Sinatra_Z - Melayufied Hip Writer

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twitter.com/sinatra_z

I really hate it, when they bastardized the malay language with "Melayufied" english words, like "Investigasi" or "kougar

Tidak perlu menggunakan perkataan Inggeris yang dimelayukan untuk dilihat canggih.

Naratif Global kita perlu ada Misi dan visi RT @zakhirm: Kita perlu polisi komprehensif & konklusif yg berintegriti untuk demonstrasi....



Typical hip Malay writer - Kolaborasi aku dan Jean ibarat kapel yang rakus dalam cinta eksentrik, simbiotik, Ironi yang ekstravagan

Sinatra_Z - And so it begins.........

And so it begins, like many other stories before it, was a vivid description of the weather. It was right after a rather heavy rain, the sky was still grey and since it's already late evening the chances of seeing the sun is rather low. By now the main roads have been cleared of puddles yet there's that dampness that tells you that untill recently, it was pouring. Sitting in an indian banana leaf restaurant, overlooking his recent real estate purchase, an apartment he bought cheap at an auction our protagonist writes on. Feeling bored as hell as he was writing this, he hopes that in between the mundane routine of things, whilst tamil songs playing in the background, something would spark, something along the line where one would consider as the work of a genius. Imagine, years from now after receiving his pulitzer award and when asked upon by a reporter on how did it all started, he can imagine himself smiling and saying "Well all it took was a cup of garlic latte (teh halia la bai) and some tosai"

Nonetheless life isn't like that, indeed, often one imagine the romanticism of a writer (while I do not consider myself being one) as sitting in some quiet fancy cafe writing down eloquently structured sentences that in the end becomes bestsellers. Yet, truth to the matter is, more often than not, it is not the well structured sentences that is being presented upon, rather boring works and useless mumblings by an out of idea author who hopes to create something by simply looking at his surroundings. Lazy bum I am.

He saw somewhere a picture of this writer who wrote three Malay Novels with dodgy titles, the sort that bastardized the Malay language with 'Melayufied' English Word, something like "Kougar" (Cougar) and "Investigasi" (Investigation). It said that the author took 3 months to complete his work and during the duration of his writing, all of it was done while he was on the bed. Impressive indeed, if he wanted to present himself as the bohemian eccentric writer, something along the line of Hishamuddin Rais then kudos to him for I am as convinced as a heart throbbing Angkatan Muda Keadilan activist who do not believe that his de facto leader banged a China Doll. Though one dodgy thought did come to my mind, if I am not wrong those books that he wrote was something along the line of a malay psuedo erotica and since most of the writing was on the bed, my guess is his right (or probably left) hand was busy doing extra work.

My pubescent years was filled with reading novels in the psuedo malay erotica genre. Since VHS smut (tape blue) was hard to get and before VCD became popular, we had to go along with these novels. Works like "Mona Gersang", "Permata yang Hilang" (malay Karma Sutra) and countless of articles on Web Melayu Boleh with titles like "Ustazah Nora". You see we had internet back then, only that there was a modem and we had to dial 1515 to connect to it. So live streaming of two homo sapiens exchanging fluids was not really on the table back then. Nonetheless thanks to the limitation of technology me and my peers develop a rather healthy sense of imagination.

Malay novels never did attract me. After all it's mostly about some dramatic love story involving characters speaking in a rojak manner eg. "You tak faham perasaan I, my feelings, I pun ada hati I'm not a toy you can play around Rizal" The sort of novels which is written by Ahadiat Akashah. Though I did got hooked on Ramlee Awang Murshid, there was this book called "Hatiku di Harajuku" though it sounds corny the story is filled with Yakuzas slashing people around, blod and gore, gangsters, murders and mayhem.

And so by now, like most of my writings, very few were actually finished in the same period of which it started. I wrote this in the evening, went for dinner, tea and second tea and now past midnight I am having trouble ending this train of thoughts. Sadly though, as expected nonetheless a little dissapointed, I don't think I will be winning any pulitzer soon, at least not from this one.

Thus with no spark in sight and the idea of having a quirky answer in a press conference is getting more and more unrealistic, I shall now cease to write. Good night, god bless and thank you for reading.

Sinatra_Z - Aspirasi Orang Muda

Terdetik untuk menulis perkara ini ketika dalam perdebatan mengenai tunjuk perasaan yang diadakan oleh Perkasa di hadapan bangunan MCA beberapa hari yang lepas. Ianya bermula apabila salah seorang warga BBM dalam ruangan Pemidato Pemuda BN mengiklankan rapat umum berkenaan dan mendapat bantahan dari saya kerana sah-sah dalam kumpulan kami terdapat pemuda MCA.

Sebab dan musabab bantahan serta isi perdebatan saya itu tidak penting, apa yang ingin saya ketengahkan ialah sepotong kenyataan yang diluahkan olehnya yang berbunyi lebih kurang begini -

"Kita mesti berani, demo dan tunjuk yang kita tidak bersetuju, ini bukan lagi zaman dahulu sekarang kita kena berani, lantang bersuara menegakkan yang hak dan pendapat. Aspirasi orang muda tak mahu lagi tengok kita pasif dan berdiam diri."

Kenyataan di atas diluahkan dalam mempertahankan keperluan untuk mengadakan demonstrasi berkenaan dan pada masa yang sama sebagai alasan dalam mengwarwarkan rapat umum berkenaan.

Ini membuatkan saya terfikir, adakah benar pernyataan di atas? Kerana seringkali saya dengar orang menyebut begitu.

Saya tidak terkejut dengan kenyataan berkenaan kerana kebanyakan orang membuat kesimpulan berkenaan berdasarkan apa yang dilihat pada parti pembangkang terutamanya rapat umum anjuran Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Anwar Ibrahim dan orang-orang kanannya yang cukup terkenal dengan keupayaan untuk mengumpulkan anak-anak muda untuk pergi ke jalanan. Dengan suara laungan Reformasi, gegak gempita bantahan anak-anak muda di sekeliling jalan raja laut, masjid jamek dan jalan masjid india cukup membakar semangat, saya sendiri pernah meyaksikan depan mata saya keupayaan mereka dalam membuat perkara sedemikian.

Namunmelihat kedatangan pada rapat umum yang dianjurkan di hadapan pejabat MCA, yang mana jumlahnya sangat kecil dan kebanyakan yang hadir tidaklah boleh disenaraikan sebagai anak-anak muda.

Boleh dikatakan tidak seperti tahun 1998 dan 2008 rapat umum dan tunjuk perasaan ini tidak dapat menyentuh dengan jiwa dan nurani orang muda. Boleh dikatakan tunjuk perasaan itu adalah lebih kepada aspirasi orang yang telah berumur yang mempunyai mimpi serta tujuan tertentu. Walaupun ada kebenaran dalam pernyataan ini namun kesimpulanya tidaklah semudah itu.

Kita kembali kepada beberapa bulan sebelumnya apabila video tayangan seks Anwar Ibrahim mula muncul di Carcossa Seri Negara. Ketua Angkatan Muda Keadilan saudara Shamsul Iskandar menganjurkan demonstrasi di hadapan bangunan Risda bagi membantah penglibatan Rahim Thamby Chik dalam isu berkenaan. Namun, seperti demo anjuran Perkasa kedatanganya adalah hambar dibandingkan dengan sebelum ini.

Pada masa yang sama, kedatangan berpuluh ribu anak muda membanjiri PWTC menghadiri Pesta Kerja Pemuda BN (BN Youth Job Fair) yang dianjurkan pada tarikh dan masa yang sama dengan demo berkenaan. Dari situ dapat kita lihat perbezaan yang amat nyata.

Memang naluri anak muda itu mirip kepada memberontak, namun pada zaman dan era ini kurangnya pemangkin dalam masyarakat untuk menyalakan api pemberontakan ini. Barangkali kerana sudah bosan dengan drama politik yang tak habis-habis dimainkan, pemuda pemudi sudah mula lesu dengan politik dan pada pandangan mereka politik sebergini tidak membawa apa-apa faedah pada diri.

Contoh, bagaimana pemuda pemudi ingin bersemangat dalam sesuatu isu yang melibatkan orang ketiga atau ahli politik tertentu apabila pada masa yang sama dia sendiri mempunyai banyak lagi perkara yang perlu difikirkan. Pemegang Ijazah yang baru keluar Universiti biasanya akan membawa hutang PTPTN yang bernilai puluhan ribu mempunyai agenda yang lebih besar dalam mindanya. Itu belum termasuk dari pinjaman kereta, pembelian rumah, dana perkahwinan dan macam-macam lagi.

Kemudian anak-anak muda, terutama kebelakangan ini, jauh lebih tertarik kepada perkara-perkara yang melibatkan kreativiti, rekacipta, seni ataupun inovatif. Barangkali dengan zaman penembusan internet yang tinggi dan penemuan pelbagai teknologi kreatif serta jaringan maklumat yang meluas dan pantas, mudah untuk orang berkongsi hasil kerja mereka di youtube, facebook dan blog.

Kita lihat kelahiran penyanyi dan penggiat seni berbakat yang bermula dengan inisiatif sendiri seperti Zee Avi, Yuna, Ana Raffali, Meet Uncle Hussain dan pelbagai lagi. Zaman indie adalah takrifan zaman kenaikan penggiat seni yang bermula dengan inisatif sendiri (indipendent). Lahirnya kerja-kerja kreatif dan inovasi seperti karya Upin dan Ipin dari Les Copaque, Usahawan-usawahan muda seperti SM Nasarudin dan Jason Lo serta percambahan besar golongan ahli teknokrat (technocrats) yang berkerja di syarikat-syarikat berasaskan teknologi dan kejuruteraan seperti Intel, AMD, Dell, Shell, Petronas, HP dan lain-lain.

Malah jika dikaitkan kembali program Perkasa yang mendapat sambutan paling hangat di kalangan anak-anak muda adalah Himpunan Wira Perkasa anjuran Armand Azha dan rakan-rakan (mantan ketua wira perkasa). Dalam rapat umum anjuran itu, tiada pembakar semangat bantahan mahupun tunjuk perasaan diadakan. Akan tetapi lebih kepada penggiat seni yang terpinggir diberi peluang untuk menunjukan hasil mereka, mat-mat rempit yang meminati motor cuba untuk menghasilkan sesuatu yang baik dari minat mereka, golongan peminat-peminat kereta, ushawan-ushawan muda yang bermodal kecil dan macam-macam lagi.

Setiap zaman anak-anak mudanya mempunyai aspirasi tersendiri, memang ada yang menyatakan sejarah itu berulang dan seperti roda, apa yang berlaku pada tahun 60an boleh diulangi pada masa hadapan. Namun secara peribadi saya berpendapat zaman ini adalah zaman penciptaan, zaman invoasi dan kreativiti dan waktu yang mana anak-anak muda lebih tertarik kepada sesuatu yang membina lebih dari yang merosakkan. Jauh sekali kita lihat idola pada zaman ini langung tidak seperti tahun 70an yang mana motto hiburan adalah "Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll"

Barangkali sudah tiba masa, aspirasi anak-anak muda tidak dipimpin dan ditentukan oleh pemimpin lama yang mana takrifan aspirasi anak-anak muda adalah berdasarkan pemikiran mereka sewaktu zaman 70an.

Jom kita lihat, pemimpin muda mana yang akan mengambil tampuk berkenaan?

Sinatra_Z - Sesungguhnya kehidupan itu terlalu pendek.....

*Perbualan antara 3 rakan lama tercetus peenakulan yang sedemikian rupa.

Kita jangan terperangkap dengan pemikiran yang rezeki tu terhad.

Contohnya, buat apa kau nak iri orang tu bawak Mercedes, sebab samada dia bawak Mercedes ataupun tidak engkau tetap pandu Proton Saga. Kemudian yang konon nak gembira yang dia jatuh atau gagal, bukanya bawak apa-apa keuntungan pun pada kita, yang kita suka tengok kawan kita contohnya gagal bawak mercedes tu buat apa, bukannya kita dapat kereta tu pun.

Nak marah atau dengki buat apa, bukanya kalau dia berjaya duit simpanan kita habis. Lainlah kalau kita tengok kawan kita berjaya kita tak puas hati dan kita nak berjaya jugak, itu baguslah, tapi kalau nak doakan dia gagal buat apa, baik kau doa dan berusaha untuk menjayakan diri sendiri.

Sesungguhnya kehidupan ini terlalu pendek untuk dihabiskan dengan iri hati dan dengki.

Sinatra_Z - Kopiah Doa

Dalam bilik tingkat 4 kolej perdana di bawah sinaran lampu kalimantang putih, duduk saya mengadap dua orang rakan saya yang mempunyai markah CGPA yang jauh lebih baik daripada saya dalam alam pembelajaran Universiti. Berhempas pulas mereka cuba meyakinkan saya, pelajar yang mempunyai CGPA yang lebih rendah, yang masih enggan dan menutup mindanya dari melihat peluang yang baru dan lebih cerah. Barangkali dalam minda mereka inilah cabaran para nabi dan rasul zaman dahulu kala dalam meyakinkan ummat mereka dalam menerima ajaran wahyu.

"Zaidel, aku ni bukan apa la, takkan sampai bila kita nak makan gaji bila dah grad nanti. Aku bukan nak cakap apa tapi aku kenal abang yang mulakan perniagaan ni. Dia tu memang nak tolong kita, lepas tu kaedah dan perniagaan ni berasaskan aku tolong kau dan kau tolong aku, jihad ekonomi.''

Berpandukan kesaksian kedua-dua rakan saya mengenai kebaikan abang itu dan diikuti dengan beberapa potong ayat yang disulami dengan perkataan-perkataan arab dan hadis mereka berharap bahawa akhirnya minda dan hati saya akan terbuka dalam jihad ekonomi ini.

"Niat aku mudah je, aku nak tolong ibu bapa aku, supaya diorang tak perlu nak dibebankan dengan nak tanggung aku dekat Uni ni. Kemudian, insyallah, kalau rezeki murah mungkin kau boleh bayar balik PTPTN. Kau PTPTN kan?"

Lupa yang hamba ini menggunakan pinjaman PTPTN, tidak mendapat biasiswa JPA mahupun Petronas, tak seperti rakan. Pelik jugak kan saya ni Melayu, kalau nak diikutkan propaganda politik orang melayu kan semuanya ditaja, almaklumlah kita kan warganegara kelas pertama.

Barangkali kerana sudah penat mendengar atau tidak tahan nak tergelak maka minda jahiliyah ini tergerak untuk menzahirkan pendapat mengenai sistem perniagaan ala-ala islam yang diperkenalkan ini.

''Ok, korang kata sistem ni islamik la abang tu baiklah ni bukan piramid lah, kau suruh aku beli ubat cap apa ntah dengan harga yang jauh lebih tinggi lepas ikut sistem. Macam ni lah, aku ada satu cadangan yang jauh lebih baik. Itu pun kalau korang setuju dengar lah."

''Ok kami terbuka untuk dengar pendapat.''

"Baik, daripada korang masuk dalam perlaburan macam ni baik korang melabur dengan aku. Kalau korang melabur dengan aku, korang akan jadi pengasas jadi untung tu!"

Berikut adalah skim perniagaan yang saya cadangkan

Produk adalah Satu Kopiah Putih yang dipanggil Kopiah Doa. Yang mana kononya kopiah ini diperbuat dari benang khas yang mana setian utas telah dibacakan doa melincirkan belajar sesuai untuk Pelajar Islam yang sedang menuntut.

Kopiah dibeli dari Masjid Jamek dalam lingkungan harga RM 10 dan dijual dalam skim ini dengan harga RM 55 kerana setiap kopiah telah didoakan.

Dengan pakej RM 99 Selain kopiah Doa akan juga diberi Tasbih iman, Buku Nota Ulamak dan lain-lain lagi alat tulis yang membantu pembelajaran.

Kemudia jika membayar yuran tambahan sebanyak RM 48 maka layak menjadi ahli. Seterusnya ahli akan mencari dua pasang ahli lagi dan mendapat bonus.

Cukup pasangan ahli sebanyak 7 peringkat maka ahli akan mendapat pulangan samada dapat membayar sebahagian dari hutang PTPTN ataupun membeli kereta mercedes "second hand" yang boleh dibuat posing semasa ambil gambar.

Ini bukan sistem piramid, kerana ianya tidak berlandaskan satu kepada, akan tetapi 3 kepada (kami bertiga) maka ianya lebih kepada sistem trapezeum yang jauh lebih islamik. Setiap transaksi digalakkan untuk membaca bismillah, mengucapkan alhamdulillah moga ianya nampak lebih islamik dan halal.

Kawan saya yang ketika itu nampak marah mula mempersoalkan niat keikhlasan saya. Maka dengan tenang saya menjawab

"Kenapa marah sangat? Bukan kaedah perniagaan aku ni sama je ke dengan apa yang abang tu? Kurang-kurang aku punya lagi bagus, murah sikit modal permulaan."

"tapi kau nampak macam nak mainkan kitorang!''

"Ah ye lah, habis tu apa beza aku dengan abang tu?"

"Dia tu lain!"

"Yang cuma membezakan antara dia dengan aku ialah, aku korang nampak macam yahudi mabuk tapi dia korang nampak macam alim. Walhal, niat dan tujuan kitorang sama"

Berilmu belum tentu pandai, pandai belum tentu cerdik, cerdik belum tentu bijaksana.

Catatan seekor lipas, tidaklah sehebat pengembaraan seorang wirawan mahupun cedekiawan, namun sekali sekala terserempak dengan adengan-adengan yang cukup menarik.

Sinatra_Z - Drama or the lack of it

Someone once complained to me,

that the reason why I lack any sort of empathy was the fact that I lacked drama in my campus years, during my early twenties. This is something that I pointed it out several times before in conversations so I have to say that the observation was quite accurate.

Indeed I did lack drama in my life, but that doesn't mean I have had a carefree happy go lucky campus life, instead, unlike of the usual boy meets girl love drama, what I had was problems, real ones by which the subject matter is not something that many composers tend to write songs about.

My freshman year was really tough,

I came from a standard kebangsaan school hence it was really hard for me to get acquainted to the culture of UTM which mostly consists of former MRSM and Chinese School students, i.e really smart nerds whose free time activity consists of studying and watching movies on the computer screen. They mostly come from these highly competitive schools and during the first year majority have yet to mellow down, everyone was for himself and since most were since in the high school mentality, students tend to flock together based on their Alma mater which leaves me in the minority.

So I was a lone ranger during my freshman year spending many hours wandering around the empty field in front of our hostel (I was later quite well known around the dorm for this), lurking into one comfortable corner in the library or simply strolling around the campus looking for a cave. Because of this, my studies got hit hard, really hard and I was considered by the counselling body as a student that was under probation. At that moment my Uni was in a transition period so the system was pretty much screwed and haywire causing stress to both students and lecturers, I vividly remembered being kicked out of a lecturer's office because I kept asking questions on something that he wrote in out textbook. Apparently he had little time to spend for students with low mental capability in understanding simple physics.

It was at one point where my physics lecturer, a chain smoking straight talking man in his late thirties told me that I need to change my ways. He called me to his office after I got appalling marks for a paper and without any sort of consultation nor counselling one of the first thing he told me was "Ahh You must be a lone ranger eh?"

Apart from the usual motivational talk and insistence that I personally submit all of my tutorials to him in the upcoming classes he told me that I needed to find my place in this campus just like I will have to find my place in society in the future and that for me to find comrades who will help me go through the tough coming times. As he predicted, I had a rather tough and at times very insecure times in campus.

Though holding through to the spirit of comradeship and several other tips and tricks I picked up along the way I somehow survived it and may I say had some fun along the way. I decided against on writing the various problems and incidents that I encounter back then because I don't want this post to be a long rant about me rambling on and on.

Suffice to say that along the way, though I lacked drama, there were plenty of insecurity, worries, sleepless nights, pondering and at some of the lowest point I felt truly lost.

But It was also compensated with laughter, joy, perseverance, optimism, friends helping out, hope and mostly the conclusion that in each problem that I faced was a lesson of life that I had to learn, better now than later.

So yes,

I do lack drama and perhaps that is the reason why I seemed cold and distant. But the reason for that is not because I lack emotions nor empathy, rather as I have learned in many of the real problems that I had to consent with back then is that life is simply too short for us to be upset with things that is beyond our control and rather than wailing about a situation it's better to do something about it even in a very tight spot.

Trust me I know what it's like to be depressed, lost and dejected.

But as I learned along the way,

That every problem can be solved and hey It could get worse.

A dash for hope, a pinch of laughter, a ray of optimism, a group of comrades, a little time taken for a quiet stroll would always help out.

And perhaps,

though I didn't get to have this luxury when I was in campus but I have to admit,

that a little warmth from a loved can make all the difference.

Good Night folks.

Sinatra_Z - Cinematic Adventures

There used to be a time,

going to the movies would make me quiver.

Days where we would buy empty VHS tapes and set the timer on the VCR to record that movie playing over Mega Movies on TV3 or Final Countdown on TV 2.

Of course there was that P Ramlee reruns on TV 1 as well.

But somehow, these days the spirit is gone, I somehow lost it. Perhaps I am against the idea of spending time participating in a passive activity, by which I merely sit there and receive whatever the director has dictated and listen to whatever that state of the art sound system vibrates through the air.

Perhaps it's the inability to focus, to actually sit at one place and concentrate at something for two hours.

Maybe it's the fear of disappointment, the disappointment of paying a 13 bucks to watch yet another predictable cinematic CGI effect action pack Hollywood flick showcasing pretty women and men who somehow find time to have sex in between explosions and intense car chases.

Unless of course, it's something really good that I know of, something Tarantino.

Anyway,

Rambo 1 was great, it was all about a lost soldier who was pushed to a corner. It was realistic, it had soul, it had emotions and real action, logical awesome actions and explosions. Rambo 4 on the other hand was all about Rambo getting on a big machine gun and everyone shit brix, game over folks, Myanmar soldiers can just wait for their turn to get their head blown off.

Maybe I'm getting old,

it's hard to have movies stirring my imagination anymore. Maybe it's movie fatigue,over exposure of media content. Sadly though and I don't really know why, cinemas or movies no longer had that effect of transporting my mind and absorbing my subconscious into the reality by which the director had laid bare on the screen.

But there is an exception though.

And that is PIXAR

It seems quite ironic,

that the most humane movie that I can most relate to,

comes from animated pictures.

Probably because,

unlike normal movies,

when one minuses the stars, the glamour and hype. All that is left is storytelling.

And isn't that what movies are all about in the first place.

Storytelling.

Good Night Folks.