Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Dengarlah, saudara-saudari sekalian... I am about to membebel.
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?
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
This LLB student and her crazy rants.
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..........