Ibrahim Hussein (1936-2009)

Ibrahim Hussein, Malaysia's most famous artist of international renown passed away quite suddenly on Thursday 19 February following a heart attack. The 72-year old late artist was buried at the Bukit Kiara Islamic Cemetary.

On the website of Ib's Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation are these words:

"To me, painting is like praying. When I paint, I am dealing with my heart, my work and God. There is deep joy and gratitude. Each piece frames a moment in my life."

My wife and I had the privilege of visiting the Center in Langkawi in 2005 and thinking to myself, what is this world-class art center doing here in Langkawi? Malaysians ought to be better acquainted with this much-awarded artist and his art, I thought. And this remote outpost on Langkawi - though wonderful for artistic pursuits - would merely reduce the great man into an inconsequential footnote. Indeed as the website reveals, the last Langkawi International of Arts organised by the Center was in 2000!

The artist himself met us at the door on that hot afternoon after we pulled up at the driveway and rang a bell. He smiled sheepishly and welcomed us in explaining that no one was around because of the holidays (Chinese New Year then). We paid him our admission tickets and after a few words, shuffled away leaving us to explore and view the displays on our own.

We bought a book and had him autograph it. He obligingly posed for a photo. We said goodbye, he thanked us for visiting. I think I left feeling a little envious that here was a man who did what he loved, and found both joy and great success along the way.


Fellow artist Victor Chin's obit here.

Myanmar mission

Mingaladon
Myanmar
4 Feb ~ 11 Feb, 2009

While the rest of Asia marches on, Myanmar is lost in a time warp. Tragically, the ruling junta - in power since 1962 - maintains its stranglehold, oblivious to the suffering of its people, doesn’t look like it’s going to loosen its grip any time soon.

There is a lively buzz in the city of Yangon where new office towers are beginning to dominate older colonial buildings. Yangon is clearly not in the same league as Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, or even Hanoi of course. But someone remarked that it does seem to have changed since he was here 6 years ago, although it is still cloaked in dust and diesel fumes.

And there is heart-rending poverty everywhere you look, not because people lack determination, but because opportunities aren’t there. On the surface, there may be a sense of helplessness but don't mistake that for resignation; there is resilience and energy, and it shows in the way the Myanmar population continue to keep their heads up.

Vendors hawk fried snacks on sidewalks; children race after buses with newspapers and sweet snacks; men selling soft toys at traffic junctions; a mother breastfeeds her baby amidst squalor; Yangon airport baggage handlers ambush travelers to carry their bags (it’s 300kyats per bag, mind). Life finds a way in little acts of resistance.

Myanmar’s day will come. I pray it will be sooner than later.

Wrangle in Perak continues

We were in the hotel room in Yangon when we first heard it: "Perak has fallen."

Indeed.

As shocking as the news may be, what was more shocking was the shameless manner in which the legitimately elected MB was ejected, and his office all cleaned out. Have these people learnt nothing? Is this some banana republic we are living in? Is that the often touted morality of Malaysia's religious order?

New MB Zambry wags his finger at the rest of us because we don't know the 'philosophy of democracy.' DPM Najib is gloating. The peasants are revolting. UMNO is hysterical. The royals are upset. Khairy and others his ilk are baying for blood. Once again cries of 'Hidup Melayu' are raised. Is this shameful coup d'etat something that dignifies a whole majority people?

Meanwhile, BN component parties have elected to keep their mouths shut.

Ironic that Chua Soi Lek should be complaining about the inapropriate appointment of a Gerakan deputy president as advisor, and not someone from MCA.

Shame.

Writing on the wall

However you look at it, the post-March 8 momentum hasn't slowed down. The writing is on the wall for BN, and PAS's win in KT is a thrilling vote for change.

This dislike, or some would put it as hatred, has not diminished since March 08. If anything, it has even grown more intense, no thanks to the Ahmad Ismail incident, the abuse of the ISA in the arrest of a journalist for her own “protection”, rising crime rate, the disappearance of a private investigator under suspicious circumstances, the aborted EuroCopter purchase, the aborted sale of IJN (aborted only after public objections), rampant corruption… all added to make this feeling more and more intense.
Hsu Dar Ren

[T]his election shows that the sirens of calls for reform have fallen on deaf ears. Umno leaders appear only to be interested in themselves and their own fortunes, rather than repairing the serious flaws in governance and credibility.

Not only do Umno leaders appear deaf to calls for change, they appear blind to the evaporation of its political base.
Bridget Welsh

This was more than a referendum on the leadership. It was a test of the relevance of Umno in its present form. If Umno is no longer relevant to the Malays, the BN formula is dead. The Chinese will have no reason to support MCA and so on. The power-sharing consensual bargain on which our political system has been based since Independence is broken.
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah


The results showed that Chinese Malaysian voters favoured the BN. No matter how hard Pakatan Rakyat leaders of Chinese descent tried to woo these voters, they still voted for the BN. The Chinese in Kuala Terengganu want a secular state. They still cannot accept hudud. It is difficult for PAS to gain the trust and support of Chinese voters if the party is unable to change in this respect.
Sin Chew editorial

The humiliation suffered by UMNO in the January 17, 2009 by-election in Kuala Trengganu, a seat previously held by one of its Deputy Ministers, is further proof that the party’s thumping in the March 2008 General Elections was the beginning of the end. Getting rid of its leader Abdullah Badawi will not alter UMNO’s fate; a future with Najib Razak will be no solution either.The party is no longer salvageable; UMNO is now beyond redemption.
M. Bakri Musa

Umno is too immersed in its own culture of patronage and has failed to realise that it cannot treat voters the same way it does party members. An independent poll on Kuala Terengganu voters found that more Malay Malaysians felt that their political power was at risk from "corrupt and self-serving leaders" than those who felt that non-Malay communities were a threat.
Deborah Loh

The state of flux points to many Malaysians having woken up to the fact. They want change in the most fundamental of ways: independence from a mindset that has left them colonized by an elite for its own benefit.

They are not fastidious as to who it is that becomes the Prime Minister of this country or who it is that forms the government. All they want is a government made up of men and women who believe in the ideals that the founders of this nation thought were a solid basis for a glorious future for all Malaysians. They want those men and women to believe in these ideals enough to get on with what needs to be done as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. They want the respect that each and every one of them is entitled to as a citizen.
Malik Imtiaz

BN is on the back foot now not because it's divided but eroded. Its lesser components, such as Gerakan and SAPP, have fallen away or grown moribund. Of its three principal parties, the MIC has circled its wagons against an electorate that rejected it in March 2008. The MCA, on its part, continues to serve its own survival well enough, and in so doing was rewarded by the Chinese voters of KT largely abiding by it and BN last Saturday. But they were not enough to stanch the haemorrhage of faith in Umno, as Malay voters swung away from BN to deliver victory by a quadrupled majority to Pas.
NST Editorial

I found that for the salurans where the average age of the voters was below 35, the level of BN support decreased by 4.4%. For the salurans where the average voter age was from 35 to 55, the decrease in BN support was 1.5%, and for salurans with voters above 55, the decrease in the level of BN support was 0.8%. This is unmistakable evidence of a trend towards voting for the opposition among younger voters regardless of race.
Ong Kian Ming

UMNO - Come down from the high chairs. Stop from being treated like Kings, Lords and Masters. Sit on the plastic chairs with the rakyat and the voters. You are Wakil Rakyat. You are elected by them. You are not their Lords and Masters. They are, in fact, your Masters; and

They elected you. They never elected your spouses, your children, your sons- and daughters-in-law, your kins and clansmen.
A Kadir Jasin