Dear Change

I want you to know that my happiness is not important. Neither is my wealth or health. What matters most is that you are implanted into the minds of the people of my land. I was brought here for one sole purpose and I intend to carry it through. I will give it all to you, my heart and soul.

You should make my country a better place. Please let me not walk into the streets and witness suffering and hardship. Please improve the lives of the people below poverty line. Please let the only persons who judge be the ones whom we bow to on the bench. Please let the people be colour blind. Please strip away injustice, corruption and unfair advantage. Please let not money be the sole motivating factor.

I plea that if I lose my way, you bring me back again, that I will not lie on my dying bed one day regretting that I wasted space on this earth.

Regards,

EO

Blissfully you

You snort with disbelief when idealism sneaks in conversations. You proudly claim Malaysia to be the best place to live in because of how easy it is to bribe traffic police. You refuse to be a registered voter, for a non-existent reason. You complain of the loss of businesses and monies, and also for the inconvenience as a result of a march to abolish the Internal Security Act. You do not give even a hint of a damn, that the people have lost their homes. You do not give a damn that the judiciary is slowly rotting. You hysterically protest when your children have friends of a different race. You refuse to be a Maxis customer because the owner is not of your own race. You take a bribe, leaving no shadow of remorse.

 

Yet…

 

You complain of potholes on our roads. You abhor the new economic policy. You accuse him to be racist for calling you a migrant. You drown yourself with self-pity when you do not get a discount for buying a semi-detached house, worth $2 million. You will blame the leaders when your loved ones have been wronged, or you have been wronged. You live with bitterness when you are not admitted to a local university.

Where I belong

I had visited Britain for a few days. The moment I reached Bournemouth, with just jeans, small T and a miserable sweater, it was freezing. I quickly went into my hotel room, which was small and tight. The doors were heavy. I unpacked and got ready to go out for dinner.

The city was dead. 8pm and still bright. Decided on a restaurant/pub called hot rocks. Half a pint of Fosters was good, but the Thai Green curry with rice was horrendous. The rice were hard and cold, and the curry was dull and not curry-like at all.

The walk back to the hotel, was painful. I was shivering so hard, I thought I was having fits. The time difference was making me feel dizzy too.

People you meet from the hotel exchanged pleasantries. Vehicles will stop for pedestriens. I had walked everywhere I went. English breakfast was simple. I can hardly understand their accent. No one knows me and I, them.

The English are definitely miles ahead of us. Their analyses of a subject. Their maturity. Their intolerance for corruption. They had made a big deal of the recent MPs claiming for extra allowances. It was all over the papers. The people in the pub are all talking about it. One man asked me how I am going to change Britain. (I think he is suffering from dementia)

When I return, I switched on my phone the minute the plane landed. Several text messages just came in at the same time. As I walked out the plane and wanted to browse through the shops in the airport. I walked in MNG and they had spoken Bahasa to me. I walked, knowing my way around. The humid weather greeting me with open arms. The KLIA express workers were helping me with my overweight bag and directing me to the KLIA Express train.

The next morning as I drove to work, and I realised how much I missed driving. The traffic too, was heavy. I’m familiar with the small lanes and highways. I had indo-mee, with fried egg and sausages for breakfast. With iced nescafe.

The staff from the office was smiling excitedly when they saw me. I saw friends at court.

In many ways, Malaysia is not a heaven to live in.

Nonetheless, I just need one reason to stay here. This is where I grew up, this is where I belong and this is where I am needed. You will definitely be more of a second class citizen in other countries than here.

Time Limits for cases?

His Honourable Mr Justice Dato’ Gopal Sri Ram proposed at an industrial relations convention that “a timetable be set to expedite unfair dismissal cases”. (published at page 22, nation’s section of the new straits times, 11 June 2009)

His lordship prescribed a three month time period for the Industrial Relations Department to conclude its conciliation process and another three months for the Human Resources Minister to make his reference to the Industrial Court. His lordship had proposed that if these time limits are not adhered to, the court shall be deprived of jurisdiction to hear the complaint.

Putting such pressure on judges, will inevitably inject anxiety on judges to complete their cases. Such anxiety will perhaps affect their judgment and their objective would be to complete the case and not to decide justly. Statistics, statistics and statistics.

This is the problem that we see in our courts.

A friend told me, that as a magistrate, she is not allowed to grant more than eight postponements for a file.

Now, instead of being the beacon of justice, they are filled with anxiety to complete their cases. The same with an insurance agent worried about how many sales he is able to conclude for the month.

You may ask, why is it a problem if the judges want to dispose off their cases quick?

Example, Plaintiff’s lawyer comes to court, presents his or her witnesses, and manages to complete the evidence of the witnesses in two hours. The Plaintiff closes his/her case. The Defendant lawyer stands up, and says, my client is sick/overseas (or whatever valid reason) and seeks a postponement. The judge does not allow and orders the Defendant to close his/her case. The Defendant’s case is not presented properly. The judge decides based on Plaintiff’s case alone. Justice carried out?

There are many examples I can give.

Nonetheless, I do understand perfectly well, why these measures are proposed. The legal system (inclusive of lawyers and judges) is very inefficient. We wait for years and years. The lawyers and judges have to be blamed.

My question is:

When you walk into the courtroom, the police calls out, “Mahkamah bangun”, as you bow, the audience bows towards you and you take that seat, when people call you “My lord/lady” or “Yang arif”, you hold a superior duty to uphold justice. This includes, working up cases expediously, deciding properly by listening and absorbing every point of law. You are deciding for the interest of another human being, entirely unrelated to you. Why do you need rules and procedures to tell u, to dispose off cases speedily and justly, without fear or favour?

When you stand up, hear your speech being read out, you put on that robe and bib, and the judge looks at you and announces that you are a member of the bar. When you introduce your opponents, you call them my learned friend. When you have a professional duty to your clients and your profession and also to the name of justice, when do you need an anxious judge to bark at you to get your cases moving?

If it is not your calling, please do the world a favour. Don’t be here for the money.

Just Another File

As I was wheeled into the operation theatre on a rolley-bed, the nurses was talking loudly. One nurse read out my name, and were playing around with the bed. The bed knocked into the wall, and they laughed. I hear other nurses laughing about, talking abt the latest gossip at the hospital. I can hear them whispering amongst each other.

I was in the operation theatre. I see at the corner of my eye, two nurses, mouths covered, looking at their hands. The anaesthetist was just standing behind me, probably waiting to inject anaesthesia and leave. Some assistants were fiddling with the equipment. I was just another patient to them.

This was my first time undergoing an operation. I had sleepless nights. I thought I would end up dying. As I waited for them to get ready, I was shaky. I tapped my fingers furiously on the bed. My hands were cold. I had hoped he was there to hold my hand.

The doctor was late. They tell me, they will only inject anaesthesia when the doctor arrives. They had wrapped my arm with the pressure belt, clipped my left index finger with pulse rate machine. The pressure belt was pumping intermittantly. I tapped my left index finger furiously. I contemplated running out of the room. They injected a needle at the back of my palm. That was where the anaesthesia would go. I saw a large syringe, filled with milky white liquid.

I was just another patient to them.

At work. When I am swamped with work.  I get pressured with tomorrow’s mention or hearing. I stress up when an insistent opponent calls and asks if our clients will withdraw against theirs. I get annoyed when anxious clients call me, to ask the status of their case. “Why cant they just wait?” I thought with annoyance. I get very frustrated when they ask me again and again, how much our fees are. I tell them the same thing. Clients ask me their chances for winning. I pause to hide my annoyance, before answering.

My client is just another file.

I should change. Because I should not be just another patient, and my clients should not be just another file.

Lunch observations

A colleague had asked me to lunch, and I had declined rudely. My bad. But I had wanted to be alone. I headed towards O’ Briens cafe of the OCBC building. Usually, I’d read a book. This time I decided to let my sorrows sink in. So, I observed the people walking about outside Masjid Jamek LRT station.

Being  alone, I am doing nothing wrong. Section 141 of the Penal Code provides the following:-

An assembly of five or more persons is designated an “unlawful assembly”…

And it provides the circumstances when an assembly is unlawful. I shant bored you with it.

The first chapter of my criminal law, was that a crime is only committed when the intentions are accompanied by actions. If I found out that my boyfriend cheated on me, and I am so angry that I wanted to kill him. But I do not do it. I have not committed murder. Intentions alone do not constitute a crime.

There are exceptions, of course. Like attempted murder, attempted rape, etc.

However, there is no provision for an attempted illegal assembly.

So, as I was chowing down my wrappo, I hear a thumping sound. A man was using his fist to thump the wall. May it be seen as he intends to assault another person? I hear frustrated complains from the table next to mine, of a lady venting her frustration of her work. Arrest her for attempted murder? A man walking down the street with a disatisfied face, charge him for attempted unlawful assembly?

Sadly, two DAP members were arrested on the ground that they were going to take part in an illegal assembly.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/105168

Compromise

If this is indeed true, I’d be more than happy to sign the petition to build a one language school. And even if you tell us that we need to compromise first, I will. All I need is hope. This has made my day.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/104884

I commend you for being bold, and moving towards a potentially unpopular position.

Vernacular schools revisited

I refer to my earlier post with regards the proposition to remove vernacular schools.

Some suggested to me that vernacular schools are the cause for racial segregation. Children of tender ages are not exposed to different races. They put questions such as “Do you see the United States of America and United Kingdom having latino schools, chinese schools, pakistani schools, indian schools, etc?”. They bring up my favorite all time movie, Remember the Titans, and asks that if the blacks and whites were in different schools, would they be able to even overcome the racial discrimination within the football team? They asked, as to whether if a chinese can get the same discount when buying a house as a malay gets, would they be best of friends?

Do notice the strong emphasis on the blame on vernacular schools. It is all their fault! It is because of vernacular schools that Malaysia has gone backwards in tolerating/celebrating the differences in race.

Ignore the NEP, ignore general public perception of different races and blame it all on vernacular schools. Fair or unfair?

Objectively speaking, as a measure to concede, and move towards/nearer a colour blind society, abolishing vernacular schools, but only if a compulsory condition is imposed that each race must learn their mother tougue, I am reluctantly willing.

I agree that there are some merits in these suggestions that have been put to me. Abolishing vernacular schools can to some extent, neutralise the younger generation and make them more colour blind.

Nonetheless, if the mindset is to be blaming vernacular schools and not concentrate on issues such as the NEP, the race based political parties, the race clique-ish friendships, the insensitive remarks by politicians, etc this is blatantly wrong and unfair.

Colour blind is to start from the heart. I cannot deny that my reluctance to abolish vernacular schools derives from my emotional attachments to chinese schools and that selfish mentality of “why must I be the one to give it up?”, which is not objective at all. I admit guilt to that.

However, if you can be objective about it, maybe you should consider signing this petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/kempen-satu-sekolah-untuk-semua

Carefee/careless

Why do you fret as to the curfew your mother had set, when Aung San Suu Kyi spent 19 years (and continuing) in detention?

Why do you complain when you have to pretend to be busy at work, when a mother juggling a job and caring for her child, has 2-3 hours of sleep every night?

Why do you fuss of the conduct of a playful friend, when a girl was raped and caged by her 73 year father for 24 years?

Why do you care about diamonds, when over 7,000 people in Sri Lanka die as a result of pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assasinations?

Why do you play childish mind games to prove a point, when the russian journalists are assainated for reporting the truth?

Me, Myself and I

I complain I am not able to be admitted to local universities. I am upset that my favorite football team did not win the champion’s league. I bitch about how slow the service at the restaurant is. I cry because my boyfriend is not ready to settle down. I am happy that I obtained a large claim for travelling allowances. I am disappointed that my friend did not remember my birthday. I get annoyed because I do not get to go to the restaurant I want to go.

Young Indian boy, with a basket clinging on his elbow. The basket is filled with packets of murukku, white peas and vegetable chips. A packet costing one dollar. He walks from restaurant to restaurant, asking for people to purchase what he has to sell. Most tables turn him away. He has a scar, about 10 centimetres long. When asked, he says: “bapa potong”.

Middle chinese couple, with their son. They do not smoke, but they sat on the open aired veranda of the hotel cafe. The veranda was hot and humid. Away from the crowd. Their son was with them, with a condition of almost to a retard. He has to be fed. When walked he has to be guided. He looks the age range of 18-20. The parents did not want to be a nuisance to the rest of the guests.

Young malay graduate. Lady. Nurse. She had married her university sweet heart. She got pregnant. Her baby girl, as a result of a medical accident, has cerebral palsy with quadriplegia. Newly wed husband freaked. He left. He came back to her home flauting his new girl friend. She continues to care for her child. 3 hours of sleep everyday. Works at the hospital, and back home to care for her child. And she never throws a temper.

Why must it be about me, myself and I?