It is very common for Buddhists in Malaysia who are mainly Chinese to assume that Wesak Day falls on the 15th day of the 4th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. However, this is not always true. According to the resolution adopted by the World Buddhists Conference in 1950 in Sri Lanka, Wesak Day shall be celebrated on the full moon day in the month of May. As a matter of fact, certain years in the past have seen Wesak Day being celebrated on the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month of the Chinese calendar, such as in 2004.

The confusion that arises for this year, however, is due to the occurrence of two full moon days in May, i.e. 1 May and 31 May. 1 May is the 15th day of the 3rd lunar month while 31 May is the 15th day of the 4th lunar month. Many people have claimed that the government has wrongly gazetted 1 May as the public holiday for Wesak. However, the Malaysia Buddhists Association (MBA) as well as a spokesman from Buddhist Mahavihara in Brickfields have confirmed that the correct date for celebrating Wesak is on 1 May.

Having Wesak Day on 1 May will also mean two public holidays falling on 1 May, the other being Labor Day. Hence, 2 May shall be a holiday to replace it.

Anyway, Happy Wesak Day and Happy Labor Day to everyone.

UK Immigration Officer (IO): Purpose of visit, sir?
Ah Beng (AB): I’m here to study law, sir.
IO: You know, you must have a lot of lawyers in Malaysia.
AB: Why do you say that?
IO: Well, i’ve been here for a good 20 years, and I’d say 80% of Malaysians I see here say they’re here to read law.
AB: Oh, really? That’s really something i never knew. Hard to believe in fact.
IO: Just you watch, then. You just stand here until the next Malaysian comes along, and I’ll bet he’s here to read law.

Ah Beng waits for 5 minutes and then Ah Chong (AC) from Malaysia comes to immigration counter.

IO: Mr. Ah Chong, purpose of visit?
AC: Study lorr…

In the wake of the recent “war” between political blogs and the government, including the defamation suit against two bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan (Rocky) by the New Straits Times Press (NSTP), Shaziman Abu Mansor, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications suggested a compulsary registration of all blogs hosted locally.

The suggestion has received numerous objections from fellow bloggers. It is a waste of time and resources to register the blogs. There has been concerns that the move will result in the censorship of free-flow information on the Internet. However, the government denied that they are in a move to apply censorship, rather, they just want to collect data on who are these bloggers.

However, how many of the bloggers in Malaysia actually uses locally hosted websites? My website and blog are hosted in the United States. Many bloggers, including political ones are using foreign-hosted free blog services such as Blogger. How would the authorities able to monitor all these foreign-hosted blogs used by Malaysian bloggers?

I personally feel that the registration exercise for blogs is just a waste of effort. We Malaysians are smart to know what information are truths and what are not. It’s better for the government to spend their resources on more important tasks, such as development and reducing the cost of living, particularly urbanites.

Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) President, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik calls it a day after helming the party for 26 years. He is succeeded by his deputy, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the Chief Minister of Penang who will be Acting President of the party until the next party elections.

Dr. Lim is expected to stay on as Energy, Water and Communications Minister until the General Election which is widely speculated to be held later this year or early next year.

Have anyone of you watched the Singapore-made movie Just Follow Law featuring Gurmit Singh (Phua Chu Kang) and Fann Wong? If you have, you would noticed an actress nicknamed Lao Zha Bor (old woman) claiming that she has a blog at laozhabor.blogspot.com.

Well, that’s just part of the movie right? Yes and No. That blog really exists and the owner is none other than Lao Zha Bor in the movie. Take a look at laozhabor.blogspot.com.

Update:

The Lao Zha Bor is You Ya Min, 69, who starred with various movie produced by Jack Neo. Among them are Just Follow Law, I Not Stupid, and The Best Bet.