First Time Voter

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is prepared to offer RM500 to ANY PERSON in a congregation who brings in the highest number of FIRST TIME VOTER registrations.

Another RM500 will be given to the CHURCH with the highest number of FIRST TIME VOTER registrations.

Please inform CCM of your registrations. The CCM EXCO will decide the winner.

Dateline: 31st August 2007.

It is a small token but a positive step to encourage all Christians to exercise their right to vote. Thanks to our resident devil's advocate at Total Truth study group, YJ, I was alerted to the DPM's opinion on "Is Malaysia a secular state"? It reminds me of a thoughtful book review by Kian Ming back in 2004, hope that it would help us to think through this crucial issue as we approach the 50th anniversary of Merdeka!

Insight into the Malaysian constitution <<<< Read the book review here

Mon Jan 5, 2004

Review by Ong Kian Ming

MALAYSIAN CONSTITUTION: A Critical Introduction

By Abdul Aziz Bari

Publisher: The Other Press

250 pages

Tags: Malaysian Constitution, First Time Voter, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Secular State, Malaysia, Merdeka, CCM, Council of Churches of Malaysia, Ong Kian Ming, Church

FA President - A Coward?

I'm really not surprised to read that the Sultan of Pahang wanted to stay put as the President of Football Association of Malaysia despite the resignations of the Deputy President (helmed by his son), General Secretary (Ibrahim Saad, a politician too) and a Council Member (Khairy Jamaluddin - son-in-law of Malaysia's Prime Minister and a Deputy Youth Head of the ruling party).

From the abovenamed persons, they are either royalty members or politicians. Please replace them with professional managers or former great footballers.

The Sultan of Pahang even said this as reported in the Sun newspaper when he was asked why he decided to stay put in which the Sultan replied: "I'm not a coward. I'm not going to bow to public outcry."

Who said that you were a COWARD if you were to resign. Can you see the type of mentality that such royalty members or politicians will have if they continue to hold such high positions in sports association. They considered that it's a total humiliation if you resign, admitting that you were the party to be blamed and their ego is too high to accept such resignation as a way out. He had been holding that President post for the last 23 years......can you believe that? And yet, still wants to hold on to it. That was almost the same time we, Malaysia, last qualified for any major football competition.

Colleagues reading the newspaper statement by the Sultan of Pahang really laughed out. Most were frustrated with the display by the national football team. And the Sultan of Pahang, aged 77 now, could be going a bit senile with the public outcry/pressure. He even called for an "overhaul" of the association and conduct an inquiry into the national team's performance.

What inquiry? Everyone knew about the problems except him. Please stop the play acting and just quit will you! There's nothing to inquire about when the players selected were already the best as chosen from the local league. The issue is not the players.

For once, I will stand by a gahmen minister and that's the Sports Minister, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said. She quoted the following:-

* The state FAs must look at themselves in the mirror because the FAM can set the policies but if not carried out or implemented by the states, then they are also to be blamed.

* Some state FA heads or officials have been holding on to their posts for too long without any significant contribution towards the development of football in the country and they should make way for new energetic young professionals.

First, overhaul the football association by resigning en bloc especially the royalty members and politicians if you guys really care for the national football team. It makes no difference whether there is a management team or not for the next few months. My 2 cents!
Tags: Sports, Football, Soccer, Malaysia, Sultan of Pahang, Football Association of Malaysia, FAM, Azalina Othman Said, Sports Minister, Ibrahim Saad, Khairy Jamaluddin

How to Fix a Jammed HP Printer

Friends who knew I have a blog have contributed a lot to my postings on various subjects. For instance, instructions to fix a HP printer.

Firstly, shooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuut for H E L P ! ! !
Then call everyone in your office to ask whether they knew how to fix a jammed printer.
Being a nice guy, I would have offered my help if I was there. Definitely, there would be some ladies who wouldn't mind helping too.

BUT...... when the colleagues arrrived at her place.........almost everyone had second thoughts. It's not that the printer was beyond repair but.. but.. but.. a mouse got stucked in printer catridge.

Friend said "He's not dead but he's sure stuck. We do end up getting him out and letting him loose for those of you that are mouse lovers. How would you like to get to work and find this problem? LOL, it's NOT hilarious!"
I'm only thinking what if a lady colleague of mine had taken this catridge out and saw that tiny guy. That catridge would have been flung faaaaaaaaaar away and am real sure that it would break the national discus throwing record too.

Tags: Hewlett Packard, Hewlett Packard Printer, Printer, HP LaserJet, HP, Mouse

Come Apart and Rest A While

According to tradition, the apostle John had a hobby raising pigeons. On one occasion a fellow church leader who was returning from a hunting trip stopped by John's place and found him playing with one of his birds and gently corrected him for wasting his time.

John, noticing his friend's hunting bow, said that the string was loose whereupon the man replied, "Yes, I always loosen the string of my bow when it's not in use. If it stayed tight, it would lose its resilience and fail me in the hunt."

"And I am now relaxing the bow of my mind," said John, "so that I may be better able to shoot the arrows of divine truth."

Work is important. We need to eat and we need to take care of our family, but over-busyness can be a curse. Without sufficient rest and relaxation we will eventually lose our health and not be able to work efficiently. And without taking time to nurture and be nurtured in loving relationships, life becomes empty and meaningless.

We need to follow the advice of Jesus when he said to his disciples, "Come apart and rest a while." Or as somebody else put it, "Come apart and rest a while before you come apart."
~ Author Unknown ~
Tags: Inspiration, Thoughts, Christianity

State of Malaysian Football

I still could recall my numerous trips to Merdeka Stadium, watching and supporting the Selangor state team or even Malaysia in those Merdeka Cup tournaments. How proud was I of the teams I had supported.

Well, gone were the days of those memorable wins over South Korea and Japan. Now this 2 nations have taken the world by storm even with their own local leagues respectively.

Minnows like Philippines, Laos and Vietnam were whipping boys for Malaysia in the yesteryears but it's a total different story nowadays. Today, these 3 teams stand an equal chance of beating Malaysia on their good days. Vietnam, even though football league is corrupted internally, is well above Malaysia's standards.

Why? It will be hard as long as Malaysia do not revamp how their football teams were being managed. Not that I knew lots about it but the fact where royalty members and chief ministers holding on to the highly ranked positions is good enough. What the heck do they know about football? All they care about is their own ego. Do you see any British royal family members holding any post in the English FA or in any of the English football clubs? They should as they are world class but they didn't.

What developments did our royalty members/chief ministers brought for Malaysian football after all these years and that too, dumping hundreds of millions into it and the results were getting trashed by China (5-1) - China hammer co-hosts Malaysia and Uzbekistan (5-0) Uzbeks trounce sorry Malaysia in the on-going AFC Asian Cup 2007. Another trashing by Iran in the last group match? The headline could be "Iran was more at home than Malaysia".

As long as the football management was not done professionally, Malaysia will continue to drop down the world rankings. Who bothers anyway even if it goes up. Rumours surfaced that even the New Economic Policy played a part for the downfall of Malaysian football. What? How is that so? Well, by limiting the participation of certain race or ensuring a certain percentage for a particular race was there at all times. This is not football !!!!

If you are asking where does Malaysia's football future lies ahead then that's the wrong question to ask. You should ask "When are we getting professional football management back into the system?"

A friend in the local football management once told me, that the main reason for those royalty members/chief ministers helming top football management positions was because they were able to source for sponsorships easily. Meaning to say, the rest of the management teams were not doing their work at all for having to rely on only the top person to source such sponsorships.

The Football Association of Malaysia's Deputy President, the son of the Sultan of Pahang, has tendered his resignation due to Malaysia's poor results in the Asian Cup. Would say that he should have tendered donkey years ago as Malaysian football was in doldrums all these years, not recently.

I'm waiting for his father (Sultan of Pahang) to do the same, resign as President of FAM. He has been holding this position for decades. Please do justice to the state of our Malaysian football. And also from the state teams please, each and everyone of you royal family members and chief ministers. It's the same scenario for all the sports association in Malaysia.

This blog posting may not be read by the people concerned and FAM won't be bothered at all. But generally out there, who's talking about it during chit chats or while lepaking at mamak stalls. For that matter, some people who have received free tickets from sponsors, were not even bothered to go for those matches especially when it involved the national team. As for those who went, they were there to see how China whacked Malaysia instead of supporting Malaysia (hehehe....they were not bookies in knowing that China will win but everyone could have guessed the result, only the scoreline).

Malaysia still Boleh?
Tags: Sports, Football, Soccer, Malaysia, Sultan of Pahang, Football Association of Malaysia, FAM, Asian Cup, English FA

Benefits of Night Classes

Ah Beng went to take night courses with the reasoning in future can get promotion or better job. During work, Ah Beng likes to show off to Ah Seng about his knowledge.

Ah Beng: Ah Seng ah... I've been taking night courses for 3 months already, next week is the exam.

• Ah Seng: Oh... Good luck ah.
• Then Ah Beng started show off...
• Ah Beng: Ok, I test you, who is Graham Bell?
• Ah Seng: Don't know
• Ah Beng: He is the inventor of phone la... in 1876, see... if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ........................ *speechless*

The next day, Ah Beng shows off again...

• Ah Beng: Ah Seng ah... let me ask you, who is Jean Jacques Rousseau?
• Ah Seng: Wash your toilet one ah?
• Ah Beng: No! He's the author of "Confessions", nah nah nah... told you already, if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ......................... *speechless + frustrated*

The next day, once again...

• Ah Beng: Do you know who is Alexander Dumas?
• Ah Seng: Your gay partner?
• Ah Beng: Choiii!!! If you don't know don't simply answer la. He's the author of "The 3 Musketeers", if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ....................... *speechless + frustrated + irritated

This time Ah Seng cannot tahan (stand) anymore and ask Ah Beng...

• Ah Seng: Eh... Do you know who is Ah Kaw?
• Ah Beng: Errrr... No!
• Ah Seng: He's the guy sleeping with your wife!! If you stop night courses, you would know this!!
• Ah Beng: ........................ *fainted*

Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humour, Night Class, Graham Bell, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Alexander Dumas, Ah Beng

Michelin's Tennis Shoes

Michelin - famous for its tyres manufactured for cars and especially those in Formula 1. Michelin has now embarked on a new venture where they transferred their technology in motor racing know-how into a revolutionary sole for tennis shoe. This was in collaboration with Babolat, the world leader in competition rackets and racket stringing.

Andy Roddick, the USA tennis player, has been wearing this newly designed shoes since Jan 2007, named Babolat Propulse.

The uniqueness of the tennis shoes:-
The sole is equipped with the OCS (Optimized Cell System) technology originally designed by Michelin for the World Rally Championships (WRC). The blend of rubber offers 40% greater resistance to abrasion and thermo-abrasion than other shoes on the market (according to tests carried out in March 2006 by an independent laboratory, the Centre Technique de la Chaussure, which compared the Propulse to a sample group of shoes in the same price range). The oblong-shaped tread of the sole improves slowing down, acceleration and sliding, just as for a racing car! The sole's curved geometry and the variation of its ridges and hollows prevent the appearance of cracks and make it possible to adapt grip to the type of surface of play, thus varying the sole's grip according to whether the player is on hard, dry or slippery ground. Babolat, for its part, has combined this special formulation of rubber with Exact Pro technology, a system of dynamic propulsion located beneath the forefoot, which optimises lateral movements when running.
Tags: Michelin, Michelin Tyre, Babolat, Babolat Propulse, Tennis Shoes, Andy Roddick