No more mujik No more koin

A short poem dedicated to my two-year old grandson whom I visited about ten days ago, fondly recalling a little make-believe game of flying a plane, that he played with me in the bedroom.

The little boy has an endearing way of mispronouncing words. Music becomes mujik. Coins becomes koin. And aeroplane becomes, quite correctly, airplane. At the end of each short flight, he would invariably utter the same words:

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane.

The imaginary plane that he commanded
Had finished its flight for the day.
He got out of the craft that had just landed,
Waving his upturned palms he'd say:

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

He hopped a little hop on the bouncy mattress

And got down on to the floor

But hardly had he taken any rest,

When he would return for more

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

A step onto the mattress he'd take

To climb into his plane

And "whooo" a whirring sound he'd make 

As his flight took off again

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

And off and on the plane he'd get

Over and over again

Until tiredness and boredom beset

He'd fly his fantasy plane.

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

Congratulations Malaysia

This morning I woke up to news that the evil administration of Barisan Nasional over our country has come to an end. For the first time in history, a new ruling party forms the next government of Malaysia.

After putting voting day in the middle of the week,
After getting candidates unjustly disqualified on nominations day,
After sending out postal ballot papers very late,
After allowing impostors to vote using fake identity cards,
After slowing down the voting at polling centres,
After turning away, at 5 o'clock, many voters who have waited in queue for hours,
After chasing away an uncle who arrived in bermuda shorts,
After all the blatant gerrymandering and extreme malapportionment,

And a host of other cunning plans and trickery,

The evil one has lost.

The people of Malaysia have won.
Congratulations Malaysia!

Tonight, tonight is just the night

Tonight tonight is just the night,
I've never seen the moon so bright.
Oh don't you see, Jacqueline,
Our hearts are joined above,
'Cause it's the right time for love.

Hello, please answer me, my dear,
Oh, won't you speak into my ear,
A word of love, Jacqueline,
And melt my heart of stone,
'Cause I'm here, waiting alone.

Chorus:
Jacqueline, Jacqueline my love!
Don't you know? I have loved you so.
Please give to me the thrill of your love!
Make my loneliness go . . .

Jacqueline, lyrics by Harold Huang. 09May2018

************************
As we wait anxiously for the results of our 14th General Elections, I am reminded of this song, "Jacqueline". I'd like to think of Jacqueline as the results we're anxiously waiting for, that we long to see very soon.

The above is my version of  "Jacqueline", an oldie popularised by Rocky Teoh in 1966-67, based on the Chinese classic Ye Lai Xiang.

I have rewritten a major portion of the lyrics to bring in some rhyme and rhythm to the song.

(See link in the comments below for Rocky's original lyrics and video.)

****************************
These are the original lyrics sung by Rocky Teoh in 1967.

JACQUELINE
Tonight, tonight is just the night,
While the moon is shining so bright.
We shouldn't miss such a night,
Like this, my dear Jacqueline,
'Cause it's the right time for love.

Hello, hello, my dear,
I'm trying to call you on the phone
Because I'm all so alone,
Counting the stars above.
Won't you please listen to me?

Chorus:
Jacqueline, Jacqueline my love
Don't you know? I love you most of all
Well surrender now, be mine tonight,
Give the thrill of your love

https://youtu.be/5KHggkJb1KY

Unless you know what it means

Unless? If? Or else? I am confused.

I came across this meme on a page a while ago. My reply to the author:

Unless you want your readers to buy their first guitars online, don't say unless you don't want.

If you want the readers to avoid buying their first guitars online, just say unless you want. Or say, If you don't want . . .

Or else, simply say,
"Don't buy your first guitar online, or else you will waste your money and time."

Never in the history of my country

Tomorrow is voting day. It will be the 14th General Elections of Malaysia. The following thought strikes me:

Never in the history of Malaysia

have so many staunchly opposed political rivals
agreed to bury their rivalry

and joined hands

to work so hard together
against such great odds

to save so many people

from the tyranny of one man.

Are we for or against our government?

It's the second last day of the elections campaign. The government has been dissolved weeks ago.

Yet I saw on the news just now a politician telling people to "support the government", "vote for the government" and to remember the "good deeds that the government had done for them".

In the same news broadcast, another politician was issuing a threat to a rival candidate who had allegedly spread fake news, telling him to watch out, for he will "make sure" that action will be taken against that candidate.

Both these politicians have conveniently forgotten that they are campaigning only for their party, and not for the "government", which has dissolved, and is only a temporary care-taker at this time.

Dear Malaysian friends, when we step into the polling station to cast our votes in two days' time, remember we are no longer voting for or against any current "government" officials. 

Instead, we are voting for candidates of political parties to form the NEXT government.

Let us vote for a better future.
Malaysia Berjaya!

I stayed

Reminiscing my sixth form years in secondary school when I saw many of my friends going overseas to further their studies and to look for a better future in a more promising land.

I stayed

"There's no hope in this country"
"There's little left", they said
With few places in university,
And narrow paths ahead.

Why would we continue here to stay
When the future looks so bleak
When our wealth is being chiselled away
On pretext of helping the weak.

Whether business permits, or land grants
Or just a roof over the head,
For us who are labelled "immigrants"
A high price has to be paid.

For government aid and incentives,
Are not for us to apply,
As they are reserved for the "natives"
To enlarge their slice of the pie.

With heavy hearts they left our shore,
For a better life abroad,
They went to a land that gave them more,
Than what we can here afford.

Alas, I couldn't join their quest
For a better future there.
For I was too poor to even suggest,
Migrating anywhere.

So back in this home land I'd stay
With what little I can earn
And toil ahead for a brighter day,
When for better this land would turn.

A writer's lament

Write something.
Write it now, they say.
For one must keep on writing,
Every single day.

But what if words just won't arise
To enable you to say,
What you had thought was something nice
To put into prose today.

You'd stare right into distant space,
Looking all but blank,
At the nagging emptiness you face,
As your hope for a story sank . . .