Ukrainian CPR, Russian Life Support and the Boris Yeltsin Classification of Heart Failure II: The Reign of Chaos

I resuscitated another corpse today. By the grace of God, old Pak Abu was revived.

More than a successful resuscitation effort, it was a failed murder attempt.


The perpetrators behind the latest assassination plot were none other than our Malaysian medical graduates from Russia.

I was only a nonchalant passer-by.

Drama and blood and gore were the last things on my mind.

Yet the sight of a soul in distress was inescapable.

Some people have an uncanny the ability of selective vision to ignore that which is unpleasant to the eyes.

I unfortunately do not possess such a gift.

If I come across a man (or woman) gasping for breath trying to remain alive with the little air they can inhale, I can’t turn around and pretend I see no evil.

Now Pak Abu was obviously struggling to breathe, so much so that he was already unconscious and cyanosed with no heart beat.

I caught the first house officer and made a very quick enquiry about Pak Abu.

“Oh, he’s just sleeping,” was her reply.

It was then that I flipped and threw a fit – a memorable, record-breaking grand mal seizure even by my own standards.

“THE PATIENT IS NOT SLEEPING! HE IS DYING!” I snapped, throwing the house officer into a state of panic and disarray.

Any human being with a minimal amount of common sense could have come to the conclusion that Pak Abu was in critical condition.

I supposed that was why his Filipino caretaker stood by and did budge not an inch away from Pak Abu.

While the staff nurses and doctors left Pak Abu to die miserably, Aminah the Filipino illegal immigrant with no skilled training or formal education did the most sensible thing she could think of.

It was also the only thing she could do in the absence of assistance and professional help.

She pumped precious oxygen into his failing lungs while the Russia graduates left Pak Abu to rot.

Aminah is paid RM 60 per day. That’s RM 2.50 per hour for twenty four hours of cleaning and feeding and diaper-changing with no designated lunch time or off-days in between.

In contrast, a house officer educated for six years in a Russian medical school earns RM 4800 per month, excluding food and on-call allowances.

In the process of a rowdy resuscitation – somewhere in between 1 m of adrenaline and 360 Joules of defibrillation, I grilled the three irresponsible and blatantly negligent house officers one by one.

They did not know the basic A, B, Cs of resuscitation.

They have no inkling what an oxygen face mask is.

They have never performed chest physiotherapy and suction before.

They couldn’t tell a Ryle’s tube from an endotracheal airway or even plaster the latter decently in place.

Sometimes these Russia and Ukraine graduates give answers that can really leave one stumped in disbelief and a locked open jaw.

Do Russians turn blue and stiff and icy cold with no heart activity in sweet slumber?

Do Ukrainians have a normal blood pH of 7.28?

The list goes on.

Very bluntly, it’s a serious issue of aptitude and attitude or rather, the lack of both.

They are a living testimony to the rotten state the Malaysian Medical Council has put us all in.

How many more must suffer and die before they put in place a mechanism of evaluating the competency of trainee doctors?

As it is already, irresponsible and dubious doctors are commonplace in the system.

The disciplinary action and remedial steps however are few and far in between.

The end-of-posting assessments, log books, annual SKT appraisal and incident reporting are nothing but an exercise in vanity.

Anyway, I visited Pak Abu today.

He gave me a reassuring nod of wellness.

Here is one soul that successfully slipped away from the Russians.

How many failed to?
Read more!

Kota Marudu, Sunday. The Land Beneath the Winds is set to tap into the lucrative health tourism industry. If realized, the inaugural project would generate an estimated revenue of RM 67.69 million for the state in 2009.

Healthscare and Nutrition Minister Datuk Liow Tong Lai made the announcement after an unannounced visit to the Kota Marudu Hospital here on Sunday.

“I have seen with my own eyes the potential that Sabah offers in terms of healthscare services. The medical and surgical care here is unprecedented and unique. There is no other way to describe it. Sabah healthscare is genuinely of international standard and on par with Zimbabwe and Somalia,” Datuk Liow said.

Future director of the state healthscare department, Dr Rikki agreed wholeheartedly.

“Datuk Liow has indeed seen with his own eyes. We have Burmese surgeons and Iraqi physicians, Russian house officers and lots of Filipino patients. No other state hospital can claim to be more international than us,” Dr. Rikki added.

The Healthscare Ministry in Kuala Lumpur has appointed Kinabatangan MP Dung Mokhtar to oversee the implementation of the pioneer Sabah State Tourism Project.

“Like the Healthscare Minister, I not only saw with my own eyes but have analysed the situation in Sabah as well. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Kota Marudu Hospital will be ideal for this project,” Dung explained.

Details of the various packages up for offer are yet to be finalized.

For accommodation, potential clients can choose between the standard rusted bed and the more economical makeshift canvass bed.

To enjoy greater camaraderie, patients can opt for the backroom where the space between two beds is a mere 30 centimetres.

“You can hear your neighbour’s fart and even smell it. If you have TB and are coughing your lungs out, the neighbouring bed can rescue that precious pulmonary tissue,” a medically-enlightened Dung elaborated.

Meals served in the health tourism project will display strictly Malaysian flavors. Breakfast comprises sliced bread and plain water. Lunch and dinner will be pure porridge served with boiled fish or steamed chicken.

“With such mouth-watering servings, I am sure that the ill and debilitated will recover in no time and once again be in state of a positive nitrogen balance,” Dung added.

Dung Mokhtar brushed aside concerns regarding the welfare of patients’ caretakers and next-of-kin.

“They can sleep on the floor and the many benches around the hospital if they want. We will not stop them,” Dung promised. Read more!

Dr. Rikki II: The Rise of Driftwood

A sense of déjà vu came over me. The hunched figure with a greying crown seemed so familiar.

The furrows on his forehead were like anyone else’s but somehow extraordinary for some reason.

Was he an ill patient that I once treated and have now recovered to full health?

Perhaps he was just another Sabahan with common features of a limited gene pool.



Dr. Rikki II: The Rise of Driftwood

It wasn’t the best time to be distracted.

The patient was severely ill and on her way for a brain scan in the Sabah Medical Center. Her vital signs were just barely acceptable and would require my close and total attention for the next hour or so. It is never easy to be jolted out of more secure environment in the ward and into an ill-equipped Malaysian ambulance.

Yet the face that I just glanced at in a flash refused to depart from the corner of my mind.

A sense of déjà vu came over me. The hunched figure with a greying crown seemed so familiar.

The furrows on his forehead were like anyone else’s but somehow extraordinary for some reason.

Was he an ill patient that I once treated and have now recovered to full health?

Perhaps he was just another Sabahan with common features of a limited gene pool.

I’m sure he was more than that. I am quite sure that at one point of my life I was by choice or by force, interacting with this native patriarch on a regular basis.

Something about him must have left a deep, lasting impression in me way back then.

I tried to attach a name to the face and maybe place the person in a regular environment.

An attire of some sort might help. So will a tie, a lab coat and maybe a stethoscope too.

The image seems complete now, except for a voice and some movements.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting… Dr. Rikki?

Dr. Rikki?

The 46-year-old house officer?

The prince of the soil who lived off a MARA medical scholarship for ten years only to return as a ward jester starting 2 mls of Ryle’s tube feeding and one pint of third generation cephalosporin for maintenance fluid?

What the heck is he doing back in the hospital?

Wasn’t he sent to an apex university somewhere in Kelantan to repeat his final year of medical school?

He passed?

He passed!

He passed and he’s back!

I met Dr. Rikki again a few days later. Very casually, we exchanged greetings and I enquired about his current posting.

“Oh, I decided I didn’t like clinical medicine. I’m in management now - Quality Assurance Unit in the state health department.”

Had I not been on flat ground, I would have fallen back in utter disbelief and absolute astonishment.

I am not against providing a lifeline for doctors who are incompetent in clinical practice.

One has to feed a family, and Dr. Rikki is no exception.

If my ageing brain has not failed me, Dr. Rikki could hardly spell ‘A-O-R-T-A’ to refer a patient with severe chest pain.

So pray, tell, how on earth can anyone with minimal command of the English language be placed in administration and specifically one that implements quality control measures?

Is it any wonder Sabah is perpetually in such dire straits?

Read more!

An Open Apology To The Health Minister

Dear Yang Amat Berhormat (YAB) Datuk Liow Tiong Lai,

I am sincerely sorry for my unwarranted outburst in my previous letter.

Your kind intentions have been severely misinterpreted.

I am utterly sorry if I appeared to belittle your credentials and leadership capabilities.

I can see now what an ignorant nincompoop I have been by accusing so very unjustly.

Dear YAB,

I realise now that you had far-sighted goals when you closed down our operation theatres and wards. In line with global medical education and training, you wanted the doctors in Sabah to be well-versed in acute care and emergency healthcare services.

Therefore, you abruptly but wisely witheld all non-emergency surgeries like colon cancers and enlarged prostates. You knew that one day these tumors would grow and spread and cause potentially irrversible severe systemic upset. That is the perfect time when we doctors will finally get the opportunity to provide acute care.

I am also apologetic for accusing the Minisry of deliberate feet-dragging in building a new general hospital for Sabah. In fact, I am losing sleep over my unfounded allegations that cronies of the state and federal government are reaping indecent profits from the current health crisis.

I should have known better. Malaysia is after all, not spared from the global economic turmoil. We should be more thrifty and save our funds and billions of ringgit for projects of greater public interest, like the national space program and the many buy-elections ahead.

Oh, how were you misunderstood! A thousand apologies from me!

Dear Datuk,

I was also uninformed and ignorant of your noble mission to improve palliative services in Sabah and the country as a whole. Why should we doctors perform complicated and heroic surgeries trying to cure cancer and degenerative diseases? After all, there is a oft-repeated medical slogan that clinicians should ‘cure sometimes, relieve often and comfort always’. If only I had known that you were a staunch believer in palliative care, I would not have bombarded the Ministry with such contempt.

From now on, I will stop pleading the Ministry of Health for more operating theatres, recovery wards and medical staff trained in life-saving clinical work. I will instead persuade cancer patients against surgery and opt for palliative care instead. I will encourage my colleagues to do the same although I can’t guarantee that they will do the same. They are very stubborn and determined doctors, you see – not unlike me when I wrote my first letter to you.

Dear most honorable and esteemed Minister,

After today, I will based all my clinical judgement on bedside assessment instead of relying on x-rays, CT scans and various blood results. I realise now that you were only trying to make us into more astute clinicians when you seemingly neglected Sabah by not providing us a CT scan and various diagnostic lab tests.

Lastly, my most respected and magnanimous Health Minister, I apologise from the bottom of my heart and beg for pardon for my excessive sarcasm in this second letter.

I am after all, a product of the system.

Read more!

An Open Letter To The Minister of Health

Unlike MCA members, not everyone enjoys being labeled a ‘squatter’....Mr Minister, how would you like to have a tumor growing in your rectum with no avenue of getting it removed?...


Dear Health Minister,

Ali, a 32-year-old road traffic accident victim, travelled three hours from the district of Sabah and arrived in Kota Kinabalu six hours after the initial trauma. After the initial assessment in the emergency department, a CT scan of the head and abdomen was ordered to exclude intracranial bleeding and intraabdominal injury.

He was whisked back onto an ambulance to the privately-owned Sabah Medical Center (SMC) for the required scans. After the ten-minute procedure, he was repacked into the ambulance back to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to undergo further assessment while awaiting the results of his blood tests and x-rays. His scans and X-rays were reviewed.

Ali was found to have a lacerated liver and a fractured long bone with multiple superficial wounds. He was then prepared for emergency surgery.

For that, the young man was then re-wheeled into the ambulance headed once again to the SMC where the operating theatre and intensive care unit of QEH are currently housed.
By the time surgery starts, it was already nine hours from the time of his motor vehicle accident.
My story hasn’t finished, Mr Minister.

One hour into the operation, our young chap bled tremendously that he required more blood products to sustain life. It would not be another hour or so before the blood products arrive from the blood bank of QEH to the SMC. You see YB, blood has to be taken from the patient and passed to a house officer. The house officer will fill in the necessary forms and hand them over to an attendant. The attendant will wait for a chartered bus or ambulance to head back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital or rather, what remains of it.

Back in QEH, the attendant will wait 45 minutes for the blood to be cross-matched and then wait a while more for the arrival of a chartered bus or ambulance to ferry him (or her) back to SMC.
Anyway, being a fit and healthy young man previously, Ali survived the operation. He was admitted to the ICU and needed a repeated chest x-ray.

For that, the radiography team in QEH is informed. The duo will then take a the chartered bus or ambulance SMC to perform the X-ray. Shooting an X-ray takes all but two minutes. Processing the cassette will take another five. However, the processing is done back in the hospital and delivered by the next available ambulance back to SMC. By the time the X-ray films reach the patient, it could be anything from three to twelve hours later.

Dear Yang Berkhidmat (YB) Liow,

I hope you notice the unacceptable predicament our Sabahan patients (and medical staff) are facing currently.

It is already six months since the initial and abrupt closure of Kota Kinabalu’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Since then, we have been without a proper operating theatre and intensive care unit. We are also without distinctive wards for many of our surgical patients of most disciplines.

Frankly speaking, the health crisis of the state of Sabah has run so deep and far along that I do not where to begin.

I will instead serve an eye opening fact to you, Mr. Liow.

At the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, the the communist government of the People’s Republic of China erected a 1,000-bedded hospital within seven days. Work on the Xiaotangshan Hospital started on April 24, 2003 and completed on April 30th, with 7,000 workers and 500 machines tirelessly on duty around the clock. Far from being a melamine-laced structure, the Xiaotangshan Hospital is equipped with the then state-of-the-art anti-infective measures and facilities. The structure built within a week is still standing firm six years later today, ready to house any ill and potentially infective patient in the event of any unforeseen health crisis.

Mr Health Minister,

That is exactly what Sabahans are in right now – a health crisis!

The Barisan Nasional government chants ‘Malaysia Boleh’ like some proverbial battlecry but the Sabah state health crisis has proven that empty vessels make the most noise.

Unlike MCA members, not everyone enjoys being labeled a ‘squatter’.

For six months, the medical staff and patients of Sabah have been housed in sections of the Sabah Medical Center paying a whooping rental of RM 90,000 per day.

For five months since our forced relocation into your prized SMC, we only had one operating room for life-threatening emergency cases. Elective surgeries were postponed indefinitely even those involving cancers and prostates and suspicious breast lumps.

We only restarted elective surgeries a month ago but even so, the backlog of cases is tremendous and catastrophic.

I wonder Mr Minister, how would you like to have a tumor growing in your rectum with no avenue of getting it removed?

That is exactly what our poor Sabah folks were facing. They were without money and without a hospital to get operated in. In fact, they still don’t because they do not have a formal general hospital for Kota Kinabalu anymore.

Heck, we don’t even have our own CT scan.

What we do have however is lots of bills to pay and debts to settle.

Is it true that the state department of health owes SMC a total of RM 6.1 million for CT scan services? Is it true that Hantaran Wira, the company contracted to provide transport to and fro SMC-QEH is paid RM 0.5 million per month?

Mr. Minister,

You owe the 3.4 million population of Sabah a lot of answers, wasted lives and needless deaths.

Money cannot solve all problems in life.

Thank you for listening.

Yang menurut perintah,
Product of the System.

Read more!

Selamat Hari Raya from SESB

Selamat Hari Raya from SESB Sdn Bhd

A very Selamat Hari Raya to all Sabahans, and Malaysians in general.

We at Sabah Everyday Sure Blackout (SESB) Sdn. Bhd would like to extend our most sincere greetings and heartfelt wishes on this special occasion.

As you are all aware, SESB is the only power utility company in Sabah, Malaysia.

As such, we are under tremendous pressure and stress at all times to serve the 361,400 customers of Sabah. Sabahans are reminded that we at SESB are also catering to our most numerous and precious clients, the Indopinos who are naturally talented and gifted in making legal illegal electrical connections.

Rest assured that SESB is fully informed that you bono fide SESB customers are constantly billed more than you should be as a result of all these Indopino connections. Please keep your calm and hold your peace. Closing one eye and sometimes both is an inherent national culture. In addition, we at SESB are staunch believers and doers of Islam Hadhari. Therefore, charity to our less wealthy Project IC fellow citizens comes quite naturally. We cordially invite all SESB clients to join us in this noble project to empower the future bumiputeras of Sabah.

We are also in full knowing that electrical cables are frequently missing and displaced uncannily, resulting in regular electrical breakdown to homes, businesses and medical centers. Although the apparent culprits, once again the Indopinos are not uncommonly caught red handed, we urge restraint and patience among all Sabahans. It is an unwritten policy in SESB that Malaysia as an oil-rich nation can spare some steel for our less fortunate fellow human beings especially those that buy Malaysian identification cards for RM 110.

By the way, did you know that electricity started in Sabah as early as 1910? In those dark, gloomy pre-independence days, electricity was supplied by 3 separate organizations. In line with UMNO’s spirit for political monopoly and business hegemony, all distributing rights for power utility has been accorded to us here at SESB. Needless to say, we are proud to be partakers in a system of cronyism and nepotism. Surely we as peace-loving harmonious Malaysians do not desire a competitive business environment?

SESB sincerely apologise that after almost a hundred years, the state of Sabah is still not fully supplied with electricities. Our most honorable chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie Anak Irok and most famed deputy chairman Bung Moktar bin Radin are in constant brainstorming in order to rectify this trivial matter. In the meantime, we plead with the kind and gullible folks of Kota Marudu, Pitas, Ranau and Kudat to continue the most enjoyable practice of using petrol-powered generators. The occasional fires and consequent loss of human lives are unfortunate and most regretted.

However, SESB reiterates that we are all responsible for our actions. As a typical UMNO government-linked company, SESB will therefore not be liable for any mishaps or misfortunes that occur directly and indirectly as a result of our temporary but protracted incompetency. As what our most spiritual deputy chairman Bung Mokhtar believes, misfortunes are sometimes the will of God above, as what he strongly believes was what befell Karpal Singh.

At this juncture, we at SESB would also like to clarify that our hotline operators were not immediately available to respond to today’s two-hour long blackout in Kota Kinabalu because they were busy with some anu bah. SESB understands that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a frequent victims of such blackouts in Kota Kinabalu.

We have been informed repeatedly by Dr. POTS that the lives of some patients are solely dependent on the availability of continuous electricity. Dr POTS has also written to us complaining that the blackouts in the hospital have resulted in some osteoarthritis and osteoporosis-strickened folks having to walk six floors up to visit their ailing loved ones in the wards.

Now, while the complaints of Dr POTS are duly noted, we once again cite our principle that some unfortunate events are simply God’s will. As such, SESB shall not be held liable either directly or indirectly over the morbidity and mortality suffered by patients of no political or monetary importance.

Should any family members be dissatisfied however, clients are always welcomed to contact our highly-trained hotline operators at 15454.

Maaf zahir dan batin.

Salam.

Your pain in the ass,
SESB Management.

Read more!

Crackdown My Foot!

Crackdown My Foot!

Not long after the March 8th general elections, in which Sabah and Sarawak re-elected the UMNO/BN government back into power, the UMNO government promised a “massive crackdown” on the growing presence of illegal Filipinos in the state of Sabah.

Photos and statements of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak graced the headlines of local dailies, promising and re-promising each day that the Kadazandusuns will once again be able to call Sabah a land of their own instead of giving it up to ID-possessing Filipinos.

It’s been six months since the promised and much hyped mega-operation.

As I drove past Kampung Likas for work recently, I realized that the Filipino settlements that were built over the mangrove swamp were no longer there. They have all been demolished to the ground. Even the wooden stilts that the houses use to stand upon were cleaned up and disposed of.



For a moment, I thought the UMNO/BN government had learnt its lesson and heeded the desires of increasingly frustrated local Sabahans.

I met a family in clinic yesterday. The patient was a 33-year-old Filipino man with a wife and two young children. He was seeking consultation for a high-grade fever. Attempting to elicit any risk factors for malaria and dengue, I briefly enquired about his housing and occupational conditions.

His wife was more than enthusiastic to offer an answer. I soon understood why.

The family used to stay in Kampung Likas, in a self-erected wooden stilt house perched over the mangrove swamp. They received electrical and water supply via illegal connections to the adjacent local homes. The salt-water swamp served as a common latrine as well as garbage dump. The rising and receding tides ensured that all trash and human excrement were washed out into the open sea nearby.

About a month ago, the UMNO state government issued them a notice to move out of the family home in Kampung Likas.

It was not a crackdown, however.

Instead, they were to be relocated into a three-room apartment in Taman Telipok Ria, about 30 minutes drive from the city of Kota Kinabalu. Their new home was equipped with the basic utilities as well as a small playground in the premises of the apartments. Movement of all their belongings was taken care of by the state government. They were to pay RM 130 of rental per month for their new home. Both their children possess valid Malaysian birth certificates. By age 12, they are eligible to apply for a Malaysian IC and being Muslim, they are entitled to all bumiputera privileges under the New Economic Policy.

Anyway, they were not the only family. To her understanding, all her fellow Filipino neighbours in Kampung Likas were similarly relocated and offered apartment homes in Taman Telipok Ria.

That is why the squatter houses of Kampung Likas are no longer there and that is why she was more than enthusiastic to talk about her new family home.
Out of curiosity, I checked out Taman Telipok Ria. I can testify with a clear conscience that the patient and his wife were telling the truth. The number of Filipino residents in the apartments at Telipok Ria is significant and alarming. In fact, they might even outnumber the figures of local Sabahans.

The sign of the housing project stated that a total number of 2,400 units were to be built. The project comes under the direct purview of the Local Housing Ministry and the Tuaran District Council.

All over Sabah, local Kadazandusun are being evicted from their native lands and homes in the name of development and logging. Clean and uncorrupted land officials who stand in the way of UMNO’s greed are wrongfully charged for corruption by the ACA. At the same time, Filipinos who enter and reside in Sabah illegally are relocated to decent homes masqueraded as a ‘massive crackdown’.

Does my reporting appear preposterous and unbelievable?

It doesn’t especially when one remembers that a racist prick like Ahmad “Chinese-are-Squatters” Ismail is still roaming free while upright lawmakers like Teresa Kok is held behind ISA bars.

Spread the word. Spread this whistle-blowing article.

Let all Malaysians old and young know how the UMNO government is betraying the nation and empowering itself with Project IC citizens.

Project IC: Satu Lagi Projek Kerajaan Barisan Nasional.

Read more!

UMS: Anything but University Malaysia Sabah

UMS is anything but Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

UMS is Universiti Myanmar Sabah, University of Murdering Surgeons, University Mati di Sabah.

Here's why.

UMS: Anything but University Malaysia Sabah

University Sains Malaysia (USM) was recently accorded ‘apex university’ status, whatever that means. Only time will tell whether the boisterous claims by the Ministry of Higher Education and USM itself will ever materialize.

While all eyes are focused upon the newly crowed premier institution of higher learning in Tanah Melayu, one local university seems to consistently escape the limelight of Malaysians and the media.

University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) was established in 1994 as the ninth public university of Malaysia. It currently has 13 faculties and 9 research institutes. The School of Medicine, established in 2003 is the latest faculty in UMS. Wikipedia describes University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) as the ‘most beautiful university in South East Asia.

Few would dispute that last statement.

Sabahans are generally proud and grateful for the establishment of UMS. Prior to its existence, any Sabahans poised for tertiary education in a local public university has to travel across the South China Sea to Peninsular Malaysia where one will be separated from one’s family for the duration of study. The establishment of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in 1992 provided an alternative albeit limited avenue. UMS was born out of an election promise made by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. It is therefore not difficult to understand why most citizens of Sabah are optimistic and defensive of UMS.

Personally, I do not share the feel-good sentiment over UMS. Just as Sabah for half a century has been treated like a stepson in the Federation of Malaysia, it is my humble opinion that UMS has for 14 years been the step-university of the nation.

UMS: University Myanmar Sabah

It is an open secret that local universities rely heavily on Burmese lecturers especially in their medical faculties. This is especially true for UMS. The UMS website lists 45 academic staff in the School of Medicine. Of the 45 names, at least 18 names are conspicuously Burmese while another six are obviously non-local. In other words, at least 53% of UMS’s academic staff in the medical faculty are expatriates. I have nothing against foreign talent educating our youngsters. If these expatriates are knowledgeable and gifted in teaching, there is little reason to complain and no case for any dissatisfaction.

However, this is rarely the case, and I am stating so only from my personal experience with these medical lecturers. Now first and foremost, a nagging question begs an imminent answer: since when was Burma renowned as a center for medical excellence? Yet, Burmese lecturers account for 40% of UMS’s medical academicians. I do not deny that there are effective teachers among this pool but honestly and with a very clear conscience, they are the exception rather than the norm.

In my daily run-ins with the Burmese lecturers, I struggle to understand their heavily accented English. It remains a wonder how UMS medical students can comprehend lectures and tutorials teeming with medical jargon and technical terms.

As far as I am concerned, the Burmese lecturers are not trained or recognized by any international institution. To my knowledge, the majority of these teachers hold a Masters’ degree from University of Rangoon (currently known as University of Yangon). The University of Rangoon has its glorious days in the 1940s-1950s but has since 1962 faded into mediocrity after the ascent of socialism in the then Burma. The current crops of Burmese medical lecturers therefore are products of a second-rate institution in junta-controlled Myanmar. It is thus not preposterous to assume that students in UMS are receiving second-rate education.

There is no dearth of local teaching talent is the Ministry of Higher Education makes a more concerted and unbiased effort to scout around. The Ministry spends generously to pay the salaries of foreign academicians when it can employ local Malaysians for half the amount and presumably with greater efficacy of teaching.

UMS: University of Murdering Surgeons

In my previous article Murderers In Our Midst, I wrote about how innocent Sabahans were massacred for a period of time by the so-called surgeons from the UMS School of Medicine. It is something I feel very strongly about as these deaths took place before my eyes and in a very tormenting manner.

The origins of the massacre are unclear but it is believed that the UMS School of Medicine applied for regular operating opportunities for their surgical academicians whom needless to say are all Burmese but for one Middle Eastern national. For a duration of five months, patients in both elective and emergency cases went under the knife and total care of these UMS surgeons.

The outcome was horrendous.

It became clear soon enough that a local medical officer can cut much better than some of these surgeons and in a much shorter time. There was a high incidence of dubious operative decisions and techniques.

The post-operative care under the UMS team was pitiable, if at all in fact. Patients in sepsis, acute kidney failure, respiratory failure and electrolyte abnormalities were left under the care of junior house officers while the UMS surgeons treated the morning rounds like a walk in the Kundasang National Park. Granted, some of these patients were in irreversible and critical conditions but there were a number of others that could still be working their farms today had there been proper care and management.

The sudden and acute increase in peri-operative mortality prompted the Surgical Department Head to withdraw operating rights to the UMS surgeons.

One is greatly mistaken is if one thinks that errors are only made in surgeries. A Burmese radiologist performed a scan in a 42-year-old diabetic lady and diagnosed gallstones, a reasonably common condition. The only problem is, the patient had already undergone surgery to remove her gallbladder and is thus impossible to have any more gallbladder stones!

Do such tragedies occur in Peninsular Malaysia? I don’t know. What I do believe is that the lives of Sabahans are worth little to the Barisan Nasional government.

After all, no one has hitherto been held accountable for the peri-operative deaths that occurred so far.

UMS: Universiti Mati di Sabah

UMS is undoubtedly beautiful and wide and well-equipped. It is also located in the very crime-prone area of Karambunai in Sabah.

Around UMS are areas of rapid construction and dizzying development, with pockets of Filipino and Indonesian colonies surrounding UMS. It’s a perfect recipe for falling victim to violent crime.

Reading news of yet another tragedy befalling UMS students is no longer surprising. In Sept 2007, a UMS student became the victim of a snatch thief right in front of his house in Kingfisher, Likas. In April 2008, a 21-year-old UMS student was abducted in broad daylight and sexually assaulted. Today, the Daily Express reports that the decomposed body of a lady has been identified to be that of a missing UMS student. The young lady was believed to have been raped before being murdered and dumped.

A significant number of road accidents also involve UMS students. The traffic around UMS is increasing by the day, thanks to the great idea of erecting One Borneo Megamall so close to the university premises. Mix crazy traffic and university students on motorcycles and the sum is one lethal cocktail.

Yes, we are all individually responsible for our personal safety but there is only so much we, as unarmed civilians can do. Apart from being more vigilant and paranoid, it is the responsibility of the ruling government to deploy more patrolling cops, weed out brazen Project IC citizens and enforce the currently inadequate criminal laws.

Has anyone enlightened the BN government that parents send their children to universities to pursue learning and not to die?

Or is the BN government so obsessed with arresting political dissidents that the safety of youngsters at dangerous universities like UMS becomes secondary?

UMS: University Mediocre SLAB/SLAI

The quality of a university is almost always reflected by the quality of its academicians.

How far will UMS go when it is employing mediocre teaching staff? I am by no means generalizing to include all of UMS academicians. At the same time, it is no secret that UMS has been employing lecturers without a thorough screening. A medical officer who failed to pass her external examinations multiple times was co-opted into the UMS School of Medicine as a ‘trainee lecturer’ i.e, a Skim Latihan Bumiputera (SLAB) academic. In fact, any medical officers with only a year or two of working experience can apply to join UMS’s teaching programs as trainee lecturers. To many doctors including myself, UMS is regarded as a gateway to medical specialty, never mind the fact that UMS does not have its own established school for postgraduate medical training.

As UMS produced the first batch of medical graduates only this year, I do not have sufficient experience with them in order to state my personal impression. I have no doubt that at least some of UMS’s medical graduates will at least be as competent as their counterparts from other local universities. Diligent students will excel no matter where they are placed. Still, in general my interaction with the UMS students in the wards has been less than assuring, and it is in no way the fault of the medical students. They are simply left to themselves to roam about the wards aimlessly with occasional clinical teaching sessions.

If the UMS medical students do excel in their work later on, I would personally give more credit to their teachers from the government hospitals rather than their varsity lecturers.

Regardless, UMS seems to be heading the same mediocre direction as its Peninsular counterparts, deriving its future teaching manpower from the SLAB/SLAI programs.


I hope I am dead wrong in all this.

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Senseless in Sabah (1)

Please click on the above image and scrutinize it.

Does it make any sense to you?

A child born to Filipino parents receives an official birth certificate and by default Malaysian citizenship as documented above.

It's not a fake or Photoshopped document.

It's been ongoing ever since Sabah fell into the treacherous hands of UMNO.

Millions of Filipino kids have received bumiputera citizenship.

It's stupid, dumb but politically beneficial.

It's even more mind boggling when you are alerted to the fact that so many professionals with priceless skills and talents are denied permanent residency in Malaysia despite years of invaluable service to the Malaysian community. One consultant general surgeon educated and trained in USA has been applying for permanent residency for sixteen years. He has been rejected each time.

Lastly, it's totally blood-boiling that an estimated 15,000 Malaysian Indians born and bred in Tanah Melayu are currently without valid ICs and classified as 'stateless'.

And that is why I am not impressed or alarmed by Lim Kit Siang's article on how the Sultan of Sulu/North Borneo/Sabah is currently issuing birth certificates to Filipino babies.

Who gives a rat's ass about the Sultan of Sulu when we have the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara doing the same thing for free for these Filipino/Indonesian/Pakistani kids? Read more!

The Young Sabahan (1)

The youth of Sabah are not any more or less teachable than the Malay bumiputras of Peninsular Malaysia. They are no less talented or skilful. They are perhaps, lesser beings in the eyes of UMNO and Barisan Nasional.

The one best method to condemn a community to eternal ignorance is by neglecting and forgetting it. In this respect, the youngsters of Sabah have been neglected for much too long.


The Young Sabahan (1)

The locum clinic I work for placed a 3X4 cm in the local Borneo Post recently. It was looking to hire a new clinic nurse to replace one who had left earlier in the month after eight years of tenure.

A total of 531 applicants from all over Sabah sent in their applications and resumẻ of sorts.

It’s not unlike an American Idol contest. The applicants were mostly young, jobless locals from the distant districts of Sabah. They had to undergo a grilling interview. The reward was less lucrative than the million-dollar record deals of a singing competition though. At the end of it all, only one will get the job – a pretty mundane and unenviable job.

Hilda is an eighteen-year-old Bajau lady from Kota Belud, about 200 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu city. The fifth of seven siblings, she had just completed secondary school, attaining a decent pass in the SPM examinations. Her life had come to a defining junction upon completion of her secondary education. Her family is unable to support Hilda for any further education. Heck, even making ends meet in this season of inflation is a struggle. She has come of age and was obliged to contribute to the family income. After eight months of being unemployed and unproductive, Hilda was under increasing pressure to do something about her life.

Opportunities and development are limited in Kota Belud.

It is never easy abandoning the comfort and confines of the familiar family nest. She is not keen to, but her options are limited. She can leave home and fend for herself in the foreign environment of Kota Kinabalu city, sending home her leftover cash, if any. Alternatively, she can resume her village life in Kota Belud, get married at a tender age and start a baby factory of her own, attaining grandmotherhood by the age of forty not unlike her own mother.

The first choice was unattractive and daunting, but was nevertheless more viable than specializing in copulation and reproduction.

Hilda was finally employed not because she was better, prettier or more impressive than the other hundreds of applicants. She was not fluent in English, far from it in fact, despite her documented ‘A’ in her SPM English. She did not write any better than the others or speak more confidently. Hilda was hired because she was willing to take up the job at the lowest offer.

For the next one year, Hilda will be working eight-hour shifts each day with one day off after three consecutive overnight shifts at the clinic. Registering patients, mixing and packing medications, phone calls and billings will be her tasks of the day. At the end of each month, Hilda will be paid RM 440.00. It runs up to about a RM 14 per day or RM 1.80 per hour – figure much lower than the standard market wages.

Without any form of self-transportation, Hilda needs to stay near the clinic. She rents a room in a flat no larger than half a badminton court. The flat houses thirteen other job-seeking young Sabahans. Hilda shares her room with another young lady. She pays RM 110 each month for her room slightly smaller than a Proton Perdana. Hilda is left with RM 330 for the next 30 days.

As comparison, my grandmother’s Indonesian helper commands a salary of RM 500 per month, with food and lodging privileges.

Stories like Hilda’s are a dime a dozen in Sabah. She is a bumiputera just like the Muslim Malays of Peninsular Malaysia.

Despite years of trumpeted, keris-wielding, battle cries of bumiputra-ism, the fruits of the New Economic Policy have eluded her for half a century.

Development is scarce in the districts of Sabah not because of the lack of funds or the absence of potential. Massive corruption at federal, state and district levels have swindled the locals of their pooled taxes. The unbelievable gambling debts of former Sabah chief minister Osu Sukam amounted to almost seven million ringgit. It a small testimony of how rich Sabah can be if its monies were entrusted in the proper hands.

National education has failed Hilda and the million other local Sabahans. Malaysian education is accessible to most folks, but at what price? Most schools away from the city of Kota Kinabalu are pillars of shame. With limited facilities, insufficient teaching staff and less than ideal environments of learning, national education becomes a farce in these district schools, not that it is any less a mockery throughout the country anyway. As in most national schools, the air is pungent with forced indoctrination and pro-government propaganda. Unlike their counterparts from the more urban areas, the young minds in the districts of Sabah do not access to alternative worldviews. Libraries are a rare sight, if and when they are available, the variety of reading material is limited. Internet is a foreign word - the people I’m writing about right now are not reading this web page right now and probably never will.

Like the many before her, Hilda complied with the teachings and contents of her education syllabus. It is written in her text books and declared by her teachers that the current Malaysian government is the best one can ask for, a government that was legitimately elected via a free, fair and just democratic process and one that safeguards the wellbeing and interests of Malaysian citizens regardless of race, religion and culture.

Life in her kampung was simple, quiet and tranquil. It could have been her be-all, end-all, her destiny forevermore if not for the fact that everyone needs to grow up and earn a living one day. As it turns out, life and survival in the real world requires more than an SPM certificate. She had trusted her teachers, her books and her school but evidently, her trust is misplaced. Sabah and Malaysia is a pretty different place that the one she had read about in her textbooks and the images she sees on her television screen. If our national school textbooks were kosher and to be believed, Malaysia is the utopia in every idealist’s dream. The reality of course, is that Malaysia is capitalist to the core supplemented with elements of communism, apartheid and Talibanism.

An erroneous and homogenous worldview in an unquestioning mind is precisely what UMNO desires from the rural population of Sabah. From Ranau to Kota Marudu, Tawau to Sandakan, Kudat to Tenom, keeping young minds in the dark about the realities of life will ensure continuous Malay supremacy in land where Malays are the minority.

Sabah has lost a generation or two to UMNO’s political hegemony.

The youth of Sabah are not any more or less teachable than the Malay bumiputras of Peninsular Malaysia. They are no less talented or skilful. They are perhaps, lesser beings in the eyes of UMNO and Barisan Nasional.

The one best method to condemn a community to eternal ignorance is by neglecting and forgetting it. In this respect, the youngsters of Sabah have been neglected for much too long.

Contrast their fate and deal in life with that of their Malay counterparts in Semenanjung Malaysia. The Malays have endless vocation institutions, double scholarships, training programs and re-training programs. Don’t Sabah’s youth deserve the same, or something similar at the very least?

I’m not one who spares the rod and spoil the child. I believe that man (and woman) should be taught to fish and not spoonfed indiscriminately. In the process of learning fishing, which I assure you might sometimes take a while, one still needs to hand them some fish every now and then.

I’ve worked in Sabah long enough to know that most young Sabahans are not typically those who will end up as ungrateful Mat Rempits and flamboyant Mat Minahs when given an opportunity to improve themselves.

They deserve a bigger role in life than merely providing cheap labor to the capitalists among us.

Hilda has no long term plans for now. She will not be sending any money back home anytime soon either. With her own survival hanging on a delicate balancing act, she will remain as one of the many faceless young Sabahans for the moment, if not forever.

Read more!

News Round-up

News Round-Up.

Of late, this web log have taken on a more personal note, publishing stories about me, myself and I, when so much else is happening throughout the world.

I don’t know about the rest of you out there but I haven’t consistently read the mainstream papers for almost two years now. I am not too willing to pay RM 1.80 for The Star or the New Straits Times over here in Sabah, especially not on a daily basis and even more, for a package of well-edited lies. I rely on Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia-today for my daily updates. It has served me well thus far.

It’s been more than a month now since the so-called political tsunami of Malaysia. Those among us wishing and itching for change must be getting pretty impatient by now. I don’t know. I’m based in Sabah, the bluest of the bluest BN state. Things haven’t changed much for me and certainly not for most of the local Sabahans. The rare times I do read the news, it all sounds so yesterday.

Racist remarks teeming with tones of Malay supremacy are still very much the norm. The latest is from the crown prince of Kelantan, one Tengku Faris. The feedback and backlash from the Malaysian society in general seemed pretty pale when compared to the backlash in response to similar remarks by the UMNO bohemians. The most firm-worded statement had to come from Karpal Singh, who remarked that Tengku Faris’ remarks bordered on sedition. The relative silence from the Malaysian society especially the Malay politicians is a testimony of the prevailing cloud of feudalism among Malaysians. Just because a racist remark came from a human with so-called royal blood doesn’t make it any less racist and rude. We all bleed red and breathe air and rot to nothing after we’re dead. Turds smell like turds be it whether they came from ‘commoners’ like us or ‘royalties’ like this Tengku Faris fellow. Call a spade a spade and call a turd a turd, even when it’s a royal turd.

Crime is still prevalent. I don’t know about the police’s response and attitude to it though. Personally, I feel that the cops of Sabahland are much more courteous and committed to their duty. A friend’s house was broken in juts two days ago. It was a well-planned heist with the principal targets being his high-end laptop and other costly gadgets. The Sabah cops recovered his belongings within a day and arrested all the suspects who turned out to be my friend’s next door neighbours. The Sabah police force also made a remarkable breakthrough in the recent abduction of a 22-year-old Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student. Both suspects were caught but not before the young lady victim was allegedly sexually assaulted. The arrest of both suspects was only possible with effective communication between the police teams across the state. One interesting point to note in this case of abduction is the fact that the abduction was witnessed by the four friends of the victim. These fiends however, waited two hours before lodging a police report, by the time which the victim was already midway on a terror ride from Likas to Keningau.

It is really mind-boggling why four university students waited for two hours before making a police report on her abduction. Are we producing graduates that are so stoopid and dumb and retarded these days? What in the world were they thinking?

Speaking of UMS, I wonder if Malaysian parents are aware of what institution their children are entering? To many Sabahans, UMS is their pride and forte. The university is supposed to be a reward of sorts for Sabahans’ undying support for the BN regime. After more than a decade in operation, UMS has turned out to be yet another NEP factory. In fact, it is so very pathetic that it can’t even train its own NEP products. The SLAB program for UMS is apparently held in a twinning effort with UM, UKM. Closer to the medical fraternity, some have renamed that the Medical Faculty of UMS as University Myanmar Sabah. It’s really a more appropriate name in fact. Most of its medical lecturers are Burmese. I have nothing against persons of Burmese origin. Some of my own lecturers back in UM were Burmese and some were excellent teachers. Something is terribly wrong however, when most of the lecturers are foreigners from Burma and the Middle Eastern states of Iraq and Egypt. It simply means that UMS was never ready to start a medical school in the first place. There was a time when these Burmese lecturers-surgeons were allowed to operate in the hospital. Except for a few minor surgical procedures, ALL of the other patients died post-operatively – mostly from poor surgical techniques or post-operative neglect. I really pity Sabahans in this respect. They came with high hopes but left with a corpse to bring home. Realising the exceptionally high rate of perioperative mortality among the Burmese surgeons, the Surgical Head of Department decided to put his foot down and cease the daily slaughter of innocent Sabahans. The Burmese surgeons are still operating though, but usually under supervision. Note the emphasis on ‘usually’ as opposed to ‘always’.

Apart from quality, UMS is a slaughterhouse in its own right. Located in Likas, an area densely populated by UMNO’s Project IC citizens, I have lost count on how many UMS students have been victims of violent crime since the day I started working in Sabah’s healthcare.

The Sabah Chief Minister has proudly proclaimed that the BN state government will be building more detention centers to house illegal immigrants. It simply means that more of your money and my money will be used to raise these Filipino and Indonesian children so that they can grow enough lean meat to rob our houses later on.

Tenaganita’s Irene Fernandez and other human rights advocates insist that no immigrant or refugee should be stigmatized and blamed for the increasing crime in Malaysia. I beg to differ. Common sense must always prevail over emotions and personal beliefs. Are Filipinos and Indonesians in Sabah more prone to commit crime than the local population? Facts and figures and news reports may lie and bluff but the harrowing tales and scary accounts of the victims do not. I feel Malaysians should really keep a lid about the human rights of Filipino and Indonesian migrants and re-focus on defending the sovereignty of our borders and seas instead.


I don’t get many readers, if at all from the Philippines but seriously I hope one or two of them will read this article. The population of Philippines has risen to a massive 88 million according the latest Filipino census. This explosive figure is alarming the Filipino government especially more so since the nation is facing a shortage of rice and other essential items. Nevertheless, the predominant Catholic nation remains obstinate on the use of contraceptive techniques. In a nutshell, they are more fearful of angering the Pope than sending a million children to death by hunger.

While the Filipinos have their hands full attenuating hunger and a bulging population, the Pope himself is no less busy over in the United States. He is still attempting to downplay the prevalence of paedophilia among Catholic priests to the extent of defending an Archbishop who defended his church’s paedophilic priests.

Humans are really funny and stupid at times. We put our faith in man and men in religious robes instead of God almighty who created the heavens and the earth and all within it. To me, all humans are prone to temptation and failure.

We’re all turds in our own ways and to varying degrees. We cannot pretend that we’re not turds, not even when we’re dressed in fancy flowing religious robes.


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Anak Di Rumah Mati Kelaparan...Astro Di Bumbung Kecapi Kegemilangan

Sixty kiometers from nearest town,
Sixteen km of dusty gravel road,
Sixty square foot of living area,
Sixty coconuts to harvest each day,
Sixteen ringgit of income per day,
Six-month pregnant wife,
Six young mouths to feed,
Six safe methods of effective contraception,
He chose sixty channels instead.

How to progress with such mentality? Read more!

Kera di hutan disusukan....Anak di rumah mati kelaparan (2)

Schools for Indonesian children will soon be sprouting up around the state of Sabah. After a “brainstorming session” with the Indonesian Consul General, the Ministry of Education has decided that Indonesian children in Sabah should not be deprived of a chance at education.

The first of many to come, Sekolah Indonesia Kota Kinabalu (SIKK) will reportedly be built in Alam Mesra, a high-end commercial zone in Likas, Sabah not far from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). In the same news report, it is estimated that a total number of 5,500Indonesian kids are already studying in 72 learning centers across the state of Sabah, mostly run by NGOs with the official endorsement of the Malaysian Ministry of Education.

The Indonesian Consulate General, one Rudhito Widagdo also claims that “there was no such term as illegal Indonesians for the Consulate” his countrymen “would enter Sabah legally and comply with Malaysian Immigration law by bringing along valid travel documents”.

Well, birds of a feather flock together. So do lying liars and politicians from both Malaysia and Indonesia.

For those who are unfamiliar with the overall state of Sabah, take my word that the local population in the rural districts is still very much entrapped in pre-Independence living conditions. The waves of development have evaded them deliberately for fifty years now. Opportunities for education are still very restricted and many of the district schools are wasting away in a pathetic state. Young girls getting married at the age of 14/15 is not uncommon. Meeting a 32-year-old mother of twelve children raises no eyebrow. Basic necessities like treated water, electricity and sewage treatment are foreign terms to a massive size of the rural population.

It is thus a great mystery as to why the UMNO government is more concerned and caring about trouble-making Indonesian street kids when our own Malaysian children are in an equally miserable state of existence. Then again, maybe it is not a totally unexpected move under Project IC.

While I am personally outraged at the misplaced priorities of UMNO, my final response to Sabahans will be: SERVE YOU RIGHT.

While the people of Peninsular Malaysia have woken up and vehemently rejected the perpetual corruption, mismanagement and arrogance of the UMNO government, the majority of Sabahans have opted for cowardice. Their fear of change and upsetting the status quo has now returned to collect its debt.

UMNO has long set its lustful eyes on the rich state of Sabah with the ultimate goal of establishing total Malay supremacy and eternal Islamic dominance.

The UMNO-back eradication of USNO in 1990 paved the long-awaited entry of UMNO into Sabah Borneo. There was no stopping UMNO since then. Like a black hole, UMNO wasted no time to devour all possible sources of wealth in the Land Beneath the Winds.

UMNO then attempted to dilute the predominant non-Muslim population of Sabah by encouraging the immigration of Muslim Malays from Peninsular Malaysia. By appointing these government officials to positions of authority in Sabah state agencies, UMNO hoped to solidify its position in Sabah before the local population awakens from its slumber. When this effort failed to occur at a desired pace, UMNO became impatient and opened the floodgates with the treacherous Project IC/Project Mahathir.

The face of Sabah has since transformed irreversibly and radically.

These new migrants arrived at Sabah’s shores in droves. They bred at a rate that put armadillos to shame.

Had it not been for the alternative news media, Project IC would never have come to light. Malaysians will still be in sweet oblivion hearing the perpetual niceties about Sabah being the model of racial unity and harmony.

The Malaysiakini scoop on Project IC arrived a little too late however.

With the chief minister’s throne firmly in UMNO’s possession now, the state government resumes its act of treason even more arrogantly and brazenly. After years of uninhibited immigration, the Muslim population has reached a sizeable figure by now with the selective issuance of Mykad and bumiputeraship to the Muslim Filipinos, Indonesians, Timorese and Pakistanis.

With such a massive foreign backing, UMNO has no fear now to up the ante and insult the native Sabahans right at their faces. Sekolah Indonesia Kota Kinabalu is but merely one such example.

UMNO’s plans for Sabah are anything but complete. Political hegemony and economic monopoly will never suffice. UMNO will not rest on its laurels until the Islamization of Sabah has reached the degree seen over in Peninsular Malaysia.

Even as Catholic churches are operating from humble shacks on squatter land, the UMNO state government has been erecting posh mosques all over Sabah. Even a district with minimal Muslim population like Pitas has a mosque fit for a prince.

Sabahans can justify their support for the Barisan Nasional all they want. No one will deny that Sabah politics is unique and complex. The people of Sabah have been sold out by both the Kitingan brothers as well as UMNO, and their remaining choices are once again political parties originating from Peninsular Malaysia like PKR and DAP. It is understandably not easy for Sabahans to reject their bumiputera feudal warlords in Barisan Nasional. Nevertheless, some things are plain to see. UMNO has no sincere intention to prosper the natives of Sabah.

In fact, it is very much the opposite. By merely neglecting their needs and adversities, UMNO is practically committing a bloodless genocide to the predominant non-Muslim population of Sabah.

In HINDRAF’s terms, it is ethnic cleansing. Personally, I dub it as an outward betrayal of the gullible and ever-trusting Sabahans.

Now what will Sabahans call it?

Anu bah?




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The Murderer Named Anu Bah.

“Anu, dia orang tengah anu bah…” was the operator’s reply.

???????

I asked how much longer the repairs would take.

“Anu bah, boss….” answered the operator.

???????




Rantings, Rantings and more Rantings

The power was out for 5 hours today.

I returned ‘home’ from work today with a new hamster cage and great enthusiasm to get my two spoiled brats settled in their new and larger home. I was greeted by total darkness. The power must have been out for quite a while already because the fridge was all warm and clammy.

I called Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to report the outage. They knew about it already. I asked if any action has already been taken to investigate the power failure.

“Anu, dia orang tengah anu bah…” was the operator’s reply.

???????

I asked how much longer the repairs would take.

“Anu bah, boss….” answered the operator.

???????

I said thank you or something like that and hung up.

I was expected to naturally understand what she meant exactly when she anu-ed me. If I had not been in Sabah for two years already, I would have died from exasperation trying to carry a conversation that makes sense with a Sabahan.

What in the world is ANU??? It’s definitely not algebra, cos Sabahans are not famed mathematicians.

Which smart ass Sabahan/Filipino/Indonesian pioneered the use of the word anu in Sabah?

Everything and anything seem to be anu here. It can represent whatever and ever anyone wants it to.

Anu is employed in all Sabah conversation in all forms - as a noun, pronoun, adjective, transitive verb, adverb and even on its own as an intransitive verb, as demonstrated by my two-minute ‘conversation’ with the SESB operator.

Anu is probably the next most versatile word in the world after ‘fuck’.

I spent my first year in Sabah trying to make sense of what Sabahans were telling me inasmuch as they were trying to understand my Peninsular Malaysian accent.

I’ve given up. Now I just anu them in return for their plentiful anu bahs.

The rot is too deep to repair. Maybe I’m overreacting to the ubiquity of a local slang, or maybe I sincerely feel that effective communication is a yardstick of the progress of a community.

It’s tremendously sad to see potentially-intelligent Sabahan children trying to communicate with anu riddled all over their sentences and daily conversations. Instead of learning new words and broadening their vocabulary, these young minds are emulating their parents, taking the easy way out by employing anu as a substitute for anything and everything they are not sure of. As a result, we have the Sabahans of today – poor communicators, never specific in the message they are attempting to convey and totally poor candidates for any intellectual discussion.

That is probably why they are more passionate in voting for their Akademi Fantasia representative rather than spend time and money reading and writing. When everything is a potential anu, when everything has once been an anu for the most part of one’s life, it’s bound to be difficult trying to write and read something un-anu.

It’s probably why they are deceived election after election with more promises of anu by their local anu politicians. When the DAP/PKR teams flew over from Semenanjung with reason and logic but no anu, the message reached a boundary too huge to surpass.

In my mind, I can picture the Bung-Mokhtar-like politicians visiting the local villages, fire off a barrage of anu in their campaign speeches and still receive a standing ovation from the crowd.

Not every Kadazandusunbajaumurut Sabahan is guilty of this crime of murdering effective communication but certainly, the majority of local folk here are anu-ing without restraint. There has got to be a limit to the number of roles a local slang can play if there were to be effective communication within the local community. How can any community progress if they can’t even communicate their thoughts and views and questions clearly and specifically?

There are many things I can blame BN/UMNO for – corruption, crime, Project IC, healthcare, education etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. This anu thing is one that I never will fault the BN/UMNO for. The dumb politicians were never responsible for creating and propagating the anu culture among Sabahans young and old.

Why should they?

After all, anu means penis in Malay back over in Semenanjung Malaysia.

Surely they don’t want to be referred to as genitals, or do they?























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No winds of Change in the Land beneath the Winds (5)

Already, there are rumors of elected representatives offering to cross over to Keadilan. Whether this takes place or not is really immaterial. Sabah politicians are typified by the likes of Bung Mokhtar – overfed and undereducated, insatiably greedy and incorrigibly corrupted...



No winds of Change in the Land beneath the winds (5)

“Bagus bah sekarang….UMNO akan salurkan lebih banyak wang untuk Sabah.”

“Saya mau undi pembangkang tapi saya kena bagi 30 ringgit bah…”

“Itu DAP tidak mau DEB di Penang.”

“Sekarang BN akan balas Sabah dengan lebih banyak pembangunan and menteri kabinet”

Working in Sabah is really a test of one’s patience. Being uneducated is one thing, being voluntarily ignorant is another.

If I get stupid statements from the ignorant and impoverished rural folks, it is only to be expected and I can fully understand their predicament.

It is totally the opposite however if I get stupid answers and retarded statements from the educated Sabahans in the heart of Kota Kinabalu. I can never understand how a Sabahans think, if they at all. I will never be able to step into their shoes and walk a mile in them cos their BN leaders who have done so have robbed them off their shoes. I am unable to see the world as a Sabahan does.

To many Sabahans, the land of Sabah is their be all, end all – their destiny from the cradle to the grave.

They look upon Sabah as though Sabah is all there is. They think Sabah, talk Sabah, and sleep Sabah. When they vote, they vote for anything Sabah, like Parti Bersatu Sabah, Sabah Progressive Party and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah. Anything with a Peninsular origin will be rejected, anything except UMNO of course, and who knows for what reasons Sabahans look only towards UMNO for leadership and direction.



Most Sabahans thought that their blind loyalty to UMNO in the recent elections would be rewarded accordingly – more development funds, more cabinet representation, more Sabah in everything and anything. There was great anticipation to the day of announcing the new Malaysian cabinet. Well, the day has come and gone.

Once again, they have been let down by UMNO. Their ‘representation’ in the new Malaysian cabinet has remained status quo. It’s the same few lame Sabah faces - Bernard Dompok (PM’s Department), Shafie Apdal (Culture, Heritage) and Maximus Ongkili (Science, Technology and Innovation).

Already, there are rumors of elected representatives offering to cross over to Keadilan. Whether this takes place or not is really immaterial. Sabah politicians are typified by the likes of Bung Mokhtar – overfed and undereducated, insatiably greedy and incorrigibly corrupted.

Money and power will change these politicians’ loyalty, but what about the common man on the street?

Sadly, the fact remains, Sabahans will still lap up every word that comes from the mouth of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Put Najib or Hishammudin or Khairy Jamaludin or even a rotten potato as PM and Sabahans will still support him.

They will never learn from their mistakes. Like a stupid girl, they will forever be looking out for the jerk that cheated her wealth and dignity yet continue to believe that the jerk is sincere and true.


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No Winds of Change in the Land Beneath the Winds (3)

Can Sabah be saved this election? For the next five years may be too late...






Giant billboards grace the entire city of Kota Kinabalu. Even a national traitor like Yong Teck Lee who previously won his Likas seat with Filipino votes is grinning from ear to ear. Although Yong Teck Lee is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the Chief Minister of Sabah over the Kudat Mazu statue, he is smiling on giant BN billboards. It shows how spineless adn shameless BN representatives can be.



Dark clouds above.... Even the weather frowns upon the future leaders of Sabah. These gigantic billboards with a smug-looking face are very reminiscent of the Saddam Hussein statues in pre-war Iraq. How does one reach out to people without internet connection? How will they ever know they are being conned by their own people?






Wearing the traditional Kadazandusun attire is a popular campaign strategy. It seemingly makes one more Kadazan, more Dusun and more Murut. This is the same guy i once wrote an appeal letter to, pleading for a portable ventilator to save the life of a young mother of eight. his previous constituency, Ranau remains one of the poorest district in Sabah.



The independent spoilers….Independent candidates are abundant in Sabah, employing symbols like an umbrella, keys, and even an alarm clock! Local leaders are highly regarded by their village folk. The manifesto of independent candidates are very similar to those of DAP and PKR, touching on issues like Project IC and poverty. The opposition should have embraced and harvested these independent candidates. Instead they now play the roles of spoilers.





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No Winds of Change in the Land Beneath the Winds (2)

UMNO flags are flying high in a predominant Kadazandusun area. Some of the humble and lowly local folk I spoke to have never heard of DAP, PKR or PAS are. They only know that they've been told to cross next to the Dacing of BN. This is why UMNO has been able to lord over the local folks despite the Malay population being a great minority here.




An illustration of how rich and fat the land of Sabah is. It has so much timber that quality wood is used to mount up placards and banners throughout Sabah. One a single stretch of town road, there may be up to a hundred placards as these. The wealth of the land hardly reaches the ordinary folk, however.



A BN running dog boasts about his greatness in a 30-page booklet depicting his appearances in the local press. There is not a single page about his principles and beliefs and his stand on any issues. I'd rather vote a high-pitched yelping chihuahua than a dog that cannot even bark much less bite.




This BN candidate publishes his rubbish in such a size that it exceeds the size of my dustbin, and i assure you that my dustbin is big. Eighty pages of how popular he has been in the local press yet not a single page on his personal ideals and principles. Jesus said that the Father rewards the good deeds that are done in secret and that the left hand should not know what good deeds the right hand is doing. Our BN candidate here does exactly the opposite.

To date, I have not seen or smelt any opposition's campaign booklet.

How to win like this?

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No Winds of Change in the Land Beneath the Winds

Despite all the hype about denying BN's two-third majority, there is hardly an opposition symbol seen around Sabah. BN's flags and banners trounce the opposition hands down. And would anyone doubt that the banners and flags were paid for using the taxpayers' money?





Election posters are put up on tombstone-like wooden stands. Bernard Dompok had left his people to be lost in poverty in Ranau to contest the parliamentary seat in Penampang. I have personally written an appeal letter to him to sponsor a portable ventilator for a yong mother of eight with Multiple Sclerosis. His reply was...a no answer. After conning the people of Ranau, he wants to now con the people of Penampang. Trust me, he'll succeed.



BN remains hugely popular here, thriving on the ignorance of the Sabah folk. Feudalism is the order of the day here. Ordinary folk dare not disagree with their supposed VIPs out of fear as the seeds of submission wihout question have been sown since young, especially by the church authorities.




The few opposition symbols that are put up are outnumbered 20 to 1. How to win? The psychological war is lost before the real battle begins. All these banners were put up by Filipinos brought around town in government vehicles that are supposed to be grounded during elections.




MCA running dogs are abundant here in Sabah. The rich Chinese are richer than the richer Bumis in Peninsular, while the poor Chinese are worse off than the poor Bumis in Peninsular. Bad enough they are unwanted citizens in Sabahland, they have to face living costs in Sabah compared to the whole of Peninsular.

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