Ervan’s Weltanschauung

I have been thinking on what I should write for Malaysia’s 50th Merdeka. I know I will not be around to celebrate the 50th Merdeka, it’s funny that I will be celebrating Malaysia’s 50th merdeka at some immigration counter or perhaps onboard the flight.

I was thinking of writing my thoughts on the eve of Merdeka, but I wont be able to do so if I was to be in a plane somewhere, or even if I am lining up to say hi to the immigration officers.

50 years of Merdeka. Malaysia has come a long way since 1957. A lot has been said on TV and radio that how things has changed in Malaysia. We now have things like the PETRONAS Twin Towers, KLIA, bla bla bla. But, it’s always easy to measure progress with something tangible. It’s easy to see those, and not realising that those were built not by the blood and sweat of Malaysians, but by the Indonesian and Bangladeshis migrant workers. To say we are the project managers of those project, we still have to remember that the Japanese and Koreans helped us. Do you still feel proud?

And how about our sports? That’s another way for us to measure success. We used to rule the football field back in the 60s and 70s. Alas, we became a laughing stock in Asia. We used to rule the badminton courts when we were under the British, but now, even though we are still there, others have overtaken us.

It is also not funny to read the book Revolusi Mental which was compiled and written after the 13th May incident, and realised that the Malay mentality today is still the same as back then. Have we not learned and evolved?

It’s not even funny to notice that since the 1960s, the Malays do not like UMNO because they all came from the bangsawans (noblemen), and today, the Malays do not like UMNO because they are rich (even if they don’t go to school). Heck, even Tun Razak pretended to come from a poor family when people know he came from the aristocracy. If you notice, it’s always not okay for Malays to be rich, and most will say that they got rich through unscrupulous means. But that’s another matter altogether, and I will skew out of the merdeka topic.

And you know what else is even funnier? When you watch P. Ramlee’s movies and notice that movies like Antara Dua Darjat, Ali Baba Bujang Lapuk and Tiga Abdul captured the essence of the Malay life, and still can be applied today. Heck, you can remake those movies and put in our current actors and the underlying message of those movies which were made in the 50s and 60s can still be applied today.

We still have a long way to go. We are there materialistically, we are there education wise, but, we still need to revolutionise our mental and culture pysch. Celebrate the 50th year of merdeka, our forefathers have worked hard for us to achieve this independence. But remember, we still need to liberate our mind and revolutionize ourself.

Just got back from chocolate buffet at KL Hilton with my nephews. We had a good time, and they really enjoyed the buffet. It’s really good to just hang out with my nephews, and yeah, they are growing up fast….

Very fast….

This was forwarded by Azam a few weeks back.

An Al-Jazeera report on Malaysia’s street children.

I was rather surprised with Siti Mariah who voiced her concern that the support the Government is giving to the Yayasan Salam for the street children will send the wrong signals. In this case, it is okay to be a prostitute as the Government will take care of the kids.

I am glad that the Government is choosing to ignore the conservatives, and like what Hartini said, it will help to prevent the fourth generation of prostitutes by keeping the kids off the streets.

Kids as young as 6 year old, loitering in the Chow Kit area at midnight. Gosh. Ideally, they should be in their bed, sleeping. But then again, this is not a perfect world, is it?

Outlawing drugs, prostitutions, will not solve the problem overnight. Even the society has to be aware of this problem. It is a vicious cycle, as shown in the video, that the son of a prostitute had to endure taunts and discrimination by his "friends" and teachers at school. This kind of behaviour helps to push one away from society, and joins the bad seeds.

But then again, society has always mistreated those who does not conform to their norms and standards. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place". Gandhi has of course tried to improve the life of the Dalits, or the Untouchable, but was assassinated. The small poor man from India has  a point there.

It is soon to be Malaysia’s 50th year of independence. We still have many social ills that we are not acting upon at all due to our current society belief and behaviour. It is time for us to acknowledge it, and understand, it takes more than the law and the execution of the law to rid Malaysia of its ills.

And by acknowledging it, and actually walk the talk, then only then we can really make Malaysia great.

I am one
I am child
I’m the saint who marches in love
I am the pain
Electric pain bolt of thunder in the rain

I’m the blood
I’m the key
You are evergreen who blessed in union
Let them born into this world
Let them sing into the sky

I will be fading
As your child
As your child

Don’t let go
Don’t be frightened
Don’t be scared and don’t be late

I am one
I am child
I’m the saint who marches in love

Peeling deeper to the lyrics, it does tell the story of an orphan, or even a street child. Yeaps, Nidji, they are the Indonesian version of Coldplay.

People always ask me about my fascination of Battlestar Galactica. But I did not really watch the Reimagined Series as I caught it in the middle of season 1 and could not make heads or tails of it all. Good old Dex provided me with the Miniseries, and I was hooked since. And impatiently waiting for the 4th Season.

The basic premise of the series is similar to the original Battlestar Galactica of 1978. Humanity is wiped out except for the rag tag crew, fleeing from the Cylon tyranny. Ditto for the reimagined series, except the Cylons have evolved so much, that they now look like humans. Here, the enemy could easily be someone you know all your life!

It’s not surprising that Battlestar Galactica managed to get 4 Emmy nominations. One of the nominations was for writing, and I do have to say, Battlestar Galactica is more than just another science fiction.

Indeed, what happened if our own civilisation has advanced to deep space travel, and was destroyed. A group of human survivors would venture to find ourselves a new home….

But here is where Battlestar is different. The humans were given hope to find, Earth where the 13th colony resided after their exodus from Kobol. Indeed, after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, the Commander of the Galactica gave a rousing speech, and gave hope to the survivors that he will lead them to Earth. Or in the new reimagined Battlestar Galactica, even the first sceptical President Laura Roslin began to believe that she will lead them to Earth.

And it all started with hope, and it lead to believe. Which I am sure a lot of us could relate to. After all, we rely on hope to keep us going. You need that something to make your life meaningful. But, what happens if the hope is shattered?

An interesting point came up when I met up with Nazrin last weekend. We were talking about obtaining FRCS outside of the British Isles. FRCS means Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeon, and Nazrin pointed me that there’s only two other countries one can obtain the FRCS. Of course, Malaysia is not one of them, and that one lil red dot just south of Malaysia, is.

I told Nazrin that I was not at all surprised to hear that. Granted, it is not easy to get to medical schools in the UK. There are many who wanted to do medicine in UK, could not get in, even if they obtain the required 3 As in A-Levels. The difference between Singapore and Malaysia, Singapore upped the ante by only allowing its doctors to come from Oxbridge, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Now, I think Singapore have included more Universities, but, safe to say, you’ll need to be from those five Universities to make life easier for you to be a doctor.

With such high standards, one should not be surprised to learn that one can obtain their FRCS in Singapore. There is a certain quality that one need to have, and Singapore knows it, and took advantage of it.

My father has always mentioned about the wrong emphasis in Malaysia education system, universities in particular. After all, he was in the system and did criticise the Malaysian Government’s decision to open up more universities. He mentioned that the emphasis is on the hardware, and not the software.

Indeed, I do see his point. A University may be good in terms of its facilities, technology and access to academic journals and books. But it amounts to nothing if it does not have the necessary software. Lecturers and academicians play a more important role in ensuring the success of a university.  And most problem in Malaysian universities can be attributed to lack of software, or rather lack of human capital. It is good that the current leadership realised this and are taking the effort to address this, but, it will take some time for us to repair the damage, and even longer if our own Malaysians do not take the initiative.

I guess that’s why older institutions in the UK still excel compared to the newer Universities. They’ve got the brains, and they too have set a certain high standards. Even if the older Universities are not well equip, they still can produce the results. This is because the academicians have been taught to think out of the box. They can produce results not because they have the hardware, but they are so strong in the software, that they don’t need much hardware. The analogy I can think of is like my Mac OS X running on a 7 year old Power Mac G4 and still can as much that you can do on Windows Vista running on a brand new Intel PC.

I guess it is our own fault for focussing on the hardware. Brick and mortar. We put more universities, but we lack the academicians. Sides, even our proud Cyberjaya became an expensive real estate venture rather than being a knowledge base for Malaysia. Yes, it is still cheaper, better and safer(!) to install your servers in Singapore rather than Malaysia….

Yeaps, if you don’t have the interest, having the best this and that will not help you much. But if you are interested, you can make something out of nothing…

And of course, we need to have meritocracy back in the system. Then only we’ll see the human capital work…One must understand that not everyone will be good academically. We got to accept the fact, and we need to assist them to find their niche. In the meantime, those who excell academically should be nurtured. It’s just sad that in the Malaysian system, you are nobody if you are not good academically. And that’s where our human capital fail……

And that’s why we are getting a life less, academically.

I was not feeling that well about 3 weeks ago. And my body was complaining, and I had to check with the doctor. Yeaps, all those years at my previous job, and of course recent personal events contributed to illness. It’s not a surprise. I have to take the bitter pill and actually take medication for it. Stress can do a lot to one’s body. Even the strong one.

Anyway, the medication did help, and I felt better. And meeting up with my bro, and his family, and having the whole Junus family together, it makes me wonder why I do punish my body to the limit. It’s just not worth it when you have your family around you. And yes, when one is in turmoil, family will be the ones who help you to pick up the pieces.  And I am glad that my family never punish severely me for the mistakes I’ve done. And they too believe in whatever decision I believe in. It’s all part of the learning process.

Well, most importantly, I should take care of my body. And that’s what I am doing. Thanks to the medication, and proper diet, my body is slowly adjusting. Let’s hear what the doctor has to say. And hope is all good…..

[Verse 1:]
Lihat ke langit luas,
dan semua musim terus berganti
Tetap bermain awan,
merangkai mimpi dengan khayal ku,
selalu bermimpi dengan hari ku

[Verse 2:]
Pernah kau lihat bintang,
bersinar putih penuh harapan
Tangan halusnya terbuka,
coba temani dekati aku,
selalu terangi gelap malam ku

[Reff:]
Dan rasakan, semua bintang,
memanggil tawa mu, terbang ke atas
Tinggalkan semua, hanya, kita dan bintang

[Verse 1] ~~ [Verse 2] ~~ [Reff]

[Interlude]

[Reff]
~ Yang terindah, meski terlupa-
-kan dan, selalu terangi dunia
Mereka-reka, hanya, aku dan bintang

Tired. That’s what I am feeling right now as I sat down and am currently watching the England-Wales rugby match. Hoping for a Welsh win. It’s been quite a while since I last heard the Welsh national anthem. Back to the cold night at Cardiff Arms Park (now known as the Millennium Stadium). Hearing it, listening it, and singing it….

Anyway, it’s been a tiring week. As there is a delay in my project, I might be flying later than scheduled. Better for me as I have the time to tie up loose ends, and actually learning more of my project before me actually being there. Was told by Pat that they have already booked my cubie at the HQ.

Took three days off as my brother and family came down from Seattle. It was good to see them, and even great to see my parents especially my dad happy to see them. Haven’t seen my nieces and nephews for a couple of years, and my, they have grown up.

And it was interesting to learn more of my nieces and nephew with the limited time I had. Can see that Adi is the laidback one. Hanna is the quiet one. Which is surprising cause I remember her being chatty when she was small. But Hanna is the observant one. And Nuri? Rather busy on the phone with her boyfriend, Alex. Interesting though that she share the same trait of mine, attention to details. But I have learned not to be so detailed, as, well, that stress me out. I remember finishing up a project of mine early, and still worry about the grammar, spelling and even where the punctuation is, before handing it. I had sleepless nights until I actually handed it in. But I have learned, and well, yeah, I am like Adi now…. laidback so that I don’t get too stressed out.

But, my new assignment will need me to be detail oriented. Again. Ah well.

10 mins gone, and still 0-0. Well, can’t wait for me to indulge myself with amandel speculaas, stroopwafflen and edam cheese……and oh yeah. I managed to get my nieces and nephew addicted to tim tams… *evil grin*