RIFLE RANGE BOY

It sometimes baffles me to see why something which is quite obvious to me is not to others (or it is made to appear so?). If one were to peruse our mainstream papers, it is quite apparent that there is concerted effort to discredit the two opposition held state governments of Penang and Selangor. They (the forces above) make it appear as if everything is going on bad in these places. If there is a hitch in the hill funicular train service, it appears on the headlines. Also if a baby in a day care nursery in Penang drowns in a bath tub; if the illegal nursery (of the plant variety) in Selangor is asked to vacate after so many years occupying the state plot without paying a single sen of rent, the state is pictured as heartless and do not have the welfare of the people at heart! The wise man knows that civil servants (even if you are uncivil in your behaviour) are independent of the government of the day. The supposed masters of these servants are citizen of the country, ...

One generation ago, parents insisted that children should get dressed on a Sunday morning for a family outing at the temple. Children obediently followed with raising any objections. Without fail, they would diligently follow the proceedings in the temple and partake in their activities. The newer generation, however, being more vocal and assertive in their likes and dislikes, just stay from the temples as they find more interesting things to do outside the temple during the designated prayer times on Sunday mornings. As more and more youngsters of Generation-Y and beyond are not conversant in their mother tongues, they find the whole proceedings an exercise in futility as the lingua franca in most temple activities and sermons are neither English nor Malay! To draw back these group of people to the path of righteousness and prevent them from going astray, one the temples I go to occasionally have started to have weekly 20-minute talk by non-religious figures (regular p...