I have never felt so old and young at the same time!

Seriously!

I am still very much exhausted after days of non-stop activities. I have not gone home for the past five days and I finally hit my sack yesterday night. Whew!

I was in Penang a few days ago. USM Penang to be precise, for the RI District 3300 Interact Conference  from 23rd to 25th Nov. No, I was not there as a participant (I am no longer an Interactor, sigh). I was there as part of the D3300 Rotaract team who were helping out in organizing and coordinating the event. What an amazing experience it was. Believe me, 30 Rotaracters trying to coordinate over 600 Interactors full of adrenaline is no easy meat.

I was given the responsibility to be the Group Discussion Leader (or in short GDL) for Group 17, a.k.a Ickythump (tonight we’ll dine at McD.. lol). There were all in all 25 Interactors in the group. As a GDL, I was supposed to only give my advise, guide them and do nothing more (incredible ain’t it).

It may sound boring but it wasn’t; not when you have a bunch of teens with you. They reminded me of my good old days as an Interactor, only that they seem less shy and more energetic. Geez I feel old! And on top of that, they are suberbly creative as well (human layers burger @ McD?)

Well, you must be wondering what did I do for the three days I was there other than advising and guding the Interactors. Well, as we were all in USM, we had to abide strictly to USM rules and regulations, although we are part of the organizing team. No nights out for us. But you can never count on Rotaracters to abide by those rules. We managed to sneak out on the first night, just like how they did in Mission Impossible (jumping fences etc, but it turned out that we only had to act coolly and walk out through the front gate)

We weren’t that lucky though on the second night. Half way through our walk to the front gate, we were stopped by one of the staffs of USM.  After two phone calls and much drama, we were allowed to go out for supper.

Rebels we are.

After three days in USM, I think that the sight of curry chicken will induce vomit from me.

I’ll upload some of the conference photos later. By the way, another major rally happened in KL while I was in Penang. If you want to know more about it, my friend, Daniel  has an amazing first-hand account of the event in his blog.

Till then, cheers!

Me…back blogging with a vengence

There was a rally in the city a yesterday that was organized by BERSIH, an organization comprises of non-governmental organization and opposition that calls for a fair and free election for the country. A friend of mine has been talking about it for weeks and come that day, damn, I missed it! Gosh, I hate it when I’m out of civilization.

I’m not much of a political activist or extremist to tell you the truth. Consider me a political observer. Well, I thought of going because I wanted to see it with my own eyes the fact that the political situation in our country has become quite volatile. It may seem very much so even for an outsider (by outsider, I mean a “politic outsider” like me). Quite honestly, I don’t remember seeing the federal government led by the Barisan Nasional to be in such an unfavourable position since the short-lived Reformasi in 1999 led by the then newly-sacked Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

Yes, I think even the government is feeling so. The UMNO General Assembly concluded a few days ago too, and for the whole duration of the Assembly, the UMNO delegations and politicians had swayed away from touching any controversial and racial issues (notwithstanding, for some, Hishammudin kissing the keris, which I don’t see much of a controversial in there). It was far cry from the last year’s assembly; there was no repeat of the ketuanan Melayu debate this year. The reason?  

Two words: GENERAL ELECTION

Unless you have not been watching local news, you would have known that there is a talk about the Parliament being dissolved to make way for the polls early next year. The last general election was in the first quarter of 2004 (forgive me, hazy memory; I don’t remember the exact month), of which the BN won a landslide majority. Since the life of each Parliament is 5 years, that would make the next election to be in early 2009. Nevertheless, it would be highly unlikely that the government will wait until the 5^th year for the Parliament to automatically dissolve before calling for the election, because the standard practice is normally four years. This of course brings us to the first quarter of 2008, but it’s not absolute, I must say.

Why not the first quarter of 2008? Imagine that you are in a football match, and you are down by 1-0; wouldn’t you want extra stoppage time after the 90 minutes is up? The government has become quite unpopular due to the doing of its own men (Nazri’s antics, Khairy’s rhetoric, Syed Hamid’s BBC stint etc.). The current issues of the “judiciary in crisis” and the independent of the judiciary have further put them into a bad light. Of course, their action, or shall I say inaction in resolving that issue has not help them at all. The government would want to regain the confidence of the public first before going into the election.

Why the first quarter of 2008? Well, this could be the flip side of the football match analogy as above. Imagine that you are up by the slight margin of 1-0 and your opponent is playing their best bit of the game in the final 10 minutes; wouldn’t you want the game to end as soon as possible? Although the government is unpopular, I must say that they still hold the majority of people’s support, however slight it is. The presentation of the Budget 2008, and the launching of the Southern and East Coast Economic corridors have at least earned them some dignity, notwithstanding what people may tag them as “political agenda”.

Of course, what concerns me of course is not “when” but “who”. Who do I vote? I would like to say that this is between me and (hopefully), the Electoral Commission. Yes, I admit it; I’m a fence-sitter. People have been pestering me to vote for the opposition. There was this one speaker who came to our college a few months ago to speak about freedom of press in Malaysia. She had pointed out that the freedom of press has been more curtailed now under the current Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi compared to the era of Mahathir Mohammed, to the extent that there is nothing such as the freedom of press in Malaysia now (of which I vehemently disagree). The way that she spoke about it was as if we are in Pakistan, under the command of General Musharraf. One of the audiences than asked if such was the case, what are the remedies? Her replies was, “What’s going to happen this year? The general election. Vote for the opposition.” Bang! Immediately, any respect I had for her went down into the drain. What a cheap way to get support!

I guess what she had done highlighted the fact why I do not vote for the opposition. I know, politics are hypocrite; but what the opposition is doing is bolding and underlining the word hypocrite into their code of practice. We have an opposition leader, supposedly their saviour, who only a decade ago is the champion of the New Economic Policy and an extremist for Malay rights, now condemning the very principles of NEP, and asking non-Malays to support him. How pathetic! We have an opposition leader who vehemently claimed that they want Malaysia as a secular nation, not an Islamic nation, but overlooked the fact that they have, in the past general election formed a coalition with the very opposition party that is fighting for the full Islamisation of Malaysia. Double the pathetic! And don’t get me started on the debate on how our dressing can entice people to rape us.

As for the government, I cannot bring myself to vote for them too. While I’m a self-confessed fence sitter, friends back in high school would have known me as someone who is slightly pro-government rather than pro-opposition. Nevertheless, as I venture out from school, I have gained a more holistic view of the whole political situation in the country, and this has made me what I am today, a fence sitter. The issue of lack of transparency has made me lose so much confidence in the government (e.g. the Auditor General report). What more is the rhetoric of the government’s MPs in Parliament (Dear Bung Mokhtar, to say that I come from the same state as you do is an insult to me, as it is to the people of Sabah). How could I vote for people with IQ less than George W. Bush? Furthermore, their “sweeping under the carpet” skills, I must say is of the highest.

So, here’s my dilemma. I do not think that neither the BN nor the opposition will make a good government. Isn’t it great if we are like the United Kingdom, where they have always a very strong ruling party and a strong opposition (Labour v Conservative) or United States (Republican v Democrats)

My advice to my friends who will be eligible to vote in the next general election? Do not be prejudicial from the start. When you get an e-mail saying that Khairy is siphoning the country’s oil money, do not immediately fall for it (I got one such e-mail recently, as much as I do not like Khairy, I do not agree with this kind of slanderous stuffs). Conversely, if the same thing that was done to the opposition, do not believe it outrightly too. Evaluate the whole political situation, listen from both sides and decide who you want to vote for, and not who people ask you to vote for.

Chain of Topics

One week out in “IT wilderness”, and I am still alive and sane! Thank goodness. Just in case you haven’t know, I have officially moved to Kota Seriemas, Nilai. The housing area’s serene and peaceful; but being a new housing area, I can’t get Streamyx connection there. Maxis and Celcom Broadbands are out of equation because it is so expensive to start off with.

So here I am, in the college, accessing the internet (supposedly 54 Mbps..ehem). So, how’s life been treating me so far? My friend commented that I look more refreshed since quitting my job. Yes, I concur. I am able to concentrate more in classes. My minds do not wander towards problems in work; and I think the biggest catalyst to this is the fact that I’m getting more SLEEP!

Which nicely brings me to the topic of SLEEP. I received an SMS from a friend that said the time between 10.00 am to 6.00 am is the time where you get your best sleep. I’ve been trying (extra emphasis on the word TRYING) to sleep at 10.00 am but I just can’t seem to do that! Looks like my biological clock has been changed kinda on a permanent basis. My sleeping TIME has been set after 12.00 am (kinda Cinderella-sque, if you ask me).  

Speaking of TIME, it seems that my time is now filled with so much activities. Studies and Rotaract has taken a big chunk of my time. But further than that, I’ll be turning “semi-amatuer” in futsal starting this month (hehe). Well, our college’s Football Club is organising a Futsal League, and me and my crazy friends are forming a team, The Special Ones (dedicated to Jose Mourinho *sob*sob*). I will also be falling back to the “acting circuit”, playing in the lead role in the sketch for the college convocation (Sigh…Just like school days). Yeah, this is what I’m talking about! Real COLLEGE life.

And speaking of COLLEGE, it has been frustrating, in the sense of the management. It has been almost 6 months since we have submitted our PTPTN loan application, but till today, the Lady on the 6th Floor is still dragging her feet doing it. My friends have even been barred on one occasion from entering the college for not being able to pay their fees, but they are in a bad predicament, they are, like me, still waiting for their loan. And whose FAULT is it? 

Aah..speaking of FAULT… wait! I better stop now. Or this chain of topics could go on and on. Until next time (probably in a few weeks time, because of my lack of internet connection; and whose FAULT is it? ~ TMNet)…. Adios!