Archive for the ‘opinion’ Category
My Personal Views on the ‘Allah’ Issue
I suggest that, for those who have little or no idea of what the issue is about, the following articles be read first because otherwise none of what I’m about to say will make sense to you.
CNN Article — Malaysia: Churches firebombed amid Allah dispute
AFP Article — Malaysia defends Allah stance amid new church attack
BBC Article — More Malaysian churches attacked in Allah dispute
Or you can google ‘Malaysia’ and ‘Allah’ and look at the news results if you have several hours to spare.
Below is a verbatim copy of what I wrote in an online forum with regards to the issue. Please bear in mind that this was written in the usual communicative form of Malay and may not be understood immediately by some who are new to the language, or have mastery of Bahasa Indonesia. Since what I have to say here mostly applies to Malays and Malaysians, I shall have it remain untranslated, unless I receive requests to have it translated.
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Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim
pendapat peribadi saya je la ya…
1. byk lagi perkara lain yang boleh melumpuhkan akidah umat islam selain penggunaan kalimah Allah dalam penerbitan Katolik, malah perkara2 lain ini lebih teruk lagi (bomoh, khurafat, judi, arak, tenung nasib, nombor ekor, hedonisme, dsb)
2. masalah penggunaan kalimah Allah ini lebih bersifat lokal di mana ia cuma memberi masalah bagi kaum melayu sahaja. bagi umat islam secara keseluruhannya di dunia ini, tiada masalah kerana ‘Allah’ adalah bermaksud ‘God’ dalam bahasa arab. di serata dunia perkataan ini digunakan untuk merujuk kepada ‘tuhan’ tak kira agama apa sekalipun. Tetapi biasanya digunakaan untuk Tuhan Yang Esa (yakni yg dirujuk oleh agama2 samawi seperti yahudi, islam dan kristian)
3. maka ancaman ini bukan satu ancaman terhadap islam secara keseluruhannya, tetapi adalah sesuatu yang boleh menjadi punca kekeliruan bagi kaum melayu. ini kerana bagi kaum Melayu, perkataan ‘Allah’ hanya digunakan dalam konteks Islam sahaja.
4. bagi saya, adalah perlu untuk diwujudkan garis panduan atau undang2 yang menetapkan secara mutlak bagaimana penggunaan kalimah ‘Allah’ ini dibenarkan dalam negara Malaysia (spt yg saya katakan sebelum ini, ini adalah masalah lokal bukan global)
5. segelintir orang terlalu cepat melatah dgn isu seperti ini sehingga terjadinya perkara2 yang ditegah dalam islam seperti merosakkan rumah2 ibadat. bagi saya, isu ini bukan ancaman yang sebesar ancaman2 lain terhadap akidah umat islam khususnya melayu (seperti yang dinyatakan di no. 1). ini sama juga seperti yang berlaku sewaktu penerbitan gambar2 kartun yang merujuk kepada Rasulullah s.a.w.
6. adalah penting bagi kita umat islam untuk mempersiapkan akidah masing2 supaya tidak tergugat dengan perkara2 yang seperti ini. jgnlah kita terlalu jahil sehingga tidak dapat membezakan Allah, tuhan sekelian alam yang kita sembah dengan ‘Allah’ dalam penerbitan katolik. sekiranya kita terkeliru, itu menunjukkan kelemahan akidah kita sendiri.
7. bagi saya, penyelesaian yang baik adalah supaya digubal undang2 yang menetapkan bahawa kalimah Allah adalah untuk merujuk kepada tuhan sekelian alam seperti yang dirujuk dalam agama Islam, dan tidak boleh merujuk kepada entiti ketuhanan lain dalam agama2 lain. ini untuk mengelakkan kekeliruan serta kekacauan dalam keharmonian masyarakat majmuk di Malaysia.
8. juga kita jgn terlalu ‘bara’ sgt nak bela islam dgn menimbulkan kekacauan antara kaum, sedangkan ibadah khusus serta persiapan akidah kita masing2 sendiri masih lagi tak terbela. perlu diingat, jihad yang paling utama adalah jihad melawan hawa nafsu.
9. perlu ingat juga bahawa tiada yang milik kita di dunia ini, segala2nya adalah hak allah semata2.
semoga kita semua dilimpahi hidayahNya serta diberi petunjuk ke jalan yang benar. maaf kalau ada pendapat saya yang menyentuh sensitiviti sesiapa.
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I am interested to hear what you have to say regarding this matter (and for those who understood my post, regarding what I said in this matter).
MATLAB Geekness
Am I a MATLAB geek? Let’s look at the list and see…
1. Most of what I do at work involve some amount of MATLAB programming. This is because the nature of what I do revolves around mathematical problems that require repetitive calculations, sometimes even tens thousands of repetitions. So I need to program functions just to produce these thousands of results without having me meticulously do the same thing over and over again thousands of times.
2. I get excited over optimization problems. When given such problems, I like to explore the possible parameters for optimization and then use some programming to find the optimal solution. Programs used so far are AMPL and MATLAB. Methods used so far are multiobjective goal programming, k-means, linear regression, and genetic algorithm.
3. My officemates turn to me for their MATLAB problems, and I get excited over solving those problems. I’d obsess over finding the solutions (I usually do) and would be most happy when the problems are solved.
4. Most of my MATLAB knowledge were self-taught. I read the MATLAB documentation articles like my life depended on it (actually my work depends on it, not that life == work anyways).
5. I sometimes think about mathematical problems and their solution steps in MATLAB code. I feel like Cypher from the Matrix.
6. I update my Twitter and Facebook with what I currently do in MATLAB. Below is a chronological list of the latest status updates:
-Fatigue damage analysis on peak-valley segmented SAE data
-Tweaking my genetic algorithm clustering matlab codes
-Optimization of genetic operator parameter for GA clustering of SAE data
-Still doing genetic operator parameter optimization analysis
-Adding a population limit feature to the GA clustering algorithm to increase analysis speed and also convergence speed
-Gah, matlab processes eating up too much memory space
-Finally! My GA clustering algorithm has been improved! Runtime before: 30 mins. Runtime after: 5 seconds! That’s 36000% Improvement!!!
So, what do you think? Am I a MATLAB geek?
Opinions Requested: Which is a Good Look for Me?
Lately, I realized (and I’m pretty sure some of my friends did as well) that I’ve been wearing the same kind of wardrobe and the same kind of hairstyle and the same kind of look everywhere. And it bores me. I look at myself in the mirror every morning and ask myself ‘how should I look today?’ and end up wearing that same black t-shirt and combing my hair that same side parting I wear almost every day. It’s not fun, not exciting, and not random. It feels mundane, and not the normal kind of mundane, but the repetitive cycle of the same thing over and over again like a sine wave kind of mundane. And I feel like I should get a change going on.
So here’s me putting myself in the line of fire, parading horrendous profiles of myself over the last few years, and asking you this question: Which is a good look for me?
1. Short or almost bald
I wore this hairstyle quite a few times… back in the days when I felt like a trip to the barber’s a waste of time and munny. The situation was usually like this: I wake up in the morning, look at the mirror and see myself with my big bed hair. Back of my neck tickles, my head feels too warm, and my hair is all over my face. Electric hair clipper plus an hour in the bathroom results in the look you see above plus gaping stares from friends who just saw me with my long hair the day before.
2. Side parting
I have been wearing this look forever. My friends say I look ‘preppy’ (or ‘skema’ in Rojak terms) when I have my hair side parted, long or short. I usually have my hair like this when I don’t feel like standing out, or to look older or more formal in some sense. A hairstyle I would almost always wear to job interviews and conference presentations.
3. Long or semi-long straight or wavy hair
Usually the hairstyle I maintained for a couple of months before suddenly going bald (see collage 1). I love having my hair long and straight but hate it when the weather’s hot and humid and makes my hair stick out unmanageably in all sorts of directions. And it gets everywhere too. I have my hair long (and big) mostly because I have a family history of baldness on my dad’s side and it is almost inevitable that I would end up being a bald grownup, so I decide to enjoy my hair while it’s still on top of my head.
4. Random, et cetera
Side parts, middle parts, crew cut, greased, messy, thin, short, et cetera. Whatever style that’s possible given the current condition and length of hair.
5. Care not about the look of the hair and cover it up with headgear
I used to love winters in the States because it meant that wearing my hair long won’t be too hot or warm on the neck and shoulders, and that I can wear my snowcap without looking like a ghetto-street-wannabe. Other seasons I just wear a cap whenever I felt lazy to do anything with the hair. The songkok is worn on special occasions and with certain attires or when I go to the mosque to pray.
Right now the length of my hair is somewhere between collages no. 2 and no. 3.
So how do you think I should look? 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5?
Or should I just leave it to the hairstylist / barber to decide?
Feedback and opinions, personal and/or professional, are welcome. Critiques are fine as well.
P/S: ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’ this if you think it is necessary that more people see this and give their input. Thanks.
