The stone which the builders threw out - it's now the cornerstone!
Ketuanan rakyat (The People is the Master) - are we ready for it? Will we be good masters over ourselves and others?
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Tuesday, April 22
Monday, March 17
Weekends Acts
by
Jack
on Mon 17 Mar 2008 12:21 AM MYT
It has been a crazy weekends. First, there was an offer from the new state government to join one of the exco as her "political sexy-tary" or the exco office manager (I still dunno wut exactly is the post, neither did she, we just know it's a lot, and I mean A LOT, of work - we inherited an almost non-functional adminstration 30 years of BN-Gerakan government in Penang). It's pretty confirmed I'll join the exco office to coordinate the youth developement and sports committee, but details will only be known next week when I really submit my CV and go through the employment procedures. I told one of my pastor friends, it's like making a decision to be a pastor...gulp, I mean a pastor in Kampar, not Klang Valley, low pay, lots of work, no big annual bonus. But I am excited with the possibilities and challenges I'll face in my new life with the "gomen". Secondly, on Saturday, I went snorkelling with JR and my friend Martin from UK. It was a one day trip to Pulau Payar, about 1.5 hours of boat trip off Penang. Got my little tan on the face and upper body, dunno why I can get an even tan though I stripped to my swimming tights to sunbath. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, Martin went scuba diving (which I promise him I'll join him in the next trip if I ever had the opportunity to pick up a diving license) while JR and I went snorkelling, a good part of the morning and a good part of the afternoon after lunch. The trip was kinda expensive even for locals (RM200/person include a not-too-memorable buffet lunch; and RM280 for foreigners include the buffet lunch). Scuba diving is another RM70 for a 45 minutes dive. I swam in the morning without life jacket - mau jadi hero - but got into some difficulties when JR and I tried to swim from the platform to the beach (close to 1km??). She (didn know how to swim) got panicked halfway when water got into her breathing tube and mask and kicked me and I being very unfit and already exhausted lost balance. I gathered whatever strength I have to "save" here hoping to bounch on her (she was with a life jacket) to swim back to the platform. Fortunately the life guards there were very very sensitive to emergency situations, one of them came swimming towards us with a float, I was really glad. I mean, we tried to maintain calmness but the life guards still managed to smell fish. In our second attempt to cross to the beach after lunch, I wore a life jacket and it was much much easier. Oh, speaking about fish, we saw some sharks, which the locals call "yu bodoh" (stupid sharks, or "you are stupid" depends on how you wanna perceive it). I thought sharks are supposed to be wild predators? But I see ppl swimming around them like they are some little puppies. Martin even told me he was swimming underwater with a FEW sharks. Gulp. dunno. And on Sunday, I attended DAP's 42nd Anniversary Convention. It was not the huge scale, UMNO general assembly type, but I think almost all the elected representatives came down to grace the events. Our east Malaysian comrades came down as well. I saw Hannah Yeoh up close (but never got to greet her...) but I took picture with someone I respect alot, Dr. Chen Man Hin, one of our founders and one time chairman (now life advisor). I liked what Dr. Chen said, all the leaders and representative must take a vow before god (he's a devoted Catholic) and he quickly added, your respective temples, to serve the people. Wow...that's a strong one. I guess he's probably about 80 if not more, but he still spoke with strength. Also our new YAB Chief Minister reassured the Rakyat and request all DAP members to continue to demonstrate that we are a government for ALL Malaysians, not a racial based government. He wants Penang to be a model state in Malaysia where justice and equity will rule and where our prosperity will be shared by all. Some of the key points of the speakers (I paraphrase) Dr. Ramasamy: We are in for a new politic. We will now crush the lies of the UMNO led BN government who said that the DAP cannot rule without facing racial riots and political anarchy. Chong Eng: No social equality without gender equality. YAB Lim Guan Eng: We believe the only person able to lead this new era of Malaysia is our alternative Prime Minister, Saudara Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. (wow!) After Chow Kon Yeow's speech, JR and I took off to a local mamak at Tanjung Tokong where we met with a bunch of very very cool and enthusiastic Malaysians. We have been communicating for a few months now since before the election through the bangsamalaysiapenang google group. Now we finally meet up to discuss the exciting opportunities for us to further our agenda of a new Bangsa Malaysia with the new politcal climate we are in. Ong Boon Keong wrote about it and some photos can be found here We realized that our current representation is not ideal. There were no Malay in the core group and all of us are committed to invite our Malay friends to join us. Hopefully this will kick off and will steer our nation into realizing the dreams of Dato Onn Jaafar of seeing a trully bangsa Malaysia. We have made plans with the task of defining bangsa Malaysia highest on the list, promoting our googlegroup forum, and plans to create a blog and hold another big scale gathering (the last was well attended with 200 plus participants), dialogues with the civil society and the state government etc. These are huge ambitions we realized, but even with our baby steps, we believe in the power of the people. Especially since after March 8th. Makkal Sakti! We ended today with a short meeting with Chong Eng and Lydia (my future boss, the only lady state exco!) in our BM office. Both looked very tired and they need to go into office very early tomorrow. I think I will have a tough job keeping up with Lydia, she's hyper. Super duper hyper. No photos on the Pulau Payar trip and the 42nd Anniversary yet...wait lah till i can sort them out. JR wanted to start a photo blog and she needed money to buy a good camera. If anyone wanna sponsor, contact me through facebook. ;)
Sunday, February 10
PKR Chinese New Year Open House
by
Jack
on Sun 10 Feb 2008 05:27 PM MYT
I just came back from Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Permatang Tinggi branch Chinese New Year open house. YB Chong Eng and Guna was there. Together with Michael Tan (DAP Kota Permai branch chairman who will be one of the local candidates in the coming election). I had a few suprising meetings. Firstly with an old schoolmate of mine, S. He just finished his medical studies and is awaiting posting. He is a supporter of PKR. It was really good to know some of my friends are making public stance on their political preferences - for parties and candidates with good conscience and for real political reform. Joshua and Y submitted their DAP membership forms to Guna as Bkt Mertajam branch chairman. It's a great thing that we are seeing a lot more new blood who will bring in fresh ideas into DAP. Then I met with a father of an old friend. I didn't approached him because although he looked familiar (and curiously like my friend - we were very close during primary school ages ago), I was not sure. Until I saw his name card and confirmed he is my friend's father. Mr. T is now in semi-retirement (he was a practising lawyer). I heard from Chong Eng later on that he had just registered to be a DAP member a few days back. Again a pleasant surprise. Hope to catch up with him during the BM branch open house this coming Tuesday. Finally, I met with the former headmaster of my primary school - Tuan Haji Idrus Ibrahim. He looked rather old but still very much distinguished. Tuan Idrus is Anwar's elder brother. My friend S and I managed to approach him and shook his hand and took photos together (will post later). It was really a priviledge to be able to meet my former headmaster again. I'd always think he was a stern and a no-nonsense academician and an able administrator. One of the "fond" memories I had, and I told him that, was when he pulled my sideburn because they were too long... : D Anyway, Tuan Idrus gave us a few advise like a good teacher would, wisen up in the next general election and vote for change. And spread the message. We've been naive long enough. We must vote for candidates who are not self-serving and who will serve the people regardless of race and religion. He especially mentioned YB Chong Eng for Bukit Mertajam and PKR candidate for Machang Bubok state seat Mr. Tan Hock Leong. Terima Kasih Cikgu. Advise taken. Well...it was a pity I missed DAP Penang CNY open house. I wanted so much to meet up with some of my friends. It was a tiring morning, having to preach in church today. I am looking forward to Tuesday 12-February for the DAP Bukit Mertajam CNY open house at 7.30pm. Come, everyone's invited. You can check out the map here (produced by my very very able BETTER HALF - JR) Tuesday, February 5
A Church which is more than church
by
Jack
on Tue 05 Feb 2008 12:04 AM MYT
I love to say, we are not called to "do church" but to live life. Yesterday, I bought a great book by Jurgen Moltmann, "Experiences in Theology". He say it better than I did:
Fuh...like my NT lecturer used to say, go grapple with it.
Monday, January 21
Christians and the election: What?
by
Jack
on Mon 21 Jan 2008 09:17 PM MYT
I will not fork out money to buy The Star, I told myself after the dissapppointing episodes of dishonest journalism top-down ever since BERSIH 10/11. But last Sunday, I did - RM1.50 to the coffer of The People's-as-if Paper, because the small caption on the front page was too interesting to be passed: Christians and the elections > F25 & 26 I bought the paper in the morning, but it was until late evening when I read the section - I didn't even bother to look at the news.
After reading it and rereading it (and rereading for the third time here today), I begin to hit my head to remind myself that there was a reason I didn't want to buy The Star, it's crappy.
The whole interviews, it had a good representations from national leaders and politicians from various church traditions and political parties, lacked the substance so much promised by the title.
Rev Wong Kim Kong's repeated "the Church is apolitical", "the Church is spiritual" was such a dissappointment. To be sure, I understand that the Church ought not to be partisan, but I thought the issue was sort of settled in OHMSI's forum, Was Jesus Political? How can anything not be political when situated within the society of people? How can we say that we are biased towards truth, justice and righteousness AND be apolitical? Perhaps Rev. Wong meant "the Church ought NOT to be partisan in politics" or "Pastors should not get involved in party politics" but language is so crucial here. I am not nitpicking, but it reflects our mentality and sentiment. Apolitical is like an apathetic period to the whole issue. And I cannot bear with that, especially when an ordained minister who helm an umbrella Christian body claimed that the bible calls us to be apolitical and "not be involved directly in the political process".
Again and again, we hear the call to spirituality, and Teresa was on the spot when she asked, "Why are not many Christians involved in politics?" and she answered her own question: "they are involved in evangelical activities [whatever that means]...they don't want to dirty their hands". What a terrible indictment against us, no wonder people said, I don't want to have anything to do with religion.
If religion is about airy fairy kingdom with no concern for god's good earth and dear Creation, if religion is about what happens after death, about a closet relationship with some supreme being and does not give a heck about the rampant injustice, unrighteousness and evil that distort all the beauty of god's handiwork - Creation and human beings - who with a right and sensible mind would think religion is of much value?
My heart ached when Teresa said, "There are also Christians who ask me to leave politics and get involved in more spiritual work." Rip the last of the good folks from this dirty work, what are we thinking?
I refused to believe that spirituality is not about the material world. I believe god did not call us to do "church", but to live life, and that means relationship with one another, with the society around us, with Nature. And can we escape politics? Preaching spirituality without these elements is not the fullness of god's truth. Unless we say, Christian spirituality is like what the platonic or buddhist philosophers taught, a sort of soul-ish, immaterial afterlife and period. That our ultimate aim is to get rid of this prison body - that St. Paul called "god's temple" for goodness' sake - and go to heaven somewhere.
Our ultimate aim is to arrive at a point where the material becomes so much washed in god's redeeming truth that it will respond to god in worship at all time while we go on living. Our ultimate aim is the whole cosmos, the world, fully reconcilled to god and all human beings properly reflect his beauty, the beauty of his glory in worship and adoration - not by singing songs in immaterial existence, but by living a life, a resurrected life, in joyous and loving obedience to god's will. And while we await the day of redemption, it is our duty, the Church's duty to challenge the powers that sought to oppose the radical movement towards that day. The powers which distort human dignity by the oppressing acts of political hegemony, economics bullying and moral distortion. And when we speak the language of "the Church is to be apolitical", what we managed to do is to reduce the spirit of being counter culture to an indifference "waiting for things to happen".
I am not sure if the conversations are edited and if the articles really reflected the original interviews or even the full views of the participants, but I only say I was utterly dissappointed reading it.
Datuk Lee Hwa Beng, was surprisingly mature in his opinions and I respect him for that; making a stance about Malaysia not being a theocratic Islamic state (very careful though to reflect the PM and DPM's emphasis on the word "theocratic"), acknowledging the rights of Christian leaders to be be political and even partisan and attend rallies (although he added, "off the pulpit") and acknowledging the paramount of freedom of religion among the concerns of the people.
Wong Chun Wai's concluding remark was really nothing but some sort of a textbook-like safe statements:
"In conclusion, the Christians make up a substantial chunk of votes in the elections and these are issues of concern to them. In the battle for hearts and minds, their voices and their votes certainly matter."
Every votes matter, I do not think based on what we have read in the interviews, Christians have any so called "Christians voices", after all we are said to be "apolitical", whatever which was meant by that really confusing word (is it like "amoral"?). Without being aware and directly concerned about politics in the Country and even the political process, how can our voices matter. Any candidates can probably tipu their way into our "hearts and minds"
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I am interested to hear the views of other Church leaders now. Especially one Pastor Jeffrey Kumin from Sabah who was rumoured to be fielded as one of the candidates for coming General Election. I am trying to get his contacts from YB Teresa, if anyone has Ps. Kumin's contacts, I would appreciate if you can email me - just drop a msg at the comment in this post.
Sunday, January 6
Sunday School and the Kids
by
Jack
on Sun 06 Jan 2008 10:49 PM MYT
Nick asked JR and I to help him with his Sunday school kids today. As usual it was a tiring, very very tiring thing to do. Those kids...arrghhhh... or maybe it's just me. Salutus to Nick and the other Sunday school teachers. Melisa, where are you!!!!! Strangely enough, after the whole running around and trying to get them to focus and group together instead of doing their own stuff...after all my energy is drained by playing and playing and playing with the ever energetic kids (the only thing stuck eternally in their mind is "wo yao wan" - i wanna play), I felt very happy with them.
Nick bought the kids these animal puppets which were well used for our puppet shows. The kids just loved them kau kau. They practically grabbed those puppets when Nick brought them out. I used the tamborine when the kids sang...
Cameraphone + shy = camera shy? She tried to take my photo while I tried to snatch hers. Uncle Lim who is the lead coordinator for Sunday school this year is sitting behind her.
Hiding behind the doggy and chicken...I dunno for what. Probably camera shy also. But when I want to take her little sister's photo, she was so enthusiastic. Sigh...kids...love them if you can give them back at the end of the day... JR just asked me, "Are you gonna teach in Sunday School, huh B?" I don't know, on one hand, I know it's not my type of thing, my arteries are just not generous enough, but on the other hand, there's a shortage in the teachers. How? I am now turning to her to ask: "Why don't you teach B?" Speaking of the kids, I know someone who's really have a heart for them: Check out the babe...
Much Ado about Education in Malaysia
by
Jack
on Sun 06 Jan 2008 08:17 PM MYT
As Dr. Alex (here and here) and the Reb (here) were posting about their thoughts on seminary education, and generating lots of comments, Joshua wrote a ... more »
Sunday, December 30
Sunday, December 23
Timeless Truth v. A God who Deals
by
Jack
on Sun 23 Dec 2007 08:30 AM MYT
Necessary truth depends not on the actual occurence of particular events, but on whether a proposition is true by definition; on whether, for example, it is part of the very concept of triangularity that the sum of the angles of a triangle should amount to 180 degree [regardless of our experience and perspective]. By contrast, contingent truth depends on circumstances which may change from time to time, such as in the case of the statement "it is raining". ...in the Bible truth is contingent rather than necessary because it is related to historical events. It is "not the result of logical necessity...The truth of God must prove itself anew." The Greek dualism between true being and changing sense-appearance is superseded in the biblical understanding of truth. Here, true being is thought of not as timeless, but instead as historical and it proves its stability through a history whose future is always open." Quoted from Anthony Thiselton, The Two Horizons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosphical Description Quotation within text from Wolfhart Pannerberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 3 vol. God's revelation consisted simply in God's letting men state God's own problems in their language - Ernst Fuchs Christmas, if anything, demonstrated to us a passionate god who deals, rather than a disinterested aged big guy up there who never really age because history and time don't matter. Friday, December 21
We Are Humans
by
Jack
on Fri 21 Dec 2007 11:59 PM MYT
We lived tru this dark terrifying Advent nights
Feasting on fear rained from the stormy clouds above;
'twas night for sure, but no stars in-sight,
cold from the rain, but no warmth from the stove.
We clutched a piece of freedom,
this little bread no one can steal;
No emperors nor princes nor rust nor worms,
Can take away our human will
to choose, in spite of the starless nights
and the cold cold rain;
The will to choose to do what is right,
and to choose what is right despite our pains.
We are humans and not slightly less,
Even for the deformity of our decaying bodies
Even for the hungry skin, our ailing vests
We're richly human e'en in all our poverties
We are humans and rightly so
Because many Advents ago, when nights were as dark as ours,
A Child was bornt to all human woes
and showed us the worth of human souls.
 Deitrich Bonhoeffer of Blessed Memory May Advent brings tsunami to the core of our beings and tremor to the foundation of our nationhood reminding us that peace and stability without the firm and obvious affirmation of justice and righteousness is a big fat scam.
To all my friends and readers, have a blessed Christmas. God bless you
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