Sajakkini

Fathi Aris Omar : Tiada Noktah

Soal ‘padang tidak sama rata’ dan hubungannya dengan PAS, harap janganlah mengulang-ulang hujah sedemikian dengan saya. Tulisan seseorang yang memperkenalkan dirinya sebagai ‘Ahli PAS Bangsar’ (APB) dalam suratnya ‘Tulisan Fathi Dijawab’ (Malaysiakini.com, 14 April 2005) dirujuk.

Selain muak, saya telah berkali-kali menulis di kolum ini dan beberapa penerbitan lain sejak bertahun-tahun yang lalu. Saya sendiri tidak faham kenapa parti Islam ini, dan rakan-rakannya dalam Barisan Alternatif, ‘tidak serius’ dengan persoalan ini – usaha-usaha membesarkan ruang demokrasi tetapi tanpa sepenuhnya disedari, mereka turut menganut nilai-nilai dan amalan – amalan tidak demokratik.
Malah, saya sendiri bingung kenapa PAS (atau aktivis Islam) sendiri menghayati budaya buruk tidak demokratik itu, ingin menyekat orang lain daripada bersuara. Sedangkan tidakkah pada asalnya mereka turut menentang realiti buruk ‘padang permainan yang tidak sama rata’ itu?

Misalnya, kenapa susah bagi mereka menulis jawapan, atau memberi penjelasan, dengan tenaga dukungan hampir 500,000 ahli dan penyokong di serata negara? Sudah terlalu sering saya bersuara di sini sehingga tidak wajarlah saya mengulang-ulangkan lagi hal ini di sini. (more…)

4.30 on a Friday afternoon. I’m supposed to be working on the artwork for an upcoming exhibition to be held soon but I find myself discovering increasingly innovative ways to procrastinate. It doesn’t help that I am sitting in my glorious home in the middle of a balmy afternoon when everyone else is hunched over their keyboards in the office, busily working and trying to ignore e-mails like this.

How much would you pay for this kind of freedom? In my case, it’s costing about two-thirds of my last-drawn salary. I’d be happier with half, but it’s only been six months. So give me another year before you start proposing to me, yeah. Unless you don’t mind your (I mean, our future) children going to school wrapped in old pieces of carpet and eating the tupperware in which their bekal (rations) is supposed to come in every now and then.

A friend of mine who has been freelancing for the past six years and consequently has a conjugal relationship with maggi mee thinks this is the kind of life humans are meant to lead. I agree with him in that the 9 to 5 routine is sometimes unnecessary, but in terms of it being artificial, I’d now have to wonder. The Quran plainly states that God created the day for working and the night for remembrance, so spending half your life in an office must be how it’s meant to be. (more…)