Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia (revisited)

Is Umno dead? What the fuck is Umno anyway? According to Wikipedia:

"The United Malays National Organisation, or UMNO, (Malay: Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu), is a right-wing party and Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled the country uninterruptedly since its independence. It is known for being a major proponent of Malay Supremacy or Ketuanan Melayu and mild Islamic fundamentalism, which holds that the Malays and other Muslims are the 'definitive' people of Malaysia and, thus, deserve special privileges as their birthright."*

So the entire foundation of Umno rests upon the ethnocentric notion of Malay Supremacy. Which begs the question: how do you define "Malay"? At this crucial juncture in Malaysia's political evolution, it's important to examine these fundamental issues and see what can be gleaned. Friends have been forwarding an anonymous essay on this very topic. Not a particularly well-written piece, but it does contain some fascinating facts. I shall present it here, after putting in some of my own editorial touches:

How many of you have read the book entitled Contesting Malayness edited by a professor of the National University of Singapore? It reflects the anthropological view that there is no such race as the "Malays" to begin with.

Following the original migration of the Yunnan (southwestern) Chinese around 6,000 years ago, they moved to Taiwan and are today known as the Alisan; some migrated to the Philippines and became known as the Aeta; others moved to Borneo around 4,500 years ago and are now called the Dayak. The migrants also split off to Sulawesi, Jawa, and Sumatra. The final migration was to the Malayan Peninsular about 3,000 years ago. A sub-group from Borneo also moved to Champa in Cambodia around 4,500 years ago.

Interestingly, the Champa deviant group moved back to present day Kelantan. There are also traces of the Dong Song and Hoabinhian migration from Vietnam and Cambodia. To further confuse the issue, there was also a Southern Thai migration, from what we know as Pattani today (see Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula).

Of course, we also have the Minangkabau who claim descent from Alexander the Great and a West Indian Princess (Sejarah Melayu pp 1-3)

So is there really a race called the "Malays"? Most anthropologists DO NOT SEEM TO THINK SO.

Neither do the "Malays" who live on the West Coast of Johore. They would rather be called Javanese. What about the west coast Kedah inhabitants who prefer to be known as Acehnese? Or the Ibans who simply want to be known as Ibans? Try calling a Kelabit a "Malay" and see what reaction you get... you'll be glad their head-hunting days are over.

The concept of "Malay" therefore refers to a collection of peoples who speak a similar language. Even so, "a similar language" does not mean the words are similar. Linguists call this the "Lego-type" language, where words are added on to the root word to make different meanings and to impart tenses and such. The Indonesians disagree with this classification. They refuse to be called Malay no matter how you may define the term.

According to this classification, the concept of "Malay" must include the Filipinos, Papua New Guineans, Australian Aborigines, as well as Polynesian Aborigines. These peoples are part of the Australo-Melanesian migration from Africa dating 60,000 years back.

The definition of "Malay" should also apply to the Taiwanese singer, Ah Mei, whose Alisan tribe can be regarded as the ancestors of the "Malays." The Southern Chinese (of Funan Province) ought to classified as "Malay" too, since they are of the same stock that migrated south 6,000 years ago.

Are the Bugis "Malays"? Interestingly, the Bugis, who predominantly live on Sulawesi, do not even consider themselves Indonesians. Neither do they fall into the same group as the migrating Southern Chinese of 6,000 years ago - nor the Australo-Melanesian group from Africa. The Bugis are, in fact, a cross between the Chinese and the Arabs. They are descended from a renegade Ming Dynasty official who turned to piracy. His career as a buccaneer was so successful that Admiral Cheng Ho was despatched to hunt him down and put an end to his mischief. In effect, the Bugis were career pirates operating among the Johore-Riau Islands. The nephew of Daeng Kemboja was appointed the first Sultan of Selangor. That makes the entire Selangor Sultanate part Arab, part Chinese. Talk to the Bugis Museum curator near Kukup in Johore. (Kukup is located at the south-westernmost tip of Johore, near Pontian Kecil).

Let's not delve too deeply into the legend of the five warriors - Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekiu, and Hang Lekir - who shared the same family name as Hang Li Poh. And who was she? A Ming princess who was sent to marry the Sultan of Malacca. The elder son of the vanquished Malacca Sultan was killed in Johor, and the other son eventually became the Sultan of Perak. Do we detect any Chinese genes in Raja Azlan? Could he be the descendant of Princess Hang Li Poh?

Next question: if the Malacca Babas are part-Malay, why have they been marginalized by not being classified bumiputera? Which part of their "Malayness" is not legitimate? Whatever the answer, why are the Portuguese of Malacca accepted as bumiputera? Didn't their forefathers arrive a hundred years AFTER the arrival of the first Babas? Parameswara founded Malacca in 1411. The Portuguese came in 1511, and the Dutch in 1641. Oddly enough, the Babas were in fact once classified as bumiputera, but they were "declassified" in the 1960's. WHY?

The Sultan of Kelantan had genetic roots in the Pattani Kingdom, making him of Thai origin. And has anyone come across a coffee-table book commissioned by the Sultan of Perlis wherein he claims to be a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad? Professor Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim is supposedly the author of the book. I'd pay good money to get my hands on a copy!

Negrito women and their babies (from the Philippines)

How many of you have met an Orang Asli? The further north you go, the more African they look. Why are they called Negritos? It's a Spanish word which translates as "little Negroes." The farther south you go, the more "Indonesian" they look. And the ones who live on Cameron Highlands look like a 50-50 blend. Take the Batek of Taman Negara, who look a lot like Eddie Murphy clones. Or the Negritos who live below the Thai border near Temenggor Lake. The Mah Meri of Carey Island look exactly like the Jakuns of Endau Rompin. Half African, half Indonesian.

There was once a Hindu-Malay Empire in Kedah. That's right. The Malays were Hindu before they became Muslim. It went by the name Langkasuka. Today it is known as Lembah Bujang. This Hindu-Malay Empire flourished about 2,000 years ago, pre-dating Borobodur and Angkor Wat by about 500 years. Lembah Bujang was a mighty trading empire, and it was built by Indian craftsmen and stonemasons. Obviously, Langkasuka was a vassal of India. This should make the Indians bumiputeras too since they were here 2,000 years ago. Why have they been dismissed as pendatang (immigrants) and marginalized?

In effect the "Malay" race is essentially an amalgamation of Asian tribes. So it's totally incorrect to call this country "Tanah Melayu." Instead we should call it "Tanah Truly Asia."

For once the Tourism Ministry got it right.

Now if my memory serves me correctly, Umno actually died 27 years ago on 4 February 1988 when Justice Harun Hashim declared the party illegal, since it had breached the rules governing political parties by failing to register at least 30 branches. According to Wikipedia:

"The Tunku and former UMNO President Hussein Onn set up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, which claimed to be the successor to the old UMNO. UMNO Malaysia was supported mainly by members of the Team B faction from UMNO, but Mahathir was also invited to join the party leadership. However, the party collapsed after the Registrar of Societies refused to register it as a society (without providing an explanation)."

Two weeks later, on 18 February 1988, Mahathir formed a surrogate party called Umno Baru. Which means the original Umno established by Dato' Onn Jaafar on May 11 1946 was no longer in existence. Instead, the party became, to all intents and purposes, an extension of and a vehicle for Mahathir's own egocentricity and megalomania. And the biggest joke is, Mahathir himself once declared his own racial origins as "Indian Muslim." Ketuanan Mamak. How does THAT sound?

[First posted 22 March 2008, reposted 18 August 2015 & 22 October 2022]

________

*This is a verbatim quote from the Wikipedia entry on UMNO in March 2008. Somebody has since updated the entry, omitting the description "right-wing" and toning down the ethnocentric emphasis.

INTERVIEW WITH MYSELF (FROM MARCH 1996)

Malaysian author/cartoonist/musician/poet KIT LEEE says he is a "walk-in." To be more precise, his multi-dimensional self - ANTARES NUMl*ON - recalls arriving on planet Earth on December 25th, 1968, as "an illegal immigrant" by "walking into and waking up" in the 18-year-old physical body operated by an Earth native born as "Lee Kit Fong" (pictured left). 

X-Fileophiles will have little difficulty accepting this as a fairly common occurrence. Apparently a large number of humans are waking up to the fact that they are actually "star-borne entities" on a special mission to reconnect Spaceship Earth with the rest of the cosmic community. But how will the Proton-driving, condominium-dwelling, cari makan-ing Malaysian rakyat respond to this news? To help shed some light on the matter, JOURNAL ONE invited Kit Leee to conduct an in-depth interview with his own "higher dimensional aspect" - Antares. Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen!

 

K: How come I don't remember inviting you into my body?

A: Do you remember how many times you've lived on this planet? You could call it protective amnesia - it's essentially a multi-tracking phenomenon - you don't want cross-talk from your other dimensional aspects leaking through and distracting you from the tasks at hand. However, you can be sure of one thing: you agreed to this sharing of neural circuitry. Without your full consent it would have been-a transgression. There are cases where weak-willed personalities have been hijacked, taken over, possessed by some criminal entity. That isn't halal, as they say in this country.

K: Are you a figment of my own overactive imagination?

A: Well, isn't everything? No, I don't mean to be facetious. At the end of the day, so to speak, the Imagination is what creates all realities. Entire universes spring from the Cosmic Imagination. Hindus say it's only Vishnu dreaming. 

K: Does that mean my imagination is no different than Vishnu's – or the Prime Creator's?

A: It's a question of scale. In fractal geometry, the proportions are all-important, not the size. If you know the sum of two angles, you can figure out the third - no matter how huge your triangle. It could be an imaginary triangle connecting three star systems – the mathematics is universal. But I suggest we progress from triangles to tetrahedra: they're much more relevant to our experience of polydimensional reality. Think holograms. It’s a holographic universe.

K: Of course, it could also mean I'm schizophrenic...

A: Incidentally, that's exactly how early humans experienced contact with their gods - through auditory hallucinations generated by the right halves of their bicameral brains. The early gods were really a more evolved species with sufficient force of will to project images and, later, commands directly into the psyches of more primitive species. When these gods began interbreeding with the native primates, their progeny became the first monarchs, agents of the gods, and were regarded as the only real individuals - since the rest of the tribe was still a nebulous group-mind. The word "real" originally meant "royal." So much for reality. As for the syndrome labeled "schizophrenia" by psychiatrists, it all arises from a well-meaning but misguided attempt to define ourselves in terms of a stable, static, predictable - and controllable - social persona. The "normal' self is the product of wishful thinking, derived from genetic imprinting and sociocultural programming. Your name, address, occupation, passport and phone number... all that is just a convenient coordinate system to locate an individual within a particular social context. If you view Prime Creator or God or All That ls as the Supreme Personality, you're confronted with the archetypal case of schizophrenia - simply because that's how the One fragments into the Many.

K: Heavy stuff. Let's stick with more magazine-style questions, if you don't mind.

A: Why should I mind? I have no chip on my shoulder. You're the chap with the shoulders - and the chips.

K: Perhaps I'll quit trying to figure out what's happening on this planet and start a shouIders'n'chips franchise instead.

A: Provide your own canned laughter.

K: Right, er... Antares... where do you originate? Can I think of you as an extraterrestrial entity?

A: Everything comes from the One. l appreciate that you may find such a statement annoyingly vague. But it's the simplest and most precise response. l know you'd prefer some juicy so-called facts.

K: How about some nice, juicy so-called facts?

A: Sure. The name "Antares" connects you with stellar frequencies. Antares is also the name of a binary stargate. In Greek it means "counterforce to Mars (Ares), the divider"; and in Sanskrit it mean "interlink" (as in “antara” or 'between"). My most recent education was acquired in the Pleiadian star cluster - of which, by the way, our solar system is part - but I have intimate links with many other stellar concentrations of Consciousness. Being multidimensional means one can tune into several "lives" in several different frequency zones without shorting any circuits, so to speak. Venus is one of my favorite vacation spots in this system, and Satum is almost a second home. Earthbound science cannot as yet access the frequencies where sentient life is to be contacted on these planets. Remember, the present range of human sensory perceptions is extremely limited; and even the most advanced technical devices can only extend that range a little. Some of you are swiftly mutating, however, and are already able to pick up astral, angelic and higher mental octaves. You call such individuals psychics, clairvoyants, seers, channels. Humanity as a whole will experience a dramatic paradigm shift when enough of you let go of your rigid mindsets: that's the only barrier keeping you caught up in a tunnel reality that's seemingly futile, meaningless, and purposeless. In truth no external authority can keep you under post-hypnotic control forever. For most of us, the cage doors of consciousness are already unlocked. However, many have been "jailbirds" for so long, they're afraid to fly beyond the bars of visible reality.

K: Obviously, you can't stay away from the heavy prattle.

A: Heavy? This is light stuff. The annual report of Perwaja Steel - now that's what I would call "heavy."

K: How would you know about the corporate world?

A: Only as much as you know, plus I have access to the larger context in which these limited-objective games are being played. Glad to say, it's just a phase humanity has had to pass through. It's almost over, folks.

K: Would it be correct to regard you as my personal access to the Cosmic Internet?

A: Good analogy. Most of the Universe is already on-line, except for Earth - which is only now beginning to realize the vast possibilities of initiation into the interplanetary community. The Intergalactic Confederation? Not just yet... but let's say it's a matter of Time.

K: I'm editing out your chuckle.

A: That's fine.

K: Do you have the power to operate independently? l mean, could you coax me into doing something I would not do as the personality called "Kit Leee"?

A: We are NOT separate entities. Since you have only recently become fully conscious of your higher dimensional aspects, you're still in the habit of thinking in terms of "above and below," "higher and lower" - which is only true in a very limited sense. The expanded truth is: as your capacity for love increases, so does your empathy level - and that's the interface where we meet and fuse. Soon there shall be no visible splice between our programs: the personal and the transpersonal frequencies will be completely integrated.

K: Does that mean the demise of "Kit Leee"?

A: I have to point out that "Kit Leee" never actually existed as anything other than a form of station identification. Your essential being operates beyond names. It is, to add to the mystery, ineffable.

K: Ineffable? In-eff-able. You mean unfuckable.

A: I am unshockable. Words, words, words. The more the merrier in your case - since this magazine pays by the word. So go ahead and crack your feeble jokes. You've just earned RM1.5O, congratulations.

K: To change the subject abruptly, why are there still moments when I think the hardheaded pragmatists could be right after all? I mean, when l read the papers or talk with people, conditions on this planet appear to be worsening, not improving.

A: Appear - that's the key word. Haven't you heard? Appearances are deceptive. There's never been a finer epoch in Earth's history – by which I'm referring to the last 5,000 odd spins around the Sun. You realize, of course, that the Earth is ready to consciously accept the privilege and the responsibility of birthing the Divine Child – a brand new humanity endowed with the intellectual integrity of a Buddha, the physical agility of a Nadarajah, the compassion of a Christ - in perfect harmony with the Will of Allah (and therefore muslim in the essential meaning of the term, to be at one with the One).

K: Sounds too good to be true, what you say. l meet a lot of people who see life as a scary tightrope walk across an endless ocean of profound shit.

A: A very amusing and graphic metaphor. Gary Larson could go to town on that one. The fact that we find it funny means that it strikes a chord, cuts close to the bone - and, no doubt, such a perception of reality has been the "norm" for a very, very long time. Don't forget the Hindus call such a period of hellish darkness the Kali yuga. The good news is that a large percentage of humans have successfully broken through to higher consciousness, thereby rendering the experience of pain, horror, tragedy, and helplessness merely optional.

K: You mean we're free to change channels, so to speak?

A: Something like that. What has been happening with you, for instance, can be described as such a breakthrough. Your anxiety level has generally dropped to an unprecedented level; and you're no longer feeling chronic hostility towards emblems of external authority. Isn't that so?

K: You're right. But l continue to feel irked by events occurring on the mundane level. You know, Big Business, Big Government, Big Con Games like Wawasan 2020 or Agenda 2030. It's hard to keep quiet and watch ecocidal and genocidal projects being implemented. Look, how can we put an end to horrible scenarios like the Bakun Dam and blaming Climate Change on carbon dioxide?

A: It's all part of your final exam as a species. Humans are still wrapped up in economic and political power struggles - because the direct experience of Spirit has been effectively limited to a handful of holy rollers, hermits, aborigines, shamans, yogis, madmen, and so on. The last 500 years of scientific materialism and industrial development were a violent reaction against the preceding ages of superstition and tyrannical control by various priesthoods. Humans are now ready to find the right balance between faith and knowledge. Looking at it from a cosmic perspective, it's not really a question of who's right and who's wrong - or whether dams or windmills are necessary for your continued development. The key issue is: what are you striving to achieve, how are you using your energy? Are you perpetuating a social and economic system where only a tiny minority attains a lifestyle of unmitigated luxury, while the vast majority continue to struggle blindly, ignorantly, hopelessly, just to survive? If that is the case, then you have a moral obligation to swiftly outgrow the fearful, egocentric mindset that fosters such destructive and iniquitous activities. Just say "Boo!" and the specter of powerlessness will fade away. In other words, empower yourself, locate the spiritual center within, and kowtow to no false gods.

K: Easier said than done.

A: Even easier left unsaid.

K: You realize that this conversation could go on interminably.

A: It does. Isn't it wonderful to have a friend?

K: Damn right. Especially one who doesn't cadge smokes off me.

A: How little you know... oh well, a habit l picked up on Vulcan. Right, time for a ciggie break!

 

19 March 1996 (First posted 29 September 2023)

The Golden Spiral & Fibonacci Sequence explained in 4 minutes! (repost)

Published on 3 March 2013

Spoken Word: Alan Watts
Music: Blockhead
Clips & Audio:
Spirit Science - Jordan David
Inner Outer Worlds - David Schmidt

[Brought to my attention by Olivia de Haulleville & Walter Smith. First posted 21 September 2013. Reposted 8 October 2018]

The Entheogenic Art of Alex Grey (revisited)

entheogen |enˈthēəˌjen; -jən|
noun - a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes.

entheogenic |enˌthēəˈjenik| adjective - ORIGIN 1970s: from Greek, literally ‘becoming divine within’; coined by an informal committee studying the inebriants of shamans.

Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son's drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. He went to the Columbus College of Art and Design for two years (1971-73), then dropped out and painted billboards in Ohio for a year (73-74). Grey then attended the Boston Museum School for one year, to study with the conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav.


At the Boston Museum School he met his wife, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. During this period he had a series of entheogenically induced mystical experiences that transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple would trip together on LSD. Alex then spent five years at Harvard Medical School working in the Anatomy department studying the body and preparing cadavers for dissection.


He also worked at Harvard's department of Mind/Body Medicine with Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex's anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (explained below) and for doing medical illustration. When doctors saw his Sacred Mirrors, they asked him to do illustration work.

Grey was an instructor in Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and now teaches courses in Visionary Art with Allyson at The Open Center in New York City, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.

In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. The most recent performance was WorldSpirit, a spoken word and musical collaboration with Kenji Williams which was released in 2004 as a DVD.

Grey's unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete.


It was during this period that he developed his depictions of the human body that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work has explored the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.


Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere have expressed appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Grey's paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of TOOL, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Newsweek magazine, the Discovery Channel, Rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including Feature Inc., Tibet House, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, The Outsider Art Fair and the New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Alex has been a keynote speaker at conferences all over the world including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus. The international psychedelic community has embraced Grey as an important mapmaker and spokesman for the visionary realm.

A large installation called Heart Net by Alex and his wife, Allyson, was displayed at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum in 1998-99. A mid-career retrospective of Grey's works was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1999. The large format art book, Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey has been translated into five languages and has sold over one hundred thousand copies, unusual for an art book. His inspirational book, The Mission of Art, traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history, exploring the role of an artist's intention and conscience, and reflecting on the creative process as a spiritual path.


Transfigurations is Alex's second large format monograph containing over 300 color and black & white images of Grey's work. Sounds True has released The Visionary Artist, a CD of Grey's reflections on art as a spiritual practice. ARTmind is the artist's recent video exploring the healing potential of Sacred Art. Grey co-edited the book, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle Books, 2002). The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, a long-term exhibition of fifty works of transformative art by Grey has opened (Fall 2004) in New York City. He lives in New York City with his wife, the painter, Allyson Grey and their daughter, the actress, Zena Grey.

Cosmic Christ

The Alex Grey Guitar

[With special thanks to Melissa Lin for introducing me to Alex Grey! First published 23 December 2008, reposted 27 )ctober 2013]

TESTOSTERONAL OVERDRIVE, TERRITORIALITY... AND THE MALAY MALE (revisited)

Self-portrait @ sixteen

I was only 16 when I met Azizah at a "grownup" party where couples were slow-dancing and drinking alcoholic beverages. My classmate Suhaimi had invited Johnny Khoo and me to the party. As a fifth form student in Batu Pahat High School I was still a Walt Disney kid and as naïve as Dumbo the Flying Elephant. 

[Note: When I wrote this essay in May 2009, I was blissfully unaware of Walt Disney's secret life as an initiate of the Cabal; only found out after 2016 when Donald Trump declared war on the global pedophile network and came under relentless attack by the Mockingbird/Talkingturd media!]

One afternoon I saw Suhaimi sitting alone in the school canteen, busy rolling a balut (reefer). "What's that you're smoking?" I asked. Suhaimi winked and said conspiratorially: "We call this ganja." I had no idea what he was talking about so Suhaimi explained that in English it was known as marijuana. He pronounced it "mari-jew-anna."

I was horrified. "Suhaimi, you're my buddy and I care about you, so please listen to me and stop this dangerous habit before it destroys your life."

Suhaimi grinned and nodded amicably but didn't bother arguing with me. Nor did he offer me a toke on his glowing reefer. Two years later when I had my first joint I thought back to this early encounter with "illegal substances" and felt like a complete twit. What a namby-pamby twirp Suhaimi must have thought I was! But he was kind enough not to mock me and I'm still grateful for that.

Gaia by Sabrine

But I digress. Coming back to the party where I met Azizah: I remember her grabbing me by the hand and dragging me to the dance floor. Though I felt awkward and shy I managed to pretend to be cool and sophisticated. I was on cloud nine dancing with the vivacious and extremely friendly Azizah. To top it all she was very pretty too. Before we parted she told me she lived in the Gunung Soga government quarters. She even gave me her address and invited me to visit anytime.

About a week later I found myself driving around the Gunung Soga area with Johnny in tow. My dad, bless his soul, trusted me with his car even though I was too young to possess a driver's licence.

"Hey, let's see if we can find Azizah," Johnny suggested. It only took a couple of turns around the neighborhood to locate her house. We walked up to the front door and boldly knocked. Azizah opened it and broke into a big smile when she saw us. She began chatting with us but made no move to invite us in. A moment later we understood why.

A heavyset bloke sporting a policeman-style mustache suddenly emerged from a bedroom and sauntered to the front door. Azizah appeared a tad nervous as she introduced her fiancé Azlan to us.

Azlan gestured to Azizah and she gave us a weak smile as she disappeared into the kitchen, as if to fetch us some drinks. Her fiancé's hunky body blocked the entrance. "How do you know Azizah?" he asked curtly.

"Oh, we met at a party and she invited us to visit," I began... but Azlan wasn't listening. He took a step forward and kneed Johnny in the groin.

Johnny reflexively got into fighting stance but I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Let's leave. I don't think we're welcome here."

That was my first experience of testosteronal overdrive, territoriality and the Malay male. It was such a rude and unpleasant shock I quickly blotted the incident from memory.



Thirty-three years later I was reminded of Azizah and her possessive lover Azlan when I saw Huzir Sulaiman's dramatic monologue, Election Day, wherein he played three housemates named Francis, Dedric and Fozi. The narrator is Francis (a freelance copywriter who could be either Indian or Eurasian) and the plot revolves around "the beautiful and enigmatic Natasha" (a rich girl who is neither seen nor heard at any point but for whose affections all three housemates end up vying). Dedric is a Taiwan-educated Tian Chua type human rights activist and Fozi is a fashionably bohemian architect and one-time PAS member in Perak.

At the start of the play Natasha is Fozi's girlfriend and she has just left the house after a spat with him. The action takes place on Election Day, 29 November 1999. As the drama unfolds we discover that Dedric has a crush on Natasha and thinks Fozi isn't worthy of her. Cleverly interweaving acerbic sociopolitical commentary into his narrative, Huzir concludes his one-hour neo-existentialist drama with a chilling revelation: one of the three housemates is actually a Special Branch officer who manages to set up the other two guys for arrest and detention without trial so he can get the girl - and possibly a promotion for services rendered towards the maintenance of the status quo.

Natasha in Election Day represents the ultimate reward: the land itself, a trophy bride to show off to the whole world and in whose fecund and erotic soil the conquering hero can plant his seeds.

Was Huzir Sulaiman cynically implying that the old adage - all's fair in love and war - holds true and that only the completely amoral stand a chance of winning the game?

Anyway, as I began to recall that long-forgotten run-in with Azizah's jealous fiancé Azlan, many complex issues emerged for me to ponder. First of all, why did Azizah invite me to her house? Okay, assuming she found me rather cute and was keen to befriend me, why didn't she warn me about Azlan? Those were the days before cellphones and SMSes, so it would have been a bit harder to plan secret trysts, even if she had passed me her home phone number. Yet Azizah struck me as a free-spirited, fun-loving girl who enjoyed a wide circle of friends and didn't see anything wrong with befriending other guys even if she already had a steady boyfriend or fiancé.

Perhaps Azlan and Azizah had very different views on this subject. I wonder if she eventually married the fellow - and whether she would have been happy being under the thumb of such a control freak who obviously believed it was fine for him to have four wives, but strictly a no-no for a woman to have four husbands.

I made an effort to imagine myself as someone like Azlan, who would shoot first and talk later if he felt his boundaries threatened. A man of action rather than contemplation who probably dismissed people like me as lily-livered bleeding hearts just because we're capable of a measure of empathy - and are therefore more likely to welcome the unexpected rather than barricade ourselves against the unknown.

If I were Azlan and one day found a couple of strange men at the door asking to see my girlfriend, what would my response be? First, I'd ask her if she knew these guys and whether she wanted to see them. If she acknowledged them as friends and was happy to welcome them to the house, I'd probably regard them as my friends too. They'd be served tea and cakes and after a bit of conversation I might find I enjoyed their company and vice versa. Even if they initially had plans to date her, they would probably be glad just to be accepted as family friends.

After all, if I'm fortunate enough to have a really hot girlfriend or spouse, she's bound to be a big hit with almost every guy she meets and they would all wish they could make out with her. And if I didn't attempt to put her on a short leash and respected her sovereignty as a conscious and mature individual, I'd trust her to always be honest with me.

It's absurd to force your partner to vow NEVER to be attracted to any other. However, it's not difficult at all to swear eternal love to somebody - as long as it's not exclusive, since one never knows what inner changes one will undergo over an extended period.

For instance, you may believe you're absolutely besotted with somebody when you're 17 years old, only to realize four or five years down the line - or perhaps even after four or five months - that it was a purely superficial attraction, and that it's time to move on. Even so, one must always be grateful for love and good times shared. It's a very positive thing to continue loving the ones you have mentally and emotionally outgrown or detached from - like your own parents or former teachers, for example.

Do you see what I'm getting at? Azlan is a metaphor for Umno's values of pseudo-nationalism, ultra-ethnocentrism, and erotophobic bi-polarity manifesting as an obsession with sex and power. Azizah symbolizes Malaysia.

As a traditional, patriarchally programmed Malay male, Azlan/Umno believes it is his God-given right to possess and control Azizah/Malaysia. The thought of somebody else - what more a pork-eating Chink? - wanting a share of his prized possession Azizah is enough to trigger a violent knee-jerk reaction.

All very basic, really: without wasting his breath by going into a discussion about the matter, Azlan instinctively knew what Johnny and I were after - his girl! - and since he was a much more mature guy than either of us fifth-formers, he simply turned into a bully-boy to dissuade us from ever approaching Azizah again. Just protecting his own interests, that's all. Nothing personal.



But there's the rub. Azlan saw Azizah as his property - not as a living, thinking, feeling, evolving, autonomous entity. Johnny wanted to punch Azlan in the face but I felt it was prudent to just walk away from an unnecessary fight. It wasn't as if either of us was seriously in love with Azizah. We only wanted to explore the possibilities of befriending this feisty, friendly girl. All very innocuous stuff, really, and it was stupid of Azlan to react so brutishly.

By obeying his own primitive, unthinking, territorial imperatives he had shown himself to be merely a humanoid biped not much more evolved than a gorilla equipped with basic linguistic circuitry. If he had had the good sense to break into a broad grin and quip: "So you guys want to chat with Azizah? Well, I'm her manager and it's going to cost you 50 bucks an hour... each! Actually, I'm engaged to be married to Azizah in three months and if you turn out to be nice fellas, we'll invite you to the wedding."

Well, such an approach might easily have won Azlan two new friends. Instead, he left me with a permanent bad taste about unwarranted jealousy, petty-mindedness and the sheer stupidity of being a habitual control freak. Indeed, I'm convinced that people like Azlan - unless they mature and mellow rapidly enough - won't qualify for admission into the heavenly realms, because we can't have such coarse and loutish souls clogging up the free flow of good feelings in those rarefied frequencies.

Nevertheless, Azlan's violent behavior was undeniably effective. I never attempted again to contact Azizah, though for me she will always represent the beauty, nubility, hospitality and infinite promise my country holds for me - and everyone else who regards her as home. And ever since that time the name Azizah has always held a mysterious appeal for me.

Azizah would be past 60 by now, probably a grandmother several times over. I fervently hope she wised up and dumped that reactionary Umnoish boyfriend of hers and married a Mat Salleh instead. In any case, I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of these days a vibrant, vivacious and extremely attractive young woman named Zamila added me as her Facebook friend, and I later discovered her paternal grandma Azizah was born in Batu Pahat and lived for many years in the Gunung Soga government quarters...

FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY ~

 IF NOT POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Halfway through writing this post it occurred to me that the syndrome I've been discussing is certainly not defined by ethnicity or nationality, nor does it entirely apply to the male gender. It so happened that in this early encounter with "the territorial imperative" the antagonist happened to be a Malay male. He could also have been Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Albanian, Filipino, Zimbabwean, Chinese or Portuguese. Possessiveness is a fairly common trait amongst females too.

Ego insecurity and jealousy are hardwired into our reptilian brains - the most basic, most ancient and primitive component of vertebrate cerebrospinal neural circuitry. In most species the territorial imperative serves the long-range objectives of specific genetic programs in a Darwinian selective process.

Stands to reason that under the harsh, hostile conditions of a prolonged Dark Age, the masculine, warlike qualities would become prominent survival features. However, in an Enlightened Age, this truculent, hooliganistic, shoot-first-talk-later behavior swiftly becomes countersurvival.

Brain supersedes brawn and heart overrides gonads as sentient beings evolve. In effect, the Azlan syndrome is really a residual behavior accumulated over thousands of years when physical might improved procreative odds. In an era when metaphysical vision becomes more relevant and significant as modifiers of human evolution, the gorillaman faces abrupt extinction as the godman takes his place as prime progenitive preference.

Just as Umno has yet to integrate the deeper existential implications of its massive losses during the 8 March 2008 election, a large portion of humanity has yet to acquire the more advanced software that will enable us to constantly be aware of the Big Picture - the larger context of our interactions with other aspects of our constantly expanding selves. Those able to swiftly redefine themselves and their own ego boundaries may be classified as "Cultural Creatives" or civilizing agents. 

Now here comes the good news: according to sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson, who co-authored The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World  (published in 2000), at least 25% of the world's human population now qualify as civilizing agents. I'd call that a critical mass! 

[Firs published 9 May 2009, reposted 2 October 2013 & 6 October 2021]

We’re off to off the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Who among us has not been amused and delighted by the extraordinary spectacle of Munchkins bursting into song and dance in celebration of the Wicked Witch’s demise?

Have we not wondered, at different moments in our life, if we were more like the brainless Scarecrow, the heartless Tin Man, or the Cowardly Lion?

And, just like Dorothy, have we never come to the conclusion, after a surfeit of incredible adventures, that there’s no place like Home?

When MGM released in 1939 the Hollywood version of what had already achieved cult status as a stage musical, L. Frank Baum’s immortal classic The Wizard of Oz  swiftly won the hearts of a worldwide audience.

I don’t remember how old I was the first time I caught the movie in my hometown but it certainly left many vivid images imprinted in my impressionable young mind. So when The Wizard of Oz was restaged between April and May 2012 at KLPAC by Pan Productions – a young and vigorous outfit helmed by the highly talented Nell Ng, Peter Ong and Alizakri Alias – I looked forward greatly to catching it.

Radhi Khalid as the Tin Man, Stephanie Van Driesen as Dorothy Gale, Peter Ong as The Scarecrow,
and special guest star Wolfgang as Toto

I wasn’t disappointed. It was as wonderful a production of a time-tested favorite as any you’re likely to see in any major city. Director-choreographer Nell Ng opted to stick close to the general tone and flavor of the Hollywood version and found herself the perfect Dorothy Gale in Stephanie Van Driesen (who even bears a passing resemblance to the young Judy Garland and, more importantly, is a well-rounded talent in terms of acting, dancing and singing).

Tria Aziz: a magnificently malevolent
Wicked Witch of the West 

Another outstanding casting choice was Tria Aziz as Almira Gultch and the Wicked Witch of the West whose iridescent green makeup and powerful singing voice made her a candidate for the best supporting actress award. But, then, many other key players were equally impressive – particularly Peter Ong (Hunk/Scarecrow), Radhi Khalid (Hickory/Tin Man), and Zalila Lee (Zeke/Cowardly Lion). Special mention must be made of Wolfgang the terrific terrier who took on the challenge of playing Toto.

The multimedia effects by a digital projection outfit called Dam Interactive were, in a word, wizardly. They played a significant role in the success of the production, convincingly conjuring a wide range of atmospheres - from a violent tornado to enchanted forests, spooky castles, and an Emerald Palace fit for a Wonderful Wizard. Musical director Eric Carter Hah deserves a standing ovation for bringing the fairly complex score to life with such effortless ease I initially thought I was hearing a pre-recorded soundtrack. Then I realized there was an 11-piece orchestra hidden backstage.

Seeing The Wizard of Oz as a stage musical for the first time in my life was most definitely a treat. Even more so since many of the talented and charming cast happen to be dear old friends. As a treat for all the senses, Nell Ng’s Wizard  left little to be desired – and, as I told her afterwards, my only complaint was that the air-conditioning in KLPAC was so cold I found myself sitting on my hands between rounds of hearty applause.

Suhaili Michelline as the good Witch of the North

L. Frank Baum in 1911

I decided to do a bit of research on the man who created the Land of Oz - that colorful character named Lyman Frank Baum (15 May 1856 ~ 6 May 1919) and found him to be way too complex to summarize. In his youth he got hold of a simple printing press and became an editor-journalist-publisher. Then he got into poultry breeding and traded in fireworks. At the same time he was infatuated with the theater and squandered a large portion of his wealth investing in unsuccessful plays. He took on a great many roles, using stage names like Louis F. Baum and George Brooks.

In 1880 Baum’s father built him a theater in Richburg, New York, and he wasted no time writing, producing, directing and acting in plays – even composing songs and conducting workshops in stagecraft . Just as he was beginning to reap some acclaim, a fire destroyed his theater, along with his costume collection and the only copies of his playscripts.

Failure and ill fortune continued to dog L. Frank Baum until his 44th birthday – when his collaboration with illustrator W.W. Denslow yielded a best-selling children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thereafter Baum began churning out a stream of children’s books based on his Oz characters.

Five years later he announced a grand plan to buy an island off the California coast where he would build a gigantic theme park named “The Marvelous Land of Oz – a fairy paradise for children.” Eleven-year-old Dorothy Talbot of San Francisco was to be crowned Queen of Oz and the park was to be administered by a committee of child advisors. Baum himself intended to relocate to the island where he would presumably assume the role of a real-life wizard.

Alas, the theme park project was abandoned after another theatrical venture, The Woggle-Bug, failed at the box office. Baum even founded a film company in 1914 called The Oz Film Manufacturing Company but lost a lot of money on the venture. One gets the distinct feeling that L. Frank Baum was born just a wee bit too early. It took another visionary entrepreneur, a fellow named Walter Elias Disney – born shortly after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became a runaway best-seller – to realize all of L. Frank Baum’s fantastic dreams.

Among the interesting details I unearthed about L. Frank Baum, the fact that he had the tendency to look askance at religion caught my attention. Although raised as a Methodist, Baum expressed a great deal of skepticism about orthodox dogmas. At one point he joined the Episcopal Church – but mainly for the purpose of participating in community theatricals.

In 1897 - influenced by Matilda Joslyn Gage, Baum’s feminist mother-in-law - Baum and his wife became Theosophists. The Theosophical Society had been established in 1875 by Henry Steel Olcott (a military investigator, journalist and lawyer) and the famous Russian mystic, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Theosophists hold that “there is no religion higher than truth.”

In the light of this, can any traces of L. Frank Baum’s metaphysical inclinations be found in The Wizard of Oz? Considering that the Wizard presides like a deity - inspiring awe, reverence and not a little fear - over the inhabitants of Oz, isn’t it delightful that it takes a fearless and innocent little girl named Dorothy to gain entry to the Emerald Palace and penetrate the Wizard’s high-tech public relations apparatus, so that the Great Wizard of Oz is ultimately exposed as an eccentric "extraterrestrial" trickster, a master illusionist, a professional thaumaturge - albeit a disarmingly benign one?

It doesn’t require too much of a stretch of the imagination to draw a few parallels with The Matrix movies - wherein the Archons or Fates appear as a funky assortment of complex metaprograms running the holographic pseudo-reality from which Thomas Anderson aka Neo the hacker escapes (after he swallows the Red Pill offered by Morpheous) and fulfills his destiny as “The One.”

Indeed, I would venture the opinion that The Wizard of Oz qualifies as a forerunner of The Matrix. It’s easy enough to replace the Wicked Witch of the West with Agent Smith. Now I’m seriously looking forward to the musical version of The Matrix.

Does this constitute political commentary?

[First posted 6 November 2012]

Rhythm of the Rainforest ~ Sarawak 2005

First published on 1 Oct 2015. Reuploaded July 2024.

The annual Rainforest World Music Festival that has put Sarawak on the world music map since its humble beginnings in August 1998 is now an established event in the international music festival calendar. In 2005 I was commissioned to produce a feature-length documentary capturing the essence and spirit of this joyful, exuberant and intoxicatingly colorful festival. An 80-minute version was released on DVD in 2006. This 45-minute cut intended for local TV never got aired but here it is now on YouTube!

Produced & Directed by Antares
Production Coordinator: Emanar Alaya
Cameras: Aaron Chung, Jon Yap, Tan Yu Ming, Antares
Editing & Effects: Daljit Singh/Daily Rushes
Executive Producers: Sarawak Tourism Board

Released on DVD in July 2006 as a 79-minute feature-length documentary.

The phenomenal Alex Peters (Malaysia's Rock Machine) is still absolutely awesome after all these years!

Alex Lesley Peters was born in Sentul where his father worked with Malayan Railways (“like all dads in Sentul”), but grew up in the Cochrane Road area. By then, his father had moved to the Orang Asli Affairs Department.

At 12, Peters wanted to become a Catholic priest. At 14, after the household had engaged in tense debate, he began a two-year stay at the Gethsemane Friary in Cheras, from where he bused it to the Jalan Cochrane Secondary School in the neighborhood his family lived. During those two years, music filled the Peters home in a big way. Three older brothers, each on a musical journey of his own, shared a made-in-China Kapok brand acoustic guitar with Lion brand steel strings.

Then there was Alex, home only for holidays, the youngest and clamoring for his turn on the guitar because the music was surging inside him.

“There were four young men in the house, each into Santana, Hendrix, Deep Purple, Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Iron Butterfly, King Crimson. The strings popped a lot. Then my first public performance came along.”

It was a penalty thing: if you did not play a sport or join a school club, you had to do something for the annual concert. Alex Peters played the guitar, his head hung down, his eyes fixed on the stage floor throughout the performance. His teammate, equally petrified, sang John Denver’s 'Country Road.'

“We barely heard the words of the song. We were so scared. I was seized with fright."

By 17, Peters was seized with rock‘n’roll. Music had taken over his life. Priestly plans were cancelled. Staying at home, he joined his brother Matthew's band Mainstream, doing mostly soft rock at private events.

Then came the big moves. He told his mother he was going to fail his MCE, that he had decided to be a singer and needed a RM173 loan to invest in a real guitar. She had something of a fit.

“She gave me the money eventually. I was focused. I think she saw that. That was the turning point. I had decided what I wanted to do with my life. There was a definite plan, a clear path.”

A path from which Peters has not veered despite occasional, sometimes long, breaks from singing. From 1978 to 1982, he was part of a group – three separate line-ups of Stratosphere – as bandmates came and went. They played hard rock, soft rock, jazz rock, disco, country & western and reggae.

In 1983, he went solo and slowly purged country & western from his repertoire, turned up the sound and acquired a rock and reggae reputation.

It repelled the older regulars at Bangsar’s Moonraker pub who came in for 'Your Cheating Heart' and couldn’t fathom the pulse of a rocker.

Peters brought in a new generation, set a new trend and attracted a bona fide cult following. One group of diehard loyalists was there every night. They called themselves the Gravediggers – they were young, full of machismo and at an age when men like to give themselves mean-sounding names.

Late in 1984, the voice went away. Alex Peters, diagnosed with voice abuse (gross loss of larynx muscle elasticity) retreated for two years and used that time to learn the workings of new generation sound machines. Then he was back with a vengeance, bringing with him that big sound he is now famous for. He created a serious following at Treffpunkt in Petaling Jaya.

In 1988, he won the first Top of the Pubs contest, sweeping the crowd with a frenzied rendition (which people still talk about) of Herbie Hancock’s 'Rockit.' The contest, now an annual event, made Alex Peters a household name.

[Source: Sunday Style, 1 November 1998]

Sentul Soul-Brother

Alex Peters @ lxpeterz.com

It's virtually impossible to write about Alex Peters - and do the man justice. Simply because his interests span a broad spectrum beyond his public persona as the most popular pub musician Malaysia has ever seen. 

As a musician, his mastery of virtually all musical modalities leaves one breathless with admiration. Ever the perfectionist, he has been known to work 16-hour days just getting his backing tracks right, constantly aiming for that magical blend of polished precision and raw passion.

Somewhat of a recluse and an introvert offstage, Alex Peters possesses a deep, mystical nature that lends him the aura of a scientist monk or medieval alchemist. As long as I've known him, he has walked a taut tightrope between priest and shaman, closet scholar and magus, saint and cynic (he also happens to pay avid attention to geopolitical shenanigans and NWO conspiracies). 

I am astounded by his ability to deconstruct complex compositions and lovingly reconstruct them as minus-two backing tracks, adding his own personal flourishes with impeccable guitarwork and sinewy vocals. When I first witnessed Alex Peters the Rock Machine in action during the late 1980s - that was when he pioneered the art of accompanying himself on guitar with richly orchestrated, consummately produced pre-recorded bass & synth tracks - I realized that this guy had achieved my childhood dream of becoming a musical prodigy with an encyclopedic grasp of all music.

In my adolescent fantasies I would imagine myself as leader of a band so versatile that it could play just about anything on earth - whether the classics, popular hits, ethnic-fusion, avant-garde, progressive jazz or pure funk.  Well, Alex Peters had picked up my childhood dream and run off with it - as essentially the world's most versatile one-man band (although he occasionally enjoyed collaborating with other ace musicians like Allan Perera, Simon Justin Leo and Viji).

Whether he's simulating the DJ scratch effect on Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit' with his guitar on overdrive, or creating his own raga-style Indian-flavored anthem ('Higher') with an Open D tuning that approximates the sound of a sitar & tamboura being played together, Alex's instinct for the crowd-pleasing wow factor has always been unerring. He can even out-Santana Carlos on an electronically reconstituted samba... that's how masterful the man is as a musician.

His pitch-perfect voice (which he almost lost to acute laryngitis in 1984) covers a truly remarkable range which allows him to attempt anything from the tenderest ballads and the most soulful R&B to the toughest roughest metal numbers. To my mind Alex Peters has created a musical signature that's a miraculous blend of Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Jesus Christ Superstar.

As we approach yet another Merdeka (Independence Day) with mixed and murky feelings about the abysmal state of affairs precipitated by what Wilhelm Reich aptly called the Higs - Hoodlums in government - my thoughts turn to all the things that make me proud of and optimistic about Malaysia, despite the shabby treatment some of our greatest talents have been shown. 

The way P. Ramlee was left in the lurch and ignored until long after his death (when his monumental talent was seized upon by officialdom, celebrated and canonized as a Malaysian icon)... the cold-blooded manner in which Sudirman was shunned when it became apparent that he was dying of AIDs... the indifference of our cultural bureaucrats to world-class musicians like the late great Paul Ponnudurai, who spent his last years performing in a Singapore pub... well, suddenly reconnecting (thanks to facebook) with a musical supergenius like Alex Peters - who has still so much more to offer - is verily a brilliant sunbeam breaking forth from behind an ominous dark cloud. So glad we made it to this point, my illustrious Sentul Soul-Brother!

[Fisrt posted 30 August 2013, reposted 12 August 2020]