Penang exco line-up: Then and now (2013 version)

Since I did a comparison in 2008, it will be very pertinent if I were to make it again in 2013. So here goes, I present the Penang state exco 2.0 and compare it with the initial line-up announced five years ago.

2013 Government:

• Lim Guan Eng - Land Matters & Land Development, Information, Heritage & Non-Islamic Religious Affairs
  Email: limguaneng@penang.gov.my
• Mohd Rashid bin Hasnon - Industrial Development & International Trade, Co-operatives & Community Relations, Entrepreneur Development
  Email:
• Dr Ramasamy a/l Palanisamy - State Economic Planning, Education & Human Resources, Science, Technology & Innovation
  Email: ramasamy@penang.gov.my
• Chow Kon Yeow - Local Government, Traffic Management, Flood Mitigation
  Email: chowkonyeow@penang.gov.my
• Abdul Malik bin Abdul Kassim - Religious Affairs, Domestic Trade, Consumer Affairs
  Email: abdmalik@penang.gov.my
• Chong Eng - Youth & Sports, Women, Family & Community Development, Arts
  Email:
• Lim Hock Seng - Works, Utilities (energy, Water & Telecommunication), Transport (Air, Sea & Train)
  Email: limhockseng@penang.gov.my
• Danny Law Heng Kiang - Tourism Development, Culture
  Email: lawhengkiang@penang.gov.my
• Phee Boon Poh - Welfare, Caring Society, Environment
  Email: pheeboonpoh@penang.gov.my
• Jagdeep Singh Deo a/l Karpal Singh - Town & Country Planning, Housing
  Email:
• Dr Afif bin Bahardin - Agriculture & Agro-based Industry, Rural Development, Health
  Email:

2008 Government:

• Lim Guan Eng - Industrial Development and International Trade, Land Affairs and Land Development Committee
  Email: limguaneng@penang.gov.my
• Mansor bin Othman (replaced Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin) - Religious Affairs, Entrepreneurial and Co-operative Development and Information and Community Relations Committee
  Email: mfairus@penang.gov.my
• Dr Ramasamy - State Economic Planning, Education and Human Resources, and Science, Technology and Innovation Committee
  Email: ramasamy@penang.gov.my
• Chow Kon Yeow - Local Government, Traffic Management and Environment Committee
  Email: chowkonyeow@penang.gov.my
• Lim Hock Seng - Public Works, Utilities and Transportation Committee
  Email: limhockseng@penang.gov.my
• Danny Law Heng Kiang - Tourism Development and Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee
  Email: lawhengkiang@penang.gov.my
• Abdul Malik Abdul Kassim - Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee
  Email: abdmalik@penang.gov.my
• Phee Boon Poh - Health and Welfare and Caring Society Committee
  Email: pheeboonpoh@penang.gov.my
• Wong Hon Wai - Town and Country Planning and Housing Committee
  Email: wonghonwai@penang.gov.my
• Law Choo Kiang - Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Rural Development and Flood Mitigation Committee
  Email: lawchookiang@penang.gov.my
• Lydia Ong Kok Fooi - Youth and Sports and Women, Family and Community Development Committee
  Email: ongkokfooi@penang.gov.my

Red replacement

Yes, this is David Moyes in 1982.

Black 505

Below was the scene at the Black 505 rally at the Kelana Jaya Stadium on Wednesday, 8 May 2013. I hope when the Pakatan Rakyat holds the rally at the Batu Kawan Stadium in Penang tomorrow, 11 May 2013, it will be equally filled up.

Gaffer goes!

Thank you, Alex Ferguson, for 26+ wonderful years at Manchester United.

Second term for Guan Eng

At Sri Mutiara this morning, the swearing in of Lim Guan Eng as the Chief Minister of Penang for the second term.

GE13: Commotion at Ayer Itam Road

What a day I've had! Yesterday morning saw me going to Taman Siakap in Seberang Jaya to cast my vote in the General Elections. As usual, the roads leading to the polling station, a primary school that my children had attended when we were still staying in this town, were jampacked with people and vehicles.

I only managed to park the car some distance away, squeezed between two other vehicles,and then walked pass the makeshift stalls that were set up by the supporters of the two main political parties, the Barisan Nasional (BN) and the Parti Keadilan Malaysia (PKR). I didn't pay much attention to their last-minute attempts at canvassing for votes and proceeded directly towards the school.

At the gate, I was given directions to my voting lane but there, a mild shock awaited me. A queue of about 50 voters were already there waiting in line. Luckily, a cool breeze blew throughout my long wait till the front of the queue. Possibly waited about 50 minutes or so but the time passed by quickly enough. Friendly faces around who were all too willing to strike up a conversation with me.

Then it was my turn to enter the classroom. The polling clerks asked for my identification and then covered my left forefinger with their supposedly "indelible ink" which washed off later with soap and water. Then was issued with two folded slips of ballot paper and directed to the polling booth.

I took a look at the two pieces of paper. The only name that I could recognise was that of the parliamentary candidate for Permatang Pauh: Anwar Ibrahim. I have to admit that the other candidates were all aliens to me. In fact, when it came to marking my ballot slips, I had to make doubly sure that I was selecting the PKR symbol.

Voting over, I made my way to the island where, for the very first time, I was scheduled to volunteer my services as a polling and counting agent for the Democratic Action Party (DAP). My destination, the Kong Min school beside the roundabout at Ayer Itam, was one of four or five polling and counting centres for the Air Putih state constituency.

As I made a slow drive towards the roundabout, traffic was already heavy. I was wondering where to park when suddenly, I noticed an empty parking space on the opposite side of the road. Instinct made me mmediately swing my car round the roundabout and park there. As it turned out, it was a very good decision as the road from the roundabout towards the Ayer Itam village soon became the scene for dramatic vocal exchanges between groups of people supporting rival political parties.

At first, I had put all the noise down to rowdiness and people who were simply enjoying the carnival-like air of a general election. Air horns were blaring and shouts of "Ubah" were heard regularly. Then almost without warning, a group of young Chinese motorcyclists - obviously, these were the paid BN mercenaries - dressed in blue tees made their way down from Ayer Itam. As they rode past, they were jeered good humouredly by the DAP supporters. What would you expect? The moment ended but my fellow DAP volunteers who had gathered within the school compound knew that they would soon return.

True enough, around two o'clock or so, we again heard a commotion outside the school. Further up the road, a group in blue tees had gathered. The leader among them, a bulky Mamak gorilla with a permanent scowl on his mug led his Chinese machai riders right into the DAP supporters.

They were booed and jeered at the face-off. There were lots of tension when this happened. Though I had a vantage point from within the school compound, unfortunately I couldn't see much as my view was generally blocked by people.  

Suddenly, the blue mob turned around and the two groups of people began jostling one another. Amid pleas to stop from spectators on the road, plastic chairs and motorcycle helmets became projectiles. Sticks were suddenly being used to attack and whack people.
 

What made this incident into a farce was the attitude of the traffic policemen on duty. I know that they were supposed to deal with the traffic but to turn their back to the commotion which was just feet away and ignore it? Was traffic more important to them or stopping fights? A policeman is still a policeman, no matter what's his assigned duties, right? And it was several seconds later that a group of blue-clothes policemen donned their vests and rushed over to investigate the incident, by which time everything was over. Huh!
 
In my opinion, the provocation was all done by this mob of BN hooligans led by this Mamak gorilla. He was the instigator. Somewhere in the video below, you can see him gesticulating and waving his hand to urge his people onwards. If that is not provocation, I don't know what is. Anyway, here is the video of the incident. You can make your own conclusion.

How much will our votes matter at the end of today?

Today is an important day for everyone in my family. We are going to the polls to choose a better Malaysia not only for ourselves but for all Malaysians of all ages, race and religion.

I shall be going to Seberang Jaya in a few hours' time to cast my vote in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency while my wife will be joined by my daughter and son to vote in the Bukit Mertajam constituency. I have full confidence that they will do right with their choices.

This shall be the first time that my two children are able to exercise their constitutional rights. They are pretty excited over it. My daughter, while working in Kuala Lumpur, arrived home yesterday. My son returned from the island.

Yesterday, we were a complete family unit again and we sat down to dinner discussing the political process. We haven't done that before, imagine that!

Also yesterday, I bumped into a neighbour. He used to run a sundry shop amidst a Malay-populated area along Jalan Permatang Pauh - that's multi-culturalism for you - but gave up the business several years ago as he was getting old and no one among his children wanted to follow his footsteps. He asked me whom I was going to vote for. "Anwar Ibrahim," I answered unhesitatingly. "Me too," he told me. We looked at one another and laughed. There was an irony. Although we now stay in Bukit Mertajam, we did not want to change our voting centre from Permatang Pauh. We wanted to be a part of the history in this constituency.

My neighbour mused to me. He told me that he had been a party member of the Malaysian Chinese Association since 1969. Until 2004, he had been voting for the Barisan Nasional party. But after the injustices suffered by Anwar Ibrahim, my neighbour had been voting for the opposition since then. He told me that suddenly, he saw for himself all the excesses and hypocrisy of the ruling political party.

As for me, I do not remember the first time that I was able to vote. I registered myself late and so I think it was only in the 1980s that I began voting. Perhaps in the past too, I had been politically naive and just didn't care who won in my constituency. Sometimes, I just thought that all the candidates in my area were useless.

In fact, what I remember vividly was that in 1995, it was on purpose that I had spoilt my vote because I couldn't bring myself to vote for Anwar Ibrahim (at that time, he was still in the Barisan government) or his PAS opponent. But ever since that same year, 2004, it had been Anwar Ibrahim or his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, all the way.

Tomorrow's the day!

Does Penang need the free port status?

I was greatly puzzled when first Teng Chang Yeow and then Najib Razak promised to return the free port status to Penang. Were they kidding? Ever since this status was removed from the island in the 1970s, time has moved on. With so much development in Penang, do we still need this status to survive? Okay, I understand that in the past, Penang island was mainly an entrepot. If you don't know what this French word means, just look it up in any dictionary. But basically, it means a centre where goods are received for distribution, transshipment and repackaging without incurring any Customs import or export duty.

It worked well in Penang prior to the 1970s. The whole of Penang island was a duty free area, but not Province Wellesley on the mainland. Movement of goods was very well monitored because there was only one link - the ferry services - between the island and mainland. Of course, it did not mean that nobody attempted to smuggle duty-free goods across because they did, and were generally caught. But as a whole, the Customs checkpoints at the Butterworth end of the ferry services were quite efficient.

I do remember the few occasions when I had to cross over from the island to the mainland. At that time, I was still staying on the island and going to the mainland generally meant to catch an inter-state bus or a train down to Kuala Lumpur. There were two ferry services: one connecting directly to the Malayan Railway station and the other connecting to the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal. The ferry that connected to the SAH terminal was served by the ferries that existed until today (although the old ones have been replaced.)

No matter, whenever passengers alit from the ferries, they would be required to pass through rows of Customs staff who would open their bags and luggage to check for duty-free goods. Similarly, people that had crossed by cars were herded into lanes and asked to declare their goods. (We still see this today when passengers and cars cross over from Singapore to Johore Bahru.)

Generally it worked very well because there were only two crossing points. It took the ferries about 20 to 25 minutes to travel one way across the channel and this was more than sufficient time for the Customs to complete checking all the passengers and cars.

But Penang has moved on since the free port status was removed. We have become industrialised and there is now a Penang Bridge that facilitates quick travel between the island and the mainland. Pretty soon, there will be two Penang Bridges and in the longer term, an undersea tunnel as well.

I dread to think how the Customs will implement their checks if the free port status is returned to the island. Okay, the situation at the ferry terminal - there's only one now, unfortunately - will still be manageable but I don't see how Customs can work out the logistics nightmare at the mainland end of the Penang bridges and tunnels.

Will cars, buses, lorries and trailers be stopped for hours in order to enable a complete Customs check? Or will Customs close an eye, generally allow the vehicles through and only perform random checks? If so, that is a dereliction of duty by allowing duty-free goods to be openly smuggled across a free port boundary. Imagine the loss of revenue to the country.

And another thing: if this free port status is confined to only the island, I shall be among the first ones to protest this discriminatory implementation. Isn't the mainland not considered part and parcel of the state of Penang?

I would demand that Teng Chang Yeow and Najib Razak make the whole of Penang - regardless of island or mainland - into a free port. To order to provide equitable treatment to all the people in Penang, I would demand that these two fellas then shift whatever Customs checkpoints to the borders into the state wherever there is an access point ... along the north-south expressway, the federal highway, the Butteworth-Kulim highway and all the secondary roads that connect Province Wellesley to Kedah and Perak. Nothing less than this will satisfy me or else it will show up their chauvinism and insincerity.

Unless they are prepared to do that, please lah, don't make stupid promises to the people of Penang. We were actually very disappointed with the federal government when our free port status was removed but we moved on. We moved on to succeed despite all the odds against us. Now just because they are shaking in their boots and underwear with the General Elections round the corner, they are promising returning the free port status to us if they win back Penang. We see through you. Go bugger off, okay?

Pakatan Rakyat rally

For the record, last night's mammoth Pakatan Rakyat ceramah at the Han Chiang High School grounds attracted some 70,000 people, all standing in the rain for five hours. Like Lim Guan Eng said, there was no free food, no free drinks, no free angpows at the ceramah but only free (rain) water for everybody. And yet, people came from far and near to listen and to support.

Sad to say though, I could only be there in spirit. I don't want to give any excuses for my physical absence but I'll willingly share the reason in private with anyone that cares to know. But thanks to Ubah.tv, I managed to catch some of the speeches. I did get to watch Anwar Ibrahim, Gobind Deo, Ong Kok Fooi, Chong Eng, Karpal Singh and Lim Guan Eng speak. The only frustration was that Ubah.tv's transmission terminated before Lim Kit Siang appeared.

I would like to congratulate the courageous folks out there that had braved the weather and the traffic jam, and who had readily donated some RM236,000 towards Pakatan Rakyat's general elections war chest. Such was the traffic congestion that I also heard some people arrived home past one o'clock in the morning.

My old mathematics teacher

Bumped into an old teacher of the Penang Free School. Haven't seen her for ages. She taught me mathematics in Form Three. Problem was, my mathematics wasn't the best in the world. It wasn't even of average standard. Fact was, at that time, my mathematics was on very shaky grounds.

I remember after one of the monthly tests, I received very appalling results and there were a handful of us in the class that were singled out for our, erm, outstanding results. When it came to me, she just turned around and looked at me with her eyes wide open. Then, very slowly and dramatically, she mouthed out my precious marks. I can still remember it. And still see it in my mind's eye. "Twenty five," she said voicelessly. Boy, the silence was so very deafening. You can just imagine my discomfiture. What could I do in response but to stick out my tongue?

I am unsure how this result affected me later on but to my credit, I did receive an A for my mathematics paper in the Lower Certificate of Examination (LCE). Maybe I was lucky and ting-tong-tiang'ed correctly in the objective test papers.

I didn't meet her again for several years. Then in the 1990s when I somehow got mixed in with The Old Frees' Association - I was in the management committee for three or four years - she was already involved as the Sesqui-centenary Loan Sub-committee chairman.

Eh? I didn't introduce her to you? Sorry, folks, please meet Ms Tye Chwee Hoon.

Blue Penang

I had a reason to go out to the island last Friday: to go search for a particular pharmacy along Campbell Street that sold a certain brand of Chinese embrocation oil for my aunt. Finally found the pharmacy but it was a rather long walk from Kimberley Street where I had to park the car. Whilst walking back to collect the car, I detoured into Rope Walk and was quite astonished to see the length of the road decked out with banners and flags.

On Sunday, I happened to go out to the island again to attend the annual general meeting of The Old Frees' Association. My homeward drive took me through the heritage zone of George Town and this time, I was truly appalled by the desecration of common property.

This was Kimberley Street on Sunday. Almost overnight, the flags and banners had appeared along the whole length of the road.

This was Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong. As I drove down the road, I confronted this wall of blue flags outside the old Prangin Road market.

Even the street art in the city were not spared. Flags were shoved inbetween the metal railings without a care whether they would affect the artwork. 

Now, if these idiots do not appreciate our street art, how can they even appreciate the UNESCO world cultural heritage status that took George Town so long to obtain. How can we ever trust them to uphold our cultural heritage? Do you want to trust them to build the monorail line in George Town at the risk of our beloved city losing its UNESCO status? The Barisan Nasional party makes mockery out of all of us. With every promise, they mock us every step of the way.   

Mind you, these are not supposed to be political flags if the words of the caretaker Prime Minister in 2010 were to be believed. But does the corrupt Barisan Nasional regime care nowadays? They continue to indulge in money politics, more so during this General Elections campaigning period.

How much money has been thrown away to provide free food, free lucky draws, free entertainment to the people in Penang. How much money has been siphoned off too by the people who were contracted to provide these free. How much money goes into their personal pockets? How much?

I continue to see the corruption everywhere, and in blanketing the island and the mainland in swathes of blue, it has become a BIG turn-off. If those jokers had hoped to be able to sway the minds of every right-thinking Malaysian that free food and free entertainment can buy their political party support at the polling station, they better have another think coming!

PACA for GE13

Come this Sunday week, 5 May 2013, I'll be doing something which I have never done before and that is, to be a polling and counting agent for a political party. How this came about is actually a long story but to cut this long story short, yes, I did agree to volunteer my services at a friend's request.

Previously, a very, very long time ago when I was still staying in Ayer Itam on the island, my father and I had worked as counting clerks. I think it must have been 1982. Or was it 1978? Can't remember exactly.

I also don't remember where we went to but all I remember of the occasion was that we spent the whole night at the counting centre until the wee hours of the morning waiting for the arrival of the ballot boxes, then the unfolding of the ballot papers, flattening them out, getting them scrutinised by the counting agents that represented the political parties, separating them into as many heaps as there were candidates, then starting the counting process as if we were counting currency notes.

It helped that I was already working in a bank then. The experience counting other people's money must have certainly come in useful. People were impressed with our efficiency. My father and I swiftly breezed through the pile of ballot papers with a lot of confidence. There weren't any hitch.

This time however, I shall be on the other side of the counting process. This time, I shall be scrutinising the counting clerks and ensuring that the interests of the political party I'm representing are looked after. People tell me that it is all very easy but I don't believe it. It is going to be a daunting task. There is a lot of responsibility involved. All I can say to my friend is that I shall try my best. Wish me luck!

An early Led Zeppelin mini concert

People who know me well will realise that I'm a self-confessed fan of Led Zeppelin.  Have been since 1969 or 1970. Back then, the Radio RAAF Butterworth was blaring out Whole Lotta Love a whole lotta times over the airwaves. I was so taken by the music that I saved up every dollar I could have until there was enough for me to buy not their better-known second album but the first, a bluesy kind of heavy rock music.

Recently, I learnt from this website, Guitar World, that there was some vintage, high-quality video from a 17 March 1969 Led Zeppelin television appearance in Gladsaxe, Denmark on surfaced on the Internet. The band — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham — played four tracks from this first album. The videos are available on YouTube but I'm copying the links here so that I can enjoy them one by one in any sequence I want:


First off, this is Communication Breakdown. What a delightful way to start off the mini-studio concert.


Dazed And Confused. Not for the first time, though, that Page puts a bow to his guitar strings to draw out the magical notes. And Plant wailing away in unison. Ooh!


Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You. Plant in full flow again as he rend out a lot of emotion in this song. A fabulous effort.


And finally, How Many More Times closed out the four-song mini-studio concert. How lucky could those guys be, getting the chance to sit down before the nascent legends of rock music.

PFS 1816-2016

As my alma mater, the Penang Free School, gears up towards celebrating its bicentenary or 200th anniversary in October 2016, I see that this sign has been erected to the right of the archway at the entrance into the school.

Oh Seng Pin

Initially, I had thought of calling this post as "Oh Cheng Chan, part 3" as it followed naturally from my previous write-up on my great-great-grandfather but as this newspaper's clipping (The Straits Times of 18 July 1898) was a report on Oh Seng Pin himself, I think that I should name this post accordingly.

As can already be gathered from the intro paragraph, Oh Seng Pin was my great-grandfather. Actually, I wouldn't have known his name or that of my great-great-grandfather if not for information sent to me by one of my Oh cousins in the Klang Valley.

The National Library in Singapore filled in a vital blank when I searched through their online archives and managed to extract these short newspaper reports about my two ancestors. But as they were not exactly that prominent pillars of society in those days too, this is unfortunately all that I can uncover about their past in 19th century Penang.

In all likelihood, The Straits Times report was a reproduction from a Pinang Gazette story which read:

"We have to record the death, yesterday (14th) of On Seng Pin, a son of the late On Cheng Chan, a wealthy Chinese gentleman who, it will be remembered, was attacked by gang-robbers at "Belle Vue" last year, and died on the 14th of July. It is noted as a strange coincidence that his son, after only a day's illness, died on the same date. The news of his death came as a surprise on the Chinese community. The young man, who was 29 years old, only recently obtained letters of administration to his father's estate, and on Friday last received a cheque of upwards of $110,000, being his father's share in the late Singapore Opium and Spirit Farm."

The name of Singapore Opium and Spirit Farm featured very prominently in Penang's history. Many well-to-do people in Penang had investments in this lucrative business. I had heard that the business was owned by Cheah Chen Eok himself (the person who built the 60-foot Queen Victoria memorial clock tower in George Town and who owned, among many other properties on Penang island, the "Belle Vue" mansion in Western Road from which my great-great-grandfather had injured himself seriously) who later divested himself of all his shares in this Singapore Opium and Spirit Farm.

Without putting too much effort into starting conspiracy theories and the like, when I first read this news clipping, I was wondering how a healthy 29-year-old man, just five days after collecting a cheque of $100,000, could fall ill suddenly and succumbed within a day.

Strange coincidence, according to the news story, but was there more to it that met the eye? Perhaps the newspaper (Pinang Gazette) knew more at that time but they were not saying anything at all. And we, the descendents of Oh Seng Pin, are left not knowing the answer.

Oh yes, I managed to uncover one more news clipping dated 18 Sep 1908 in which Oh Seng Pin's name was mentioned:

"The marriage of Mr Ong Huck Khye, a nephew of Mr Ong Hun Chong, tin and pepper merchant, of Chop Ban Tin Lam, Penang, and Mr Ong Hun Siew, rice merchant of Chop Tin Seang, and a younger brother of Mr Ong Huck See, Penang, and Miss Oh Leang Cheen, the only daughter of the late Mr Oh Seng Pin, and the grand-daughter of the late Mr Oh Cheng Chan, of Chop Cheng Chan and Company, Penang, took place on Monday at Penang."

The above report may not be exactly correct because according to the family tree which my cousin was attempting to draw up, Oh Seng Pin had another daughter named Oh Liang Siok. Before he died, my great-grandfather also had two sons in Oh Joo Siew and Oh Joo Hock. Oh Joo Siew was my grandfather.

Election excitement

You know that excitement over the whole General elections thing is escalating wildly when people that you hardly converse with start talking to you about politics.

For example, while I was at the vegetable seller's stall at the Kampung Baru wet market in Bukit Mertajam last Sunday, the proprietor suddenly opened his mouth to tell me that there would be a Pakatan Rakyat ceramah (political talk) at the market's car park that same night.

Okay, so I do know this chap. He sees me every time I go to the market with my aged aunt - only nowadays, it is me that goes alone because she now walks with much difficulty - and we hardly say anything to one another. I would pass the vegetables to him and he would tell me how much they cost.

But not that Sunday morning. Like two guys in a conspiracy, he lowered his voice and told me to "come round tonight" to the ceramah. "Okay," I whispered back, "I'll be here."

So when eight o'clock came around, I left the house. A brisk 15-minute walk took me to the market. the public address system was already cranked up loud. I could here someone talk long before I reached the car park.

Already, there were lots of people standing around. Or sitting around the perimeter of the market. And all eyes were watching the speakers. One after another, the Pakatan Rakyat candidates were introduced to the people and they went on and on to talk about themselves, what they stood for and the excesses of the previous Barisan Nasional federal government.

I looked around. The crowd were enthralled, drinking in every syllable from the speakers. But I must admit that their words were mostly lost on me. Couldn't understand, see. For not the first time in my life, I regretted not knowing Mandarin. But around me, people were listening intently.

Despite my handicap, I was greatly surprised to find myself staying on for so long at the ceramah. Ordinarily, I would have left long ago, but not that night. Sorry, but I have no reasonable explanation for this. Perhaps, like the vegetable seller, I too had been caught up in the whole excitement of the General Election. Can't wait to cast my vote.

P.S. By my guestimate, there must have been around two to three thousand people gathered at the ceramah by the time I decided to make my way home.Now the question remains: since I can't catch a word of what they are saying, should I continue to attend these political talks??

Unique Swiss souvenir

My wife attended the official opening of VAT Manufacturing Malaysia Sdn Bhd in the Batu Kawan Industrial Park, Province Wellesley recently and came back with an unusual souvenir from the Swiss-owned company.

"You wouldn't believe what they gave out as souvenirs," she told me when arriving home after work. "What?" I asked, "a Swiss Army knife? An Alpine cuckoo clock? A piece of Swiss cheese?" All failed to hit the mark, unfortunately, but my last answer was the closest to answering her correctly.

"Birnbrot (pear bread) from Switzerland," she replied triumphantly, and then she took out this itsy bitsy looking piece of cylindrical pastry in clingwrap. It measured not more than four inches long.

"What?" I asked again, "just this small pastry thingy?" Yes, she replied, but according to the people at VAT Manufacturing, this pear bread is a delicacy in Switzerland. Traditionally available only during the winter months but most probably now available all year round over there.

So I took out a knife and began slicing into it. When the first piece came off, we saw a rich mixture of figs and dried grapes tightly compressed within a very thin layer of hard pastry. "The VAT Manufacturing staff said to eat it with butter in order to extract the best taste from the bread." Erm, butter? She didn't need to tell me twice, I say!

Oh, by the way, having tasted the Birnbrot, maybe I should also mention that VAT Manufacturing is the world’s leading supplier of vacuum valves for state-of-the-art applications in the semiconductor industry, for manufacturing flat screens and solar panels, as well as for coating optical systems and tools.

The Everly Brothers

Before I lose grip of my senses during the run up to the General Elections, I'd better retreat briefly into my little world and enjoy a spot of music on my hifi system. Just dug up this album which had remained in storage for a very long time.

Wow, I couldn't have imagined the amount of dust and dirt on the records if I had not seen them myself. Anyway, after cleaning up the four sides of this double album, the sound was perfect! I would believe that the original sound was in monaural but for the purpose of this album, the engineers had electronically rerecorded the tracks to simulate stereo. Good job.

Side 1: Bye Bye Love, Problems, Let it Be Me, Maybe Tomorrow, Be-bop-A-Lula
Side 2: Bird Dog, Love Of My Life, Keep A-Knockin', Leve my Woman Alone, A Brand New Heartache
Side 3: Wake Up Little susie, Like strangers, Rockin' Alone, Long Time Gone, All I have To Do Is Dream
Side 4: Til I Kissed You, Poor Jenny, Should We Tell Him, Lightning Express, Rip It Up

Nomination day in Bukit Mertajam on GE13

I was supposed to go support a friend at a Nomination Day function somewhere on the island today but somehow, my plans changed almost at the last minute. With time a little free on my hands, I then decided to throw in my support for the Pakatan Rakyat parliamentary and state candidates in Bukit Mertajam.

So at nine o'clock in the morning, I found myself walking to the Jalan Song Ban Kheng-Jalan Betik road junction. The side of the main road was already filled with cars, supporters and yet more supporters! Found a vacant spot by the roadside and managed to squeeze my car into the space.

Possibly about 200 people - a mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians - were already there at the junction, mostly garbed in yellow T-shirts while I sported the Ubah T-shirt that I had bought days earlier from the DAP Penang headquarters about a week back. The flags of the DAP, PKR and PAS were flying everywhere, and the people were clearly enjoying themselves. Party mood.

A short distance away from us was the Police roadblock. Nobody bothered with them and they just stood staring impassively at us.

However, I found it disconcerting that barbed wire had also been stretched across the roadblock. Was it really necessary when everyone were in carnival mood?

The Pakatan Rakyat candidates were milling around with their supporters. Shortly after nine o'clock, they were allowed to pass through the Police roadblock. Only the candidates and their seconders were allowed through for the short walk to the nomination centre at the Public Works Department Office.

The four candidates (left to right): Chong Eng (DAP), Steven Sim (DAP), Ong Kok Fooi (DAP), Lee Khai Loon (PKR)

From my vantage point, I could see a similar roadblock set up about a hundred metres away to block off the opposing Barisan Nasional supporters. Very difficult to estimate how many of their supporters were there but it didn't really mattered.

About 10 minutes later, we noticed that from the other end of the road, the candidates from the Barisan Nasional had also arrived at the nomination centre.

Now the wait for the nomination period to close at 10 o'clock. Nobody was impatient. People were getting to know one another. Someone with a loudspeaker started informing the crowd to attend a ceramah that night in Machang Bubok. I walked around and bumped into a group of people I knew. Decided to take a few photographs with them. Here's one.

From left to right: cousin, acquaintance, old schoolmate, former work colleague, myself

Shortly after that, I decided to leave. The little time on my hands had ended and there were other things to do. So I took leave of this group of people, glad that I had at least now experienced the atmosphere during nomination day.