Heaven or Hell - not yours to decide

I don’t think I’ve enough sleep lately, during this Ramadhan month I would prefer staying up late… watching the life telecast of tarawih straight from Masjidil Haram, listening to the ever lunak and rhythmic voice of Imam Abdur Rahman while reading the translation only to summarized the whole situation as alarming. Scary coz I don’t think I am ready for the judgment day and the punishment. Come Hari Raya I might forget about all this. That is the fact of life, when we don’t see what’s coming we’ll be lured and tempted to the seductions of materials and entertainments. Remember to take a look at the Masjid a day after Raya, the car park that was hot during Ramadhan is just another empty space.

If you do ‘bukak puasa’ at home, try watching the Indonesian sequence on RTM1 around 7.30 pm, Demi Masa. Everyday there’ll be a short drama about kampung’s life, where the good and the bad living together doing the usual stuffs. Last two days was a tale about Pak Udin who was the president of the Surau's committee. He would always drop by the small stall on the way back after prayers. But this is not a normal stall where people would just eat and drink; it was the mini Casino for the gamblers, complete with young and bitchy waitress. Pak udin has nothing to do with the immoral activity he was just there to give some lectures to the boys in unoffending manner, perhaps those boys were just beyond help. One day Pak Udin collapsed and passed away at the stall, and words spread to the entire kampong – the news – Pak Udin died at a place of sin. The gambling boys did try to explain the situation but who would believe those wasted alcoholic gamblers?

Two days later, one of the gamblers, Imran, was late to ‘Vegas’, and to make matter worse he accidentally step on cow dunk just in front of the mosque, the last place he wanted to be.

Being left with no other option, he went in with a mission, washing his boot, ONLY. He did say hi to the Imam but refused the invitation to be in the prayer, shouting loudly and proudly, “What’s the point? I’m not taking the last breath yet!” and two minutes later he was found dead at the wuduk’s area, the news was – Imran died in the mosque. The same gossipers sums up the life-story of Imran, a man who spends the entire life committing all sorts of sin but turn out ok towards the end. Is it right? You decide.

One good lesson from the story that I can extract is about one destinations the day after. Heaven or hell is not yours to decide, only the almighty knows what’s there waiting for you and me, don’t you dare to label others as the members of hell when you yourself are still vague of the destination. To depart at a good place is something good, but to achieve that you’ve to be there often. Finally, would you rather die in a good place doing unnecessary things or a bad place doing excellent things?

As I was waiting

As I was waiting for my mother in the Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang, I managed to look at the reality of life for ailing citizens in this country, a country which asserted the presence in the developed world.

On the television, I saw from a distant how top notch analysts were discussing the prospect of nation 2008 budget, to be table in half an hour later. ‘Something for the Rakyat” was the catchy title for government’s financial direction aiming for the votes from the populace. You can fool the makciks and pakciks but perhaps I’m not that naïve anymore Mr Nice Guy.

There she was (my mom) lying on her aging bed between bed number 14 and 15, obviously the cubicles were designed for four bed 14 to 17 but due to the demand they added two more beds in between and they name it bed 14A and 16A, not so long ago they were not six but eight beds in the cubicles courtesy of a virus called Dengue.

Believe it or not, the nurses must be coming from the breed of the superwoman marriage to superman as each of them took care of two cubicles. So, you tell me how they can give full attention to all the patients and you must be crazy to feel offended by the fierce looking facades every time you asked for a favor. Bottom line is that they are just humans.

Obviously the hospitals in the city are in big manpower crisis and the effort towards betterment (is there such word?) is far from sufficient. Two days ago I was in Hospital Serdang with my Dad, the infrastructure was said to be among world’s best. It is an undeniable statement looking at the landscapes, with hanging gardens right up from ground floor to the top (6th). Not until you queue up for any of the treatment will you realize the almost stagnant moment in time, you could have finish watching all three lord of the rings trilogy by the time you get to see the doctor. A mixture of manpower shortage and the complexity of data entry activity to the high processors cyber link beta phrenology computers or in other words which was well said by the nurse “ Kita kat sini semua pakai computer” complete with the little neck movement with high nose i.e muke eksyen.

All that arguments and facts once again proof the failure of government’s medical policy and how dare the politician talk about bersyukur. Tell me what they know about public hospitals when most of the time they were admitted to AP, AL, AN and other alphabets which followed by Medical Centre. While they choose the westerns or exotics food from the menu, Makcik Kiah will be eating overcooked rice with fish boiled with just water and three cuts of onions. The rooms are even bigger than Makcik Kiah’s Jalan Sampin flats complete with imported toilet seats. The doctors and the nurses, not like the one discussed earlier will be smiling up to their ears every time Datuk Zakar Gembira press the red button. Yes I am angry!!!

They(politicians) are the people who talk about giving back to the rakyat? Maybe one if not none of them can be trusted for that manner. More than wolf in disguised, those are mixture of lions, snakes, tigers and many other animals associated with man eating. The costumes made of songkok and baju melayu are far more dangerous than the addicts who only have themselves to be spoiled.

Did you notice any hike in Tobacco taxes? No you don’t, coz they don’t want to loose the revenue. Let us all smokers rally in front of the big office and ask them what they do with the tax collections from tobacco. Imagine if Malaysian smokers spend 5 million ringgit a day on tobacco and half of that goes to tax, we could have build one hospitals every month. Smokers deserved the best Medical Benefit then…

I stopped watching “pembentangan belanjawan” after the fourth big applauds from the ever sucking parliaments who do brought up ass kissing skills to another level which I found to be irritating. For family with incomes less than RM1K, government will provide all the necessary attire for curriculum activities i.e we’ll buy you one cheap baju pengakap at a very high price as if it was made from Italy and England which will be provided to you by a company own by one Datuk (could be Datuk Zakar Gembira) who then order the entire batch from Datuk Peter Lim Tow Kay…at the expense of taxpayers, you and me….

My pledge is that the government shall boost up the effort towards better Medical services. Don’t expect the poor to buy insurance when they even struggle hard to put food on the table. Pay the doctors handsomely and make them happy and make sure they are not there for the rewards but they are those who think about thereafter.