Besides, whoever wins in Parliament I am still going to be earning what I am doing now or more, depending on my performance as well as waiting for the train at the station at 7:40am every workday.
Part of the soul-searching by the badly mauled government brought about certain politician who just had to resort to the old chestnut of racial politics although the previous damage done to the grip of the ruling party was that of the majority of the people in the country rejecting the concept as being outdated. Obama's recent victory as the first ever African American to lead the most powerful nation on Earth put further pressure for reforms in the situation of 'adapt or die'.
Strange enough, I am not here to become a Jeff Ooi MKII or something but rather to look back in time when the country wasn't even formed yet. This was the time when a certain Teuku Zakaria bin Teuku Nyak Putih was born (precisely in the year 1929).
If that name sounds familiar than you've went through the same period of growing as I did, or schooled your own children to his movies and music. Timeless movies such as Tiga Abdul, Madu Tiga, Sarjan Hassan, Labu Labi series and the famous Ibu Mertuaku is sure to light up the eyes of those who grew up watching his shows.
I was very, very young when I first saw his movie when the family sat in front of the telly to watch this exceptional man direct, act and sing in his productions. You'd imagine that a Chinese family like mine would be watching the Legend of the Condor Heroes or something, in which we did (they did, not me though) but there is always time for this man's movies. Add Saloma's lovely voice to the picture and not to mention the wacky plot devices and you have a winnner.
There were times when I would visit another Chinese friend's house to watch Labu Labi together and such were his influence to my generation (and the ones before) that we even apply some of the dialogues from his movies for daily usage until today; "Aku lesiiiiinnng karang!" as a response to a bad joke or the famous, "INI TIDAK ADIL!" normally to poke fun at various situations when we're at a disadvantage. One of my ex-colleague's favourite phrase was "Lobang hidung engkau tatap manjadi po-jaan hatiku".
Still no idea?
Then I feel really sorry for you for this man is pretty much the best example of the finest Malaysian ever.
As Sheila sang in possibly her magnum opus,
Patah tak tumbuh lagi
Hilang belum berganti
Kerana kau tersendiri
is the truth.
Tell me of any seniman nowadays who dare to claim to be a better actor-cum-director-singer as this man.
Tan Sri P Ramlee may be dead but he's immortalised in history.
Image taken from http://seniman-pramlee.tripod.com/
