Political Ideologies explained in 15 minutes

Feudalism

You herd your landlord's cow and get some milk in return.

Pure Socialism

You have two cows, the government takes and manages all the cows and give you milk in return.

Bureaucratic Socialism

Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the gov took from the farmers. You'll need to fill up 3 different coloured forms to request for chicken-feed, cows milk and meat. You'll be put into the waiting list and after a minimum period of 2 weeks or maximum period of God-knows-when, you'll get the reply saying, 'Please attach 2 passport size photos for identification and resend your application' and it goes on.

Fascism

You have two cows. The government takes all, hires you to take care of them and sell the milk to you.

Wrongly Interpreted Communism

You have two cows. The government demands your cows, if you said 'you don't have any' they'll make you their cows. If you give them your cows, they'll ask for more and you'll have to say 'you don't have any' and then they'll make you their cows.

Chinese Post-Communism

You can only have one cow in your whole insignificant life. If the cow died when you're old, suck it up and learn to live with it. it's just your fate.

Cambodian Communism

You have two cows. The gov takes both and kills you.

Dictatorship

You have two cows. The gov takes both and drafts you.

Pure Democracy

You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

Capitalism

You have two cows. You hire someone to feed, herd, sell and make fortunes from your cows. You pay that someone a glass of milk every month and tax 25% of the milk.

OR

you don't have cows. So you can't have cows as you have no cows to put up as collateral damage to get loans from the bank to buy cows. Hence in the end you only have one choice, to become that someone who got hired and paid a glass of milk that got taxed.

Tax money might be used to better the cow farm's environment so the cow owner get more profits and cow herder get better working conditions.

Pure Anarchy

You have two cows. Either you get to sell the cows at reasonable price or you get killed and your cows stolen by your neighbour.

Malaysian Style Democracy

You have two cows. Two things can happen.

If you're a crony, you can get tax-exemption for having cows, you can get more cows, you can get to sell your cow milks or meats at fixed high price or you can get to build the highest and biggest cow farm project.

If you're not a crony, you might be charged for trying to sodomise your cows or you get to start your 'anti mega cow farm' agenda.

UK Style Democracy

You have two cows. You have all the freedom and access to demand for more cows or better quality cows or better quality of cows feed and health treatment. But the government don't really care and aren't really listening to your opinions. They will still cut cow subsidisation and ask you to pay more to learn how to breed cows.

And those who work like cows to earn two cows are asked to pay one and a half cows as tax while those who doesn't have cows, get free meat and drinks every day. It's called 'benefits'

Cheers!

Updates

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Things getting more hectic. Ain't this fun? ;)

Forum: Who is Muhammad?

Salam.

A talk was conducted by ISoc Warwick just now at Warwick Uni and the topic was 'Who is Muhammad?' I didn't know what to expect from this talk but I still went. The speakers were 2 ladies, Sister Myriam Francois Cerrah and Sister Kristiane Backer and a gentleman, Brother Salim. Brother Hamza Andreas Tzortzis was supposed to come but pulled out last minute due to some personal problems.

Some of the issues that can be highlighted are as such:

a) Sister Myriam talked about rights. Human rights, legal rights and sacred rights. She criticised the current system of the law where human rights are not always right and lack morality. She mentioned human rights are supposed to come with morality values because law and human rights are as good as the people who implement them. Taking the example of Israelites phosphorus bombing in Palestines, she said the action is unjust but nothing has been done in this human made law system.

b) Sister Myriam also said Islam is not only a religion or an ideology for the society. Islam brings about message of self reformation. Islam is about reforming oneself to become breathing and living individuals of Islam. Islam is not about changing societies but about changing oneself first. Islam is about pefecting oneself.

c) Sister Myriam then brought up the issue of slavery saying slavery still exist in our society. The biggest of all is sex-slavery where children are forced to be sex slaves. Some examples and statistics are, a family sells their daughter for $500 and the girl needs to be sex slave to 2000 men before getting her freedom back. The girl is paid 20 cent for every man. Imagine what kind of future does the girl has? Sister Myriam mentioned too that in India (as an example) exists millions of sex slaves.

d) Sister Kristiane talked in regards to environment. She quoted few quotes like 'Muhammad is sent as mercy to mankind'. Muhammad is also considered as role model to millions of people. She mentioned Rasulullah teachings and preachings about green living where we live by respecting the environment (trees, animals etc) All life are sacred, even ants life as in the Quran there is even a surah named 'The Ant'

e) Brother Salim started his speech with an interesting quotation. Ignorance in oneself can lead to fear which will then lead to confusion. What is the cure for ignorance? Knowledge! He mainly talked about living the example of the prophets rather than only talking about it. Brother Salim stressed that Muslims should be the living symbol of justice and rise above name-calling, prosecution and physical punishment towards people who are hateful to us. He quoted Muhammad saw, "He who abuse a non muslim citizen in a muslim country without justification will be my enemy during the day of judgement." Quoting this brother Salim said Muslims should learn to forgive and lead by examples. We must understand that the are people who fear Islam and Muslims because they do not understand Islamic teachings. Brother Salim urged us to understand this people and find ways to help them understand and not hate them for hating us. We should love everyone and show them that we care because that is what Muhammad saw did.

The talk progresses towards Q and A session which will not be explained in details as the session basically covered the topic discussed above.

Event page for the talk can be found here.

Salam ;)

The day when we smile humourlessly,

Frosting grass upon the terrain,

murky haze and somber weather,

accompanying blow of frigid wind,

gives a chill and shrilling pressure,

Like an omen it's telling us,

a great loss of such a loving heart,

in a split second it just came,

only another to destroy,

Oh this world and all the happening,

it's hard to see them as plain just,

but as it is to be obeyed,

as nothing can amend faith,

lest for one and that's we pray,

for rest in peace we hope he may.

EidulAdha came bringing history lessons of our two prophets to believers.

EidulAdha came bringing mournful news to a friend of mine.

This EidulAdha is the day when we smile humourlessly.

Al-Fatihah for Uncle Mohamad Rasidi, son of his mother Mek Stawar.

A night at Khairul's in Highbury

I went to London last weekend to attend a UKEC interview for junior executive position which were described as being the internship process for UKEC. The role of junior exec were also described as being the 'balaci' for other higher execs in UKEC by one of my friends. Well, with being the 'balaci' then only you'll know the true nature of its execution right? ;) That's one of the reason why I decided to go for the post. I was asked, you already have PROJEK KALSOM in hands, why junior executive? Apart from wanting to learn how UKEC does things, I have personal reasons for this. Well I didn't know of UKEC in my first year. Had I known, I would have gone for it. So, this is to compensate for my 'sort of loss' in my first year. And this is basically like a challenge for myself. How far can I go. I believe, being a youth and ambitious, I might as well test myself in this manner. Having 3 organisations to juggle while at the same time to fulfill my responsibility as a scholar here is personal ambition I would say. I believe I can do it, this is the test to check my belief.

As the title suggests, I was welcomed by Khairul Ariffin and Yan. Khairul, a young lad, ambitious too and has all the positiveness to try and change this world to a better place. He's helping with PROJEK KALSOM's video and publicity voluntarily. Yan, a very unique lady. She's the kind of lady I would expect to meet in an 'Alice in the Wonderland' type of story. Now don't ask me why would I described her in such a way, I can't explain, I just do.

They welcomed me with a meal, fish and chips, claimed to be 'the best in the world' by Yan. And after tasting it, I would say very much the same. At least the best fish and chips I've ever tasted. Then we went to Khairul's place, an awesome place in the old former Arsenal's Highbury stadium. Spent a night there where we talked about many stuffs ranging from Malaysian political scene until the reform in education as proposed by Sir Ken Robinson. Which was a former lecturer in Warwick Unversity. Exchanged books ranging from 'A Rebel's guide to Marxism' to political economics books suggested by Yan i.e. Freakonomics which I have yet to be able to find and read. The awesome thing was, I received a copy of the Inception script written by Christopher Nolan himself. Khairul also taught me some tips in script-writing accompanied by the awesome 'Hummingbird Bakery Cupcake - Red Velvet' and 'Yan's Homemade Lasagne'. In the morning we ate breakfast and off I go for UKEC interview. There were a 'London Jazz Festival' that saturday evening which I missed. Entirely because I didn't know of it and had bought a fixed return ticket to Coventry at 5.43pm. Darn! Must try to go next year if I have the chance. Before boarding my train, I had another go on the fish and chips meal.

All in all, arrived in Coventry at 6 something pm with a soar feet, the new pair of shoes is yet to fit in well with my feet, but satisfied. Had I decided not to go for UKEC interview, I can never know how the process looks like and didn't get the chance to learn the work of Sir Ken Robinson and other discreet stuffs which are not to be said here.

Cheers and Salam! ;)

Talk and Dicussion: Revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx

I managed to take part in a one and a half hour discussion held by 'the socialist workers' movement in my university yesterday 12th of Nov 2011. They discussed Marx and Engel ideas of Socialist Revolution in the meet.

To briefly share, the idea of Marxist revolution came about after the birth of the new capitalist system. Capitalist system being the market-driven economic system. Before capitalism, people lived in the era of Feudalism where the living conditions were hard. Only a small group of people managed to live good life by suppressing the majority 'peasants'. This lead to the revolution of Market-driven economic system which was thought as the saviour which can bring people out of their misery of being enslave.

A large part of this system was written in 'Wealth of Nations' a book by Adam Smith. So at first, people thought capitalism can save them from the iron grip of feudalism. But Marx and Engel thought differently. They see capitalism as a new sign of oppression in a different way compared to Feudalism. Kings, barons were replaced by another line-up of oppressor who took opportunity of the new system to enslave the mass. People didn't have to work for the kings anymore but they had to 'cash in' their labour force, their sweats and energies in order to live. Everything is profit-driven. Production goes mass until it overcome the need. The market keeps expanding but the question is, to what extend? Marx said capitalism is a system that can only hold until a time before it exploded.

Therefore Marx suggested the idea of Communism and Proletarian Dictatorship which were largely misinterpreted. If we come across the word communist and dictatorship, we will think of the cruelty and mass killing in history. We will think of Stalin, communist in Malaya and etc. Whereares, Marx and Engels ideas are different. They believe that power to be in the hands of workers, the mass or as they call it, the proletariats. They said having someone to decide for the fate of the mass (current existing system of democracy) is not democracy at all.

However to criticise the approach of Marxists, I would say that Marx and Engel did not offer solid foundation of Proletarian Dictatorship type of administration. By saying that people take charge and have the power, we can ask few questions that are oftenly failed to be answered clearly by the Marxists. What kind of power? Who's in charge? What kind of governance is proletarian dictatorship?

Marxists also said they believe in equal opportunity for all. Not that I don't. But to be realistic, the idea of equal opportunity is very idealistic in a sense that it is impossible to be realized. At least not until humans learn to not be selfish and put others first before ourselves.

To add to the counter-arguments towards Marxism, I believe Communism and Proletarian Dictatorship lacks competition. If people get paid similarly. No extra effort is needed to better oneself. Hence we will lack healthy competition. Without healthy competition, motivation is killed. Therefore, what is the need to sacrifice our time to studying medicine for at least 6 years if what we get is the same as those who don't even put their effort to better themselves?

Lastly, it is believed human in nature is egoistic, selfish and individualistic, at least to some extent. With all these characteristics of humans, communism and proletarian dictatorship are impossible to be achieved as to achieve them, we will need a collectivist approach. And collectivist approach is often doomed by the existence of egosim, selfishness and individualism.

To conclude, from the interesting discussion we had. I personally believed what we need in the system now is for Marxist and Socialist to fight and find ways to improvise Capitalism until the time where Capitalism and Socialism can co-exist side by side. It is proven now that we can't have a 100% capitalist system but we can never have a 100 socialism system too. Therefore what we need is a collaboration between the two so that by compromising, we can reach to a conclusion where a new and refresh market system is born.

*Note: The discussion is done not from a religious point of view.

Selamat.

Talk by YB Nik Nazmi of Seri Setia at Warwick

A forum was co-hosted by Kelab UMNO West Midlands and Malaysia Student Association of Warwick involving 2 speakers, YB Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (PKR Communication Director) and Farquar Haqqani (UKEC Chairman)

The topic was budget 2011 by the government and there were lots of criticism towards the budget in general. One of issues about budget 2011 that was brought up was Menara Warisan. Nik Nazmi told us the problem with this is that government shouldn't announced the mega project in budget 2011 because it involves PNB and not the government.

The talk however progresses in the Q and A session where students ask questions that are PKR-related as to the issue of Zaid Ibrahim, the status of Anwar Ibrahim, manipulation of voting system in PKR and etc.

As for the issue of Zaid Ibrahim, Nik Nazmi defended the party by saying that Zaid shouldn't be acting like he is. Nik Nazmi mentioned that Zaid failed to attend many party meetings and he feels that every reports or suggestions to better the party should been done in the party meeting closely. He further criticises Zaid as being non-collective by resorting to extreme solution by giving up all his position and criticising the party in public.

As to the issue of voting manipulation Nik Nazmi came to defend the party by saying that it could happen only in isolated cases. Mustaffa Kamil Ayub, candidate for deputy presidential said that there were cases where ballots were sold to other members and this manipulate the voting process. Nik Nazmi said the colour of the ballots are changed every week and this make it harder for people to sell and buy ballots.

Nik Nazmi also stressed that PKR fight is more than 'putting Anwar in Putrajaya', Anwar Ibrahim as he said is only a symbol of injustice done in Malaysia. "If such thing can happen to No. 2 person in Malaysia, imagine what can happen to the commoners?" as said by Nik Nazmi.

Nik Nazmi pointed out, when asked the question of what is the stance for Pakatan Rakyat coalition towards the issue of gambling and alcoholism, that gambling and alcoholism should not be looked upon as the issue of religion only. It involves the threat to social condition in Malaysia. YB emphasised alcoholism and gambling should be tackled widely as it threaten the social condition of Malaysia and the Pakatan Rakyat believes that these problems must be tackled. The problem is the power of authorisation remains in the hand of our Federal Government thus making it harder for the Pakatan Rakyat governed states to stop alcoholism and gambling in their respective states.

The Communication Director for PKR however failed to give a clear answer in regards to the question of what is the status of Anwar Ibrahim in the party and why is he more influential than the president, Wan Azizah, herself.

Personally, I agree to the reform in voting system by PKR where '1 man 1 vote' is introduced as this might help lessen money politics during party election. The talk by YB Nik Nazmi is somewhat agreeable to many extent as an example the problem of gambling and alcoholism. I believe our government should put more effort in reducing the selling of alcohol and restricting illegal gambling operations that are harmful especially to our youths. However, let's hope that this view is similarly shared by all party components in PR because from what I see, not much have been done in Pulau Pinang (DAP) to control alcoholism and illegal gambling compared to what is done in Selangor (PKR).

It is also a good sign to see that Malaysia is going forward to having a two-party system in our political scene as this will ensure healthy competition and gives rakyat the chance to choose which one is the best. Public will benefit more because government will need to do more rakyat-friendly stuffs to win over the people during election.

Ont he other hand, Barisan Nasional, particularly UMNO should take the rising movement of PR, especially PKR very seriously and start to 'berpijak di bumi yang nyata'. It's time to actively engage the people with UMNO. Stop the exclusivity of UMNO and attract interest especially from potential youths cause PR is doing their best to get the best fresh brains of Malaysia into their team. If the exclusive mentality and arrogance in UMNO are not leave behind, it is not impossible to see that one day the public might decide to give a chance to Pakatan Rakyat to have their seats in Putrajaya.

An appeal to fellow Malaysians in UK and Eire

Being among the states that offer a cheap range of food and greener scenery in my previous roadtrip, Kedah and Perlis were quite memorable to me. Being in this part of the world which is around 20 hours of flight back to Malaysia, it's heart-breaking to learn that my fellow Malaysians are suffering from flood. It is also heartening to see that technology can bring us benefits when I saw this facebook event created by people whom two of them are my friends here

Again it is up to us to determine what kind of outcome that we want from something. If it's disastrous intention, we'll end up doing dishonourable things. Yet if what we intent to is of greater good, we can end up being like the kind people who created the facebook group and their team of fellow Malaysians whom although being far away from home, are all willing to look back and find out what is happening. And to find ways to contribute in anyway they can to help solve problems.

The least I can do is to promote this noble action and the least you can do is spare some cash into their accounts. Details are as such:

Please donate towards GALAKSI's floods response.

UK Bank account;

Name: MSMR
Account Number: 28095568
Sort code: 30-96-91
Reference: KFEA

Ireland Bank Account;
Name: MRAM
Account Number : 72508064
Sort code : 930121
Reference: KFEA

I have no information of their Malaysian account but I know for sure people in Malaysia must be aware of this. Do help out in anyway we can. InsyaAllah, God bless our doings regardless of our religion, race or status because in the end it is the 'niat' that counts.

Selamat.

Anak muda Malaysia,

Reverie Malaya

Review: Are Muslim being demonized in the West? by Mehdi Hassan

Salam to all

This talk was conducted last 28th Oct 2010 at H0.52 in Uni of Warwick. To find out more about the speaker you can google it up or click the link here -> x

Well Mehdi Hassan managed to deliver the talk in a very interesting and yet informative way. Cracking jokes from time to time, I didn't feel bored. The good part is, the jokes were all related to the topics we were discussing.

Now, is Muslim being demonised in the West? Mehdi conducted a survey in UK at few places. Some statistics mentioned involving words that are always associated with Muslim or Islam in the media in the West are, Islamophobic, terrorist, bombs and etc. All of these words bring negative meaning to Islam and Muslim. I failed to register the exact statistics mentioned but Mehdi did said out loud the statistics to all of the audiences.

Next he told us about another experiment he did with his friends. They took newspaper headlines or articles that are negative on Islam or Muslim and bring it out to the public. They then changed the word Islam with other 'minority group' words such as, Jews, Hindus, Blacks, Negros etc etc. They showed this to the public and watched and recorded how they responded and there were outraged and lots of angriness in the public when they showed this 'altered and changed' articles. After that, they show the original article with the word Islam/ Muslim on it to the enraged public and their response were like, "Oh really. this is normal." and suddenly all the outrage and anger were gone. This shows the double-standard and difference mentality of the public in the West towards negative stories about Islam and negative stories about other minority groups.

Mehdi Hassan also pointed out that almost all negative stories about islam printed by the media here were untrue and exaggerated. There were quite a number of summons won by Muslims when they fined the media for telling untrue stories. One interesting case was when the media reported "Muslim bus driver asks passengers to go out of his bus because he wants to pray." Well, the real situation behind this issue was the Muslim bus driver was told to stop as his manager wants to transfer the passenger in his bus to another bus because of some technical problems. While the transferring process goes on, the bus driver decided to perform solat on the bus as he has some free time and it is time to pray. This was then reported by a media saying that some sort of evil muslim tries to get rid of everyone, to pray.

After his speeches, some Q and A session was opened up to the floor with many interesting questions asked. Mehdi was asked what should we do being Muslims to face this demonisation problem in the West? He gave quite a resonable answer. He said Muslims should train ourselves not only spiritually but also to become people who are academically and socially capable of facing the public and speaking on behalf of Islam. We need more scholars and people who can answer all the accusation being thrown to us by others. We need people who can educate the public about the real value of Islam. Hence I urge all of us to equip ourselves and improvise so that we can become soldiers of Allah and fight through the way of Islam. In this modernise world, words and letters are stronger than swords thus we need to be intelligent, wise and capable to efficiently fight for the cause of Islam.

Good thing about this talk is, there were quite a number of non-muslims attending the talk too. May all of us benefited from the talk and this review.

Selamat.