They wanted the silence of the lambs.

There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold

I was born on 8 August 1957.

By the year 1969 I was a highly intellectual self acclaimed young man. I won many speech contests at the town level. I have a regular column in the Dolphin magazine catering to the needs of teenagers. I wrote many poems and short stories and they were pinned on the notice board in the school.

However my family needed me to make money even at the young age of 12 years old. My sister would buy all the rotten sea cucumbers and cuttle fish at a very cheap price from the market. My mother would then boil them for many hours using fire wood. Then the cooked sea cucumber and cuttle fish which had increased in weight would be resold at a higher price to the market vendors. The small profits that we made would be used to feed everybody in the big family of more than ten people. Thus we needed huge quantity of fire wood every day.

It was a hard time for the whole town population during those two decades. The Communist terrorists were trying to take over the state and the whole town was a war zone. The government practiced the segregation policy and all the village population was relocated to the slums of the town. There were many curfews lasting 12-24 hours from days to weeks to months. Most people had no jobs and no money. But everybody needed to cook and the saw mill waste wood had become a converted item.

The sawmills were the only industry that was active. When the logs were sawn into planks there would be a lot of waste wood. The native poor were never allowed to enter the sawmill because they would take the good quality planks for building their houses. The Chinese who had connections with the people inside would be allowed to enter to collect the waste wood. It would be sold to other small households and the money would be shared with the people inside the sawmill.

I was an errant boy for the soldiers who camped in small tents all over the town. It was because the terrorists would come as an ordinary man, woman or child to sabotage any part of town. The soldiers would be ready to shoot them down. During the off time they would drink Brandy to calm their nerves. I collected the Brandy bottles for sale to the low quality homemade liquor factories. Obviously there would be half-an inch of Brandy left inside. When you pour all these leftovers into one bottle you can make a good present for the guards at the sawmill. Thus I was allowed to enter the sawmill as one of the authorized collector of waste wood.

Then I had to face the challenge of the business. Every time I went into the sawmill, I could only come out with an armful of waste wood. I had to make around twenty trips before I could fill up my cart and pull it home. Many a times when I came out of the sawmill. I found that the natives had stolen away all my accumulated wood outside. The native understood only one law �- i.e. the Law of Parang. That�s the reason why so many human heads hung inside their long houses. I have to subject myself to that Law in order to survive those hard times. I had a parang tied to my back and I fought them coolly and calmly. I was prepared to die even at the young age of 12 years old. I did not have any other choice.

At many times there were more than 10 of them who were above 16 years old. How is it possible for me to win the fight? I had may scars on my head and body until this day. During those painful times i would come back to the house bleeding and black and blue all over. But I did not want to rub my pain onto those people I loved enough to lose my life to feed them.

There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold.

The pain would go off after a few days. I had accepted it as a job hazard long long time ago. But if the people put the pain into my heart it would be there for a long time until this day i.e. 30 January 2009. The village spinster pastor would come cycling to my house and stay for dinner. Then she would say, � Look at this boy. He goes to Sunday school every Sunday and leads the singing and prayers. Now see what he had done. After school he goes to the sawmill and fight with the natives. And that�s is his hobby fighting and he does this everyday. He also even carries a parang to show that he is very powerful. I do not know how to advice him.�

I felt sad that God had created a pastor who did not have compassion for His sheep. You may notice that I am sceptical of many pastors until this day.

I hope all of you will learn about There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold.

When your friends are in trouble, just stay around with them unless they ask you to go away. Please do not offer any advice for them because you do not know the extent of the pain in their heart, mind and soul. If you are of the same gender you may like to put your arm over his or her shoulder. If you are of the different gender you may like to put your palm over his or her palm as a gesture of support and compassion. If you are a father or mother figure to a much younger person you may like to lend your shoulder for him or her to cry on. Remember that you answer when you are posed with a question from the sad one. If it is physical pain you will have to bring them to the hospital. If it is the sorrow and pain of the heart mind and soul like the death of a loved one, an examination failure, broken relationship or a loss of a job, you know that there is no answer or solution. I would suggest that we just say, �The eternal love that God has for us and time will heal everything. Relax your heart, mind and soul now. God will take charge from now onwards.�

After that just keep silent, remember that this is the time when silence is purer than Gold.