Bersih 2.0: The truth that cannot be covered
Which is the truth? The government of Malaysia has his own stories. The people of Malaysia who took part in the Bersih 2.0 rally last Saturday (July 9, 2011) have their own stories as well. True, not true. True, not true?
If you are in doubt of Bersih 2.0, please check out their website at http://bersih.org.
I am not going to write a long post here. The video below speaks louder than any words on earth.
Please watch the video carefully until the end then tell me which is the truth. If you have the slightest conscience, I am sure you will cry. I cried after watching the video and there is nothing shameful to tell everyone that I cried.
Fortunately, the man in the video who collapsed into unconsciousness has survived. Another man named Baharuddin Ahmad who was at KLCC during the rally, however, collapsed and died after being suffocated by the tear gas which was fired directly at his group by the FRU. A man has sacrificed his life while battling against the brutality of police and the tyranny of his own government.
Whilst one man is down, many thousands will rise for him!
Bersih 2.0 Worldwide
I shed tears while watching this video. This is so damn touching.
Bersih 2.0 – Love to my country
Today, July 9, 2011 is the day tens of thousands of Bersih 2.0 supporters marched in Kuala Lumpur peacefully for the good cause to seek electoral reform for a clean and fair election. There are plenty of information spreading on the Internet about Bersih 2.0 rally so I am not going to repeat everything here.
One thing for sure, this rally has changed my perception and the spirit of a true Malaysia, where all races – Malays, Indians and Chinese united under one cause despite of the unwarranted, tyrannical acts by the National Front government and the police. I have never felt more proud of being a Malaysian.
A quote from a friend of mine from Hong Kong:
Democracy won’t come to you, is you go and get it. if you have chance just speak out loud, or shout from the rooftop. – Atropos
And from famous actor Clint Eastwood
Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands. – Clint Eastwood
What happened today on July 9, 2011 will be written in the history of Malaysia. This is the day when fellow Malaysians stood up bravely to defend their civil liberties which have long been disrespected by the ruling government since independence. I don’t want my children, when they grow up, ask me: “Dad, what had you done on July 9, 2011?” and I can’t answer them. So I decided to wear yellow (the signature color of Bersih) and walked in town to show support. Honestly, as a father of three and the breadwinner for my family, such decision was not without fear. Why fear you may ask? Perhaps Malaysia is the only region in the world where you can be arrested for merely wearing yellow. And being arrested is one thing, how you would be treated after arrest is another.
This morning, I wore a yellow T-shirt and moved around at certain parts of the town. In the afternoon, after meeting my client at his office, I walked from Hatten Square, crossed the main road, and walked length of Dataran Pahlawan in the same T-shirt.
Having been following up the rally happenings in Kuala Lumpur since morning, I thought I could at least feel a little of the Bersih atmosphere here in Melaka. Disappointedly, I only saw large crowds, mostly Chinese, hanging out at Hatten Square and Dataran Pahlawan happily as usual. Everyone seemed carefree and undisturbed by the fact that thousands of people were being treated inhumanly by the police just because they wanted to ask for a clean democracy for all Malaysians. I hardly spotted one that wore yellow. If you look at the photos taken during the Bersih rally, you can see most of the protestors are Malays, relatively few Chinese took part in the rally. I am not being racist here, my point is there are too many Chinese Malaysians who simply don’t give a damn to the wellbeing of the country. They don’t even care to vote. All they care about are how much money they can make and how well they can live. With such attitudes, no wonder the Chinese are being called “pendatang” or squatters in spite of the fact that they are born in Malaysia. I think these people really deserve such labeling.
Although what I did was insignificant and actually nothing compared to those who had risked being arrested, injured or even losing their life to join the Bersih 2.0 movement in Kuala Lumpur today, I am glad that I have made one tiny step to conquer my fear by wearing yellow and walking on busy road and in busy malls in the heart of Melaka, with the spirit of Bersih (Clean).
If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. – Dale Carnegie
马来西亚华裔是猪-没错！
Ibrahim Ali和他的同僚说Cina是猪，一点都没错，反而吾觉得妙极。
“猪相”：它们的吃”很省”(猪食)，它们老爱在一角落臭挤(猪圈)，它们永远看似很”满足”(猪样)，但“开心”是装/堆出来(猪也会涂口红)，它们甘受宰制(猪脑)，它们有发癫的时侯(猪嚎嚎大叫时)。它们爱窝裹斗，猪咬猪，自己打自己人。当狼来了，个个夹着尾巴鸟兽散。可怜一两只被牺牲在狼的血盆大口之下泪流满面，认命!
Against All Odds – The Rise Of An Industrious Country
It was two weeks ago, if my memory served me right, my kids were playing around the dining hall. One of them, took a hard-boiled egg and put it into a basket of uncooked eggs. LA was getting crazy about this. I heard the incidence and I came out of my working room.
“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mom would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off. 
I took the two eggs in my hand and LA gathered the boys around the dining table. Mom told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”
I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.
Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?
The most profitable business
As we, including the kids, know that a profitable business is when we purchase at low price and sell at higher price to make a profit. But the “law of profitability” in economics has been broken. I read a piece of news with mouth wide opened. Am I reading correctly? Here is the repost of the news from “The Malaysian Insiders“:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — American motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson has, according to the Associated Press, agreed to buy MV Agusta for US$109 million (RM360 million), in sharp contrast to the one euro Italian company Gevi paid when it bought the Italian bike-maker from Proton Holdings in 2006.
Harley-Davidson said in a statement out of Milwaukee last Friday that it was likely to seal the deal in weeks but the news is likely to unleash a firestorm of criticism against Proton, which was savagely assailed for the 2006 sale by no less a person than former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who conceived Proton back in 1984, according to the SingaporeBusiness Times.
Proton, then under the leadership of Dr Mahathir protege Tengku Mahaleel Ariff, bought a 57.75 per cent interest in MV Agusta in December 2004 for 70 million euros (RM357 million). Dr Mahathir had stepped down as premier a month earlier but had been appointed Proton adviser by his successor Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the time.
By 2005, Proton was floundering amid intense competition from better-quality Japanese models and relations between Tengku Mahaleel and the new Proton board, all appointed by Abdullah, were tense. These culminated in the chief executive’s contract not being renewed. Barely a year later, the company sold MV Agusta, with its debt of 107 million euros, for one euro.
Dr Mahathir took it personally, asking for an investigation of the sale decision and its beneficiaries, and questioning the urgency of the deal.
Proton defended itself by saying there were “no operational, engineering or technological synergies” between the two companies, a conclusion that it said had “been independently confirmed by its appointed advisers”.
When Tengku Mahaleel and Dr Mahathir decided on the buy earlier, it was precisely because of the deal’s so-called “technological synergies”.
Even so, the Harley deal would appear to vindicate both men and is likely to rebound upon Proton and, by extension, Abdullah and his administration, which has stoutly defended Proton’s new management against the criticism of Dr Mahathir.
MV Agusta makes a line of premium sports motorcycles under its own name and another line of lightweight bikes under the Cagiva brand.
Meanwhile, the deal will help Harley-Davidson expand into the European market as sales slump in the US where consumers are pulling back on spending. Performance biking accounts for almost 80 per cent of sales in Europe, where Harley’s sales have been growing in double digits over the past three years. The US bike-maker now has a 10 per cent share of the European market.
Meanwhile Bernama reports that Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told the Dewan Rakyat today that the sale of MV Agusta for one euro was profitable to Proton as there was no synergy between the Italian motorcycle maker and Proton as a car manufacturer.
He said Proton made the decision after taking into account the financial liabilities of Agusta which had debts of 107 million euros.
Under the agreement, the shareholder must be responsible for the company’s debts, he said.
“As there was no synergy between car and motorcycle and instead of shouldering the debt, Proton decided to sell Agusta,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping) during Question Time.
Take a look at the last fourth paragraph carefully. The speaker was really lack of intelligence. How can a business be profitable if it spends 70 millions Euros to buy a company and then sells it for 1 Euro? But in the first place, will you buy a company with 107 millions Euros of debts?
Hello? Is this a typo? I don’t think so. But the person who made such statement in Dewan Rakyat must be thinking the Malaysians are mentally retarded.
这个世界是文明还是野蛮？
傍晚在电视上看到第二届世界大专华文辩论会（世辩贰）大决赛。题目是《这个世界是文明还是野蛮？》。马来西亚国民大学是正方，而反方是中国苏州大学。在我看来，反方比较明确的述明这世界的野蛮里的文明。不过，大体上，双方都在逗圈子，来来去去都在争论是文明是野蛮的。双方都拿不出一个标准。依我看来，反方比较胜卷在握。
看这场辩论赛而辩论这个世界是文明还是野蛮的，真是浪费时间。
这个世界是文明还是野蛮的不是世人能定夺。这个世界是一个灰色的世界。文明中带有野蛮、野蛮中带有文明。以文明来掩饰野蛮、而野蛮行为中带点文明处处可见。一位企业化黑帮老大坏事做尽、可他又是一位慈善家，那么他是文明还是野蛮？把一件事以多角度、多层次来抽丝剥茧的深入观察和分析，就会有好多不同的结论。以上两支决赛队伍都缺乏了多角度多层次的客观分析。
在一个文明社会的字典里，《法律》、《斗争》、《仇恨》、《战争》、《经济》、《利益》、《罪恶》等等是不存在的。在文明社会里是不需要法律来约束人民的。为什么？因为每人脑里都没有经济和利益的斗争，也不会有战争。社会上种种罪恶都是利益和经济的冲突所引起的。所以，在我们野蛮的社会里，需要法律来约束人们以防止罪案发生。有文明不代表没有了野蛮。只是野蛮被文明的法律约束压制了。
一个文明社会里，经济和金钱是不存在的。每人都知道自己对社会的义务而工作，而不是为个人的物质享受而工作。所有行动和思想都是和大体一致的为大体的生存而产生。
一个文明社会里，所有思想都是无极的，也不会有这场辩论会，更不需要辩论。一切仇恨斗争都是思想极化的产物。
在我眼里，这个世界是文明里带有野蛮、野蛮里有点文明的一个矛盾世界。
更新：中国苏州大学 胜。
Thinking in a nutshell
Most Malaysia graduate students lack critical thinking and have narrow thinking in their small nutshell and yet they think they are thinking and handling problems like an adult. I don’t know exactly what makes them having this false perception but I think it is the lacking of critical thinking, experience and limited exposure in the real world of survivor. They are restrained only to academic and their activities circles are also bounded by non-sense laws set by the universities. These laws are designed to suppress the basic human rights of the students. Read more
My message to our dearest Prime Minister
Here’s a message I have sent to our dearest Prime Minister at Warkah Untuk PM. I hope he is personally reading all the messages and really put in efforts to ease our burdens and also make changes. Read more
Abrupt price hike of fuel
One day after the price increased, there are many fingers pointing to our PM Pak Lah. Many people including politicians and the honorable retired ex-PM, Mahatir are blaming the Pak Lah and his administration. Politicians are taking this opportunity to tarnish Pak Lah image and hopefully to quickly impede him.
IMHO, the abrupt increased of fuel prices has good reason that we should consider and support. The sudden increase of prices by as much as 40% will force citizens to be more thrifty. Malaysians have been pampered with low fuel prices for so long. As you can notice (if you really pay attention), many people go to grocery shops which are very near their home by cars. These shops are in within walking distance. This is just one of the example.
By forcing Malaysians to be thrifty and less travel unnecessarily, we can save more precious natural resources and emit less pollutants. The change of lifestyle is going to take place sooner or later as we know our oil production is going to cease in 2014. That is just 6 years away.
The people from our neighboring countries such as Singapore has been benefited by the fuel subsidy. It is the time to stop benefit them. The subsidy is to be enjoyed by our citizens but not others. It is very messy to handle this issue.
One day before the increase, there had been news about the price hike. But people treated it as rumor because there was no announcement on TV news channels. But Sharir said in the TV interview that things would change tomorrow. That’s the indication from the government. Again, IMHO, I think Pak Lah and his administration are quite smart in handling this situation. First, they sanction the sales of petrol. No sales to foreign vehicles within 50KM radius from the border. Kedah responded with a full ban on entire state. The ban was to deter foreign vehicles to fill up their tanks before the price hike. Smart strategy.
The government has sent enough signals to every citizens but no one took it seriously. Another indication is that one or two days prior the announcement, fuel tankers were busy refilling petrol kiosks. Did anyone notice that?
Although most of the Malaysians dislike Pak Lah and his administration, but we need more intelligence to address and to helm through this crisis. The fingers pointing is just another dirty strategy by some politicians trying to out throw Pak Lah.
Gas Rush!
Our government announced this evening that the petrol price will hike up 78 cents per litter by midnight. After midnight the petrol price per litter will be RM2.70. This is a drastic announcement after the government decides to cut fuel subsidies when the world crude oil price soared above US$120 per barrel. This will definitely add more burdens after the hike of food prices due to worldwide food shortage.
We went to the hypermarket to see if we can grab something for stocking. On the way, we saw many cars queuing up a petrol kiosks causing massive traffic jam. Thank God I have filled up the tank last night.
Expect to see more crimes after the price hike.
多难兴邦
温爷爷在北川中学黑板上写的四个大字：“多难兴邦”。这四个字已经铭刻在忆万中国人心中。这四个字也给了我很大的回响。
一个国家灾难重重，必能训练出超强的毅力和团结力以应付重重灾难。一个人如果困难重重，也必能训练出超强的毅力和顺应能力。所以，当一个人遇上重重困难时，千万要记得温爷爷的四个字：“多难兴邦”！绝对要理性起来，绝不能灰心和放弃。
好一个“多难兴邦（人）”！
Change is inevitable
All living things, including human beings, go through many stages of metamorphosis through out their entire life time. From fetus to baby, to toddler, to child, to adolescence, to adult, to middle age, to old age and to corpse. Together with this physical and physiological changes, our mental and behavior change in capacity and capability to adept to our needs in the ever evolving and challenging environment.
Malaysia tertiary education – A systemic failure
One common thing I found especially in Computer Science (and engineering faculty where programming is taught) in all my visits to most Malaysian universities, none of their programming courses is ever impressive to me. The state universities are slightly better than private universities. Yet, still many of them do not teach proper programming concepts. Most of the programming courses teach C or Java as an introductory to programming. The worst thing is that these lecturers have not even mastered the language themselves.
One common thread is that, students are often given an assignment to use other programming languages like Visual Basic which they have not been taught any lesson. Students have to pick up the language themselves.
As the result, many local university graduates do not have proper training in programming and the worst, lack of systematic discipline and systematic reasoning skills. I have personally experienced this with interns and projects seeded to universities.
Some of these graduates will continue doing their master degree in the comfort of the university environment, simply they cannot find a job, they become assistant lecturers. This begins the vicious cycle. A student without proper training in programming gets into the teaching system and begins to teach improper method to younger students!
This is a systemic failure in our local education system. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I once knew a student from TARC (Tar College). She was doing accounting after her STPM. She was suffering because she could not catch up with the course work due to bad command of English. After some lengthy discussions, she finally decided to quit. Good for her. But, do you know what? She applied and was admitted into teacher training program. By now, I guess, she is teaching in the primary or secondary school. There goes another vicious cycle. A sub-standard teaching the younger generation to be sub-standards!
Queue up please!
When grandma, Dmitry and I were at the immigration department to renew our passport, I noticed a group of students from Kolej Yayasan Saad at the department to apply for their passports too. One infuriating scenario was that these students were treated like VIPs and they did not have to queue up. They were escorted by immigration officers into the counter to apply their passport. Ordinary people were waiting for their numbers to be called outside the counter.
Why did they have such privilege? Isn’t supposed to teach these school children to queue up and to play fair in the society? I guessed these students really enjoyed being a VIP and roamed in the corridor of power! What a bunch spoilt brats!
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