eLEGS

Peace Is The New Frontier

Hot For Teacher

Read!

Definitely not the most appropriate title. Haha but it's the only song title I can think of right now. Sadly the song itself is actually about a dude who basically has the hots for his teacher la. But I do agree with the views presented in the article and in the comments; 

1)The teaching profession is looked down by our society, when in reality it should be revered(because like they said, where the heck would we be without teachers eh?)

2)If anyone deserves proper and improved training, it should be the teachers. How to improve our education if our educators aren't improving kan?

3)Yes, do more fun activities to encourage students to learn English. As Darren from An Honest Mistake once suggested; bring a frickin guitar into the classroom if you have to!

The Malaysian Outsider

Read!

The Rising Tide Of Right Wing Radicals

Read!

No more stranger Economy Please

Read!

Cinderella revisited

Read!

"Updated Fairytales". Haha, I really want this book!

Guilty pleasures

I'm definitely NOT an advocate for lipsynching or self-enhancing surgeries(some accusations from the naysayers of the group), but to be frank I couldn't really give a shit. They just click with my ears(and eyes). Although I'm only interested in these 2 particular songs and their respective videos. Not really a fan of the whole GEE thing. Flailing legs and "Dark Soshi" on the other hand, me likey!

Look A Little Closer

Click here. I find the concept really interesting. And the whole idea of "we start as nobodies before we can actually become somebody".

The Lesson Of Terry Jones

Read!

Merdeka from different perspectives

Kinda late. Supposed to post this earlier, but owh well.

Pakistan needs help!

Read!

A day to reflect...

Read!

Inspiration comes in many forms

WARNING. NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!

Highschool kids built an electric car!

The hippie in me is quivering with excitement! Plus the car is a see-through! I've always wanted a car like that. Solid colors are boring man. Hmm, btw I can actually use some of the ideas/technologies/concepts from this piece.

I would be a very dull person if you could tell who I was simply by looking up my race

Credits to Zheng Joo.

It started with an impulse reading.  And then I found myself back into a caring phase, which is good, and crucial. I remembered it putting me into a thinking perspective so vast, that I thought I should just mailed it to every peers I know celebrating their 21st birthday out there. Often time, the damage is already done when people refused to read on with seemingly reasonable excuse of it being "such a long articles". There is also, of course, a fear that if we do something different, we'll end up in a place that we like even less, that we're even less suited for. But obviously, this is a phenomenon only for those who have the certain degree of economic privilege to make this sort of choice possible to begin with, and for that reason a lot of people treat considering making different choices as frivolous. At the same time, some of the questions that underscore the quarterlife crises so many experience are important. They challenge the idea that the status quo is the right choice, that it should be the only choice and the choice toward which all people should strive. A person having a quarterlife crisis asks: is this lifestyle really all it's cracked up to be?

At the same time, though, there is little opportunity to have a different kind of life. At every turn, many people will try to push you back into the mainstream and what you thought it should be. But you ought to know that you are entitled the right to qualify you own right or wrongs, by reading now.

 -----

Race: Time for a new beginning

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah   

Aug 9, 09

The opportunity to study abroad is gift. I remember my days as a student in Belfast so long ago. Now as then, overseas study gives us the chance to be educated at some of the finest, best established institutions of higher learning anywhere, and to be exposed to the best that has been thought and done, and to measure ourselves against the highest standards. It is an opportunity to see the world.

Travel and living abroad takes us far away from home, but in doing so it also brings us closer to ourselves, and closer to home. Have you experienced this? Have you felt time and distance making you more conscious of how unique and precious the places, relationships, colours, smells and yes, tastes, of home are? Distance can help us see things more clearly. Home is such an immediate, dense and total experience that we often need to go away to see its contours. Home is such an emotional experience that we often understand it better in the coolness of distance. We sometimes need the elevation of distance to see the map of our own country.

I want to use this privileged distance that we now share, here in Melbourne, to speak frankly with you today about a matter that is usually so tightly wound up, so emotional, that at a national level we have not been able to have a rational discussion about it.

I want to invite you to look across this distance at the map of the life in common that we call our country. I want to look across the distance of fifty two years of independence, across changes over my own lifetime, to understand where we have come from as a nation and where we are going. My topic is race and racial consciousness in Malaysian life, and especially in our politics.

Race in the political life of Malaysia

Our social and political life is racialised to a degree seen in few other countries in the world. There are historical reasons for this. Malaysia was, at its birth, a country deeply divided along communal lines. We negotiated and attained independence with a power-sharing arrangement between the leaders of the three major racial communities as represented by the Alliance coalition. The agreement and cooperation of these leaders ensured peace and stability while we modernised our economy. The skill and integrity of these leaders, and their clear authority among their own communities was key to the success of this model, which is sometimes described by political scientists as consociational democracy.

This arrangement lasted only 12 years. After the traumatic riots of May 1969, we underwent a period of rule under the National Operations Council before Parliament was restored. The New Economic Policy was drafted and put into action. A new coalition, the Barisan Nasional, was put together to ensure that every community had a place at the table. Once more, the idea was to resolve conflict within a consociational power-sharing arrangement. Each community was to have a place at the table. Conflicts were to be solved between the leaders of these communities, behind closed doors. This arrangement was useful and effective for its time, but we have to wake up to the fact that it no longer works.

It is important to understand why:

It was never meant to be a permanent solution. Our method of racial power-sharing is primarily a system for resolving conflict in a deeply divided society. It was designed as an interim work-around, an early stage on the way to "a more perfect union" and not as the desired end-state. Over the years, however, we have put up barricades around our system as if it were a fore-ordained and permanent ideal. In doing so, we have turned a half-way house into our destination, as if we must forever remain a racially divided and racially governed society.

Instead, our ideal must be to become a free and united society in which individuals can express their ethnic and religious identities without being imprisoned in them. We must aim for a society in which public reasoning and not backroom dealing determines our collective decisions.

The power-sharing model that we started life with is an elite style of government justified by the virtue and competence of natural leaders of their communities. It needs special conditions. It does not work when political parties are led by the ignorant and the corrupt who have no standing in the communities they claim to represent.

It needs genuine agreement and cooperation between leaders who command support in their own communities and are universally respected. It will not work if the power-sharing coalition is overly dominated by one person and the others are there as token representatives. Our founding fathers negotiated, cooperated and shared responsibility as equals and as friends within a power-sharing framework. The communal interests they represented were articulated within the overarching vision of a united Malaysia.

In the intervening years, as power came to be concentrated in the Executive, we preserved only the outward appearance of power-sharing. In reality we have had top-down rule and power has become increasingly unaccountable. Each of our political parties has also become more top-down, ruled by eternal incumbents who protect their position with elaborate restrictions on contests. Umno itself has become beholden to the Executive.

Our decades under highly-centralised government undermined our power-sharing formula, just as it undermined key institutions such as the judiciary, the police and the rule of law. Our major institutions have survived in appearance while their substance has eroded. Seen in this light, the election results of March 8, which saw the Barisan Nasional handed its worst defeat since 1969, was just the beginning of the collapse of a structure which has long been hollowed out.

The end of the old, but not quite the new

The racial power-sharing model now practiced by Barisan is broken. It takes more honesty than we are used to in public life to observe that this is not a temporary but a terminal crisis. An old order is ending. Our problem is that while this past winds down, smoothly or otherwise, the future is not yet here. We are caught in between. Despite our having become a more economically advanced society, with many opportunities for our citizens to express richly plural identities, our races have become increasingly polarised. Large numbers of our electorate still vote along ethnic and religious lines. Much of our political ground is still racially demarcated. Although we have made some progress towards truly multiracial politics, both the Government and the Opposition are largely mobilised along racial lines. It is not yet time to herald a new dawn. Instead, we are in a transition full of perils and possibilities.

You are this generation caught between. You are the generation of transition. You will play a key role in determining its outcome. However well a certain kind of politics of racial identity may have served to reduce conflict in the past, it has come to the end of its useful life. We need a new beginning to racial relations in Malaysia, and you must pioneer that beginning. We need to re-design race relations in Malaysia, and you must be the architects and builders of that design.

In coming to that new design I hope you take advantage of the perspective of distance that your overseas education has given you to not take as your starting point the tired answers that are passed on as conventional wisdom. You must reformulate the questions and come up with your own answers. When it is clear that one generation may have run out of steam, it is time to generate your own. Where do you begin? May I suggest some perspectives and principles. Whatever the answers we come up with, I think the following elements are important:

Begin with our common humanity. Respect our common humanity must override all lesser affiliations, including race. One of Islam's most powerful contributions to human civilisation has been its insistence on the equality of all human beings. Islam tolerates no notions of racial superiority or inferiority. All human beings are equal before God. That same principle of equality is absolutely fundamental to democracy, and democracy is a foundational principle of our Constitution. Democracy is part of what makes us who we are as a nation. Even if we might still gravitate towards racial groupings, our allegiance to these groups must never overshadow our allegiance to the Constitution, and to the claims of equal dignity that it establishes firmly and permanently. Political parties based on race or religion must never be allowed to do or say anything contrary to justice and equality.

We must anchor ourselves in the Constitution and restore its primacy. This founding document of our country establishes definitively the equality of citizenship that is the bedrock of democracy. It gives us the framework of law and order within which we become a nation. It establishes the primacy of the rule of law, the sovereignty of Parliament, the independence of the judiciary and civil service and of our law enforcement agencies. These are the institutions which guarantee the freedom and sovereignty of the people.

We should acknowledge that while race is a category that unites people in common feeling, it can also divide, and divide disastrously. While it unites people who possess a set of social markers it often divides the same people from other communities. We should appreciate not just the fact that we are diverse but diverse in different ways. What I mean by this is that we are not diverse in the sense of being merely Malay, a Chinese, an Indian, a Kadazan, Iban and so forth. Each of us inhabits these particular identities in different ways. Each of us is not just a member of a race. There are other classifications which matter to us, such as location, class, social status, occupation, language, politics and others.

Is race the most important thing?

We would be terribly impoverished as persons if our identity was given ahead of time and once and for all merely by our membership of a fixed racial category. I would be a very dull person if you could tell who I was simply by looking up my race. We would never have unity if that is primarily how we regard one another. If you reflect on yourselves, you might find that all kinds of identity matter to you: that you are a graduate of such and such a university, that you speak these languages, support this football team, enjoy certain food or music, love to travel, can write computer code, have read such and such books, and have so-and-so as friends. Just reflect on how you identify yourselves in your facebook profiles. Is race the only thing you regard as important about yourselves? Is it the most important thing?

To expect our politics to be given by our race is to make cardboard images of ourselves, it is to retard our growth as individuals and hence as a society. Similarly to see no more of others than their race is to turn them into stereotypes and maintain a view of the world bordering on racist. I want to urge you, as the makers of the new social landscape we need in Malaysia, to reject taking race to be a unique and fixed categorisation, to reject race as a central category of social and political life.

Race is a constructed category, in the sense that people shape what they count as a "race" according to time, place and purpose. There is no unique and rigid concept of it the way there is a rigid concept of buoyancy, double-entry book-keeping, equilateral triangles and photosynthesis. I would be offended if you tried to measure and determine my racial identity, and it would tell me that there was something deeply wrong with your worldview. I am not Malay in the sense in which water is H2O.

Race is merely one among many identities we take up in life. We may not have much choice over how others categorise us, but we certainly have a choice about the relative importance to place on our own and therefore on the others' racial identity. We have a choice in how much weight we put on it, and in how high in our scheme of values we put it. The contrast I want to draw is between the view that makes race out to be a unique and fundamental category, and a view that sees race as one out of many kinds of identification we could prioritise.

If we see race as a watertight category, then you are either of race X or not, and everything else: your habits, thought-patterns, loyalties and politics must all follow from that. Then race becomes destiny. The politics of this kind of conception of race will always divide, and the ultimate solution to intra-racial problems it leads us to is, in the end, violence. It is easy to identify the practitioners of this kind of racial politics. They will rely on veiled threats of communal violence even as they take part in democratic politics.

However, if we understand that racial identity is just one of many identities we have to balance, then it becomes our duty as thinking persons to set relative priorities on all these identifications. We need to ask ourselves whether we want to draw our moral values and perspective from our common humanity or from our racial identity. As educated, reasoning people, we cannot but find our common humanity the more fundamental value. We cannot but find rationally chosen universal values more important than inherited tribal affiliations.

The ability to root ourselves in our common humanity first and foremost is the prerequisite for the development of a democratic society in which policies are decided by public reasoning rather than determined by violence and manipulation. This is because open public reasoning can only be carried out where there is equal respect for the dignity and rights of all citizens, and such respect must be firmly rooted in an understanding that despite sometimes clashing interests and identities, we are united by a more fundamental common identity: that of a shared humanity created by God. Our common humanity gives us moral obligations to one another, regardless of our lesser affiliations in a way that racial identity does not?

Time to embrace the diversity

We need to arrive at new ways of mediating conflicting claims between the races, new ways of bringing people to the table, of including everyone in the decisionmaking process.

These new ways must be based on more open conceptions of who we are. Malaysia's major races have lived together not just for decades but for centuries. Their cultures have interacted for millenia. In that time there has been mutual influence, admixture and cross-pollination at a depth and on a scale that our politics, popular culture and educational curriculum has largely pretended does not exist.

In my own parliamentary constituency, jungle covered, far inland and one of the most remote in the peninsula (it used to be known as Ulu Kelantan and covered half the state, and when I started there I had to travel to it by boat), is a six hundred year old Chinese community, perhaps the oldest in the peninsula, living in peace with their Malay and Orang Asli neighbours. Why pretend that we do not owe so much to each other that we would not be ourselves without each other? At the level at which people actually live we are already inextricably linked to each other.

It is time to embrace this real diversity in our political and personal lives. Our racial identities are not silos in a cornfield, forever separate, encased in steel, but trees in our rainforest: standing distinct but inexplicable without each other and constantly co-evolving.

While giving room to whoever wants to organise and advocate political interests according to our ethnic and religious affinities, we must now, very firmly, assert that such affinities must always recognise the priority and primacy of our common citizenship, our equal dignity, and above all, our common humanity before each other and before God. First we are human beings who are open to one another.

My young friends, I am not recommending anything novel. These are cardinal principle of our Constitution and the faiths we profess, most especially of Islam, and of reason itself. Let us have the sense of perspective to see our ethnic identities against these cornerstone principles of religion and ethics, and let us now educate our young, apprentice our youth, and conduct ourselves according to these principles. And then let us have a new beginning for Malaysia.

- The above speech was delivered at Melbourne University at an event organized by the Umno Club. Obtained and taken from the Malaysiakini article.

Hey cool, it's Ms G!

Read!

The author was one of my lecturers back in Taylors. I really liked her class. Though I forgot what it was called. All I can remember is that it's a journalism subject which involved taking long winded essays and press releases and then summarizing them into news articles. As to why I love that particular subject so much? Simple; it involves SUMMARIZING! I don't what it is about it, but I find pleasure in snipping and rearranging sentences from a whole 2 page report into a much more compact piece with a word count of  less than 300 words(or so, I forgot about the specific formats as well). I've always thought I was pretty good at that.

Haha, btw I particularly like one of the comments under the article from a Mr Danny;

The only misunderstanding that has happened is that we assumed that all these clowns are capable of leading the country and educating our children.Apparently, like all things that we assume , it ended up making an "ASS out of U and ME". 

I'm a sucker for play-on-words.

Illiza Shlesinger - Ideal Date

Witness - The Bomber

Another writer's block, so let's do some charity!

I'm annoyed.

I haven't been writing much. Be it blog posts, songs or my usual dose of post-apocalyptic fiction(yea, apparently I have a fascination with plot lines involving distopian futures). I'm really not satisfied with my recent posts. After rereading them I realized that I could have written something much better. Honestly though, they were written in a rush; I was more interested with publishing them rather than writing them "properly". Maybe I should have just left them alone to bake in the drafts section, until I'm able to do them justice.

So till I get back my mojo, I'd like to inform you guys about Ilham(ironic, since it's something I could really use right about now...for those who don't speak Malay, ilham means inspiration). Ilham is a non profit organization founded by a bunch of my old Taylors college mates. Every month they would dedicate themselves to one charitable activity(convenient for those who can't find time to help around on a weekly basis). This month they are collaborating with PERTIWI Soup Kitchen to feed the homeless around the KL area. If you guys are interested in volunteering or to even sign up full time with Ilham or PERTIWI, you can check out their details here;

Ilham -

http://ilham2010.tumblr.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=245900562969

PERTIWI Soup Kitchen -

http://blog.tripletsplusone.com/2010/03/soup-kitchen/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=362167549160&v=wall&ref=ts

In The Fasting Lane

Read!

Potato Power!

Haha I remember they suggested this idea once in Dexter's Laboratory.

My definition of enlightenment

Being "enlightened" doesn't have to mean disapproving the existence of god. It's to know that you have a conscious choice in what to believe and how to believe it best.

Witness - Halal On The Prairie

Random musings

I have a habit of "jotting down" random quotes/thoughts/ideas into my phone. Looking for pen and a piece of paper isn't the most convenient thing to do at times. Some of my more recent random musings;

- I don't believe in the concept of "religion". I am a muslim and I believe in god and the teachings of Islam. But I don't believe in "religion". I don't believe in structured organizations led by "middle men"/religious authorities/clergy telling people what to believe or how to think. Matters pertaining to faith is meant to be personal. It' supposed to be a direct commune between yourself and god. It's not something for someone else to interfere or meddle with. They ended up as "organized religion" because a bunch of people back in the day decided they wanted political and financial leverage through the means of being middle men; to "help negotiate" your spiritual transactions between yourself and god. You can see how such individuals are able to segregate communities and use their influence for personal gain. I believe in being muslim by choice, not by force. It beats the purpose altogether if you're forced to believe something you don't want to believe. Just because they are convinced certain things are black and white, it doesn't mean you have to take them as gospel. They have no right to condemn people for having a slight difference in opinion. They're just humans like you. They have just as much tendency to make mistakes as you would. They themselves will be judged by god anyway. And we've reached my main point; only god can judge us in the end. 

- We like to think ourselves as the solution. Unfortunately more often than not we end up being the problem.

- I have simple philosophies with life;

1)To each his own.


2)If you can afford it, then use your own money. Loans/financial aid are for people who NEED it. People who can't afford to do so with their own money. Making your life slightly more convenient at the expense of those who are genuinely less fortunate is just inconsiderate.


3)You're either the problem starter, the victim or the solution. The victim too can choose to either be a solution or remain shackled by the problem.

What a way to start Ramadhan...

This is the first article that I came across just right after sahur on the Time website; Anti-Mosque ads to be placed on New York city buses.

I mean seriously? Lobbying for people to "leave their faith". First of all that sentence just sounds weird; "to leave one's faith". How do you leave faith? It's not a country club membership. It's something you have inside you. You have "faith" because you believe in whatever it is that you believe. At the end of the day, one's faith is a personal choice. 

Btw, I have a bone to pick with some westerners and their "stop Islamization of (insert name of country)" thing. So let me get this straight; you guys came to our side of the world to "Christianize"(to the Christians, I did not mean to offend...just stating what the white man did back in the day...they're whole superiority complex) us, not just for a few decades but for frickin centuries and we're supposed to be okay with that. And you'll find out that most of us are in fact okay with that. It's water under the bridge yea? But when Muslims migrate to your place just to seek a decent living or even to seek refuge it's an epidemic now? People should stop being so divided just because they have a different perception on faith. Look, it's your own damn choice if you choose to be a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew or a Buddhist or a Hindu or even an atheist. People aren't as gullible as you think to be "brainwashed" into converting to whatever it is you want them to convert to. Every individual has enough brain power to at least think that much for themselves. So just stop it with all the Islamization, Christianization, Judaismization, Buddhismization, Hinduzation or what ever -ization you can think of. It simply doesn't work that way. If people start adapting foreign cultures into their lives, it's because they choose to. Maybe it just works for them. There's no subliminal psychological mind games involved. It's all in your head.

To be fair though, the muslim community there could have chosen a more suitable location for building a mosque. I mean, it's ground zero; it's the site where terrorists who had the audacity to label themselves as muslims did very unIslamic things by hijacking a couple of planes then crashing them into the WTC almost a decade ago. So it makes sense if something like that were to hit a nerve with the locals. It will definitely save everyone grief if they just moved the mosque elsewhere.

Ku Li - We Were Once Malaysians

Read!.

This is beautiful. Do read if you have the time.

Haha, thanks to Ms Jo for sharing it with us via FB.

Yet another racism piece, and a brilliantly written reply

Credits to Zheng Joo for the article. And you wonder why I have a tendency to be racist against my own race? I really like the reply to the article though.

*****

I recently came across this piece of writing that was actually published to the nationals in Newspaper, including Utusan and NST from a blogger.



“Chinese Malaysians Asking Far Too Much”

By Zaini Hassan
Source – Straits Times, published Apr 30, 2010

WHAT else do Chinese Malaysians want? Let us put aside the reasons why they do not support the current government in Kuala Lumpur. Let us study first what else they want.

For that, we have to go back to history. The Chinese came to Malaya to seek opportunities. They had lived a hard life in mainland China for hundreds of years. Like the whites who migrated to the American continent because it was the land of opportunity, the Chinese migrated to Malaya to make their fortunes in this bountiful land.

The strategy of their forebears has borne fruit. The Chinese have attained what they wanted. They now live in the lap of luxury in this land of opportunity called Malaysia.

In fact, it is not only in Malaysia that they have attained what they wanted. They have even gained full control of Singapore. Singapore is not their original country. The Singapore Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese were originally boat people. The difference is that those who landed in Singapore managed to gain full control of Singapore, but those who landed in Malaysia did not manage to control Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the Chinese live in peace with the Malays, the indigenous people and the Indians. In comparison, in Singapore, the Chinese control politics and the Government. In Malaysia, the Malays still control politics and the government. The systems of both governments are the same, but it is vice versa: The Malays dominate in Malaysia while the Chinese dominate across the Causeway.

In contrast, the Malays in Singapore and the Chinese in Malaysia are very different. The Malays in Singapore lead ordinary lives while the Chinese in Malaysia lead lives that are ‘more than ordinary’.

In fact, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad once stated that if all the Chinese-owned buildings in Kuala Lumpur were lifted from the map, only the buildings in Kampung Baru, a Malay area, would remain in the city. All the other buildings are owned by Chinese Malaysians. The well-known shopping centres in Malaysia are owned by the Chinese.

The Chinese Malaysians are fantastic. They control all the cities and major towns in peninsular Malaysia, as well as Sabah and Sarawak. They produce the largest number of, and the most successful, professionals. The school system of the Chinese Malaysians is the best among similar school systems in the world. The Chinese account for most of the students studying in the best private colleges in Malaysia. The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation. With regard to corporate and private organisations, it is the Chinese who dominate. The Malays number just a few; most of them are low-level employees. In fact, knowing Mandarin is a prerequisite for applying for jobs in these organisations.

Finally, an annual survey by the Malaysian Business magazine has found that eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. The following is the list of the 10 richest people in Malaysia:

Mr Robert Kuok Hock Nien
Mr Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan
Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng
Tan Sri The Hong Piow
Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay
Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary
Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua
Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun

This is the reality in Malaysia, my beloved country. Is the current government, which has been in power for 52 years, cruel and totalitarian? What else do the Chinese Malaysians want? I think I know, and I think you know too.





---

The point however, was this piece of reply i read.

Thuan Chye Responds to “Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?”(Utusan Malaysia article)

By Kee Thuan Chye
Every time the Barisan Nasional gets less than the expected support from Chinese voters at an election, the question invariably pops up among the petty-minded: Why are the Chinese ungrateful?

So now, after the Hulu Selangor by-election, it’s not surprising to read in Utusan Malaysia a piece that asks: “Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?” (trans. Chinese of Malaysia, what more do you want?)

Normally, something intentionally provocative and propagandistic as this doesn’t deserve to be honoured with a reply. But even though I’m fed up with such disruptive and ethnocentric polemics, this time I feel obliged to reply – partly because the article has also been published, in an English translation, in the Straits Times of Singapore.

I wish to emphasise here that I am replying not as a Chinese Malaysian but, simply, as a Malaysian. Let me say at the outset that the Chinese have got nothing more than what any citizen should get. So to ask “what more” it is they want, is misguided. A correct question would be, “What do the Chinese want?”

All our lives, we Chinese have held to the belief that no one owes us a living. We have to work for it. Most of us have got where we are by the sweat of our brow, not by handouts or the policies of the government.

We have come to expect nothing – not awards, not accolades, not gifts from official sources. (Let’s not lump in Datukships, that’s a different ball game.) We know that no Chinese who writes in the Chinese language will ever be bestowed the title of Sasterawan Negara, unlike in Singapore where the literatures of all the main language streams are recognised and honoured with the Cultural Medallion, etc.

We have learned we can’t expect the government to grant us scholarships. Some will get those, but countless others won’t. We’ve learned to live with that and to work extra hard in order to support our children to attain higher education – because education is very important to us. We experience a lot of daily pressure to achieve that. Unfortunately, not many non-Chinese realise or understand that. In fact, many Chinese had no choice but to emigrate for the sake of their children’s further education. Or to accept scholarships from abroad, many from Singapore, which has inevitably led to a brain drain.

The writer of the Utusan article says the Chinese “account for most of the students” enrolled in “the best private colleges in Malaysia”. Even so, the Chinese still have to pay a lot of money to have their children study in these colleges. And to earn that money, the parents have to work very hard. The money does not fall from the sky.

The writer goes on to add: “The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.” That is utter nonsense. Some of these colleges are meant for the cream of the Malay crop of students and are endowed with the best facilities. They are given elite treatment.
The writer also fails to acknowledge that the Chinese are barred from being admitted to some of these colleges. As a result, the Chinese are forced to pay more money to go to private colleges. Furthermore, the Malays are also welcome to enrol in the private colleges, and many of them do. It’s, after all, a free enterprise.

Plain and simple reason
The writer claims that the Chinese live “in the lap of luxury” and lead lives that are “more than ordinary” whereas the Malays in Singapore, their minority-race counterparts there, lead “ordinary lives”. Such sweeping statements sound inane especially when they are not backed up by definitions of “lap of luxury” and “ordinary lives”. They sound hysterical, if not hilarious as well, when they are not backed up by evidence. It’s surprising that a national daily like Utusan Malaysia would publish something as idiosyncratic as that. And the Straits Times too.

The writer quotes from a survey that said eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. Well, if these people are where they are, it must have also come from hard work and prudent business sense. Is that something to be faulted?

If the writer had said that some of them achieved greater wealth through being given crony privileges and lucrative contracts by the government, there might be a point, but even then, it would still take hard work and business acumen to secure success. Certainly, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who is one of the 10, would take exception if it were said that he has not worked hard and lacks business savvy.

Most important, it should be noted that the eight Chinese tycoons mentioned in the survey represent but a minuscule percentage of the wider Chinese Malaysian population. To extrapolate that because eight Chinese are filthy rich, the rest of the Chinese must therefore live in the lap of luxury and lead more than ordinary lives would be a mockery of the truth. The writer has obviously not met the vast numbers of very poor Chinese.

The crux of the writer’s article is that the Chinese are not grateful to the government by not voting for Barisan Nasional at the Hulu Selangor by-election. But this demonstrates the thinking of either a simple mind or a closed one.
Why did the Chinese by and large not vote for BN? Because it’s corrupt. Plain and simple. Let’s call a spade a spade. And BN showed how corrupt it was during the campaign by throwing bribes to the electorate, including baiting a Chinese school in Rasa by promising RM3 million should it win the by-election.

The Chinese were not alone in seeing this corruption. The figures are unofficial but one could assume that at least 40 per cent of Malays and 45 per cent of Indians who voted against BN in that by-election also had their eyes open. So, what’s wrong with not supporting a government that is corrupt? If the government is corrupt, do we continue to support it?

To answer the question then, what do the Chinese want?
They want a government…

a. that is not corrupt;

b. that can govern well and proves to have done so;

c. that tells the truth rather than lies;

d. that follows the rule of law;

e. that upholds rather than abuses the country’s sacred institutions.

Because BN does not fit that description, the Chinese have learned not to vote for it. This is not what only the Chinese want. It is something every sensible Malaysian, regardless of race, wants. Is that something that is too difficult to understand? Some people think that the government is to be equated with the country, and therefore if someone does not support the government, they are being disloyal to the country. This is a complete fallacy. BN is not Malaysia. It is merely a political coalition that is the government of the day. Rejecting BN is not rejecting the country.

A sense of belonging
Let’s be clear about this important distinction. In America, the people sometimes vote for the Democrats and sometimes for the Republicans. Voting against the one that is in government at the time is not considered disloyalty to the country.

By the same token, voting against UMNO is also voting against a party, not against a race. And if the Chinese or whoever criticise UMNO, they are criticising the party; they are not criticising Malays. It just happens that UMNO’s leaders are Malay.

It is time all Malaysians realised this so that we can once and for all dispel the confusion. Let us no longer confuse country with government. We can love our country and at the same time hate the government. It is perfectly all right.

I should add here what the Chinese don’t want:

a. We don’t want to be insulted,

b. We don’t want to be called pendatang

c. We don’t want to be told to be grateful for our citizenship.

We have been loyal citizens; we duly and dutifully pay taxes; we respect the country’s constitution and its institutions. Our forefathers came to this country many generations ago and helped it to prosper. We are continuing to contribute to the country’s growth and development.

Would anyone like to be disparaged, made to feel unwelcome or unwanted? For the benefit of the writer of the Utusan article, what MCA president Chua Soi Lek means when he says the MCA needs to be more vocal is that it needs to speak up whenever the Chinese community is disparaged. For too long, the MCA has not spoken up strongly enough when UMNO politicians and associates like Ahmad Ismail, Nasir Safar, Ahmad Noh and others before them insulted the Chinese and made them feel like they don’t belong. That’s why the Chinese have largely rejected the MCA.

You see, the Chinese, like all human beings, want self-respect. And a sense of belonging in this country they call home. That is all the Chinese want, and have always wanted. Nothing more.

The Utusan Malaysia article: Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?

Dramatist and journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of ‘March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up’. He is a contributor to Free Malaysia Today.

---

Makes you think ey?

Dual option please?

Yes, can't we just settle with dual option papers? I had that when I was in school and it worked out fine. If you're not fluent enough in English or if you feel that a 100% English makeover is deemed unpatriotic and challenging the constitution, just choose to do the exam in BM. For the rest who are fine with it or want to give a stab at it in English they should be able to do so as well. Not trying to be condescending or anything, but really, this is a no-brainer.

They got bigger issues to worry about than hair styles

Are you frickin kidding me? Regulations for FUCKING HAIRSTYLES?

Seriously it's people like them(the Iranian lawmakers who came up with this "brilliant" idea) that makes the entire muslim community look like a laughing stock to the rest of the world. Don't they have more pressing matters to attend to?

On keeping fit

Someone asked me why I never try working out at gyms instead of waiting for a clear day to go out for a walk or a swim. My answer; I find it depressing. It is! ESPECIALLY with a treadmill. Think about it, you're running on the same spot, not going anywhere. There's no change of scenery or surroundings. It's all the same; lights, juice bar, other sweaty people(some of who are in clothes you WOULDN'T want them to be in). I can't believe people pay for that "experience".

Makes me pity hamsters though, when I think about treadmills. The reason most of us don't know what they're like in the wild is probably because they've been kept as pets for centuries. I mean ALL animals came from the wild. There's no such thing as an "automatically domesticated animal". It just doesn't make sense. Hmm off topic here.

New goal is to try and achieve a Brandon Boyd-ish body(cue laughter from EVERY girl who knows me AND is familiar with the lead singer of Incubus...I know it's a tall order). So how would one get such a bod? 

Surfing?

But no uber waves in Malaysia(so I've been told)...nor am i living close enough to a beach.

Swimming? 

Love it. But i dont know anyone well enough to just call up em up and go, "yo dude i'm stopping by to use your pool!"...I got trust/friendship issues remember? Plus it's too expensive to be a member of clubs or swim there on a regular basis.

And thus we come full circle. I DONT want to have to pay for frickin exercise! It's supposed to be one of the few things left that you can do for free. If anything, being healthy is supposed to help you spend LESS.

Hope

What race are you?

Malaysian

No, that's you're nationality. What's your RACE?

Like I said, I'm Malaysian.

No, no. Okay, let's put it this way; are you an Indian, a Chinese or a Malay?

Again, I'm a Malaysian!

It's children(and parents) like these that gives me hope. It's a true story btw. The boy in question is my cousin's classmate. This happened during one of those "introduction sessions" in class.

HIStory

I'm fascinated by history. The very word alone is intriguing; HIS STORY. Every facet of mankind till now were written by the hands of those who had the most influence; the winners of their day. They had the power to rewrite history as they see fit. It's basic survival of the fittest; "the strong shall survive, the weak shall perish". Haha yea, I just quoted Makoto Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin!

Which brings me to my next point; what is real then? How can we tell truth apart from fiction?

Well we can. And we can't.

By finding conclusive evidence which would either support or shatter the assumed truth, we can tell them apart. On the other hand, such evidence may have been planted there on purpose. Heck, even if it is a legit evidence, it might be open to misinterpretations or misreadings.

I guess in the end it all comes down to intuition.

Yes, EVERY human being that has lived, had lived on intuition. I'm not suggesting that they completely ignore all facts and logic. No, what I'm trying to say is that one's logic is built up side by side with their intuition.

To me that's on of the beauties of life; only you can choose what to believe.

What If

What if there is already a cure for cancer and aids...but the ones involved are just waiting for the right price?

What if the media you consume so whole heartedly is embedded with so much subliminal messaging to the point where they have pretty much influenced the way you've been thinking and acting?

What if you're moves and activities are being watched, every second?

What if all the wars and genocides could have been stopped all to easily, but are purposely being dragged on to profit particular parties?

What if we are already able to rely 100% on cleaner, alternative energy sources, but are being told otherwise by the oil companies in order for them to continue making money?

Naive thoughts of an optimist

Felt inspired after yesterday's Creative Thinking class.

One day I hope someone can help me draft out LEGIT methods to put these things to action.

1)Global disarmament plan

- Give it a time frame of say 15-20 years maybe? Well that's MY version of being realistic. At first I wanted it done in 5 years...but that would require a WIDE scale coup d'état. The idea is to NOT use force, but through persuasion.

- Within that time frame countries are to start phasing out nuclear energy as their main source of power, in place of safer and cleaner alternatives. That way you won't have insecure blokes in the UN going "I don't like the way he's looking at that reactor core" and then putting those countries on "Axis of Evil" lists.

- At the same time, the UN would probably set up a NON BIASED(good luck with that) committee to monitor the weapons disarmament process, making sure EVERY state melts down their arsenal, down to the last piece of bullet. The same team will also be responsible to flush out black market suppliers and eliminate their stockpile as well. That way, NO ONE has weapons. So how do we settle conflicts without pulverizing tanks you ask? THROUGH TALKING...which should have been done ages ago. If you REALLY need to settle things through competition, might I suggest a game of chess perhaps? Or battleship? Maybe a friendly match between football teams, in which the winner takes a piece of the loser's land. If you're so desperate for a brawl, why not a cage match between two emissaries?

2)Everyone's a winner, everyone's happy!

- Equal dispersion of opportunities(jobs, housing, education, retirement), facilities(schools, plumbing, transport, heating) and necessities(food, drinking water, clothes, healthcare) through out the entire world. Well-to-do countries are encouraged to help out their less fortunate third world counterparts. Thus everyone is on equal footing and ending(or at the very least GREATLY reducing) world hunger and poverty.

4)Now that we have saved ourselves somewhat, save the earth!

- Come up with more effective measures to cope global warming. Introduce alternative transportation technologies such as "the SAMPAN"(I'll get back to you on this in another post...besides it was a friend who came up with the idea, who shall be credited accordingly) to replace cars, buses and other land transport.

That's all I got for now. Till then!

Ilya's guide to a successful relationship

Stole this off Ilya's blog. Haha sorry dude can't help it. 

1.Argue all the time. Even with petty stuff such as "Why did you playfully hang up the phone on me? I told you I don't like it!" "I was just playing with you, relax lah." "But I told you that I don't like it?" "Alah, I was just joking lah. I called you back right. Relax lah." "Still, I don't like it." "You nie, cepat merajuk lah. Bosan betul, orang nak main-main pun tak boleh." "You're so insensitive lah. I told you I don't like it, why must you do it?" Then it goes on and on. Yes, that's how we roll. But seriously, do argue a lot. Because when you find yourself tolerating the arguments, then you know that you love the person so much that it doesn't matter who wins the argument anymore. In the end, you still want that person you're arguing with and arguments are especially fun when you both make up. Aww. (told you this is barf-material)  

2.Don't have sex. Not until you're married anyway. Save the ultimate fun for later. ;) Sex is the most intimate you can get with your partner. If you have the habit of doing it now (ceh macam bad habit bangun pagi lambat pergi sekolah pulak), then there will be no excitement during your first night. Boringnyer kalau that happens! Besides, you don't want to lose your virginity to someone else than your husband/wife. You may beg to differ, but I know I don't.  

3.Cry your eyeballs out, wail like a madman and scream as hard as you can when you fight. If you can get pass that, you can get pass anything in your relationship. No physical aggression though! Kalau dah start pukul, dump-kan sahaja lelaki/perempuan itu! Pukul main-main doesn't count, lol.  

4.Don't upload intimate/touchy-touchy/kissy-kissy pictures of the both of you on Facebook and don't publicly post nauseating comments (eg, I love my baby boo/hubby wubby/lou pou so much muax muax, baby I cannot live without you, cayang you and me = forever etc) on the cyberspace. Don't disgust people with your physicality and intimacy because when you break up with that person (god forbids, but these things happen), people will just laugh at you. "Tue lah, dulu sayang sangat, cium-cium peluk-peluk, sekarang dah break." Mak-mak joyah sedunia would be very happy to gossip about you. So remember, it's a no-no!  

5.Talk about anything and everything! Even when the other person's topic is one that you have absolutely no interest in! If you have nothing to say, shut up and listen. You don't have to give your two cents in everything. Sometimes, all we need is for someone to listen to us. So make sure you do that with you other half. I know Sufino gets reluctant when I talk about fashion (Kenapa baju tue dipanggil tank top? Kenapa kasut tue dipanggil wedges? Apa tue waif look?? Pastu balik google) and he knows that I get easily bored when he talks about his gadgets (Maemo? Linux? Steve Jobs? Apa tue?? Pastu balik google) , but we do it anyway! Because when you share your passion with the other person, you share a large portion of yourself with him/her. Plus, when they talk about it often enough, you sort of etch the (uninteresting/insignificant, call it whatever you want hehe) information in your brain (and of course, google helps hehe). Next time, you could join in the conversation and pretend that you know a lil something something about it. So, yap away!  

6.Play hard to get. Yes, even when you're in a relationship. Simply because it's fun and it is always a good thing to constantly try to win his/her heart! But control your ego and know when to wave the white flag. Too much fun would lead to actual fights. I know I've said that arguments are healthy. But fights aren't.  

7.Go dutch. Until you're married, you have no financial responsibility whatsoever towards your partner. So don't get too comfortable with the idea of your boyfriend/girlfriend paying for your meal. Having said this, of course you can't neglect the occasional treats. Pay for the other person once in a while, buy them gifts etc. But most of the time, opt to split the bill. Be independent and don't feel obliged. A relationship is supposed to make you feel free and happy, not burdened.  

8.Never fail to say I love you everyday. Do I seriously need to explain? This is THE highlight of your relationship.  

9.Do not tell others of your personal life. Keep it low and keep it mum. That way, you guys are exclusive. Don't let your friends stick their noses into your relationship and don't giveaway (ingat goody bags ke apa nak giveaway) private information regarding your partner to others . Privacy is essential. If you lose that, you're better off without a relationship.  

10.See your partner everyday if you can! This way, you can tell whether you wanna marry him/her or not! Haha! Okay, this last one is very subjective. Some couples prefer space, some couples don't. So it's really up to you. :)

For the full post, just check her blog.