2nd Anniversary.

Aku bukan nasionalis, bukan katolik, bukan sosialis. Aku bukan buddha, bukan protestan, bukan westernis. Aku bukan komunis. Aku bukan humanis. Aku adalah semuanya. Mudah-mudahan inilah yang disebut muslim. Aku ingin orang menilai dan memandangku sebagai suatu kemutlakan tanpa menghubung-hubungkan dari kelompok mana saya termasuk serta dari aliran apa saya berangkat. Memahami manusia sebagai manusia.

- Ahmad Wahib (Catatan Harian 9 Oktober 1969)

Exams.

Mark this date, fella: 23rd of June 2011.

This would be my reading-list right after I nail my final paper on that 23rd -

• My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk (stopped 100 pages away from the end, which sucks I know but gotta make some space for the exams, no?)
• Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
• Testimony, Anita Shreve
• The God of Small Things, Arudhati Roy
• Don't Be Sad, Dr. 'A'id al-Qarni

and perhaps, perhaps, 1984 by George Orwell - I am eyeing it now, contemplating still.

But hey, game on by this Thursday. By game I mean, reading at least 24 books per year. I am halfway there since My Name Is Red is my 12th book. Hooray to that! My summer holiday is gonna be filled with books :D

For it, or against it?

The Forgotten Prisoners.

Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinion or religion is unacceptable to his government. There are several million such people in prison - by no means all of them behind the Iron and Bamboo curtains -  and their numbers are growing. The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united in common action, something effective could be done.

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Our Problem.

The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

- Albert Einstein

Betapa Jahilnya Manusia.

betapa jahilnya manusia

suka mengata dan mencerca

benda kecil di laga laga

di jaja ke seluruh pelusuk dunia.

betapa jahilnya manusia

kata dijadikan senjata

kawan dijadikan lawan

ditindas sebegitu rupa.

betapa jahilnya manusia

menjadi lantang tidak kena masa

menjadi lantang pada isu biasa

menjadi lantang di belakang tabir sahaja.

betapa jahilnya manusia

isu yang besar, isu yang kritikal

dipandangnya sebelah mata

lidah terkelu, diam seribu bahasa.

betapa jahilnya manusia

bila wang dijadikan panduan

bila hati gelap kerana kemewahan

yang penting hanyalah diri sendiri

bukannya mereka.

betapa jahilnya manusia

ditapak tapakkannya saudara

dijaja jaja aibnya

hilang maruah, tergadai hidupnya

ah, mana aku kisah!

betapa jahilnya manusia

mengagung agungkan yang biasa

para cendekiawan di lupakannya

yang penting hanya fesyen sahaja.

betapa jahilnya manusia

betapa jahilnya manusia

betapa jahilnya manusia

takbur, riak, angkuh

kononnya punya kuasa

kononnya punya harta

kononnya punya rupa

tapi mereka lupa

dunia hanya sementara

ada saudara yang hidupnya masih lara

negara sudah porak poranda

bencana di sini sana

dan aku

aku hanya mampu menangis hiba

melihatkan mereka yang masih alpa

lupa

darah kita semua merah, pekat

sama

lupa

tanah yang dipijak

sama

lupa

langit yang dijunjung

sama

lupa

matinya kita nanti

kembali kepada Pencipta

yang sama

lupa semua

hilang segala

jahilnya manusia

tangisnya mereka kerana rancangan Korea

tapi tidak pula mereka tangisi

nasib saudara yang hilang nyawa

di seberang sana.

Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Few images have seared the mind like the footage of a lone and unarmed man in white, standing before a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square. On that day in 1989, thousands of civilians,  mostly students and intellectuals, gathered in peaceful assembly for democracy. The Chinese government brutally suppressed the protest, opening live fire on the demonstrators, killing hundreds.

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Another Lesson Learnt.

Got invited for this 'Kutipan Derma Untuk Membantu Sahabat di UK' event on facebook, and been informed that this one friend had to pay more than 600 pounds for the trip to the dentist which sucks big time I know since it had bitterly resulted on him not being able to go back to Malaysia this summer.

The thing is, at first I was quite reluctant to donate, not because of I don't know him but since I thought of 'For what do I have to donate to this? Dentist trip?', and pretty much convinced, I simply brushed the subject off my mind. Unfortunately I must say it hadn't been able to completely leave my mind in peace. Been haunted with the questions of -Why didn't I donate? Why should I donate? Would it be worth my money? I love to help those in need but can I consider him as one? Just because of a dentist trip seems petty to me no? - every single fucking time when I thought of it, honestly.

But here's the trick.

Even though the reasoning behind the matter is as small and as unconvincing as the 'dentist trip', I almost forget of this one important proverb that teaches us a very good lesson and eventually helps me to come to my sense:

Charity sees the need, not the cause.

I reckon we can't help ourselves from being skeptic, can't avoid contemplating over something similar to this issue. But we must always remember this, must forge this in our minds - For whatever the reasons are, see beyond them. See the need. When someone's in need, and if you're capable of helping, lend your hands. Would it be worth it or not, what I know is, for every good deed you've done in this world, Allah will repay you with something greater than what you've sacrificed.

Indeed, as for today I have learnt something new. Alhamdulillah.

Hello June.

I welcome June with this forgotten story of Sybil, a freedom fighter for the independence of Malaya against the Japanese army. 

It has been told and retold by many that Sybil and her husband had treated more than 6,000 guerilla fighters who fought relentlessly for the independence of Malaya. Eventually Sybil and her husband were caught. The Japanese army arrested them in 1943. They promised to release Sybil and her husband but on condition that she revealed the names of the MPAJA forces. But Sybil was adamant and refused to do so. In fact, she is said to have told the Japanese government that she was “willing to die with my family, then disclose the 30,000 MPAJA and family members who fought for independence of Malaya”. Sybil was prepared to face the punishment by the Japanese army. They punished her husband, son and her daughter Thavam, who was then seven years old. But Sybil, who suffered the anguish of knowing her family’s pain, did not relent. She refused to betray the MPAJA members and their families. Finally, Sybil was sent to Batu Gajah prison where she was further tortured.

(read more)