The Right to Swing Your Walking Stick

I could never remember who said it. It must have been either Mark Twain, the American humourist, or Winston Churchil - the British humourist who mesquaraded as the Prime Minister. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, the saying is "Your right to swing your (walking) stick end where my nose begins"

All of us have our rights. It is one of life's priviledges granted by God and society. Most people (except fora few dregs of society) are quite happy to grant you the right to have and practice your rights. And if they forgot, you are quite within your rights (and that, they will grant you, unless, of course, they are the dregs of society and just became one temporarily) to demand it, to fight for it. Indeed you are expected to unless you are a wimp or want to be labelled as such.

Most principled and righteous peope, self-righteous ones too, do it. I fully support them. However, in fighting for our rights one very important caveat has to be observed - we must never fight for and demand our rights if in the process of doing so we trample on other people's rights. When rights overlap then the most principled thing to do is to fall back to our principles - the ethics that is our responsibility and let the greater need prevail. To demand your right to swing our stick even beyond the tip of my nose is no longer a practice of your right but the megalomanic demand of demented self-serving person. And every ethical person would condemn such a unprincipled flaunting of one's "rights"

Except in Malaysia - the land of the broken noses.

Malaysia - Home of the Shmoo

If you guys are old enough to remember Al Capp's Li'l Abner cartoon series, you would remember the Shmoo - " the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known." Is it because they are so terrifying, so evil that humanity has to fear the Shmoo? "No, stupid," answered Ol' Man Mose, hurling one of life's profoundest paradoxes at Li'l Abner. "It's because they're so good!"

Let me quote once more from the article on the Shmoo. "Ironically, the lovable and selfless Shmoos ultimately brought misery to humankind because people with a limitless supply of self-sacrificing Shmoos stopped working and society broke down. Seen at first as a boon to humankind, they were ultimately hunted down and exterminated to preserve the status quo. "

And here is where I digress. The Shmoo were not totally exterminated. One always seem to have escaped to Al Capp's Dogpatch fairy tale world. In reality, they metamorphosed or evolved it it is to survive. One, it seemed, survived and metamorphosed in the far away land of Malayia where today they are thriving in their metamorphosed state wrecking the havoc that Ol' Man Mose predicted.

Note: for more information on the Shmoo re-read your Li'l Abner cartoons or visit http://www.lil-abner.com/shmoo.html. You will not regret it.

I too have a dream

Today, in the Star's Showbiz page, Rapper Jay-Z was quoted as saying "Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk, and Martin walked so Obama could run". Usually I dont pay much attention to such trivia but this one set me thinking of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech, part of which is quoted here.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I too have this dream - substitute Mississippi with Malaysia and paraphasing the rest. However, unlike the raptuous reception King got for his speech, I will end up in Kamunting under the ISA if I so much utter, or set in print, my paraphased dream.

But I still have this dream. I dream that you guys will read my blog and paraphase in your minds what I cannot do in words or writing. And the dream will live on, hopefully, to bear fruit and see the light of day in this land of God called Malaysia.

Action speaks the man.

First of all, I must inform you that the concept of a car with square wheels is not mine - I heard it long ago at a presentation on lateral thinking. It is with some credit to the presenter that the lesson is learned and I am now using the concept in a new way.

Leaders from two different countries attended a forum on action-orientation and was presented with the challenge of building a car with square wheels. This action will help propel their 'developing' country a little notch up the economic and technological ladder.

One leader went back and presented the challenge to his cabinet and national think tank and action committee. Pondering over the challenge, they explored ways to make that concept a possible reality given the improbablility of the concept. They ended with a fantatic array of technological innovations based on a suspension system that would have made the car with square wheels possible and went on to become a technological leader in that field.

The other leader went back home and consulted his economic advisers on how much money they can make in preparing to build a car with square wheels and made it possible. Contracts worth millions were given up towards drawing up the specifications for a car with square wheels while billions were given out for the infrastructure required for the car with square wheels to work based on different axle widths for the square threaded roads. Contracts were then awarded to start building the square threaded roads and when public outcry denounced the stupidity of the project, it was finally cancelled 'in order to save the country billions' that would have been wasted.

Now where have I heard of this before?

The anatomy of failure

Well planned lines of action rarely fail - they are not designed to. Of course, nobody is infallible and the occasional unexpected failure of the best of plans do happen. But does anyone seriously expect a whole series of important, well planned lines to action to fail, one after another? I dont.

Recently, in the Malaysian political landscape, a few, VERY IMPORTANT and well planned actions has appeared to fail. If some quarters are to be believed, Anwar's sodomy case is a very well planned set-up by the powers to be and yet we have fatal flaws in a supposed well planned set-up such as an unexpected visit by the complainant to a doctor who punctured holes in his claim of sodomy. Not less spectecular is the statutory declaration by PI Subramaniam making earth shaking claims regarding the Deputy Prime Minister only to retract it the very next day via another statutory declaration-making him libel to making a false statement (the first or second statutory declaration) under oath. Ditto the famous 16 September dead line of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. And the infamous submission of 'cut and paste' evidence by, no less the prosecution, in the RPK criminal defamation case. We are talking very important, well planned lines of action here and yet all of them looks like they are likely to end in failure. Why, one might ask, when the best laid plans of mice and men all failing in such a short span of time?

My humble opinion - these plans DID NOT fail. They all succeeded in their objectives which was to fail in the first place. This is the only logical explanation for so many well laid plans failing in such a short period. Why plan to fail in the first place? Well, I'll be darned if I know.

Psychological Warfare

There are many forms of psychological warfare, mainly fought in war time, to aid the troops on the actual battlefield but have been adopted for 'peaceful' use in so many ways - advertising is one form of psychological warfare, aptly summed in the phrase - 'marketing war'. Today, in Malaysia, an intense psychological war is waged in cyberspace but no less intense and real. Just look at all the posts and SMSes - information bombardment, red herrings and disinformation are flying around thick and thin so much so that it is difficult to ascertain the motive, target, etc of the information being paddled around cyberspace. A lot of this information seems to be from the anti-establishment types as the MSM is tightly under establishment control BUT, and this is a big BUT, it may actually be used by the establishment and/or its supporters to confuse the issue 'a gigantic disinformation campaign'. So, who do we believe? In a word, NOBODY. Take everything with a pinch of salt until corroborated with undeniable facts. However, this does not mean that we dismiss everything - just KIV until corroborated and if required, ERR on the safe side - whatever that is.

And hope we all survive with our wits reasonably intact.

Winning the battle, losing the war

You would all have read about the arrest, under the draconian Internal Security Act, of blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, senior state executive councillor Teresa Kok and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng. What a brillant tactical battle strategy by the beleagured Barisan Nasional government of Abdullah Badawi.

To recap, after the infamous racist remarks by UMNO strongman Datuk Ahmad Ismail, the component parties of BN, especially MCA and Gerakan, was baying for his blood. Pak Lah, of course, couldn't just do nothing or he may see MCA/Gerakan help make Pakatan Rakyat's claim of a government change by 16 Sept a reality. But neither could he afford to offend an UMNO heavyweight like Datuk Ahmad. So, his reluctant action in suspending Datuk Ahmad's membership for 3 years - a mere slap in the wrist and placated MCA/Gerakan. Then, slap an ISA arrest on the journalist who reported the racist remark - I am sure Datuk Ahmad will be a happy man. Imagine just 3 years of suspension but the mere reporter who reported his misdeeds is now under detention under ISA for God knows how long. ( I dont understand the logic here though - MAKING a seditious/racist/imflammatory remark and you get a slap in the wrist for affecting social peace/safety but merely REPORTING the same and you are deemed a major threat to the same that requires your incarceration). So MCA/Gerakan, you have won your battle and got your little satisfaction of seeing Datuk Ahmad getting a slap in the wrist - are you happy that journalist Tan is now detained under the ISA? Have you not just won a battle and lost a war?

And, from this, in another battlefield, BN/Abdullah Badawi may have won a battle in incarcerating the trio but may have made a major strategic blunder in the war to keep their pants. Merely placing RPK under ISA when there are a myriad of laws under which he can be charged (if indeed he is guilty as claimed) shows that maybe he is not guilty - at least in many peoples' minds. Also, placing Teresa Kok and Tan Hoon Cheng under the ISA may indeed convince a lot of fence sitters that this is the move of a desperate government in pulling out all stops to stay in power - a very good reason for their removal.

And, of course, if this offends the BN/Abdullah Badawi, I do not mean it.

Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English

Right now the country's educational system is struggling with a mighty momentous decision - whether or not to continue the teaching of mathematics and science in English. The original aim of this approach in using English, an international language, in the teaching of mathematics and science is to enable students to access the wealth of knowledge in these two key subjects that is predominantly stored in the English langauge (of course, it is also stored in other more 'international' languges or languages of nations that are technologically superior to Malaysia). Do we not want access to the treasure house of knowledge that only requires a working knowledge of the language it is written in? Why then the backtrackking? Are we going to be just contented with the peanuts in our vernacular languages because we are able to master peanuts? And admit that we are monkeys?

I know from first hand that it is possible to acquire these peanuts as I studied for my degree in engineering in Malay BUT, and I am qualified to say so, I could never have excelled in engineering with just the peanuts that I studied. Even when I was studying engineering in Malay, my own private study and research was all done by referring to reference books in English. Without that backup reference to engineering text in English I would not have been able to function effectively as an engineer. And I could do it because of my strong grounding in English. But our educationists are dropping the teaching of mathematics and science because our students are unable to follow the teaching in English. If they can't even do that, what hope have they got when they go out into the real working world where even the processes that they will be working with are all described in English as are the design and manufacturer's documentation.

Like most things, our educational system is not designed to equip our stuents with skills and abilities to take on the world - just going through the motions of educating them and giving them a certification that they are already educated. And, of course, when they go out they will repeat the process - just going through the motions of working without achieving anything at all and yet will be paid as if they have.

Malaysia Boleh.

How to Say Things without saying it.

The MCA/Gerakan leaders are up in arms against a highly seditious remark by the Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail. The Pakatan leaders are no less peeved by that remark. But, and this is a very big BUT, they should not be. After all, no less illustrious a personality like our Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, is reported to have said it is okay to say such things as "I don't think he means it". My God, the fantastic implication. Now we ALL can say what we want to, seditious or not, as long as "we don't mean it". In one swoop, the Prime Minister, in his infinite wisdom, has done shown us all lesser mortals how to get around the draconian Sedition Act. Take not all ye lesser mortals and celebrate instead of complaining.

And if anyone should take offence with what I have just written, just remember - "I don't think I mean it".

Fuel Price Adjustment.

We finally have it - the reduction of the pump price for petrol and diesel. Many people will rejoice over this but the question is, SHOULD they?

When the price of petrol and diesel went up, the prices of almost everything else went up in tandem - it was not the price increase of petrol/diesel that was the killer but the price increase of everything else. Now that the price DECREASED do you seriously think that the prices of other things will follow suit? Fat hope. Therefore, what good is it to decrease the price of petrol and diesel? Just so that when the price goes up to RM2.70 again there will be another excuse for another round of price increase?

Instead of decreasing the price of petrol and diesel, the government should use the money saved in the subsidy payout to improve the efficiency with which we are using petrol and diesel in general and the development/improvement of the public transport system so that more people can be transported with very much less use of petrol and diesel. Boo to the government for adopting a populistic but backward move with regards to the management of our fuel resources.

A New Look at the world.

If I have seen you these last two days, you will probably notice me looking you up and down and then settle on a tilt of my head that would put you just past the end of my nose. No, I have not struck the lottery. I got myself a new pair of spectacles - my first multifocal lens spectacles. Even the term multifocal isnt exactly what it may be - the manufacturer prefers the term varifocal. To see clearly, I have to place objects in the right focus of the multi-vari focal lens. As such, I am limited to a very narrow field of vision and will have to adjust my head to see things in their proper perspective. That is a mighty blow to my ego - now that I can see things in their proper perspective, able to view an issue in my mind's eye from various angles and at different level, my sole visual imput is limited to such narrow angles, ranges and scope (at least at any given time). Not so long ago, say 30 years or so (long is a very subjective thing), my visual capabilities is best described by my present mental capabilities and vice-versa my mental capabilities then equates to my present visual capabilities. Guess that is even for the course until the inevitable - both my visual and mental capabilities will deteriorate until ..........

Educational Systems in Malaysia

People here actually believe that there are two types of knowledge and/or learning disciplines, namely the Arts and the Sciences. The smarties are the left brainers - logical, calculating, sequential, analytical etc and all the smart students, especially those who do well in the 'science' subjects, are streamed to the Science stream. From there on, they will become the future scientists, doctors, architects, engineers etc. The not so smart ones, (meaning the leftovers from those who do not qualify for the science stream) will go into the Art Stream where they will study mundane, memorisisng subjects like history, geography, literature, accounts and will count themselves lucky if they get a job doing general things like administration, teaching, and anything else remote from what they actually studied. This is the fate of the right brainers - people who are intuitive, random, subjective, in touch with feelings rather than logic to the point of being illogical.

Of course, everyone wants to be a professional, to be left brained and successful, wielding powers of logic and lording it over the illogical right brainers. Unfortunately, our world is not so logical. Ten years down the line, the brightest of the professionals will be working under (earning less pay, subordinate to) their not so smart right brainers, who by virtue of their adminstrative positions are able to lord it over their so-called smarter counterparts of old. Wouldnt it therefore strike these left brainers that, contrary to what is logical, it is better to be 'stupid' and be illogical (at least pretend to be) and join the right-brainers in the study of the Arts and become administrators to fast track up the social ladder. In fact, that illogical line of action must therefore be the logical thing to do. So far, not many takers from the logical left-brainers who believe that their aptitude and knowledge areas are far superior to that of the lower life-form of right brainers and that they will never want to demean themselves to study the Arts. They will, and must, ultimately rise to the top of the social pile, as logic says that they will.

I dont believe in that crap of course. To me, any study matter is neutral - what we make out of the facts/information that we get from our learning is that which matters. Long after the information/facts gets superceded (yes, information today has very short shelf lives) the ability we develop in processing and using the information to solve problems will remain with us - to be used on the new information that we will be recieving. Arts and Science distinction blurs when actual problems are faced. And yet, in this illogical world, we categorise and stream people into Arts and Science people and setting up barriers which may be beyond the capability of an individual to break through and thus condemn him/her into a certain pattern of life and thought.
Which is why education in Malaysia stinks (among many other reasons)

My First Time

Time is money. If that is so, I should be among the rich because I have had lots of time to my account (absolute measure) and now lots of time to spend (relative measure). But I have yet to see my time turn to money. Blogging should be natural to me - the type who talk before they think. A long time ago, wise and well meaning elders have drilled into me that one should look before they leap. I have followed that advice as well as I could. It worked too - I did not generally get into any trouble. That, however, was the trouble. Not only did I not get into trouble, I did not get into anything. Until a wiser (or more foolish) source added - "Look if you will, but leap you must". So now its "Geronimo, here I come, ready or not". I used to worry about what would happen when I land - now other people have to worry about what will happen when I land. Yes, that included bruised shins and scrapped knees but things happened. So bloggers, here I am in Blogsphere- ready or not.