Nothing Much

Days and nights are moving pretty fast nowadays. I hardly make much progress... seems things are not moving any much quicker, as fast as days and nights. During old days, it seems that things are moving much slower and I normally eager to wait for night to come as the good TV shows only being transmitted at night. You name it :-

1. The A Team
2. Mc Gyver
3. Street Hawk
4. Night Rider
5. Airwolf
6. Mission Impossible
7. Hulk
8. BJ and the bear
9. Dallas
10. Remington Steele (hope spelling are correct)
11. and many more...

Everyday we have all sorts of TV series.. and its only shows at night. To wait for nights to come everyday, its like having a pain state of agony. Days are running its daylight pretty much slower than today. Anyway, thinking of slow... nothing can compare with our broadband (self- proclaimed) speed that we are currently subscribing. Am using stremyx at 2MB download rate and 512kb upload rate... but it took me forever to upload these :-

Elisa & Darwisy

My Wife & Darwisy

Not Making Any Sense!

I have been to almost every state in Malaysia, except, Kelantan and Terengganu. Every states has their own distinctive features, food, culture and language. But the most obvious one will be the vehicles plate number. Every state has their own plate numbers which started with certain correspond alphabetical order. But except one state which is obviously Sarawak (my own home land) does not seems to make any sense or at all. These are my points :-

1. Johor = their plate numbers always start with "J" ie: JBH9999 or JFR8888.
2. Melaka = their plate numbers always start with "M" ie: MAB1111 or MEF4444.
3. Negeri Sembilan = it always starts with "N" ie: NBW777 or NEF1414
4. Selangor = obviously starts with "B" ie: BAE3535 or BGW1717
5. Perak = even easy to remember. It all started with "A". ie: AEC555 or ADE36
6. Penang = well its "P" of course ie: PEH1234 or PAP4321
7. Kedah = as always starts with "K" ie: KA333 or KAE909
8. Perlis = if am not mistaken started with "R" ie: RC303 or RB790
9. Pahang = all starts with "C" ie: CAW345 or CBE543
10. Terengganu = all starts with "T" ie: TT999 or TA352
11.  Kelantan = their plate number starts with "D" ie: DAD222 or DAE976
    
12. KL = even easy this one. Starts with "W" ie.. errr I think you guys can guess!
13. Putrajaya = hmmm.. sometimes I saw Putrajaya sometimes I saw started with "W" too.
14. Labuan = all starts with "L" ie: LB4994 or LL300
15. Sabah = I think all starts with "S" just like Singapore. ie: SB9556B or SAA467A or something like that.

Anyway, every states in Malaysia has their own distinctive alphabet for their plate numbers. But in Sarawak, we have so much variation. I must say "Q" is our alphabetic correspondence here but then, it does not mean it must be the fore letter of the plate number. It can also be the last letter of the plate number. Let me show you some examples :-

1. In Sarawak during the old days, our plate numbers normally corresponds to our district where the vehicle first registered. For example in Kuching, it all started with "K" ie: KA434 or in Miri MB788.
2. In 90's JPJ had imposed Sarawak vehicle to put alphabet "Q" as its states plate correspondence. So then later, the previous KA434 became KA434Q and MB788 became MB788Q.
3. Then after we run out second alphabet for our plate numbers, then the government imposed the Sarawak vehicle to put the letter "Q" as fore-front letter of the plate numbers and continue with the correspondence district alphabet. ie: for Kuching, its QKA1111, for Miri is QMA2222 and so forth.
4. During this time too, some of our districts had a similar fore letter for example, Kuching and Kanowit. To differentiate it, the government create another set of plate number that only shows the numbers of the division in the states. ie: for the 7th Division of the states, all vehicles will starts with "7D" continue with the plate number and ends with the letter "Q". For example; 7D 111Q.

So you guys think that Sarawakian's plate numbers are confusing?? Wait till you see our current one. Back in 2003, Kuching's plate number were running out. The last one is QKY9999 and we could not used letter "Z" as its attributed only to the army. So some genius had created that Sarawak should start and adopt KL style. No matter which division we coming from, all must carry the systematic and orderly order of plate numbers. Then in 2003 all Sarawak plate numbers starts with QAA1 and still continue. 

As I wrote this entry, we are now currently serving plate number QAP****. As I see it, we are running our "QA" soon and perhaps by next year, we all starts with "QBA". But the funny thing is that the plate number for "QBA" has already exist corresponding to the old style of plate number reflecting the division. I wonder how the government will solve this problem later... and seriously, Sarawak's plate numbers now are redundant and those molding the rules of plate numbers in Sarawak are not making any sense.

Imagine in year 2020, I own a brand new car bearing register plate number QKA999. Back in 90's we already have this number. I foresee that someone will come to me and say:-

"Pakcik! Why are you still driving an old iron scraped!!!"

Nothing But The Truth!

Years ago, me and my partner were having 39B DDA trial. During cross-examination sessions on a particular police expert witness, we asked this question :-

Defence : The reason why the Police had to sent the box to you for finger printing and dusting is that the police do not know who is the criminal in this case?

Witness : Yes I agree

Because of his answer, we opted not to proceed with more cross.

During Re-Examination by the DPP, the witness were asked on why he agreed with our question earlier. He gave all sorts of answers, from the procedures of finger printing and dusting to the procedure of matching the finger printing and so forth. However, these answer was not to DPP's satisfaction (of course it still shows the police do not know who is the actual criminal in this case).

The DPP then again rephrased the question in BM and in English and persistently trying to highlight the point that he wants to make. The Judge were also trying to help the DPP in explaining to the witness of what actually being asked by the learned DPP. It was a serious discussion and explanation made to this particular witness and it takes more than 15 minutes just the explain it to him. Then after a few minutes pause...

Witness : I think, the answer to that question can only be one answer! (with his serious loud voice).

Both me and my partner were stunned by the witness gesture. It seems that he had found the big answer that can be used by DPP against our question previously. I looked at learned DPP's face at that time and he is smiling at me showing his eyes full of satisfaction over his success in making his point in asking this witness and perhaps the witness's coming answer will definitely slashed the credible point that we have made during cross examination.

I also looked at the Judge on the bench and she looks firmly serious and preparing herself to listen attentively for the witness to answer the big question. Tension and stress were all in the air, and suddenly after few minutes of silent...

Witness : The answer to that question is....... that I AM THE EXPERT!

We all stunned with his answer and we all paused for a few second. Then we heard a big laugh from the bench and we all looking at the Judge who were like having the biggest laugh of all time.

Judge : I am sorry Learned DPP. The answer were so obvious!

Then, me, my partner and the DPP were having a long laughing sessions during the proceeding. Because of this answer, the DPP were not dared to asked further questions. But hey, the witness still there sitting firmly not knowing what are we laughing for. Talk about the truth in Court... I must give this witness the highest credit of his Truth, nothing but all truth!

Iban Terrorist

Dont get me wrong! This entry does not even reflect that Iban people are terrorist or what not. Neither do I brand the Iban people as terrorist. Its about one story that I want to share which I encountered during my chambering time in Kuching early year 2002.

I found that it is interesting to practise Law in Sarawak in particular comparing to Peninsular. We tend to meet all kind of people from different races. We all know that Sarawak had atleast 100 different races in culture and one of the most prominent and well-known is Iban. During my chambering time, I was assigned by my boss to handled one running down case (accident case) that involved a chinese family who are suing a chinese man. To my surprise, though having a chinese name, our client (the chinese family) were fluent and most of the time conversed ONLY in Iban language.

That case was fixed for full trial and I was directed to prepare a Witness Statement for this chinese family. Just for the record, in Sarawak, all court's documents were drafted and filed in English (unlike Peninsular). Obviously I am not chinese and neither do I understand or speak chinese. To make matter worst, the chinese family only spoke in Iban language which I do have no idea at all (maybe I can understand few words). These task of preparing the witness statement do gave me a lot of stress as it is futile attempt on drafting it while I could not be able to understand any words from them.

I informed by boss about it and he suggested me to asked my colleague who are one of the lawyer of the firm for some help, to which he agreed. Though he is not an Iban, but he adamantly admit that he can speak and understand Iban language. In fact, he even told me that the language is easy to converse. Without a slight doubt, I agree for him to help me to be my interpreter during the whole course of drafting the Witness Statement.

The questions and answers sessions begin where I asked the question and my colleague will interpret it in Iban language to the Chinese family. For the first 10 minutes, I realised that I have made some progress (though a bit, but its OK, I thought). Then for the next 30 minutes of the sessions, I even realised some peculiarity. It seems that whenever my colleague interpreting my questions to Iban language, I'm pretty much understand it.

I had this question playing in my mind at that time that I may actually understand Iban language. But then again, I realised that whenever the chinese family spoke back to my colleague responding to my questions, their Iban language seems harder to understand. I tried to hear my colleague interpretations in Iban language more attentively and carefully. For the next 5 minutes or so, I could barely hold it anymore and I excuse myself from the sessions and went to my office's kitchen and had a big laugh. Yeaaah.... SERIOUSLY I had a BIG LAUGH!

Few of the staffs were confused over my big laugh. They asked why. After settling down for couple of minutes, then I told them that my colleague are now helping me interpreting my questions to the chinese family into Iban language. The funny thing is that, I cant speak Iban and neither do I understand it. But I can understand every single Iban words coming out from my colleague mouth!!!!

After that incident, we all called him, "The Iban Terrorist" as obviously, his purported Iban language is actually a Sarawak Malay language hybrid with Iban accent. No wonder he said its easy.....

A Sad Day.. Elisa's version

It was sad to hear someone in the family just passed away. Since yesterday morning, I heard this news and this morning, another family member also passed away. Al-fatihah....

Last night, my mom and dad in law went to Majlis Tahlil. Since they are not home, Elisa were asking about it:-

Elisa : Pa, Mummy(my Mom in law) pegi siney?

Aku : Pegi tempat orang meninggal.

Elisa : Ah? Meninggal?

Then I realised, she do not understand what "meninggal" means.

Aku : Pegi tempat orang mati.

Elisa : Ooooo.. Mummy pegi sia buat apa?

Aku : Mummy pegi sia maok baca doa, baca Al-Fatihah.

Elisa : Ooooo.. Mummy nak, pegi sia nak, lepas baca bismillah, nya tiup orang ya.

Aku : Kenak nya tiup?

Elisa : Tiup laa.. lepas ya orang yang bangun dari tidur.

I guess, she must have misunderstood the whole concept of death. But anyway, she's only 3 years old, what more version do we expect for her to understand??