Our Cause of the White Man's Burden.

Currently playing in the background: Shin Seung Hoon – Nae Saramin Geot Gataseo

Current thought to blurt: I love the rain... it creates a nostalgic mood, and best of all it also rinses off the car…

I’m back here typing again, with K-pop plugged firmly into my ears and torrential rain pouring outside. I really should be planted here with a good, trusty mug of coffee, but anymore caffeine today would have me leaping in all directions… and all you’d be reading here would be a tangle of gibberish spouting from a caffeine-soaked brain gone wild. Now I’m mildly sedated by the sounds of Shin Seung Hoon’s “Nae Saramin Geot Gataseo”. The king of K-pop ballads can never go wrong. I know folks out there who don’t subscribe to Korean music would probably be going: “What the…?” Worry not; I shall share my views on this in coming posts. For now, we shall address another rant- worthy issue.

If verbal abuse were to come in the form of ammunition, the federal government would be riddled with more holes than a sponge now- more than ever in the past few months. Why? Someone woke up with the feeling Great Britain imperialists were at their front door again. Worried that the young would start eating waffles instead of nasi lemak, the unthinkably ridiculous happened. I regret to inform you that Malaysian leaders are still so very confused as to what it means to lead and to be led. At the moment, they are being led by blind ambition and misguided nation-building concepts, and even greed. They have skewed and twisted Malaysia’s path of human capital development into this blurred, half- hearted doodle. To lead is to know what’s best for the country and rise above petty, superficial objections with careful forethought. To lead is to exercise authority with reason and logic. To lead is to be an example of what the citizen is to be. When the citizen has to yell at you for making decisions like an ass, what sort of leader do you think you are? But all of the above will obviously be overlooked… because Malaysia (apa pun) Boleh.

However, it should be noted that the Great Education Rollback covers more than the mere issue of the mode of instruction for Science and Mathematics in schools nationwide. The nagging problem about the whole thing is that it tugs at the very roots of the entire education system. We’re talking about every darn limb of it: the teachers, the students, the schools, the facilities, the policies, literally everything needs to be thrown out. Can we say: Pandora’s Box of the Education system?

A few years back I marvelled that the government has gotten something right after all. Rejoice was abounding as Malaysian youth would learn Science and Math in English, all that terminology (which naturally would only sound right in the English language). Despite envying the little fishes in school for their newfound privilege, it got us all thinking: How much can the teachers deliver, and how ready are the students at the receiving end? Let’s be realistic and honest with ourselves here… like that Malay idiom “Tepuk dada, tanya selera”. Did the white man’s language work wonders for the system? Those who have been schooled pre-1980 would comprehend and connect with the workings of this mode of instruction. Unfortunately this would constitute only those who have actually attended institutions practising this, and mind you, the numbers are appallingly small. This number would exclude those who did not attend school, those who attended other forms of institutions or centres of education, and those who drop out of school… and maybe even some who had the opportunity to be taught in English but simply did not see it as of any significance. This monstrous section of the Malaysian population has obviously been the catalyst of today’s rollback, as they fail to grasp why their children should struggle to master the white man’s language in not only one subject, but three or more. Ladies and gentlemen, if you think these people are already a problem, it may be helpful to know that Malaysians in their 20’s, 30’s and early 40’s have nearly all been educated in a system where the English language exists in the curriculum as merely a language subject, and the mode of instruction for every other darn thing is in the national language. I’m talking about those specimens you see spewing nonsense about safeguarding the national language and parading around in the sweltering heat demanding their grandfather’s land/ language/ money/ to be returned and their other whatnots upheld. And with the rollback underway, more ignorance for generations to come. Talk about fighting the incoming tide.

I don’t blame an Englishwoman who throws me out of her house for waltzing in with a few durians… only because she has never consumed any part of a durian ever in her life and thus can never understand the wonders durians can do for a Malaysian. But I am amused that the very products of a decent English language- based education will stoop to disowning their educational background in order to claim themselves ‘wira bangsa’, otherwise known to us disgusted onlookers as insufferable scumbags who are selfish enough to throw away the future as well as the past for self gain. This was mentioned earlier as an abysmal lack of foresight... or was it just a lack of consideration for the future of the nation due to an obsession with self interest? I’d be the first to exorcise that demon MP from Kulim- Bandar Baharu as well as that Rembau-an Ape. Both received education from foreign universities, and both returned preaching treason to the Queen of England. God knows how many others have similarly sold their souls.

The game in politics is a no- holds- barred one, hence politicians are at liberty to latch on to anything and blow it out of proportion with preposterous flair. At the moment, this is all I could say, because it is apparent that current leaders do not have the people’s interests at heart, and such an obvious expression of lack of concern will only have them shooting themselves in the foot this time around.

I am happy for those who may afford a good education, one that would throttle them into a promising future; but I am still appalled that our leaders chuck the futures of other Malaysian youth away just because their children have the luxury of attending international or private institutions.

*rolls eyes and says no more*

Ni yang malas nak layan ni…

Writers Anonymous- A Crisis of Laziness: Will This Become A Habit?

Currently playing in the background: Girls’ Generation – Tell Me Your Wish

Current thought to blurt: I’m done with “Cinderella Man”. Yep, all 16 episodes… and I think the Yoona- Kwon Sang Woo thing is downright illegitimate.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m losing my touch, because really, updating a blog post has never felt like a real bother to a complain-a-holic like me. Perhaps I haven’t set my ‘blog- time’ straight like I had always had in previous sessions (that was months ago, before the Great Depression that was to be known as Finals Part 1). Now that I have all the time 24 hours could offer I’m puzzled as to why this is still an issue. Let’s see now….

While I leave the thinking for a bedtime- fix, I think it’s only appropriate I unload my thoughts of the day(s) onto this poor, poor unsuspecting page. It’s only been what, 2 weeks? And I hear the Education Ministry doing a major rollback on its policies, PAS quietly retaining their seat at Manek Urai, and some poor chap falling off a window to his death while under the investigation of the MACC. The Kampung Buah Pala drama is still dragging on more tiresomely than suspected that even the media has packed and left Penang to go poking into the mysterious free-fall of Teoh Beng Hock. There’s always something fresh from death, especially if it involved bigger fry somewhere in the story. And what could be better than having both a governmental body and the opposition pitted against each other in the same plot? Ah, even yours truly would be diabolically curious about the coincidence of such an incident because we all know this rarely occurs in such circumstances… it even gets me wondering: how could the MACC afford such negligence? Tsk tsk tsk… you know it always smells when larger fish are within err… nose-shot?

The papers are also quite a task to read with all that damage control spread all over like they owned the news (oh I forgot that they do, my bad)… You can’t see much of what the Opposition has to say, which is funny because the late Mr Teoh was the political secretary to Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, both of whom are from the DAP. It’s also a bore to read all that finger- pointing, and at this point I really have to admit, no matter how I disapprove of how the BN handles certain things, that both are just as bad as the other. I understand that all that demanding of a transparent and accountable investigation by the Opposition is a clear warning that the government is being watched, and they can’t afford to be sloppy about it. But it can be expected that the Opposition will not be off the government’s backs even if the autopsy report rules out foul play, and it has been proven that the deceased fell off by accident or in a suicide attempt. Politicians will still be politicians; and when an opportunity to be out for blood comes like this, it’s hard not to imagine them exploiting it to their advantage, whether it be the Fed Gov or the PR. No amount of candlelight vigils and black shirts can cure the fact that the BN are in control, and that the PR will always find something to pick with the big bully in the political playground (there are more opportunities to look pitiful while being the underdog and win more support although you might be the lesser monster). Hence the PR’s job here is to rouse suspicion amongst the people, whilst the Fed Gov just needs to block out the noise and finish the job.

Yin and Yang indeed.

It is apparent that I tend to stray into general discussions… but yes, it is always because I don’t know enough to provide sound comments. Just a normal, human rant will do. It isn’t very wise to be in over my head in these things, no? For more reliable information you should consider consulting a source called the Malaysian media, in whichever language they come printed in (believe it or not, they all don’t sing to the same tune- it’s alright I don’t know who to believe in either).

Oh I nearly left out the bit about Manchester United visiting!

Whatever.

Now that I’ve wrapped up “Cinderella Man”, I think a few words on it would be fair. It’s been years since I last watched a Korean soap, and the trends may have changed. This one is somewhat different in its approach to how the plot connects the characters. Very well written story, I must say. The supporting characters are still those specimens in every series who are insistent on creating eye- rolling love- triangles… but the manner in which they ended the story looks more humane and logical than most of the others I’ve seen. Kwon Sang Woo carries his part well like the pro he is… yep, yep! His co-star Yoona, (who is really nearly half his age) does acceptably well for one whose main profession isn’t acting. And I like how each episode is at least an hour and five minutes long. Quite a large serving squeezed into 16 episodes. A great watch, and definitely worth all that waiting for the past week.

Oh wait, I think I just answered my own bedtime question! Now I can hit the sack in peace. Goodnight!

The Great Procrastination Parts Its Walls

Currently playing in the background: K-Will - Dropping Tears
Current thought to blurt: I need to get a hold of my sleeping shadow, and beat the hell out of it.

After months and months of abandoning a lifelong passion and a nagging need of personal expression in print, I've finally gotten down to the keyboard again. It must be due to my immature pent up of unneeded frustration, or of a sheer indifference towards my past attitude towards writing. I must admit that an injustice which i thought i suffered was actually an injustice i brought onto myself for months now. Now let's toss that issue behind us, shall we?

Now that I have begun I am at a loss for topics. Truthfully, this brief session here on my much neglected blog is to await the loading of tonight's serving of "Cinderella Man". In case you were wondering, it's nothing more than one of those generic Korean soaps they keep churning out to feed the insatiable appetite of millions of housewives worldwide. I'm just watching it because it's relatively new (released in May this year), and for Kwon Sang Woo. It's been eons since I last sat down to actually watch anything, hence the decision to cuci mata (directly translated to mean 'wash eyes', i.e. looking at something you really want to look at)... The series so far has yet to become painfully complicated although my annoyance with the female cast has begun to set in (similar sentiments for most other series).

Another event I recall having to wait around to watch all night was that strange ceremony called 'Michael Jackson's Memorial Service'. Remember that? Or was I the only idiot who stayed up for a 3-hour sing-a-long speech-giving ceremony which was fairly solemn until the point where Brooke Shields took to the podium. Is it alright for one to feel compelled to lob rotten tomatoes at a person wasting our time at a memorial service? It would have been a wise opportunity for a toilet break, but somehow I ended up doing that during Stevie Wonder’s performance. After all the praises have been sung and the canons fired, I still couldn’t grasp the greatness of it all. Sure he was the greatest entertainer of all time but something was absent during the King of Pop’s last moment with the world. Heck, how are we even sure he’s in that gold casket in the first place? One thing’s for sure: the man’s death is still consumed in scandal and until the world is done scrutinizing his remains you know he can’t rest his moon-walking bones.

The fiasco ended with footage of a ludicrously pricey casket being carted off to (supposedly a cemetery, which we all naturally would expect a dead person would go after his memorial service but hell no)... the LAPD morgue. Samples would be taken from all parts of his reportedly 'needle-hole riddled' body... so you could expect the poor man to still royally grace the morgue until they manage to gather sufficient evidence to suggest that the King of Pop did not just overload his own veins with poison, but rather a trained and experienced professional *coughdermatologistcough* medical practitioner was the hand behind the sudden royal departure. I do not know enough to offer my one- cent’s worth because like every good citizen who knows any better, I am convinced that every man is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law... and to speculate will only contribute to another trial by the media. That’s only a portion of the Jackson mess. In the coming days we can all expect to be fed with all-Jackson material: the custody battle, the debts, the tributes (statues, monuments, more flowers to be hosed off the streets), and possibly another sensational Jackson-related courtroom drama (all great fodder for a movie underway). Did I miss anything?

However, I shall not speak ill of this man’s demise for his many (earlier) years of amazing entertainment have indefinitely overshadowed a few dozen pages in the dailies on his queerness and eccentricities. I am one of the millions who have heard and seen the magic of the Michael Jackson phenomenon. My family brought us up with a healthy dose of MJ hits, and as a child I was convinced the ‘moon-walk’ was done with special shoes or something someone as insanely gifted as Michael can come up with. But watching those same moves today I still can’t justify my premise. So it could only mean that he was a sheer genius… an irreplaceable icon of what made pop music what it is today.

MJ, I can’t say ‘RIP’ just yet with all that probing and poking… but I’ll just hope for your sake that it’ll be over as soon as possible.

Now how did this become a Michael Jackson memorial commentary? Darn all that waiting for “Cinderella Man”.

Dengarlah, saudara-saudari sekalian... I am about to membebel.

Saya membuat keputusan membuat coretan ringkas di sini setelah menghabiskan beberapa minggu memaki hamun Kerajaan Barisan Nasional dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Sungguhpun Bahasa Melayu, sebuah warisan tanahair ini yang mengutarakan budaya bersopan- santun dan berbudi pekerti tinggi, tidak menyediakan perkataan- perkataan yang memadai bagi tujuan saya melepaskan rasa tidak berpuas hati, saya akan melakar sejarah dalam hidup saya sendiri dengan memaki hamun Kerajaan Barisan Nasional dalam Bahasa Melayu buat pertama kali. (Sebelum ni camana nak tulis dalam esei BM kat sekolah, kan?)

Sambutan hari kemerdekaan ke-51 dan 16hb September, tarikh keramat lahirnya negara kita Malaysia ini berlalu begitu sahaja. Adakah kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia telah menunaikan tanggungjawab kita sewajarnya dengan memperingati tarikh- tarikh bersejarah ini dalam coretan sejarah negara ini?

Setahu saya, rakyat Malaysia lebih rakus menyaksikan pertarungan kata- kata dan janji politik yang saling dilemparkan oleh dua pihak yang berbalah di Putrajaya. Kematangan politik yang nyata di kalangan rakyat terbukti pada 8hb Mac 2008. Saya megalu- alukan perkembangan positif ini kerana terdapat perubahan paradigma di mana rakyat mula mengukuhkan kedudukan mereka sebagai asas proses demokrasi negara ini. Sungguhpun begitu, proses evolusi ini masih belum lengkap.

Dari perspektif seseorang warga asing, kemungkinan besar pendapat yang dibentuknya dari apa yang dilihat adalah imej rakyat yang kurang matang kerana sanggup melayan karenah wakil- wakil rakyat yang tidak masuk akal, terutama sekali bagaimana wakil- wakil rakyat sebegini berjaya memperoleh mandat rakyat ketika pilihan raya dalam masa 4 dekad ini. Saya hanyalah seorang penuntut undang- undang. Saya tidak mungkin akan mendapat tahu tindak- tanduk sesetengah pihak yang mungkin telah memanipulasikan system pilihanraya di negara ini. Selain sebab ini, saya tidak dapat memikirkan alas an lain mengapa kita terus menderita di bawah pucuk pimpinan yang membatu api rakyatnya sendiri.

Rakyat Malaysia sememangnya memerlukan masa bagi membentuk sebuah kesedaran tentang sistem pentadbiran yang serasi dengan komposisi masyarakat kita. Selama ini kerajaan Barisan Nasional yang menghirup kegemilangan berjayanya Parti Perikatan memperoleh kemerdekaan bagi pihak Malaya, terus mengamalkan sikap bodoh sombong dan prinsip- prinsip lapuk. Kendatipun saya memahami situasi negara Malaysia yang masih boleh dianggap sebuah negara yang ‘muda’ jika dibandingkan dengan rakan- rakan ASEANnya, saya percaya bahawa asas pentadbiran Parti Perikatan ketika pra- Malaysia adalah sebuah permulaan yang positif bagi semua. Walau bagaimanapun, pengendalian halatuju yang salah telah menyebabkan sebahagian objektif pembentukan Malaysia lenyap sama sekali. Semua ini berlaku disebabkan sifat tamak haloba pemimpin Barisan Nasional semata-mata. Tunku Abdul Rahman telah memilih nama ‘Malaysia’ kerana beliau mempunyai impian menyatukan beberapa negara Asia yang sememangnya akan terdiri daripada pelbagai kaum dan agama. Jelasnya dengan ini, beliau ingin membentuk sebuah negara majmuk yang akan memanfaatkan semua pihak secara adil.

Malangnya, kuasa mutlak yang diberikan oleh rakyat sendiri kepada pentadbir Barisan Nasional yang kurangnya mentaliti kepimpinan membawa kepada kehancuran moral parti ini. Nyata sekali, senarionya sama dengan anak kecil yang tidak boleh dibenarkan bermain mancis: Kecil- kecil menjadi kawan, besar- besar menjadi lawan.
Runtunglah Malaysia dijilat api disebabkan sikap kita yang alpa, memberikan mancis dan pemetik api kepada ahli politik yang bagaikan ‘harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi’.

Mungkin pembaca sekalian berasa saya terlalu taksub mencari salah silap Kerajaan Barisan Nasional sehingga mengabaikan aspek positif pentadbiran mereka. Saya tidak menafikan hakikat bahawa terdapat usaha yang padu bagi membangunkan negara kita yang dahulunya mundur ini. Saya juga tidak menafikan hasil yang dapat dinikmati oleh rakyat sejagat berikutan usaha ini. Walaupun begitu, saya masih berasa prinsip parti Barisan Nasional yang terlalu bermain politik perkauman telah membatutkan perkembangan Malaysia yang berpotensi menjadi lebih menyerlah di rantau Asia ini terutamanya dari segi ekonomi dan sosial.

Segalanya bermula dari mentaliti dan buah fikiran kita. Saya menyeru rakyat Malaysia yang berbilang kaum dari segenap penjuru negara agar lebih prihatin kepada aspek- aspek yang dapat memajukan negara ini tanpa mengira latar belakang, kaum, dan agama. Hindarilah segala isu yang memisahkan kita sebagai sebuah entiti yang majmuk lagi bersatu. Usahlah kita terhanyut dengan kata- kata hasutan ahli politik yang mengagung- agungkan kaum sendiri kerana perbuatan ini bak meludah ke langit. Tidak ubah seperti makhluk belukar. Bertaubatlah, wahai Jenin pendusta…


Saya masih menanti satu BANGSA MALAYSIA.

Dengan ini, saya menaruh harapan kepada barisan pemimpin alternatif bagi mengakhiri penantian saya (dan 26.5 juta rakyat Malaysia yang lain) ini.

Adakah saya melukut di tepi gantang?

This LLB student and her crazy rants.

( flashback: the wonderful times in Inter!)

How's a little blogging going to hurt an intermediate student? A lot, actually!!! Well, that's just for my pathetic case where my legal studies are currently nearly derailed every now and then. I don't blame Mother Nature and my fellow human beings. I'm just such a screw up when it comes to sticking to my priorities ( my priority is that 6- question torture from Miss Vaani... and that Valentine's day gift she so graciously presented to us on that same day... And hey hey: look at what I'm doing now.).

At the moment I'm just flipping cluelessly through my notes, wondering aloud if studying beforehand could have made much of a difference ( you and I both know that it would, duh)... Well I'd be so prim and proper if i did... that speckless nerdy girl who does things so oh-perfecto. I'm not. I'm an incorrigible slob... And not being oh-so-proper would foreseeably grate things up... Law is definitely not for the lazy. I've told that to myself time and time again. But old habits die hard, especially habits that seemed to work even when you thought they'd be the death of you, e.g. last minute work. Despite my undying faith in last minute efforts, people: Don't do this to yourself. It's going to gut you inside- out, especially if you're an LLB inter student like me. It won't work every time. Lady Luck spits on it. Haha... Believe me, I've faced her wrath.

This morning I crawled out of bed with a searing pain in my head. Common law test was at 10am so i made it a point to drag myself off bed at 6am. Due to the pain i collapsed back into bed, stuck a pillow over the side of my head and shut my eyes tightly. God, i had no idea it would hurt so much. I then texted a message to my classmate telling him i won't be able to make it for the paper. Drat!!! After all that reading! Then Miss Linda's words came dancing around in my mind (as though the migraine wasn't satisfied being lone ranger):"... Don't kid yourself. You can't afford to fall ill..." I was then having torrents of dreadful imaginary circumstances. What if this happened on the morning of the 21st of May? What if..? What if..? Gahhh.

'Tis the season to be sniffling... My friends are down with at least one specimen of virus or bacteria... My house-mates, especially. In spite of what Helen was trying to tell me about the darn scorching weather out there, i failed to notice at all. My body had more brain than i thought. Today's migraine was sheer evidence. I just couldn't give two hoots about these things sometimes. I think I'm superhuman! hahaha... I'd be lying if i were to say i wasn't thinking so. Perasanlah... as usual. Just observing my sleeping habits will convince you of the level of confidence i have in my body. hahaha... Until the moment I crash and burn... Long story short: Jangan eksyen lebih- lebih kalau tak boleh...

The start of 2008 saw some significant changes in my classroom life. I've moved from the hindquarters of the room to the very front... literally under the lecturer's noses. So close that I've taken to the habit of counting lecturers' nose-hair ( identity withheld) in the event that the lesson had my imagination travelling a tad too far. I have 3 seats to myself up front! No more distractions! (Try that when Miss Vaani is constantly scanning you... i swear she knows exactly when to swoop down on you) I'm a whole lot happier being in the front. It feels exactly as if the lecturer is actually talking to you and no one else, which makes note- taking and questioning much easier. I used to duck all over the place to copy stuff off the board (those scrawls, drat!) and the fact that i had to look at the back of people's heads annoyed me. Yeah yeah, i know, it took me about 4 months or so to realise that i hated it... but better now than never. I don't have to strain my eyes and ears anymore. God bless those angelic classmates who left the front-most row empty! Love you whoever you are!

You know when all hope seems lost, there's definitely some strand of hope there somehow. If you'd read Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope is the Thing With Feathers", you'd know what I mean. I didn't believe in the immortality of hope until i came across that poem. It occurred to me that we are each made in a certain way to believe in hope even when we don't want to, or cannot. It happened to me lately, again. This time it was during mocks. I was convinced that my 1st paper, criminal law, was a sure disaster. But as it turned out, whaddaya know? It was the best compared to my other papers. Eureka, some hope in my otherwise tragic mock experience!

Alrighty, i think it's time for these fingers to skip off the keyboard and get back to that seminar pack waiting on the desk. What I may conclude here is that we have to approach everything with the right attitude, and man's tendency to vary in attitudes make it all the more difficult to put this into practice. Now, back to 1997 Zone A question 7..........

Ridiculous Business.

Currently playing in the background: Mario Vasquez- Gallery

Current thought to blurt: MTV Asia Awards in my own backyard, and I’m going to miss it. Gahhh…!

You might know me as a very ambitious girl who often bites off more than she can chew. But then again, I have never made it a point to treat myself to big opportunities, most of which millions of my fellow homo sapiens would dearly love to kill for. For instance, I made it into the 500 guests’ list of the 2^nd Malaysian Student Leaders’ Summit in Kuala Lumpur... which opens approximately 5 hours from now in Hotel Nikko. I had been dying to listen to people like Karim Raslan and Zaid Ibrahim for as long as I can remember, even before my legal studies. These two names are just a tiny segment of a whole list of speakers at the 2-day summit.

I’ve registered 4 months in advance so as to have something to look forward to in August. That was before they released the official list of speakers. At the top of the list is none other than Pak Lah himself, followed by Professor Ungku Aziz, and some other bullcrap Barisan Nasional politicians. The joke of it all was, even Khairy Jamaluddin made it into the list. Just because he’s an Ox- fart. A friend of mine once said that it was no point making the trip because it will be a bore, with BN lackeys toeing the party line and the whole summit would be rigged with nothing but propaganda. Despite the attraction of being able to question various government policies, I bore in mind the fact that not everyone in the summit would kindly tolerate a full- scale pre- emptive strike on the government. If we had to behave ourselves like the demure, tame government supporters they expect us to be, the entire event would stand too politically correct besides being another mere tool for benefitting cronies through contracts spawned by the event.

Now you may think I sound like one of those anti- BN fanatics who label all things BN as evil, counter- productive, impotent, and a disgrace to the nation. If the BN had not been over- playing their racial politics crap over the years it wouldn’t have had such an obvious pressure- cooker effect on me. The MCA is the most constipated party of all, and the MIC has suffered a fate of being subject to greedy and selfish party leaders. Politics in Malaysia is unique in itself, because everyone is trying not to be such a racist nincompoop, but ends up being racist all over again. If we are truly Malaysian, we do not call each other ‘Melayu’, ‘Cina’, or ‘India’. We see each other as fellow Malaysians who share this glorious nation, and work together in its building. However, there is this unfathomable mentality certain people possess which has already violated every principle of law, and defied logic itself. I genuinely wonder if this mentality will continue to exist 10 years from now because it’s grinding a humongous ulcer into the belly of the country. Well, there is always the Federal Constitution to help it along: the largest joke which poses stark naked in front of every Malaysian, and the rest of the world for that matter.

A constitution sets the foundation for governing a nation, with all its fundamental laws of the land to act as a guideline for administration purposes. What’s worse with a constitution like ours is the fact that it is written. It only takes a strong government (more than a 2/3 majority in Parliament) to disfigure these laws, shaking the very pillars holding up the laws of the land. The government has also frequently abused the constitution to their advantage. If you had a copy of the constitution, it would naturally occur to you that it is either there is something fundamentally wrong with the constitution, or that Malaysian schools have failed miserably in educating our local politicians in reading skills. The live feed from Parliament in the mornings would tell you a lot of how politicians abuse their mandate to satisfy their own ideals. You might be watching it one day, with one of them going with such gusto:

“Ini salah! Soal perlembagaan tidak boleh dipertikaikan! Saya mewakili semua rakyat di Pasir Salak…. Blah blah blah…”

And you’d be like,

“Who says?! I did not tell you to say that on my behalf!”

Imagine the irony if he were actually making racist remarks on live television, and claiming that he’s acting on your behalf. Wonderful. Hidup BN!

I can never watch such debates without flinching. The worst was the issue of JPA scholarships. You can actually see these UMNO flatfish rear their ugly heads. (By the way, the above quote was from that session) If the constitution safeguards the privileges of the *ahem* without compromising the rights of the non- *ahem*s, it is a little illogical, don’t you think? In a heterogeneous society like ours, you can never give someone privileges without taking away the rights of another. So tell me, where are we now?

All Aboard...!

Currently playing in the background: BoA- Can’t Let Go

Current thought to blurt: Wow, 2 posts in a night!

Tonight feels right for a little exercise on my finger joints. A few to-do’s have been hovering in my mind. Perhaps an experience still fresh in mental storage would be my little trip to the land of the Dragon, the People’s Republic of China. This trip was initially planned for a month. However, due to the crabbiness of a very strict Chinese government, my 30-day visa was reduced to a 15-day one. Blame them for wanting everything to be in place for the 2008 summer Olympics. Better than nothing, I finally thought after days of complaining. Shenyang, here I come!

Departing from Penang, I geared up for a 4-hour flight to Guangzhou onboard a China Southern Airlines aircraft. I bumped into local MCA politician, Chong Itt Chew during the flight (tough luck during the last elections). I travelled with an uncle for accompany, as he too, was going to Shenyang to check out my dad’s workplace. Security has never been such a hassle, as we endured hours of waiting in line to be checked at Guangzhou (groping and all). The coolest device perhaps, was this heat detector to screen for people with comparatively higher temperatures, and you could see your body on this screen in shades of red, orange, green, and yellow. It was like watching swarms of people with a pair of night- vision goggles. Life did not get anymore exciting, as we had 5 hours ahead of us before our next flight from Guangzhou to Shenyang. My lunch in the airport cafe came in the form of RMB50 (around RM25) ham- and- cheese sandwiches which you and I could make anytime in our own kitchens. Coffee was RMB68. I was marveling at what the airport authorities were thinking: hiking food prices through the roof at the domestic flight departure hall. We spent those hours walking around the place, reading, and finally sitting cross- legged on the carpeted floor outside our boarding gate to watch a few Sylvester Stallone movies (my uncle’s a fan!) on a power notebook.

Touchdown at Shenyang was a great relief- at 1am in the morning. It was a long, taxing day- I could go to France with the amount of time we took to reach Shenyang from Penang. Shenyang is the capital city of Liaoning province, located in Northeast China, above the Korean peninsula. With a population of more than 7 million, Shenyang was a big, bustling city. Even Kuala Lumpur pales in comparison. Being the venue of the Olympic football preliminary, efforts to spruce up the city have produced results: this city turned out to be more intriguing and beautiful than I thought.

Being the helpless Malaysian- ised Chinese I am, making my way around China was just as challenging as I thought. I couldn’t make out the local accent at all on my 1^st day. They sound as if they spoke out of their nostrils. Culture shock was natural: the random Chinese who cut into queues as if the had the right to (as forewarned by mum), their unnaturally loud conversations, and many other traits that could set non- mainland Chinese apart from the boisterous locals (and all these are just the ones I’ve noticed in the airport and onboard the planes. God knows what else they do on their own turf.)

It is getting a little late to go on, but I still have tales to tell. I leave you here at this point. Until the next recollection of my journey,

Good night and Good luck.