English Idioms: Malaysians Banana Skin

Hantu Laut

Hair-splitting, nitpicking and quibbling over nothing has become a remarkable feature of Malaysian society, some worthy of scorn.

The guy who tweeted "the disappearance of Flight MH370 was a blessing in disguise" did so because he noticed one or two things.............. either the incident has brought Malaysians close together, or a revelation of the division between patriotic and unpatriotic Malaysians.

There is nothing wrong in saying "blessing in disguise" if one means something positive came out of it. 

Journalist Ismail Amsyer, who tweeted his thought on the positive outcome of the tragic disappearance of Flight MH370 and agreed empathically by Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in his tweeted response should not have apologised, should have explained and stood by their tweets.

Here, a British tabloid, which has from day one maligned Malaysia on the tragedy, is stirring shit on the journalist and the minister. Shit sells shitty media, I suppose.

Most Malaysians do not understand the versatility of the English language, its idioms, or its "banana skin".The sensitivity arose because most of the younger generation Malaysians are products of an education system not based on English and not intensely schooled in the language. So, don't use it if you don't understand its actual meaning.

Idiom is a phrase where the words put together have meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for the uninitiated person to understand. Even if you know the meaning of every word in the sentence, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.

Idioms are often metaphorical and make the language more colourful.

"My father's death was a blessing in disguise, it has brought the family closer together." Does it literally mean I am happy that my father is dead? 

For the less discerning it may be so and carry a negative connotation. It should not be, the imperative was on the positive outcome.

The lost of Flight MH370 has cast shocking revelation of unpatriotic behaviour among Malaysians living a false-hearted life of perfidious loyalty. People with highly suspect allegiance.

This is the type of Malaysian I am talking about helping foreign media to lambaste leaders of the country.

As I have said before, we can always criticise our government's shortcomings, but when it comes to external aggression, we should rally behind our government no matter how much dislike we harbour against them.

Without any qualm whatsoever, these ingrates furiously condemned their own country for an incident completely beyond the control of the country's leaders. 

It is not often that a plane disappear into thin air without a trace. The incident has baffled the whole world. The mystic and the intellect are still out there looking for answers, which they may never found.

The Malaysian government is saddled with the greatest aviation mystery unprecedented in the history of civil aviation.Even the best of technology from the most powerful nation in the world has not been able to find the plane, or its debris. Looking for "needle in a haystack" seems must easier.

As "time is of the essence" Prime Minister Najib did not allow "the grass to grow under his feet" and after getting confirmation from Inmarsat satellite pings of the flight path of the plane, he announced that Flight MH370 has ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

One should never "put one's foot in one's mouth"

The disappearance of Flight MH370 did expose the ugly side of Malaysians. 

Musa's Dementia: MH400 Who's Who With Mahathir To China

Hantu Laut

Pursuant to my post "Memali Outrageous Lie:Mahathir Was In The Air On The Way To Beijing" , I have managed to extract from my archives details of former Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad's visit to China from 20th to 28th November 1985.

Musa Hitam must have had lapse of memory. The Memali incident must have happened on the 19th November and Mahathir was only informed after he departed the country. Mahathir left for China in the early morning of 20th November 1985 and was away for 9 days visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhaou, Xian and Guangzhou.

Our flight MH400 (chartered) departed Subang International Airport at 7.30 a.m bound for Beijing.

There were 132 delegates from the business sector. Many have become big names in the corporate world with some making it to the exclusive billionaires club.

It was a gathering of many top-notch businessmen from the country and if the plane had gone down, it would have taken with it three-quarters of Malaysia's top business people. 

YTL's Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay and his son Francis Yeoh were both on the flight. Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, who was just run-of-the mill businessman then was also on the flight. Vincent Tan of Berjaya Group was not yet a Tan Sri, nor a Datuk.

It was a motley collection of who's who of Malaysia's corporate world. 

The richest man in the country, Malaysia's Robert Kuok joined the PM's delegation in China. Mr Kuok had just started building his Shangri-La Hotel and the World Trade Center in Beijing at that time.

Without much ado, let me show the list of who's who on the flight to Beijing with PM Mahathir Mohammad (click to enlarge)

A guide handbook on China prepared by Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Many of the names on the list, Chinese and Bumiputras alike, had become rich during Mahathir's time as prime minister.

Amazingly, non had come out to Mahathir's defence.

There is honour among thieves, there is none among politicians.

Memali Outrageous Lie: Mahathir Was In The Air On The Way To Beijing

Hantu Laut

I was on the same flight with Mahathir on that fateful day and we were still in the air on the way to Beijing when a call came through the captain to inform Mahathir about the Memali incident. I remember it was somewhere in November 1985. 

Whether Mahathir had prior knowledge of the incident I am not sure.

I was a member of the trade delegation that travelled on the same aircraft as Mahathir when the news broke soon after it happened. 

It is strange that after so many decades Musa Hitam's memory was suddenly jolted to remind him that Mahathir was in the country when the incident happened. 

He said Mahathir was still in the country two to three days after the incident. This is certainly outrageous, Mahathir was in Beijing then.

Why did he wait almost 30 years to break his silence? 

I suppose, it's typical of Malay leaders when they have no more position in the party or no more appointee to lucrative position, they hallucinate in make believe stories, or lie through their teeth to save their own skin.

Is Musa telling a lie or has he gone senile? There were over 100 people on that plane who could testify that Mahathir was on the plane and not in the country, many of them were prominent political and corporate figures.

The following are some prominent figures on the flight to Beijing:


Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen........Minister of Foreign Affairs

Khalid Ibrahim.......now the Menteri Besar of Selangor (my sincere apology to Khalid Ibrahim, if he was not there as I couldn't find his name of the list of delegates)

Moehamad Izat Emir..............now President PERDASAMA

Wee Boon Ping (deceased)...........Sarawak businessman 

G.R.Ismail (deceased)..............Sabah businessman

Marina Mahathir.........Tun Mahathir's daughter

The list will be too long to mention everyone's name.

I suggest Musa think hard whether what he claimed is true.

FLIGHT MH370:FOREIGN MEDIA GIVING MALAYSIA A BAD NAME

Hantu Laut

The foreign media is doing Malaysia a lot of harm with its unreasonable and unfair criticism of the government for the disappearance of Flight MH370. No one want this to happen and the Malaysian government was not at fault for something beyond her control. It is unprecedented and the greatest aviation mystery ever.

These foreign monkeys make all kind of nasty comments about our government without looking themselves in the mirror. They should also question the capability of the greatest nation on earth. The US, also actively involved in the search, boasted to have the most advanced technology on the entire planet, yet unable to locate the plane with all state of the art and super sophisticated gadgetry in their possession.This trigger happy cowboy is only good at shooting and mass killing people with its sophisticated weaponry.

If the US and China can't find this needle in a haystack, do you expect Malaysia to do better?

These foreign reporters not only come here to collect information, but they also come with an agenda. They have openly incited families and relatives of  passengers on board the ill-fated plane, particularly, those from China, to cast aspersion on the Malaysian government. 

In the same breath, the people from China had also behaved appallingly, proffering extreme unreasonableness and intolerance compared to other nationalities, who had shown fair degree of patience and decorum.

The disaster is not an aircraft crashing along its planned flight path making search and rescue easier to pinpoint the crash site. MH370 deviated from it authorised flight path and went incognito flying undetectable on radar for almost seven hours and disappeared into thin air. It could be anywhere on the globe, dead or alive, no one knows for sure.

Though, I sympathise and share their grief of this most unfortunate and unforeseen disaster that the Malaysian government had no control of, patience and tolerance in the face of adversity is a virtue one should adopt. 

Yelling and wailing is not going to help find the plane other than upsetting the very people who want to help you.

As in the old adage "man proposes, God disposes", fate is something we mortals can't control.

I have also criticised the government of its mishandling of the crisis in the initial stage, but as much as I sympathise with the families and relatives of the passengers on the ill-fated plane, I now do understand the immense difficulty and most distressing and trying situation our government is working under of this most unfortunate incident. 

Also, of greatest disappointment is the Malaysian opposition, instead of closing rank in a national crisis, Anwar and his gang took advantage and make political mileage out of it.

I sincerely hope the families and relatives stay patient and give the authorities more time to seek the truth and be prepared for the worst that the aircraft may not be found for a long long time.

The government should blacklist and ban those nasty journalists from covering the press conference.