They, are We?

Assalamualaikum, dear inquisitive ones:

It has been a while since I have written any worthy pieces to read. It’s only because I want to straighten up a few things before I can manage to sit in front of my computer now, thanks to some big issues, finally settled and I am at ease now.

A little bit confused about the title, are we? This post will elaborate more on how we should accept diversities as it is, and we should not label people as negative, without any prior investigations. I remember a short poem by Rudyard Kipling, a regular lad in my childhood memories:

All good people agree,

And all good people say;

All nice people like Us, are We,

And everyone else is They.

And he nonchalantly ends his piece by saying:

…If you cross over the sea,

Instead of over the way,

You may end by (think of it!)

Looking on We,

As only sort of They.

What is the main lesson behind this short writing of his? We need to understand why other people think and act as they do and to respect and emphatize with their diverse perspectives. Know this: not a single person is created the same.

Ignorant? Dont be!

If your are a muslim, you should know better that the four main caliphs (khalifahs) – Abu Bakar r.a., Uthman r.a., Umar r.a. and Ali r.a. – shows these vast differences in the way they perceive politics, war, and even tackling administrative issues. For example, Abu Bakar is a very pious, reserved but stern in a few ways, and he even devoted everything that he had to the religion. Umar, is in contrast, a very headstrong chap and known as a ‘gangster’ and ‘wrestler’ before he embraced Islam. After he is a devoted muslim, his sternness and outspoken style continued still to scare the pants out of the infidels (kafir).

This differences show that in certain things, people will have different ways in perceiving things – but one thing is for sure for the caliphs, they all embraces Islam full-heartedly, in their own special way, nothing less and nothing more. As muslims know, all four of them had been promised jannah or heaven, by our beloved prophet, Muhammad S.A.W. – ultimately showing that you should not worry about the differences in others, but focusing on building your own strong foundation of iman. Iman is, as they say, made of hills and slopes. There will be time when your iman will be as shallow as a swampy lake, and there also be time when your iman is as strong as a Himalayan mountain.

As long as we don’t do what we are not allowed to do, as in Suratul Baqarah, verse 229, “..and that is Allah’s hukm, and don’t ever cross the line. Whoever crosses the line, they are the destructive ones (zholeem).“

There are no other ways in life, but to uphold the truth, even when it causes unwanted war. I want to add some more spice to this issue from the same surah, from verse 244, “Wage war in the name of Allah, and know that Allah is All Hearing and All Knowing”. Mark these words deep in your craniums: He will definitely know what you hide and what you show inside your hearts. There are no futile amal or good deeds in His Knowing, in which all of it will be paid for by God. The bigger your amal (..or bluntly we can say akhirah investment), the bigger the rewards will be. I will end this piece by mentioning another verse from al-Baqarah, verse 245, “Whoever wants to give loans to Allah, good loans (giving whatever you own to Him), then Allah will repay you with numerous-fold (greater) repayments. Allah makes it hard (hardship in rizk) and makes it easy (prosperous) as He pleases. And to Him will you be returned.” Loans here, in this context, can be in any form, be it ibadah, amal, sadaqah, waging war – soft or hard, or whatever good that we do, bearing His name.

Read, and think. Again.

Always read the Ultimate source of Knowledge

To the main issue, why do people fight among themselves, even from their own kind? Because, it is an inability to accept the differences of other people, with their different characters, albeit their same belief…think about it, even though we are created with different colour hues, forms and characters, we are ultimately from the same nature of creation. We are Men, and these vast differences are colouring our very lives as we know it. Our lives in this earth is a test, the ultimate test, in order go to the Eternal Land. The Promised Land.

Tis is important, for it’s up to Him to judge, as He is The Ultimate Judge – not you, or me, for that matter. Learn to accept, and adapt. If you think that you are the one holding the truth, present your points, and let intellectual discourse and deduction reveal itself. We are programmed as humans, to incline ourselves to a form of truth, or at least what we think it is. By constantly discussing on these matters, we will achieve the Ultimate Truth. Nobody can escape the Ultimate Truth, for Islam is the way of life, and the truth will always prevails.

Don’t ever judge a person without prior knowledge and never think that you are too knowledgable to consider more inputs. Always open up your heart for more. We are learning still, till the day we are carried to our graves, as limp, lifeless and hopefully not clueless, bodies.

What can we make up out of this?

Wallahualam.

Rite of Passage

From the craddle, to the throne, and to the grave

Here is a story, about a journey.

Inevitably, all will go through

short, or long the story may be;

Each man will carve their own destiny.

At first, you crawl and wet your pants,

Then you grow a bit more and step on those ants;

The bigger you are, the higher you’ll be,

And forgetting you were just a boy at 3.

Vast mountains are there to be climbed,

And you climb as high as if racing for time;

But more importantly, than the eyes can see,

Stop – and see whether this top is the right place to be.

What is the use of crowning glory,

If there is none of your real friends and foe to be seen;

To cheer you up or to calm you down,

When in reality, all you see is your own frown?

What mistakes did I actually do?

You ask yourself some time or two;

There are none, you say – but one thing is true,

Its really aplenty, if we know where to turn to.

For manly traits will only win its rightful place,

Not ego, nor cowardice or ignorance and disgrace;

When your fleshy, human body will finally rest,

And will wither to smelly bones and perishes at last.

Stop by, and listen to others, big or small,

While there is still time to reverse it all;

IF YOU REALIZE WHO YOU REALLY AREN’T,

AND REALLY DECIDE WHAT YOU REALLY DO WANT.

Friends are there, thousands of them,

But who can bring you to the other End;

For that is why mighty words have said,

YOU ARE RED, IF YOUR FRIENDS ARE RED.

..Then you will know, at last.

This world is too vast;

To waste on fragile, worldly needs and whim,

When all we should be is…

…To look at Him.

SURPRISE!!!

Assalamualaikum dear inquisitive readers…

…For I got a surprise for ya..

See the picture shown below:

my engagement day!

Shown from left, is my friend Sharimin (great guitar player he is!), Nahzatul Shima Rasedi (My fiancee), Me (Who else!) and Asraf (my dear brother, also a drummer and guru to me!)

There you go, its final now! I am officially engaged with Miss Nahzatul Shima. To all the faithful readers out there (my friends and foes alike), pray that my engagement will last till the day bride and groom be wed.

Location: Shima's house in Serdang

the man in white ‘baju melayu’ and black ‘songkok’ is Miss Shima’s dad, Mr. Rasedi and the man with the serban (on the extreme right) is my dad, Mr. Suardi. They are seen in the busy picture to be engaged in a serious discussion of some sort pertaining to the engagement event. At that particular time, I was there ( even though traditionally, I am not allowed to be present!), hiding at the most ‘strategic’ place one can ever find. (be able to listen to the discussion, yet my presence unnoticed!)

carrying the goods!

Ahh.. not forgetting my most reliable aid, Mr. Muhsin and at his side is my eldest nephew, Fikri a.k.a. Enen… I really appreciate what you guys have done on that day! Actually there are many more names to mention here – My mom Pn. Munah, My elder sister Pn. Anggerik and her husband and kids, My younger sister Pn. Farhani, My closest cousin Mr. Radin Nur Hafiz A.k.a Nano … The event wont be a reality without help from all of you.

Till then, wait for my next blog posting… Chiaw!

P/s: For the record, this is actually my 2nd engagement experience since I have failed the first one, so ;ets keep our finger crossed and pray this one would last forever!

Diversities – is it an unknown, feared taboo or simply just colours of your lives?

Assalamaleikum. And a very good and barokah Friday

Days ago, I had a very refreshing chat with one of the lecturers of the college that I am currently working in. His name is Hayan Tariq Abdul Wahab and he came from one of the gulf countries, which is Iraq – as he describes as the land of abundance. We chatted about food, and how Iraqi food differs greatly from my Malaysian counterpart. Suddenly, the conversation was halted by a huge explosive sound, maybe caused by a huge firecracker lit by some Indians nearby, most likely in the Deepavali festive mood. He shuddered (and making gestures to flee in a hurry), and there was a tinge of genuine panic in his face.

Seconds later, after a long silence of contemplation on his side, he explained to me that in the constantly-in-war Iraq, the only ear piercing sounds there are actually sounds of devastating car bombs or missiles which sounded once every couple of minutes in the Baghdad city which kills dozens every hour. It has been nearly a year that he moved here and been in acquaintance to me, and without realizing, I have become a very close friend to him, and vice versa. Enough said, this short session triggers my fingers to write a blog with a somewhat related topic.

This time around, I want to talk about something a bit different, a taboo to few, but nevertheless interesting to think about. It’s about the wide variety of diversities of life, in our very lives, and how it affects our daily human to human interaction.

We are all created different

We simply cannot ignore the presence of difference in all of us. We are all different. (even brothers and sisters or identical twins for that matter.) The ability of God to create the universe, with none of its things alike, deserves its just recognition. I think if all of us are posed with this simple question, “How accepting can we be when we encounter something different from the usual?” ‘The usual’ mentioned here can be in cellular, individual, community, race, religion, or any level. Obviously, it is something familiar to us, of course.

b & w

Take this for instance – how accepting can a regular South East Asian person when dealing with an African? (be it personally or professionally) The answer will definitely vary from one another, but frighteningly, most of them will give negative reactions to this encounter (whether they admit it or not!). Just imagine, a polite Nigerian having his nice gesture and his simple inquisitive question been ignored by a Malay lady in a bus, leaving the poor guy sadly muted the whole day long. Have you ever wondered why? Local people here will usually justify this act by saying Malay women are shy and easily frightened and they usually ignore strangers because they are too pious to entertain a lad. For me, obviously I am not satisfied with this kind of answer.

“We fear what we don’t understand”

It’s an innate thing, it exists in everyone, in even crazy people or animals for that matter, that we actually fear things that we don’t understand. It’s only the level of fear that differs from one another. What is our reaction if we find our regular dinner plate not filled with the usual favourite rice, but instead filled with ‘hummus’, which is a gooey, sticky stuff full of carbs or slices of baguette, a hard French bread served with oregano, olive oil and some olives? Our initial response would probably anger… then followed by fear (how am i supposed to eat this unknown stuff? what if i vomited, fell sick or even die?)

Thankfully, as God designed this unique feeling, He also created the remedy to this confusion. As I mentioned earlier that we are all created different from one another, ironically we are also similar to one another in one aspect to another. So, the cure of this so-called ‘fear’ is the feeling of acceptance that somehow, how little it may be, there must be some familiarity in everything. You don’t believe me? Try this – how similar is a Malaysian with a Nigerian? If we want to think about the difference, the list will go on and on. The skin colour, the attitude, the character, the food they eat, their past times or hobbies, their language, religion (for some), their culture to name a few. Due to the differences, we are prone to misjudge or mistreat a person. To an extent, some even omit a person from his buddy list because of these silly differences. That’s why people tend to mingle with their own kind, or with people with similar perspectives. It is because, the more similar a person is to another, the less likely a conflict is to happen – or so they think.

due to prejudice, or fear?

Yes, we are all created different but we are also created similar in many ways.

This technique needs to be practiced to achieve perfection. Once, you’ve mastered it, you will realize that this world we live that we know is full of prejudice, lies, hatred and violence can be a very tolerable, peaceful and harmony for all. The answer is very simple indeed. All you need to do is the contrary to find the difference in everything. Instead, try hard to find the similarities in them. Of course, we still need to identify striking differences to know whether threat or danger is there or otherwise. If we tend to overdo it, prejudice and hatred will kick in.

What does an African have in common with a Malaysian like me? Hmm. Let me see. We all do breathe oxygen, right? We can definitely share jokes, rice and chicken are definitely our favorite, we do shake hands, we also dance and listen to music, we have keen interest in the opposite sex… and I think the list of similarities can go on forever. By keeping this in mind, we shall realize that there shouldn’t be any barrier of prejudice, hate or selectiveness in human to human communication.

Enough blabbering, I’ll end this stupid article

The world can be a better place if we find similarities in all of us, and be transparent. A lot of ‘hot issues’ in newspaper headlines are due to differences. Look at Obama and Cain (different political ideology), the world economic scene (involving countries with different hidden agendas) and the age-old friction between the Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, the Hindus, the Buddhas, the Scientologists and Atheists. We can really live in peace and harmony. Ebony and ivory, Muslims and Christians, Democrat and Republicans – Differences are there of course, but it should be respected not feared and it makes life continuously interesting. The tip is trying hard to find similarities in all of us – which always offer much more benefit rather than finding differences.

Draw!

As the barriers between us are slowly disappearing in the globalization process, we definitely will need to learn assimilation. We will take the best elements to upgrade ourselves – which means ultimately one day, there can only be one race, one faith, one language and one belief. But till then, we need to respect other people and their differences, and if we find it fit, make the difference as a new element in your own life.

So, to conclude my stupid case, similarities are the canvas we draw our whole life in and diversities are the whole lot of different colour crayons. Go figure.

 

‘How to’ no. 1 – Improving Your Beautiful (not?) Voice

Assalamualeikum all…

It’s been a long and blatant while… Lately, I felt like my life has been sucked out from me due to the piling work, torturing my mind constantly, which leave the poor me in a constant migraine treshold – spearing like clockwork, every night. Suddenly, the thought of writing a blog tonight seems feaseable…Hey, I think it’s time for my new post. Hope it’ll benefit you guys in any way possible. Today, my post will be about your beautiful (doubts anyone?) voices. Here goes nothing:

My voice is always be considered by my self as a disgusting and unattractive. Part of me blames my nanny for leaving me crying all the time (I was 5 at that time) when my parents went out for work!! The other part contentedly agree that some people are simply not blessed with angelic voices.

Due to this, I have done some digging around and compiled some useful tips to improve your ghoulish voices and from now on, voicing out in the correct way.

gharahghahh...

Breathing: It’s not just for pumping life: Control them properly and you will have a voice that’s not only strong, but captivates

Control your breath, and you begin to control your speaking voice. Also, practicing better breathing techniques will ultimately reduce tensions in the neck and shoulders which can impede your best natural voice. The voice is technically a wind instrument. Remember, as the wise usually say – ‘you can speak only as well as you breathe.’

The first and foremost to be looked into here is the right technique:

• Readily stand up with your feet not quite shoulder width apart, your weight forward, more on the balls of the feet (not the other balls!) than the heels.

• Relax your hands by your sides (loose, not tense).

• Start to pay attention to your breathing.

• As you exhale, loosen up and release your shoulders, relax your neck, unclench your teeth (try to see if you can’t manage a yawn and maybe even a smile!)

Your stomach is the fortress of your voice – Try ‘diaphragmatic’ breathing.

The right way of breathing is unique. It starts from your tummy. It fuels your voice and releases tension from your upper body. It’s also called belly breathing because as you inhale, your belly expands (and your chest and shoulders don’t move). This is the opposite of what you might do on the beach where many people suck in their bellies and puff out their chests.

• Place one hand over your belly button. Slowly inhale one long breath through your mouth while silently counting “one… two… three… four.” Your stomach should expand, pushing your hand forward (your shoulders and chest should not move.)

• Feel your hand move out as you pull the breath deep into your lungs. Now, hold that breath and count silently, “one… two… three… four.” Next, exhale the breath through your mouth while counting silently, “one… two… three… four.”

• Do this until numerous times until you finally feel comfortable and at ease. Now, you are ready to make sound.

Hahahaha…. Ha…?

You are going to make a gentle “Ha” sound, using up an entire breath on just that one sound. Take in a full belly breath, and as you exhale say a very gentle and quiet sustained Haaaaaa… until you run out of air. Do it again, being certain to really open your mouth as you softly sustain the “Ha”.

The lost art of ‘Shoulder bounce.’

Once you’ve mastered the “Ha”, start to release tension from your neck and shoulders. First, lift your shoulders up toward your ears, hold them for a count of four, and then let them drop, completely releasing them. Now, do this rapidly. This is the shoulder bounce.

Next, combine the shoulder bounce with the “Ha”. With your hands relaxed by your sides, take a full belly breath, and then exhale a gentle sustained “Haaaa”, running out of air as you did before. Only this time, while you are doing the “Ha”, you have to do the shoulder bounce simultaneously for the duration of the sound you’ve made. This will definitely help release tension from your vocal chords and help you prepare your voice to finally speak, properly.

now thats better!

Istiqamah (Keep it up, boy!)

Theres an Arabic term called ‘Istiqamah’ which has something to do with continuity and perseverance. Doing these exercises regularly will help prepare your breath to support your voice. Each time you do them you improve your breathing and release some of the tension that can easily accumulate throughout the day. They will help you prepare to speak, not just physically but also mentally, by reducing any anxiety you may be feeling at the moment.

Well, readers… as I usually say: ‘Try it.. you’ll love it!”

Eidul Fitri Blabbering… ‘The ultimate triumph over Evil?’

Assalamualaikum, and its been quite awhile since the last post – I have recently succumbed to the perils of work, and my energy has waned bit by bit to the point of exhaustion. I just need a rest.

It’s good to be alive

Snifff!!… I whiffed a huge chunk of air into my lungs and say, praise be to god that I have lived till this very day – and be able to contribute something to this existence. Well, it seems the long awaited Eidul Fitri is just around the corner… 5 more days to the great celebration. I remembered my days of young when I was really small, I marked the dates on the calender tentatively, every beginning of a single day, patiently waiting for ‘the day’. The day when we cease to fast and we pull out the restraints that ties the ‘devil’ within us. For the young version of me, approaching Eidul Fitri is always a happy experience. As days of wrinkles knocking at the door, hard, the happiness quickly being devoured by utter sadness. Nowadays, being 30 means that you only have a couple of years more to live. Maybe 35, 40, 50 or 60? Maybe tomorrow?

What’s the victory?

However, it saddens me now that the bountiful and holy Ramadhan is now going to leave us soon. For some, its just another day of another month of another year. It poses no significance whatsoever. But now, I would prefer to see things in a different perspective now. What if, this is the last Ramadhan that you ever come across? Would it be sorrowful to know that maybe, this is the last chance for you to experience the holy Ramadhan. If you know that this particular Ramadhan will maybe be your last, it must be regretful not to fill this precious moments by multiplying your good deeds (it’ll never be enough!) and do to our best capacity to all the people that mattered around you.

For me, Eidul Fitri’s not at all about triumph over Evil. Its about the spirit of giving, and forgiving. then, I wish that Eidul Fitri should be celebrated everyday.  If Ramadhan is the month of blessing, treat all months as Ramadhan as if you will never come across another Ramadhan ever again. Whatever it is, we all have ‘devils’ in us; it’s time for us to chase them away, and make room for togetherness, forgiveness, contentness and good virtue.  

Enough blabbering – Now hear ye my wish!

To all readers (Friend and Foe alike?) I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for all my past mistakes, whether its intentional or otherwise. In conjuction to the upcoming Eidul Fitri I vowed to be a better man, for the betterment of a better future.

p/s: I also apologize for this ridiculous blog posting this time around. I promise to offer you more interesting posts in the future. Chiaw!

Beware of your worldly temptations

Temptations.

The world we live in is a very huge warehouse containing all sorts of worldly temptations. You name it, you’ll get it. Be it a materialistic wants such as a new necklace, new car, drugs, sex, food to name a few. It can also be a vast array of emotional wants such as love, happiness, peace, revenge and more…

Here is a tip, folks on how to get what you want from another, easily and seamlessly – to offer temptations to them, something that they really want, to make them give what you need.

Get what you want, easily.

For starters, a conversation might do. Then, extract the gist of the conversation that points on that particular person’s temptations. While it may sound crude and evil, I personally think that it’s not. It’s just we need to be aware that this kind of devices are frequently used by devious people to get what they want. So, be careful.

Lets look at this simple scenario:

Mr. Dol, which is a senior staff at a theatre ticket booth which has a very long queue, taking a break from exhausting hours of work at the side of the popcorn counter. After entering the scene as a very nice, old lad – in a very short conversation, you have gathered the information that Mr. Dol is a father of 4 children, all in school, and he works double shift just to support his family. Now we know that his temptation is money, now we dig a little further. You can see a lottery ticket sticking out from his torn, uniform pocket and a stale smell of booze pouring out from Mr. Dol’s voice. With this, we can assume that most probably, morality is not a very big issue in Mr. Dol. So, nonchalantly you put up a very nice introduction stating that you are a regular customer at the cinema. You also state that you are trying to buy two tickets, for you and for your girlfriend. You say to Mr. Dol that if you give him an extra RM10, can he buy the tickets for you without having to queue up that long centipede of queue? There is a very high probability that Mr. Dol will accept the offer without a miniscule of delay.

Can you see this fact clearly now? Thats why if we have a strong Morality or Religion, it is hard for anyone to manipulate us.

Less is more.

SImple life, simple pleasure. This saying really goes a long way. Relating back to my previous post on moderation, we’ll be better off minimizing our temptations. For instance, the less (but i don’t mean anorexic!) we like food, the better our health condition is. The less we love money, the more contented of life we will be. The less we pamper our kids (by not giving excessive love), the better the child will turn out to be (less spoiled).

Redha

With redha, this element will nicely complement with moderation and sufficient religious knowledge to make us invulnerable to worldly temptations and the evils that it would bring. Redha is to be contented with what kind of fate that has been given to you, in full acceptance. It doesn’t mean that you have to succumb to the bad fate as it is, but not to be in grave despair if something wrong happens, despite your utmost effort.

Think about it. Beware of your worldly temptations. It can bring you to your doom. The less you have it, the more you will be – a contented human.

Whats new?

Assalamualaikum, and hi to all!

I have recently posted my song creations on the net for you guys to sink you teeth into.. give it a try.

you can reach them at:

1. http://amp.channelv.com/amp/viewArtist.html?id=33543 and

2. http://www.myspace.com/ilhamsuardi

…who knows, maybe those songs ARE your cup of tea…

Don’t love too much… love moderately!

What kind of a blog title is this? I don’t know. I just felt like talking about this matter. Just for a food of thought.

Love, good or otherwise?

Love, is it a good thing? or is it otherwise? of course, not a single person in the world, including Fidel Castro and Hitler (he did have a wife, somehow) will openly agree that love is a good thing. Love must be cherished. Spread the love to the world. Or so they speak… as the utmost usual, i beg to differ.

Picture these scenarios;

“A man loves his hard earned million dollar wealth so much, that he refuses to buy a new house for his family or donate them to the needy, giving a lame excuse that it is his wealth are the result of his endless hardship of toil that, so meaningful that, the monies are not to be spent.”

“A man whacks the hell out of another man, that ‘accidentally’ flirted his beautiful girlfriend.”

“An lranian man that hates every single cell of an Iraqi, because he loves his Persian ideology to the bone.”

“A young father that loves her daughter too much that whatever that she did will be okay and will always regard that whatever makes her cry must be a bad element and must be dealt with accordingly”

These are examples of excessive love, obviously channeled to the wrong places.

In fact, if we accept the idea that all of this worldly delights that are deserving love of man are all being ‘leased’ by God Almighty to us, we will eventually being led to think differently. The essence of life is actually not love, but a simple word called – moderation. Only by moderating all the actions that we do, we will achieve the ultimate state of peace.

For example, having tons of money will make you occupied with them for the rest of your lives, and having none or little will make you destroy the line between good and bad just to survive. But having enough money to do what you want and to help others, consequently giving space for another to be like you, would nicely suffice, dont you think?

Loving your spouse too much, for instance, will devastate you if your spouse suddenly left you or suddenly the angel of death comes for its timely collection. Enough examples already. Be aware that all of this happens a lot in our daily lives, and in more cases that none, history shows that excessive love will ultimately lead you to a murky end. The end that is full of jealousy and hate.

“Channel all your love to Him, and He will too.”

Only one love that is better than the other, its the love for our creator, Allah S.W.T. This love will always deserve limitless love from you. Absolute devotion and always accepting any kind of fate that knocks to our door is all we need to be contented with our lives. Pursue the only real love, which is love to Him, by regarding all other things as branches of a tree that doesnt require too much of our devotion and love. Love them, only in moderation.

I beg to differ not to solemnly say that love is bad. I only want to imply that worldly love will always have a consequence. It will eventually be accompanied by jealousy and hatred.

Subsequently, after considering all the premises that I have presented as an adequate reasoning to my argument, it is safe to conclude that, “Don’t love too much… love moderately!”. I am just trying to improve my pathetic critical thinking skills.

With love, Ha ha ha…, I rest my clueless case.

The all new oil price hike for Malaysia – questions arises…

Assalamualaikum and a very good day to the eyes that reads;

I am, always inquisitive about current issues that pops out every now and then. However, usually i keep any opinions only to my worthless self. I cant help to shudder by the sudden oil price hike in this oil-producing country, MALAYSIA: this matter needs to be regarded as something that requires contemplation.

Alas, we can be proud of saying that the price of petrol in Malaysia is still one of the cheapest in the region, being said that Singapore’s petrol price is at the RM5.20 tag compared to our RM2.70 per liter. This is obvious though, that Singapore is not an oil-producing country.

Here is some facts and figures. Check it out:

UAE– RM1.19/liter
Eygpt– RM1.03/liter
Bahrain– RM0.87/liter
Qatar– RM0.68/liter
Kuwait– RM0.67/liter
Saudi Arabia– RM0.38/liter
Iran– RM0.35/liter
Nigeria– RM0.32/liter
Turkmenistan– RM0.25/liter
Venezuela– RM0.16/liter
MALAYSIA-RM2.70/liter

What can we learn from this? You have 2 options: Whether to keep this to yourself or to voice out this concern since inflation will be inevitable by this. Inflation is painful. It is when your penny will shrink to the size of an apple pit and when that happens, its already too late.