10
speak up!
letters
letters@thesundaily.com
Ensure
outdoor
playtime
for kids
IN today’s society, it isn’t surprising to
see children holed up in their homes
throughout the week. In fact, the sight
of children engaging in outdoor sport-
ing activities is becoming increasingly
uncommon.
There could be many reasons why
parents discourage their children
from playing outdoors and the main
explanation is probably due to safety.
However, it would be unfortunate if
children are not presented with the
opportunity to reap the benefits of
sports.
Therefore, we need to question
ourselves if we are denying our
children the option of being outdoors
because we feel that we are unable to
control the situation? While this may
be a valid concern, there are measures
that parents can take to ensure that
their children can still have their fair
share of outdoor playtime. After all, it
is widely acknowledged that sports
can greatly assist the physical and
mental development of a child and it
also nurtures a healthy lifestyle.
What parents can do is ensure
there is a chaperone at all times and
that children are playing in bright and
well-kept parks. Additionally, parents
can send their children for sporting
activities at school fields where
teachers are present to supervise
them. Overall, there are many other
steps that parents can take to ensure
that their child’s safety is not com-
promised.
The main goal is to ensure that
our children are not deprived of
the joys of outdoor playtime as this
represents a very important aspect
of their childhood as well. It would be
a pity if these children are not able to
experience the healthy benefits that
sports can have in their lives.
Evelyn Lajot
Subang Jaya
Ice cream boy goes
to Disneyland
ON the west coast of Selangor,
a 16-year-old enrolled in a
school nearby forgets his books
in the afternoons after school
and weekends. He works like
other adults because he has
to put food on the table of
American his home – a dilapidated hut
Idol in a nearby kampung. He is
not exactly a caddy who has
runner-up: been trained but he prefers to
One year be called one. Golfers in the CitizenNades rental is RM25,000 for the stately
after nearby club know that he can’t
read lines or pick the right by R. Nadeswaran
pg 14 clubs, but he like many others
his age are mere bag carriers.
When there’s a shortage of caddies, he of-
fers to carry two bags. “No problem,” he
says because that would mean double the
money.
Make One Malaysia work
ONE MALAYSIA is a brilliant example of language use
and an innovative political strategy. It is a conglomerate
concept that incorporates the ideals of nation building,
the ideals that each of the previous prime ministers
espoused in their own discourse. It is at once a cry for
unity and integration, equity and fairness, excellence
and determination, equality and egalitarianism.
As a slogan it is catchy and effective because of its
many implications. It uses a number and a word and
is easy to write and say. The number one (1) makes
people remember Malaysia as the first – in its many
endeavours and achievements. It reinforces the result-
oriented society that Malaysia Boleh inspired not so
long ago.
As a political strategy it is innovative because it has
removed what has become the thorn in the national
discourse – the word “race” or “bangsa”. One Malaysia
neutralises the racial distinctions that we tried so hard
to eliminate in the concept of Bangsa Malaysia – the
concept that became dangerously ambiguous because
of the word “bangsa”.
As a first step, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the 6th prime
minister of Malaysia, shows he has been listening in-
tently to the voices of his predecessors and the cries
of his people. He is now articulating his own visions
in a language relevant to the times and the mood. He
Not very far away is the home
of yet another man – a prominent
person. When he was 16, he used
to cycle in his trusty old banger
selling ice cream to pay for his
exam fees. Now, several years
later, that bicycle is an item of
pride, although he has leaped
from where he started. But these
home is a bungalow with enough
space to park six cars. Monthly
home in a posh area overlooking
an even bigger golf course.
His meteoric rise to wealth and
stardom was due in part to being
on the right side of the political divide. Even
as a university student, he had yet to step
on an aeroplane. Even after graduation, the
chance never came until the call of public
is rightly marrying traditional wisdom and youthful
modernity.
Sceptics, cynics and critics will of course say that
this is yet another of BN’s and Umno’s desperate at-
tempts to revive its ailing popularity. They will say it is
yet another of those cocktails of cleverness concocted
by the PM’s think-tanks and advisers to produce the
first positive impact on the nation. Just as they will
assess the release of the 13 ISA detainees and the
walkabouts in the Chinese, Malay and Indian hotbeds
on Saturday as a political ploy.
Why not? When has a positive move become
wrong? Why should efforts to mend fences and renew
good neighbourliness be viewed negatively? How does
a good intention become a bad motive?
Instead of being armchair critics we should be ask-
ing ourselves: How can each of us at each of our levels,
in each of our communities, with each of our expertise
and skills translate this vision into a reality. How can we
ordinary Malaysians turn the slogan One Malaysia into
something meaningful, something that we can adopt in
our daily lives to achieve the desired result of a united
people and a number one nation?
Halimah Mohd Said
Kuala Lumpur
theSun | MONDAY APRIL 6 2009
office came, which he accepted. But he made
up for lost time in making sure he gallivanted
around the world in the fastest possible time.
Within months of sitting on what he perceived
as his throne, he was off, flying first class.
Today, he can sit back and boast of his
record of sorts. He flew to almost every Disney
theme park around the world – from Hong-
kong to Orlando. He stayed at presidential
suites in posh hotels, travelled in limousines
and had no qualms spending millions on
other luxuries while the 16-year-old caddy
lives in poverty, hoping for handouts from the
state. Today, if you want someone to speak
authoritatively on theme parks, he’s the man.
However, he would be insulted if offered a
cenderamata or cenderahati for his troubles.
He’s worth much more.
Visits to the Disneyland theme parks in
the US and France were supposed to be work
trips but he treated them as holidays and took
his wife, children and maid. He blew RM1.7
million on his supposed work trips between
2004 and 2007.
Because they had previously lived in
poverty and now had access to millions, his
wife and her friends even went on a “repent-
ance” trip to “see and feel” how the poor in
an Asean country lived. But then it was just
to “experience” the feeling of being poor for
a fleeting moment after which they were
soaking themselves in the comfort of their
luxury rooms in a five-star hotel. For this, a
fairy godmother paid RM82,227, including
RM19,000 for library books, RM25,000 for
accommodation and transportation for four
people, inclusive of RM3,000 allowance for
reporters and RM10,000 for the production of
a video clip.
The exchange between the Godmother and
Joe Public went something like this:
Joe Public: What was this trip for?
Godmother: This was a programme de-
signed to make people repent.
Joe Public: Who repented?
Godmother: Both sides repented. Because
when those who visited the country saw how
much suffering there was, they repented.
Joe Public: So, those who were suffer-
ing saw that we were rich, and so they too
repented? Did you notice a change or a tinge
of repentance in those who went for the trip?
Godmother: That is subjective.
Repentance did not work or had to work.
On Christmas Eve two years ago, the man,
his wife and an entourage were off again to
Disney World in Orlando and Miami Beach.
After that, they flew to Honolulu on a sight-
seeing trip. They also visited the Kennedy
Space Center. We were told that it was to see
how the concept could be replicated locally,
but when we have only one Malaysian space
tourist, what is there to be replicated? But the
eight-day trip cost a whopping RM646,840. But
wait. The cost of housing the ice cream boy
and his family in suites at the Hilton Waikiki
Hotel and the Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel cost
RM110,000. (One quarter of this sum would
give the caddy a low-cost apartment)
But then Disneyland had yet to be taken
in. Instead of flying in to Charles de Gaulle
airport and be driven to the Chessy, he had
other plans such as rewarding his minions
by offering them an all-expenses paid trip in
the guise of a recce trip. That cost RM366,000.
When he flew, he and the family decided a
sojourn in Dubai and that cost money too. The
cost of both trips amounted to RM900,000.
So, all in all, it must have cost several mil-
lions for him, his wife and their family and
friends on trips to Disneyland theme parks
around the world. But the inevitable question
is: Where did all the money come from? His
forefathers did not exactly leave a family
fortune and he did not own a thriving busi-
ness organisation. Working as a tukang gigi
for a few years wouldn’t have brought such
a windfall.
While Joe Public was scratching his head
and looking for answers, Godmother ap-
peared on the scene. “I was directed to fund
these projects,” she said.
“By whom?”
“By someone upstairs.”
The questioners were silent. Didn’t she
have to account for the expenditure?
“Yes, but those upstairs screamed at me
in unison.’
“What did they say?”
“Semuanya OK!”
And the echo from the basement car park
was: “I did nothing wrong.”
R. Nadeswaran is editor (special and investiga-
tive reporting) at theSun. He can be reached at
citizen-nades@thesundaily.com