Tuesday, January 15, 2008

One Way Commotion

For a spell of several long months, the street where I live was a one way direction, with the entrance way on the other side and the exit just several houses away from mine. Though it was quite inconvenient, I have come to live with it and found it quite peaceful with less traffic criss-crossing especially right in front of my house. My only grouse then was that it rightly should have the direction changed with the entrance near my house and the exit on the other end; the reason being as one of the 3 mains streets that surround this area runs perpendicular to my street, and both streets runs the same direction - it does not make sense! But then, you can't have the cake and eat it.

Then, some wise guys who just moved into the back areas made a complaint to the local DUN and almost of a sudden, this street where I am is a 2-way street again. And the noisy traffic, they come a flowing in again. Now, I don't have a cake and I certainly can't eat it too! Boo!

As though that's not bad enough, another piece of news came a knocking.

For about a year and half now, some of the residents here have formed a committee to build a surau on a vacant piece of land some 7 houses away. They've gone up and down the Arlington Street of Bureaucrats, held several gatherings with the Muslims residents, and was at one stage, prepared to receive donations! Then the crunching news came: a speech made by the Sultan of Selangor a year back has been gazetted! - there will be no new surau built within a distance of 2 kilometers of another! And as the nearest surau is about 1.6 kilometers away, the authorities would not or could not entertain any appeals. It does not matter to them that the residents of this area would like one for the convenience of their children to learn the Quran, or that the vacant land was already gazetted to be one! Ok, yours truly don't have any children but that does not he does not empathise. Perhaps the one thing he can find solace is that there were rumours that several residents wanted him to be the bilal there! I mean, hello...Sure, a bilal gets a special mention in the hereafter, but that I would reckon that cakapaje bloke to be more like a hermit or and ostrich! Ha ha! Just a personal joke. Anyway, there goes the surau, and along with it the committee.

If its not this, then its that! Hmm...just when you thought you can settle down for a quiet nap, a back door neighbour kicks a ruffus!

The other day when a kind neighbour dropped in to confide his disappointment regarding the surau, we got into a conversation about my back door neighbour. I don't mean to backbite here, but since I'm pretty sure no one who reads this know of him, I guess its pretty safe to ramble on.

For the past 3 years we've been here, the bdn's wife has been littering the small street between our house. There were times when she simply throw her dirty cotton buds which landed within the compound of ours! Emak has been complaining to me and I've been deliberating on ways to settle the small issue. But the thing is, trouble comes in two fold. First, the husband is, or was, one of the committee members of the surau. Though seemingly quiet, he is quite a hothead who don't mind picking fights, and this is from a previous neighbour's experience.

Sometime back, a neighbour had made a complaint to the local authority of a flow of dirty water on the backstreet. On investigation, the MPPJ found out that the dirty water was in fact flowing from the gutter pipes which the backdoor neighbour use as an outflow for his washing machine. And so, he was given a small fine, but that got him into a fit of anger and he confronted the neighbour who made the complaint! The neighbour, being a lady, off course did not come out and in fact threatened to call the police. So the guy walked away with further bruise to his ego. Seeing his actions and reactions to matters which could have been settled amicably but is not, I decided to just wait for a more suitable moment as I certainly do not want him to come running to my house when I am not around.

Now, while I wait for that suitable moment, I thought I might as well take a nap. I mean, these couple of days, the sun has been blistering hot and perhaps a siesta is called for. But heck no! Now, I hear several neighbours are making noise about the 2way street, and want it reverted back! Hmm...this certainly would be another one way commotion. Sigh.

21 comments:

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

apart from the surau committee, a residential area needs an RA too, to represent residents and forward their grouses to the DUN. not that i know much shah, but i believe with such body, a collective decision can be made for the interest and betterment of majority living around there. and that asshole neighbour of yours will certainly lose out on this.

cakapaje said...

Salam kerp,

Bro, sebenarnya, this area has 3 RA already. The area was built in 4 phases and with each completed phase, the new residents of the newer phases decided to have their RA not knowing the earlier phases already has one! Now, since they each have their own committee, some seem quite reluctant to give up their post on a proposal that all the RAs merge.

To make matter worse, the bdn belongs to a different RA! Mati gue! :)

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

ahh ok...see,not that i hve any knowledge on this matter.

but shah, this is what blogs are for. you can rant all you wish about a certain bdn and the world know what a nutcase he is. and the best part is, he doesnt know..hehehe..

eh, bilal shahrir sounds good la brother. go for it, banyak pahala tu, insyaAllah.

cakapaje said...

Bilal Shah dah retire le...tengah berangan angan nak jadi Imam pula - Imam kat rumah le, if you get my drift :)

tokasid said...

Salam Shah:

Looks like your housing estate is becoming a tennis court with the ding-dong decisions on the traffic flow.One will sure get pain in the neck with the game.

Sorry to hear about the scrapped surau project.Well one cannot disobey titah baginda,right?Your bdn is sure one 'baran' chap and you sure have to be careful with a shithead like that.You wouldn't want a full 'tong sampah' to land into your backyard.

Its unfortunate for anyone to have neighbours who doesn't care or give a damn about his neighbours and be so inconsiderate to others.

Imam kat rumah....I smell nasi minyak in the air,right Kerp!!

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam Doc,

Bdn tu, kena thread carefully takut emak sorang kat rumah dia lak datang..naya nanti. But tang baran vs baran, one too can play the game. Cuma la ni dah amat kurang baran.

Tang imam kat rumah tu, angan angan je Doc, sambil berdo'a dan berusaha. Itu saja yang mampu dilakukan. Sesungguhnya, tiada kuasa pada kita melainkan dengan pertolongan Nya.

Unknown said...

Can't say much about the 2way street thingy coz thats for the authorities. Knowing them, they will make a mess out of it but we are lucky us Malaysians coz we've been leaving through messes all our lives so what's one more.

Hey your Sultan said no, what can a Sultanless person like me do. I believe these kinda things ought to be attended to on a case by case basis.

As for the Imam at home, now thats interesting. If I am not mistaken I thought I saw a short story last night about a certain somebody with a bed leg and a certain doctor with a bumped head walking hand in hand in the rain?

Knowing short-stories, I know they are usually marriages between reality and imagination and that usually the imagination part comes from wishes and hopes, so with a liitle bit of hardwork and of course luck who knows the 'walking hand in hand in the rain' part would one day come true and the story ends with them reaching home in time for prayers with the bed-legged guy the imam and the bumped-head doc the makmum after which they retire to .....

You are not blushing are you?

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

doc,

its obvious aint it? we can see it coming, no point hiding dah pon. our shah has been hinting to us since months ago. my bet its going to happen sometime middle this year.

doc, jom ajak cikgu nazir, MS and kak E nyanyi sikit...

...bunga rampaiii...si bunga melorrr...

hehehehe...

Unknown said...

Sorry it should read bad-legged, not bed-legged.

tokasid said...

Minta laluan:

Kerp; Mrs TA is upset bcoz she can't sleep well last night. No, I didn't disturbed her.I was practicing the kompang with an old periok.

The periok serves 2 purposes. 1- as a kompang. 2- for training basuh periok and kawah kenduri nanti.LOL!

Kalau ada karaoke nanti kita kena nyanyi ke kerp?

muteaudio said...

Bro,
Kekadang saya tak tau tempat saya ni ada Sultan, atau tak. Ada yg kata KL & ada yg kata S'gor. But then again bila masuk waktu ada 3+1azan (+1 comes from the tv). That I think is less than 1.6km N I believe I'm not in S'gor.

cakapaje said...

Salam Cikgu,

Woit! Sempat juga dia baca that posting walhal it was up for less than 30 minutes or so! Hmm...ini ada bahaya ni :)

Anyway, I took it down because I want to improve on it and start working backwards. Then again, I might just not! Still, I think I found a title for it - Just An Old Fashion Love Story - inspired by the song Just An Old Fashion Love Song. Hmm...now I need to find the video for it :)

Er...I did not see your last question :)

cakapaje said...

Kerp bro,

Wooi! Tang jadi firestone tu, hidup dia! But lol, thanks bro for the wishes. Cuma...there's nothing concrete yet lah! I cuma tengah syok sendiri je :(

cakapaje said...

Doc,

Lol! Dalam baik je kita terkena :)

Karaoke nanti kita panggil Hj Mat Sabu, Hj Mahfuz, Haris of People's Parliament(my senior kat sekolah dulu) and DSAI ye, lol! Sure baru heboh ngan FRU datang :)

cakapaje said...

Muteaudio bro, Salam.

Lor...just where exactly then is your place? I hope its not the famed Kampung Berembang, as that is one of the few places I know hemmed in between Selangor and WP.

But like Cikgu mentioned, these matters should be handled on a case to case basis and not a blanket order. Tapi yelah, we are not the powers that be, kan? Sedih den.

ZABS said...

Salam Shah,
We had the same problem with regards to the surau. Puas juga our Pengerusi Surau berulang-alik ke JAIS dan Masjid Induk untu kelulusan, hampir 2 tahun baru diluluskan. Yang bezanya surau kami telah sedia ada (ubahsuai dari Dewan Orang Ramai yang telah diganti Dewan yang baru). Jadi ada sedikit "up point" lah. Cuba lagi, InsyaAllah berjaya.

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam Pak Zabs,

Mungkin dalam keadaan kami ini sudah berbeda sedikit kerana JAIS telah menyatakan hasrat untuk mengambil tanah yang telah digazetkan itu untuk menjadi satu Pusat Pengajian Agama. Bagaimana ia dapat didirikan sedangkan tanah yang ada tidaklah sebesar mana, tidak dapat pula saya pastikan.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

tumpang lalu...

doc, tak sia2 practice on the periok. its imminent. hehehe...

sorry shah for taking too much space on this sub-topic. cakap aje...hehehe...trust me, we're praying at the same time, insyaAllah...

cakapaje said...

kerp bro,

the only thing I can say is: Thank you. Thank you to all my friends who are praying for me :)

Mat Salo said...

Woi orghang make.. bila nak Chak-kun-chak nih! Aku boleh tolong pasang spika atas pokok nyoq...

OK now back to the bizness of bdns, surau and ajk's...

I have had some nasty experiences moving into a new area and seeing these teething problems firsthand...from bdns to surau internecine warfare.

My advice is --if at all possible, and if you can afford it or just renting is to move out. I know what it's like to live witha a bdn bebeh, buat kapla pusing aja and adding to life's unnecessary stresses. Of course, if you own that property then you got no choice but go for the diplomatic route. Problem is surau ajks for some reason or another are always on their high horse and have illusions of grandeur...

I relate a story bro'. You know the MD surau where I live back home? When I first moved there I played a very small part (if this was a band I'd be the roadie) in the setting up right until we successfully lobbied MUIS to speedily approve it as a state sanctioned masjid. Boleh semaye jumat kat rumah instead of hopping over the next taman, which happens to be Bandar Utama.

A close friend partook in getting the minibar ready and he became the first treasurer. So we solicited a personal donation from our mutual keparat bigwig, my buddy the present MBB#2 when he was the then CEO of Takaful Nasional. So CEO boy donated 10K and my bendahara buddy balik kampong somewhere on the east coast to get a dying-breed kayu craftsman to fasttrack the building of a minibar.

So the minibar was built and to ensure fast-tracking of the project he put in a sizeable 'wang muka'. Well, as treasurer he already had 10K in hand so what's the big deal?

The big deal is he made these decisions all on his own without consulting the rest of the ajk's.

The truth is the ajk's, who comprise mostly of ex-gomen retired Div.1 pegawais and CID directors and such do not like my friend the bendahara? Why? Because of political leanings that's why. My buddy tried to bring in some extraordinaires ustadz (read: PAH)to come and deliver a purely religious sermons on Thursday nights but were shot down, the elders claiming that there's a gag order on these penceramahs. There you go, armno stalwarts rears its ugly heads again...

Eventually my bendahara got ostracized and they found all sorts of faults with the accounting procedures that he was forced to resign after the minibar was delivered...

And since then, my once bendahara had to fulfill his juma'ah obligations by attending the neighboring taman mosque again. In solidarity I too only confined my visits to the weekly compulsory Jumats...

Conclusion: Being an Mosque ajk member can be hazardous to your health.

Salaam.

cakapaje said...

Walaikumusalam MS,

MasyAllah! Bro, I thank Allah that I am, or was, only a simpleton AJK...and I stress the word, simpleton :)

But what you and your friend experienced is the sad truth in many mosques and suraus; many think it is just for prayers and not to discuss on social issues especially concerning the jemaah there. And when such issues are discussed, one cannot help but point out where the society has gone amiss and what should be done. Hmm...let Allah s.w.t. be the judge of this later.

As of the bdn, can't say much for now. Thus far, we've not had any shouting competition, if you get what I mean. But thank you for your suggestion :)