如此就是虔誠信教？

某华裔流动小贩向来在邻镇卖包点和豆浆。近来也来到此地做生意。才经营两三日，市议会和宗教局就派员来，谓此地以穆斯林为众，故此地禁卖一切非清真食物。 该小贩为此因而无端接罚单。

原来穆斯林为众，就可剥夺非穆斯林享用非清真食品的饮食权。

此等人学宗教，越学越昏沉，穆圣回生，必拿戒尺敲醒之。这尚为小 事，若是大事如回教法等，由此等人来负责执法，非穆斯林岂不歹哉？

Fahaman Yang Salah Tentang Atheist

Saya mendapati bahawa sesetengah orang tidak berapa faham apa maksud sebanar Atheist. Mereka anggap orang yang tidak suka/percaya kepada agama adalah golongan Atheist. Fahaman ini adalah tidak betul.

Atheist pun ada kepercayaan. Kepercayaan mereka adalah Evolution, Science dan Tiada Tuhan.

Terdapat juga orang yang mempercayai kepada Tuhan dan Nabi-Nabi. Mereka berpendapat bahawa agama itu ciptaan pengikut Nabi-Nabi demi kepentingan mereka sendiri. Kadang kala mereka saja mahukan kuasa. Nabi-nabi saja ingin menunjuk jalan ke kebenaran tetapi Nabi-nabi tidak pernah hendak mencipta agama yang bersifat Institutional. Kita tidak sepatutnya memanggil orang seperti ini sebagai Atheist. Mereka masih percaya kepada Tuhan.

舊街場白咖啡 Old Town White Coffee @ BU8

旧街场白咖啡售卖的都是经典的本地食物，如烤面包、椰浆饭等等。

论食物，旧街场白咖啡肯定是不错。至于价格，自然会比街边所售卖的贵。旧街场白咖啡卖的可说都是环境。与其­他类似的新式咖啡店比较，旧街场咖啡店的环境实在算是很高贵了。

为旧街场白咖啡店设计内部装潢的人看得出都很有功夫。论色彩，黄金色引人注目，而且非常高贵。然後每间旧街­场皆有挂上写着"旧街场"的牌匾，而且还特地安装黄色灯光照射之，凸显该品牌。

这 间旧街场白咖啡更加特别。隔壁就是联昌银行了。周日午间，联昌银行的顾客到此处办事，若需要等候，可以在­旧街场白咖啡处坐下点一杯"白咖啡"配烤面包半 生熟鸡蛋来打发时间。或者可在办完事後先享受一下冰咖啡配暹­罗米粉等小食才去下一站。或者顾客若还未用正膳，可在这里点招牌的炸鸡椰浆饭等吃。

至 于我本人，则是在下班後来此处"休息"一番才回家。若是六点之前到达此处，还来得及点三点至六点才有的"­下午茶配套"。下午茶配套比正餐配套便宜多了， 区区四元就可吃到烤面包和咖啡乌。不过，旧街场时常更换配套­以给顾客耳目一新的感觉。所以每隔数月，我就发现配套内容和价格又不一样了。

至 于旧街场白咖啡的正餐，我最爱的还是海南鸡排饭。其海南鸡排做得实在很好，裹上了鸡蛋粉才炸，所以吃鸡排­时可吃到很香的炸鸡蛋粉。然後炸鸡派的酱料又做 得很香甜多汁，这酱料拿来送饭简直是一流。何况旧街场给的还­是油饭，很不错。同样十多元一餐，我宁愿吃这道海南鸡排饭多于吃炸鸡椰浆饭。当然，其炸鸡椰 浆饭不仅仅有炸­鸡而已，旧街场不是路边摊，不会吝啬提供慢慢的花生和江鱼仔等。

至于咖啡乌和白咖啡，旧街场可算是国内第一家推出白咖啡的新式咖啡店。其咖啡乌和白咖啡的品质实在一流。喜­欢海南咖啡的人绝对不会对其咖啡失望。喜欢欧美式花俏咖啡的人则另当别论了。

My thought on Brains v Brawn: Why UMNO can't match LKY

This is the original article.

And here is my response:

Lee Kuan Yew himself is an intellectial as well. Don't forget that he grad from Cambridge during 50s. Our past and current PM could not match him in terms of academic achievement. 

Lee's political ideology is the Confucius kind, to rule the country with Elites or scholars. (background: China is the earliest country that took public servants by public examination at multiple levels, as early as 500AC).

As for Lee, I guess he wanted to make himself as close to emperor as possible. In the end he did not. He is excellent and that's why abit arrogant.

強迫入教并無效

这两日上培训课。师为某已达耳顺之年的华裔女穆斯林。她本非穆斯林，因嫁马来人而入教。

两日来，她偶尔言及私事，透露爱好禅修的信息，还曾跟随某印度籍心灵导师作心灵之旅。

在本国，穆斯林修禅可被视为叛教之举，惟师之伴侣似乎对其修禅不甚在意。可见本国政府强迫婚姻改教，并无法使改教者成为真正穆斯林，信仰真主和穆圣之道，反倒令其徒有穆斯林之虚名而已矣。

New Generation of Modern Chinese Malaysian

I came across a Facebook post of a friend's friend as follows:

I lecture in different private colleges/universities that are predominantly run by Chinese and attend by Chinese. But in one such institution I have the privilege to teach a group of MARA scholars. This group of MARA students, many of them came from not so rich family and to be able to get scholarship to go to the US to further their studies is a great opportunity that they wouldn't have if they are left alone without any government assistance. 

Now I am not here to talk about NEP or Bumiputra rights or racial discrimination etc. What I want to point out is the attitude these MARA students have compare to the group of Chinese students who come from a wealthy background. These MARA students are serious with their studies because if they don't get the grades required, they will lose their scholarship. They are diligent, hardworking, attend my class regularly, and do their work without complaining. Because of their religious up bringing, they respect me as their lecturer and elder and they produce quality work. 

Come back to the Chinese students, because they don't really need to maintain a certain grade point average (their parents will be there to support them no matter what) plus growing up in a well to do family, they basically behave like the world has owe them everything. They complain just because the lecturer refuses to give them one extra mark for them to get an "A" (which they don't really deserve one), produce mediocre work, missing classes, and rude to lecturer (I guess may be their parents allow them to answer them back rudely).

I have two points here. Whatever the scholarship or financial assistance the government is giving to the Malays, they are generally (notice I say generally) given to well deserve Malay students. And it is a joy to have them in my class. 

As for the Chinese students in my class, many of them are good students and really enjoy having them in my class. 

But many of them are also spoiled to the bones. I don't blame them. I blame it on their parents. I have no idea why modern Malaysian Chinese parents have totally lost control of their children. They are so afraid of offending their children and saying "no" or "cannot" is something absolutely haram in their children upbringing. And their children can do no wrong; it is the lecturer or the college is the one who is in the wrong, abusing their children. After all, they pay to come to the institution.
My colleague and I were discussing the above issue this morning. I told her that I am concerned because we are growing old. One day, these students with this kind of attitude will take over the country and I wonder I will be taken care of at my old age...but I do see rays of hope in our MARA scholars...Insy-Allah.

My opinion is as follows:

Religious upbringing makes the difference. Many modern Chinese families don't really stress much on religion teachings. 

Ancient Chinese were very well mannered due to strong Confucianism background but modern Chinese completely abandoned Confucianism(since early twentieth century) and they have nothing(or money) to fill in the blank and here's the result.

If you study the Peranakan, you'll find Peranakan are generally very well mannered because they still retain some of Confucianism rituals and rites.