Sleeping with the wrong lady

Weather: Fog
Temperature: 0 c

This is my first article of year 2008. To all my readers, I wish you a healthy and happy year ahead. The temperature in Shanghai dropped to as low as negative 3 degrees for the past few days. The surface of the water in the pond was completely frozen.

Initially, I had planned to write about my misfortune on the first day of 2008. Yesterday, Engtee and I went to IKEA to look for something to buy. No, we were not buying anything for our Shanghai place (we do not have any extra space to accommodate more furniture); we were looking for something to bring back to Malaysia.

While we were on our way back to the subway station, I realized that my wallet was missing. I was dead sure that it didn’t fall out accidentally as both my hands were in my pockets all the time due to the cold weather. It could only be the work of a pick pocket. So, fate gave me my New Year gift: a stolen wallet.

Luckily, my guardian angel was looking after me. That morning, before we left the apartment, there was a divine intervention. Something just struck me and I told Engtee we should take out all our personal and important documents such as Malaysian IC, driving license, ATM cards, credit cards etc because we should not carry it around since we were not going to use it anyway. As a result, we took out our Malaysian IC, driving license and other important documents from our wallets and left them in the apartment. Therefore, though my wallet was stolen, I only lost some cash, business cards and my room keys.

Without having to lose my Malaysian IC and driving license did save me a lot of trouble, my biggest headache after losing my wallet was only my room keys. However, believe it or not, the service industry in Shanghai is much more advanced than Malaysia. All I need to do was called up my real estate agent (the one who sourced for my current apartment) and told him about my situation. The next day, he helped me to handle all the procedures for the replacement of room keys. You are not going to believe this: he even paid the fine (RMB 80) on my behalf. Now I have to figure out a way to pay him back the money.

After having “victimized” by the “criminals” in Shanghai, I still think Shanghai is a safe place. At least the thief used some skill to earn his living. Unlike in Malaysia, where the “thieves” need no special skills – they confronted their victims with parang and demanded for money, that’s all. I frequently walked home alone at night at around 11pm to 12 midnight. Honestly, I never felt threatened. But I wouldn’t want to walk alone in Kampung Jawa at 12 midnight, even if you offer me RM100 to do so. Not even for RM1,000 for that matter.

So, I really thought my misfortune on the first day of New Year was going to make headline of this blog: I WAS A VICTIM OF PICK POCKET!! But I was wrong. Something much bigger came up and replaced my headline.

It was about a brave man who admitted having committed adultery. He is none other than our “former” Health Minister, Dr Chua. 2 days after the circulation of the pornographic DVDs in Johor showing a senior politician having sex with another lady, our Dr Chua decided to come clean and admitted that he was the man in the DVDs. At the outset, I must record my admiration for his honesty and courage to face the truth, though the truth really hurts. He could have taken a more shameless and cowardy approach, something which most politicians loved to do: IT WASN”T ME. I WAS FRAMED!!! Outright denial often seems to be the normal knee-jerk reaction for most of the shameless politicians.

Dr Chua came out of nowhere in 2004, after taking over the ministerial post from another Chua – Chua Jui Meng, his political career rose like a helicopter. People were speculating that he might one day challenge the post of Deputy President and thereafter, the President. He was a star in MCA.

I admit that I am not a fan of Dr Chua, not only because he is a member of MCA, but also because of how he had handled the “Negarakuku” incident. Not that I had high hope for a MCA leader, I thought he could have done better.

This morning, he had resigned from all his position in MCA and Government – obviously a difficult choice for him as he has said less than 24 hours earlier that he would not resign. Anyway, let’s discuss this: do we have any business in his personal life? He could have been a fan of threesome for all I care, but if he had done his duties right, should we ask him to resign?

I was all for Bill Clinton when he wrongly placed his cigar. My argument then was: Why impeach a good president when he could deliver?

However, Malaysia is not USA. Malaysians “officially” could not tolerate adultery. If Dr Chua were a Muslim, he would have been dragged to the Syariah Court to face charges. Luckily, being a non-Muslim Malaysian, he has all the license in the world to screw any ladies of his choice, the only legal consequence I could think of is that it creates a justification for his wife to petition for divorce. Further, if he continues to be our Health Minister, will he be able to speak with conviction and confidence the next time he convinces the people to avoid extra-marital sexual relationship as a measure to prevent AIDS?

They said the position of Health Minister is cursed. One will end his political career after sitting on that chair. Lee Kim Sai and Chua Jui Meng, among others, had proven that. Now, will we see the comeback of Dr Chua?

I doubt so.

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