Found this on Facebook:
Interestingly, for as long as we carried mobile phones (which was pretty much as long as we were together) my entry in the phone book was the same; "Jeannie". By the way, I still maintain her phone number and every once in a while the kids get funked when "Mummy" shows up as "caller" on their phones!
As A Man Thinketh, The Woman Doeth? ;o)
The man has passed on and the hullabaloo about his ashes, a subject of heated political and social debate. The question is simply whether to allow his ashes to be brought back to Malaysia; yes or no? For me, the many who shout their views label themselves into only two categories. Magnanimous or otherwise. Their opinion on the matter profiles them. Forget about legal issues; there are none.
I have blogged at length about Chin Peng at least thrice ("I Remember...", "They Remember..." and "He Remembered...") before. History belongs to the victor and no matter how big or small a mark we leave behind, in the end we are each just making our own journey in this world as individual mortal beings. Chin Peng was the same and it is evidenced by his farewell message below. He took comfort in his children and his parting words were, "... I wish to be remembered simply as a good man who could tell the world that he had dared to spend his entire life in pursuit of his own ideals...".
Chin Peng's Farewell Letter:
“My dear Comrades, my dear Compatriots,
When you read this letter, I am no more in this world.
It was my original intention to pass away quietly and let my relatives handle the funeral matters in private. However, the repercussions of erroneous media reports of me in critical condition during October 2011, had persuaded me that leaving behind such a letter is desirable.
Ever since I joined the Communist Party of Malaya and eventually became its secretary-general, I have given both my spiritual and physical self in the service of the cause that my party represented, that is, to fight for a fairer and better society based on socialist ideals. Now with my passing away, it is time that my body be returned to my family.
I draw immense comfort in the fact that my two children are willing to take care of me, a father who could not give them family love, warmth and protection ever since their birth. I could only return my love to them after I had relinquished my political and public duties, ironically only at a time when I have no more life left to give to them as a father.
It was regrettable that I had to be introduced to them well advanced in their adulthood as a stranger. I have no right to ask them to understand, nor to forgive. They have no choice but to face this harsh reality. Like families of many martyrs and comrades, they too have to endure hardship and suffering not out of their own doing, but out of a consequence of our decision to challenge the cruel forces in the society which we sought to change.
It is most unfortunate that I couldn't, after all, pay my last respects to my parents buried in hometown of Sitiawan (in Perak), nor could I set foot on the beloved motherland that my comrades and I had fought so hard for against the aggressors and colonialists.
My comrades and I had dedicated our lives to a political cause that we believed in and had to pay whatever price there was as a result. Whatever consequences on ourselves, our family and the society, we would accept with serenity.
In the final analysis, I wish to be remembered simply as a good man who could tell the world that he had dared to spend his entire life in pursuit of his own ideals to create a better world for his people.
It is irrelevant whether I succeeded or failed, at least I did what I did. Hopefully the path I had walked on would be followed and improved upon by the young after me. It is my conviction that the flames of social justice and humanity will never die.
Farewell, my dear Comrades!
Farewell, my dear Compatriots!
Farewell, my dear Motherland!”
Krystyn was in Singapore/JB on an assignment for a few days. Her two Shih Tzus Fudge and Toffee were visibly pining for her after the first two days. They sleep with her on her bed! Prince, their father on the other hand was his usual "take charge" self trying to call the shots on their food/water replenishment, dinner and sleeping times, morning toilet calls, etc., etc. He sleeps in his own basket beside my bed as he has been doing since he came to Jeannie years ago.
Since Krystyn was not around we decided to allow her two Shih Tzu to sleep in my room but with the door open so that they were free to loiter around upstairs.
At 3.40 am on the night before Krystyn was due to return I woke up to find Fudge on the landing looking down the stairway. I took this photo with my phone, WhatsApp it to Krystyn and went back to sleep:
Then, at about 5.10 am the same night I woke up to find Prince in exactly the same spot and posture as Fudge was earlier. I reached for my phone to take a photo and when I pointed it, Prince had moved. He is canny in very inexplicable ways. The following is the shot taken seconds after I took my phone:
Notice the wispy figure between the grill and the wicker basket. I know for a fact that it was not Fudge nor Toffee because they were in my room! Sure looks like another Shih Tzu to me! Also, the dogs were behaving unusually earlier and were suddenly barking down the stairs on a few occasions.
Could it have been Chili, the departed mother of Fudge and Toffee?
The last Springbok victory over All Blacks in Eden Park was in 1937. Looks like they have to wait a while longer. This match in the 2013 Rugby Championship was brutal; blood and gore stuff!
Familiar?
- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
- What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
- The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
- You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
- When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Yesterday Mahathir accused Anwar of complicity in the Project IC Debacle. Much has come to pass in the last 16 years since they were working hand in glove.
After Mahathir retired and when "Sleepy In Putrajaya" Pak Lah was PM, many of us (friends and foe) were united in one common cause...get rid of Pak Lah. This gathering at Bloghouse in July, 2008 attracted a mixed but interesting crowd and personalities.
I took this historic photo below and apparently it was the first time Marina Mahathir had personally met Nurul Izzah. If only the fathers can be more like their daughters.
