Echoing What’s Important To You

It is of the most basic human nature that we take things for granted. Since Men discovered fire, trees and shrubs were at our peril. Now, we threaten almost anything that is different from us - from people with different skin colour to animals we deem more suitable to be made into floor mats for our homes.

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Being in a hospital is depressing, no doubt. Being in a high dependency unit or an intensive care unit is more depressing. Everyday we see people being carried out of the wards – some are headed to the normal wards, some are lucky enough to be discharged with a clean bill of health, while the unfortunate ones are headed to the mortuary. And at the end of the day, no matter what the cause, the only reply people get is “Sorry, we did our best.”

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Recently, I attended the 2nd Malaysian Student Leaders Summit and an interesting topic was discussed during the summit. Two respected public figures, one who is a prominent academician in Malaysia and another, who is a political analyst and commentator expressed their views on the topic of “Malaysian National Unity: Organic or Manufactured?” As a student activist, I decided to express my opinions as well after listening to what the two speakers had said.

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August is nigh, and so it’s high time people heard these two cents.

31^st of August comes and goes every year. Flags, national symbols, articles about the country’s history, patriotic songs, etc. are among the many things that distinguish the Independence season from every other time of the year. The red, white, blue and yellow paraphernalia return just for the month-long celebration which begins on the 16^th of August and ends on the 16^th of September (Malaysia Day). In schools, competitions are held to see whose sajak (poem) is the best, whose class is the best decorated, the like. Not to say that these things are bad; they should go on, but from what I have seen, many seem to be on an emotional high thinking that they may do just about anything to show love for the country. Last year, on the occasion of our 50^th Independence Day, there was a geezer who went hungry for several weeks for the sake of patriotism. Honestly, I wonder if that actually took a toll on his health.

Friends, is all this necessary?

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MalaysiaKini’s recent article on dress codes sparked some dissatisfaction in me and naturally prompted me to give my two cents.

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This is an important issue on which I’ve been meaning to write sooner but have not been able to properly encapsulate the message.

From the outset allow me to point out that I’ve never really been much of an environmentalist myself. I am not against environmentalism as I am not for it, and I operate without paying much heed to Greenpeace, WWF or what have you. But lately there has been a phenomenon that has intruded into my daily life of which I have not been able to avoid, and that phenomenon is the growing alarmism of man-made global warming.

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The recent revelation of Terengganu’s state expenditure worth RM3.43 million to purchase 14 Mercedes-Benz E200 Kompressor at RM 3.43 million to replace the Proton Perdana V6 used by its state executive councillors (EXCO) and senior officials has provoked an outcry. However, Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said argued that the decision is in fact a wise one, as it is more economical and cost-saving in the long run, although the cost of purchasing may seem unreasonable at present. The explanation may to certain extent justify the expenditure, but more importantly, it offers an insight into how Malaysian leaders deal with issues and resolve problems concerning the public.

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“What, aren’t all those prairies and paddy fields enough?”

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Did you catch the Anwar vs. Shabery Cheek debate (on Bernama TV [Astro channel 502] or some other media) on 15th July at 9 p.m? I sure hope you did.

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The man of the moment, it seems, is none other than Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (DSAI), formerly the next Prime Minister of Malaysia and currently de facto leader of the Opposition. Many Malaysian blogs have been discussing the current developments in the Malaysian political scene and the Malaysian media, both mainstream and alternative, have devoted at least some (if not prime) space in which DSAI has been featured.

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