A friend died today. I do not know him that well. He was a friend nonetheless. News of a friend’s demise is always disheartening. A fellow Penangite. An accomplished writer. An entrepreneur. He was one of the very first disabled person I heard so much about long before I became a disabled person myself. It was only 20 years after I became a wheelchair user that I got to know him in person. Rest in peace Cheng Sak Hai.

So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6: 34 (New Jerusalem Bible)

When I woke up the morning after I posted the entry with that quote from the Holy Bible, Wuan said to me, “You better decide if we are going to drive back to Penang to vote.”

I rubbed my eyes, not really believing what I just heard. Without my glasses, she was just a figure standing at the end of the bed. For several days in a row, I have woken up from early morning dreams that were all too realistic to be just dreams. Somehow, I have come to doubt what reality was and if they were just part of another dream.

I had not told Wuan about my wish to go back to vote and she had not yet read what I wrote then. I squinted, trying hard to focus on her. It was not a dream. I was awake, barely, but I was awake. Tomorrow took care of itself all right. Knowing Wuan, that meant she would accompany me to Penang on election day for me to cast my ballot should I decide to do that. I was not prepared for that as I was still unsure of what I would do.

We talked about it after that. If all goes according as planned, Wuan will have to cast her ballot at the polling station here in Pandan Perdana when it opens early in the morning. We will leave for Penang by 9am. It will be a 6-hour road trip with one stop at Tapah for emptying my bladder and another at Ipoh for lunch. I expect to reach Penang by 3pm and arrive at the polling station by 4pm.

I hope my body is up to it – not the road trip to and fro but the exhaustion and effects after that. The consolation now is that the most recent blood tests and ultrasound indicates that the condition of my kidneys have not deteriorated further although swelling was detected in the athrophied left kidney. Nevertheless, I tire very easily nowadays and do not want to push my body too much lest that may cause further damage.

This election will be the first and probably the last that I am voting in Penang. I have contributed nothing meaningfully to this island that I have called home for four decades. Soon, I will be uprooting to a city 400 km away. This is all I can do, hoping, praying, that this little effort will bring about a greater change for the island that will always be close to my heart. There are too many sentimental memories to just turn my back to and walk away from.

This is also for my beloved motherland Malaysia and exercising my responsibility and right as a Malaysian. I have talked much about issues affecting disabled people. I have advocated for improvement in accessibility in public transport and the built environment. I have publicly protested against discriminatory policies imposed on disabled people. I have blogged about how disabled people are still being marginalised in society. Now is the time and opportunity to walk the talk a step further.

If I do not even bother to exercise my democratic right by casting my vote I should not be talking about those issues. If I let slip this opportunity, I have no right to complain about the insufficiencies in the present system that are marginalising disabled people from mainstream society. If I do not care to vote, I deserve whatever government that gets elected. But I care. I have seen with my own eyes things that are not right with our nation. Not enough is being done to provide support to people who really need it while money is being squandered elsewhere. Ministers and politicians more than often make promises that they never intended to fulfill from the beginning.

Things must change and now is the perfect time to make that happen. I am going all the way to Penang from Kuala Lumpur to cast two votes - one for Jeff Ooi for a better Malaysia and the other for a better Penang. I am putting myself and Wuan through this trouble because I believe in Jeff Ooi. I believe he can bring about a refreshing change to the wellbeing of the nation. If he wins the Jelutong parliamentary seat, the trouble that I have to go through to vote for him will be worth the effort a thousand times over. If he does not get voted in, well, he tried, I tried and we all tried. That is democracy.

All eligible voters of the Jelutong parliamentary seat who are residing in other states should go back and vote for Jeff Ooi come polling day on March 8. A little effort can go a long way. He is sticking his head out for the betterment of our nation. It is no easy task and takes a lot of courage, not to mention effort and money, to offer oneself up as a candidate for the election. Jeff Ooi has stepped up to the challenge. The least we can do is to make make our votes count and his effort worth his while. When we vote for Jeff Ooi, we are not only voting for him but voting for a better Malaysia for ourselves and our families.

I have said it before and I am going to say it again now. I am throwing my support behind him neither because he is a fellow blogger nor the fact that he is from the DAP. Jeff has proven beyond reasonable doubt that he dares to speak out without fear or favour on pertinent issues affecting the nation through his blog way before he became a politician. It is that courage that I hope he will bring into the Parliament should he be elected. We need people like him to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance in the administration of our country’s affairs.

Go Jeff! Malaysia needs more courageous people like you.

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Home » CoverStory

Rise of silver bloggers
by: Tech&U team

Forget coffee shops, gardening and crossword puzzles. Blogging, often considered the domain of the young, is gaining a foothold as a new leisurely option for the middle-aged and senior citizens alike.
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Sharing wisdom and experience

THE Internet and its spin-offs such as social networking sites and blogs are not just for the younger generation as the middle-aged and senior citizens, although small in number, are also fast in adopting such modern communication tools for various reasons.

Based on Tech&U’s Internet survey on Web sites and blogs, there are quite a number of blogs belonging to people in this age group. And the topics of the blogs are diverse and colourful, reflecting the wisdom, experience and many moods of these silver bloggers.

Some examples are Seeing Malaysia My Way, Bibliobibuli, Dari Dapur Makcik Kampung and Di Bawah Rang Ikang Kering.

“I enjoy writing and getting things off my chest,” said Tengku Mohd Ali Bustaman, the writer of Di Bawah Rang Ikang Kering (http://bustamann.blogspot.com).

Pokku, as he is fondly known, is a 63-year-old pensioner from Kuala Lumpur. For him, blogging is one way to inform and entertain his children who are all abroad. He started blogging since August 2004 and has since attracted a string of followers.

“Others have come to appreciate my stories and occasionally my advice and voted my blog as the Best Malaysia Blog in 2004 (http://

simonworld.mu.nu/archives/056981.php),” said Pokku, who writes mostly about his home State, Terengganu, and social commentaries.

Pokku’s love for blogging began with a comment on a post in one of his daughters’ blog.

While most senior citizens might find technology or computers a no-no, this is not the case with Pokku.

“I was computer literate even before the PC became a household item. I set up a national computer club, Commodore Users Exchange, in 1985,” he said.

For Penangite Peter Tan, his blog, The Digital Awakenin (http://www.petertan.com/blog/), is a reflection of his life as a wheelchair user trying to enjoy life to the fullest.

A blogger for the past five years, Tan is a peer counsellor for the Independent Living Programme for People with Disabilities in Malaysia and also for the Kuala Lumpur Independent Living Centre.

“In the beginning, it was just about myself. Then my mother who had leukaemia became severely ill. It became a place for me to express my fears, insufficiencies, desperation, helplessness and eventually grief when she passed away,” he said.

The next phase of Tan’s blog chronicles his involvement in the Independent Living Movement that took him on a journey to Tokyo, Bangkok and Seoul.

“Advocacy is part of the Independent Living Movement. It was an awakening and realisation of my place in society as a disabled person and the rights I have as a citizen of this country. It traces my work in advocacy and promoting equality of opportunities for disabled people in the areas of accessibility to public transport and built environment,” he said.

“In between those are stories of my life, issues related to spinal cord injury, my friends, the people I have met, the places I have been to, faith, thoughts, opinions and everything else that caught my fancy.”

For Tan, blogging is a powerful tool.

“Where once disabled people had little avenues to express the frustrations that we face in society, we now can do it openly at very little cost. Our reach has become so much wider. Where once we could only tell to people we meet, now we can tell it to everyone who has an Internet connection,” he said.

To date, Tan has posted slightly over 1,000 entries in his blog.

For Captain Yusof Ahmad, 60, from Kelana Jaya, his passion for blogging started in November 2006.

“I started blogging to record and share my thoughts, anecdotes, life experiences, etc. Lately, I got a bit ‘political’ in light of what’s happening in the country,” said the former pilot superintendent of the Klang Port Authority and pioneer general manager of West Port.

The owner of the blog The Ancient Mariner (http://cyusof.blogspot.com) blogs as a means to express himself. “Perhaps this is much better than shooting the breeze with idle kopitiam talk,” he said.

Despite his age, technology is never an issue for Yusof as he has been quite computer savvy since his working days.

“I was quite active writing in a number of alumni and professional e-group Web sites and thought I might as well go ‘solo’ by blogging where I can command a wider international audience,” he said.

Freelance consultant Abdul Samat Kasah may only have some five months under his blogging belt, but he already has four blogs running. The 54-year-old, who hails from Subang Jaya, cites time as his major constraint in blogging, and not technology since he is an electronics engineer by training.

“What drives me to blog is my passion about Internet technology, my aim to document my life story, my ethnic cultural heritage and of course, to share my working experience with others. Depending on time availability, I update my blogs daily, weekly, fortnightly or even monthly. You can see the transaction from my blogs,” he said.

The uniform resource locators for Abdul Samat’s blogs are http://itsurday.blogspot.com, which focuses on current affairs, cultural heritage, religion, etc; http://darahkedayan.blogspot.com, which is essentially about his life story; http://wiratidakdisanjung.blogspot.com, which focuses on his working experience; and http://simply-kedayan.weebly.com, which is on his ethnic group done up in the Kedayan dialect.

The Kedayan reside in Brunei, Labuan, Sabah and parts of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

Convenient and cheap way to keep in touch

Ismail Omar seems to view the hype in blogging today as a natural progression from earlier tools made available on the Internet combined with convenience to communicate with friends and relatives.

“I started blogging since 1994 on the Geocities site. I am not a serious blogger as I really do not have much to tell the public, unlike some of our famous bloggers,” said the 68-year-old electrical engineer who has been residing in Kuala Lumpur since 1970.

His blog, Teh Tarek Kurang Manis (labokin.blogspot.com), mainly focuses on his family and friends and their golfing achievements.

He confesses that he seldom updates his personal blogs, but he updates two Blogspot pages regularly for two Toastmasters clubs where he is a member. He also runs a Yahoo group and a Google group for some of his friends.

“I like seeing my work published online even though I know no one else reads it. It is also a means of keeping in touch with friends and family. I think more people should take an interest in this aspect of keeping in touch. It is a very cheap method. You just need a PC and broadband connection, and the rest takes care of itself,” Ismail said.

For “bokjae”, a retiree and full-time home caregiver to his stroke-survivor wife, blogging is a means through which both of them can reconnect with others in the world.

In his early 60s, bokjae created a blog in late November 2006 at the encouragement and help from a good friend, Doris, a much younger work-at-home mum who hosts a couple of successful blogs.

Listening..Learning..Living (http://jangbokjae.blogspot.com) is about living, and sharing bokjae and his wife’s life experiences as well as their journey through a stroke from a survivor’s angle and a caregiver’s viewpoint.

“As a full-time home caregiver to a stroke survivor, we are very much home-bound. Places that we used to go are no longer easily accessible. I am not saying that we have a lot of spare time. In fact, it’s the opposite – caregivers never have enough time.

“However, blogging provides an avenue where one can keep in touch with other people and learn from others who are going through similar experiences and of course, make new friends through social networks, all from the comfort of your home,” bokjae said.

Another enticement, according to him, is that through blogging one can make some pocket money.

“To me, it’s better than spending all the time on golf courses, mahjong tables, chatting at coffee shops, which I notice many retirees tend to do and this often leads to arguments. As I venture into blogging, I begin to realise that it is also a place for ongoing learning.”

Bokjae also pointed out that blogging does not need much technical know-how.

“It’s a matter of interest and desire to learn. Age is not an obstacle. Of course, English being the language on the Internet, it would be easier for those who know English. However, there are blogs in other languages, too!”

On how often he updates his blog, bokjae said he does not follow any hard and fast rules, but advice by top bloggers is to write every day, not blog every day.

“In the whole of 2007, I had done 393 posts, so it averages to one post a day. At times, I do a couple of posts in a day, but at times nothing for at least a week. Of course, if you neglect your blog for too long, then your readers would leave or think you have ‘closed shop’, so to say.”

View from the top at Victor Chin’s photo exhibition at KLPac.
Photo by Wuan.

Wuan and I spent a very casual and enjoyable afternoon at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). Our friend Victor Liew had invited me to join him there and I readily agreed as we had nothing planned for Sunday. Besides, we had always wanted to go to KLPac as we have read so much about it, especially the events that were hosted there.

Peter Tan, Victor Chin and Victor Liew at KLPac.

We woke up late on the appointed day. The trip to Ipoh the day before wore us out. When we reached Sentul, we lost our way and had to ask for directions at a petrol station. The attendant there was very helpful and drew a map for us. When we finally reached KLPac, we were already one hour late. Nevertheless, the other Victor who was also the host for the event made us feel at home the moment we stepped in.

With Victor Chin and friends.

The gracious host Victor Chin is a multimedia artist. He was exhibiting his collection of photographs titled In the Face of Disability. In fact, back in 2005, TV Smith had invited me to view Victor’s first photography exhibition on disabled people. Unfortunately, I had another engagement on the same day and had to give it a miss.

Godfrey Ooi and friends entertaining guests at Victor Chin’s photo exhibition.
Photo by Wuan.

This exhibition is the second series of Victor’s work on subjects with conditions that I am familiar with. It features 30 black and white photographs of Malaysian athletes in action or at rest. They are members of the Malaysian paralympic team. I must admit that I have never watched disabled athletes in action and wondered the kind of message Victor wanted to express through those images.

With Victor Chin and and his exhibits.
Photo by Wuan.

I am not one who knows how to appreciate good art but believe Victor had meant to illustrate the diversity of humankind – that we do not need to be “perfect” to be good at what we do. In essence, no human is perfect but we are living in an imperfect world that demands perfection from people we deem imperfect. That is a fact and the hypocrisy that disabled people have to face with everyday. What struck me most in those images was that they were faces of people just like you and I, faces of regular people doing things we thought they could never do. They did and excelled at it.

Victor Chin’s In the face of Disability photo exhibition at KLPac.

At the same time, I also hope that audience who have viewed Victor’s work on this subject will not use these athletes as a benchmark on other disabled people. It would be a gross mistake to assume that all disabled people can attain the same achievement with sheer hard work. We have to respect that there are people who are contented with what they are doing now without the need to be super achievers and that it is all right to be a regular disabled person.

Group photo of Victor Chin’s guests at his photo exhibition at KLPac.
Photo by Wuan.

Having said that, I am already looking forward to the third series. According to Victor, it will be about people at work. He stands out as an artist who is exceptionally comfortable working with disabled people and vice versa. That is evident from the laid back composure of his subjects. I have no doubt that the third series will continue to challenge his audience’s perception of disabled people.

Dato’ Faridah Merican, Wuan, Victor Chin and Peter Tan at KLPac.

The afternoon was equally fulfilling as I got to meet old friends like Godfrey who was entertaining guests at the exhibition with his guitar together with his friends who got out of their harmonicas in ways I never thought possible. Back in 1983, Godfrey and I were the guitarists for a group of carollers consisting of Scouts and Girl Guides. I just realised I have known him for a quarter of a century already. I cannot but have to admit that I am advancing in age. Victor also introduced Wuan and I to renowned thespian Dato’ Faridah Merican when she arrived towards the end of the event. One thing that I am sure is that Wuan and I will be visiting KLPac often from now onwards, all thanks to Victor and Victor.

Note:
Victor Chin’s In the Face of Disability photo exhibition runs from January 14 - February 19 2008 at the KLPac.

This billboard of Jenice Lee from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) was strategically placed at the traffic lights junction of Taman Shamelin Perkasa just opposite Taman Pudu Ulu in Cheras. When Wuan saw it, she noted that it was like an advertisement for a fashion label. Indeed it seemed like one. Jenice Lee looked youthful, vibrant and dynamic. The billboard could have been mistaken for an advertisement at first glance. This is a fresh change from the usual headshots in the campaign posters of aspiring candidates and incumbents. Jenice is contesting for the Teratai (N.22) state seat in Selangor.