From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 1

8th March 2008, a day anxiously waited by most Malaysian adults as it was the General Election Day. Everyone was eager to contribute their votes to the candidates of their choice, some wanted to maintain the political status quo, while some were eager to "make a change". Well, as everyone now knows, it was a change indeed, a change that I personally would not imagine could occur in my lifetime.

But 8th March 2008 was not only significant for the General Election, it was also a very significant date to the J&Fs Bunch as a whole irrespective of those who are eligible to vote or not.

Yes, 8th March 2008 marked the first day of the Bunch Family Vacation, a vacation that the Bunch had eagerly been waiting for quite a while now.

Our last family vacation was to Pulau Kapas last August and this time around, it's Bangkok, Thailand.

So of we went to Bangkok on that fine 8th of March 2008. But not so fast, it was Election Day, remember! And we can't just pack our luggage without voting first, can we? So 8th of March 2008 became a very busy day instead.

The day started with me rushing Mrs. J to TAR College, Setapak as Mrs. J is a registered voter in the Wangsa Maju constituency. After having breakfast at one of the roadside stall at Taman Bunga Raya, I left Mrs. J to cast her vote on her own conscience and proceeded to the office as I had pick certain documents relating to our Bangkok's vacation which I had accidentally left behind.

Though the doors to the office would normally be opened on Saturdays, that Saturday was very different. The doors to the office were remained closed with the person with the keys was no where to be found. After patiently waited till 10.00 am and later told that the person with the keys would only be coming in after casting his vote, I sped of to pick up Mrs. J back home in the hope that I could still exercise my votes too. I am a registered voter at Kota Raja/Sri Muda constituency.

But I guess luck was not at my side as time was working against me. Right after reaching home, I took Maal (our Pet Cat) to his regular "Pet Hotel", a place where he would normally stay whenever we goes out of town.

As arranged a cab taking us to the Airport arrived at exactly noon and so and off we went, to Bangkok without me ever able to cast my precious votes.
But our journey to Bangkok was really a bit "bengkok" (twisted) as the aircraft we took did not land us at Bangkok's Srivarnabhumi Airport but at Bayan Lepas International Airport, Penang instead.

Ha ha, it was not an accident but rather it was planned as such. Our trip to Bangkok was to be via Penang with a night spent there. The fateful night that saw Penang having a new government from the opposition camp, just like Selangor, Kedah, Perak together with the existing opposition held state, Kelantan.

While the whole nation was witnessing and following the unbelievable election results over TV, we were at Hammer Bay, a place near Queensbay for a special dinner together with the families of the in-laws.

While we were enjoying the food, very nice I would say, our topic of discussions couldn't run from talking about the election results of which SMSs had been spreading around saying that Penang had been captured by the Opposition Alliance of DAP & PKR.


But most importantly, that night was also remembered as the night to mark my 45th Birthday, celebrated about 4 ours earlier than the stroke of midnight of the actual birth date which is the 9th of March.

And the wee hours of 9th of March was actually observed by getting glued to the TV, jumping from RTM1, TV3, Awani and Bernama TV for coverages of the election results.

In fact I did not at all sleep until the next morning, Day 2 of our vacation to Bangkok.

Jasni AJ

Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive

Poles were climbed, banners were hanged, flags were hoisted, all these seems to be nightly activities of my group of friends for the past few days in the run up towards the big G-Day, yeap, the 12th General Elections, fast coming up on 8th March 2008.

These bunch of friends of mine are basically just ordinary folks, volunteering themselves to be the Alternative Front's "party workers". They also are self appointed, self motivated and self financed. They might be sympathetic to the struggles of either party in the Alternative Front but they are certainly no party "fanatics", in fact some of them are not even party members to any of the parties in the Alternative Front. In keeping and ensuring the democratic spirit alive they are just making themselves available through the rendering of their valuable services to the disadvantaged party, the party that needs help the most in order to make them to be at least visible to the public eye in our small Taman through their banners and flags as they are not too positively viewable (over TV), positively audible (over Radio) and positively readable (over the mainstream newspapers). Why the word "positively"? Well, if you really want to qualify your claims that the Alternative Front are not getting publicity over those media, you are dead wrong as they do get publicity no doubt. But for some orchestrated reasons, all the publicity they're getting are mainly negative and stereo typed publicities that carry the message that everything good comes from only BN and everything bad comes from only BA.

I guess for that reason alone, the BA Ceramahs are something the local folks would look forward to as that would be the only platform that is made available to the Alternative Front folks. And thanks to the self-appointed, self-motivated and self-financed BA "party workers", a grand BA Ceramah was successfully held just last night at our main padang in the Taman, an event that would make the other party contesting in the GE duly worried, if attendance has any bearing on the indication of the voters' preference in casting their votes.

This GE would be our second GE as a community in our small Taman, the first, some 4 years ago, saw contests from the same two parties, i.e BN (MIC) vs BA (PAS) for the Parliamentary seat and BN (UMNO) vs BA (PKR) for the State Seat.

BA lost both seats then, but their lost was not something to be ashamed of as they had managed to garner quite a substantial number of votes though short of a majority. And all these were achived despite of the lopsided campaigning tools made available to all parties contesting in the Elections.



The same tactics are still being used this time around, in fact I personally think that it has gone from bad to worse. There is definitely an overdose of messages asking voters to choose the god-sent BN leaders to continue to lead the country. There is absolutely NO CHOICE BUT ONE and that's the BN. No one else can do a better job as if you do pick the wrong ones, you're just pushing the country into the pits, at least that's what I understand from the messages I'm seeing over TV, listening over radio and reading over the mainstream newspapers.

How far is the claim true, no one knows actually. But the fact that nobody can deny is that Malaysia is indeed very unique that despite having a single ruling party ever since achieving independence and for a period now exceeding 50 years, the country has been doing exceptionally well, certainly far and a lot better than other third world countries that were once in the same league as ours in terms of resources, population, racial mix etc etc. If this were to take place in other third world countries, we could almost be certain that there would either be in turmoil with suppression, corruption, abuse of power etc. etc. ruling the day. We are actually blessed indeed having the Perikatan/BN ruling us all these years.


Well, I'm actually straying from the topic in hand, the topic is actually "Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive" and not an essay on my own political beliefs. So, reverting back to the topic in hand, just what was the product of all those pole climbing, banner hanging etc etc, well see it yourself. Don't you think they have beautifully decorated the roundabout rather well? Of course, the BN party workers played their part too. In fact, they're working much harder as the roundabout shown here has actually been given a new facelift last night where more BN banners could now be seen there, but there are still 3 more days to go, the roundabout might just change its appearance every single day!

Selamat Mengundi

Jasni AJ

Between Strangers (The Haves) and Friends (The Have-nots)

Yes, the neighbourhood folks have indeed caught up with the election fever. With the Operation Centres of each opposing parties are within viewing distance from each other, both camps would certainly be working very hard towards winning the hearts and minds of the neighbourhood folks and ultimately their precious votes.

For the first time ever, the Barisan Nasional is having their own Operation Centre in the housing estate. Just recently renovated, given a new coat of paint and complete with air-conditioning units, the Operation Centre is surely a class way above the other Operation Centre belonging to the Opposition Party which lies just a few metres away.

However, though the Operation Centre is most comfortable with spacious compound, noticibly missing at the Centre are the local folks. Yes, the Operation Centre is practically completely run by those from outside the housing estate. In fact, the manager of the Operation Centre is a Ketua Umno from the neighbouring housing estate.


Just where are the local folks? Well, you can find them at the other camp, the one with the flags of two parties. No air-condition, no computers, no nice tables and chairs, just a canopy at the lawn of an unoccupied house. But even though you can't find convenience there, what you will find are the all too familiar faces and friends of some of whom you would have known for more than 7 years. Only there you'll be able to talk and laugh like real friends. Only there you'll find people who understand each other. And most importantly, it's only there you'll find a group of people who truly and really believes in a political struggle that couldn't be achieved if the traditional government, the government that has been ruling the land for the past 50 years, continued to be given a huge mandate to keep on ruling.

You will also find true volunteerism there, they don't ask for money or incentives, in fact they themselves throw in their own money to make things happen, like renting the canopy for instance. In short, only there you'll find the true, frank and sincere people.

Sadly, a visit to the fully equipped Operations Room across the road that's surely costing thousands of Ringgit to maintain would give you an impression of visiting an official office like a government office that has no personal touch. In fact it would make you feel sort of alienated and stonic as you are practically with total strangers, strangers whom who have never met before until just yesterday!

So if you were me, where would you go to spend time and to join in the election fun? The BN Camp or the BA Camp? I would think the answer is obvious. Don't you?

Happy Voting All.

Jasni AJ

Rubbing Shoulders with Celebrities

Staying far far away from homeland does not deprive you from meeting those making waves back home. Especially when you're staying in London, more often than not you would be able to meet all the more established local celebrities there, either during their holidays or having special programmes to entertain the foreign based Malaysians over there.

Latest to make his appearance in London is Mawi. My brother, Jafri and his family who reside in London met Mawi last Wednesday and took the opportunity to have a photograph of them together taken.

Here's the photo sent over the internet for all to see.

Talking about rubbing shoulders with celebrities, I too had my fair share of such experience with international acclaimed celebrities when I was in London a few months back.

They include, Shah Rukh Khan

Daniel Radcliffe, the Harry Potter fame

John Travolta and Samuel E. Jackson

and Amitabh Bachchan

The only difference between my rubbing shoulders with the celebrities and Jafri's experience is that Mawi rubs back but those I met in London just stared at me without uttering a single word.

Oh, I forgot, they are not real people but just dummies made of wax on display at London's Madame Tussads. Got you there, ha ha!

Happy weekend folks!

Jasni AJ

Election Fever and Unfair Campaignings

Though election campaigns are yet to start formally but parties interested in the election have actually started them up by utilising the various mediums.

While the Police insist on political parties apply for Police Permits for any election campaigns, that rule does not seem to be applicable to personalities linked to the "previously" ruling party. Why I say "previously" is simply because they are no longer the ruling party ever since the parliament got dissolved. At least this is what I understand by the effect of a parliament dissolution taught by my lecturers back in college those days.

There is an article in The Star today that reaffirmed my understanding on the matter written by Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim. In his article, currently there are no more Yang Berhormats except for those holding positions in the Federal and the various States Caretaker Government.

Dr. Shad Faruqi made a comparison between the practice in Malaysia and those in India and Bangladesh. If at all Malaysia follows the systems implemented in India and Bangladesh, we would be almost be certain not to be forced to listen to "official" propagandas over radio & tv that overly and unshamely making unveiled but direct campaigns for the "previous" ruling government.

Not enough with the super advantage, other platforms are also being used unshamely too. Today, at a PTA Annual General Meeting of a school near my home, the VIP guest turned the event into a BN Election campaign and started to discredit the proposed programmes of the other competing party (namely BA) especially on the "Welfare State" ideology.

While the Police are saying that any election campaign needed a Police Permit, these "official" campaigns can simply be held without one and worst, by making use of government machinery and infrastructure for free.

And this practice is not confined to the local politicians but being the practice of those high ups especially by the No. 1, 2, 3 and so forth. The No. 2 was in Kelantan yesterday, what was he doing there if not campaigning with the new catchword "Tahun Merawat Kelantan" just to redicule the State Government's "Tahun Melawat Kelantan".

I am not against BN or support opposition parties. I don't believe the guys in the oppositon parties can do a better job than the ones in BN. But I'm against unfair practice. The more unfair practices I see, the more turn off I get and this will definately cost those practicing the unfair practices of my valuable votes, one for the parliamentary seat and the other, the state seat.

At the last 11th General Election, I helped arrange for BN candidates to meet the voters at my "Taman" after a hugely turnout PAS meet the voters event was held. But I'm not so sure if I would want to get myself involve this time around as I think BN do not really need of such event as they have the TV and Radio to do the job for them.

I also (with a couple of other friends)hang the BN string small flags along the major roads and junctions at our Taman for free. That's how much I want to make sure that the Taman would not be branded as an opposition's base though there are no branches of any political parties in our small Taman.

Actually, I like it better this way, at least we are more genuinely united, without the political alliances breaking us up.

How I wish the new government that is to be formed after the General Election, which is most probably will continue to be held by the BN, consist of Ministers and MPs who are genuinely working for the interest of the rakyat in mind and not self interest superseeding anything else and besides that no more puppetry judiciary as what it is perceived now.

We'll look forward for this 8th of March 2008. Incidently, we are starting our vacation on that day with a flight to catch at 1.30 noon. So it look like we would have to rush to Wangsa Maju early that morning (as my wife is a registered voter at Wangsa Maju) and quickly get back here to cast my votes for the Sri Muda (State) and Kota Raja (Federal) constituencies.

Happy Voting All.

Jasni AJ

Warded and Discharged

Getting ready to be transported to the Ward Room If only less than a month ago, she was the happiest 11 years old kid, blowing candles and getting birthday presents, it was the opposite last weekend when she was vomiting and crying in pain coupled with having a high fever.

Feared of having an appendix problem and as advised by the GP whom we consulted earlier in the day, we brought our only daughter to SJMC (Subang Jaya Medical Centre)for further checks. Though the MO at the Emergency Unit who attended to her was pretty sure that it was probably not due to an appendix problem based on the preliminary blood and urine tests, she was admitted nevertheless, basically for further observations and checks.

So there she was, at SJMC for the past two days. And so thus the Mother, staying by her side on a lazy chair.

Fortunately, SJMC provides free Wi-Fi facilities, so the Mother can just continue doing her work online and from the Hospital.

Thank God, there was nothing serious, just some infections that had disturbed her body systems. She was almost back to normal last night and this afternoon, she was discharged accordingly. Thank you to all the Medical team at SJMC for the great care given to our daughter.

In the Ward Room
Incidentally, this is my first time using the Prudential Medical Card for admitting her. In fact, this is the very first time of using the Medical Card as none of us had been admitted to ward ever since we took up the Medical Insurance policies (from none other than my brother, Jazlan) Though I'm yet to know whether I would still need to pay anything, as she was allowed to be discharged without settling the bill (though they still have my deposit credit card charge slip with them), getting things done via insurance medical policy seems to be very smooth. I'm glad that we had made the decision to take up medical insurance policies for everyone in the family. I would be more than glad if it is confirmed that I would not need to pay anything later.

And so tomorrow, everything will be back to normal, the daughter will be going back to school and both the parents can go to work uninterrupted.

Jasni AJ

More Eating Out : Kedai Kopi

While others might had headed to places like Dataran Merdeka or KLCC Park to usher the New Year 2008, the J&Fs Bunch had our own way of ushering the year. We just headed to another favourite "makan place" to witness the "last sunset" cum "last dinner" of the year at one of our favourite "makan" place.

We were at Kedai Kopi, a nice and cosy open-air eatery strategically located just besides the Shah Alam Lake.
With sounds of the man-made waterfall uplifting the cosiness of the place, the "makan" experience at this particular place is simply fantastic, both for its ambiance and the food it serves.

So what did we had for the New Year's Eve Dinner? Here they are, complete with the Bunch's rating.

Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread. Rating : 4 over 5. Creamy and tasteful
Fish & Chips. Rating 4.5 over 5. Yummy yummy
Fried Koay Teow. Rating 4.5 over 5. Also yummy yummy
Kampung Fried Rice. Rating 3.5 over 5. "Sedap dan menyelerakan!"

Lamb Chop. Rating 3.5 over 5. Delicious but served in quite a small portion.

Read here and here for more reviews of Kedai Kopi. You will definitely be glad visiting the place. Trust me.

Jom Jalan-jalan Cari Makan

Jasni AJ