Wawancara Tun M Mingguan Malaysia 17/2/2013

TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamad masih cergas dan terus bekerja walaupun sudah hampir 10 tahun bersara daripada jawatan Perdana Menteri Malaysia. 

Pada usia hampir menjangkau 88 tahun pada 10 Julai ini, beliau masih ke pejabat pada setiap hari bekerja manakala pada hujung minggu, menyampaikan ucapan apabila menerima jemputan. 

Selain itu, beliau turut menulis di dalam blognya, CheDet, dan menyumbang artikel kepada akhbar The News Straits Times dan Utusan Malaysia. 

Are we Muslims are that gullible and confused?

"Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed" (Modal bukanlah kejahatan, ia baru akan menjadi kejahatan kalau disalahgunakan. Modal dalam bentuk tertentu atau lain-lain akan sentiasa diperlukan)  - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi

Sadly speak, even some Muslims believed Capital per say leads to capitalism (John Calvin, Max Weber, Adam Smith). Therefore, they resort to socialism. Indirectly, these people shared the same spirit of Karl Marx for that matter. His masterpiece 'Das Capital' aka 'The Capital' spells out the effect of capital that can outrageously leads toward unfairness to the society. To him, the very essence of a capitalist is his desire to gain surplus-value. Socialism and communism are alike. Socialism is primarily an economic system, while communism is both political and economic. The fact that Socialist Party did exist for quite some time was a successor from the lefties like PKMM, API, AWAS and PETA alike. It was not a surprise when some Muslims did involved in communist guerrilla activities even though the highest order in communism is to accept equality in every way, and the existence of God is not in the dictionary. To these Muslims, their fight was to eradicate poverty, equality and justice in the economics system and for the betterment of the Country even if they have to assimilate in un-Islamic movements. Clearly, Machiavelli doctrines was well accepted on this very land.

Capitalism and democracy, are the twin ideological pillars capable of bringing unprecedented prosperity and freedom to the world. Together they come hand in hand, we've long been told. Now, be it capitalism, socialism, democracy and communism, they are all man-made. They are not perfect. They are far from perfect. Consider this, when socialism is perceived as an economics system for communism, China became super power by replacing capitalism without changing its political stand. Now we have combination of capitalism and communism. Whats left was communist countries like Cuba that became brouhaha for being able to provide free education. Have anybody noticed that how many Cubans can even steps into tertiary education system?

Sometimes I wonder of why in Khutbah Jumaat or Friday sermons, we never talk about the Market system. Islam is not against market system per se. Islam does not deny the market forces and market economy. Even the profit motive is acceptable to a reasonable extent. Private ownership is not totally negated. Yet, the basic difference capitalist and Islamic economy is that in secular capitalism, the profit motive or private ownership are given unbridled power to make economic decisions. Their liberty is not controlled by any divine injunctions. If there are some restrictions, they are imposed by human beings and subject to change through democratic legislation.

I have seen people associating KFC barrel price and raw bird as capitalism? but they never questioned their father for running coffee shop as associating with capitalism or freemason or illuminati for that matter (huhuhuhuhu..... probably the shop was set up on the holiest land on earth.....yeahh right). I have seen people obsessed with socialism as way of life.

My question now, are we Muslims are so gullible and confused?

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. These are the sins to avoid..

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. These are the sins to avoid..

1. wealth without working,

2. science without humanity,

3. business without morality,

4. lastly, politics without principles (U-turn, flip-flop aka kluk-klek).

Ini bumi yang aku pijak. Itu langit yang aku junjung.

Ini bumi yang aku pijak. Itu langit yang aku junjung. 

Bila mana aku jumpa si hantu makan dedak atau si anak penjaja kedai kopi yang jelongak kerbau rampung, aku akan ingatkan diri aku, ini lah si buntat yang kepingin menjadi gemala sementelah si bungkuk baru betul. Bila si kaduk naik junjung, bulatnya bersegi, bila bersanding, ia melukai. Apa yang hendak dikata lagi, pemuka-pemuka ugama laksana bangsawan. Lebih bangsawan dari bangsawan. Uang pelincir disalir berlapik kartas haram diberi diambil lagaknya, tapi tanah pusaka tergadai ke Langkasuka dan Temasik tidak apa? Bagai air daun talas, walaupun buaiannya digoncang, namun anak masih dicubit. Laksana kucing pemuka naik haji, pulang si kucing mengeong juga. Lurus-lurus paku, hujungnya berbentuk juga. Masakan mentari boleh dilindungi dengan nyiru? Pokoknya, mampukah kita biarkan biduk tiris menanti karam?

Walau ada yang bilang si bulang sali kacak sama, tinggal lagi mujur malang, bagi kita, biar kena tampar dengan jari yang bercincin daripada kena jentik dengan tangan yang berkudis. Diam kita bukan kerna penggali berkarat, diam kita ubi berisi. Kita bukan lagi bersuluh dengan batang pisang, tapi bulan mentari. Dengan nama yang Maha Esa. Dengan warisan wasiat sembilan Raja-Raja Melayu. Ayoh, kita rapat-rapatkan saf. Masa hampir tiba untuk tanjak sonsang.

Ini bumi yang kita pijak. Itu langit yang kita junjung.

Sayangku

Song and lyric by Arzim


Anggun wajahmu menghiasi hati
Canda tawamu pengubat sepi
Terbilang tunggal tersemat di jiwa
Kau yang terindah tiada dua

Akalku berlabuh di tempat yang salah
Namun cintaku tak pernah berubah
Ku biarkan kau melangkah pergi
Yang tersisa hanya mimpi

Oh sayangku
Kembali padaku
Aku cinta pada mu

Bawa jiwaku
Bawa nyawaku
Bawa cinta mu dulu

Oh sayangku
Buang ragu mu
Kau segalanya buat ku

Kau puisi
Dalam ragaku
Aku rindu pada mu

ISLAMIC FINANCE .... FOR THOSE WHO AGAINST IT

To quote Badlisyah, CEO of CIMB Islamic Bank "22% of banking assets are from Islamic banks, 60% or more for capital markets particularly debt market whilst 80% in equity alone" and "It's easier to sell Islamic banking products to non-muslims than to muslims" (<--why am I not surprised with this statement...hmmm). My 5 cent advice before you want to be look as champion for 'against' so-called Islamic banking/ Islamic finance is: 

(1) get to know the difference between Islamic banking and Islamic finance. If you cannot tell the difference in 5-10 words, you have a very long way to go, so pray harder.

(2) get to know what are banking products and capital market products (be it conventional and Islamic) plus insurance and takaful.

(3) If you think the Islamic finance was developed over last 20-30 years ago, you have a long way to go.... so pray harder.

6 Ways Your Brain Attempts To Sabotage Your Goals & Dreams

Copied from: http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/6-ways-your-brain-attempts-to-sabotage-your-goals-for-success/

By Joel on August 2, 2012

This is an article by Gregory Ciotti, founder of Sparring Mind.

Now we know that you should never make excuses for not sticking to your goals, and we understand that from time to time you will have your valid reasons, but what if it is not really you to blame for your failures and that your brain is actually out to sabotage your hopeful plans?

Well this article here explains the 6 ways that your brain plays tricks on you to sabotage your goals and dreams.

1.) Your brain can hurt your goals by fantasizing too much

Would you believe that fantasizing is the #1 way your brain can unintentionally ruin your goals?

It seems unlikely, right?

The thing is, the proof is in the pudding (or in this case, the research): psychologists have found that while positive thinking about the future is broadly beneficial, too much fantasy can have disastrous results on achieving goals.

Researchers tracked the progress of how people cope with four different types of challenges.

As an example, in one of those challenges (trying to find a fulfilling job), those who had spent the most time fantasizing performed the worst in a variety of critical data points:

·        they had applied for fewer jobs

·        they had been offered fewer jobs

·        if they were able to find work, they had lower salaries.

Why?

Why could fantasizing about a positive end take a turn for the worse?

Jeremy Dean, a psychological researcher at UCL London and the owner of PsyBlog had this to say about the researcher’s conclusions:

The problem with positive fantasies is that they allow us to anticipate success in the here and now. However, they don’t alert us to the problems we are likely to face along the way and can leave us with less motivation—after all, it feels like we’ve already reached our goal.

It’s one way in which our minds own brilliance lets us down. Because it’s so amazing at simulating our achievement of future events, it can actually undermine our attempts to achieve those goals in reality.

Our poor brain is thus a victim of itself.

Again, this is not to say that visualizing goals is necessarily a haphazard strategy for achieving them, it’s just that we need to be aware of the dangers of excessive fantasy.

Instead of being entranced with what the future may bring, we need to learn to love the work here and now.

Enjoying our day by day progress and realistic ‘checkpoints’ is a much more practical way to create our future; getting lost in grandiose dreams that focus on the ultimate end is not.

As they say, don’t give up on your dreams, but don’t fall under their spell either.