Back to the MATRIX. I will begin sharing my thoughts, incidental pieces, book excerpts, book reviews, and notes on the pieces of writing I am developing.
When I was a child in primary school back the mid 1970s, there was an alien invasion in my school, Sekolah Temmengong Abdul Rahman, Johor Bahru. A spaceship landed. It was a UFO.
During recess, hundreds of kids ran around the soccer field screaming as if they were hearing the last 10 minutes of the broadcast of Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds'. There was total chaos.
I recall falling on my face as I jumped across the huge monsoon drain that separates the field from a building leading to the classrooms. I tried to run away from being attacked and taken into the spaceship, into a world of weightlessness in which teh tarik becomes teh terbang.
I almost fell into the drain and was helped by my best buddy, Fook Shiang, a bespectacled chap who would roam around with me even into the Chinese graveyard on the north side of the school. I was curious about what a Chinese ghost looked like, having been quite well-versed in how Malay ghosts are presented.
Years later I discovered that ghosts, supernatural beings, and aliens are actually big business in Corporate America. Halloween is a great celebration of spiritual awakening – wherein America danced it to the tune of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'.
In the case of the Johor sighting, kids were talking about seeing a spaceship landing in the middle of the field and about children being shot with laser guns that left them with red spots, just like those you get when bitten by red ants.
The invasion and the attack by the aliens on the kingdom of Johor did not stop in the school field. Two of my classmates saw battalions of little creatures (actually not seen by the naked eyes), the size of red ants, marching across the classroom as we were ready to resume class. Some claimed to have been shot in the legs and thighs.
In broad daylight we were attacked - in an age when TV was still black and white. That was almost 10 years after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, in a race with the Soviets. That was the beginning of technological fantasy - that we will one day colonise space when we have devastated the Earth enough.
The incident at my school, which I heard was reported by Utusan Melayu, happened almost 50 years before we sent our first space tourist/cosmonaut/space participant aboard the Russian rocket. A giant step for Malaysian but a small step in our understanding of spaces of knowledge and power. Here's why.
Outer space, inner spaces
We go in and out of spaces and create these as well. We let the entire nation become mesmerised by our ability to launch a man into space. This could be good education for our kids, so that they may get hooked on rocket science.
But science ought to also teach us how to think rationally, promote free inquiry, cultivate academic freedom, address economic disparities, solve our educational problems, haul corrupt leaders to justice easily, how to recognise the rise of totalitarianism, solve the issue of our dispossessed and violent youth, and most of all decolonise our minds and let us live a life free from being colonised by the spaces of knowledge and power.
Science ought to be democratised to teach citizens to live in republic that is founded upon scientific socialism and transcultural ethics. But we are still colonised.
We let aliens colonise our living rooms; through TV programmes we allow Hollywood to dictate how we should invent our reality. We saw the 1961 Apollo blast-off and thought that only when we have sent a native to the moon would we be recognised as an advanced nation.
We are misled by the notion of technological advancement. We have not learned what science for social purposes means and we have not delved into the philosophy of science for the advancement of the Third World nation.
We saw Pakistan triumphant in testing its nuclear bomb near Kashmir on May 28, 1998 through the achievement of Nobel Laureate in Physics Abdus Salam, and we thought that an Islamic nation had progressed.
Little did we know how Pakistan has evolved as evident in the rule of General Pervez Musharraf. The nation's Nobel Prize-winning scientific achievement has its contradiction. There is so much disparity in the national-cognitive evolution of Pakistan.
We must get Malaysia to come down to earth and look at the reality of empty spaces and the spaces in knowledge and power that we have created over the last 50 years.
At present we are looking at Outer Space as escapism and a national fascination and alteration of consciousness - so that we may be made to forget the harshness of the daily lives of the people. We create newer grounds for play and fantasy.
Now for example, the Johor Kingdom is heading towards another fantasy world - the Disney Project. It will become Johor Darul Disney and Sekolah Temmengong Abdul Rahman will become the Malaysian office of the American project called Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
Critical thinking is all the more needed to equip the next generation to 'come down' from space and through science and technology, build a socially meaningful paradigm of economic development that benefits all races so that to evolve into a nation that prides on bridging the gap between the filthy rich and the abject poor.
Who benefits?
The world around us and inside of us continues to become more complex. We continue to be given bread and circuses. We continue to be mesmerised by inventions, institutions, and installations that are slowly killing our critical sensibility and eroding our ability to analyse realities that have been invented by those in power.
We have been turned into alienated beings amused to death with things we do not need. Our economy has been transformed beyond our control - and we think that this is the only way to 'progress'.
We think 'progress' is linear, following what Walt Rostow suggests in his book 'The Stages of Growth'. The 1960s brought us the hippy movement and the World Bank formula, a precursor of the Reaganomics ethos of the 'magic of the marketplace'.
We were trapped into believing that modernisation means liberation. Now that we are in the post-modern era, we cannot turn back unless we revolt against the rule of instrumental totalitarianism. It has to be a revolution of the mind and a reconstruction of our consciousness.
With those many little 'super corridors' being installed in major states, what will 'human development' mean to us? Where is the concept of 'development - of the people, by the people, and for the people'?
Let us come back to Earth and be grounded in the social reality of things.
Growing up I heard about the Freemasons and was told that it was a cult or a secret society. Even in Johor Bahru where I spend my early years, I heard about the "Masons" and how some of Malaya and Malaysia's leaders are members of this cult of secrecy said to " want to rule the world" through the production of ideas. The Freemasons which has its origin in the Middle Ages was linked to the Illuminati. The video below gives more suggestion on the origin and nature of the "fraternity" or the brotherhood of intellectuals. Later when writing my dissertation on social semiotics, I became interested in the study of signs, symbols, significations, and representation.
The Internet gave me some information on the Freemason installations (Masonic temples) in Southeast Asia:
Small square and compass
Major Masonic Events in South East Asia in the past 150 years
1765 - Lodge No. 1 Bencoolen warranted. 1772 - 10 February, Marlborough Lodge warranted. 1786 - Founding of Penang. 1791 - Marlborough Lodge renamed "Rising Sun". 1793 - John Macdonald (son of Flora Macdonald the Jacobite heroine) first Provincial Grand Master. 1796 - Humanity & Industry Fort Marlborough warranted. 1809 - 6 September, Lodge Neptune, Penang warranted. 1810 - First meeting of Lodge Neptune, Penang. 1811 - Last meeting of Lodge Neptune, Penang. 1812 - Stamford Raffles initiated Lodge Virtutis et Artis Amici, Java. 1813 - Lodge No. 1 Bencoolen erased. - Humanity and Industry Fort Marlborough erased. - 5 July, Stamford Raffles raised Lodge de Vriendschap Soerabaya. 1816 - 25 April, Stamford Raffles perfected Chapter La Vertueuse Batavia. 1819 - Lodge Neptune, Penang erased. - 28 January, Stamford Raffles arrived off Singapore. - 6 February, Founding of Singapore. 1822 - Lodge Humanity with Courage warranted in Penang. 1824 - Bencoolen handed over to the Dutch by Treaty. 1825 - Lodge Neptune, Penang revived. 1826 - Humanity merged with Neptune. 1845 - 26 February, Lodge Zetland No. 748, Singapore warranted. - 8 December, First meeting of Lodge Zetland No. 748. - 15 December, 1st initiate W. J. Napier. - 15 December, 2nd initiate W. H. Read 1846 - Lodge Zetland renamed "Lodge Zetland in the East". - Lodge Neptune Penang dormant 1848 - Bro. James Brooke (Rajah Brooke) visited Lodge Zetland in the East. 1849 - Sir James Brooke joined Lodge Zetland in the East. - 25 August, Hon. Capt. H. Keppel (Admiral) initiated in Lodge Zetland in the East. 1850 - 24 May, W. M. of Zetland M. F. Davidson laid the foundation stone of Horsburgh Light House at the request of the Governor of the Colony. - 3 August, Lodge Neptune Penang rewarranted. 1854 - 24 May, Acting W. M. of Zetland W. H. Read laid the foundation stone of Raffles Lighthouse at the Governor's request. 1856 - Masonic Hall Esplanade, Singapore, opened. 1858 - 3 April, Lodge Fidelity, Singapore, warranted. - 5 August, Lodge Fidelity, Singapore, consecrated. - 4 December, District Grand Lodge constituted. - 4 December, W. H. Read installed as D.G.M 1862 - 4 June, Lodge Neptune Penang erased. - 4 June, Sun Lodge erased. 1863 - Lodge Zetland in the East No. 748 renumbered "Lodge Zetland in the East No. 508". 1867 - Fidelity united with Lodge Zetland in the East. - 24 June, Lodge St. George No. 1152 consecrated 1871 - 10 March, Masonic Hall, Kampong Glam, consecrated. 1873 - 29 March, Clyde Terrace Market Corner Stone laid with Masonic honours. 1875 - 4 December, Royal Prince of Wales Lodge No. 1555 consecrated. 1878 - 27 December, First Masonic Temple built and consecrated in Penang. 1879 - 14 April, Foundation stone of Masonic Hall, Coleman Street laid.
- 27 December, Freemasons' Hall, Coleman Street consecrated. 1885 - 13 August, Lodge Elupoa, North Borneo warranted. - 28 December, Colonel Samuel Dunlop installed as D.G.M. 1888 - 2 January, Elupora No. 2106 never constituted. Erased. - 14 April, Perak Jubilee Lodge No. 2225 consecrated. - 2 July, Masonic Club, Singapore inaugurated. 1889 - 21 October, Read Lodge, Kuala Lumpur consecrated. - November, Dunlop Masonic Benevolent Society inaugurated. - 28 November, Lodge Shadwell Clerke, Penang warranted. 1890 - 2 May, Shadwell Clerke No. 2336 consecrated. - 3 October, District Grand Lodge elected to membership of Q.C.C.C. 1891 - 1 May, Borneo Lodge of Harmony No. 2403 warranted. - 13 August, Sir Charles Warren G.C.M.G. installed as D.G.M. 1893 - 3 March, Borneo Lodge No. 2403 constituted. - 6 November, Foundation stone of Masonic Building in Kuala Lumpur laid. 1894 - 15 October, Read Masonic Temple, K.L. consecrated. 1895 - Bro. Pavitt installed W.M. of Harmony in Lodge St. George, Singapore. - 13 June, Sir Charles Mitchell installed as D.G.M. 1896 - Bro. Raffles Flint (nephew of Sir Stamford Raffles) installed as W.M. of Borneo Lodge of Harmony in Lodge Zetland in the East. 1899 - 19 May, Shadwell Clerke warrant returned. - 19 May, Borneo Lodge of Harmony No. 2403 erased. - 7 December, Sir Charles Mitchell D.G.M. died in Singapore. 1902 - 30 January, Zetland held special meeting to welcome Bro. Admiral Sir. H. Keppel. - 29 September, Lodge St. Michael No. 2933 consecrated. 1903 - 20 February, W.J. Napier installed as D.G.M. - 16 July, Eastern Gate Lodge No. 2970 consecrated 1906 - 17 May, Founding of Scottish Freemasonry - Scotia No. 1003. - 21 August, District Grand Chapter constituted. 1907 - 16 April, Kinta Lodge No. 3212, Ipoh, consecrated 1909 - 10 May, Death of W.H. Read C.M.G., P.D.G.M. - 20 May, Jubilee of District Grand Lodge. - 24 June, First issue of Pentagram published. - 9 October, Klang Lodge No. 3369, K.L. consecrated. 1910 - 25 February, F.M. Elliot installed as D.G.M. - 4 March, Napier Lodge No. 3418 consecrated. 1912 - 6 January, Negri Sembilan Lodge No. 3552, Seramban, consecrated. - 7 December, Lodge Elliot No. 3557, Malacca, consecrated. 1913 - 6 September, Makepeace Lodge No. 3674, K.L. consecrated. 1914 - 1 August, commencement of First World War. 1915 - 15 February, Mutiny of Indian Troops in Singapore. Murder of D.G. Secretary. 1916 - 20 October, District Grand Lodge of the Middle East, Scottish. 1918. - 2 August, Lodge Kedah No. 3830 Sungai Petani consecrated. - 11 November, Cessation of First World War (Armistice Day) 1919 - 26 July, Johore Royal Lodge No. 3946 consecrated. 1920 - 28 May, W.F. Nutt installed as D.G.M. 1922 - 17 December, Foundation stone of Seramban Masonic Temple laid by D.G.M. 1923 - 9 January,Foundation stone of Teluk Anson Masonic Temple laid. - 31 March, Sir Neil Malcolm installed as D.G.M. 1924 - 8 November, P.G. Sprule installed as D.G.M. 1929 - 15 November, Consecration of Penang Masonic Temple by D.G.M. - 14 December, Foundation stone of Johore Royal Temple laid by D.G.M. 1931 - 10 October, Foundation stone of Tiger Lane Temple, Ipoh laid by D.G.M. 1932 - 6 February, Johore Utara Lodge No. 5324 consecrated. 1933 - 25 March, Sir George Trimmer installed as D.G.M. 1938 - 28 May, W.H.W Gubbins installed as D.G.M. 1939 - 3 September, Second World War commenced. 1941 - Last pre-war Pentagram published (Vol. XXXI). 1942 - 12 February, Last Masonic meeting held by Lodge Zetland in the East. - 15 February, Fall of Singapore. 1945 - 15 August, End of Second World War. - 12 September, Formal surrender of Japanese troops in Singapore. - December, Centenary of Lodge Zetland in the East. - 15 September, First Masonic meeting held in Singapore after the Second World War by Lodge St. Michael. 1947 - 25 January, Baldwyn Lowick installed as D.G.M. - First post war Pentagram published (War Years' Edition Vol. XXXII). 1948 - 29 May, Read Temple re-dedicated. 1951 - 26 January, Lodge Kinabalu No. 7047, K.K., consecrated. - 17 March, Baldwyn Lowick Lodge No. 7004, K.L. consecrated. 1952 - 28 June, Lodge Singapore No. 7178, consecrated. 1954 - 5 June, Founding of Irish Freemasonry in South East Asia - St. Patrick No. 765. - 25 September, E.G. Holiday installed as D.G.M. 1956 - 2 May, Stamford Raffles Lodge No. 7444 consecrated. 1957 - 8 August, Horsburgh Lodge No. 7533 consecrated. - 2 November, Elupora Lodge No. 7545, Sandakan, consecrated. 1958 - 7 December, Centenary of the District Grand Lodge. 1959 - 27 May, Centenary Lodge No. 7629 consecrated. 1960 - 20 February, Sentosa Lodge No. 7661, K.L., consecrated. 1963 - 31 August, Malaysia declared independence. 1964 - 31 October, Beaufort Lodge No. 7989, K.K., consecrated. - 28 November, Edward Holiday Lodge No. 7997, K.L., consecrated. 1965 - 9 August, Republic of Singapore formed. 1966 - 15 January, Leslie Rayner installed as D.G.M. 1967 - 1 July, Mustapa bin Osman installed as D.G.M. 1973 - 10 February, Fidelity Lodge No. 8469, K.L., consecrated. 1974 - 16 February, Berakas Lodge No. 8560, B.S.B., consecrated. - 9 November, J.W.Y. Eu installed as D.G.M. 1978 - 14 December, Read Temple, Damansara Road evacuated because of city development. 1994 - 9 November, J.W.Y. Eu's 20th Anniversary as D.G.M. - 3 December, Launch of J.W.Y. Eu Foundation. - 5 December, J.W.Y. Eu Lodge No. 9572 consecrated. 1995 - 8 March, Berakas Lodge No. 8560 erased. - 8 December, Sesquicentenary celebration held.
I grew up roaming around the Malay village exploring a world rich in cultural tradition, immersed in the sight, sound, and sensibilities of many worlds of tradition. One vivid memory was watching for hours till late midnight the Malay dance of trance called the "Kuda Kepang"; a mystically-inspired dance form of the Hindu-Buddhist tradition brought to Johor. I remembered being mesmerized by the dance form and psyched up and stoned by the trance music as well as the incense-smelling smoke that filled the air. The dancers, mostly male started the dance conscious and ended up sub-conscious, being possessed by the spirit of horses. Hence it was called "tarian kuda kepang" At the end of the dance, a few of them went really haywire and started to ram into the audience. The guru (chief trance-inducer) of the dance appeased the dancers by feeding the, with petals of different flowers. They devoured the petals like hungry horses.
In the Malay kampong where I grew up, there were enclaves of Javanese, Bugis, Bawean, and those of Indonesian origin. The kampong as I clearly remembered had houses that were far away from each other and I was told that there were also tigers roaming. It was a newly established Malay village; perhaps whose origin is as old as the days of British Malaya. The place where I was born, Singapore was an exciting "other world" where in my later growing up years became another place of exploration of modernity:
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