Khairy Jamaluddin is hot news

(Pix - Seri Perdana - the official residence of the Malaysian Prime Minister)

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin is certainly hot news. He is said to be an up and coming politician and is now the number two man in Umno Youth, the junior wing of Abdullah's main Malay political party.

Khairy or KJ to some people, is being chased, literally, by at least two on-line news establishments.

Agendadaily, a popular Malay language news portal, was disappointed when the soon to be 30-year-old KJ did not reply to their e-mail as promised. KJ was asked to comment on what was written by Kalimullah Hassan, deputy chairman and editorial advisor of the New Straits Times (NST) on what was discussed, in a closed-door meeting, of Umno's information bureau. Kalimullah is not a member of the bureau. (please see my earlier postings).

KJ is Kalimullah's business partner. I am uncertain whether they are genuine business partners or simply sleeping-partners. It is common among Umno leaders at various levels to be "business partners" especially to non-Malays. As sleeping partners, they were paid handsome fees to use their political standings to get contracts or projects reserved for bumiputras or Umnoputras to the opposition parties.

The internet news media also reported that KJ is "close" to actress Maya Karin, which he denied.

Apart from KJ, PM Abdullah's political secretary in the finance ministry, Reezal Merican Naina Merican, is being sued for divorce by his second wife, actress Sharifah Norhaslinda. Reezal Merican is a member of the Kepala Batas Umno division in Penang headed by Abdullah.

My sympathies to Abdullah Badawi.

The pigtailed macaque of Taman TAR Ampang

There are 19 species of macaques identified by scientists so far. Three of the 19 macaque species lives in the jungles bordering Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang Jaya district, Selangor. Of the three, the pigtailed macaque (pix above) and the longtailed macaque comes out of the jungle to be fed by human beings. The silverleaf macaque or lutong in Malay, seldom do so but once in while will show up to eat the juicy fruits of the fig trees.

The pigtailed macaque or beruk in Malay, inhabit tropical evergreen rainforests of Southeast Asia from Myanmar (Burma) to Malaysia and Indonesia. Longtailed macaque or kera in Malay, are found in many of the same places as pigtailed macaques, but they have a larger geographical distribution, extending to the Philippines. The longtailed macaques are more likely to be along rivers or in secondary forest, on flatter terrain, and at lower elevations than pigtailed macaques. Pigtailed macaques more often inhabit primary forest and hilly terrain.

In the east coast states of the Malay peninsula, that is Kelantan and Terengganu, the pigtailed macaques are trained by men to pluck coconuts.

Putrajaya - administrative capital of Malaysia

Putrajaya,the administrative capital of Malaysia is a unique Asian city. The buildings are of Asian and Islamic architecture. It is the brainchild of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The architects, engineers and town planners and main contractors are Malaysians...but most of the construction workers are Indonesians, Thais and Burmese. Well! we can say that it was a good example of Asean collaboration.

Gurney Drive, Penang - where is the beach?

In the 1950s till late 1970s, there was a beautiful, sandy beach at Gurney Drive. Children went to the beach to swim in the pollution-free sea. Women and girls were there to dig for cockles and tiny shells to bring home as fresh seafood.

Fishermen, mostly Indians, went out to sea in the evening to return with various types of fish, prawns and crabs to be sold to eager buyers waiting by the sea front.

That was Gurney Drive. It is "was" because the good things mentioned were gone. The beach had disappeared, the sea is polluted and is not safe to swim, the fishermen were gone to the other end of Gurney Drive, off Northam Road or Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.

Gurney Drive or Padang Kota Baru to the local Malays is now congested with too many restaurants and food courts. The coastal road is traffic-heavy. Gone are the good old days of peace and serenity. Is this the cost of modern day development?

Get well soon Syed Ismail

Syed Ismail Alhabshee is recuperating at home in Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang after undergoing knee surgery. Being a happy and easy going young man, he is already feeling bored and lonely at home. Can you blame him for that?

His right leg, from the thigh downwards, is under bandage and he walks with the aid of crutchs.

Ismail is my wife's nephew and when we went to visit him today, he was away to enjoy the scenery (apart from watching girls on their evening jogs) and ate donuts at a newly opened kiosk. No he did not walk but was driven by elder brother Ilyas and accompanied by three cousins.

Ismail suffered from torn ligament and the doctor recommended surgery. I was told that there is another solution to the problem - prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy works on all knee problems with excellent results. Only in the case of a complete torn ligament is prolotherapy somewhat limited. If there is a partial tear, prolotherapy can reconstruct the ligament and strengthen the joint.

Prolotherapy, according to a medical publication, is short for "proliferation theraphy" or rapid production theraphy. What prolotherapy rapidly produces is collagen and cartilage. Collagen is a naturally occurring protein in the body that is necessary element for the formation of new connective tissue that holds the skeletal infrastructure together. These include tendons, ligaments, muscle fascia and joint capsular tissue.

There are certainly instances in life when surgery is called for, but not nearly as often as it is currently performed. Even so-called "minor" surgery takes a drastic toll on the human body, physically traumatizing and permanently altering its structures, often to its detriment.

Ismail, we cannot be happy unless you have completely recovered. We pray and hope for your early and complete recovery.

Malaysian politicians are well taken care of

In Malaysia, politicians never retire but continues to enjoy life and what have you till they drop dead.

Recently retired minister of information, Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, has been appointed chairman of not one but three companies. Abdul Kadir, an Indian Muslim but recognised as a constitutional Malay, is from Kedah state and was once aligned to Abdullah Badawi in Team B that failed to topple Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Abdullah is now the Prime Minister, thanks to Dr Mahathir.

Abdul Kadir, who resigned on Feb 14 less than 24 hours before he was to be sacked by Abdullah, will lead Karambunai Corp Bhd, FACB Industries Inc Bhd and Petaling Tin Bhd.

He replaced Tengku Zainal Adlin as chairman of Karambunai while the chairman of FACB, Sulaiman Sujak and chairman of Petaling Tin, Jaafar Abu Bakar were demoted as deputy chairman in favour of Abdul Kadir.

Jaafar and Sulaiman should have resigned instead of agreeing to be demoted. But, resignation is something that is very rare in Malaysia, either in the political arena or the corporate world. The incumbents will hold on to their posts until and unless they were either forced to do so or for legal reasons.

Abdul Kadir's appointments, with the blessings of Abdullah Badawi, in a way was in bad taste. Why? Well for the simple reason that it indicated that Malaysia lacked qualified and suitable candidates to be chairman of listed companies or government-linked corporations.

Malaysian politicians, especially those associated with the ruling party, UMNO in particular, were appointed to sit as chairman or directors of listed companies, state owned corporations, port authorities, semi-government corporations and government-linked companies.

Most of them were not qualified professionally to be where they are. Men and women with no knowledge of the rubber industry, for examaple, were appointed to sit as board members of companies and corporations dealing directly with the industry, or someone ignorant of the transport sector appointed to sit on the board of a transport company and so on so forth.

What the government is doing is no better than letting the sewer rat to repair the pumpkin.

Puteri Gunung Ledang - The Musical

On Monday evening, we were fortunate to attend the popular musical drama - Puteri Gunung Ledang (The Princess of Mount Ophir) at Kuala Lumpur's Istana Budaya (Palace of Culture).

The musical attracted full-house audience daily when it opened on Feb 7 and was scheduled to end on Sunday (Feb 26), but overwhelming response saw two extra performances on Feb 27 and 28.

Long queues of theatre lovers were seen outside Istana Budaya (Kuala Lumpur's version of the Sydney Opera House) as early as 7.30 a.m. to buy tickets for the two extra performances. Tickets were sold out three hours after the box office opened at 9 a.m.

The performance was produced by Enfinity Production and co-directed by Zahim Hisham Albakri and Adlin Aman Ramli (who played the role of Sultan Mahmud of Melaka), with music composed by Singapore's "shop till you drop singer-composer" Dick Lee and featuring Tiara Jacquelina as Puteri Gunung Ledang, London-based Stephen Rahman-Hughes as Hang Tuah the Melaka Admiral, Sukania Venogopal as the the nanny and rapper-actor A.C.Mizal as the Majapahit ruler.

Enfinity Production's managaing director, Tiara Jacquelina a.k.a. Gusti Putri Retno Dumilah the princess of Majapahit (in Java), said there have been several invitations to stage Puteri Gunung Ledang abroad, including in Singapore and she hoped to bring the production to the island republic next year.

The production was based on a popular Malay legend on love epic, blind loyalty, betrayal and "political" manipulation, which sounded familiar with the current Malay political elites.

My only complaint - the music (beating of drums) was a bit loud and the chorus was too loud. Overall, it was a good and entertaining performance.