Of wet blankets and sour grapes

Republished from New Straits Times, Dec 30, 2022,
with the author’s permission. Read the original here.

By Yong Soo Heong

IN THE aftermath of the bruising 15th General Election, two items are not short of supply under the current rainy weather — wet blankets and sour grapes.

Wet blankets are a common sight when floodwaters rise quickly to inundate homes. And sour and tangy grapes may sometimes be found among the many varieties flooding our market thanks to this year's bumper harvests in Australia and New Zealand.

A wet blanket can also refer to someone who spoils the enjoyment of others in a celebration, or someone who dampens other people’s joy.

This expression started around the 1870s, when cooks at that time kept wet blankets in the kitchen to smother out fires that were accidentally started.

It’s derived from one of the many fables by ancient Greek storyteller Aesop entitled “The Fox and the Grapes”.

In the story, a thirsty fox sees a bunch of plump juicy grapes hanging high from a vine, but fails in all its attempts to get hold of it.

Feeling dejected, the fox walks away without ever tasting the grapes while trying hard to convince himself by muttering: “I am sure they are sour.” The moral of the fable is, it is easy to despise what you cannot get.

As I examined these two expressions, they are against an intriguing backdrop of a few politicians from the same fold, who poured scorn on the ability (or the lack of it) of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to steer the country towards a better future.

Strangely, these “has-beens” had lost badly in the recent polls besides having their election deposits forfeited, a stark indication of how badly they performed. They have little locus standi, and their time has passed, so to speak.

These “Doubting Thomases” said they had no confidence in Anwar's leadership and that the latter was only good in mouthing populist statements.

While the current government had stated it’s untrue that it could not be criticised, and constructive criticisms were always welcomed, it's certainly not open season for detractors to simply pour cold water on the administration without strong basis.

It’s now 2022 going on to 2023, and not 1981 or 1998. To borrow a line from John Lennon and Yoko Ono — give peace a chance — and do give this newly-stitched government a chance.

Anwar’s cabinet is hardly a month old, and even much less for the second echelon of deputy ministers. It’s heart-warming that some of them had even taken the lead for quick wins in a matter of days for the people’s benefit.

The government’s apparatus is not just Anwar’s alone. He has many competent people around him who want to prove the sceptics wrong.

That said, Anwar has to be strong enough to face the world each day and also weak enough to admit that he cannot do everything alone.

Anwar has proven his mettle by reaffirming the confidence of support for him on Dec 19. It spoke volumes of his skilful behind-the-scene manoeuvrings.

His true friends have made their support felt in times of need when others seemed to have vanished.

The South China Morning Post, which tracks Malaysia’s political developments closely, ran an uplifting editorial recently with the headline: “Anwar is the right leader to put Malaysia back on the right track”.

It opined that the outcome of the electoral impasse could be positive for the country, which now has a multiracial government led by a prime minister with Islamic credentials when it comes to fending off extremists.

The SCMP said despite intense distractions of coalition politics and potential racial agitation by the opposition, Malaysia is poised for greater stability and economic development!

Give the government some latitude first. We can scrutinise its scorecard when it hits the 100-day mark. In the meantime, let’s not upset the apple cart without rhyme or reason.

• Datuk Yong Soo Heong is a former chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Bernama. Read more about him here.

Being useful, relevant and productive during Covid

 By Lim Siang Jin

DURING the early days of the pandemic, there was a lot of confusion and, like many others displaced from their routines, I was disoriented. To keep myself rooted in reality, I decided I should do things that are useful, relevant and productive. But what? These are motherhood ideas that meant nothing without any translation into actual practices. I began to get my bearings after a month or two, so during the Covid years I did three things, apart from keeping myself physically and mentally fit:

• Completion of editorial projects. With the large amounts of free time I had, I decided to complete the following:
• WPS Beacon Issue No 2: For our first issue, we had more than 30 pieces. By the start of 2020, we only had a handful for the second issue. I decided to add a series on the games we played as children to bulk up the issue 
• Being brave and angry – IOCU 1982-83: Articles published by the Regional Office for the Asia-Pacific of the International Organisation of Consumers Union (IOCU). Due to the  probability of being sued for libel (we were critical of transnationals like Nestle and Ciba-Geigy), I have decided not to publish these material but keep them in my private records. 
• “Four cheers for the backroom”: An article detailing four out of the ordinary events related to The Edge production team (to be published later)

• Covid-19 and beyond: There was a dearth of reliable information on Covid-19 in the early months. I thought if I could collate and disseminate material from reliable sources, I would be able to assist friends and other professionals in journalism, academia and think tanks in their work. I recalled that in 1982-83, when I was with IOCU, we published a monthly news digest called Consumer Currents. These days, with the internet, a “CC” would take a very different form. Every entry of the Covid-19 and beyond website has (a) labels to facilitate search (b) a brief excerpt of the story with its source and a link to it and (c) date and place of origin. I approached Seng Sun and Guan Khim to help out initially but it was impossible to co-ordinate so we gave up after a few weeks. I carried on alone. Eventually, the project from March 2020 to November 2021 garnered a collection of over 1,900 pieces. I am quite proud especially to collect most of the pieces from writers like:
• Amar Singh
• Arundhati Roy
• Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong
• Jeyakumar Devaraj
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram
• P Gunasegaram
• Tomas Pueyo

Also labelled were journals like BMJ, The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. An array of topics was included, like misinformation, neoliberalism, equitable access and vaccination implementation. Please click on the names or terms to view the collections.

• Restart my art: I managed to start painting seriously again in 2020 after a break of 30 years. This year I held a solo exhibition at APW in Bangsar from Oct 21-30. Read here (The Edge) and here (The Malay Mail). Articles were also carried in theSun, New Straits Times, Mashable and Says. I am very thankful to my many media friends for their support. For the project, I also started a website, www.limsiangjin.art.

Bickering Over Durian, June 2022, acrylic, ink and pencil on paper, 30in H x 22.3in W

A friend indeed: Vincent Lim Ewe Tee, 1953-2022

By Lim Siang Jin

EWE TEE was my class monitor in Standard IC, Westlands Primary School, in 1960. We got on quite well and have been very good friends ever since. He lived a few roads from my home so it was very convenient to meet and play. And play we did! Like all other innocent and curious youngsters our age.

At his place, No 19 Birch Road, I remember going up to his room to spend time; it opened to a small verandah facing Gurney Drive. The bungalow was on the land where the 24-storey Sunrise@Gurney stands. Aunty, his mum, was a caring soul. She made sure I had enough to eat and drink while we played. I also remember his soft-spoken dad with a very kind face. He would drop me back home once in a while in their light-coloured car, probably a Hillman Minx. Uncle unfortunately passed away when we were at a tender age.

The Gurney Drive beach front in the 1930s.
Source: Aliran

The centre of activities, from 1964 onwards, was our area —  at the junction-enclave of Gurney Drive and Cantonment Road. Ewe Tee was part of our “gang” there. About 20-strong, we engaged in various formal games — badminton, football, rounders, table tennis, etc, many adapted to the environment we found ourselves. We also followed the annual calendar of state-wide youth activities involving marbles, kites, tops and cards. 

Numerically, we were big enough to play chiak bak, mata chat and kham bak chieu – so they became part of our repertoire of activities, many a time with creative variations, like hide-and-seek in the dark of the night (read more about these games here). And I would never forget how we stood under the scorching sun at the mouth of the big drain that ran the length of Cantonment Road — to catch measly catfish and chwee chiam (mini swordfish). The four acres we had access to, plus the beachfront, was a haven for children growing up. 

Ewe Tee was a good story teller too. Two of them remain etched in my memory. The first was his 1963 description of how he and his tent-mates probably encountered the lantern lady at Jubilee Camp, replete with details like a light moving outside their tent and raincoat dripping with red liquid the next day. My guess is that it was one of the scout masters making sure the boys remained in their tents! The second, in 1965, was an animated account of the second encounter between Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston, where the latter was KOed in the first round with a controversial “phantom punch”. The former had used a secretly-learnt karate chop, Ewe Tee insisted.

Ewe Tee, a school prefect at Westlands Primary School in 1965, was seated next to the form
teacher, Mr Teoh Chye Teik. For the caption and more photos of that year, click here 

In 2018, I asked if he remembered them. He chuckled and said no. Such are the strange ways our memories work.

I remember there was some healthy rivalry between us too. In 1965, both of us were appointed scout patrol leaders. We had to name our patrols after animals. I decided on the cobra saying it was versatile with a strong ability to protect itself, and attack if necessary. After some thought, Ewe Tee decided on the mongoose, telling me it was deft enough to defeat the cobra. I refused to believe that then, however in later years I found out that the mongoose indeed won up to 80 per cent of its encounters with the snake. 

Come Job Week, we would go jobbing together, going door-to-door to do odd jobs and collect money for the scouting movement. Focussed on the vicinity of Birch Road and places near the school, we learnt a fair bit about the places and its people — from the scrooge who squeezed the most out of his or her one dollar to the generous who gave us two and hot drinks to boot, and sent us off without lifting a finger.

Our friendship extended into Free School. Every school day in 1967-68, we would go to school together with Ooi Teong Siew and Ooi Peng Huat. Driven by Ah Eu, the family driver, every journey was filled with hilarity, usually derived from harmless pranks and disturbing girls along the way.

From the WPS Camaraderie page, 23 Feb 2018:
Farewell lunch for Ewe Tee (left) at Oriental
Pavilion Restaurant, Jaya 33, Petaling Jaya.
Click here for more

We lost touch for a number of years after PFS and caught up again in the late 1980s when he moved back to Penang with his lovely wife Kym. At the time, he was running a personal tour guide business and their son, Matthew, was born in our home state. In 1997, they moved back to England. After that we stayed in touch close enough for me and my family to visit his home in north London in the early 2000s.

He was very proud of and loved his family deeply. He spoke highly of his wife Kym, a Londoner who teaches children with special needs. Ewe Tee once said I could learn a thing or two from her if I ever wanted to do anything in the area. I was then exploring the possibility of coaching people to care for the aged. Matthew, their son, did very well in his studies scoring first class honours in mechanical engineering from the University of Nottingham and is now working in consulting for a technology company in London. It was very clear from our conversations that he was the apple of his eye. 

In the last 15 years or so, Ewe Tee would come back frequently to visit his mum, sisters Dawn and Grace, and close relatives. We caught up each time he came back and our friendship deepened further. 

During my last visit to London in 2018, knowing I would be alone, he meticulously advised me about the Oyster Card, places to avoid (“because you might get mugged”), the London Tube app, etc. I had wished to visit Kings Place, office of The Guardian newspaper, so he, Kym and I decided to meet there. After that we took a double decker down to Soho where we visited Liberty London and had dinner at The Real Greek. The day before I left, he came to Central London again and we spent many hours talking at a pub in Queensway. All these made my trip so much more memorable.

At the Real Greek restaurant, Soho, London, in April 2018, with Kym and Matthew

That was not to be the last time I met him. In late 2019, his mother passed away in Subang Jaya. He and Kym came back. Seng Oo and I, among others, met them at the funeral. Little did I know then it would be the last time I saw him in person.

During the Covid outbreak we spoke now and then, dwelling mainly on subject matters we agreed on and avoiding areas of contention — our political views had diverged over the years but that, we felt, should not come in the way of our friendship. My last series of contact with him was in end-August 2022, a week before his diagnosis. We shared our new-found interests. In the summer, the first in three years that was not snarled by Covid, he took a liking to lawn-bowling and had engaged in it many times a week, making new friends. On my part, I told him about my upcoming art exhibition, hoping he would be able to make it back in time. He mentioned he was looking forward to coming back to see his sisters in November-December 2022 after three long years.

That he would fall sick and pass away in three short months came as a complete shock to me. RIP Ewe Tee. We will miss you.

Let’s hope unity govt lasts the distance as people are tired of political manoeuvring

Republished from New Straits Times, Dec 5, 2022,
with the author’s permission. Read the original here.

By Yong Soo Heong

MALAYSIANS have suddenly become good at maths, especially when it concerns the numbers 222, 111, 81, 73, 30, 23, eight and zero.

You hear that “this doesn’t add up”, “they cannot be put together”, “what if there is a need to subtract when someone pulls out?” and “how long do you think these numbers will hold?”

We’re not talking about a simple maths test. The stakes are higher.

It’s about whether the unity government can last the distance of about 1,825 days as some sore losers may pull the rug out from under it.

Let’s also hope that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can prove his support in Parliament on Dec 19.

It’s also important for Anwar to prove his mettle after his ministers have been firmed up. Then they will have to hit the ground running to save the country.

It won’t be easy for the office-bearers but they have to accept that hard work will be the order of the day.

Too much time has been expended on politicking since February 2020 when the government fell.

Since then, nothing much has happened, save for financial aid for the people, allowing people to prematurely withdraw their savings from a provident fund, and stemming the spread of Covid-19.

People’s welfare must be given priority.

We’re lagging behind Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

Anwar hit the nail on the head when, on the campaign trail, he said he would prioritise revitalising the economy.

He and his team have to ensure the people’s wellbeing.

It’s about giving them access to reasonably priced quality food, healthcare and well-paying jobs.

Anwar set the right tone when he met heads of government departments two days after his swearing-in. The rallying of his troops is key to creating a mental revolution among civil servants to work hard for the government.

• Datuk Yong Soo Heong is a former chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Bernama. Read more about him here.