I'm puzzled at somehow people look at things different than i am.
I just received the unofficial exam result for 3 out of 4 papers i sat in February. I just scored ok, not too great (didn't go out of my expectation much, maybe just a bit disappointed with my paper 3).
My senior supervisor was reacted to it positively, shortly after i told her this news. First, she congratulaled me, and suggested me to go home and celebrate it now. I replied politely to her, saying that the result is nothing great to celebrate... 'cause what i know about celebration is something you feel it's a great achievement that you are proud of. To me, this result isn't that great.
She quickly responded to me, 'you know? this is Imperial Msc course, suppose to be a tough course ya? Don't be a pessimist, you need to pick up and appreciate the part of the process you are undergoing (to success). It's a very good result to me, well done!'
Just when i was trying to breathe out few words, she continued: ' listen, now i'm not asking you, but this is an order. GO HOME and have a celebration tonight!'
=) well, what can i say? she's my 'boss'. I just watched a football match with Andy, Ping and Dave at home. I guess i take this as my small 'celebration' gua... although the defeat of Manchester United would be better cause to celebrate (but it didn't happen) =P
Now, i still insist to keep my calm head, evaluate my performance rationally. Because i know myself better than others. I am not overjoyed, but just got a feeling of content. I am actually looking forward to accomplish this Master degree with the best that i could, and also carry that forward to my phD studies later. Thanks for the people who gives me the support, encouragement, and motivation all the way i need to keep myself forward.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Ethics of Party-hopping
Dear Chin Huat,
Referring to your latest blog entry 'A New Malaysia, Saudara Anwar?'
This article you wrote should, in fact, sparks more debate about the current issue of political crossing-over / defect. Here i am offering my views...
You said Anwar Ibrahim is a bit impatient of 'seizing' the federal power by luring defection from other side, which his side was used to go strongly against. However, whether is it seat-buying, unless you have evidence, i can't say you are right on the motive of Pakatan Rakyat. Yes, you may damn some opportunistic politician who 'betrayed' his supporters who voted him/her in --- what if, those politicians, who have the heart of conscience, knowing that there is no good future in the current BN system? Neither can they reform the system nor bring welfare to their people in their constituency through this already systematic corrupted adminstration. What if now they realize what is right to do and have changed their political beliefs ever since the 12th GE and hence abandon ideology of BN, for the sake of the reform agendas promised by PR which they see better fits for the people in this country? What if they have known PR would bring a better 'bargain' for the people especially from East Malaysia? Perhaps the Federal government would allocate more financial funding from the national treasury coffer to aid better development of their area (especially those rural poor area in East Malaysia)? You might want to consider upon many other possibilities that why such a stand will be taken by politician.
Party-hopping sometimes means the dead disappointment or totally losing hope with one’s current party, and feels that what one is fighting for is no longer fits in this party. So, then why still stay in the party? Should elected representative has no freedom to advocate his new belief, quit the old and join the new party?
Soon, the ruling party UMNO is likely to change the leadership, then Najib would come on stage. Don't you worry if he would revert the country back to Mahathir-style-authoritarian state, and play greater cheats in General Election (like the case in Zimbabwe now) while retaining their notorious repressive system to crackdown democratic voices? wouldn't that be more hurtful to PR and hamper the hopes of Malaysian people for Reformasi? You would probably expect Najib would do anything to manipulate the election before 13th General Election to favour his coalition’s survival, so where is the fair chance for PR to govern and bring in those much needed and hopeful reform agenda and policies?
In my opinion, to right the wrongs and take the chances at this moment, for PR, is the most suitable timing (before Najib takes the reign). I must insist that they must reveal their governing policies, the candidates of PR’s cabinets, and how are they going to fulfil the reform agendas (especially on the Electoral reform), before they take over the government by this way. I sincerely agree with you, in future, to prevent this scenario from happening again, Election law should be amend, so that the incumbent MP who wants to resign and should be allowed to re-seek his mandate when switching side - this is the most ethical things to do.
Right now, we still live in the imperfect world, i would rather to see the end justifies the means, as BN has cheated the people for so long. I hope that PR should have basic principles and ethics, and would not resort to offering money or any specific position to exchange of the defection of MPs. I also hope that the decisions from the defecting MPs must NOT base on their personal gains, but for their sincere new political beliefs, and for well-being and gains for all Malaysian!
Referring to your latest blog entry 'A New Malaysia, Saudara Anwar?'
This article you wrote should, in fact, sparks more debate about the current issue of political crossing-over / defect. Here i am offering my views...
You said Anwar Ibrahim is a bit impatient of 'seizing' the federal power by luring defection from other side, which his side was used to go strongly against. However, whether is it seat-buying, unless you have evidence, i can't say you are right on the motive of Pakatan Rakyat. Yes, you may damn some opportunistic politician who 'betrayed' his supporters who voted him/her in --- what if, those politicians, who have the heart of conscience, knowing that there is no good future in the current BN system? Neither can they reform the system nor bring welfare to their people in their constituency through this already systematic corrupted adminstration. What if now they realize what is right to do and have changed their political beliefs ever since the 12th GE and hence abandon ideology of BN, for the sake of the reform agendas promised by PR which they see better fits for the people in this country? What if they have known PR would bring a better 'bargain' for the people especially from East Malaysia? Perhaps the Federal government would allocate more financial funding from the national treasury coffer to aid better development of their area (especially those rural poor area in East Malaysia)? You might want to consider upon many other possibilities that why such a stand will be taken by politician.
Party-hopping sometimes means the dead disappointment or totally losing hope with one’s current party, and feels that what one is fighting for is no longer fits in this party. So, then why still stay in the party? Should elected representative has no freedom to advocate his new belief, quit the old and join the new party?
Soon, the ruling party UMNO is likely to change the leadership, then Najib would come on stage. Don't you worry if he would revert the country back to Mahathir-style-authoritarian state, and play greater cheats in General Election (like the case in Zimbabwe now) while retaining their notorious repressive system to crackdown democratic voices? wouldn't that be more hurtful to PR and hamper the hopes of Malaysian people for Reformasi? You would probably expect Najib would do anything to manipulate the election before 13th General Election to favour his coalition’s survival, so where is the fair chance for PR to govern and bring in those much needed and hopeful reform agenda and policies?
In my opinion, to right the wrongs and take the chances at this moment, for PR, is the most suitable timing (before Najib takes the reign). I must insist that they must reveal their governing policies, the candidates of PR’s cabinets, and how are they going to fulfil the reform agendas (especially on the Electoral reform), before they take over the government by this way. I sincerely agree with you, in future, to prevent this scenario from happening again, Election law should be amend, so that the incumbent MP who wants to resign and should be allowed to re-seek his mandate when switching side - this is the most ethical things to do.
Right now, we still live in the imperfect world, i would rather to see the end justifies the means, as BN has cheated the people for so long. I hope that PR should have basic principles and ethics, and would not resort to offering money or any specific position to exchange of the defection of MPs. I also hope that the decisions from the defecting MPs must NOT base on their personal gains, but for their sincere new political beliefs, and for well-being and gains for all Malaysian!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Problem Solving Skills
I'm sure you guys will get enlightened by this...
This is pasted on the wall in front of my supervisor's desk. Very helpful =)
Friday, April 04, 2008
Losing at cyber war or losing reasons for support?
Our Dear PM admitted his side’s defeat, and blamed it on the loss of war at cyberspace. Honestly, I do not share the same view. As far as I heard, I’d seen and I remembered, his alliance party BN employed and set up a cyber-troop to counter the criticism from the bloggers and writers on alternative news media. The trace is blatantly obvious, and until I refused to categorize those writers as mere supporters. Sometimes I felt they had overdone such things, forcefully feeding people with all the parties’ statements, propaganda comics and essays. They seemed just know how to copy and paste and spread around the same stuffs, but lack of involvement and commitment in debating, especially debate with real substance! Just take a look at www.thefreemedia.com, you could immediately spot the existence of such employed ‘cyber troops’ (this website is in mandarin, so, behind those employed writers the boss most likely to be MCA or Gerakan). Yes, cyber troops from UMNO side also intruded website like Malaysia-today.net, causing a lot of troubles for Raja Petra Kamarudin (the webmaster) to delete the offensive spam comments day by day.
Don’t forget that, in fact BN launched an interactive and definitely professional website for campaigning and canvassing votes. There is also one whole day BN spent on advertisement at MSN live messenger… judging on that scale of money they threw in, they still don’t get the effect or result they want, so what goes wrong? Is it just because BN lost cyber war, or because BN lost the arguments or ideology to capture the voters’ heart and mind, that caused Malaysia’s political tsunami?
Those statements that PM made 2 days ago, it demonstrates that he is still live in denial, and tried so hard to find a scapegoat to dump his excuse to explain his disastrous ‘victory’ to fend off the increasing critics within his party upon calling him to step down. Pak Lah's action is just as 'clever' as Dr. Mahathir and his ally to point all the blames on him. Maybe blaming each other is UMNO party's culture, i don't know. I just know that somebody still hasn’t changed and learned from mistakes. Now, the political game is still on. The current internal rife (and later), just display how much BN politicians concern about their own political survival and influence, party ranking and position, instead of showing their care about people’s interest. This is how BN politicians lost touch with people, and lost big in election.
Talking about theFreeMedia.com
Well, as far as the discussions in the forum website go, I don’t deny that even opposition supporters have to learn to engage their arguments in a constructive and intellectual way. Personally I plead to people who are using those websites: Show more maturity in thinking, so the experience of reading the discussion will make readers feel worthwhile to spend the time there and learning from each other. You know, so many years had gone by, the Free Media which was created even earlier than Malaysiakini Chinese version, the users/readers there are not seen improving much. I don’t know why, are Malaysians or just Chinese like to do personal attack or labeling or smearing when comes to discuss certain topics? On the contrary, when I compare The Free Media to Malaysia-today.net, the discussion area in latter website shows more substances, reveals more rational and mature thinking. Why do I feel this way, I don’t know why. Just disappointed, why can’t they put their points nicely to discuss, perhaps to persuade people to buy your ideas, instead of going all out to personal attack certain people or party? What is the use, as if what you did will win the argument? I just don’t see the point.
That’s why I always advocate debating in public space. One must learn how to speak up his/her mind to contribute to the benefits of constructive pluralistic society. Defending freedom of expression is not just merely a slogan or a lame excuse for refusing to get yourself improving. Don’t tell me that you are ‘grassroot’ voice, so that you are allowed to use foul and derogative language. Stop that. I’m insulted, whoever the target of the speaker/writer is.
Don’t forget that, in fact BN launched an interactive and definitely professional website for campaigning and canvassing votes. There is also one whole day BN spent on advertisement at MSN live messenger… judging on that scale of money they threw in, they still don’t get the effect or result they want, so what goes wrong? Is it just because BN lost cyber war, or because BN lost the arguments or ideology to capture the voters’ heart and mind, that caused Malaysia’s political tsunami?
Those statements that PM made 2 days ago, it demonstrates that he is still live in denial, and tried so hard to find a scapegoat to dump his excuse to explain his disastrous ‘victory’ to fend off the increasing critics within his party upon calling him to step down. Pak Lah's action is just as 'clever' as Dr. Mahathir and his ally to point all the blames on him. Maybe blaming each other is UMNO party's culture, i don't know. I just know that somebody still hasn’t changed and learned from mistakes. Now, the political game is still on. The current internal rife (and later), just display how much BN politicians concern about their own political survival and influence, party ranking and position, instead of showing their care about people’s interest. This is how BN politicians lost touch with people, and lost big in election.
Talking about theFreeMedia.com
Well, as far as the discussions in the forum website go, I don’t deny that even opposition supporters have to learn to engage their arguments in a constructive and intellectual way. Personally I plead to people who are using those websites: Show more maturity in thinking, so the experience of reading the discussion will make readers feel worthwhile to spend the time there and learning from each other. You know, so many years had gone by, the Free Media which was created even earlier than Malaysiakini Chinese version, the users/readers there are not seen improving much. I don’t know why, are Malaysians or just Chinese like to do personal attack or labeling or smearing when comes to discuss certain topics? On the contrary, when I compare The Free Media to Malaysia-today.net, the discussion area in latter website shows more substances, reveals more rational and mature thinking. Why do I feel this way, I don’t know why. Just disappointed, why can’t they put their points nicely to discuss, perhaps to persuade people to buy your ideas, instead of going all out to personal attack certain people or party? What is the use, as if what you did will win the argument? I just don’t see the point.
That’s why I always advocate debating in public space. One must learn how to speak up his/her mind to contribute to the benefits of constructive pluralistic society. Defending freedom of expression is not just merely a slogan or a lame excuse for refusing to get yourself improving. Don’t tell me that you are ‘grassroot’ voice, so that you are allowed to use foul and derogative language. Stop that. I’m insulted, whoever the target of the speaker/writer is.
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