugaan. Kalau pasukan penulis tidak stop pendaftaran pada jam 8.30 malam. Maunya mencecah 4000 penyertaan malam tu. Kami setuju rekod 2811 peserta. Penulis dengan pengarah Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian menangis kegembiraan malam tu. Betul ... we were soooooooo happy and relief.

Kalau dibandingkan dengan semua acara yang penulis pernah anjurkan sebelum ini, acara ini kecil saja tetapi kepuasan dan tekanannya memang luar biasa. Bila penulis dapat tahu "kesengsaraan" yang Pengarah Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian kena lalui selama 7 hari di lokasi acara ... baru lah penulis sedar mengapa penulis perlu main peranan supaya acara Malaysia Book of Records yang di bawah jagaan penulis perlu berjaya.

It was the heart of the whole festival.

Semalam masa di Perlis, penulis dapat tahu kemeriahan acara tu dah jadi topik hangat "other" Kementerian berbanding Kementerian penulis sendiri hehehehe sampai Menteri the "other" Ministry bangkit dalam post-cab (biar betul ... )

Anyway, this month pun pressure teruk jugak ... anyway ... Just Do It!

Festival Boria 1Malaysia Malaysia Book of Records Attempt!

Please support us in our effort to break the Largest Boria Performance record on 30 April 2011, 9.00 pm at Kampung Seronok, Bayan Baru, Penang. So here are the dance steps for you to practise! See you there!!!

Soul Cleansing First Quarter 2011

In my last entry I mentioned about life is getting tougher lately and that it took all my strength and energy to face all the obstacles. So I decided to loosen it a bit for my own sake ... with rigorous "soul cleansing" rituals that took place in the heart of KL. Yes, life is also too precious to be wasted.

Don't be deceived the sweet smiles ... the eye-bags couldn't hide the stressful life that we had.

My soul cleansing rituals started with a "coffee fix " at Pavillion's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf with the girls. It had been quite a while since our last get together and every one was having hard time in the office (and top management). I had to be honest to them that even my current Ministry had loads of management problems that stem from people with "bad interest". My only consolation is that ... I learned more related new things.

This was just the warming up session .. Roy pun belum start tarik suara Amy Search!

Then we proceeded to next ritual - karaoke session at Redbox. Singing our heart out loud. We were joined by Datin Zaitun and Norzah's wonderful family plus Syu's hubby, Shafril. I had a blast ... shouting  at the top of my lung to Whitney Houston's I Had Nothing ... hehehe! I could feel all the stress and burden were flushed out from my body. We also had a singer in the house ... Lin who sang I Will Survive so beautifully! Norzah and Datin sang exactly like the Golden couple ... P.Ramlee and Saloma. Nostalgic ...

Datin Zaitun and Norzah ... the Golden couple.

For the following rituals I had to wait for Emel, who flew all the way from Kuching, Sarawak. Yea ... it has also been quite a while Emel and I had outings like this. The last time we met was during Chinese New Year but was mostly centred on my family events. By the way, Emel had nothing else in her mind the moment she stepped on the Kuala Lumpur soil except for Thiam Sang's Hokkien Mee and Lala (click for story). Luckily she had the courtesy to tapau my Kuching Kolo Mee as I was so hungry driving 4 hours straight from Penang.

The entrance to the cinema.

I think we were the only kids that didn't require supervision that day .. hehehe

The next following rituals were mainly revolved around our favourite activities; eating, massage and watching movie. We decided to station ourselves at Midvalley and the Gardens as there are many shops and outlets to choose from. We had sushi at Sushi Zanmai (click for story), followed by trying out the expensive but exclusive GSC Signature watching the movie HOP (we couldn't find better movie to watch), then a 90-minute Thai aromatherapy massage session at Thai Odyssey, followed later by a Thailicious meal at Flying Chillies.

Banyak angin dalam badan ... terpaksa tahan kentut during massage.

Emel with that "what to order look".

The next day ... Emel and myself decided to rediscover Bukit Bintang and getting reacquainted with the LRT and Monorail system. But before that we went to KESAS Highway via Bukit Jalil for a "simple" lunch of Nasi Ayam Kampung. Gosh ... I really wanted more but need to save some space for Lot 10 Hutong and The Loaf hehehe. By the way, we found a great place to chill out at Level 2 Lot 10 and found out that it belongs to Jackie Chan!!! In fact, one Caucasian guy bought a cup of coffee and dozed off there.

Mie relaxing with a cuppa.

We also went to the Pavillion and stopped by my favourite bakery ... The Loaf to get freshly baked buns or whatever that interest me. However, it seemed that they had so many customers that they ran out of so many items. Luckily, they had my Cream Pan ... and I bought two even though I was still full from Lot 10 Hutong eating spree.

I always love their Langkawi outlet.

My cream pan ... hey who ate my bun???

I really enjoyed the rigorous soul cleansing and hope to do it more often. I really recommend it to every one with acute "heart" and "head" problem. Felt relax and lighter (literally) when I returned to Penang the following day. Now ... it's time for all the belly and intestine cleansing hehehe

Feeling Suicidal?

A sad and horrific news yesterday prompted me to pen this entry. A second year student in one of the public universities in Sarawak committed suicide in the man made lake where my youngest sister used to take samples for her experiments. I don't know much about the deceased. But despite my religion teachings which against and condemn suicides, I pray to God for forgiveness of his sins and may his soul rest in peace. For whatever he did and what prompted him to do that, that will be between him and God. Best not to speculate, that the least we could do as a final respect.

I read the deceased blog and couldn't help but admire his writings. His English was superb. Actually 10 years ago, there was a similar incident happened in Kuching. Not far from my previous office in King Centre, a young Chinese guy around the age of 23 also commited suicide by inhaling exhaust fumes. Few days later, friends and family members published his writings - poems, songs which were beautifully written. And both in their last writings penned this down .... LIVING is HARD. It is sad that potential great writers like them decided to end their life stories with a tragic and devastating ending.

Note: Even scarier, Qing Ming is on April 5 this year. This news brought back a memory of another departing soul.

Again, though I disagree suicide as the final answer to one's misery but lately ... I too felt that life is getting tougher and harder to cope with. Keeping a positive (and sane) mind is taking too much energy and strength. Combine with  stress, insecurities, boredom and frustration is a clear recipe for potential suicidal concoction. Sometimes I wonder, am I the one complicating matters or people around me are just difficult (of course ... this is always the answer ... NEVER me but ALWAYS them hehehe).

2 days ago, a Singaporean tourist around the age of 70 came to my office, complaining that she was chased out from her hotel even though she paid her rentals. Then showed me police report that she lost her wallet and money. But when I offered to send her back to Singapore, she refused saying that she has a court case to attend. When I offered to call her family members, she refused saying that she doesn't want to trouble them.

Then she started crying telling us stories that she was being cheated by a property developer, then she fear for her safety as she felt some people want to kill her... the story went on and on and on. I had to stop her short ... rising my voice "So what do you want me to do?" 

"Actually, I don't know what and how you can help me?" was her answer.

To be honest ... this scene is nothing new to me. I saw family broken apart, blissful marriages ended up in ugly divorces, innocent men turned into murderers just because of abandoned housing projects. One time a man with parang came to my former office, just because his family threw him out because there was a delay in reviving his abandoned unit. My gut feelings told me ... there are more to it than just being thrown out of the hotel or stolen wallet.

Out of compassion, I called her niece in Singapore to confirm her mental state, then I called the tourist police to escort her to her hotel and get all her things, move her to another hotel, then I called her lawyer. It was from her lawyer that I got the whole picture and the source of her misery. Before the economic downturn in 1997 she invested about RM 300,000.00  in a timesharing program with a prominent Malaysian bank via their property arms in Penang. But then during the economic downturn, that saw the crashing of the Malaysian banking systems ...made her lost all her RM 300,000.00 investment. The property was later bought over by a new hotel company with new management. I don't know how about the buying over process but I was told that she was not listed as a creditor.

When I spoke to her niece, she told me that her aunt is a very independent woman. The last time she saw her, prior to her leaving for Penang, she seemed OK. However, the information that I got from hotels which allegedly kicked her out were the total opposite. She disturbed other guests, she always claimed her things were lost. There were times when we spoke ... she seemed OK and rational. But there were times when she broke down and keep repeating "Penang not good, Singapore better."

Deep down ... I knew that I am dealing with a very, very depress independent lady who has lost her mind over her back luck - money, property and maybe family. All alone ... in a foreign country.  Hmmm... truthfully I don't want to end up like her. Suddenly, I too felt that I should something with regards to my mental health.

Anyway, these are the findings on MENTAL HEALTH STATUS OF MALAYSIANS The 3rd National and Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) from DHRRA website:

Findings :
•  Overall prevalence - 11.2% of adult population in Malaysia has some form of psychiatric morbidity, with the Chinese population experiencing the highest prevalence at 31.1%.
•  Gender - more females than males have psychiatric problems, with 55% of them females and 45% males.
•  Residence - psychiatric morbidity is higher among urban population than rural, 12.6% for urban population versus 8.5% for rural population.
•  Education level – it is higher among those with no education or primary education, 15-16% versus 10% for those with tertiary education.
•  Marital status – it is higher among the divorcees (13.6%); followed by singles (13.1%) widow/ widower (12.2%) and lastly those who are married (10.5%)
•    Suicidal ideation – overall prevalence of acute suicidal ideas of 6.4% with the highest among teenagers and young adults, aged 16-24 at about 11%.
•    Insomnia ( inability to sleep) – overall acute insomnia of 14% with those aged 70-74 having the highest prevalence of slightly over 20%.
 

The findings above, is an indication on state of mental health of adult population in Malaysia at the time of survey. It also does not pinpoint to any specific mental disorder. Measured over a longer period of time, the prevalence is much higher at 48.1% using the same screening tool ( chronic psychiatric morbidity). 

This measures the presence of symptoms over a continual or longer period of time. Chronic psychiatric morbidity is much higher among those with tertiary education and among senior officers and managers and among professionals. This could be due to the stress associated with heavier job responsibilities of these people.  (OMG!!!!)

Take care.

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (The Malay Chronicle: Bloodline)

I am not sure why I was so excited to watch this movie? Could it be because of Stephen Rahman Hughes (....of courseeeeee), or to satisfy my curiosity on why a Pan-Asian actor got the starring role. OR just to see whether KRU production manage to pull it off , you know, after my BIG disappointment with Puteri Gunung Ledang, despite the fact that they had nailed it with Cicakman and Cicakman 2.

Well, admittedly it is not really easy to bring an epic adventure story, usually based on oral history or folklore to the screen without making it either confusing or illogical. Plus delivering the story to the screen without adding some "sugar,salt and pepper" and a little imagination would make it rather tasteless. Ok ... I would not look at Hong Kong or Indian epic movies for comparison because of big cultural differences and historical relations. So my benchmark for this movie was Queen of Langkasuka by Nonzee Nimibutr (who also gave us Nang Nak and Suriyothai).

To be fair, I also watched Queen of Langkasuka because of Ananda Everingham (a Thai-English actor) and like Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (HMM) ... I also don't know much about the legend of the Queens of ancient Pattani kingdom. Interestingly, some historical writings indicate that the Queens of the Pattani kingdom were descendants of Merong Mahawangsa from the fourth child (a daughter) of Merong Mahawangsa's son, Merong Mahapudisat. Okay, please refer HERE for the storyline.

To make the experience more special, I decided to watch the movie at the brand new TGV Cinema at Penang's newest shopping mall, 1st Avenue. I watched the 2pm show and sadly the cinema hall was 25% occupied. Okay ... another problem with regional epic movies ... not many followers. Another possible reason ... many Chinese don't watch Malay movies except Jaime Yeoh and other bananas. BTW, this new cinema will definitely be my new chill out place.

So ... my overall comment about the movie. A heavy mixture of LOVE and HATE. We are almost there but  still not there. Okay we know that KRU production spent RM 8 million for this movie. And to be honest, if they have another RM 14-15 million we (as in Malaysian movie) will be able to compete internationally and position ourselves in the international film industry.

First, I would like to congratulate KRU production and the movie writer Amir Hafizi on the storyline. Notably  in highlighting Geruda as the pirate tribe instead of the mythical bird. Well, to be honest, Langkasuka was said to be located somewhere between Mount Jerai and Muda River. In the real Merong Mahawangsa text, it is said you can see Jambul Island and Lada Island from kingdom city. Now when I went to Bangkok last year, I saw a display of an old map which belongs to an English/French traveller that marked Penang Island as Pulo Lada. Those days, Penang provided a sheltered harbour for Chinese, Indian, Arabian and European ships during the monsoon months; this, in turn, inevitably made it fertile hunting ground for pirates. In present day Penang, Mount Jerai is about 50km from Butterworth and is visible from town centre.

Taken at Museum Siam, Bangkok (my own photo)

However, I was a bit disappointed that HMM did not (or could not) incorporate some Hindu customs and traditions of the people during those time to make it more realistic. Though Amir Hafizi did explained why in his blog (another constraint of a local movie),  however tourismwise ... I saw this as a pulling factor for history lovers and historians all over the world. My point is ... long before the great kingdoms of Srivijaya, Ayuthya, Sukhothai or Pattani, there was this great kingdom of Langkasuka in the Malay Peninsula. 

Thai epic movies love to showcase how great their ancient kingdoms of Siam, but historians and linguists agreed that the Thais moved from their ancestral home in southern China into mainland southeast Asia around the 10th century AD. Prior to this, Indianized kingdowm such as the Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms ruled the region. Langkasuka probably the kingdom that gave birth to other great empires in Malay archipelago ... hehehe. From just tribal villages into a kingdom.

For this, I love Shuhaimi Baba's works such of Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam for incorporating traditional and cultural elements like the arts of kuda kepang, black magic, royal court dance etc...Though the storyline is almost there ... however HMM still need to brush up on the "kesinambungan" from one scene to another . I am still confuse what the director wanted to highlight ... the greatness of Merong Mahawangsa martial arts or his leadership in the battlewar or the startup of Langkasuka.

Hmmm ... there are few tiny details that I was not really happy with in this movie. Like the costumes of the Chinese princess and her hand maiden. Their Mandarin and dialogues especially Nell Ng's acting. Hmm ... despite being a royal princess hand maiden, Nell's acting is more like an Ah So! I know she might be the comedy element of this movie. But sorry ... the  Chinese royal imperial courts requires poise and gracefulness. Plus their Mandarin were heavily accented with Cantonese phonetics. I do agree that, most of the scenes were about the princess and her handmaiden travelling but looking at Queen of Langkasuka, the scenes where the princesses were in their travelling costumes and traditional costume of the imperial court made me awe in wonder. Plus, they made tengkolok, sampin and baju Melayu in songket looked so grand!

Another interesting detail which was just mentioned in passing, that the meeting point  of Rome prince and Chinese princess was to be made at the Golden Chersonese because of fengshui ... it is not wrong to explained that in the Chinese Admiral line on why that place was chosen fengshuiwise (another point to promote Langkasuka site and Penang will benefit from it too hehehe). Good thing they mentioned Golden Chersonese, but what so Golden Chersonese about it should actually be highlighted in the Goan scenes ...  or in the Chinese Admiral line ... you know despite being "a wild ground, with wild people". Just like how Merong advised Prince Marcus about the Chinese ("the Chinese had fought battles long before the Romans" ) haaa for that matter, we could take some idea from Pirates of the Carribean.

Stephen Rahman Hughes is a great actor, but because he doesn't speak or understand Malay, some of the punchlines and expressions were a bit off. Most of the Malay dialogues were beautifully written as "pantuns" and very poetic so it need some soul to express it in words (verbally). Perhaps with the soothing sound of traditional wind instruments in the background. However, I was sooooooo not comfortable with some secenes of Merong with Prince Marcus of Rome. Funny, I feel like Merong has more chemistry with Marcus than with Embok hahahaha (OMG).

Initially I was questioning on the choice of Ummi Nazirah for the part of Embok. Then there were certain "supposedly intimate scenes between Merong and Embok, I realised yes .... we should highlight on the  authentic Malay beauty ... the skin, the lips, the hair (bibir merah merekah, pipi bagai pauh dilayang, rambut mayang mengurai). If this is not a Malaysian movie ... definitely there will soft sex scenes. But then again ... I thought of The Adjustment Bureau ... Emily Blunt and Matt Damon played with their facial expression, body language (you know the restlessness), their eyes keep looking at each others lips - that was enough to make me feel uneasy on my seat. HOT!!!

But I still don't get it why Embok suddenly acting angry with Merong. Though it was explained later (she was raped by Kamawas) but still "kaku".I think Embok's part will be better if Embok initially gave cold shoulder to Merong but slowly she was attracted to him but being a "hero warrior" Merong was also admired by young ladies of the tribe which sparked some jealousy on the part of Embok, thus the "angry intimate" scene between Merong and Embok.

" jika pintu empangan sudah dibuka, manakan boleh ditahan airnya"- Kamawas

Khir Rahman was great as Kamawas. What can I say (I am speechless)! His acting was so natural (and blown me away) that I would say he deserved an award for his supporting role. Mantapppppp .... though his line (refer to the photo caption) where he was being "seduced" by Princess Meng Li-Hua is a bit XXX for Malaysian viewers but I think in Malaysian words ... "memang ngammmm"  with scene. That guy was so horny that time what...

I love Dato' Rahim Razali in this movie. His voice, his facial expression and the soul that he brought into the character of Kesum. Well, many of his lines were a bit poetic and looking at the way he expressed  it, sent shivers to my spine. Yes, like other "unpaid critics" ... I don't like the hair hehehe

I don't want to comment much on the cinematography - I am seeing a bit of 300, Gladiator and Troy. The CGI was superb but need some polishing as in some of the scenes, the ships looked so obvious like toy ships.

Hahahaha ... panjang pulak komen. But anyway, it is because we are almost there but still not there. However, I applaud the efforts and money spent on the making of this movie and most importantly ... I did not fell asleep (tu yang banyak komen hehehe).