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Archive for September, 2007

A time to pay homage to Lord Vinayagar

September 15th, 2007

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A time to pay homage to Lord Vinayagar

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LORD Vinayagar is one of the most popular deities among Hindus.

The older son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi is well known for his elephant trunk, obvious ears and human like form and the noticeable potbelly.

He is also known as Lord Ganesha, Ganapati, Vigneshwara or Vighnaharta and is also called Pillayar.

Lord Vinayagar is the god of knowledge and wisdom and is worshipped as the lord of beginnings and remover of obstacles.

His name is invoked upon with affection at the beginning of ritualistic worship, praise and song.

Festive sight: The well-dÃ©corated Sri Selvavinayagar Temple in Jalan Tepi Sungai, Klang.

Every year, devotees pay homage to Lord Vinayagar during the Vinayagar Chathurthi festival.

The festival is celebrated as the birth anniversary of Vinayagar and it is welcomed in the month of avani on chathurthi, the fourth day after the new moon, between August to September, according to the Hindu calendar.

This year, the festival is celebrated today.

The festival is celebrated grandly in India where prayers and poojas are held at temples and homes.

Decorative rice motifs (kolam) are laid out on the floor and the idol of Lord Vinayagar is decorated with flowers.

It is said that Lord Vinayagar had a preference for sweet delights like Mothagam and Kozhukkattai, especially the former and these are made and offered to him.

The punar pooja signals the end of the festival.

The idol is removed from its place and taken away and then submerged in the sea, well or pond.

In Malaysia, the Vinayagar Chathurthi celebration is an important event for Ganesha devotees and Vinayagar temples usher in the festival with prayers and some even hold chariot processions. The temples are also brightly dÃ©corated.

At most homes, the celebration begins with prayers at the altar.

The Shanmugam family at Continental Park, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama in Kuala Lumpur begin the festive day with prayers as well.

The women of the house prepare the Mothagam and Kozhukkattai early in the morning so that these can be presented to Lord Vinayagar during worship.

After prayers, the family sit down to a traditional Indian breakfast and are vegetarians for the day.

Some observe being vegetarians for the duration of the festival.

Most devotees’ go to temples like the Court Hill Vinayagar Temple in Jalan Pudu or Petaling Jaya Vinayagar Temple for prayers.

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Posted in Religion

Tags: Festival temples

Sakthi Vinayagar Temple getting ready for Vinayagar Sathurthi

September 14th, 2007

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Temple gears up for special prayers

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By BAVANI M

THE 80-year-old Sri Sakthi Vinayagar Temple in Jalan Berhala Brickfileds, Kuala Lumpur will be holding special prayers to celebrate Vinayagar Chathurthi – the celebration of the birthday of Lord Ganesh (the Elephant headed deity) tomorrow.

Temple president S.K.K. Naidu said the festival is one of the most important Hindu festivals and is celebrated worldwide on a grand scale.

“The common practice is to decorate clay figures of the deity which is worshipped for ten days prior to the festival and at the end of the festival the idols will be submerged into rivers and the sea,” he said.

“In Malaysia this practice is not popular but temples here will be conducting special poojas (prayers) and hold chariot procession around temple premises and neighbourhood,” he said.

Naidu said the Sri Sakthi Vinayagar Temple would be holding prayers all through the day starting from 3am to 7.30pm.

“At 3am we will have a 1008 Valampuri Sanga abishegam (special prayers with conch shells), at 4am paal kodum abishegam (milk pots) for Lord Ganesh, and at 7am the main prayers will be conducted,” he said.

”At noon the temple will be distributing free vegetarian food for some 3000 people and later on in the evening there will be a chariot procession around Brickfields,” Naidu said.

Food outlets in the neighbourhood will also be distributing free food for those involved in the procession.

This year, the temple is using a special metal chariot decorated with lights and flowers for the procession.

“During the procession there will be about 25 dancers who will follow the chariot while performing traditional dances such as the peacock dance, the stick dance and others,” he said.

For details, call 03-2274 8624.

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Posted in Religion

Tags: Festival temples

royal london circus

September 14th, 2007

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I was informed by Suba that the Royal London Circus (currently owned by Malaysian) which set camp in Puchong Utama, was having its last show on Wednesday the 12th due to the fasting month. After Puchong, it is to continue at Bandar Botanic Klang. So, I rushed over and bought tickets for the B category – RM45 each. The nice lady gave me a RM5 discount for no apparent reason 🙂 Lowest price was RM25 while VIP seats costs RM75.

We arrived early for the 8.30pm show worried that it will be crowded. Entered the tent at about 7.40pm and tried to find a good location since it was free seating within each category. Managed to book a few seats for Suba and her family as well.

From what I saw, the seats were not arranged properly, thus the people in front are bound to block the views of those at the back. Anyway, I hope we chose a good location, which was the very first row of the B category. While waiting for the show to begin, the audience were continuously bugged by the foreign employees to buy cotton candy, balloons, circus momentos, popcorn etc. No outside food was allowed, so the audience are forced to buy from the booths or employees if they wanted food.

The show began at 8.30pm sharp with an introductory sequence and song. This was followed by a balancing act, jumping acts, clown act, balancing act using cloth (spider and butterfly story), trapeze, animal act etc before a short break at 9.50pm. The clown act was intermittent throughout the show and was enjoyable indeed. Pity that only one spectator was chosen to participate by the clown in the entire show. The animal act saw a monkey and two dogs riding a pony, while the elephant act saw Mighty the Elephant batting like an expert. In between, while the props are arranged, the ringmaster and his partner sang a few songs, which was not clear enough due to the sound system.

As the break ended, I found my view being obstructed by some of the audience who sneaked into the VIP area. A big chinese guy and his family took up about 6 seats and practically blocked abt 60% of stage! After that, I couldn’t see much and could only take picture of those acts that involved mid air area. I missed some of the magic acts, which were quite good. Saw hoop act, more balancing act, trapeze act, and finally the motorbike in a globe act. That was quite good since 4 motorcyclists were scrambling at breathtaking speed in the enclosure. The crowd really appreciated that. The whole program last about 2.5 hours and ended at 11pm.

Overall, for the price we paid, the organisers could have made better seating arrangements, probably by making the seats more steep or angled. The show content itself was OK, especially the clown acts, the loop act, and the motorcycle act, but there were delays while the props were being arranged or removed. The sound system was bad and whatever the ringmaster spoke registered as loud booming voice.

Photos below were taken at distance of 30 metres, 4.5 aperture, and shutter speed between 1/6 and 1/250. You can notice other people’s heads blocking in most of the photos due to the location. Larger images at Picasa.

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Posted in I Was Here

Budget 2008 says listed companies must reveal employee composition by race

September 14th, 2007

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heard the budget speech live over the radio that friday evening. At the part where PM read "merangkumi komposisi guna tenaga syarikat dari segi kaum" (refer below) he coughed and paused for a few second. After that he just continued, without repeating. Either he wanted to just skim over it or he was surprised.

105. Dalam Bajet 2007, Kerajaan telah mengumumkan bahawa semua syarikat PLC perlu menzahirkan aktiviti CSR sebagai sebahagian daripada laporan kewangan tahunan syarikat. Mulai tahun kewangan 2008, penzahiran penyata CSR perlu juga merangkumi komposisi guna tenaga syarikat dari segi kaum dan gender, serta program untuk membangunkan vendor tempatan dan Bumiputera. Kelebihan Malaysia sebagai sebuah negara berbilang kaum harus dimanfaatkan oleh syarikat swasta dengan mengambil kakitangan dari semua lapisan masyarakat.

source: PM Budget speech available on www.treasury.gov.my in PDF format.

The folllowing piece by AP was picked up by many players – IHT, AOL, MSNBC, Sin Chew, etc.

Malaysia orders companies to reveal recruitment figures by race

source

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysian executives urged the government Tuesday not to make race a criterion for hiring, reflecting fears that some companies will have to employ more ethnic Malays at the expense of minority Chinese and Indians

Companies listed on Malaysia's stock exchange are generally expected to have a significant number of employees from the Malay majority. The rule — part of affirmative action policies to help Malays — has not been strictly enforced, but most large firms mix Malay staff with Chinese and Indians.

Though Malays are in a majority in the population, ethnic Chinese have long dominated the country's commercial sector..

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced Friday that starting next year, publicly listed firms must disclose their employment composition by race as part of efforts to boost corporate social responsibility.

The directive has prompted debate about whether the government might pressure companies to ensure that their racial mix mirrors Malaysia's ethnic makeup more closely.

Puan Chan Cheong, managing director of broadband technology provider Green Packet Bhd., said firms need to hire people who are "the best fit for the job, regardless of race," in order to compete internationally.

"We employ according to merits," Puan told The Associated Press. "Competency is the key consideration, not racial composition."

Gooi Seong Lim, managing director of investment holding company Crescendo Corp. Bhd., said the company sometimes has no choice but to recruit mostly Chinese and Indians for civil engineering works because there are too few Malay candidates.

"I believe the government will be reasonable," he told the AP. "It would be very difficult to conform to a strict racial breakdown."

Malays comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people. Chinese form some 25 percent, Indians nearly 10 percent and the rest belong to other minorities. The ethnic communities have coexisted peacefully since racial riots left at least 200 dead in 1969. They were sparked by Malay frustration over Chinese wealth.

The New Straits Times newspaper quoted Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop as saying the government will not necessarily penalize companies that fail to have employees from all races after the new directive takes effect next year.

"We are not saying we will take action," the Times quoted him as saying. It was not immediately clear how the new directive would be enforced.

Decades-old affirmative action policies — geared toward helping Malays catch up with the Chinese by giving them privileges in areas like education, housing, bank loans and government contracts — are one of Malaysia's most politically sensitive subjects.

This is what MCA Economic Bureau have to say:

MCA unit: Drop race disclosure rule for listed firms
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PETALING JAYA: The MCA Youth Economic Bureau supports the statement made by Kota Melaka MP Wong Nai Chee that corporate social responsibility in public-listed companies should not be based along racial lines as proposed in the recent Budget 2008.

In a press statement issued here, the bureau chief Datuk Henry Wong Tat Chee said the business community was unhappy with the proposal that the companies disclose employment composition by race.

He said programmes undertaken to develop domestic and bumiputra vendors might result in a form of micro-restructuring that could result in loss of income and employment opportunities for non-bumiputras.

“If such a racially-based quota is imposed, it will affect growth opportunities for fully qualified and merit-based non-bumiputra job applicants or vendors, who will be sidelined in favour of bumiputra recruits and suppliers for (public-listed companies),” he added.

Nai Chee had said the very idea of corporate social responsibility based along racial lines would run against the spirit and responsibility of contributing towards the betterment of society regardless of ethnicity.

Tat Chee said the commercial sector had expressed their unhappiness before..

Two years ago, the Economic Planning Unit hired a foreign consultancy firm to audit all private companies about their racial composition and corporate plans to increase bumiputra composition in the employment and vendor programmes, he added.

“The private corporations refused to cooperate in this exercise. This itself was a clear indication that the commercial entities were not in favour of such a practice,” said Tat Chee.

“The private sector relies solely on its own resources to hire personnel who can work most efficiently and productively for the company.

“This is opposed to the public sector that uses public funds, that should be distributed equally to all races especially for recruitment into the civil service and government procurement and tenders,” he said.

So under the guise of CSR, the companies are now forced to complement and supplement govt's racial discrimination policy. Since govt can't find create more employments in the public sector to satisfy the evergrowing population, it is now imposing rules on the private sector to hire more malays. Sounds a bit like lop-sided socialism where the profit indirectly becomes fund of the states and is seen fit to be used as it likes.

On another hand, when deprived and discriminated citizens turn to private sector for education, medical, cultural, and religious funding among others, they will be turned away since the private sector have to comply with the rules. Looks like the govt won't help and won't let others help as well.

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Posted in BornInMalaysia

Tags: discrimination Education Funds ISA MCA MIC Politicians

independence day parade experience

September 13th, 2007

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It’s finally here! my first ever experience taking part in the independence day parade, at Dataran Merdeka. After many days of practising, we woke up around 5.45am on the 31st, still tired from last night’s trip to thefirework competition.

We reached kl sentral at about 6.15am and took the KTM Komuter to KL railway station. From there we walked to the Dataran. It was all fine, until Then said that she left her handphone at home! Hmmâ€¦happened a few times already, but this is really bad timing. That put a spanner into our plans. How are we going to meet up after the parade? So we decided that if we canâ€™t find each other, then just return back to KL Sentral and wait at the our car.

Anyhow, I left her at the Dataran for her to find a good location, while I made my way to my contigent. We waited and waited till about 8.15am and the helicopters flew by. That was the sign that the program has started. At about 8.40am, we started our march. I was lucky to be positioned at the side and was given one of the placards as well. We marched through the tunnel and the sight that greeted us near the Dataran was awesome. The noise was tremendous and the whole are was brimming with people. There was an air of excitement and energy all around. This was nothing like the rehearsal we had for the last 3 days. This is the real thing.

Due to the noise, we had problem listening to the music and synchronise our march. So, the contigent had to shout â€œkiriâ€ â€œkananâ€ (â€œleft rightâ€) all the time. As we marched past the VIP podium, I could see Tun Mahathir, Tun Siti Hasmah, PM Badawi, Prince Andrew, and President Gloria Arroyo among others waving or acknowledging us. I also thought I saw Ms Jeanne yawning as well. It was a short walk past the podium, but meaningful indeed!

The heat was quite strong. We continued marching. Cheered by the crowd who lined up along the roads all the way till Jln Sultan Ismail junction. It was blistering hot, and many came with umbrellas and caps. We made our way past Medan Mara, Quality hotel etc., and dispersed at about 9.15am.

I rushed back to the Dataran to search for Then, but obviously it is a futile attempt. There were easily 20,000 people at the dataran. I found a spot near the TV3 crew station and saw the last 20 minutes or so of the parade. Among the interesting ones was parade by the K-9 unit which was well received by the crowd.

Towards the end, jet fighters made their entrance and gave a thunderous performance. The latest Suhkoi jets were also on show.

At the end, I witnessed the VIP leaving, starting with the Agong and his consort. And Iâ€™m pretty sure that while one of the ministers were leaving, a lady (who looked mentally unstable) ran across the road. None of the papers mentioned this. The secutity was quite lax and the guards were slow to react. Anyway, I couldnâ€™t see what happened to her. By the way, Tun Mahathir received the loudest cheer when he took leave. Others must be envious of the support he has 🙂 Samy Vellu was alone as usual. Talking about Samy Vellu, MICâ€™s contigent were the only one who carried a banner claiming that they were the â€œpembela masyarakat Indiaâ€ (defenders of the India communityâ€ for the last 6 decades. Looks a bit out of place right?

Anyway, the ladies looked wonderful in the green sarees.

Well, the whole thing came to an end at about 10.30am, and I was walking towards the Bank Negaraâ€™s Komuter station when Then called from a telephone booth and said that she was at the Masjid Jamek LRT station. We decided to just meet back at Brickfields. I was thanking my lucky stars that nothing went wrong.

That’s when my nightmare started. I entered the Komuter station and waited for the train to KL Sentral. After 10 minutes the announcement came that there were some problems and delays are expected for trains towards Seremban. The crowd started to grow. After 20 minutes, the delays were extended to all trains. No idea when it will be resolved. Damn! KTM sure knows how to spoil a great event! The people there were cursing and many started to leave the station. There were about 150 people at that time. So, after waiting nearly 45 minutes, I decided to walk to Masjid Jamek LRT station, which took another 15 minutes. Finally reached KL Sentral at 12.30pm. A trip that was to end by 11am, took extra 90 minutes due to the stupid KTM service!

Met up with a tired and angry Then :), and left for a good lunch before hitting the sack. It was indeed a tiring a day, but a meaningful one as I took part in the 50th Independence Day parade. Oh ya..did I mention that Thenâ€™s handphone was in her backpack all the while? That was like rubbing salt on the wound!

For her version of the events on that day, visit her blog la…

By the way, photos were taken by Then. She managed to get a location at the front of the crowd, facing the parade near the VIP area. Bigger images at Picasa.