Undilah - an ad banned by the govt

No idea why they banned it. Great job, Pete Teo.

Go get registered and go vote the coming election.

We get the govt we deserve; so make ourselves better so we deserve better.

Tolerating Intolerant Untolerables

That to me sums up the Malaysian experience, meaning living in Malaysia. Which (unintentionally, I must add) forms the acronym TIU.

We have effectively sold out. Everything that can be exchanged for money, we have. Education, environment, the law, personal freedoms, personal safety, the whole lot. The numbers and results show - our economy's doing well, some people are growing rich, some of some people are growing incredibly crazy-rich; on the other hand, our 'top university' ranking has dropped to match our Transparency International index, people can C4 other people and get away with it, governments can get bought out, hillsides are falling over each other from under-studied development, trees are felled left right centre, and people are getting more scared for their safety every day: robberies, snatch theft, rape and murder.

Charming innit?

An untolerable situation, stemming from having Untolerables in charge. They think they can get away with everything, and we let them. If half the stories are only half true, it's still a staggering 25%. The core of the problem?

I think it's from our collective understanding of power. We believe that the people/person in power can do anything - take money, cheat the law, make people do stuff. And so, they do. We practically expect it of them.

Now that wouldn't be so much of a problem, if the 'dictator' were benevolent - history does show that states ruled by a benevolent dictator can become a shining beacon of enlightenment. However, we have somehow allowed the most Intolerant buggers to be charge of stuff.

"Let's review and discuss the NEP, as was planned at its inception": "You racist, go home!" 

"The ISA might need changing, it's seriously outdated": "Aha! You communist, that's exactly what we have it for!"

"Do you think it was a good idea for the sultan to make that decision?": "You traitor, how dare you question the royalty!"

"I think a inter-communal religious dialogue will promote greater understanding within our fractious society": "Infidel! There is only one true religion!"

Yes, every society will have their proportion of Intolerants. Ours tends to put them in charge of stuff. It's easy, because the moderate majority are so Tolerating. We put up with so much shit it's unbelievable. Here is a list of beliefs the average Malaysian has, I'm aware that I'm assuming they're shared and I'd be very very happy to be challenged on them:

Law

- The justice system is mostly fair, unless a high-profile person is involved. Then they will win or get away with a pittance penalty.

- New laws are always advantageous to the people in power. Even with laws to further development for the people, the first beneficiaries are the people in power.

- Traffic / Road law is outdated and unreliable.

Enforcement

- The police are too busy escorting the people in power to bother with the rising crime rate on everyone else.

- Traffic police are too busy misdirecting traffic to properly enforce traffic law. In fact they probably don't know traffic law, but that's fine 'cos no one else does either (except lawyers).

- Everyone needs to have residential security in their houses/neighbourhoods. They'll provide the vigilance that the police do not.

- Women are in constant danger on the road, whether on foot or in a car.

City councils

- Are not bothered to provide for adequate/ample parking space anywhere because they'd rather collect the fines. Of course, they don't enforce their summons-collection, so why pay these lazy buggers?

- Are slow, inefficient and don't do anything. They don't fine dangerous parkers, they barely upkeep the roads, they don't have a system for naming houses or ensuring sufficient road capacities for new residential developments.

Education

- Public Universities are rubbish and their graduates barely employable.

- Local Schools must be supplemented with private tuition to provide adequate education.

- Moral (the subject) is an absolute waste of time as it bases itself on fictional situations and does not teach anything useable in the real world.

- The standard of English is so deplorable that calling ourselves an ex-British colony would elicit much laughter.

Freedom of Speech

- Relegated to the mamak only. Even then, be careful there aren't any govt people around. Otherwise it's ISA time.

Freedom of the Press

- Sure, the BN-owned press can say anything they like. They can even make up stuff for the Opposition to say.

- Facts? References? Due diligence? Journalistic integrity? Sorry didn't learn those words in Bahasa Inggeris class.

- Careful with your blogs too. Say the wrong thing and it's ISA time.

Okay so that's my TIU post. Now don't get me wrong - I love this country. I love the people. It breaks my heart to see all these little things that can be easily put right, but not enough are interested in doing.

People Power begins at points like these

Some people might have heard about hoo-ha being raised over the Selangor Water Restructuring Exercise. Many probably have no idea, or wonder what the big deal is. In short, the Federal Government wants to directly buy up poor-performing water concession companies' assets. If this already gets your hackles up, go here and find out more:

http://www.airuntukrakyat.com/

There's a great PDF link on the right bar, about one page down from the top.

Here's the long version, which starts with some questions:

- would you ever consider drinking water directly out of your tap?

- do you know that people in the UK (and several other countries) do so, as a matter of course?

- do you ever look at all the water filters that people put outside and/or inside their house, and wonder why don't they just pool that money together for cleaner water out of the tap?

- have you thought about how regularly we seem to have price hikes on our water?

- have you wondered why water can seem to be such a problem in an equatorial rainforest country like Malaysia, where we have rainfalls that, if properly channelled, can wash Singapore right off the map? (sorry, couldn't resist)

Now that you're thinking about water, which is a fundamental human need; here are some facts about these water concession companies that our wonderful government wants to buy off:

- they are in RM6.4billion of debt

- Syabas, a semi-private company (that is the sole distributor of water in KL and Selangor), will benefit greatly

- some of them are run by the guy who runs Syabas

- they want to hike up the price every 3 years from now until 2030

If that stinks like our water does, take action at http://www.airuntukrakyat.com/ . If not yet, read on.

An unfortunately great number of Malaysians already think that there's nothing they can do. Why fight, when these buggers in power can do what they want, the rakyat be damned?

Okay here's a dramatic answer to that: if we keep on doing nothing, they'll keep pushing harder and harder until finally, we've had enough. When we react then, it becomes nothing short of a revolution, because we've been oppressed and bullied and condescended upon for so long that there's a lot of negativity to release.

On the other hand, if we keep up our momentum of People Power / Makkal Sakthi, we're reminding those in government that we're still watching, that we want better and more (or less). We're keeping things civilised, even if they're not. We stand by our beliefs and our ideals, even if they have no idea or don't care.

The more pragmatic answer to that question, of course, is they we're giving feedback to them. Simple as that. Adding our voices, our views, our opinions to the mix; hoping that one day, they'll hear, they'll see, they'll do something about it.

And that is where People Power begins. One voice.

[Edit 9/4/09] There's also a site that spoke to an MP about it - check out PopTeeVee at http://popteevee.popfolio.net/default.aspx?e=66 .

Merdeka in Teluk Intan

I spent my Merdeka weekend at Teluk Intan (or Teluk Anson, as the locals still call it) courtesy of D's family on the maternal side.

The most unusual event of the weekend happened on the way there though - on the single-lane "highway" from Bidor to Teluk Intan, a band of Indian boys stopped us on the road.

To give us something.

A Malaysian flag. Which they promptly stuck onto my car and waved us goodbye, to cries of "Merdeka!"



That's Malaysia for you. I love the place.

A Freedom of Information Act? Here??

YES. We have a petition going on now for a Freedom of Information Act, here. SIGN IT!


Okay a little more explanation: as you may or may not know (but probably have suspected for some time), the new Opposition state governments are slowly discovering that there's a lot of dodgy shit going on, and want to make it right. They want to expose as much of it as possible, so we can all fix it - and that includes stuff in the other states, as well as at the federal level. In catchphrase format, they want more Transparency and Responsibility (which, by extension, includes Accountability) for Good Governance.

Ideally, a government (or governments) that is open in the way they do things allows for greater efficiency and creates citizens who genuinely care about what their government is up to - simply because it's their money and they know exactly what's going on with it. For longer explanations, read up this blog, which has a couple more links for more info.


At the end of the day, ignorance is no longer a valid excuse.

Sign the petition.

And the voice roared!

Hidup Malaysia!

Momentous times these are - no single party has the two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the Constitution at will, for the first time in the history of the country. Of course, that statement discounts 1969, in which that did happen in terms of votes but it was not realised in terms of reality (Wikipedia has an entry on what happened, but like any other information about that time its accuracy is questionable). It's also the first time that so many states will be run by Opposition state governments.

Look at the map above: the north are not pleased (with the single exception of Perlis). To my current understanding, Penang will be run by DAP, Kelantan by PAS, Kedah by both PKR and PAS, Perak by all 3 and Selangor by PKR and DAP. Talk about opportunities for experimentation - we are going to have very interesting times in Malaysia indeed.

Check out Malaysiakini (Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Mirror 3) for further information as it comes in.


8 things the Opposition now have to do:

a. NOT throw a massive celebration party. Treat yourselves to a good teh tarik (so you know how much it should cost and stay), have a good laugh and get on with it.

b. Thank the people. You're welcome.

c. Form a true and viable Alternative Coalition. Make it a clear party, with a vision, a real stand on things and goals that it wants to achieve. They need to set systems as to how to make decisions and who does what.

d. Get together and seriously plan the next 4/5 years on what to do. Make firm decisions on very important issues, try and decide on the not-so-important ones.

e. Form a Shadow Government. Shadow PM, shadow Finance Minister, shadow Whatever. Play pretend. In fact, maintain a blog for every position on what you would do and your opinion as shadow Whatever - best case, you become Whatever because you're so good and the people have to vote you in, or at worst your good ideas get stolen by the current Whatever. So what? Betterment of the country, neh. Ain't that why you're running for Whatever?

f. Publish an Alternative Coalition (or Opposition) newspaper. I'm not joking. Get the best editor, best writers, best brains for the various fields; and make it the best damn paper in the country. Make sure it does report news, and not function as a government-bashing paper. Put up the blogs of the Shadow Government (above). And when it comes to the last quarter of its expected lifetime, send it online. If it's that good, the people will complain loudly and this new government may have to listen - otherwise, online's where it's at.

[Note on "expected lifetime": Malaysia has a Publishing Act of some sort where the licence to print a newspaper or any other publication has to be granted by the government, and this licence lasts ONE YEAR. So yes, if the government doesn't like it, it doesn't last past that year. And yes, it explains why our papers are so hopelessly biased. And why our magazines are quite intellectual-content free.]

g. Make sure all their States do good.

h. Do a damned good job.

One Vote One Voice

One vote one voice,
Each cross a choice,
They'll hear the people,
Our voice will ring far.

One vote one voice,
Cross your choice,
For some real promise,
That's too good to miss.


The former's the earlier version of the lyrics to The Voting, which is Song #19 in Tunku the Musical whilst the latter's the final version we performed on stage. Sillily (what a word to make up) enough, I was humming that tune as I walked out of my primary school today after I had cast my vote.

And now, 12 hours after I had committed that momentous act, I sit in front of my TV anxiously following the results of the counting. Putting together a jigsaw puzzle, to keep my mind and hands occupied. The results are absolutely exciting so far - BN has yet to get the simple majority (though there's little doubt it will), and the opposition parties are making serious headway in getting Parliamentary representation. It's an excitement of such deep weight and importance, a clear view of the zeitgeist of the nation. And hearing the news as it breaks makes it all the more fun. Of course, there's also an element of wariness in why I'm doing this - there's a possibility of results being changed over the next few days, or worse - trouble afoot. Scarily, only 6 State results have been tabulated for Selangor. I suspect that it's a significant upset that the incumbent party's desperately trying to salvage. We shall see.

Exciting news: Samy's out, about bloody time. Sharizat's out, lost to Anwar's girl. Penang's out. Kedah's out. Crikey.

Most exciting update: a blogger, Jeff Ooi, has WON A PARLIAMENTARY SEAT. Check his blog out at www.jeffooi.com - looks like we'll be having a most fascination insight into our Parliament over these next 4/5 years.


Fear not, dear Malaysia, for there is hope yet.

Election Day!

Election day,
It's election day,
Today is the day- and the stake is vast!
We may be thirsty,
We may be sweaty,
We may be hungry,
But he we will stay till our votes are cast!

Who are you voting for?
Who are you vouching for?
Who are you betting on?
Who are you bending on?



These are actual lyrics from Tunku the Musical, that got cut sometime during the rehearsal process (pretty much the first time the director heard them). The reason was quite mundane - the tune didn't quite fit into the mood of Act 2. Of course, if you saw Tunku, you'd know that the elections they were singing about was in 1969. Do read up on what really happened then - quite an interesting part of our history.

Later today, I perform my civic duty as a citizen of Malaysia. One vote, one voice. Will it make a difference? Who knows, but I must believe that it does. At the end of the day, my only prayer for Malaysia is that the powers that be wake up and see what they can truly do with this beautiful gem of a country. So much potential, so much waste.

On Thursday Shamsul Amri Baharuddin wrote a great opinion piece for the NST entitled "Why 'the opposition' remains a pipe dream" - check it out (link may die eventually). The way things stand today, he speaks truth; and I pray that 'the opposition' wake up and see what they can truly do.


For Malaysia, negaraku.

The Star: Malaysia's Health Minister admits to sex video

One day after the new year, The Star comes out with this: The Health Minister admits to being the star of a sex video making its rounds in Johor (or, more likely, the whole of Malaysia). He has since taken the route of integrity and honour and resigned from all his political posts. Good on him.

Generally, I would think that the first thoughts of most Malaysians discovering his involvement in the video would be:

• "Aiyah why he so stupid go get caught ah?"
• "I wonder who the girl is (and is she hot)?"
• "So old only want to film your own home video ah?"

But, most importantly:

• "Where can I find the video?!?"

If you scan your eyes further down the front page, you'll come across possibly the finest piece of honest information dissemination from The Star:
Wow, how kind. Thanks Star - guess I won't have to pester my pirated DVD salesman for it.

Amazon MP3 - will it work in Malaysia?

I recently read this article at Mashable.com (which is a good site on social networking and other online news): The Daily Poll: Will Amazon’s MP3 Store Topple iTunes?
A quick gander will tell you that the biggest percentage (37%) think that it will gain some popularity and is a moderate threat to iTunes, the smallest percentage (8%) think that it'd have no impact and an almost-equal percentage (29% and 26%) think that it'd rock up to #1 or it'd be only a minor threat. So it could go any way, really - but there's no doubting that it'd have SOME effect on the online music market.

As you can see in the little picture-link above, they offer over 2 million songs, and they're DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. In English, it means you can LEGALLY play them on your iPod™/Zune™/Zen™/iPhone™/RAZR™/BlackBerry™/PC/etc or even burn them onto CD™. DRM has been one of the more controversial things that the record companies have done in recent years and has been a cause for much grief for them (and consumers too), so it's a big plus-point to NOT have it.

Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99. However, the major advantage that Amazon MP3 has over iTunes is DRM-free tracks from three of the major record labels, versus iTunes who only offers DRM-free tracks from EMI.

Couple of other interesting points from the website:

• MP3 files are encoded using variable bit rates, averaging 256 kbps which is good. Some are at a constant 256 kbps.
• You'll need to have the Amazon MP3 Downloader application for album purchases but not required for songs purchases. It's available for Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

Now here's the unfortunate part for us people in Malaysia:

"At this time music downloads are only available to customers using a credit or debit card issued by a U.S bank with a U.S. billing address."
(taken from the Amazon MP3 FAQ)

Unfortunately, I don't yet know of any easy way of getting the above 2 things so... no go. Anyway check it out and judge for yourself - they allow lots of song previewing.

Gaining political awareness in Malaysia

Perhaps its the coming General Elections. Perhaps its our recently celebrating our 50th anniversary of Independence. Perhaps its the coming of age of youth who are getting disaffected by the way things are running, the way things have been run.

The timing is nevertheless appropriate. The rate of secular decline is shocking. The rate of ethical decline is appalling. The rate of political decline is embarassing. Turkey has recently stated an interest in "never turning into another Malaysia".

Free and fair elections. Transparency in governmental affairs. Less corruption, especially in the police force. Revamping the Legislature. Politicians with more integrity and backbone. Repealing laws that flagrantly flout basic human rights. Better roads and public structures. Freer press.

These are just a small list of 'wishes' by the people of Malaysia. Yes, we have things good here. Yes, we should be and are, for the most part, thankful for what we have. Yes, things could be much worse.

However, we, the people of Malaysia, want more. Better. We see Malaysia as the beauty it could be, it should be; and not the horror that it might be, that it seems to be heading towards being. We are tired of being told that we are not ready for this or that, that we might end up in the small nightmare of racial riots, that we'd end up the pawn of American hegemony. We want to get out of the rut of being treated as children and get to know better. Know more. And ultimately, decide for ourselves.

We, the pool of talent, acumen, skills and strengths of Malaysia, want to be more involved in the building of this beautiful nation, this country that breaks our hearts by denying us the avenues to making Malaysia greater than it sees itself now. And we are beginning to make our stand, to claim our birthright and be counted as an individual in the forging of the Malaysian story.

Whatever your political inclination, voting is your responsibility as a Malaysian citizen. Right now, it is one of the very few means we have to be heard so use it! Check out voter registration status at the Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (Electoral Commission) website and if you're not already registered, go to the Post Office ASAP and get it done!!!

Nextly, if you've a Facebook account, pop on over to the VotEd group and join. Get yourself politically educated.
Another Facebook group to check out is called Deny BN 2/3 Majority in the Upcoming Elections. It is a non-partisan (not affiliated with any political party) group that has as its ultimate intention greater transparency and accountability in Parliament by virtue of wider representation. Take a gander to understand their stance, then do with the info as you see fit.

2 interesting sites to check out are:
- the meesh experience for an "activist" blog
- The Other Malaysia for news from an independent perspective

There are many more, I'm sure - do post them here if you come across them.

I'll close off with an excerpt from Tunku Abdul Rahman's speech made a day before he declared Independence:


To the youth of this country I have a message.
You have a wonderful future ahead of you.
Unlike us, you have a country free from any domination.
You grow up with your heads held high as masters in your own country.
As masters you have the privileges as well as your duties and responsibilities.
The future of this country rests on you: whether our star rises or falls, it will be due to you solely.
Therefore, be ready to serve her, to build her up and to give your life in her defence.
You and I must be determined to make Malaya a place which we shall all be proud to call home.
We have therefore a role to play and let us play it well.

- Tunku Abdul Rahman

State of the Nation

Malaysia. If you haven't noticed before, you need to know that I love my country madly. I truly believe that there is no better place in the world to live. There are problems, true - but where aren't there?

Sure, there's preferential treatment. If you're rich. Or white. Everyone else more or less gets equally dumped on. Doesn't it sound like anywhere else in the world already? If you want to escape the smaller racial nuances in Peninsular Malaysia, pop over to Sabah / Sarawak - it's so rojak there that everyone gives up trying to judge according to race and religion.

We've hit the news headlines a goodly number of times this month. Riots! Heaven forbid! A riot is defined as "a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets". Legally, a riot is "a disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons acting together in a disrupting and tumultuous manner in carrying out their private purposes". Of the former, I protest the use of the word 'violent' - the marchers / demonstrators / rioters were anything but violent. The only violence came from the police, which isn't anything new anymore. Of the latter, 'public peace' tends to be highly subjective; as is 'private purposes' - how private can the matter of "free and fair elections" be?
Yes, people took to the streets to demand free and fair elections. And got water cannoned, tear gassed and generally beaten down. Ironic, isn't it? The sad thing is that the police, who are meant to be the apolitical guardian of the people, are very much the lapdogs of the current government. But if it's politics, the government will rise up and kick ass. Of its own people.
What's beautiful and masterful was the next rally: the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) wanting to march and deliver a memorandum to the British High Commissioner demanding compensation for the shit they've been through since the Brits shipped them over yonks ago. Okay, so England's never going to hand over the ridiculous amount they're demanding (they've enough Indians of their own over there to worry about) but they made an key point here in Malaysia: that you CAN demonstrate and get away with it. Sure, they got arrested, beaten down, water cannoned and tear gassed too - but a tiny proportion. We need to be reminded of this fundamental human right here, that WE THE PEOPLE are the ones who ultimately decide HOW the country is run and BY WHOM.
It's the timing that was exquisite: if they rallied first, the 2nd one (which was far more politically biased) would never have gotten through. Of course, the fact that it was Indians (arguably the most looked-over minority here) marching about their getting the lousy end of the preferential treatment stick made the powers-that-be stop dead in their tracks. Can you imagine the scene?

Police officer: "Boss, they're rallying illegally! The Indians are all in the streets!"

Police boss: "Illegal rally?? Take them down! Water! Gas! Send out all the... wait, WHO?!?"


If it were Chinese... it'd be a very different story, wouldn't it. Of course, the Chinese are far too sensible to go out into the streets and get wet and smelly and whatnot - hello, where's the obvious economic gain??

Sadly, the PM announced that he would use the Internal Security Act (ISA) if necessary. Subdue us unruly lot, who would not sit in subservient silence as nonsense after nonsense crop up in this administration.


On other news, which WE should be making a much bigger deal of - a Malaysian woman totally whoops the ass of THREE Chinese top seeds in badminton and takes gold! First time in Malaysia a woman takes gold in badminton, I think. Hallo! Celebration time!! We just owned a 1-billion-kiasu-people sporting nation!!!

Congratulations girl, you kick ass.




The things we focus on. We're a funny people, us Malaysians.