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Tuesday 27 February 2018

Back to Sharing the Thots

A Kadir Jasin

In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate

AFTER debating with myself – often in the wee hour of the morning when I woke up to perform my night prayers – I came to the conclusion that I should start a second blog written entirely in the English language.

The fisrt compilation of Other Thots
I will continue with my original blog The Scribe A Kadir Jasin which celebrated its 12th anniversary on February 24.

 [Anonymous comments will not be published. Please use real or pseudonym. Thank you.] 

There are several reasons for starting this second blog. Firstly, to enable me to go back to penning my thoughts in English more regularly since my first blog has largely been devoted to writings in the Malay language.

As one grows older, it is important to make a deliberate effort to keep his or her brain going. Writing is a good way of doing that as it involves thinking, reading and researching.

Secondly, writing in two languages – Malay and English - has been my practice since I started my journalism career with Bernama back in 1969.

Thirdly, over the decades I have developed a reasonably large following. Most read me in both languages while some in either the Malay language or English. In whichever language they read, I thank them sincerely for their interest.

This second blog will be called Other Thots after my long running former column in the New Sunday Times and the Malaysian Business. In all, Other Thots ran for 23 years.

I am happy and grateful that some readers still remember that column. Occasionally, they would come up to me to say that they grew up reading it.

I had a lot of fun writing it. Of course it was not my effort alone. I was assisted and guided by fellow editors like Lim Thow Boon, the late Zainon Ahmad, Alan Rashid and Charles Raj, to name a few. The title Other Thots was suggested by Alan.

Thots was derived from thoughts. When referring to that column, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would jokingly say that I did not even know how to spell “thoughts”.

The title Other Thots was chosen to denote that I would be discussing things that would normally not be discussed in straight news writing. Along the way I would incorporate other people’s thoughts as well.

Thots can also be taken to be the misspelling of the word “thoth”, which is the ancient Egyptian god of the moon, magic and writing.

Since the title of the column predated the invention of Urban Dictionary in 1999, the meaning of “thots” has nothing to do with its contemporary definition in that online wordbook. 

I had a lot of fun penning that column although occasionally it landed me in hot soup and tight spots. But it survived because I diligently applied the cardinal rule of journalism - the right of reply.

Any reader or party who felt that his or her interest had been misrepresented or sensibility offended could write to me and I would publish their replies either in the column or in the letter-to-the-editor page of the New Straits Times.

Thus I had the ministers and their aides, government servants and lay people like “I, the joker, the extremely great teadrinker, the Wilkinson Sword” from Johor Baru writing to me with their views and thoughts.

The first subject I wrote about on January 19, 1992 was the Malays and their fascination with the hantu (ghosts). More than two decades on, the Malay penchant for seeking the assistance of the supernatural forces continues.

I heard that in their quest for power, money and worldly pleasures, some jet-setting Malays are traveling far and wide in search of the ultimate hantu and spirits, the bomoh and kiai, the soothsayers and tea leaf readers.

Wallahuaklam.

35 comments :

  1. Congratulations Dato. I prefer English to Bahasa Melayu.
    Keep them coming.

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  2. DAKJ,
    Looking forward to absorb your thots at this blog.
    Maybe its a little bit to much for me to expect a more fun to read column just like the old days, spiced with sprinkle of sarcasm aimed at no one or group in particular.

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  3. Other Bon Thots sounds better. Agree?

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  4. Looking forward to more of your "thots" Sir

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  5. Good move sir .

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  6. Tahniah Datuk..tidak pernah jemu dengan tulisan datuk dari dulu sehingga kini.

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  7. As'Salam... YBhg Datuk "Maestro" AKJ & Fellow³ Sahabat² MY..


    Wow! Kudos Maestro Sir!

    Now we Malaysians proudly have "Other Thots - The Cyberspace Edition"... LoL! :-)

    May Allah AWJ propel Us All to victory.. Here & in the HereAfter.. Ameeenn..

    Alrite then... Please be civilise everyone & Let the brain-storming commence..


    "I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me.
    I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."
    -Malcolm X

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  8. Salam Datuk..Terbaik....

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  9. Good effort Dato..may Allah provide guidance in your writing

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  10. Tahniah datuk.
    Hopefully we enjoy reading the column with sccurate information as well as good english.

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  11. assalamualikum dato.
    I ve been following your writing for the past 12 years and never give any comment tho. i truely support your effort to start blogging in english coz most of the times the message can easily be conveyed in english. keep on bolging dato

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  12. Salam Datuk

    Currently the country is run by many Hantus.. putting fear into the rakyat.

    The worst among all is Hantu Najis. He leaves all kind of shits in his trails

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  13. Congrats Datuk,looking forward to more 'oomph'in postings from you and comments from readers...tq.

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  14. Thanks Dato’ for bringing back Other Thots. I remember the good old days when I started my day with the NST or NSuT, and Other Thots was an absolute must-read for me.
    Keep up the good work.
    Alas , I have not touch both papers for many, many years now.

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  15. Nostalgia Datuk ...

    How about starting with Ijok land ... just for a change .

    Waghih

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  16. yes, say ur mind datuk. i admire anyone with his own sense of personal thinking. u always be a first rate version of urself which i like it on purpose. i wanna scare them first bfore they scare me. i mean umno ghosts in my kampung la......ha..haa

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  17. Methinks, many readers may have problems reading your blog if you continue the 'light' font.

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  18. Datuk

    It is good to share your perspective on our country's issues with as wide an audience as possible. Our nation is now long overdue for some huge changes so that we can all move forward

    Regards

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  19. Congratulations Dato.
    May our effort to read your articles in both languages keep our brain going as well.

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  20. Congrats Dato'

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  21. Datok, i love reading your Thots and love listening to Tun M speeches.

    Datok, looking forward to read your critical writing.

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  22. Friendly thots4 March 2018 at 00:59

    Greatly welcome "Other Thots", gives us another avenue to vent our small thots here. Sharing is challenging and fun too. Hope to see your writings here regularly.

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  23. Last but not least4 March 2018 at 01:02

    Datuk, you obviously believe in saving the best for last. Enjoy reading your comments in The Scribe, and now we will have Other Thots to read and write in.

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  24. All the best Datuk. Hope to contribute my thoughts on your new blog too.

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  25. Cik Minah Lenggang5 March 2018 at 22:46

    Congrats Dato... Love to read yr writings. Your Bahasa sgt santun & indah same goes with yr English language. I know you are a busy man lately with ppbm. Hope you can write more often even with short updates just to make this blog active. Again congrats Dato...

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  26. Dear uncle ( No disrespects to your datukship, but the zillion hanky panky datuk churn out by the mill , have left me tasteless on the general datuk population. So mind my cityness)

    keep on writing.

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