PFS archive rooms

Went visiting the Penang Free School's archive rooms yesterday with my co-editor, Molly Ooi, and the president of the Old Frees' Association, MS Rajendran. I had expected the room to be dusty and musty, and had turned up with some facial masks. Was very surprised to find the rooms to be clean, airy and well-maintained. So sheepishly, I put the masks back into my bag.

Was both surprised and disappointment with the material discovered here. The school even has a copy of "Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya," a quite voluminous book that was turned to the page of, what else, but the Penang Free School. There's also a good collection of the medical researches and speeches of Dr Wu Lien-Teh.

However, the collection of past year's school magazines was disappointing. i would have thought that the school would have maintained pristine copies of past issues. Not all the issues but at least school magazines that go as far back as 1950 or thereabout. What I discovered were lots of missing years and it was not until the mid-1980s that the archive room had the past issues. Even the magazines of the 1970s were simply photocopied from somewhere. That was the pathetic side of my visit.

Heritage sites vandalised

I get totally pissed off when vandals deface heritage sites for their own selfish or political reasons. 

Recently, I read from the Penang Heritage Trust website that some thugs had vandalised the exterior walls of two heritage sites and a modern office tower in George Town.

Obviously, the irresponsible person or groups of persons who drew these graffiti have no pride in George Town's UNESCO heritage status or respect for the international community for that matter. Least of all, they have shown their disdain for the owners of these buildings.

One of the walls belonged to the Convent Light Street while the other was the wall of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Both buildings are, by the way, located along Farquhar Street and not more than 150 metres to 200 metres apart.

Looking at the photographs of the two walls, anyone can see that the vandalism was perpetrated by the same person or persons. They both proclaimed the same, similar racist message. It doesn't take much to deduce which group of people had carried out this crime against our UNESCO heritage status. No law-abiding Penangite of Chinese or Indian ethnicity would have done this! Never! And neither can this belong to any right-thinking and peace-loving Penang Malay. No, this can only be the work of those vicious Mat Rempit racists in the state who had even dared demonstrate outside the State Assembly building. Full stop! They must be made totally accountable for this outrage to Penang's society.

I reproduce below the statement from the Penang Heritage Trust which they issued on 1 Nov 2011, the same day when the graffiti were discovered:

It is a sad day when see the treasures within the George Town World Heritage Site vandalised by Malaysians to make racial political statements. Bringing gutter politics into the realm of cultural heritage demonstrates a total lack of respect and understanding of what the world community has acknowledged as worthy of conserving for all humanity. 

The Convent Light Street is the oldest girls school in the country founded in 1852, the school has struggled to collect money from its alumni and others to conduct their own restoration within the World Heritage Site. Since the 1990s, the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion has undergone a rigorous restoration at a time when conservation was virtually unknown in Penang and went against public opinion. It has set benchmark standards and helped conservation consciousness to become mainstream. The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion has just been recognised as one of the 10 greatest mansions in the world -  how ironic that it should be defiled so callously. 

The UNESCO World Heritage Listing for George Town is Malaysia's pride and honour, putting us on the same level as historic marvels like Angkor Wat and Rome and the Imperial Palace of Beijing. There would be an international outcry if any of these world monuments were vandalised by ignorant cowards in the middle of the night. The culprits who defiled what we all treasure as part of our shared past should be roundly condemned and brought to account for their actions. 

The graffiti sprayed on the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Convent Light Street and Wisma MWE in the George Town World Heritage Site is an insult not only to the intended, but to all Malaysians and the international community. It is also an illegal act violating the rights of the property owners. What would Malaysians think if heritage buildings around Dataran Merdeka or Jalan Sultan in Kuala Lumpur were spray painted with senseless racist sentiments? A violently-presented racist message that runs deeply contrary to the Malaysian government's promotion of 1Malaysia can only scare off tourists and make Malaysians feel insecure. The Malaysian government can certainly do more to protect heritage properties by sowing awareness and a deep respect for heritage, cultural diversity, and the values of our George Town and Melaka World Heritage Site. 

Mikhail Tal and me

Any chess-playing schoolboy in the 1960s or 1970s will usually name Mikhail Tal as one of their chess heroes. I was no different. Mikhail Tal was one of my chess heroes when I first started learning how to play the game in 1969. Like many people, we tried to emulate his style of play but we were never successful. As a result, we were always left admiring him from afar for his verve and nerves of steel.

I finally got to meet my chess hero for the first time in October 1982 when I was part of the Malaysian chess team at the Chess Olympiad in Lucerne, Switzerland. And, of course, witnessed first hand most of his games. The only other time I got to meet Tal was in Kuala Lumpur itself. It was in June 1990 and he was in transit through the international airport at Subang on his way to Manila for the interzonal tournament with other Soviet chess grandmasters. By then, it was well known that he had been seriously ill, moving in and out of hospitals. Still, I was shocked when I saw him. He had lost a lot of weight as a result of his health.

Mikhail Tal, the eighth world chess champion, would have been 75 years old if he were still alive today but sadly, the chess world lost his immeasurable chess talent in June 1992.

NZ travelogue: Day Three

When I was planning the itinerary of our vacation in New Zealand's South Island at the beginning of this year, I was torn between wanting to stay two nights at Wanaka or spend one night in Queenstown.

Eventually, I figured that it would be more in our interest to just make a day trip to Queenstown. The night life in Queenstown was something we could do without; it wasn't anything essential on our itinerary. Besides, I had wanted to visit the Puzzling World in Wanaka and it would be impossible to cram that into our limited time on the same day. 

So I decided that we could depart for Queenstown early in the morning and return to the Archway Motel in Wanaka as late as possible. Driving at night, according to the proprietor at the motel, would not pose any problem as people do it all the time.

Unfortunately, "early" to my wife would still mean leaving Wanaka at nine o'clock in the morning. I would have preferred to begin our journey at eight o'clock or even earlier but getting ourselves ready took longer than expected. Nevertheless, we were soon on our way and I turned towards the Crown Range Road which is supposed to be the highest sealed road in New Zealand.

This was the alternative route to Queenstown. Usually at the end of May which is the accepted transition from autumn to winter, there would already be warnings to expect frost on the road. But New Zealand had been experiencing some unusually barmier weather than normal this year and I was told that frost wouldn't be a serious problem even on this road.

This stretch of the journey turned out to be one of the most enjoyable rides of our vacation. Especially, as we neared the end of the Crown Range Road and we could stop the car at the Crown Terrace lookout point before the hairpin bends and look down at Arrow Junction and the Gibbston Highway below us, the view was spectacularly beautiful.

A very clear rainbow greeted us as we drove along the Frankton Road into Queenstown, one end dipping into the Lake Wakatipu. Wouldn't it be nice if we could reach the end of the rainbow and confirm whether the pot-o-gold really exists. But of course, a rainbow is only light playing tricks with us. It's nothing tangible at all and a rainbow's position will shift when looked at from different directions.

Our eventual destination was the Steamer Wharf by the lake side where I had earlier booked us for a Real Journeys cruise on board the lake's last surviving coal-fired steamship, the vintage 99-years-old TSS Earnslaw. We were to dock later at the Walter Peak High Country Farm for lunch and a guided farm tour. Interesting spread of food at the buffet lunch but what I really enjoyed was the succulent pork ribs. Utterly delicious.

We left Queenstown at about 7.30pm and drove back to Wanaka in the dark. We didn't go through the Crown Range Road again, but chose the road that would take us through Cromwell except that there was nothing to see, of course, but pitch darkness on both sides of the road which was illuminated only by the reflectors at the roadside and the dividing lines in the middle of the road. I didn't realise it then but this would not be the only time that we were forced to travel under the cover of darkness. Nothing I would recommend to others except the forgetable experience.

NZ travelogue: Pukemara

Erm, I've got very little to say about this sign except that I drove past it and then decided to make a U-turn in order to take its photograph. It's not a road sign but the name of someone's homestead along the highway linking Omarama to Wanaka on New Zealand's South Island. The name obviously meant a lot to the proud owner but you know, to us Malaysians, it meant something else and I'm not even going to give it a translation!

UPDATE: With the help of Google Maps, I have now managed to zero down the location of this place. It's actually along the Lindis Pass-Tarras Road before the junction with Bells Lane. The reason I noticed the sign was because I had slowed down sufficiently to turn into Bell Lane. The signpost may be blurred out in this picture but the row of trees in the far distance on the right is unmistakably clear enough.

And of course, this is the satellite view of Pukemara itself:

My rare, doubly special date

I was looking at the calendar this morning and was surprised - very pleasantly surprised - to note that today's date, 5 Nov on the Gregorian calendar, coincided with the 10th day of the 10th month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Rare occurrence. The last time it happened for this particular date was 57 years ago.

What's all the fuss about?

Soon after I finished writing yesterday's story about the Melbourne Cup race at Flemington, Victoria in Australia, I began wondering what all the fuss was about. The mass media seemed to be going on and on about how close the race was, how one horse had just won by a mere nose or whisker, or how it could have been a dead heat.

Melbourne Cup 2011: Dunaden pipping Red Cadeaux by a nose

The way the writers were going on, you'd think that such close finishes had never happened before. Of course, close finishes raise the level of excitement to races, may it be horses running at Flemington or athletes running a 100-metre race anywhere in the world, leading to photo-finishes and the agonising wait for the results to be announced. But please, lah, they are not uncommon at all in the sport world.

Sometimes, I think the professional writers choose to have a short memory. I know that I tend to have a short memory myself but it is excusable because I'm a mere amateur when it comes to writing. I'm far, far from being a professional writer. So for the professionals who write for world renown newspapers, they should have a longer memory than me!

Melbourne Cup 2008: Viewed pipping Bauer by a nose

They would only need to look no further than the 2008 Melbourne Cup race to remember another close finish. Remember how Viewed was almost beaten to the post by a surging Bauer? Viewed just managed to hold off the challenge because the finish post loomed up just too near for Bauer. Given another split second into the race and I'm sure we would have seen a different winner.

Of course, the two races were different, the build-up to the finish was different, but the results were essentially the same. An almost dead heat. A photo-finish. One horse winning  by a whisker.

Pipped to the post

I hadn't forgotten it. On Tuesday, I remembered to switch on the television and changed to the Australia Network about 50 minutes before the Big Race started.

Australia Network. Big Race. I can only be referring to the Melbourne Cup, the one annual sporting event that, for a brief moment, can really stop everybody in Australia in their tracks. Everybody in Aussieland freezes up because their eyes are trained on the 24 horses that start the race at three o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, Victoria time. Of course, here in Malaysia the time was only 12 o'clock.

So there I was, sitting in front of the telly with my son to watch the build-up to the race. This would be only the third occasion that I would watch it. The first time was in a little pub in a hotel in Walpole, Western Australia, in 2009 amidst the locals there. The second time, just like this third time, was in the comfort of my home. Very relaxed, not caring which horse would win, but just wanting to see whether any excitement would unfold.

And yes, there was real excitement as the horses pushed down the final straight towards the finish line. For a short while, Precedence led the field but it couldn't maintain the pace that it had set for itself and almost immediately many others overtook it. As the animals continued thundering towards the finish it became a neck-and-neck tussle between Red Cadeaux and Dunaden. From my point of view - a detached view in front of the television - Red Cadeaux could have been very slightly ahead but eventually, Dunaden came up strongly to just overtake Red Cadeaux by a whisker.

Here's how the race unfolded, as seen on YouTube. Just take a look for yourself and see how close it was.

Driving comfort

I must say that this product makes a world of a difference when driving in the rain, and it has been raining every afternoon for the past month or so.

Just about a fortnight ago, my wife was complaining to me that it was very difficult for her to drive during a rainstorm because the windscreens would be unviewable even when the wipers were pushed to their limits.

This, I can attest because lately I've been having the same problem with the other car. Once, I was driving in Bukit Mertajam and was unprepared for the deluge. It was impossible to see more than 20 metres away and I was reduced to driving at a very slow speed.

So on her urging, I dug out the old bottle of Rain Act from the store room and applied it to both cars. Her response was immediate. I'm happy, and so is she.

But our best experience with Rain Act was in driving along the North-South Expressway at 100kph in the pouring rain AND without turning on the wiper. The windscreen was so crystal clear. The beads of water were just simply pushed away by the wind, leaving me with complete visibility of the road. All the way from Ipoh until the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur when traffic, as usual, slowed to a crawl. Here, without the force of the wind to help, I had to engage the wipers. But otherwise, the wipers could be spoilt for all I cared.

And other discovery: the use of sunglasses especially during rain storms. Definitely recommended. The polarising effect of sunglasses cut off all the glare and ensured good driving comfort all round. Great experience!

OFA coffee table book, part 2

Oh, what the heck. I've just called the OFA president to inform him that I'll come join his editorial team for the Old Frees' Association coffee table book project. And I've just learned from him that the OFA management committee has decided to drop the idea of appointing the media guy as the new editorial consultant or chief editor. Didn't ask, but I really believe it was because of the pre-conditions.

Instead, the committee has elevated both Molly Ooi and I as the new co-editors of this job. The onus is on us now to see the whole project through. Molly is the wife of Hwang Hong Shi, whom many Old Frees will remember as a former teacher and scout master. He resigned from teaching sometime in the late 1970s and took up a post with a private sports club. Anyway, I shouldn't be mentioning more of him here since this story is more about the appointment of both me and his wife, Molly.

I think we have a big task ahead of us. We've got to think about sectionalising the book, putting in the contents, researching the stories, getting people to write for us (now, that is going to be a tall project) and finally, putting everything together. Then I've got to clear with her on who's going to be responsible for what! We are not being helped by news that the management committee would like to see the whole project finished by mid-February. Personally, I think it is impossible to meet this proposed deadline. But the idea of doing it interests me greatly now.

And thank goodness we have an assurance from the OFA president that there will be funds for this project. It's not for the editors to worry about raising money. We'll just concentrate on the book and nothing more. But of course, they'll may need me to give them inputs on the publishing side. I did tell him that I do know a little about this aspect of publishing, not much but enough from my Ban Hin Lee Bank days.

OFA coffee table book

It was with some caution last week on 28 Oct 2011 that I accepted an invitation from the Old Frees' Association to attend an editorial board meeting. They have been trying to get their commemorative book project off the ground for some time already but have not been too successful. I can see why. the original person that was supposed to be the editorial consultant, while an Old Free, is based in Kuala Lumpur. How on earth is he going to move constantly up and down from Kuala Lumpur and Penang to get work done is a little beyond me.

Anyway, I found that his guy has given up and left the Old Frees' Association in a lurch. Could be that the material he had collected so has not been returned to the OFA and so, the association is practically back to Square One.

I don't know whether I can disclose this but at this exploratory meeting - it was an exploratory meeting for me as I haven't really decided whether or not I should join their editorial team - the members were bandying about appointing a new experienced media guy who is based in Penang as the chief editor and the OFA will have two co-editors assisting him. I'm supposed to be one of them, if I decide to join in. Anyhow, this chap also has his pre-conditions if he was appointed.

I still haven't given my commitment to help yet. Perhaps in one or two days' time. Got to wait and see....

State before federal?

Over the past few months, we have been hearing one rumour after another that the General Elections were imminent or that we would have a snap election and it could take place on such and such a date. Come the date and we are all left hanging in the air. We are now quite used to it, actually. We are immune to these rumours now.

Then of course, there was speculation that if the Najib regime were to call for the next General Elections, the Pakatan-held states - Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Kelantan - may not want to dissolve their respective state assemblies and prefer to sit out their full term of five years before calling one. Again, they all turned out to be just rumours.

But here's a thought. If it is left to the respective states to dissolve their state assemblies, is it possible for them to go for a snap state elections before Parliament is dissolved? Good food for thought. I think it should be possible because there were real chances in 2009 that the Perak state assembly could have been dissolved and new state elections held when the Pakatan-held state government was sabotaged by frogs leaping into the netherworld.

If it could have happened then, I'm sure there is no obstacle to say, Penang, dissolving its state assembly today and calling for a new mandate from the people. Mmm, it sure would be interesting to see how the Najib regime or the Election Commission would react.

Smear campaign

Lies are bound to be exposed in the end, but that has never been a deterrent to the dim-witted.

THE chess community in Malaysia is a tolerant lot but we are not amused at the way the royal game has been thrust unfavourably into the limelight in the past fortnight by some bloggers in the country.

I wouldn’t want to repeat all the nonsense that has been bandied about in their blogs but I want to state that the use of an image of a totally unrelated person to further the bloggers’ agenda is really irresponsible and unwarranted.

How or why they selected a picture of an innocent woman chess grandmaster is beside the point. It could have been any other picture they picked up from the Internet, but all the same, I wished that it had not happened to anybody, especially when it is without basis. Such lies are bound to be found out in the end.

As it stands, I know that the family of Anya Corke is distressed over the whole matter and rightfully, too, as they have no connection to and no roots in this country.

The only brief occasion she was ever in Malaysia was in September 2005 when the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) organised the Asian zone 3.3 chess championship and she took part as the representative from Hong Kong.

In a statement which was forwarded to the local press here last week, Corke registered shock and dismay over the way her name was dragged into the matter.

“I have never met or even heard of any of the people involved. I have never been physically assaulted in any way. I have never been victimised in any way by this boy or his family. The only way in which my ‘modesty was outraged’ has been by the publication of my picture in connection with these scurrilous and unfounded rumours,” she said.

Corke was the Hong Kong national chess champion four times – in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. Her talent was very clear from a young age and she was included as a member of the Hong Kong national men’s team at the Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Spain, in 2004. It was there that she earned the woman grandmaster title.

When the MCF held the zonal championship in 2005, she was the only woman participant among the other 43 players. She secured 3½ points from the nine games and finished the competition tied in 32nd to 37th positions.

Corke is presently an undergraduate at the prestigious Wellesley College in Massachusetts, the United States.

Somewhere over the rainbow

I was listening to the radio this morning. Not any of our local radio stations here in Malaysia, mind you, but through the Internet. Radio stations worldwide are starting to stream their broadcasts live through the Internet and entertainment has never been easier!

A few days ago, I had written about the fabulous TuneIn application. It enabled me to receive radio stations while on the move with the ipad2. Today, I visited their website to have a look around. I truly say that everyone must bookmark this site for the links they provide to the radio channels from the far corners of the world.

Anyway as i was saying, I was listening to this radio station, The Coast FM, through the Internet and suddenly, this wonderful piece of music came on the air. A mesmerising rendition of that old Judy Garland song, Over The Rainbow, played by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (Kah-MAH-kah-VEE-voh-OH-lay) and accompanied only by a ukulele. It was the first time that I had ever heard this song played this way and intrigued, I searched the Internet for more information about this singer.

What I discovered was that Israel Kamakawiwoʻole was one of Hawaii's most famous singers. A huge man who was terribly obese throughout his life. But what a wonderful voice. When he died in 1997, the Hawaii flag flew at half mast and he was accorded a rare state funeral. The funeral and the scattering of his ashes were featured in this music video by Mountain Apple Company for his cover of "Over the Rainbow". Do give it a listen. And after you do, you can read an excellent piece about him here.

Deepavali's in the air

Two days to Deepavali (or Diwali, as some people prefer to call it) and I happened to wander into Little India in George Town's heritage enclave at around lunch time. Saw the whole area already in festive mood. Shoppers were slowly coming out in full force, shops were open and make-shift tents were erected by the side of the road.

Went into the newly reopened Shusi banana leaf restaurant. It had been closed for four months after the previous owner, Jeya, decided to give up the business. "My wife and I are getting too old to look after this business," he had told me then. So they sold it off to someone down the road to carry on.

The restaurant reopened on 4 Oct and curious, since I was already in the area, I walked in to have my lunch. The food looked almost the same although the prices have increased. A banana leaf rice with three different helpings of vegetable and a chicken dish cost RM8. Taste-wise, of course, I prefer my old friend's cooking. It's never the same any more, despite the retention of the restaurant's name.

NZ travelogue: The freshest salmon we could find

This is an attraction that will be definitely missed by any tourist who moves about in group tours. No tour bus will bother with stopping at this place. Even tourists who choose to move around in rental cars are liable to miss out on this place too. The irony is that the High Country Salmon Farm is not even off the beaten track. It's just beside the road, along the highway that connects Twizel to Wanaka.

For us, the farm was a pre-planned stop in our itinerary. I was already eyeing this place long before I set foot in New Zealand. So I told my wife that we shall be foregoing lunch at Twizel after we come down from the Aoraki Mount Cook national park. Yes, we did stop in Twizel but it was just for half a mo' to refresh ourselves before continuing with our journey south.

Just beyond the outskirts of Twizel, about three kilometres from the town, we crossed the Oahu River which drained the water from the Ruataniwha Lake. Water from this lake was fed mainly from the Lake Pukaki by a hydro canal and also from the Ohau Lake. This mix of source water meant that the colour was a lesser creamy turquoise blue than the Lake Pukaki itself.

Immediately after the bridge, the High Country Salmon Farm loomed ahead on the left. Reasonably spacious visitor parking lot but during our stop, there were no other cars beside ours. Could be because the place was not so well indicated. The only sign I saw along the highway was a small billboard that proclaimed "Fresh Salmon".

True that you can also see this sign but it's right on the property itself and not so evident when travelling on the highway. (By the way, we didn't get to feed the salmon. We were hungry and that was the first order of the day! And after we finished eating, we had forgotten about feeding the fish. Pity!)

This is where they farm the Chinook salmon, fed by the pure glacial waters of New Zealand's Southern Alps. Most of the fish are sent to the main cities in the country but visitors can also be assured of partaking in the freshest salmon sashimi of their lives. I looked around their stock of prepared sashimi cuts and chose a packet. Looking at the orange-coloured sashimi itself is enough to make the mouth water and the knees weak, what more to pick up a piece and savour it slowly.

Mmm, that first bite of the fresh sashimi in the mouth was the sweetest, firmest, crunchiest and most heavenly experience I have had of salmon meat.

Superb quality. Every bite was firm and crunchy, so unlike the salmon sashimi we get back here in Malaysia. After experiencing the salmon here, it's almost impossible for us to go back to the Japanese food from the local Malaysian restaurants. Talk about our pampered taste buds. But it's true, you know, you only need to try the sashimi at the High Country Salmon Farm to understand our feelings on this matter.

 Above: freshly dressed salmon awaiting pick-up by customers.

OFA's 88th annual dinner

We came back from the island quite late last night. It has been many years since we last attended the annual dinner of the Old Frees' Association and I thought that I should reconnect with some of the Old Frees again. I had hoped to meet up with some of my old schoolmates who are still in Penang but was disappointed on this score. Only bumped into one of them. I suppose the rest were simply....disinterested.

But I did meet up with a few other fellas whom I had lost touch with for several years now, people like Soo Kar Wong (formerly the general manager of the Hotel Merlin) and Lee Hock Choon (former colleague at Ban Hin Lee Bank). And Cheah Hooi Seng and his wife still looked pretty hale and hearty.

This year's function is already the association's 88th anniversary dinner, coinciding of course with the Grand Old Lady's 195th anniversary itself. Five more years and the school shall be celebrating its bicentenary. That means 200 years of the school's existence, people!

An interesting point brought up by the OFA president during the function: the old Headmaster's House has been converted into a homestay by Puspanita.

It's sacrilegious!

Who was responsible for it: the federal government or the state government? Whoever approved the deal, it was made in very bad faith. How can anyone ever convert a building in the school premises for the use of outsiders? We can't have non-Old Frees running around in a corner of what is essentially the school's premises. The Old Frees' Association is right in wanting the building back so that it can be used to house the school's archives.

Among the shows during the night, the school's Drumline put in a rousing display. I should think that any performance by the school will always get an enthusiastic response from the Old Boys. If I'm not mistaken, these boys might have performed during the funeral procession of Dr Lim Chong Eu last year.

Hawaii Five-0 still irresistible

I'm still finding the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 irresistible and by the fifth episode of the second season which aired Monday night in the United States, the fractured team is back together again. Kono Kalakaua is back after it was revealed that she was working undercover for Internal Affairs. But no more! Best bits in the episode:

• Steve McGarrett and Vincent Fryer in a big macho argument;
• McGarrett landing Fryer a huge uppercut, saying; "Nobody messes with my team"; 
• McGarrett shaking his hurting right hand in the background after landing that huge blow; and
• The slow-motion Hawaii Five-0 walk as the show ended.

Scumbag lies, damn lies

I would like to think of myself as rather detached from the local political scene but for the past three days I had been seething. And agonising over a decision that I had to take.

Ever since I was alerted three days ago about the illegal use of an image as an alleged victim in an unsubstantiated accusation, I had been debating with myself whether I should write anything about it at all, whether in this blog or next week in the newspapers. Yesterday, the issue came to a head when everything was revealed publicly that the accusation was false.

Politics in this country is dirty, very dirty. If you have been living under a coconut shell, let me summarise what happened. Back in May, one of those pro-UMNO bloggers twittered that the 16-year-old son of a VVIP in Penang was sexually harrassing a fellow female schoolmate and the issue was being covered up. Then earlier this month, the issue blew up when this accusation started appearing in some pro-UMNO blogs. Somewhere along the line, an image of the alleged victim was pasted up on these blogs.

When I was urged to take a look at this image, I was hugely surprised. The alleged victim wasn't unfamiliar to me. I had seen the picture before, here, except that this picture had been cropped conveniently to hide the truth. This picture was copied from the website of one of the most respectable chess sites in the world. The bastards who had chosen this picture of a woman chess player as their alleged victim had simply pulled it off from the Internet, not caring at all whether or not they were hurting an unsuspecting person.

So now, these pro-UMNO bloggers have been outed and confirmed to be the lowdown unscrupulous life forms of the gutters. How much lower can they go? Have they no sense of dignity? Nothing seems sacred to them. They would go to despicable ends to spread lies for their own ends. Really, they are the scums of the earth. And I know that the scums that they are, they will not bother to retract their baseless accusations and hope that other people will go on and copy them.

As a chess writer in this country and one who has been involved with the national and international chess scene for decades, I have to speak up on behalf of the chess community. I cannot remain quiet as the reputation of an innocent chess player is being sullied here in Malaysia. An innocent foreigner who doesn't even know what's going on. If I were in her shoes or her father's shoes, I would think seriously about seeking retribution against these pro-UMNO scumbags. Bring them to book. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it so easily.

Let me give some facts to refute their vicious lies:

• Woman chess grandmaster Anya Corke was born in the United States and raised up in Hong Kong. She is the daughter of a Scot father and a Chinese mother. She is not Malaysian.
• Anya Corke is 21 years old today, not 16 years old, and she is studying at the prestigious Wellesley College in Massachusetts, United States since 2009. She is not a Form Four student in a local school in Penang.
• Of course the DAP doesn't know it but Anya Corke's only known visit to Malaysia was in 2005 when she competed in an international chess tournament in Kuala Lumpur (and I'm not even going to say "when" exactly). She has not been to Malaysia since then, and certainly has never set foot in Penang at any time.

So there you have it. All the relevant facts of Hongkong's first and only woman chess grandmaster. Now, I would like to see those pro-UMNO buggers retract their accusations and apologise for creating mayhem among the chess community in Malaysia and possibly beyond. I can tell you, we chess players are not amused.

NZ travelogue: Sawyers Stream

During our drive up to the Aoraki Mt Cook national park, we came across several such bridges built across dry river beds. The narrowness of the bridges meant that traffic from one direction will always have the right of way but traffic from the other direction is required to stop and wait for the road to clear before proceeding with the crossing.

Rather intrigued with this, I stopped our car at a place called Sawyers Stream to have a closer look at the river bed. Dry as a bone and full of gravel that gave the river bed and banks that unique whitish-grey look. Does it ever get wet here? Does a river actually flow during the wetter periods of the year? Or is it perpetually dry?

But what I do know is that Sawyers Stream joins up eventually with the braided river system that flows into Lake Pukaki, that uniquely turquoise-coloured lake in New Zealand's South Island. Even from Google Maps, the colour of this lake's water is unmistakeable, what more to look at it for ourselves. It was so unlike anything that we had ever seen before.