Over-glorified paper. That is exactly how I think most people today treat computers. The power of computing can be used for so much more. However, the masses tend to just see them as over-glorified paper. Personally, it frustrates me that even governments, universities and large organisations fall into this trap of treating computers as over-glorified paper.

In most organisations, computers are merely used to keep track of information – records. They are used as over-glorified filing cabinets to store lots of typed up documents called files. Let us be honest with ourselves. Just look around and you will see that this is how most of us use computers. To type up reports, organise and store them in the computer.

In some organisations, computers are slightly elevated to information sharing. When information needs to be exchanged between parties, the files are retrieved from the computers and emailed over to the other party. This is just one caveman step above actually printing out the records and passing them to the other person to be re-entered in as another computer file. I’m sure that this caveman method is still in use.

However, the power of computers will never be realised until computers are actually used to process information. There is so much that computers can help us with, particularly in the the elimination of human error. Few organisations actually reach this level of computer use because few have the necessary expertise to afford such a system.

The recent fiasco with our APEX university accidentally accepting more students than they did, is reflection of a badly implemented computer system. Obviously, it was caused by human error, where the officer in charge accidentally uploaded more names than he/she was supposed to. You can see how this problem could have been easily avoided by merely removing the need for any sort of manual data entry.

Applicants should be encouraged to apply to the university by filling up an online form, which will capture the necessary information. Then, in an environment that uses computers to process information, the computer will perform all the necessary evaluation and acceptance of students into the university, based on specific criteria listed in the algorithm chosen. Then, the computer would automatically release the results to the students as well. In all this, the only time a human needs to get involved is to manually fix some problems, e.g. when the computer cannot decide on the placement of certain students.

Unfortunately, this obviously wasn’t the case – not just for our APEX university, but also for almost everything else.

I had recently been to the Road Transport Department (JPJ) to settle some details due to my road accident last month. I had gone to the Federal Territories branch at Wangsa Maju. It was there that I saw the sale of numbers for car plates. There were screens that showed the numbers available for sale and their prices, while there were numerous counters set up to handle the sale of these numbers.

This just didn’t sit right with me.

As far as I can tell, the JPJ is a government agency that is tasked with the job of licensing vehicles and drivers. As far as I can tell, it is neither a lottery (4D) seller nor an auction house. However, from the article in TheStar today, the JPJ earned a total of RM445million from the auction of numbers last year alone. People, this is just crazy and open to abuse of power and corruption.

Okay, the JPJ has never been known as a shining beacon of honesty and transparency but this is just so thoroughly open to abuse as it is not open to check and balances. Remember my earlier article about the separation of powers, there are just so many ways that things can go wrong when the people issuing the numbers are also the ones collecting the money. The system really needs to be changed.

The JPJ is not in the job of selling numbers. It’s job is to license vehicles and charge the gazetted licensing fees. It should not be selling off the licenses to the highest bidder. This is the job of an after-market numbers market. Let the private sector handle the sales and transactions just like any other form of sales. The JPJ has no expertise in doing this anyway.

Finally, I think that people should just get smart. This idea of having ‘lucky’ numbers on the car number plates is just dumb. Plain and simple dumb. There is no evidence to suggest that one set of numbers are better than another. If you believe that a certain set of numbers has the magical power of granting you fortune and fame, you deserve to be fleeced of every last sen that you have.

People are dumb.

I think that it is dumb. According to TheStar, our government is considering to limit the number of subjects taken by SPM students to ensure fairer scholarship selection. Although I do not think that the current free-for-all was a good thing to have, I do not agree with this methodology to address the issue of PSD scholarships.

It also raises the issue of fairness. While our DPM said that it was unfair on those who are forced to take less subjects because of economic or administrative reasons. However, the suggested policy would take away the option of taking more subjects from those who may wish to do more. Personally, I like the idea of having the freedom to pick and choose subjects.

However, what the PSD should do is to only consider results from a set number of subjects. This is fair, transparent and simple to do. As a criteria, the PSD should just list down the subjects needed. Having A1s in other subjects can be ignored totally for the purpose of scholarship selection. There is no point adding in an A1 in Science I/II when you’ve already got an A1 in Physics, Chemistry and Biology separately.

If the student wishes to take more subjects in order to pad up their results, they are free to do so as long as they understand that only the results that are requirements will be considered. In fact, the students should only be evaluated based on the pre-requirement subjects. So, the student should not be penalised for getting a bunch of A2s in other non-requirement subjects.

However, it doesn’t surprise me that the government can come up with such dumb solutions to the simplest of problems.

PS: In other news, our PM has said that he intends to dismantle the decades old system of preferment for ethnic Malays. I wonder why it has not been picked up by the local press.

Personally, I am against the idea of the courts being embroiled in the current Silver Sandiwara. I like the idea of having an independent judiciary, one which is equal in power but distinctly separate from the other branches of government. However, we may end up seeing a situation where a 3-men bench got to decide who was the lawful Menteri Besar of Perak.

Whichever way the judges rule, our democracy would have suffered a setback. Whomever they choose to pick as the lawful MB, would circumvent all sorts of procedures. As far as I can tell, the lawful MB is whomever commands the majority of the Assembly and is thus appointed by the Sultan. Unless of course, we get a surprise decision where the judges rule not to rule.

You see, from what I read in a M’kini letter, Article 72 of our Constitution specifically states:

72. (1) The validity of any proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of any State shall not be questioned in any court.

This actually gives the judges a sneaky way out of the situation, by pointing out the fact that the proceedings in the Assembly are not in their purview. So, whether or not an MB commands the majority of the house, is not up to the judiciary to decide. It is entirely up to the Assembly to decide, which was the crux of the whole problem to begin with.

If what is said in this letter is to be believed, the Silver Sandiwara is far from over. According to the letter, the way in which the BN kicked out the previous assembly speaker was not ‘by the book’ and that the present speaker was not even sworn in as a member of the assembly. If any of it is true, it means another major cock-up by the members of the coup.

I think that it is important to follow the Constitution and rules of the house when it comes to these matters. You see, the state government draws its powers and authority from these documents. If these documents are not to be respected, then neither is the state government. Therefore, it is important that everyone plays by the rules, lest the laws of the jungle prevail.

I think that the situation is now so frakked up that there is no easy way out. So, the state can look forward to being so thoroughly screwed up by the politicians up until the next General Election. I pity the people who have to make a living there.

As for the candle light vigils, I understand the need to keep the issue alive so that it simmers and blows up during the next GE. However, I think that the opposition should start looking at doing something else. The only effect that it seems to be having is to get more people arrested. That cannot be a good long-term strategy. Unless of course, it is their objective to get arrested!

I attended the scholarship forum organised by DAP yesterday, mainly because I am personally interested in education matters and also because I was curious as to what kind of things does DAP have to say about it. They managed to present some data and I actually thought that things weren’t as bad as it may seem.

You see, if we consider only the top 2% of our students as the creme de la creme, that’s about 10,000 people coming out each year. JPA only gives out 2,000 scholarships and that is spread across multiple disciplines and countries. Obviously, many people will just fall through the net. There just isn’t the budget necessary to fund everyone. Personally, I think that we should all be thankful that our government actually bothers to fund anyone at all. There are not many governments that do that.

The DAP worked out the number of places available for non-bumi to be about 1080 places. To me, that is a fair number. Things have changed a lot. In my days, we were competing for double-digit spaces. The trouble is that these places are spread over a wide number of courses and countries. If everyone wants to study medicine in the UK, there aren’t enough places obviously.

An MP mentioned that the interview process was flawed. Students were interviewed in large groups and hardly given any time to speak. I went through those in my day as well. There is nothing wrong with group interviews. It is all about group dynamics. You just need to understand how to make yourself stand out in the ‘right’ way. If you are quietly sitting at the corner waiting for your turn to talk, obviously, you are not going to get anywhere with the interviewer.

Another MP mentioned that considering someone with 12A1 as equal to a 9A1 is not right while considering someone with 12A1 and 1A2 as worse than a 9A1 is wrong. Personally, I beg to differ. I think that having a 9A1 criteria as a clear cut-off point is good. That is a perfectly quantifiable criterion. Considering someone with 1A2 as less than perfect, is also fair to eliminate those who take more subjects as a lottery to simply increase their number of As. You may not agree with the fact that 12A1 + 1A2 is worse than 9A1, but that is a crystal clear criterion. At least it isn’t subjective.

Of course, there was a fair bit of politicking at the event. However, I turned off most of that by merely closing my eyes and taking a break. The speakers spoke for about 2 hours. So, my attention span was dwindling anyway. Luckily, those which had anything to say, got to say it first.

I found it particularly interesting that a politician can make his ‘last point’ extremely lasting.

Since this is an annual thing, I thought that I should just put a few words down to tell the kids who got rejected by JPA – Don’t Give Up!

Dear JPA Reject,

I shall use the words that I had once heard, from a good professor of mine: “Although you may feel dejected, do not feel depressed.” The reason is really simple. The JPA scholarship is not the be-all-end-all of your dreams. Your dreams are yours to keep. So, keep them alive!

I have been fortunate enough to get multiple education scholarship offers in my life and I had turned down a few of them. I have also made many friends who are both government scholars and non-government scholars alike. So, I would like to share some of these experiences.

First and foremost, the JPA scholarship scheme is just one of the many scholarships available, both local and overseas. You should realise that there are many scholarship awarding bodies in Malaysia. For those who will be facing their SPM examinations in the future, please remember to apply for multiple scholarships, if only to increase your chances of actually getting one.

You see, everyone has a different set of criteria. You may not agree with the JPA selection criteria and you may not fit in with it. However, there are also other scholarship bodies who do not agree with the JPA selection criteria and apply their own criteria in scholar selection. So, while you may not fit into the JPA mould, you may actually fit into some other mould.

There are also many overseas scholarship schemes available. In fact, many foreign universities are able to provide some sort of financial aid for their students. You should check to see if you qualify for these. There are also various international foundations and bodies who offer scholarships. This is particularly true if you are able to secure a place in a top university.

This brings me to my second point. This is not the end of the road. You can still try again at the post-STPM (and equivalent) level. There is nothing to stop you from continuing your education to a pre-university level and trying again. There are plenty of Malaysians who have done exactly that – do their pre-university education themselves and re-apply for scholarships again.

If you cannot afford to study your A-Levels/IB at a private institution, you can always do your STPM. You may not realise this but the STPM is actually a very well recognised pre-university level qualification. You will still be able to apply for various foreign universities with the STPM. Do not always believe what the private colleges tell you about the STPM.

However, some of you may be turned-off by the lengthy duration of the STPM exam. For this, I have only one advice – a single year is nothing, in the larger scheme of things. Think about this for a minute. What is a single year difference when compared with an entirely lifetime. In fact, it is a common practice to take a ‘gap-year’ to go explore various avenues in life. This can even help you figure out what it is that you actually want in life instead of blindly going with the flow.

This brings me to my next point. Not everyone is made out to be a doctor. In fact, you are probably not made out to be a doctor. The medicine path is a long and arduous one and if you are not made out to be a doctor, studying medicine is going to be hell. I have seen this happen to many friends. So, you should really ask yourself if you really love medicine or if you’re doing it just for the heck of it.

You can be a success, if you do something that you truly like – be it something as dull as accounting or something as exciting as engineering (alright, I’m biased!). But seriously, you need to think carefully of your career choice. It is something that you will be living with daily for the rest of your life. If you find that you hate medicine after so many years of study, you will lose more than just a couple of years.

And finally, do not let this little hurdle stop you from pursuing your dreams. There are many paths that can lead to your dream. Sometimes, it may actually be better to take the path less tread. So, do not think that your world has ended as a result of this rejection. Learn to handle rejection and to use it positively to improve yourself so that you will ultimately, still achieve your dreams.

PS: Do not stop dreaming!

with metta,
Shawn Tan.
(Still trying to achieve my dreams!)

Gajah sama gajah berlawan, Pelanduk mati di tengah.

At first, I had a lot of things to write about today. However, after seeing what has happened in Perak today, I’m quite sad that such a thing has happened. You see, while this picture does not tell the whole story, it certainly shows a lot.

Personally, I would have to agree with Tun Dr M that BN truly screwed up the take-over of Perak. They really should learn from how our government engineered the take-over of Sime Darby on the London Stock Exchange. When you want to do a take-over, it has to be planned in advance and executed flawlessly. Otherwise, you risk a lot of back lash from revealing your hand.

The matter between the two Menteri Besar is still being deliberated at the Federal Court. That situation is a little murky because the Sultan is involved and the constitution is not very clear on the matter. That is why it is being referred to the courts for a decision.

However, the situation with the Assembly Speaker was never in question. By law, he was the lawful speaker of the assembly. His appointment had nothing to do with ‘confidence’ nor does it have anything to do with the Sultan. This is where the BN botched up the job.

They should have shown a little patience and restraint. They should have waited till the sitting of the assembly before springing their trap. In one fell swoop, they could have voted out the speaker and tossed out the Menteri Besar unquestionably. Unfortunately, the acted prematurely.

As a result, neither party is satisfied. One side is trying desperately to bull-doze its way through while the other side is trying to be as stubborn as a rock. Obviously, something has got to give. I just hope that the rakyat does not end up dying in between.

There are reasons why procedures are in place. Even the triads and gangsters follow procedures. We can argue about the right or wrong of these procedures, but they still need to be followed. Let’s try to stick to the procedures, yar!

While I think that there are valid reasons for not liking what Wong Chin Huat did, I think that our police needs to learn some lessons in public relations. The police have been so heavy handed for so long that they don’t seem to know how to act with an even hand.

I would think that on the governments’ side, they would argue that he was the ‘ring leader’ and tried to stir things up by getting everyone to wear black on Thursday. Incidentally, I would be wearing black, if only because I have only black shirts left in my clean pile.

I think that this is quite different from getting people to wear yellow, like for Bersih. With yellow, it is easy for the police to catch the people who are involved. Not many people wear a bright yellow shirt. But for black, things are a little more dicey. Lots of people wear black, if only to blend in.

Moreover, they have probably learned that it is difficult to catch the masses. Instead, they should focus on the ‘leaders’. However, what the police and the government may have failed to understand is the nature of the present fight. There are no ‘leaders’ per se.

What the Internet allows is the flattening of hierarchies. Anyone with a connection and some perseverance can be a ‘leader’. Anyone with a blog can shout his mouth off. It’s kind of difficult to identify ‘leaders’ in the traditional sense anymore.

So, maybe the cops should bear this in mind for the future. Denying him an audience with opposition politicians is fine. But denying him an audience with his lawyers is definitely illegal in some book. They should have at least given him a chance to speak to the lawyers. That would have been good public relations.

In fact, the police could have even issued a public statement to the press, to explain the motivations behind their actions and what they plan to do. At the very least, that would neutralise the FUD that the opposition politicians try to create with this situation. The police are trying to create their own FUD too, but it does not work anymore. The people have gotten tired of it. Plus, the opposition politicians are much better spinners than the government.

So, I’ll be wearing black tomorrow, if only because I only have black shirts left in my clean pile and I do not want to wear some stinky shirt.

Although this is not a new phenomenon in the country, I have recently noticed some concerted effort at raising public funds through bonds. This only raises the hairs at the back of my neck. I have a gut feeling that tells me that this is not a good practice to keep up. Since I am not an economist, I casually asked an economist friend of mine about this last weekend.

I am of the opinion that our government is possibly having some cash flow problems, brought about by the stark drop in oil prices. Our last budget was planned on the basis that oil would stay at about $125 per barrel. However, it has dropped to less than half that value. Hence, it is very possible that our government is experiencing some cash issues.

So, the easiest solution out of this would be to issue bonds. Bonds are basically promises from the government to repay the money at a specific time in the future, with specific terms. Bonds are a good instrument for solving temporary cash flow problems as it is essentially what everyone does, borrow some cash to make more cash and then repay the loan with some interest.

But to me, this is borrowing against the future, to repay present debts. For some reason, my logic just cannot reconcile this positive feedback loop. If we are borrowing against the future, we are actually hedging that we will be able to repay those debts in the future. The trouble happens when we do not have enough cash to repay those debts, we will need to issue more bonds, to borrow even more money.

Somehow, I have a feeling that this is not sustainable and that the bubble will burst at some point. This is what our venerable TDM has described as ‘making money out of thin air’. Our government is literally ‘printing money out of thin air’. It is digging itself into debt with the rakyat. When it defaults, we are literally screwed because we have a vested interest in not letting it default.

Oh my, the picture just became even darker for me. I think that I should go run and hide away from all the Sukuk and Amanah Saham issues.