Foreign matters...

All my kids are at home this week. Thank God for it. Their schools and colleges are closed for at least a week in conjuction with the Chinese New Year celeberation. Even Singapore,where Chinese is the majority of the population ,they have only two days holidays. In this respect, we Malaysians are luckier than our neighbours. On the other hand, I think we have one too many holidays;-)

It had been seven years ago the last time I visited an old friend in Johor Bahru(JB). He had joined the POP group( Persatuan Orang Pencen) two years ago and he is waiting for me to join as soon as I am ready. Our families used to visit one another since the early 80's and I plan to keep the tradition as long as I can but more often in the future. So this week my whole family was in JB for a few days . Over the lunch, I was suprised to hear my old friend told me that he is very busy. I thought he had more time now to enjoy his retirement days. When I asked him what new business he is doing, he told me that he is looking after his bed-ridden mother. His mother is a Singaporean but he had to bring her to stay at his house in JB when all his brothers and sisters in Singapore  had no time to look after her. He lamented that a mother can look after ten children but the ten children could not or would not look after a mother. The story sounds familiar to me. I dare  not make any  comments for I may have to face a similar problem later. In my heart, I prayed that my brother and sister will jointly take care of my aging mother. However, I said to my old friend that he is lucky for being chosen by God to take care of his mother.May Allah reward him,insyaAllah.

Every night we went out for dinner( I have had enough of hotel food when I was younger). It is cheaper and we prefer  the taste  of local foods. My favourite Johor dishes are 'soto ayam' and 'ikan bakar'. We stayed at a hotel right in the city centre and only five minutes walk to JB City Square- a brand new  shopping complex. I am very happy note that JB now has developed over the years but a few things really made me feel sad. The traffic is still chaotic and the presence of too many bad characters hanging out along the roads and in the shopping complex.  The city has attracted too many foreigners with bad characters. My wife confided in me that she is scared of their presence. The way they dressed and behaved is disgusting with no respect for our laws and culture. It appears that they are not scared of the authorities and we the locals are getting scared of them. Lately,it was reported in the local newspaper that the  people of Kg. Pandan Dalam in KL are being threatened by the illegal immigrants if they were to report of their presence to local authority. I think it is high time for the government to act before it is too late. Personally, I have nothing against foreigners as long as they are law abiding and respect the local people. My cousin may have different views in this matter for his family was robbed at knives points at 4am by four Indonesian robbers last year. Now, he had to vacate his bungalow and lives in a condomium.

Singapore is too close to miss. Last year my wife and me went there for a weekend holiday without the kids. You can read about it at:http://www.oocities.org/mohdadib/Ckk62.html .With the recent issue  on 'tudung', I despised going to Singapore. IMHO, the act of banning the use of 'tudung' for muslim school girls is an act of discrimination and arrogance. In spite of that, I took my family there so that my kids can see many other good things there.

We took SBS bus no: 170 from Komtar,JB  to Kranji,Singapore.From there, we boarded the MRT to Somerset MRT station. On the way, I showed my children the Selat Tebrau as we crossed the Causeway. My youngest son asked me about three big pipelines along the road. I told him that is how Singapore gets 50% of their water supply everyday at 3cents for 1000 gallons! Singapore is asking for more at the rate the Malaysia government could not agree. For the record, Singapore PUB is making money selling water to ships at very much higher price. I fully supported the government's stand to sell water at more reasonable price. It is no use being generous to people who are never grateful in their dealings with us.

On the way, I had to answer many questions from my sons. They  were  asking why can't be as clean as Singapore? Their flats are well painted and not many clothings being hung all over the windows like those in KL. The public transport systems like bus and MRT are efficient and on time- even the escalators move faster in Singapore than in KL. The roads,rivers and drains are cleaner. Even trees and bushes are well maintained.  These are some good things we all can learn from Singapore. Not only that,  Singapore has more efficient government and banking services. That is the reason why international companies prefer to set up their Asean corporate office in Singapore despite its higher rental and operation cost.One arabic proverb says that ordinary people learn from their mistakes ,clever people learn from others' mistakes but the fools learn from no one including himself.

For lunch, I took my family to the Bistro at The Borders. Borders is one of the international bookshop chains. It is as big as Kinokuniya at KLCC, Kuala Lumpur. Visiting bookshop with a restaurant is like killing two birds with one stone- one for the mind and the other for the stomach! On the way out, I bought a  management book entitled The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout. Hopefully, I can learn some knowledge on management and contribute to my people and country.

Foreigners are every where in Singapore. Most of them are tourists and not foreign workers like we have in Malaysia. That may be the reason why I notice a big difference between the foreigners in Malaysia and in Singapore. Theirs are those that bring the money in and ours are those that take the money out. They win and we lose! We have to win some time and should not be losers all the time.