THE INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

THE INFORMATION DEPARTMENT 6^th February 2010

On 11^thJuly 2010, The Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat Complex in Pulai, Johor will be officially opened by YAB Datuk Seri Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia and I think it’s appropriate for me to re-post an article that I’ve written about 6 month ago, just to remember the legendary Tok Mat of Pulai.

General Election 2008 will be long remembered by every Malaysian as the day of reckoning for the BN government. It shook the nation at 11.0 Magnitude on Richter scale, and followed by a great Tsunami that almost wiped out a ruling coalition of 60 years. Everyone felt the tremor and the possibility of a backlash month’s before the election but the PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi went on with an early election. I am not sure why but it was definitely a wrong time and the consequences were a total disaster. Everyone anticipated a fierce battle between BN coalition and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) new coalition. The opposition’s quest for change and their brutal campaign nearly won them the Coveted prize but somehow BN were able to squeeze through with a weak majority and formed the government. It was a wake up call and they know that if they don’t sort out and correct the wrong, there won’t be a BN government after the next general election. That is quite certain and all BN component parties are aware of the uphill battle that awaits them to bring back the voters that deceived the party. The 2 main components party MCA and MIC was shredded to pieces and GERAKAN were completely wiped out.

It was a heavy defeat and recovery will take a very long time but the work must start now if we want to win back the voters and restore our 2/3 majority in Parliament. The loss could be narrowed down to a single movement, Hindraf and how the opposition capitalized on the emotion of Indians and secured a big victory for them. In the earlier days, Indians in Malaysia doesn’t have any opposition party to choose from except MIC, PPP, IPF and Gerakan, who are part of the BN coalition. There was only one opposition party that was made available for the Indians, DAP but it failed to lure the Indians because it was completely controlled by the Chinese and their own ideology. The Indians were somehow fixed in a situation where they have to vote for BN, but everything changed when PKR emerged as a multi-racial party and the charismatic Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim as the opposition leader. With the emergence of Hindraf and their mega rally on the 25^th Nov 2007, PKR took centre stage as the savior for the Indian community and DSAI was hailed as a “Hero” and The Chosen One” by the people.

I wouldn’t believe it in thousand years if someone tells me that Indians are supporting PAS. On the nomination day at my own division in Pulai, Johor, I witnessed the unthinkable, about 100 Indians carrying PAS flag and walking towards the nomination center. I could see their anger and frustration; it was a very sad scenario, looking at them being fooled by the opposition party that was purely a religious party. What happened, what went wrong and why are all these Indians with PAS. It will be absurd to say that the Indians are synonymous with PAS ideology but rather showing their protest against the government by associating themselves with PAS. One thing I’m really certain, those people are there not because they love PAS but because they hate us.

There were many theories as of why BN fared badly at the pools and everyone pointing their fingers at each other, GERAKAN was wiped out completely, MCA & MIC lost almost 75% of their contested seats and UMNO took a severe beating with a large number of MP’s and Cabinet Ministers lost their seat. The opposition’s had the media at their control and they totally monopolized the Electronic Media to their advantage and that is the cause of our heavy defeat. The “Rakyat” started to believe that the electronic media is the real deal because they come up with the news first and our printed media carries the same news 12-24hours later. The human mind has the tendency to register the first news as the real news, anything else after that is just additional information where the brain compares it with the real news it had registered. Well, it’s very difficult to convince the brain that the information registered earlier was inaccurate and that was what happened to the “Rakyat”, and they voted the opposition.

It is the job of the Information Department / Information Ministries to ensure that a proper system to streamline the news and media and only the truth reaches the “Rakyat”. The Electronic Media has the least restriction, therefore anyone can write and post their news without fear and confusion arises as to which is the real news. The opposition has no problem with that, by putting various character’s to news, the Rakyat will be at a crossroad, not knowing who is telling the truth, as far as the “rakyat’s”, doesn’t believe the government, the opposition is on the right track. I think in order to relate to the “Rakyat”, the government should come up with an independent channel on TV & Radio to give the people all the news that they require. Whenever someone tells us about latest news around the globe, the first thing we do is to check on CNN/BBC, because we believe that this channel only gives the right story and truth. Our own Truth Channel will eventually command a huge crowd, just because we are giving them all the news without compromising the truth.

There was once a man; he has many names, Tok Mat, Mat Setia, Mat Umno, Mat Bulat and Mr. Propaganda. Tan Sri Mohamed Bin Rahmat was not the Minister of the Information Ministry but Information Ministry was Tan Sri Mohamad Bin Rahmat. He was the walking news, information, media and the face of Barisan Nasional. He also maintains a very cordial relationship with journalist, reporter’s, artists, Radio Televisyen Malaysia and Press to collect and share information about anything. He kept himself available and very approachable at all time and this enables him to know everything that is going on in the country. He is also the true party man, a LOYAL servant to his superiors and to the people. His friendly nature is not the yardstick to measure his character; he is a total disciplinarian and takes his work very seriously. He won’t hesitate to take action on anyone in regards to the party; many were suspended or sacked when he was Secretary General of UMNO for breaching the party rules. He also never hesitates to make new rules and bring discipline and good image to an organization, ask Amy and Awie about their hair and scissors.

He was the most important Minister during the early years of Dr. Mahathir’s reign as Prime Minister and it’s duly due to Tok Mat’s loyalty, sincerity and his ability as the information minister. The de-registration of UMNO and sacking of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas almost derailed Dr. Mahathir from his position as President of UMNO and Prime Minister. UMNO split into two fractions and many cabinet minister and senior UMNO members cut ties with the PM and joined Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in his newly formed Semangat 46 party. Tok Mat’s loyalty was a blessing in disguise for Dr. Mahathir and since all the UMNO assets were frozen due to the de-register of the party, the going gets tougher. It was written in an article that Tok Mat and a few UMNO stalwarts were at Sri Perdana, the residence of the Prime Minister to discuss about the formation of a new party. They collected RM274 and went on to register a new party called UMNO BARU. Well, when you have Mr. Propaganda on your side with every information at his fingertips, the newly formed party couldn’t fail. The party’s strength was soon restored and Dr. Mahathir won the UMNO Presidential Election against Tengku Razaleigh with a narrow margin. UMNO and BN were back on track but the split in the party severely affected the “Rakyat” and something need to be done to get them to support the PM and BN. That was the time Dr. Mahathir popularity was at the lowest and the man who was handpicked to restore the PM’s image was the Information Minister/ Sec Gen of UMNO, Tan Sri Mohamad Rahmat.

The legendary campaign called “SETIA” was launched to educate loyalty among the “Rakyat” and followed up with the “SEMARAK” campaign. Tok Mat made the platform for Dr. Mahathir to go on a nationwide campaign to meet the people and strengthen his support and it was a tremendous success. Dr. Mahathir stayed on as PM for another 15 years and the credit should go to Tok Mat for his effort and service to the President and Party.

He was an Icon and the most outstanding Information Minister ever; the Tsunami of 2008 GE would not have taken place if he was at the helm. We have to change our system and restore the Information Department to its previous glory, every branch, division, state and federal Information Head should be well equipped with knowledge, access and freedom to be able to move around and restore the trust of the “Rakyat”. We have seen an excellent Information Chief, Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat and I being the Information Chief for MIC Bahagian PULAI, the birth place of the legendary Tok Mat feel’s ashamed for not being able to follow his footsteps. If we want to restore our party to its glorious days, the Information Department and Information Chief’s need to function and not kept as a ceremonial appointments as what it is now. We have many leader with many recognitions to their name, Tunku Abdul Rahman as Bapa Kermerdekaan, Tun Abdul Razak as Bapa Pembangunan , Tun Hussein Onn as Bapa Perpaduan, Tun Dr. Mahathir as Bapa Permodenan and I agree with some of the article written on Tok Mat claiming that his contribution to the party and country is nothing less than the 5 Prime Minister he had served in various capacity, therefore he is also should be honored as Bapa UMNO Baru, the party he formed with Dr. Mahathir in 1987. His UMNO membership number was 00000003, after Dr. Mahathir and Dr. Siti Hasmah respectively. Even his membership number indicates his contribution and his position within UMNO at that time. I personally prefer the title Bapa Informasi, because that was what he was, information, news and facts.

Captain.....

NATIONAL TREASURE, DON'T LOOSE THIS GIRL

The father was an orphan, raised by the grandmother for less than a year before she died, he was sent to an orphanage in Durian Tunggal, Malacca until he was deemed old enough to leave. He left the orphanage and started working at various places and finally found a job at a shipyard in Singapore. His education level is not much and he was suffering from diabetic for a long time.

The mother comes from Muar, a big family of about 14 siblings. They are not from a rich family, therefore the girls usually sacrifice their education in order for the boys to get proper educations. She didn’t go beyond LCE (PMR) and later in life got married to the man above.

They were blessed with a daughter, Sharmila A/P M Sivam, who grew up without much luxury. She is the father’s pet and very attach to him. The mother was the strict one, I can see her fear towards her mother, fear in the sense of doesn’t want to disobey or make the mother upset. Sharmila is a very pleasant girl; I sat and talk to her for hours, just trying to investigate what makes her so special. In-fact I recorded the so called interview that I did with her and played over and over again just to come up with a firm conclusion of why she could do it. Let me tell the whole story first.

The parents were not professionals or highly educated, her father could only secure a job at a shipyard to support his family. Her mother was a housewife and they lived a moderate life without much luxury but full of happiness. In 2007, her father was put on dialysis twice a week and couldn’t work at the shipyard anymore. He manages to secure a job as a security guard in Plentong, Masai. Luckily he was doing the night shifts; therefore he could go for his dialysis without fail during daytime. They stay in Taman Pulai Emas, Skudai but the government dialysis center is in Kulai, which is quite a distance from their place. I wonder why there’s no government dialysis center around this area, the private one is obviously very expensive for them.

Year 2009 was an important year for Sharmila, she’s sitting for her SPM examination and she is not only carrying the parents hope but her school’s hope as well. She was the school’s top student and scored a perfect 16A+ in her SPM trial. She was really excited about the exam and couldn’t wait for it to start, but, life is full of twists and turns, disaster struck her family. Her father was transferred to day shift at his work place because he was not very alert at night, according to his superiors. He couldn’t get his dialysis done regularly and at times only once a week, so his health took a beating and about one week before her SPM, he collapsed. They rushed him to the hospital and after a few hours of waiting, the hospital staff’s finally attended to him. He was placed in the Intensive Care Unit and slowly slips into a coma. Her mother mother had to stay with her husband, so Sharmila was alone at home preparing for her SPM.

Sharmila was getting ready to go for her exam when her mother called from the hospital; she said that someone wants to wish her luck. Her father was on the phone and spoke to Sharmila for a while, told her to do well and don’t worry about him. Halfway through her exams, she was getting ready to leave to school, she felt something amiss, her mother calls her every morning to see if everything is all right but that morning she never called. She went for her exams and during the break she manages to call her and she told that everything is fine and ask her to finish her exams and come back home early.

When she arrives home, she saw a small lorry in front of her house and she asked the man what he wants. The lorry driver told her, he came to fix the tents before the body arrives and only then she realized that her father had passed away. She got the news from the lorry driver and her whole world collapses at that instance. Later, her mother told her that her father’s condition worsens in the early hours of the morning and finally pronounced dead at 10am.

The screaming and crying were inevitable now, nobody could console her, and she was basically lying beside her father’s lifeless body throughout the night. Her SPM was over, she gave up and her mother didn’t have the strength to ask her to go for the exams. She still has 7 papers to go and tomorrow morning is an important paper, Chemistry. Early morning her teacher came to her house and force her to get ready to go to school, the teacher pleaded with her to just attend the exam because if she didn’t sit for the chemistry paper, the entire exam will not be counted, chemistry is a principle subject. She did sit for the exam on condition that they keep her father’s body till she comes back home. Her last paper for the day was Chemistry 3 and it’s a 1 ½ hour’s exam but time is running out, she need to be heading back home by 3:30pm. Well, she sat for the exam, within half an hour she finished the paper and were on her way back home to bid farewell to her father.

She did her father’s last rite, very unusual for a girl to do this ritual, but the priest allowed her to do it and she did score A+ for her Chemistry. She was full of praises for her teachers who took so much effort in picking her up and made sure she sit for all the papers without fail and saved her future. Sharmila topped the country with 16A (12A+, 3A, 1A-) but all the media claims that a Sarawakian girl were the top student in the country with 12A+. I think it’s because she took 12 subject and scored A+ in all the subject but what Sharmila achieved went unnoticed. She scored A+ for Tasawwur Islam and the additional 7 subject’s; she studied on her own without any guidance from her teachers. Attending Tuition is a must for everyone nowadays but Sharmila never attended tuition in her life, maybe it’s too expensive or she is just too good on her own.

She also secured a JPA Scholarship to do medicine, but not at any of the top universities in Europe. She will be doing A’levels at a college near Shah Alam and continue her medical degree in Malacca Manipal college and Manipal University in India. Those were the days when we hear top students doing medicine in UK, Ireland and Australia. I wonder who are the JPA student’s selected to do medicine in those glamorous universities, must be the less intelligent one, of course. Let’s not complain, at least she got a JPA scholarship, that itself is a blessing for a poor girl. She want’s to become a doctor and specialize in the disease that killed her father, without a doubt she will achieve it and probably more.

What is so special about her?

1. She is just an average girl born to a working class family with just basic education
2. She was good in her studies since small, always first in class
3. Never went for any tuition
4. She has read over 1000 books, novels, fiction,history or anything that interest’s her
5. Her parents buy her books but most of it she borrows from school and public libraries
6. She doesn’t like watching TV, she told me she never completed any movie she watched, always a bit here and there. It just shows that she is not interested in TV and movies
7. Her first theatre movie is after her PMR results, she went with her cousins and parents to watch a Tamil movie, VEL, her first movie at the big screen.
8. Her mother is very strict with her, always checking and making sure she is doing her work. Her mother also sacrifice watching TV when she is at home.
9. She doesn’t have a hand phone
10. She doesn’t have a computer at home or go to cyber café to surf the net
11. She opened her email account when the application for JPA Scholarship demanded for one.
12. No face book or chatting
13. She has a few friends at school and they regularly discuss about studies
14. She was active in her co-curicular activities
15. She was the Head-Prefect in school
16. Very active in games, sports and uniform societies
17. She is not a nerd, a normal girl
18. She doesn’t have a favourite hero or an idol, she’s not interested in all these at all
19. Her father died halfway through her SPM and she still had 7 subject to complete
20. She had great teachers, they cared for her
21. She completed her exams, great results and made her father in heaven proud

How she studied, her secrets revealed?

1. She concentrates in class, full attention to what the teacher teaches
2. Comes back home about 3pm, sometimes 5pm. Relax for a while, bathe and do homework
3. She do revision and goes to bed about 11pm
4. Wakes up at 4am just to do Mathematics, she said she can focus on math only at that time
5. Constant study is her secret, even in form 4, she was doing the same routine.
6. She said that there is nothing more interesting or exciting than her studies.
7. She loves to read and won many competition
8. She doesn’t have any other interest in her head, just her studies
9. Her will power and determination to succeed surpass everything

My Conclusions;

She was a girl who was not influenced by the world, she loves books and that's all that matters to her. She is not a book worm, but even when she was not studying her passion were novels and other books. Her mother played a huge role in raising the girl who only loved books, everything else is boring for her. She has no stress or worries over boys, movies, songs, favourite singer, actor, friends, shopping, make-up, clothes, hand phone, computer, chatting etc. I have not seen a girl like her before, she is so simple, down to earth and very cheerful. She is destined for greater things in life and while she is still around, students all over Malaysia should call her and get some tips on how to get great results.

A lot of my friends ask me, why i am singing praises for her when there are many who achieved similar results in the past. Well, i told them, it's not the same. I seen a similar story about a boy who studied through hardship, determined to succeed and changed the future of his family, siblings and his generation. His father was a JKR lorry driver, stayed in a very small house with a single 40 watts bulb to light up the whole house. He will study day and night under that bulb, the younger siblings need to remind him if its time for lunch or dinner.His will, to be the best eventually brought him glory and fame, he was one of the top students in the country and a very successful O & G doctor in Malacca.That boy was my eldest brother and it was my job to remind him to have lunch or dinner. My father is still around but the hardship and suffering my brother faced during his schooling years were beyond words. Maybe i write about his success story one day. I saw the similar quality in that girl, probably that's why i was so excited about her achievement.That's the reason why i wrote this article, to tell everyone that there are hope and possibilities in our life if we were determined to succeed.

Sharmila with my daughter

Sharmila, her mom and datuk Nur Jazlan(MP for Pulai) at prize giving ceremony.

PULAI MIC Agm, we presented Sharmila with awards and cash.

That is a result worth framing