Mansuh PTPTN

I’ll get straight to the point – I cannot possibly support the movement to abolish PTPTN.

The reason is simple enough, nobody forced these people to take a low interest rate education loan. Seriously. I feel that these people are a bunch of losers who are just trying to get out of their obligations to repay the loan. What’s worse is that if they had bothered to study hard and do well, they would have been given a free pass anyway.

So, these are a bunch of students who are unwilling to work for their studies and who want to get away with a free lunch. It just sickens me.

They are a bunch of selfish bozos who would rather saddle the rest of the country with more debt than to actually do the honourable thing and to repay their own debt. I personally know of many PTPTN receipients who have still not paid a sen of their debts even after working for many years. I try to counsel them to do so but they don’t feel the necessity to.

However, I made sure that my staff did not fall into this category. I made it very clear to them that they have to repay their PTPTN loans. I pay them well enough that they have no excuse not to repay the loan. It is a sad reflection on the character of a person if they do not repay their debts. I would not want to hire such people.

I too, am currently repaying my student loan. Incidentally, it’s about an order of magnitude more than the typical PTPTN loan. While it is extremely painful and stressful to pay it off, I am meeting my obligations on time and making damn well sure that I do not fall behind. It gets difficult at times but I am not going to owe anyone anything in life.

As for the argument for a free education, there is no such thing. Someone needs to pay for it. The argument that tertiary education needs to be free is hard to justify. Everyone already has free education up to the secondary level, which is more than enough to find work and live in this world. Nobody owes anyone advanced education.

If we make education free, someone still has to pay for it – the taxpayer.

I can support it if these students were fighting for better education e.g. better curriculum, better faculty, better experiences, etc. That would make perfect sense as they are merely demanding for better value for money – not to get free of their obligations. However, this is something that sickens me.

Our young are fast becoming too entitled – they feel that the world owes them a living. The fact is that, nobody does. The sooner they understand that, the sooner they will learn to work for things. A good life doesn’t come cheap and most definitely not without sacrifice.

Bersih 3.0

I think that it’ll be fun this time around. I’ll be encouraging my friends and colleagues to join too, as I feel that the risk of a crack down by the police is highly unlikely.

The government is caught between a rock and a hard place.

If they choose to let Bersih 3.0 happen, it may fizzle and die out or it may just embolden the ‘silent’ majority to let themselves be heard. If the event draws the huge crowds that it is expected to, it may just prove that the rakyat truly want change and until we get it, there will be more sequels coming soon.

If they choose to block the event and crack down on the rally goers, it may spell complete doom for the ruling government in the next GE. It is also likely to draw international condemnation if the government gases its own citizens for simply asking for electoral reform. Images of police brutality are unlikely to swing any votes their way.

I don’t want to be the cabinet at this time. It’s difficult to decide on what to do.

In this game, the only way to win might be to not play at all.

PS: I wish that the BN politicians and parties would come join the party too. It’d be fun.

My PSC Communications

Wow, I just came across the email communication between the High Commission and I, that I presented to the Parliamentary Select Committee on elections – posted on our parliament website, archived for all posterity! They did not even bother to redact my email address but they did leave out most of the information. I submitted 10 pages but they only kept the most relevant ones, the initial and last communique.