'The Voice'

The day, this outspoken radio deejay was silenced forever over the airwaves transmitting from Radio Television Malaysia's Radio 4, I stopped listening to the radio... and never turned on the local radio for musical and other shows.... Why? Because we needed real people who would speak from the heart... and we could express our emotions, think and reflect... in a world of reality. We were and are sick of 'Nazi' propaganda that Hitlerian Goebels was so good at and many persons in authority around the world would attempt to follow his racist steps... misleading facts, tricking and fooling citizens into believing falsehood, suppressing civil rights and 'cushioning' implementation of disguised state policies that harbors the ultimate aim of a single master race based on a single religion for a gullible public ...

Keeping a Promise

It will be this week-sometime, that is-when I'm going to post somewhere a video of one of Malaysia's best and unforgettable radio deejays, Patrick Teoh aka "The Voice'" given a verbal 'slap in the face' by a lady!!!

Btw, I'm itching to talk about Perak, a state where my late dad was a home guard before the war and my mom received her training as a mid-wife at Ipoh Hospital ...

One thing I can say is I love the state, people, sights and sounds & food there ...

Yes! I think there is a 'great pretender' there!!! The people should decide at the ballot box and not be 'robbed'!

A Little of Yasmin for Breakfast

A Remarkable Coincidence!

One day, you find an article in a magazine about a certain celebrity you were familiar with in the past. You used to wonder what happened to her or him.

Then you switch on the telly and who do you see? The celebrity again! Well, wouldn't you be amazed because you had not seen her for such a long time and all of a sudden, she appears almost everywhere!

That's my story about my unexpected encounter with Yasmin Yusoff.

A former Miss Malaysia, this talented Eurasian (half Malay and half German) lass (actually, a lady now after such a long time as a married woman with kids) used to rule the air waves on RTM Radio 4. I've actually spoken to her once on air.

Together with the seasoned master of the air waves, Patrick Teo, aka The Voice they were a huge sensation in the 1980's and 1990's. Over time these two celebrities went at each other's throats, fighting to rule the air waves in a scandalous egoistical game... and The Voice lost out...

I'm sorry I hasten to admit that what I just wrote was meant to be a bad made-up joke-the pair didn't have a disagreement. There was a mutual parting of ways. It would have been more exciting if it had been that scenario!

Anyway, Yasmin's powerful airy voice left the air waves sometime later...

Patrick actually left the business after leaving radio, departing with one of Malaysia's loudest bang after a controversial hilarious duckie April Fool's Day joke fooling all and sundry who loved his memorable exciting Rythm of the Nation show. Today, he is a happily remarried man with a cute kid that he proudly shows off is his immensely popular blog Niamah-you can find him in my Favorite Links Section here-and both an accomplished actor and a talent show critic.

Yasmin soldiered on alone with her show, often awakening sleepy Malaysians with her distinctive trademark "Good Morning-Good Morning-Good Morning-Good Morning-Good Morning, Malaysia' greeting. This was often a pleasurable wake-up call but it wasn't all that cheery every day for some. Nevertheless, she really got everyone's juices flowing with her daily dose of cheerfulness.

So back to my story: I happened to flip through The Malaysian Golf Digest which claims to be The No.1 Golf Magazine in the World at midnight last Friday 14th of December.

How pleasantly surprised I was to find a large picture of Yasmin in color and an accompanying interview with her. Who would have thought she's now into golf? It was a very eye-opening interview as the interviewer attempted to find out about her golfing knowledge.

This is the introductory excerpt of this interview :

One of the nation's great beauties of recent times, Yasmin Yusuff is a former Miss Malaysia and quintessential celebrity. She has been making waves for three decades and posses a mean game of golf. Having been a radio D.J., recording artiste, beauty queen and T.V. personality par excellence, we sit her down to see if she knows her golf like she should.

Man, this lady plays golf and knows a lot about the game...and I discovered a few more fascinating things about her...which I bet my honorable acquaintant, Patrick Teoh,(Incidentally, he came by not too long ago to visit my blog-you'll find his comments buried deep in my past 400 or more postings!) would be quite amazed with what she candidly confesses!

To briefly sum it all in a nutshell: she's a life-long member of the prestigious Royal Selangor Golf Club (RSGC); a big fan of the world's most outstanding best golfer, Tiger Woods (They e-mail each other every month); she's a member of his fan club and jokingly, she says she knows his daughter but not his wife. Here's her sense of humor coming through when she explains why she doesn't know what Tiger's wife's name is with a cute comment: We try not to remember that he's married. He should have married me but I'm already married. Oh well."

That isn't the end of my story...I read this interview at around midnight and after that I switched on my T.V. to forget her. On T.V. 3 English news (I rarely watch local news because of the lop-sidedness and typical heavy government propaganda) and there was a story about a Christmas tree made of golf balls in Thailand!

Then at around 5 a.m. this vampire switched to ESPN, the sports channel and man oh man, I was amazed-Yasmin Yusoff appeared like a ghost...and she was the host of the show about the yachting competition named the Moonsoon Cup!

What a remarkable coincidence in one day! It seems our Extra Sensory Perception is really high around this time of the year! In fact, I did read somewhere before that the month of December may actually make us more sensitive as it draws to a close. There's also an air of excitement as we look forward to a new year and a new beginning... Believe it or not!

Well, here's something unexpected. I wanted to find Yasmin's picture so I did a cyber-search and instead of what I sought, I found this funny gem on a Malaysian lady's blog called Absolute Ginger:

Funniest thing I read this week

This incident happened on the air….

Yasmin Yusof, a DJ on Radio 4 asked listeners on her radio program to call to answer trivia questions. The first caller to give the correct answer would get a prize from the sponsor.

She asked: “Can anyone out there tell me the household name of Sodium Chloride”

A caller who is a housewife called up eager to answer the question. Not knowing the answer to the question, she asked Yasmin for a clue.

“Something you put on your husbands eggs in the morning.” She said.

The lady confidently said : “Talcum powder”.

Yasmin Yusof did not return to the air until after a few songs!

Malaysians can really be quite naive, don't you think?

How Bloody Innovative Humans are!

I am woman... I am strong... sings Helen Reddy. That's the song that I have in my head when I picture how this wild act is carried out by the ladies concerned in this report in the Borneo Post dated 10/2/77.

Frankly, as an animal-lover, my first reaction was to be concerned for the cute animals that were used in the show.

Then obviously, the whole news item made me admire the ingenuity of those who planned the whole thing.

Of course, its exotic Thailand that would offer such shocking thrills and unbelievable surprises...Even though I've heard lots of amazing tales about the country, I've never been there myself so I won't pass any harsh judgement on the place.

Come to think of it, I wonder if devilish guy, Patrick Teoh, aka The Voice was inspired by this news and decided to play his April Fool's Day joke on air mentioning the special animals, the ducklings??? Hmmmmnnnnnn...

His name is Patrick Teoh. Known also as The Voice (He claimed he was crowned this title following an incident whereby he said something out of the blue and those present called him The Voice ever since) for his deep Pavarotti voice and natural English enunciation, he had a huge following in Malaysia. Some would hate this controversial radio deejay; others would love him when he hosted some of the morning shows on Radio 4 before Traks FM appeared.

Need I say that long before he became a long term fixture on the Rhythm of the Nation show, he was already a rising star of the Cool and Swinging Show...and The True and Amazing Facts Show (I heard about the latter and frankly, I haven't listened to it before).

Why was he so controversial?

He was outspoken, opinionated (too highly opinionated to some!), brash and blunt at times. Some said he was rude and obnoxious which would be debatable.

I liked him the way he was and saw him in the former description as outspoken, opinionated, brash and blunt. It's honesty at its extreme. Nevertheless, it was therapeutic for many, I believe.

Consider the sort of listeners he had in a time when Big Brother ruled with a big stick: Boring shows were the norm of the day. Interaction with the Malaysian public was a new phenomenon and this was skilfully molded by him into absolutely highly rated entertainment for everybody.

Folks from all walks of life and I include a certain buddy of mine who was a top sales rep in Miri loved to phone up and talk whatever topics Pat had in his Rhythm of the Nation shows. Alas! My buddy actually hit the bottle after his show went off the air following Pat's suspension for a hilarious prank, famously called the Duck Test Joke on April Fool's Day.

I heard my buddy calling twice over the radio. He was heaping praises on him for providing so many interesting shows! This sales guy was also agreeing with every word that his radio idol was complaining about such as annoying callers with their irritating radios switched on while on the phone line chatting with him. Sometime later I was quite shocked that this fan of his was angry that the show was no longer on and he really had to drown his sorrows by drinking heavily. This was a surprising revelation, considering he was not supposed to drink on strictly religious grounds!

These are just a few thoughts about Patrick Teoh. I'm keeping my promise to him to talk about him and the Pat fan who went nuts .... It's done, man!

By the way, as an afterthought, I don't think fans of his like us have a name...How about maybe we call ourselves patties after his name, Patrick or perhaps, duckies after his most controversial prank that likely got him off the air...

My All-Time Favorite Radio Deejay-Patrick Teoh aka "The Voice"

Hey, if one of our best funny man, Lat draws him, you know this guy has gotta be the best in the business! Let's open our own truly independent private radio station, hire him with an astronomical pay and let all those *&^%$#@ wet blankets and critics scream and tear their dirty hair out!

Cartoon extracted from New Straits Times, 1/30/96.