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I was just wondering when the fasting month will start. I have asked a few people but no one was certain of the date. Anyway, it was announced yesterday that Ramadan will be starting on 22/08/2009.

The quote below was taken from the MK article that I read:

Muslims in Malaysia will begin the Ramadan fast on Saturday, Aug 22.

The Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, Engku Tan Sri Ibrahim Engku Ngah, announced over TV1 on today night that the date was fixed with the consent of the rulers. - Bernama

Immediately, the phrase “today night” caught my attention. Today night? I seldom (almost never) come across that phrase. I had to check with Google to get a confirmation.

This English forum post pointed out that “today night” is wrong. Instead, it should have been “tonight”. Even then, the word “on” before that phrase should have been omitted.

TheStar article used “Thursday night” instead.

So, who’s to blame? MK or Bernama?

One can only take so much bull-crap from politicians sometimes.

A week ago, Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir was alleged to have asked for the closure of vernacular schools — an offence which may see him fined or jailed if found guilty. He later denied this.

I am nobody to judge if Mukhriz Mahathir, son of our ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad has committed sedition. In fact, this post is not about him but the people who have said that our Jerlun MP did commit sedition.

At least two politicians and a lawyer have spoken against Mukhriz’s statement. All claimed that he could (and maybe should) be charged with the Sedition Act. One even wanted the Attorney-General to take appropriate action against him.

That is really funny because as far as I know, the police would not lift a finger unless a police report is lodge. Just a question to parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang — how many police reports have been lodged against Mukhriz Mahathir for his alleged seditious statement? On the other hand, how many police reports on snatch theft incidents have been made and what are the steps taken to address this problem?

It is the beginning of the month. It is time to review and reduce the petrol price again. The reduction has been constant at 15 cents each time the price was reviewed. If this trend continues, the new petrol price will be at RM1.85 per liter — lower than it was before the 78 cents hike a few months back.

I am expecting an announcement on the petrol price reduction tomorrow. The new price (whatever the amount) should come into effect on Tuesday. Any delays should not be more than one or two days. Anything longer than that may be an indication that there will not be another price reduction anytime soon.

The next question is whether the government will peg the petrol price and not allow it to drop any further. I have no problem with that. In fact, I agree that this move can help put aside some funds for 2009 where some say the economy will be worse.

However, after reading and seeing so much, I wonder how much from what is saved will be left at the end of it.

So, Barack Obama has become the first non-white president of the USA. This hardly comes as a surprise. The truth is that I never bothered about it anyway.

What difference does it make? Some may look at it and hope that it may happen in our country as well. That is, a future prime minister could come from a minority ethnic group. Yeah, right. Dream on.

Some reporters were quick to shoot the question to our prime minister and his response was anything but dull.

It is possible for anyone from a minority group to be a nation’s leader, even in Malaysia, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi.

I laughed so hard I almost choked on my own laughter.

Something mystical must be happening in our stars this few days. Today, the High Court ruled that the detention of Raja Petra Kamarudin under the ISA was illegal and has ordered for his immediate release. He should walk free later this afternoon if nothing else crops up in between then and now.

Now that he will be out free, I was just wondering who shall be the first person whom he will attack on his Malaysia Today blog. PM Abdullah Badawi? Deputy PM Najib Rajak?

No no no.

If I were him, I will knock on opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s doors first.

Language is a beautiful subject; if one spends enough time and effort coupled with interest studying it.

I am not a language freak but reading one of the latest articles on Malaysiakini got me thinking. I did a short research on two main languages in Malaysia — the English and Malay language — and found what I was looking for. By the way, is it called Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu now?

Quoting from the mentioned article on Malaysiakini, “Ahmad did it again, told Chinese not be American Jews”:

“I want Koh Tsu Koon and Gerakan to take responsibility for whatever untoward incidents that could happen in this country of ours.”

The word in the quoted text above that sparked the desire in me to conduct my little research is ours. A check on Wikipedia reveals that the possessive predicate adjective of the word we is ours. Some other examples on possessive predicate adjectives include mine, yours, his, hers, yours and theirs.

So, what are possessive predicate adjectives used for? Possessive predicate adjectives are used to show one’s ownership. For example, when I say “The pen is mine”, I meant to say that the pen belongs to me. When I say “That ball is yours”, I meant to say the ball belongs to you.

What really, really sparked the desire in me to conduct my little research is that I noticed a “weakness” in the English language compared to the Malay language. The point is that I noticed how we can’t differentiate the word “We” in English like how we can differentiate the word “We” in Malay.

In the Malay language, we have Kita and Kami at our disposal. Kita refers to the individual speaking, his/her friend(s) and the person/people they were speaking to (inclusive we). On the other hand, Kami refers to the individual speaking and his/her friend(s) excluding the person/people they were speaking to (exclusive we). (I learnt this in school so if I am wrong, don’t put the blame on me.)

In English, there aren’t two words that can clearly distinguish between inclusive we and exclusive we. The only possible method to understand the usage of the word “we” is to fully read and understand the entire sentence/paragraph.

This might be a design flaw in the English language since some other languages have up to six words to differentiate the word “We”.

Author’s note: Here is some salt. Kindly add to taste.