Categories
Society

[781] Of P. Ramlee and moving forward

Last week, Fenomena Seni – a program on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) that discusses the state of the arts in Malaysia – created a considerable buzz in the Malaysian blogosphere. I missed the excitement but this week, I caught it on TV and it didn’t disappoint me. The program is rich in vigor and probably, along with Debat Perdana, might herald RTM’s renaissance. Anyway, the topic for this week is about P. Ramlee; the program raises the question, are Malaysians giving P. Ramlee too much credit?

The question was raised in Malay and given that I have problem recalling the exact phrase, I might be guilty of mistranslating the question. But within context, I’m confident that it’s accurate.

For the uninitiated, P. Ramlee is considered by many Malaysians as the greatest actor, director and songwriter Malaysia has ever produced. I don’t want to go too much into why P. Ramlee is great. So, I’ll leave you with an article from the trusty ol’ Wikipedia.

The general sentiment of the show was that P. Ramlee is great and nobody should question that. While the show was running, a survey was conducted and the result was announced at the end. The proposition of the survey is similar to the topic and a little over 80% of the survey correspondents answered no. Though the survey wasn’t scientific, if a scientific survey were conducted instead, I doubt the yield would differ by much.

There were three guests on the show. One of them, Member of Parliament from Sri Gading, Mohamed Aziz, repeatedly said that nobody will be able to match P. Ramlee, reinforcing the 80% opinion. I feel that is an unfortunate conclusion that bares dim future for the Malaysian song and film industry.

If this is the case, then nobody would be able to challenge P. Ramlee’s greatness. Nowhere in the future will Malaysia be able to produce an artist better than P. Ramlee because a majority thinks nobody could match P. Ramlee. Because of this, I feel we are looking too much into the past. We grant P. Ramlee the status of god that today, many of us would feel offended by the slightest suggestion that somebody might be better than P. Ramlee. This is no right mindset to move forward.

If P. Ramlee must be left unchallenged, I fear the Malaysian song and film industry will never improve. All of us are too scared to be better than our predecessors, much less a god. After all, challenging a god is an unthinkable blasphemous act, isn’t it?

Such fear is unfounded and an obstacle to a better Malaysia. That god is the creation of our mind. For each that we created, we could uncreate. It’s important for us to take back the godlike status we have conferred to P. Ramlee, if P. Ramlee is preventing us from moving forward.

Categories
Economics Politics & government Sports

[780] Of blue is the color of the day

What a wonderful day it is day. It could never go wrong one way or the other because earlier today, there was a match between two English clubs that I feel no love for. One, Chelsea and the other, Manchester United. Win, lose or draw, I would get to celebrate and celebrate I did. Manchester United got creamed at Stamford Bridge. 3 – 0. Three against nil. Tiga kosong kawan!

Throughout the game, especially in the second half, Manchester United was dominated by Chelsea. It was satisfying. It is satisfying. Of course, the downside is the fact that that win makes Chelsea as the season’s champion, yet again. But I think I can suffer Jose Mourinho’s antic as long as Manchester United gets a beating. Hey, you can’t always get too much of a good thing. So, this tradeoff is just fine by me.

The only pity I felt for anybody between the two teams is for Edwin van der Sar. Too bad he’s an Ajacied, being on the wrong side. And for Rooney too. I don’t like his temper but that injury is much too cruel for a punishment, especially when it’s so close to the upcoming World Cup in June in Germany. I hope his injury is not too serious. I hope that injury won’t prevent him from making to the World Cup.

My goal of the match is definitely Joe Cole’s. The goal is a case of brilliant assessment of the situation. It could be just plain luck but it’s brilliant nonetheless. As for the third goal, it describes Manchester United – a sinking boat. Hooray!

You know what would be better? Liverpool pushing Manchester United into third place.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – have you ever wondered the correlation between Bush’s approval rating and gas price? Well, wonder no more. The Big Picture explains.

Categories
Economics

[779] Of Wikipedia to pay for contributions?

Experienced internet users are likely to be familiar with Wikipedia. It’s famous for being “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” It was made even more famous when Nature declares Wikipedia “comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries.” That’s a victory for the Wikipedian model. Now, there’s a proposal to tweak the model.

A new proposal, called the paid editor job board, started by Cookiecaper earlier this week has generated a firestorm of controversy. The proposal, originally named Wikipedia:Now Hiring, operates on a similar principle to Wikipedia:Bounty Board. However, unlike the Bounty Board, the paid editor job board would pay individual editors for specific Wikipedia contributions, instead of giving a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Controversial? You bet.

I’ve been on English Wikipedia for more than two years now, at least on record. I contribute in return for self-satisfaction and there are more than a million of users like me at Wikipedia. The editors receive no monetary reward whatsoever. Some called it altruism. Whatever it is, our rewards most of the times are recognition by other editors.

Since the current setting is working marvelously so far, it’s not surprising at all to observe a sizable group of people to express strong displeasure against the idea. One of the most common objections is that it goes against the spirit of the project. If you are interested, a list of objections and counterpoints could be read at Reward Board’s talk page.

As for me, I support the notion of paid editors. What swayed me to the aye side is this:

Wikipedians contribute for a variety of reasons, ranging from pure altruism to logorrhea to enjoyment of the work itself. What’s ultimately important is the goal-to write a free, open-content enyclopedia-not the private motivations of the contributors.

Heh. I’m currently working on British Malaya. So, if you’d like to see me work faster on it, how about you paying me?

Categories
Politics & government Sports

[778] Of ties with Israel

The other day on Bernama, there was a short writeup about Malaysian diplomatic ties with Israel. In it:

No Intention Yet To Establish Ties With Israel

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) — Malaysia never had diplomatic links with Israel so far and the government has no intention of changing the status quo in the near future, said the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

“This is because Tel Aviv is yet to fulfil certain conditions, therefore there is no reason why Malaysia should review its current stand,” he said in reply to Salahuddin Haji Ayub (PAS-Kubang Kerian) at the Dewan Rakyat here, Monday.

It’s a no and I agree with it.

Despite that, I feel it would be ideal if Malaysia could befriend every country in this world without prejudice; that includes Israel. All else being equal, ties between the two countries would benefit both. I’m sure Malaysia has something to learn from Israel and Israel likewise.

This isolation by Malaysia prevents economic opportunity that could arise from the Malaysian-Israelis ties from developing. At the same time, seven ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with Israel. If an Israeli firm wanted to invest in Southeast Asia, the firm would have to cancel out Malaysia and consider our neighbors instead. That would be opportunity lost; Malaysia’s loss is somebody else’s gain.

My wish to see ties with Israel however doesn’t mean I support many Israeli policies. I disagree with Israel withholding the Palestinian taxmoney and landgrab the resulted from the separation barrier.

Despite possible benefits that might arise from Malaysian-Israeli relations, the world is not an ideal place. If Malaysia were to form ties with Israel, many would not be too happy about it. I’d imagine several Muslim countries would impose punitive measures on us. The simplest would Saudi Arabia to reducing haj quota for Malaysia. A more serious measure would involve economic restriction. Worse, I’d hate to see Osama bin Laden or any Muslim extremist for that matter to even speak of Malaysia, threatening us of an attack.

At the moment, it does seem to me that the cost of forming ties with Israel outweighs its benefits. I don’t think an Israeli embassy here in Kuala Lumpur is worth risking peace that at home and Muslim countries’ friendship that we enjoy currently. Hence, I can only agree with the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary; no ties with Israel. At least for now.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – Ajax 2 – 0 Groningen. First leg is won. Second leg in the Euroborg. Despite the 100% win so far in the playoff, according to De Telegraaf, Danny Blind is on his way out. Some are skeptical about that report though. As for me, I’m not sure about letting Blind or even retaining him for that matter. This season is a disappointment though some very good signings have been made by Blind for the new season.

Categories
Photography Sports

[777] Of to our glorious dead

Last Saturday, I paid Tugu Negara a visit; it’s my first visit in more than five years. Tugu Negara is the Malaysian national monument and it’s here in Kuala Lumpur . And of course, I brought along my trusty camera.

I took considerable number of shots and there are two shots that I want to share in this post.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Another shot from the other end, at higher elevation:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

I love how the shadow falls on the white marble. However, these pictures don’t turn out as good as I had hoped for. I suppose, this is one of those things that you need to be there to truly appreciate the atmosphere. Or that I suck at photography.

There are plaques at the ceiling. Lots of them but people are oblivious of it; most don’t even know that they are walking under it. Still, that’s comprehensible because a giant bronze sculpture stands about 20 or 30 meters away. But it’s sad to see that people are more attracted to size than details.

I don’t know what the purpose of the plaques but it’s no brainer that those plaques represent the Commonwealth forces. I’ll venture to say that those plaques represent all the Commonwealth forces that had served in this part of the world. A good numbers of them are ANZAC.

According to Wikipedia, today is ANZAC Day. Considering how much ANZAC had contributed to peace in Malaya and Malaysia, I feel it’s only right for me to wish all those that celebrate the day appropriately. So, Happy ANZAC Day, if that is how it’s wished as.

As for Malaysia, Hari Pahlawan falls on July 31. I look forward to visit the monument again on that day.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – this is old but Ajax 4 – 2 Feyenoord; aggregate 7 – 2 in Ajax’s favor. Take that! Next stop, Groningen and then off to the Champions League!

Also, there are six Ajacieden (plural of Ajacied?) in the Dutch national team and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has been called up. Watch out Nistelrooy. Give way to the new king Hunter.