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Monday, November 09, 2009
A Banggol I Can Call My Own
A Kadir Jasin
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THE NEW Straits Times’ page one picture today of the cattle sharing a banggol with the motorcars, several power tillers and a lorry to escape the floods in Kelantan tells a poignant story.
It was the story worth a million words and one that I am familiar with albeit with a modern twist.
The banggol is a raised ground in an otherwise flat topography of the rice fields and the grasslands.
I was the product of the banggols. There are several villages around mine in Kedah that have the word banggol in their names like Banggol Besi, Banggol Kambing and Banggol Petai.
During the rainy reason, when the Pendang River overflowed its banks for many miles on both sides, and the inundation lasted weeks, the banggols provided the much-needed temporary shelter for livestock.
Neighbours shared the banggols and cooperated with each other to feed the marooned animals. But there were occasions when disagreements broke out with the less cooperative neighbours.
Food would remain scarce for the livestock until after the floods had totally receded. Grasses and shrubs rotted in the floodwater and would take several weeks to fully rejuvenate.
A friend, who is a film enthusiast, told me that there is a 2004 Vietnamese movie called “The Buffalo Boy” which tells the story of quarrels among villages to gain control of the banggols during the Mikong’s annual floods.
The NST picture is special as it tells us of the change the country has gone through since my childhood in the 1950s. Then there were no motorcars, power tillers and lorries on the banggols. There were only cows, buffaloes and occasional goats.
[ANONYMOUS comments with not be entertained. When commenting, your real identity is preferred. But a suitable pseudonym is accepted. If you have to use anonymous, please print your name or pen name at the bottom of your message. Please avoid seditious, defamatory and libelous statements. Unrelated comments will not be given priority.]
THE NEW Straits Times’ page one picture today of the cattle sharing a banggol with the motorcars, several power tillers and a lorry to escape the floods in Kelantan tells a poignant story.
It was the story worth a million words and one that I am familiar with albeit with a modern twist.
The banggol is a raised ground in an otherwise flat topography of the rice fields and the grasslands.
I was the product of the banggols. There are several villages around mine in Kedah that have the word banggol in their names like Banggol Besi, Banggol Kambing and Banggol Petai.
During the rainy reason, when the Pendang River overflowed its banks for many miles on both sides, and the inundation lasted weeks, the banggols provided the much-needed temporary shelter for livestock.
Neighbours shared the banggols and cooperated with each other to feed the marooned animals. But there were occasions when disagreements broke out with the less cooperative neighbours.
Food would remain scarce for the livestock until after the floods had totally receded. Grasses and shrubs rotted in the floodwater and would take several weeks to fully rejuvenate.
A friend, who is a film enthusiast, told me that there is a 2004 Vietnamese movie called “The Buffalo Boy” which tells the story of quarrels among villages to gain control of the banggols during the Mikong’s annual floods.
The NST picture is special as it tells us of the change the country has gone through since my childhood in the 1950s. Then there were no motorcars, power tillers and lorries on the banggols. There were only cows, buffaloes and occasional goats.
Picture with the courtesy of the NST
Today, tractors and lorries have replaced the buffalo-driven wooden ploughs, bullock carts and anor (sledge) as farm essentials. Combined harvesters have taken over the backbreaking chores – literally sometimes – from human beings during the harvesting season.
Then floods were an essential part of the cycle of life. Floods that sometimes took lives and destroyed properties also enriched the soil, brought bountiful harvest of fish, lobsters and a variety of water birds.
Today, floods are big national news. What is very seldom asked and answered is why floods are getting bigger, less predictable and with greater lost of lives.
Those days, we built houses on stilts. Even when floodwater rose four or five ft., we were still dry on our stilted houses. We had sampan on the ready or at the very least we could quickly build bamboo rafts. Life was hard but the people were resilient and independent.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Zaid Leads The Registration Of Pakatan
A Kadir Jasin
[ANONYMOUS comments with not be entertained. When commenting, your real identity is preferred. But a suitable pseudonym is accepted. If you have to use anonymous, please print your name or pen name at the bottom of your message. Please avoid seditious, defamatory and libelous statements. Unrelated comments will not be given priority.]
IT is reported today that a pro-tem committee headed by the former Barisan Nasional Minister, Zaid bin Ibrahim, has made an application to register Pakatan Rakyat as an official alliance.
Another person mentioned in the media report is Anthony Loke Siew Fook, the DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) chief.
Zaid is the right person to lead exercise given his wide experience in representing Umno in legal matters since the late 1980s. He’s now a member of the Central Leadership Council of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
Also it was Zaid who, not too long ago, was quoted by the media as saying that the People’s Alliance could not be formally registered because it lacked “the required” seven founding members.
Since then, however, the Chairman of the Election Commission, Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, had advised the coalition to formally register itself so that its applications to hold joint election talks could be considered.
On my part, I have argued that the PR did not have to wait to have seven founding members to apply for registration.
Pas vice-president Salahuddin Ayub was quoted as saying that Pas, the DAP and PKR were unequivocal in transforming the alliance into a legal entity.
The report says the alliance’s common symbol will incorporate the logos of all component parties.
Still, to my mind, it will be a big emotional issue for Pas and DAP supporters to say goodbye to their venerable moon and the rocket on the ballot papers.
Not seeing the moon and the rocket on the ballot papers is not going to be easy. Pas supporters are fanatical about their bulan, which is synonymous not only with the party but with Islam as well.
On the other hand, sharing a common symbol has been the practice of the main component parties of the Barisan Nasional and its predecessor Alliance from the very beginning.
The report also quoted the Registrar of Societies (ROS), Mohd Alias Kalil, as saying that his office had started studying the PR’s application.
KUDOS to members of the MCA disciplinary board if they had indeed resigned in protest against the restoration of Dr Chua Sooi Lek, as deputy president. The board sacked him from the post August. That’s being principle and having testicular gumption.
I had all a long contended that the Umno disciplinary board should have done that when the people it found guilty of money politics were either allowed to contest the party post (Khairy Jamaluddin) or be later appointed to the Supreme Council (Mohd Ali Rustam).
AND I applaud Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department aka KPI Minister, Koh Tsu Koon for taking his fouled-mouth detractors to task, saying that he would not be judged by them. He would be judged only by the PM whom he said endorses him. That’s correct. He was made a senator and a minister by the PM despite losing Penang to the opposition and himself being defeated in Batu Kawan.
[ANONYMOUS comments with not be entertained. When commenting, your real identity is preferred. But a suitable pseudonym is accepted. If you have to use anonymous, please print your name or pen name at the bottom of your message. Please avoid seditious, defamatory and libelous statements. Unrelated comments will not be given priority.]
IT is reported today that a pro-tem committee headed by the former Barisan Nasional Minister, Zaid bin Ibrahim, has made an application to register Pakatan Rakyat as an official alliance.
Another person mentioned in the media report is Anthony Loke Siew Fook, the DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) chief.
Zaid is the right person to lead exercise given his wide experience in representing Umno in legal matters since the late 1980s. He’s now a member of the Central Leadership Council of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
Also it was Zaid who, not too long ago, was quoted by the media as saying that the People’s Alliance could not be formally registered because it lacked “the required” seven founding members.
Since then, however, the Chairman of the Election Commission, Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, had advised the coalition to formally register itself so that its applications to hold joint election talks could be considered.
On my part, I have argued that the PR did not have to wait to have seven founding members to apply for registration.
Pas vice-president Salahuddin Ayub was quoted as saying that Pas, the DAP and PKR were unequivocal in transforming the alliance into a legal entity.
The report says the alliance’s common symbol will incorporate the logos of all component parties.
Still, to my mind, it will be a big emotional issue for Pas and DAP supporters to say goodbye to their venerable moon and the rocket on the ballot papers.
Not seeing the moon and the rocket on the ballot papers is not going to be easy. Pas supporters are fanatical about their bulan, which is synonymous not only with the party but with Islam as well.
On the other hand, sharing a common symbol has been the practice of the main component parties of the Barisan Nasional and its predecessor Alliance from the very beginning.
The report also quoted the Registrar of Societies (ROS), Mohd Alias Kalil, as saying that his office had started studying the PR’s application.
KUDOS to members of the MCA disciplinary board if they had indeed resigned in protest against the restoration of Dr Chua Sooi Lek, as deputy president. The board sacked him from the post August. That’s being principle and having testicular gumption.
I had all a long contended that the Umno disciplinary board should have done that when the people it found guilty of money politics were either allowed to contest the party post (Khairy Jamaluddin) or be later appointed to the Supreme Council (Mohd Ali Rustam).
AND I applaud Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department aka KPI Minister, Koh Tsu Koon for taking his fouled-mouth detractors to task, saying that he would not be judged by them. He would be judged only by the PM whom he said endorses him. That’s correct. He was made a senator and a minister by the PM despite losing Penang to the opposition and himself being defeated in Batu Kawan.
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