Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had dinner with a large group of international journalists at The Fullerton Hotel, to speak about his plans for his country one year after he took office.

He acknowledged the problems and major issues being faced by Malaysia and explained to the 110-strong audience what he would be doing to resolve these.

Another Malaysian visitor was lawyer, writer and PR consultant Karim Raslan who met a smaller group, mostly journalists from Singapore Press Holdings, at its Toa Payoh office. Mr Karim, who has been based in Indonesia in the last 10 years, spoke of why he thought Indonesia is poised for growth and a bigger role in Asean and on the world stage.

I attended both these sessions last Tuesday and Wednesday, and, as a Singaporean, came away feeling good about the region. Of course, this was before the big bust-up involving the Red Shirts and the army in Bangkok over the weekend.

For me, there is nothing more worrying for Singapore and Singaporeans than seeing our neighbours wobble with uncertainty over political and/or economic issues.

For Singapore as a country, a stable Malaysia and Indonesia would exude confidence in their bilateral dealings.

True enough, there are a host of outstanding bilateral issues with the two countries, but it would be wrong indeed to say — like some in the two countries do from time to time — that Singapore wishes them ill.

Many Singaporeans have relatives there. And stable neighbours make for good investment and holiday destinations, if nothing else.

PM NAJIB
I HAVE, over the years, listened to Datuk Seri Najib speak from the podium. These were usually his annual speeches as Umno vice-president, then deputy president and then as its president.

But last week was the first time I heard him speaking as Numero Uno of Malaysia. He had struggled in his first few months after former premier Abdullah Badawi was forced to step down by his own party. But today, he said, he is more confident about what he wanted for the country.
 
Most of us have heard of his 1Malaysia racial unity slogan, his Government Transformation Programme to improve the civil service, and the six National Key Result Areas like reducing crime and improving urban transport.

And then there was the New Economic Model that would roll back the 40-year pro-Malay policy that has caused much angst among some Malays.

In that dinner speech, PM Seri Najib laid out why he mooted these slogans, which, for sure, have not quite yet been understood on the ground and even within Umno.

To me, the takeaway from his half-hour speech and an hour of questions from the floor was this:

• He presented clearly what he wanted to do with the country.
• He said he has the prescriptions. These would not just make the fund managers and big investors happy, but also the 'rakyat biasa' (small people).

The things that he had done in the last year included building 40,000 low-cost houses and 900 new kindergartens. And street crime, which atttracted all the wrong headlines for Malaysia in the last few years, was down 7.6 per cent in the last quarter of last year, compared to the same period before.

At the end of the dinner, you might have thought that Malaysia is in quite a shambles today, but this man has a plan.  And on paper, at least, the plan looks good. Let's hope he can carry this out.

The big question for top Malaysian politicians is always the same.
Great details, but does he have the political will to carry this out? Will he be able to tame the sceptics and those holding out within his own party, for starters?

Well, we will find out over the coming months and years.

BAPAK KARIM
THE writer of the 'Ceritalah' series of books was also in good form. Bapak Karim's speech and Q&A session were for full reporting, and he was quite candid in his assessments of Indonesia and its leaders.

Being a writer about the 'wong cilik' (small people), he gave great examples of what he has seen in his decade in Indonesia.

One example I liked was this: He said that in Surabaya 10 years ago, not long after the Asian economic crisis and race riots that toppled Suharto, the streets used to be dark at night and filled with preman (thugs).

Walking the same streets today, he sees them littered with lighted supermarkets and freshly-painted shop fronts with large glass windows installed. There are even flower beds with real flowers in them — and the plants have not been stolen by street ruffians!

All these, he said, are strong signals that things have really improved and that people have confidence for the future.

He praised sky high, the presence of Vice-President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in the Cabinet. Many people outside the country feel the same way, because they are major reform figures in a country well known for KKN, korupsi, kolusi dan nepotisme — corruption, collusion and nepotism.

And yes, like me, he wondered aloud why President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono too often hesitates when dealing with major issues that could weaken his position. 

Bapak Karim's own take was that this was due to the President's Javanese upbringing that stresses harmonious relations.

After watching Malaysia's weak former PM Abdullah, I am not so sure. Tun Abdullah is not Javanese.

Like Tun Abdullah, President Yudhoyono could simply be a super-cautious leader who would rather sleep over an issue, rather than make quick decisions to douse problems.

Overall, Bapak Karim is bullish about Indonesia. As bullish as the Jakarta stock market and the rupiah that have recently hit new highs.

Indonesia also has a big advantage over its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia.

The island of 17,000 islands is not a major exporting country, unlike Singapore and Malaysia, and the advantage was seen during last year's global economic crisis.

While exporting countries suffered badly as exports waned, Indonesia continued its steady growth because most of the goods it produces are consumed by its 230-million population.

The takeaway from the talk: If you want to invest in Indonesia, now is the time.

It has stable politics and this should continue nicely as the baton is passed to the next generation of leaders in the 2014 general elections. The Indonesia President, by constitution, must step down after two terms.

While Singapore and Malaysia are quite built up in their infrastructure like roads, power plants, housing units and telecommunications, Indonesia needs lots more of these.

The middle-class citizens of Indonesia - the world's fourth-biggest country in terms of population - is also a group growing fast.

Of course, one has to take into account the fact that Indonesia has a high level of corruption, Bapak Karim said. But he sees things improving for the better.

PLAYING CHESS, GOING TO JAIL
THAT Indonesia is more complex than Malaysia was explained in this terms: The speaker said that in Malaysia, you play chess facing an opponent with one board.

In Indonesia, the same game is played on three different levels, and the chess pieces can go up as well as down.

And if they don't like the game, they would just throw away the board and ask to start again.

The audience had a good laugh over that one! And then Bapak Karim said something that snapped me awake during the post-lunch talk.

He said that unlike Malaysia, where he knew many top political leaders, things operate differently in Indonesia when it comes to corruption.

In the post-Suharto era, corruption is still widespread but when the proverbial excrement hits the fan, corrupt politicians, officials and businessmen do get sent to jail.

From my own observations, the clamour by the Indonesian public plus the free local media, would push authorities to do something.

I thought of several examples:

• Antasari Azhar, chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission, KPK, was in February sentenced to 18 years in jail for his role in the murder of a businessman.
• Aulia Pohan, former Indonesian central bank deputy governor, and father-in-law of President Yudhoyono’s eldest son, was jailed in June last year for embezzlement.
• Former public prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan was sentenced to 20 years’ jail in September 2008 for bribery.
• Former lawmaker Bulyan Royan was found guilty of accepting bribes in a patrol boat procurement deal.

Bapak Karim said the prosecution and jailing of top officials there was unlike in Malaysia, where some of the people that he mixed with have walked away from scandals that have infuriated the public.

He said some of these Malaysians 'were not exactly angels'.

1. Don't speculate!
I was reminded of this infamous trio of terrible terms after reading about a fire at a 200-year old temple in Terengganu in Malaysia.

The Terengganu police said he was told by the fire brigade that the fire was started when a lit joss stick fell to the floor. There was nothing to suggest otherwise.

But coming so soon after a series of attacks on churches, mosques and a Sikh temple, there must have been rumours about the "actual" cause of fire.

So in no time at all, Terengganu police chief Mohd Shukri Dahlan said: "Police investigation showed that there was no criminal element or sabotage or mischief involved, so I hope that the people of Terengganu will accept this as something that happened on its own.

"I don't want any speculation on elements of sabotage, race or religion," he said.

The media headline of course simply said: "Don't speculate over temple fire - police". But saying "don't speculate" will actually have the opposite effect. It tells the public that whatever the official explanation given for an event, there are many other people who disblieve this.

And so the kayporter (kaypo reporter) in all of us will start calling around to find out the alternative explanations!
 
2. Don't panic!
Another infamous term is of course 'don't panic'. I have seen Singaporean and other officials  around the world saying this when H1N1 flu and SARS broke out, and at the height of the financial crisis last year.

Of course, saying "don't panic" is a strong signal to the public that something big is happening. And so, PLEASE panic.

The signal that these  words send is that many people are already NEAR panic, so what are you doing at the kitchen table sharing chicken pie with your pet dog?

As an example, just two months ago on the eve of 2010, the Bali governor said there was an indication of a terrrorist attack on the holiday island.

The US Embassy in Indonesia promptly relayed the information on its website. The embassy said the Bali Tourism Board had widely distributed the governor's message, which added: "Please don't panic, but put your security system to full alert".

You can bet that many people stayed away from Bali's hot pubs on the eve of Jan 1 and the following nights.
 
3. Don't politicise an issue!
This term, often used by politicians everywhere, "don't politicise" an issue, is more difficult to talk about.

Do they mean the issue is outside the realm of politics, so should not be talked about? Or do they mean that bringing it into politics will trivialise an important issue?

Or is it the other way round? A trivial issue becomes important because one "politicises" it?

My take is this: A politician is saying his foe should not bring a particular issue into politics. Only HE could do that, not others!

Because, really, which issue is not "politicised" these days? Which issue is so far out that it cannot be linked to politics at all?

- Religion? (In these days of political Islam, the Christian right and Hindu activists?)

- Education? (Foreigners will have to pay more to put their children in Singapore schools)

- The Internet? (Look at issues concerning Google in China)

- High-tech equipment? (Look at the GT200 bomb devices in Thailand and submarines in Malaysia)

What I do find intriguing is when a politician, with all seriousness, tells another NOT to politicise an issue; is he kidding anyone?
 
So the next time you see a headline saying Don't Speculate, twitter friends to ask what is REALLY happening out there.

If someone says, Don't Panic, put on your jogging shoes and run for the exits.

And when someone says Don't Politicise something, look very closely at him; he might have just landed from Mars.

IT STARTED on a fateful 5-hour flight on Air India. I must be mad!

I have just watched three Indian movies in the last 48 hours -  twice for each movie! - and am now looking to buy more. This can’t be real.

For years and years I studiously avoided all Hindi movies and anything Bollywood. When I was working in Kuala Lumpur, a fever hit Malaysia in 1998 with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something Happens), starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. I avoided that one too, although that must’ve been the year when my wife and daughter got struck with the Bollywood virus.

Me? I couldn’t stand those weak plots about a poor guy falling in love with a rich girl (or vice versa), fights between the hero and villain where no one suffer bruises at the end. And urgh, those songs in the course of the movie - where the heroine would roll on the grass without messing up her dress and tresses, and the hero would wail a tune from some waterfall one minute and atop a mountain the next!

How could any moviegoer go through that! (I knew all these after getting glimpses of past Hindi movies that my parents used to watch. Yes, they are fans too. Sigh).

Give me Aliens, Terminator or even Sleepless in Seattle anytime, I often said.

But things have changed since 1998.

In the last few years, whenever a top Hindi movie played on TV, I would be told by my wife and daughter to not disturb them until Shah Rukh or Aishwarya Rai and friends had finished their last song and dance. And then last week, the government of India invited a group of Asean journalists to take part in a high-level forum, tour New Delhi, Agra and Mumbai, and arranged interviews with top business players.

I was put aboard Air India for the 5-hour Singapore-Delhi flight. There was an entertainment screen at every seat, but to my horror, the six channels only played Bollywood movies. Arghh, I said to myself.

Getting bored half an hour into the flight, I listened to my Walkman and read Matthew Reilly’s latest thriller. I just happened to switch to one channel and a movie was playing. But my eyes kept glancing at the movie which had English subtitles.

There was a sweet actress busy with some love affair with a short fat guy. I learnt later that her name was Deepika Padukone and his name was Saif Ali Khan. The movie was Love Aaj Kaal (Love These Days) - I learnt this from the movie guide in the airplane much later.

PHOTO: BOMBAY TALKIES

I must admit I have never heard of the duo or the movie.  You see, my Bollywood dictionary didn’t go beyond Shah Rukh Khan (SRK to his zillions of fans), Kajol, Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. I didn’t even know how Kajol looked like and what Kuch Kuch was about.

Back to my flight - Thanks to the English subtitles, I suddenly stopped listening to my Walkman and reading the book, and started to follow the plot of the movie. It turned out that there were two separate stories in this Love Aaj Kaal movie.

At the end of 1.5 hours, I had become a fan of Deepika and Saif. I was to learn later that they are big names in Bollywood (though I still could not understand why the ugly Saif could be a star. Then again, his physique is like Charles Bronson’s, the anti-hero).

And, wow, Love Aaj Kaal is in fact a hit movie for 2009, with many nominations for top awards. I watched it twice on the plane (in between dinner and naps)!  Heck, I even like the dance routines. (Once you have watched this high-energy dance routine in Love Aaj Kaal - the hit song Twist - you will know what I mean.)

This is weird, how come Hindi movies suddenly got this pull on me?

During my trip to Mumbai, I bought Love Aaj Kaal and another hit movie, Om Shanti Om, starring SRK and Deepika. And back in Kuala Lumpur for a short holiday, I bought Slumdog Millionaire, a hit movie that I had avoided because it is, in my mind, another Bollywood movie. 

Indian journalists and officials that I met during that one week trip to India have been listening with bemusement at my own theory on why the country will be bigger than China on the global stage.

It goes like this: America the Superpower has shown the world its prowess in software (Windows, Apple, Google) which is backed by the huge commercial success of Hollywood movies.

In simple terms, America shows how great the country is every time you switched on your computer in the office and TV at home. At home, America dominates as most Western movies and shows come from the US of A, seen through American lenses.

The media also is dominated by America – CNN, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal. The world is analysed from American perspective of the world, and the world largely accepts this.

And then America also has financial prowess. Before the 2008 global economic crisis, Wall Street banks were much loved from Lehman Brothers to Citibank and Bank of America.

Backing up all these? Benign American military power (though not so benign in the George W. Bush era).

So, I told those who would listen to me, India already has software power – just look at those Indian IT engineers all over the world. From those in Google, HP and those who are everywhere in other big technology companies, including those in Singapore.

Indians just need a hit apps (application software) or a hardware blockbuster to seal its technical greatness in this area. China has Lenovo.

So, okay. China, too, has many great IT engineers but they are not as seen widely in the global market - perhaps because the Indian ones speak English readily and thus are more employable. And India has another advantage compared to China because it has Bollywood!

China, too, has its own movie world, sure. China’s biggest movie star is Jackie Chan, known widely as being "from Hong Kong" – ie not quite China proper.

Zhang Zi Yi and Jet Li! Yes, but they don’t do dances like those Bollywood stars that somehow captivate audiences, including those in Southeast Asia (think of the Indian diaspora in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the millions of SRK fans among Malays in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore).

India, of course, does not have the financial brand name of the Wall Street banks and investment houses. Neither is India’s military prowess near China’s. But from here, by careful nurturing or chaotic expansion, India could grow its "soft power" brands – IT engineers and Bollywood - in a crowded global marketplace.

Just like Singapore is known for its "efficiency" and an Asian financial powerhouse to the world.

Then again, maybe all these are the imaginings of someone who had watched too many Hindi movies in such a short span of time…

Enough said. Let me now go out and buy Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, 3 Idiots and Billu Barber. While I wait for Salman Khan’s Veer to play here. 

The actors in '3 Idiots'
PHOTO: JALAN DISTRIBUTORS

IN THE past two years, I was frightened at being left out of the latest news, the hottest development in the office and happenings around the world.

And then something called push e-mail came into my life.

I bought a Blackberry machine and became an addict, a news junkie. Some people call it Crackberry.

While others chatted, listened to music, talked to family members or just dozed off, you would find me latched onto my black machine, scrolling through the latest e-mail every few minutes.

This happened even while I am at my desk with both my Lotus office e-mail and my Gmail signed on.

You see, Blackberry e-mail works faster, so I could get messages sent by others a few seconds to a few minutes earlier before they get into my Inbox in the office PC.

The Blackberry was the first thing I look for when I open my eyes in the mornings, and the last thing I stared at before I went to sleep. Even on weekends.

People have received e-mails from me - sometimes on, ahem, important news developments, but most times on nonsensical musings - as late as 2am. OK, I lied, make that 3am.

I thought I would be happy indeed if I knew what was the latest news, gossip, and whether some top brass in the office has some important announcement or just scolded somebody for making mistakes.

And I thought colleagues and friends would appreciate the instant replies (and crass jokes).

Then two weeks ago, someone told me he was fed up with his life being 'tied to Blackberry' and has removed it from his life.

I gasped!

That is like saying I have accepted God into my life and has now blasphemed by saying there is no God! Well, almost, I guess.

But I have my own doubts about the machine too, actually. After all, with my salary being cut, I now wonder whether it is still worthwhile to pay, from my own pocket, the $150 to $250 a month just to get to know the latest news and gossip and whether some top brass has made key announcements.

The bill used to be around $80 to $150 when I started out but ballooned because of heavier usage.

They don't call it Crackberry for nothing. You get addicted and must read everything and respond to everything.

Late last week, I had enough. I turned off my Blackberry as my short vacation time started, and flew to my home in Kuala Lumpur.

And, here I am a few days without turning my machine even once.

And heck, is it the sound of an incoming e-mail or are those real birds chirping outside my window?

Those are real birds indeed! (it helps that my KL neighbourhood has a lot of big old trees).

I actually finished reading pages and pages of my favourite magazine, National Geographic, without switching to reading e-mails in between.

Ah freedom at last.

OK, so now I have decided to return my Blackberry, never mind if I will have to pay a quite few hundred dollars to cancel the contract.

What's next?

My next machine should be a Nokia E72 or a Samsung Jet.

I heard they have some nifty e-mails functions.

Well, you know, just in case I get cravings in the middle of the night, and it is too dark to read National Geographic....

In the 2004 general elections when Umno-led Barisan Nasional was at its strongest - due to reform promises made by the then-new 'Mr Clean' Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi - the opposition was in disarray.

Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) lost Terengganu state, and was nearly wiped out in the Malay-majority states of Kedah and Perlis.

From 27 Parliament seats prior to the 2004 general election, PAS was left with seven. Still, PAS managed to hang onto Kelantan, with a slim majority of just two seats in the state assembly - PAS won 24 seats to 21 by Umno-BN.

If only two PAS assemblymen had defected, Umno-BN would have taken the state. Yet none did despite widespread speculation of multi-million ringgit promises to jump ship.

And after the March 2008 polls, PAS and its two partners in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance won five states.

Now four states are left with PR, after Perak was wrested by BN last February.

PAS has two menteris besar (chief ministers) in Kelantan dan Kedah.

Penang has as its chief minister a leader from PR's Democratic Action Party (DAP), and Selangor a leader from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

PAS, DAP and PKR made up PR.

Selangor and Penang are the most industrialised of all 13 Malaysian states. Top industries are based there, both states have among the biggest ports in Malaysia and the highest-priced houses and commercial buildings.

Yet Kelantan remains the opposition's stronghold because it is seen as the most politically stable, after being under PAS for 19 years now. Its menteri besar is the aging, but revered, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, 77, who is also the spiritual leader of PAS.

Although cash-poor, PAS, Nik Aziz and the Kelantan government are seen as clean, ramrod-straight and the rock on which PR could build its 'church' (or mosque, if you prefer).

For the sake of opposition politics in Malaysia, everyone knows that Kelantan has to remain rock steady. Never mind the typhoons and hurricanes that have hit Kedah, Penang and Selangor.

But in the last few weeks, Kelantan PAS looks like a train wreck.

There are whispers of corruption, nepotism, back-stabbings and possible defections - albeit to another opposition party.

- First, there was the scandal involving the appointment of the son-in-law of Datuk Nik Aziz as CEO of the Kelantan state investment agency, Abdul Ariffahmi Abdul Rahman.

- Although seen as capable, Mr Ariffahmi has been accused of being pushy and brusque, and allegedly name-dropped his father-in-law's revered name too often to get things done his way.

- And then there was an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into the affairs of the investment agency, Kelantan Menteri Besar Incorporated.

- Mr Ariffahmi did himself no favour by getting his father-in-law, Mr Nik Aziz, to recently terminate the employment of a close aide of a top Kelantan politician, Datuk Husam Musa.

- The aide, Syed Azizi Syed Abdul Aziz, uncovered more worms in the state agency, thus putting pressure on Mr Nik Aziz to remove his son-in-law just two months into the appointment.

- There were also questions why Mr Nik Aziz accepted sponsorhip of a RM65,000 ($27,000) haj package by a staunch supporter. The sponsor who is close to the Menteri Besar also has a timber concession in Kelantan, which raised questions over the propreity of the deal.

- Mr Nik Aziz has since said that he will not perform haj this year, though he angrily retorted that there was nothing wrong with the matter only that mainstream media and new media had attacked him

- And now, there are rumours that Mr Husam has asked to quit his post as the economic, financial planning and welfare minister (state ministerial posts are called Excos).

Mr Nik Aziz has denied that his blue-eyed exco was quitting. And Mr Husam himself also denied the wild talk. In the halls of power in Kota Baru, the state capital, everyone knows that Mr Husam is Mr Nik Aziz's protege.

Mr Nik Aziz announced on Monday the removal of his son-in-law as CEO of the agency. This should reduce pressure on the menteri besar and cool the heads of thos in PAS who were angry about Ariffahmi's appointment and alleged bad moves in office.

- But on Sunday the spiritual leader went further, which would add to the intrigue in Kelantan.

- Mr Nik Aziz heaped praises on Mr Husam.  Perhaps too publicly.  And certainly by too many words.

- This was what he said, according to Malaysian media:

"I had refrained from praising him all this while to avoid hurting the feelings of other exco members who have done equally well in their respective portfolios.
"But truthfully, he is a unique leader who is instrumental in not only changing the Kelantan political landscape but also the national politics.
"Allah did not create Husam for Kelantan, but for all Malaysians."

That last praise: God created Mr Husam not just for the poor state but for all Malaysians, is being repeated and analysed by pro-PAS blogs - both by those who love him and those who don't.

The chattering classes within the conservative Islamic state cannot believe their ears.

And on Monday, there is news that PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa - who defeated Husam to retain the deputy's post just five months ago in June - has been rushed to hospital. This could only add to the intrigue in PAS at a time when its rock-steady state is wobbling.

On the sidelines, Umno-BN is smiling, amid rumours that Prime Minister Najib Razak might call for snap elections around the middle of next year to get his own mandate.

But that's another story.

In Padang, West Sumatra

HERE are some rules when sleeping in an earthquake-prone area:

- Don't sleep naked. Or in some undergarments that will embarrass you if you're seen in public wearing them. This is because, when the earth suddenly trembles, there won't be time for to put on 'proper' clothes before running out.

- Sleep with your most important documents on your person or in a bag close to you. You don't want to grope in the dark looking for your passport, flight ticket or cash when you should be running out the door.

- Sleep with your shoes on, or beside your bed with toes pointing towards the exit for easy flight.

- Try to minimise the locks on your door. You don't want to be trying to unlock that door chain with shaky hands on shaky grounds.

- If you are on a high floor and the ground moves, run UP the staircase, not down. This will reduce your chance of being pancaked by the collapsed building. And for goodness sakes, don't take the lift!

These simple instructions were advice offered by friends and by people living in West Sumatra, one of the most quake-prone of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

The advice made sense and I have repeated these instructions in my mind nightly as I go about the rituals before retiring for the night.

Before taking a bath, I arranged my things to exit at the slightest tremor. Call me a coward, but my shoes are arranged outside the loo door.

I have been very lucky.

I arrived in Padang, the West Sumatra capital on Saturday, three days after the huge quake described by locals as the strongest to hit them in their lifetime.

The biggest hotels in town had collapsed or were badly damaged - Ambacang, Bumi Minang, Mariani and Rocky Plaza. Yet, another reporter and myself managed to find a room at a two-storey family run hotel.

Many other reporters had to bunk in tents of rescue teams, or in sleeping bags on the floor of the Governor's residence, the noisy epicentre of rescue operations.

In this hotel that both of us are staying in, the full-length windows of the rooms on the upper floor have a long shared balcony linked to the staircase.

And I got another lucky 'break' - literally.

Our room had full length windows which had been shattered by the quake.

When showing the room, the bellboy told us: 'To keep the aircon in, just pull the curtains together, sir.'

Of course, with no glass to keep out the noise, we could hear loud relief vehicles passing by in front of the room, all through the night.

But I thought of it this way: If there is another quake, I could just pull the curtains aside, run onto the balcony and jump down to the carpark below.

It might sound like paranoia, but we were frightened like everyone else because a major quake is often followed by several aftershocks.

Needless to say, we took the room.

ON TUESDAY I saw an old woman rummaging  through her collapsed house, looking for things to salvage.

I saw a young girl, joining her friends by the road, holding a donation box and begging for money, the pancaked family house behind her.

And I saw a mother crying and crying, her child missing under a rubble.

And I saw a man, trying to put up a tent which will become his home as his house is now a mangled heap of planks, bricks and glasses.

Seeing all these people reminded me of my family and friends back home, and how lucky we are.

Driving around the quake zone brought to me the harsh reality of the disaster. While the provincial capital Padang was hit badly, the scenes in Padangpariaman and Pariaman were much worse.

In Padang, maybe one building in 30 had collapsed or were badly damaged.

Outside the capital, it was two out of three village houses in many areas.

Seeing the tragedy first hand while trying to stay neutral is tough.

How do you feel if, after you lose everything, some foreign reporter poked his face in your life and asked: Uncle, how do you feel about this? Have aid agencies arrived? What are you going to do next? Have you eaten?

And how can we pretend not to care when we see young children stopping traffic every kilometre to ask for money, their collapsed houses behind them?

But every time I wanted to take out some cash to give these poor souls, I held back, muttering to myself over and over: There's too many of them to help. There's too many of them to help.

And then I thought of the Sichuan earthquake, the Aceh tsunami and the African famines. And what those reporters who covered those huge tragedies must have gone through.

At the back of our minds, we reporters and photographers often hope that after reading the sad stories about these disaster victims, and seeing the heartbreaking pictures, the relevant government and aid agencies will step up their work, and donors will come in fast.

If that were to happen, then the journalist will feel that he has done his part to help his family in humanity.

Read Reme Ahmad's first blog on the disaster in Padang, Mini-UN comes together.

Read more:
Aid reaches remote areas
From villages to mass graves

THE tents they pitched in Padang were in blue, orange, grey, white and green.

The men and women who sleep in those tents speak in Bahasa Indonesia, different twangs of English, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Bahasa Malaysia and German among others. And yes, Singlish was there too.
 
And the dogs they brought were just as colourful — black, white, tan, brown and other beautiful shades.

Welcome to a mini gathering of the human race, some 500 of them from outside Indonesia, brought together by a major tragedy.

The last few days in the aftermath of a big earthquake in Sumbar or Sumatra Barat (West Sumatra) have indeed seen hundreds of death and many tears shed over dead relatives and toppled dreams.

But, as the colourful tents pitched on the expansive lawns of the Sumbar Governor showed, the frightful quake also showed the brotherhood of men.
 
Walk into one corner and listen to British men discussing rescue work with Indonesian officials.

Peer into one of the many offices of the Governor and one hears Swiss rescue team members talking to colleagues from Australia and Singapore.

And then there was the urban rescue team from the United Arab Emirates arriving in a giant white Hummer to discuss issues with friends from Japan, a translator in tow.

And several teams from the UK, speaking in distinctive English, to others from Australia.

Some visited the tents of others for chats and coffee, others to pat each other's rescue dogs.

An official from a United Nations agency said more than two dozen nations responded to the call for help by Indonesia.

Others sent doctor and nurses, blankets and tents.

The search and rescue teams brought along 48 rescue dogs.

Over maps and bottles of mineral water the men and women discussed strategies on alleviating the pain suffered by thousands of Padang and Sumbar residents due to the quake.

Seeing forlorn relatives of people still buried under the rubble did not make me cry.

Neither did the sight of collapsed schools or shops, nor seeing people collecting dirty water from drains because water pipes were broken.

But I was moved to ask this question when I walked among these colourful tents on Sunday: Why do we need a huge disaster in order to unite?

This sounds corny, I know, but: Why can't we all just get along?

Read more:
Help arrives from Singapore
Disaster prone, ill-prepared
SCDF dogs help out
Swiss teams call off search

But her positive messages about life were present in my living room at least three times a year - always in the days leading to Hari Raya, Lunar New Year or Deepavali.

Working with national oil company Petronas, she produced these TV commercials that always tugged at my heart with its celebration of family life and multiracial living in Malaysia. These were aired before the major festivals to bring families and people together.

So when news spread on Thursday that she had a stroke, I was shocked. She died on Saturday evening at 51 without gaining consciousness.

Some of her best works are here on YouTube, and these commercials and movie trailers made me cry buckets. You see, Yasmin had these simple messages for viewers.

Like the commercial reminding a Malay engineer to chuck aside his laptop for a day to be with her mother at a remote village with no Internet connection for Hari Raya. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az_dnk_ix8E&feature=related)

Or one showing a group of old Chinese folks with a staid life in a small town, to remind their children in the big cities to visit their parents for Lunar New Year. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SiDaPoFT6U)

And then there was the commercial about four Indian boys dressed up like Backstreet Boys cheering "party, party" downtown, near Deepavali. One of them suddenly went "pati, pati" (Tamil for grandma) as his grandmother walked up to remind them to be proud of their heritage. He gave the sheepish boys muruku to take home to their moms. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whiLwDoRk_o&feature=related)

And then there were the unforgettable clips on multiracial living.

One of these showed Atan, Lim and Param who lived in the same village and once jumped into a river together to escape angry bees. Param and Lim were with Atan when he was circumscised, a big event for Malay kampung boys. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7PotdHCUVQ&feature=related)

Many years later, an old Atan in crutches met by chance his old buddy Lim, now in a wheelchair, to talk about the old times. Atan said Param passed away just last month. Lim pointed at his teenager son who was listening to his Walkman nearby and at Atan's son who was playing with his handphone.

"Kids these days, only their hair look the same, but they are in their own world. They don't even know how to make friends," Lim lamented.

The message at the end: 'The bitter and the sweet together we taste. One direction, one country'.

That is the message that Malaysia sorely needs these days. And now, the magical Storyteller behind these messages is sadly gone.

SOURCE: BH

P.Ramlee, the actor and genius movie director of the 1960s, made Malay movies that reflected the easy-going way of life of the Malays then. Yasmin, the genius movie director of her time, was very good at highlighting the angsts of the Malays in the 2000s.

In several P.Ramlee movies, the Malays drank wine with other Malays in night clubs and cavorted with "perempuan cabaret" (cabaret women). They sometime got very drunk - like the famous, award-winning confrontation between a drunk son and his father in Anakku Sazali (My son Sazali).

There was a very diluted role for Islam and on being Muslims in the reel life portrayed by P.Ramlee, just like it was in real life then. And these Malays of the villages and towns of 30 to 40 years ago had easy-going Chinese and Indians as neighbours.

Fast forward today and Yasmin in her movies explored the Malays who seemed at times ill-at-ease with their Chinese and Indian neighbours, and vice versa.

And one can see the strong influence that Islam now play in the daily lives of the Malays, and the reaction from the non-Muslim friends. Strong identification with ethnicity has also entered the fray. These can be seen in Yasmin's movies such as Sepet (Chinese Eyes) and Talentime.

And just like in real life, some of her movies attracted the wrong attention from conservative Muslim authorities. Still, no one could take away the fact that she had managed to lift the veil over race and religion in Malaysia, and put them squarely in the centre of discussions in her commercials and movies.

While others saw doubts about the future because of these issues, she saw hope. Sadly she is not around anymore to show us more glimpses of what could be.

When a Muslim is told that someone has passed away, this is what we are taught to reply (in Arabic): From God we came, and unto Him shall we return. This is to say we accept what has happened, even as we mourn for the loss.

Rest in peace, sis.

A colleague found and began quoting the boss of Merdeka - Ibrahim Suffian, or Ben, as he is known to his friends and the media.

Since then, the name of the independent outfit based in Bangi, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, has kept growing with all manner of talked-about public polling. And while some may question how Merdeka could know the pulse of 27 million people by calling just 1,060 voters, or some such small sample size, most people accept the data as being unbiased and fair.

Last week, two events firmly brought polling and pollsters into the limelight of Malaysian politics - and possibly changed the way public policy issues might be decided in future.

It's becoming more likely that asking the public for its opinion on policy issues (referendum-like) will become a permanent feature of civil society in Malaysia. 

I sure hope so.

This is because in the past, the government sometimes steamrolled public opinion by saying things like: "This is what the rakyat (people) wants!" Or worse: "I don't care whether the public likes it, I know this policy is good for them."

Indeed, Malaysia is not the only country in the region that is seeing the entry of pollsters and public polling. The result of the July 8 Indonesian presidential elections was made known very quickly with the help of exit polls carried out by these polling companies. No one would have paid any attention to them if they had provided poor, inaccurate data previously.

Anyway, back to the two major events in Malaysia last week.

Event Number One:
Prime Minister Najib Razak's popularity was measured by a poll carried out by Merdeka. He scored 65 per cent from the public, compared to 46 per cent just a month-and-a-half ago. The poll became page one news in both the mainstream media and on the internet, for days.

And since Merdeka would have used scientific methods (like random sampling) for its polls, the results have been accepted as the truth.

Event Number Two:
Dr Mahathir Mohamad used his website to poll the public on what is called in Malaysia as PPSMI - the Malay initials for the policy of teaching math and science in English.

The government decided to scrap this policy after just six years and Dr Mahathir, the man behind the PPSMI, said he wanted to ask the rakyat themselves what they thought. A huge majority, around 85 per cent of 75,000 visitors, is against scrapping the policy. 

Of course, unlike Merdeka's survey, the polling on Mahathir's chedet.cc can be assumed to be less scientific. Why?

(a) His ardent supporters are the ones who visit his website, ie people who tend to agree with his views.

(b) The rule for this polling is one-man-one-vote. But even if there was an electronic block to prevent people from voting twice using the same machine, a person could actually vote at least three times. He can vote once in the office, another time using his home computer, and a third time using his laptop.

(c) Another reason why the voting could be considered un-scientific (ie random sampling): Only parents who are UNHAPPY with the government for scrapping PPSMI would most likely visit chedet.cc to register their anger. Those who are happy with PM Najib's decision may not or not bother to visit the site to click a vote.

(d) Additionally, only people with internet connections can vote. So people in the rural areas would be left out of this poll unlike the Merdeka polls which cover rural areas too.

This means that the results can be expected to be skewed towards those who wanted PPSMI to continue.

Still, for Malaysia, what was unearthed by the two polls was quite revolutionary. 

The polls set off debate about the Najib and PPSMI issues in coffee shops, and the internet version of coffee shops called blogs and chat forums. The polls showed that the rakyat has suddenly been given its voice on two important matter - how the government and its PM is doing, and their views on a key tenet of education policy.

No, this was not the first time Merdeka has made public the results of its polling. And no, this was not the first time that a prominent website had asked for public opinion through mouse clicks.

Also, the Malaysian government uses its feedback unit JASA, plus police and military intelligence to gauge public opinions.

But the fact remains that both Merdeka's and Dr Mahathir's polls, both independent of the government, generated much, much discussion. 

And so, I hope that public polling would soon be as regular as going to the ballot boxes to pick an MP and an assemblyman.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, this year's two elections have led to a boom for polling outfits too.

In the April 2009 legislative elections and July 2009 presidential polls, there was a big rise in the number of political consultants, pollsters, public-opinion gatherers and image-making companies.

Some of these pollsters were paid by the political parties, but still, the media has lapped up and legitimise the more independent-minded ones with reliable data.

For both the elections to pick their MPs and the President, a version of exit polls - called quick counts in Indonesia - were widely-used by the media and the political parties. The quick counts were carried out these pollsters and survey companies and they have often proven accurate.

Perhaps it is early days yet, but for sure sooner rather than later, the independent pollsters with regular accurate data will follow those in the US and Europe closely. 

If so, then whether in Malaysia or Indonesia, the winner is surely civil society.