Saturday, February 28, 2009

The demise of his beautiful car








Monday – 23/2/2009

I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face, looking forwards to having a happy moment in my life. The very first thing I did after my breakfast of a bowl of honey crunch cornflake was to call Anthony, the car dealer, telling him that I was going to collect the car today.

At 1pm, there I was on time at Carrol and Kinsella Motor Ltd, in Walkinstown Road to finalise the ownership of Toyota Auris 2007. After signing few papers and arranging the insurance, I was officially a proud owner of a beautiful car. It was dark blue in color, a hatchback with 3 doors, spacey inside with 16” alloy wheel. Zoom....I was off to work.



Tuesday – 24/2/2009

I was still the owner of the car. I was so excited driving it, passing through a heavy traffic in city centre to go to work which was about 1 hour away. I said to myself repeatedly ‘Eventually, I manage to own a proper car’. It had a stylish interior design with a good-looking exterior. I couldn’t be happier....

On arrival to my work-place, I found out that there would be a football match later that night in a stadium just beside the hospital where I was working at. As a result, I had some difficulty to find a space to park my car as the football fans started to arrive. Finally I found a small parking space behind an army reserved building about 300m away from the hospital.

It was a busy night at work that night. I could not remember how many broken bones or dislocated joints I saw. Nor do I remember how many patients I spoke to with trivial problems. Understandably, at the end of my shift, which was at midnight, I was exhausted, looking forwards again to being in my new car to enjoy the comfortable seat it provided, to drive with its powerful engine, to listen to my favourite radio-station Spin 108 which sound came from its 6 brilliant speakers.

After saying goodbyes and thank you to the night staff, I bravely walked through the cold night to my new beautiful car, slightly perturbed by the eerie sight of the graveyard beside the hospital. About 5 meters away from the car which behind was facing me, I used the remote control to unlock the car. To my surprise, it didn’t work. I thought, ‘Damned! I forgot to lock the car. I was hoping nobody had stolen anything from the car. There was an umbrella, a phone charger and a FM transmitter for my ipod touch for them to steal.

Walking closer to the car, with the help of dimmed lights from the nearby building, I noticed the back window was broken. ‘Oh! No! This is not happening!”, losing hope that the £90 FM transmitter would still be there. I quickened my pace to see the real damage. The very second I stepped beside the car, I was frozen, not by the chilling night, but by the appearance of my beautiful car which was not so beautiful anymore. I was so shocked by the unpleasant sight of the car. Nothing left inside. Literally, nothing! All gone! It was burnt out! The smell of it was nauseating.

The very moment I realised what my car had become, I was momentarily speechless, didn’t know what to do with so much mixed emotion inside. I was so upset that I wanted to cry my eyes out, I was so angry that if it was not a freezing night, there would be fire came out of my ears. I wanted to shout out loud to break the windows of the houses in neighbourhood as I believed whoever did it was/were from the area.

It was 12 midnight, in freezing cold, in semi darkness I was alone with a cemetery nearby, facing the leftover of my not-so-attractive-looking-now car. The first person I called was Andrew. With my cracking voice, nearly into tears, I explained to him briefly of my finding to his shock. Kindly, he agreed to fetch me. Poor sod, he had to go to his parents’ house to borrow his sister’s Mini Cooper to come to Drogheda.

Next, I called the gardai who shortly arrived to the hospital for me to make the police report. That night, I was informed by one of them of what exactly had happened to my car. Apparently, around 10 pm that night, after the football match, there was a small riot. Some of the yobs, smashed the windows of my car, threw in petrol and set it on fire. Great! You burn my car and you will be burnt in hell.

The garda also told me that when it was still on fire, the attending garda tried to contact the owner. Using the registration number, it was traced to the car dealer, and it was no way for them at the time to contact them.

Well, I was fine the next day. Still shocked by the event but more forgiving. The support I got from the nursing staff, my colleagues, my friends either here or in facebook has been amazing. For instance, one of the nurses when she found one euro on the floor, she immediately gave to me and said, “ here Hairi, towards the fund of yours to get a new car”. Or the other nurse who wrote in a sympathy card which I received from them the next day “Dear Hairi, so sorry to hear about your loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time, PS: Matthews Bus $12 return. Regular service”. Ahh... how thoughtful they are!

Finally I would like to express my utmost appreciation for the kind words of support and sympathy I have received from my friends.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The frogs! The frogs!

It has been so long since the last time I updated my blog. I just returned from my well deserved holiday in Malaysia, so, understandably I am still in my holiday mood. My mind is still at home, and my oh my, it is so damned difficult to go back to my normal routine. My sleep pattern is still in disarray, my appetite is still for the authentic spicy malaysian food. I put 5kg in weight in 2 weeks. Luckily, I think I have lost again all the extra weight in a week except the fat on my cheeks...

I have visited my blog nearly daily to find a wee bit inspiration of what I should jot down. Well, I think I was having a mental block. My live is boring, nothing exciting at work. The only thing that I have found exciting recently is the political scenario at home, specifically of what is happening in Perak. All this time I have tried to restrain myself from talking about politics in this blog as it was created with the intention to document my journey as a doctor. Somehow I can’t ignore the unforgettable drama in Perak. I feel I need to have my say on this desperate situation.

Before I go ranting and criticising I have to admit that I am no expert in politic nor I have any preference to any malaysian party. U will know the reason why later on. What i am about the write is from my own observation as an ordinary impartial follower of malaysian politic.

What is going on in Perak now is immoral, unethical, shameful and disgraceful.....unfortunately constitutional. All of this because of the frogs that like to hop. As a member of state seat or parliament, a crossover should be prohibited by law. A formation of any government with the help of those who crossover should be made illegal. What is happening now has tainted the meaning of democracy. Anyhow I am not surprised it happened. Do you really expect a dignified strategy from the BN? Corrupted, arrogant, power hungry and out of touch....

I believe what should have happened was the four state seats currently being held by the frogs should be declared vacant, and by-elections should be held. If the seats are still 50-50, then it is the Sultan’s prerogative to elect the government which he deems would benefit the people and the state. A snap state election is not economically viable at present considering the serious global recession we are facing. But hey, decision has been made. Having said this, to avoid further uncertainty and instability, the sultan’s decision should be respected as I strongly believe he has acted within the law and constitution. This is another example of imperfection of democracy.

I also have to mention that I never believe the opposition coalition party, Pakatan Rakyat will work. They all have different ideologies. DAP one end, Pas the other end, Keadilan in middle willingly being the pacifist between the two. DAP and PAS cannot mix. They are like cencaluk and tempoyak (Malaysian appetisers). On its own, it is delicious to some people. Mixing together, they are rotten. Keadilan is like someone in the middle of rope pulling competition (pertandingan tarik tali), whose hands tied to the rope, one end being pulled by DAP, the other end by PAS. Up till today Keadilan was strong enough to balance the force from either end. The advantage of being in this position is he can feel which one is stronger. If he starts to fell the strain and if he thinks one side is stronger than the other he can let the rope from the weaker end loose, leading either the fall of DAP or the loss of Pas. The disadvantage is if Keadilan’s strength weaken, and both end stronger, Keadilan will split in the middle leading to its own demise. I suspect the latter will happen. The crack has become apparent with the call from DAP Hercules Mr. Karpal Singh today for the resignation of Anwar as the opposition leader.

From my observation, Keadilan was formed initially to fight the injustice done to Anwar. Once he was released, the followers like lost souls momentarily. With the charisma of Anwar, together with the weakness of Abdullah Badawi’s government, Keadilan saw the opportunity to make a mark in malaysian politic. Unfortunately, they had no confidence to do it alone, so Keadilan gathered PAS and DAP to form Pakatan. Even so they, the Pakatan had no confidence to topple BN. That was why they were surprised when they managed to conquer 5 states. My conclusion is Pakatan had a great plan to beat BN but had no plan whatsoever how to form a government, hence they are in trouble at present. I was surprised with DAP and PAS for even agreeable to be in the same boat for the sake of bringing down BN government, sacrificing their own ideologies. If they think they can topple the government easier together, they could have done it years ago. Why wait for Keadilan? Why wait for Anwar who Pas used to call munafik and unislamic, who DAP used to call undemocratic, untrustworthy? I suppose this is politic. One minute you are the worst enemies, the next minute you are the best friend, all in the name of power.

My problem with Keadilan is, it is too dependent on Anwar. Anwar=Keadilan, Keadilan=Anwar. What is Keadilan without Anwar? On paper Keadilan is a perfect party for me to support. It is a multi-racial party, a centrist party that champions itself to fight social injustice, discrimination and corruption. So why not? The reason I don’t support Keadilan is because of the same man why Keadilan was established in the first place. The man himself= Anwar.

I respected him during his pre BN for what he was fighting for. I grew suspicious when he joined BN and with his meteoric rise in BN government. I believe what he did in the government during 1997/98 financial crisis was wrong, his sacking was right, his prosecution was wrong, his acquittal was right.....after that everything has gone wrong. He is an opportunist, a populist, two-faced and full of agenda. When he was released from prison, I was on his side with benefit of the doubt, hoping he had redeemed himself during his imprisonment. I was wrong. Following his speeches (ceramah), I notice he hasn’t changed much. He still talks like he was in BN. People have mistaken it as his charisma, I see it as arrogance. He never take the blame. He even blamed Abdullah Badawi for his own failure to topple the government. Come on Anwar! You could do better than that. Remember back then sometimes in August/Sept 2008 when he announced Pakatan would take over the government with the help from frogs? That was never materialised. He welcome Nasarudin to PKR but you can hear his opposition out loud against the party- hopping to BN leading to the fall of Pakatan government in Perak. Jumping in yes, jumping out no!??? Where does he stand on crossovers? Am I the only one notices his inconsistency in certain issues? I hope not.

So where is my stand politically? BN? No way! DAP? May be. Pas? No way. Keadilan? May be- Anwar, No way+Anwar. Pakatan? No way. Perhap I should form my own party. It is called A Rhythm Nation Party. Manifesto: Shake ! Shake! Shake to the left, shake to the right, keep dancing.

One more thing. Lompat, si katak, lompat. Lompat lah tinggi tinggi. But don’t you ever forget, Mr. and Madam Frogs, the higher you leap, the bigger impact you will have when you hit the ground! Spalsh!