It was a long and busy Deepavali day. I don't understand why this UMNO has to have its annual general assembly with Deepavali right in the middle of it. Some might say it's insensitive of them. Okay, so the Malays say the UMNO is only for Malays to attend, however, the press coverage is all about UMNO and also all the top leaders are attending the assembly instead of going to visit their Indian friends.

I don't like to write about politics because its sensitive but this one just bugs me. Last year UMNO got the chinese angry, this year they got the Indians angry. First MPSJ tears down one of their temple and now they go and have their general assembly on Deepavali. Fine... you the majority race. Do what you want. All this talk about using the keris to defend the other races is a little hard to believe with the other stuff you're doing.

Last year, I watched most of the live telecast of their general assembly. There were quite a lot of remarks made against the chinese. It totally pissed me of. I was going to keep a buku 555 with all the names of those that made racist remarks. The next general election that comes, I'm going to take out my shit list buku 555 and note down what they said. However... I didn't do that. I just assumed they over reacted. I remind myself, I'm a buddhist and I should forgive easily.

This year, I decided to not watch the speeches at all. I didn't want to get pissed of. I only watch the highlights on the news. The problem with race based politics is that at every general assembly, issues raised are bound to make other races feel uneasy. It's always a competition among the races. It's either, "you took something from me" or "that should have been mine".

The founding fathers made Bahasa Malaysia and English the main language, with Bahasa Malaysia the main language. I always find it amusing that they made the language the Malays speak the main language. Everyone could understand what was going on at UMNO, PAS, Keadilan, Gerakan, MIC's general assembly but in MCA they spoke mandarin (not sure what language DAP uses in theirs). Most of the Malays didn't have a clue what was said. The chinese and indian had their own newspapers that highlighted issues that only their community could read while everyone could read Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.

This year, Pak Lah stressed that the Malays should learn another language, it's an advice that should be heeded by everyone, not just malays. I can't speak mandarin or read chinese. I get by okay with Hokkien and cantonese. My Bahasa Malaysia and English is good. Most malays only knows Malay and very basic english. They understand the language but can't converse in it. I'm trying to improve on my Hokkien, it helps in communicating with relatives. No one to practice mandarin with so far.

Anyway, I shouldn't write anymore about this for today. Like I said, it's been a long day.

I slept in a little today. I woke up and dragged myself out of bed to go to the office. Even though it was a public holiday, WHI was still going on. I arrived at the studio just before the show started. I was the phone guy today. I had to liase with the team at PWTC for the cross-over. It's a pretty silly job, I just pass information from the producer in the studio to the other producer in PWTC... one big walkie-talkie.

I took a look at the set, the props guy did an excellent job decorating it. It was quite a festive look. Even the the two host, Azizah and Nadia had the right wardrobe on.


Check out the set. It's starting to feel a lot like... Deepavali!


Azizah was having problems with her earpiece. It's this earphone the hosts wear so they can hear what the producer is saying to them. Strangely enough, the thing that they put in their ear is called the condom. Ideally, each hosts is supposed to have their own condom but everyone just shares condom... hygenic isn't it?


I didn't realize Azizah was doing a wierd pose. Pretending to be a Indian classical dancer maybe?



Nadia looks like a school girl. My standard fake smile for photos. Azizah always look natural on camera.

After WHI, I when home for awhile to rest. Later in the evening me and Chui Yan when to Azlan's new apartment in Abdullah Hukum for his Hari Raya open house. It seems that a lot of Malays were having their open house on Deepavali since it's a public holiday. His apartment was new and it's quite well designed by DBKL. A lot of parking with easy access to the apartments. A little too claustrophobic for my taste.

I didn't stay long because we had to make space for other visitors coming in. We ended up walking around Midvalley. I didn't even walk over to The Gardens. Nothing of interest there for me. It's mostly clothes there. I prefer walking around Ace Hardware and the little stalls they set up in the lower ground area in Megamall.