2014 the Year of the Violent Horse
P Dev Anand PillaiPublished: Jan 2, 2015 6:41 AM | Updated: Jan 2, 2015 6:46 AM
Another 365 days has come to an end but the year of the Horse in accordance to the Lunar Calender has been a violent one indeed. I would term it as the year of the Violent Horse.
Another 365 days has come to an end but the year of the Horse in accordance to the Lunar Calender has been a violent one indeed. I would term it as the year of the Violent Horse.
We had tragedy after tragedy till the last few days of 2014, making it a year in which religious bigotry, racism, terrorism, political upheavals and infighting, lack of leadership, a serious dent in the freedom of speech and association, disrespect to the rights of others, the judicial apparatus being powerless when it came to custody disputes between warring spouses who use religion as an escape route, and the list goes on and on.
MH370
It was something which we have to admit we were totally unprepared for. We never expected one of our planes to simply vanish into thin air and we just didn't know how to react.
The whole world watched as we fumbled and learnt from the mistakes that we made as we got deeper into the reality that we have now become a target for the dark forces out there who will do anything for a cause in which they believe in and if we or our assets are in the way, they will not hesitate to remove it or make it disappear.
It was not the fault of our airline MAS, we were more of mere pawns in a game of superiority of power among the most militarily and economically powerful nations in the world.
We were helpless and asked for help and help came from everywhere, it was one of a kind in search and rescue efforts that the world has seen thus far. The United States, China, India, Britain, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the list goes on were there to help find the aircraft but sadly till today we have yet to find it.
We made the world believe that the flight may have ended in the Southern Indian Ocean with some fine mathematical calculations derived from some source in Britain whom we usually go to when all else fails. Perhaps it is a tie which we fine hard to break being once a former colony of the Great Empire.
Two hundred and thirty nine lives, crew and the passengers, everyone’s personal life was there for the whole world to see. We tried to blame the poor captain, whom only God knows how hard he may have tried to safe everyone from whatever that took place in that ill-fated flight.
Conspiracy theories were out there for all to figure out and how all this took place, the world saw how we bungled at our public relations and the flow of information thinking that the rest of the world was like us here in our beloved land happily living under the protected ‘coconut shell’ and devoutly following whatever our administration says.
One thing that we were good at is erecting billboards, I even saw a few giant ones on the way to KLIA saying please pray for Flight 370, what a way to send a person of to the airport! There is still no closure and what can seen is that, it looks very much like a planned mission to make the plane disappear because of whatever it may have been carrying inside its cargo hold.
The passing of Irene Fernandez and Karpal Singh Deo
Irene had passed on due to her long heart ailment whereas a tragic accident took the life of opposition giant and legal Machiavelli Karpal Singh. It will be a lost to this nation of ours with the passing of these two great individuals. They did not fear state power, they faced it head on with courage and in the best forms of mannerism. Their leadership encouraged a lot to take up causes which many would not because it may not be lucrative.
But what we must always understand is that they had the determination to see that this country is governed well and those who govern it ought be held accountable to their actions, is something which is very amiss in today's leadership.
They have made their mark in the fields of labour law, migrant workers rights, domestic workers treatment in our society, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law and last but not least in the field of Human Rights Law which delves into the our daily lives.
We will miss them but their legacy continues, there are many budding Irene Fernandezes and Karpal Singhs making their mark and this is a clear signal that we may soon see a change of federal government for the first time in the history of this nation of ours.
Our politics
A so-called Kajang Move was made to get opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to come into the state government of Selangor but that attempt again was thwarted by our never ending ‘soap opera’ style politics where the entire apparatus of the state will be used to prosecute one individual.
We saw situations where a well known lawyer is a defence attorney one day and then can be the appointed as the lead prosecutor the next. We saw how the Court of Appeal rushed through the appeal and convicted the opposition leader leaving him with the last resort of an appeal to the Federal Court which was also equally dramatic where we saw a well-known former Federal Court Judge leading the defense team for the appellant and a record appellate court hearing of more than a week.
The decision is yet to be made but it doesn’t take a political scientist to note that this is all nothing but an attempt to keep Anwar Ibrahim from taking over federal power in the next coming general elections which must be called by 2018 the latest.
We saw a brave attempt by the DAP to place Dyana Sofya a young Malay female law graduate to take on the Gerakan president when the Teluk Intan seat became vacant. It brought about a new high in our politics especially among-st the educated young Malays with young open minded Malay women like the candidate taking the lead in coming off age in our compartmentalised and stereotyped politics which is race based instead of being ability based.
She almost beat the Gerakan president. A great, brave and courageous attempt by an upcoming politician of the future. Young Malays began to see the DAP as an avenue out of the mould in which they have been programmed to think and live in.
We saw the menteri besar imbroglio in Selangor, where the incumbent refused to leave the hot seat despite having no support from his own party. We saw the opposition coalition face challenges in this episode with the monarch stepping in to state his displeasure and to put his mark down that whatever decision made on the next leader of the state would have to get his stamp of approval first.
Holy books were carted away by the authorities because of it being written in Bahasa Malaysia and using the term ‘Allah’ for God, fearing that it may ‘confuse’ and ‘mislead’ curious Malays into apostasy.
Religious bigotry reared its ugly head and we came to terms that despite being independent for more than 57 years and having lived with each other for more than five centuries, we Malaysians be it Malay or non-Malay may still have 'differences' which we have yet to overcome.
What we will have to come to terms with is that nothing can change the geographical position of our country, we are right in between India and China, we have to accept this and learn to co-exist to move on and progress.
MH17
Just as the nation was coming to terms with what had happened to our plane that vanished into thin air, we had another shocker where another of our planes with 298 innocent souls coming to our country, some to visit and some coming home was just simply shot down by warring factions in the troubled areas of eastern Ukraine.
The effects of this two disasters (MH370 included) will be felt for a long time and will effect the income and marketability of our national carrier MAS which is already in the red. We learnt fast from our earlier bungling and made information better available to all when this tragedy unfolded.
What this made us understand is, even though we may be a small nation, we must not be a ‘pushover’. We should not allow bigger nations to bully us just because we are small and non-aligned and don't spend tons on foreign policy and arms.
It was difficult to come to terms with seeing our hardworking people and the crew of the ill-fated flight dead after dropping out of the sky and their nude bodies burn before our eyes as international TV channels showed it to the whole world. We may have negotiated with the barbarians who shot down our plane but call themselves freedom fighters but that doesn't stop these big nations from taking us and our people for granted.
We had become mere pawns again in their game for pole position and to be the superpowers of the world.
The Umno AGM
Again as the non-Malays are so used to, it is the time of the year where all the deep frustrations and pent-up feelings are let loose by our Malay brethren from the chosen party which is one of the longest-governing parties in the world.
Every uncomfortable predicament which the Malays are in today is a result of the allowing the non-Malays the leeway, so more government control measures must be imposed to ensure that the grand design and the status quo of Malaysian society where one race is always favoured against the rest is strictly maintained.
The Sedition Act is which an archaic piece of legislation left behind by the British Raj to subdue upheaval by the masses was used to silence the opposition and critics was asked to be enhanced further, which is what this yearly meeting of the Malay brethren had decided and pushed for.
The chosen leaders began leaning towards this direction which is not a good move for this nation of ours. Many learned veterans and ex-high ranking civil servants from the era of the past where we had a better and more capable government expressed their displeasure to this new direction that our nation seems to be taking.
Floods in the East Coast and Flight QZ8501
Just as we were made to remember the sufferings and the devastating effects of the tsunami that took place on Boxing Day a decade ago in 2004, another of our nation’s carriers, this time a flight from AirAsia, went missing from the radar of the air traffic controllers (ATC) as it left Surabaya, Indonesia destined for Singapore early Sunday morning on Dec 28.
The ill-fated flight asked to climb higher to avoid bad weather but as it got clearance from the ATC to go higher, fate had another plan for it. The plane fell into the Java Sea and all the 162 souls on board had to go with Lord Yama (Lord of Death in Hinduism). Our nation was affected again, as we battled the worst floods in recent times which hit the east coast states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Pahang we had to endure yet another air disaster.
In conclusion
The year 2014, though it may have started well as the year of the Golden Horse, but as this horse galloped through the year, it turned from being a Golden Horse that ought to have brought more opportunities and hope into a very violent horse that buckled and pushed off every attempt to subdue and tame it.
We lost a lot of lives in the air in 2014. I traveled thrice this year but each time I stepped into our carriers I prayed and prayed because at the end of the day, that is the most a passenger can do.
We have been made to understand by nature that our fate and the date of departure in this train journey of life that we are now going through is entirely in its hands. No matter who you may be, we are nothing before nature and this earth in which we live in. We have to learn to respect nature and co-exist with it if we are to seek its protection for our survival.
As we co-exist we have to learn to disagree civilly as well, after all we are all made the same. We may differ in race, creed, religion and region but we all finally end up to the source, which is non other than mother nature. It has been a difficult 2014, we may have to face a more difficult 2015 with the introduction of the goods and services tax for a nation that is not ready for such a policy but there is hope which I sincerely believe in.
I was born here and my life will end here. I am a Malaysian first before my ethnic roots. Let’s start 2015 with a daily prayer to mother earth for her continued protection for we will not know when we will be getting off this train journey of life.
We had tragedy after tragedy till the last few days of 2014, making it a year in which religious bigotry, racism, terrorism, political upheavals and infighting, lack of leadership, a serious dent in the freedom of speech and association, disrespect to the rights of others, the judicial apparatus being powerless when it came to custody disputes between warring spouses who use religion as an escape route, and the list goes on and on.
MH370
It was something which we have to admit we were totally unprepared for. We never expected one of our planes to simply vanish into thin air and we just didn't know how to react.
The whole world watched as we fumbled and learnt from the mistakes that we made as we got deeper into the reality that we have now become a target for the dark forces out there who will do anything for a cause in which they believe in and if we or our assets are in the way, they will not hesitate to remove it or make it disappear.
It was not the fault of our airline MAS, we were more of mere pawns in a game of superiority of power among the most militarily and economically powerful nations in the world.
We were helpless and asked for help and help came from everywhere, it was one of a kind in search and rescue efforts that the world has seen thus far. The United States, China, India, Britain, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the list goes on were there to help find the aircraft but sadly till today we have yet to find it.
We made the world believe that the flight may have ended in the Southern Indian Ocean with some fine mathematical calculations derived from some source in Britain whom we usually go to when all else fails. Perhaps it is a tie which we fine hard to break being once a former colony of the Great Empire.
Two hundred and thirty nine lives, crew and the passengers, everyone’s personal life was there for the whole world to see. We tried to blame the poor captain, whom only God knows how hard he may have tried to safe everyone from whatever that took place in that ill-fated flight.
Conspiracy theories were out there for all to figure out and how all this took place, the world saw how we bungled at our public relations and the flow of information thinking that the rest of the world was like us here in our beloved land happily living under the protected ‘coconut shell’ and devoutly following whatever our administration says.
One thing that we were good at is erecting billboards, I even saw a few giant ones on the way to KLIA saying please pray for Flight 370, what a way to send a person of to the airport! There is still no closure and what can seen is that, it looks very much like a planned mission to make the plane disappear because of whatever it may have been carrying inside its cargo hold.
The passing of Irene Fernandez and Karpal Singh Deo
Irene had passed on due to her long heart ailment whereas a tragic accident took the life of opposition giant and legal Machiavelli Karpal Singh. It will be a lost to this nation of ours with the passing of these two great individuals. They did not fear state power, they faced it head on with courage and in the best forms of mannerism. Their leadership encouraged a lot to take up causes which many would not because it may not be lucrative.
But what we must always understand is that they had the determination to see that this country is governed well and those who govern it ought be held accountable to their actions, is something which is very amiss in today's leadership.
They have made their mark in the fields of labour law, migrant workers rights, domestic workers treatment in our society, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law and last but not least in the field of Human Rights Law which delves into the our daily lives.
We will miss them but their legacy continues, there are many budding Irene Fernandezes and Karpal Singhs making their mark and this is a clear signal that we may soon see a change of federal government for the first time in the history of this nation of ours.
Our politics
A so-called Kajang Move was made to get opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to come into the state government of Selangor but that attempt again was thwarted by our never ending ‘soap opera’ style politics where the entire apparatus of the state will be used to prosecute one individual.
We saw situations where a well known lawyer is a defence attorney one day and then can be the appointed as the lead prosecutor the next. We saw how the Court of Appeal rushed through the appeal and convicted the opposition leader leaving him with the last resort of an appeal to the Federal Court which was also equally dramatic where we saw a well-known former Federal Court Judge leading the defense team for the appellant and a record appellate court hearing of more than a week.
The decision is yet to be made but it doesn’t take a political scientist to note that this is all nothing but an attempt to keep Anwar Ibrahim from taking over federal power in the next coming general elections which must be called by 2018 the latest.
We saw a brave attempt by the DAP to place Dyana Sofya a young Malay female law graduate to take on the Gerakan president when the Teluk Intan seat became vacant. It brought about a new high in our politics especially among-st the educated young Malays with young open minded Malay women like the candidate taking the lead in coming off age in our compartmentalised and stereotyped politics which is race based instead of being ability based.
She almost beat the Gerakan president. A great, brave and courageous attempt by an upcoming politician of the future. Young Malays began to see the DAP as an avenue out of the mould in which they have been programmed to think and live in.
We saw the menteri besar imbroglio in Selangor, where the incumbent refused to leave the hot seat despite having no support from his own party. We saw the opposition coalition face challenges in this episode with the monarch stepping in to state his displeasure and to put his mark down that whatever decision made on the next leader of the state would have to get his stamp of approval first.
Holy books were carted away by the authorities because of it being written in Bahasa Malaysia and using the term ‘Allah’ for God, fearing that it may ‘confuse’ and ‘mislead’ curious Malays into apostasy.
Religious bigotry reared its ugly head and we came to terms that despite being independent for more than 57 years and having lived with each other for more than five centuries, we Malaysians be it Malay or non-Malay may still have 'differences' which we have yet to overcome.
What we will have to come to terms with is that nothing can change the geographical position of our country, we are right in between India and China, we have to accept this and learn to co-exist to move on and progress.
MH17
Just as the nation was coming to terms with what had happened to our plane that vanished into thin air, we had another shocker where another of our planes with 298 innocent souls coming to our country, some to visit and some coming home was just simply shot down by warring factions in the troubled areas of eastern Ukraine.
The effects of this two disasters (MH370 included) will be felt for a long time and will effect the income and marketability of our national carrier MAS which is already in the red. We learnt fast from our earlier bungling and made information better available to all when this tragedy unfolded.
What this made us understand is, even though we may be a small nation, we must not be a ‘pushover’. We should not allow bigger nations to bully us just because we are small and non-aligned and don't spend tons on foreign policy and arms.
It was difficult to come to terms with seeing our hardworking people and the crew of the ill-fated flight dead after dropping out of the sky and their nude bodies burn before our eyes as international TV channels showed it to the whole world. We may have negotiated with the barbarians who shot down our plane but call themselves freedom fighters but that doesn't stop these big nations from taking us and our people for granted.
We had become mere pawns again in their game for pole position and to be the superpowers of the world.
The Umno AGM
Again as the non-Malays are so used to, it is the time of the year where all the deep frustrations and pent-up feelings are let loose by our Malay brethren from the chosen party which is one of the longest-governing parties in the world.
Every uncomfortable predicament which the Malays are in today is a result of the allowing the non-Malays the leeway, so more government control measures must be imposed to ensure that the grand design and the status quo of Malaysian society where one race is always favoured against the rest is strictly maintained.
The Sedition Act is which an archaic piece of legislation left behind by the British Raj to subdue upheaval by the masses was used to silence the opposition and critics was asked to be enhanced further, which is what this yearly meeting of the Malay brethren had decided and pushed for.
The chosen leaders began leaning towards this direction which is not a good move for this nation of ours. Many learned veterans and ex-high ranking civil servants from the era of the past where we had a better and more capable government expressed their displeasure to this new direction that our nation seems to be taking.
Floods in the East Coast and Flight QZ8501
Just as we were made to remember the sufferings and the devastating effects of the tsunami that took place on Boxing Day a decade ago in 2004, another of our nation’s carriers, this time a flight from AirAsia, went missing from the radar of the air traffic controllers (ATC) as it left Surabaya, Indonesia destined for Singapore early Sunday morning on Dec 28.
The ill-fated flight asked to climb higher to avoid bad weather but as it got clearance from the ATC to go higher, fate had another plan for it. The plane fell into the Java Sea and all the 162 souls on board had to go with Lord Yama (Lord of Death in Hinduism). Our nation was affected again, as we battled the worst floods in recent times which hit the east coast states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Pahang we had to endure yet another air disaster.
In conclusion
The year 2014, though it may have started well as the year of the Golden Horse, but as this horse galloped through the year, it turned from being a Golden Horse that ought to have brought more opportunities and hope into a very violent horse that buckled and pushed off every attempt to subdue and tame it.
We lost a lot of lives in the air in 2014. I traveled thrice this year but each time I stepped into our carriers I prayed and prayed because at the end of the day, that is the most a passenger can do.
We have been made to understand by nature that our fate and the date of departure in this train journey of life that we are now going through is entirely in its hands. No matter who you may be, we are nothing before nature and this earth in which we live in. We have to learn to respect nature and co-exist with it if we are to seek its protection for our survival.
As we co-exist we have to learn to disagree civilly as well, after all we are all made the same. We may differ in race, creed, religion and region but we all finally end up to the source, which is non other than mother nature. It has been a difficult 2014, we may have to face a more difficult 2015 with the introduction of the goods and services tax for a nation that is not ready for such a policy but there is hope which I sincerely believe in.
I was born here and my life will end here. I am a Malaysian first before my ethnic roots. Let’s start 2015 with a daily prayer to mother earth for her continued protection for we will not know when we will be getting off this train journey of life.
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