Category: Idiot Overlords

Malaysians for Change

From what I am reading around the Internet, I am beginning to gather that there are many Malaysians who want a change for Malaysia but we differ in the form of change that we want. This is where the problem stems, which will probably allow BN to retain power at the federal level come the next general elections.

There is a very large and organised group of Malaysians who want to change the political actors in the system, but are not comfortable with changing the system itself. There is a less formally organised group of Malaysians who want to change the political system itself. The former seems to be where the Pakatan Rakyat have positioned themselves while the MCLM is angling for the latter.

Myself? I am personally sick of the system. That is why, I find the MCLM very interesting and its candidates, a breath of fresh air.

However, when I speak to some of the people around me, they seem hell bent on just replacing BN with the PR and not thinking things through on whether that is actually a good thing or not. I like to point out to people that things can always get worse. The BN is definitely not the worst thing that can happen to Malaysia, we have still not struck rock bottom yet.

Presently, I spend quite a bit of my time on the ground, trying to sign up new voters into the system. During my duties, I am often asked for advice on whom to vote for. I do not believe that it is my place to tell someone else whom to vote for. So, I usually tell them to vote for whom they think is best.

However, our parliament is littered with too many monkeys and donkeys who speak out of their arse, whose brains are made of shite and whose hands are soiled. So, if I was asked whom I would vote for in the GE, I would vote for the human being as we have already sent too many monkeys and donkeys into parliament.

We need more people who can talk – like Khairy Jamaluddin – in order to translate the messages to the ground and capture voter mindshare. We need more people who can work – like Tony Pua – in order to do the analyses and come up with the strategies to better our nation. We also need some people who can fight – in order to do the necessary to put out fires on the ground.

I do hope that Malaysians wake up and realise that we do not just need to change the actors, we need to change the system. Our system of governance needs an overhaul and lots of retuning. That is the big picture and not about putting any particular coalition into power.

Sigh.

Two Lawyers

Uh oh!

That’s the thought that occurred to me when I found out that the MCLM has announced a second lawyer as its candidate. While I know quite a few lawyers myself, and consider some of them my good friends, I have this general bias against lawyers. I personally feel that most lawyers are scum.

However, the MCLM claims that these candidates that they are lining up are not scum, and since I do not know any of these candidates personally, I would have to accept their word at face value. I think that the MCLM is trying to provide us a breath of fresh air and I hope that they do succeed.

For too long, I have been telling people that I would spoil my vote in disgust if presented with the choice between voting for a donkey or a monkey. While some dinosaurs will tell me that it is wishful thinking that MCLM will make a dent in Malaysia’s politics, I do think that we need somebody to take a step in the right direction, even if it is folly.

The idea of sending lawyers into parliament has some appeal to me. For one, members of parliament are law makers. Since that is the case, it would seem logical that the MPs be people who are versed in the law and know how to fix the disconnects in the law. However, I just hope that they do end up balancing these lawyers with non-lawyers too.

Personally, I would like to see more engineers in parliament because, engineers are natural trouble-shooters. Engineers are trained to solve problems, with the tools at hand. So, having some real engineers would be helpful in parliament as well, because we can help make the machine right again.

Let’s just wait and see who else the MCLM announces as candidates. They are supposed to have about 20 lined up and geared up to go.

Third Force

There has been a lot said about the Third Force in Malaysian politics. While this term has been mooted by the likes of Haris Ibrahim and Raja Petra Kamarudin, it has now been diluted by the main-stream media and political opportunists to include anything and everything under the sun, which is neither BN nor PR.

Personally, I am sticking it to mean the true political independents – the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM).

I like this group because, their candidates can be said to be truly independent, as independent as one could be in Malaysia. I like the fact that TheStar has painted them as a group of idealists, because that is exactly what I see them trying to accomplish, to strive towards a vision of an ideal Malaysia. For that, we definitely need idealists.

However, the only problem with idealists is that they tend to get jaded rather quickly with dumb asses and unfortunately, our local political scene is filled with too many donkeys. That said, I still hope that these idealists will not set their hopes too high for the next GE. Personally, I think that they have the chance to capture a few seats in the next GE – maybe just a couple.

However, I hope that these candidates and the MCLM realise that this is a long haul fight. It is not about winning seats in the next GE. It is about changing the landscape of local politics. With that as the target, the candidates will be less likely to burnout. But if Malik Imtiaz is the kind of calibre that we will be seeing from the MCLM, I doubt that burnout would be the problem.

Anyway, I just wish the MCLM the best and I will continue to contribute where I can, to bring forth the vision of a better Malaysia. I’m staying for the good fight!

Internet Democracy

…it is in fact, an amazing kind of Athenian democracy, if you forget about the ethics of what it is they are doing…

I find it surprising that most people cannot seem to grasp the concept of an Internet democracy. It may seem very chaotic to those watching from the outside but to those who are used to working on the Internet, these kind of Athenian democracies are the norm, rather than the exception. Fast forward to 3:00 to get an explanation of how Anonymous works.

Talented Malaysians

I find the recent announcement by our PM of a new visa status for recruiting talented Malaysians back to Malaysia, rather worrying for it ends up creating a new class of elite with privileges that extend above other equally talented Malaysians, who may have chosen to stay instead of migration (not that they did not have opportunities to do so).

For one, foreign spouses of these talented Malaysians would be able to find jobs locally, while the problems of foreign spouses marrying our local talent still remains unresolved. The problem of foreign spouses in Malaysia is a long and complicated problem, with many of them giving birth to tax-paying working professional Malaysian talents, but still need to visit the Immigration department regularly with their husbands to extend their social visit pass.

This is a worrying sign. While I applaud the government’s efforts at attracting talent to Malaysia, the signal that it sends is that those who actually made the decision to stay and fight the good fight, are now relegated to second class talents. Instead, it rewards those who decided to turn tail and run away from all the problems that plague our nation with perks on top of perks.

Please be fair and allow all foreign spouses to get their PR in accordance to our laws instead of the whims and fancies of the local immigration departments. Also, make the country a suitable environment for nurturing and growing local talent instead of buying these same talents back after forcing them out of the country due to misguided policies on the ground.

There is obviously a brain drain problem in Malaysia, but it is more than just about those who have decided to pack up their bags and leave the country. There is also the problem of those within the country, who are relegated to the benches and not appreciated. I have more to share about this issue but that will the subject of another blog at the end of the month.

However, what I think would be useful to our government is this – make Malaysia more startup friendly. We could create a new class of founder visas – for people who are interested in starting up companies in Malaysia. That would really help increase the mass of small and medium enterprises in Malaysia, which are the backbone of any strong economy.

PS: If Malaysia gets more and more hostile towards me, I might need to move elsewhere. But for now, I will stay and fight the good fight. 🙂

Production PhD

TLDR: I fear that in our zeal to meet targets, we will end up diluting the quality of local PhDs.

Our government has just launched a RM2.7billion programme to promote post-graduate studies through three schemes – masters degrees, doctorate degrees, and industrial PhDs. Application opened yesterday. However, what caught my attention was the fact that among the targets set under the SLAI programme was to produce 18,500 PhD holders by 2015.

Produce.

Having been through the process myself, I can safely say that you cannot produce a good PhD. You can most certainly manufacture a random PhD but one can only gain a good PhD if they earn it. The process is such that the quality of a PhD is only as good as the quality of its input and a lot of it comes from internal mechanisms that are difficult to quantify.

The article does not mention the details but I have gathered that the scheme is good for covering local university fees.

While I do not think that further education is a bad thing, I fear that in our zeal to produce a certain number of PhDs by a certain date, we will end up compromising quality. This invariably happens when people care more about the number than the game. I certainly hope that our local universities will ignore the targets and work on producing quality instead of quantity, and that the candidates themselves will focus on tackling world-class problems rather than doing just enough by a certain deadline.

Of course, having 48,000 quality PhDs in Malaysia by 2020 is a Good Thing. However, we need to be careful about how we get there. Otherwise, I fear a dilution of the degrees awarded by our local institutions, which will only further depress their global standings if the world realises that we are only good at turning out PhDs.

I have heard lots of horror stories on local PhDs from various sources. One friend of mine, has basically been offered decent money to basically write the thesis for a PhD candidate from USM. Another friend of mine, told me of a case where her UKM lecturer merely cobbled together the work assigned to students, and called it her own. Of course, all of this is hearsay but such things (and worse) definitely happen.

PS: Incidentally, the website for information is down.

Parti KeAnwaran Rakyat

Oh my god (pun intended)!

If the reports in the media are to be believed, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ibrahim proclaimed that, “God has chosen her husband, Anwar Ibrahim, to lead Malaysians towards a better future, and there is no one else who could surpass his leadership strength.”

When I read this, the only reply that I could think of was – WOW!

I can agree that Anwar is a gifted speaker and charismatic leader. I can also agree that he has shown great strength to fight for his survival. However, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that he is anointed by God to lead his people to a better future.

Now, all we need is for Anwar to part the Red Sea and herald in a new era.

Hallelujah!

Honestly, I have always had this opinion that PKR was a party about one man – Anwar. And with the recent farce of an election and now this, I am starting to think that it is turning into a personality cult. Dangerous indeed.

Update

According to TheStar, Izzah came out to say that, “We must differentiate between personality and principles that are brought by the personality. Only principles and not personality must be institutionalised in our party.” Now, that is something that I can respect. Regardless of how great Anwar may be, the party and struggle is more than just about him.

Props!