As early as 1961 when I began my teaching career
in Singapore, I start my mornings doing two things: don’t listen to morning news broadcast and
start the day with the cartoon page in the dailies. Getting a dose
of negative news isn’t my way of starting the day well, so why not have a good
laugh before setting out on a new day – teaching.
I got my first taste of socio-political cartoon
with SunTan in AsiaWeek. Then, along came our most affable and much-loved Kampung
Boy, LAT. We met every Thursday at Coliseum over gallons of beers and mirth – a
most agreeable combination…..burp….! Today I still miss the bloke!
I do not read the cartoon pages now because we
boycotted our Government newsletters since 2007. At one of our forums on NO BUY
NO LIES, I was amused when Kadir Jasin told me he continues to buy the papers
because he had to house-train his cats at home!
Today, as a blogger I spice my postings with the contributions from Zunar and Johnny Ong frequently. They recently launched CAEF
– cartoonist against electoral fraud. I like Zunar’s punch line in his speech
when he was awarded the CRNI "Courage in Editorial Cartooning"
recently – WHY PINCH WHEN YOU CAN PUNCH. However,
these two do not pull any punches. They dare to push
the limits of tolerance! YOU TOO CAN IF YOU SUPPORT THEIR PUBLICATIONS. MAKE
YOUR STAND BESIDE THEM.
Zorro,
ReplyDeleteCan you please inform Dato Sak that his blog is TOTALLY inaccessible for the past few days? TQVM.
anonymous 2.18, try save the articles' link in pocket thru 'read later' ...
ReplyDeleteA video tribute to Najib:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeBF6lUl5P4
Mengapa saya pilih jalan raya? - Adam Adli
ReplyDeleteTahun 1997 dan 1998 tentu sekali tahun penting dalam lipatan sejarah Negara kita kerana pada tahun itulah kita menyaksikan mobilisasi manusia yang disifatkan paling besar pernah berlaku dalam sejarah moden tanah air. Dari situ saya mengenali jalan raya sebagai medium sebenar menyampaikan suara dan isi hati rakyat yang setiap satunya mungkin tidak pernah pun merasai sejuk hawa dingin bangunan Parlimen mahupun Putrajaya. Saya masih ingat, ayah saya juga antara demonstran tegar ketika itu. Setiap pagi Sabtu beliau pasti akan turun ke kota. Dengan hanya berkemeja-t dan berseluar jeans, dengan motosikal buruknya beliau akan ke sana. Pernah saya mohon untuk bersama, tapi dihalang beliau. Katanya bahaya.
Lebih kurang sepuluh tahun kemudian, saya mula kenal jalan raya. Bermula dengan demonstrasi menuntut hak air rakyat Selangor, segala persoalan mengapa ayah saya turun ke tengah kota hampir setiap minggu sepuluh tahun lalu terjawab.
Di tengah-tengah keringat ribuan manusia, saya seorang diri asalnya. Saya tidak kenal langsung siapa yang berada di situ. Usai demonstrasi tersebutlah baru saya kenal beberapa rakan baru yang kini bersama dalam satu barisan bernama Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia. Saya masih ingat, ketika itu, berdepan dengan trak FRU, sebagai "first timer", logiknya pasti saya memilih barisan paling ke belakang sekali. Namun entah dari mana saya dapat keberanian untuk menjadi benteng hadapan. Sekali lagi diulangi, saya hadir seorang diri tanpa rakan yang dikenali. Namun aneh, saya tidak pula rasa keseorangan. Dengan bergandingan bahu bersama beberapa anak muda mahasiswa yang lain, kami berdepan dengan tembakan water-cannon. Kami tidak berganjak dari tempat kami. Sehingga akhirnya diserang oleh anggota keselamatan barulah kami mula mangambil langkah berundur. Itu antara kenangan yang masih saya simpan.
Saya menemui jawapan terhadap mengapa harus turun ke jalan raya apabila saya sendiri turun ke jalan raya.
Andai kata tiada protes jalanan, mahukah semua pihak; kerajaan, pembangkang, media, akademia,imam surau, tok siak, sami, paderi, nelayan, petani, buruh, tukang masak, suri rumah, malah pelajar sendiri ambil perhatian terhadap isu-isu yang dibawa? Tidak kiralah samada BEBAS, BERSIH, GMA, PPSMI, ISA, Anti-Lynas, HIMPUN, OccupyDataran dan sebagainya. Demonstrasi, protes, himpunan, dan jalan raya kini terbukti sebagai medium terbaik dalam menyampai suara dan keringat masyarakat. Pada yang masih memandang jalan raya sebagai cara tidak bertamadun dan merosakkan ketenteraman awam, anda perlu muhasabah diri. Tanya kepada diri anda, adakah suara anda yang mengutuk demonstran ini didengari? Jika tidak, apa yang anda mahu buat? Mungkin anda harus cuba turun ke jalan raya juga.
UMNO never seemed to be able to get over the GE. They won, yet they are still unhappy and had been creating one ruckus after another. It just showed how immature its people are!
ReplyDeleteAll these UMNO linked NGO's don't think too much or can see the bigger picture! They think they can easily call for a boycott and the Malays will come running to their support. Can't they see for real the election result was not a Chinese tsunami but a rural urban divide?
And the people who supported PR will not probably support those NGO's calls for boycott! Later it will look more like a PR vs BN trade war and BN is in the minority!
And those in the city centre certainly has more purchasing power than those in the rural areas and if the boycott really materializes, it will end up hurting BN more! Sit up and think rationally, UMNO, and act responsibly as the party that is governing!
Stop the racists taunts, all these boycotts nonsense, as it makes you look so small in the eyes of the citizens and the international community!
Pakatan Harapan Rakyat!
Umno will play racial politics with anything and everything. Therefore it is no surprise that the dim-witted so-called minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs, Hasan Malek 'defended the right of the right-wing groups to express their dissatisfaction through a boycott'. What a statement from a party which avidly practices the denial of basic rights to the general public! Hasan is merely an empty vessel being fed soundbites from the background by opportunistic hypocrites who see an opening to salvage lost Malay support through the propagation of base racist sentiments and actions. BUT it will not work this time or any time in the future. Many Malays have seen the light and are not prepared to be led by their noses and that too by bigoted and corrupt occupants of an illegitimate and fraudulent regime.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous 2.18pm - Datuk Saks blog can be reached at
ReplyDeletehttp://sakmongkol.blogspot.ru/
Just change .com to .ru to get around the MCMC block. Cheers!
At present all retirees and pensioners (Uncle Bernard inclusive) who have no income do not have to pay taxes (direct tax based on income) and the revenue of the country is supported by the income earning Malaysians. However, with the GST these pensioners will have to start to pay tax, no difference to the next rich neighbours as we all pay GST taxes when we purchase goods. So the poor and the pensioners who in the past never have to pay taxes are now required to do so – that is unless they don’t eat or buy products.
ReplyDeleteWhen Anwar was sacked in 1998,Zahid made a lot of protests and a very supporter to Anwar to the point he was demoted from the Mahathir's view.Later he turn over to support Mahathir Goverment because supporting Anwar then was betting a losing horse.By now everyone should know what kind of this person Zahid is.
ReplyDelete