Through my daughter's eyes.

Sierra is two years old. It has been a wild ride for my wife Anna and I ever since her arrival.

There are times I catch myself looking at Sierra, wondering what the world holds for her. I look at the setting she has grown up in and I feel I recognise so little of it from my childhood. She had learnt to speak when she was one (I’m told that its normal. Since when? I’m quite sure when I was one, I had the vocabulary of a potato).

Sierra makes observations from throughout the day and often gives us a commentary (not repetition) later. She tries to process the information to make conclusions of right or wrong. Of course she does not have a deep understanding of these complex concepts but she takes bearing from the boundaries we set her. 

Her personality has also set in – she has developed a mischievous vein, just like her mother, she also broods like me when she sits quietly to observe and process the happenings around her. She is also caring and loving, often displaying true concern when people around her are distressed – an unsolicited first-time “don’t worry Grandma, I help you” left us dumbfounded and grandma in stitches.

What does a two-year-old process? You may ask.

Sierra observes behavior displayed around her, either on TV or in real life and uses the information to plot a series of coordinated actions to achieve her intended result be it mischief, fun or to show concern.

I am convinced that Sierra will carry on doing and learning things at a pace much faster than my generation did.

I remember in my time we were made to stand up and count from one to ten in class. Most of us used to get it wrong. Let’s not even talk about the alphabets. Sierra is doing twenty now and has no problem with her alphabets – maybe some work on annunciation. She has five years till the time comes where she’ll be asked to stand up and say these things in class – I’m sure she’ll nail it by then.

I used to worry when I felt that she would not have my childhood. I used to play in the monsoon drains behind my house, climb the neighbor’s mango trees to steal fruits and foster friendships at the playground that I’d remember for life.

I also remember dreaming there were better toys to play with like radio controlled full-function robots and helicopters.

Today Sierra plays with my Robosapien, which is a full-functioned remote controlled robot and pico-Z remote controlled helicopter. I don’t feel so bad about her childhood anymore, I’ve come to realise that it is just different – too much has changed. She is living her life at a point that is beyond the threshold of my childhood experience.

She will push the limits of curfews Anna and I set for her by doing other things, find new forms of mischief to get punished for and foster life-long friendships over the internet.

It excites me to think about the potential the world will hold for her when she steps out of my house on her own will. Where will she go? What will she want to do?

The parameters are changing and changing fast! My worry for her now, is the pace of us, as today’s guardians in providing an environment that is safe and conducive her pursuit of a better future. 

Playing Chess

When I was in primary school I learnt the game of chess. I enjoyed playing the game. My classmates and I would make up the rules when we came to points where we could not agree on what was to be done. We had fun! It never became a serious thing for me. I still however play it recreationally – my record on “Yahoo Games” is a miserable average of two losses to one win.

Over the years as I grew up, I’d see that chess was a game that was played by generals, spies, politicians… anybody in a leaders position. The TV portrayed the game as a thinking man’s game. The players used it as tool to measure the competence of the opponent. Usually the smarter man won – the one who was able to read the opponent better.

While I remember playing the wonderful game in school, I also remember the not so wonderful aspects of what Malaysian government schools had to offer in the teaching department. But before I go on to say what I am about to, I must add that I am NOT generalising my critique on teachers because I do remember having the honour of being thought by gems as well.  

When I was in school we were made to memorise all the patriotic songs, we sang them at every assembly, which usually happened on Mondays. We also professed the “Rukun Negara”. We were thought to respect others, to understand the races that made up this great country. We would dress up in the traditional garments of our classmates when we collectively celebrated festive occasions.

One day I noticed that some pieces of the chess set that was kept in the school resource center were broken. I never realised before that all the “King” pieces were broken. We had 3 sets in school and all the “kings” had the crosses on the crowns snapped off. 

It was about this time that I also noticed that some of the students in school being referred to as “Kafir” which translates to “heathen”.

I noticed too that the traditional costumes that we were made to wear for special occasions were always the “Baju Melayu”.

Eventually I also understood why some teachers always referred to Christmas as X’mas. I had thought that Christmas was a long word, perhaps they had a problem spelling it so they abbreviated it. I was wrong. Articulating “Christ” in Christmas must have made them feel like they were saying a bad word. Perhaps it was the same for tiny crosses on the little chess pieces. Maybe they were afraid if they looked at it long enough, some form of exorcism would happen to dispel the demon of bigotry. 

This trend of discovery continues till this day. In fact it’s  become more blatant. 

I’m sure this flawed system was well in place before I began school and I know for a fact that it is worse now. The students that were in school with me have since left, having graduated from years of bigot infested teachings and now know no better.

These students have themselves become teachers. They have retained what was well thought to them and have let less “important” learnings like the English language decay.  Each batch of educators that come into the market amplifies this phenomenon.

Today we have teachers that can hardly speak English but have no problems referring to Indian students with the derogatory – Kelling!

This is a brief look at what most of our teachers are made of. This problem becomes amplified when you see that our new political leaders also went to these same schools. These politicians are now taking up offices in youth wings of parties.   

Change needs to happen now. What we experience today is the fruit of decades of either cleverly planned diluted ethnic engineering or utter callous oversight by the government. Either which way enough is enough!

I want to say this again, while my last few years in school were not the best, I did have a few teachers that I will remember for life. All of them spoke perfect English, they thought me chess and were all heathens.    

Think about it.

I am the average Malaysian, all I do different is - I choose to speak what I think – very often I feel many issues are not brought to the surface because people just don’t want to say out loud what they think for fear of being “abrasive”. At times I really feel we Malaysians are too polite. Too often we accept what is handed to us and move on… we console ourselves by saying “it’s God’s will”.

The sad truth is; more often than not we are made to become the victims of circumstances brought upon by a leader’s will that was based on some calculation of some portion of percentage on some form of payment that was originally to be made to someone else – we are made to suffer the consequences of choices that are the byproduct of some deal some higher-up made for a quick buck. What can I say? Crumbling highways that cause months of inconvenience to thousands have become almost acceptable.

As a person who believes in God, I am thought that he has made man with a conscience and free will. In the instance where we surrender our free will by blindly swallowing the hogwash that is constantly shoved down our throats, I believe we commit sin just as the person that propagates against his conscience.

There is a movement as read in the press now that discredits Pakatan’s stand on the September 16 date. Multiple leaders from the ruling government liken Anwar to the Boy that cried wolf, they say that a new government will not and cannot be formed on the fateful date (I am writing this at 8.22 pm, September 11, 2008).

I am amazed by the justification given; some have gone on to denounce the date by meticulously explaining the complicated process that has to take place for a new government to be sworn in. Some has dismissed the claims that contact has been made with the brave leaders that are to shift parties. All in the hope that nothing happens on September 16 and Anwar will loose credibility with the people.

I personally believe I would be just as happy if the change happens on October 16 or November 16 - all I have to say is, the sooner the better.

The fact of the matter is - there is a huge problem that the government needs to address. After all, here is someone (a very qualified someone) claiming he has the ability to form a new government (one that the people will accept, I must add).

The government however chooses to ignore the matter and rubbish the claims. They choose to side skirt and play-down the matter when the rest of the world is generally concerned and the population of the country have sat-up and paid attention to the claims.

All the actual action that the government has been seen to do is send it’s MPs for an educational trip overseas which it claims has nothing to do with the impending formation of the new government. Therefore officially they have done absolutely nothing to better the situation for themselves.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t dare expect someone who cannot do anything for himself to do anything for me.

In the beginning...

I've decided finally that enough is enough. I am Malaysian and I am fed up with how we are being treated with absolutely no respect. The political state of the nation is an affront to the intelligence of any thinking Malaysian.

I'll start with something i've just written to be shared with a local newspaper.

I think (therefore) I am, Malaysian

This piece is political, I however, am not a person who has anything to gain from writing this. These are my views (and I sincerely believe the views of many thinking-citizens) of what is happening to this great country.

The aftermath of the March 8 general elections have successfully brought to the surface many unstated truths. It was crystal clear that the people have had enough of the mismanagement that was running the country into the ground – now it was finally “safe” to act on their unhappiness.  The looming sense of the heavy blanket of political policing was gone.

How could this happen? The sheer audacity of the ruling coalition to undermine the will of a thinking people has done them in. They had become weak in complacency.  The onslaught of demands for a true democratic government of the people and for the people can not and will not be ignored any further.

The situation seems almost worse now than it was when we were under the unquestioned reign of the previous Prime Minister (who was more akin to that of a dictator). He at least had a “plan” and was able to stick to it – albeit through various means that most people had not the nerve to question.

The series of events following the disastrous elections for the ruling coalition saw a government in panic. Nobody in the government knew how to handle a rakyat that expected him or her to be responsible for his or her actions and deeds. It was no more a situation where anything that the government wanted - it got! More people found their voices. And it seemed that they knew how to use it!

Individuals who recognised the weakness in the leadership of the government saw it as a time to push further for greater political “change”. While the opposition whom were now a lot stronger and better represented in the legislature were looking for political change; many from the ruling collation themselves saw it an opportunity to go for change – albeit in this case “loose change”.

In the past months the rakyat has witnessed the unfolding comedy of the Malaysian political scene that has started to look like the badly written mindless slapstick banter that our local TV channels produce. Had the issues not been so dire it would actually have been quite funny.

I find it amazing that the concept of Ministerial responsibility is totally ignored in government. Perhaps the rakyat has not been educated enough to expect high standards of the government. After all it has only been a recent occurrence that the table has been turned and that the government has to actually listen to the needs of the rakyat; previously the main criteria in the unquestioned decision making machinery of the legislature was - what percentage?

Is it not clear enough with everyday occurrences that we are in dire need for change? Every facet of our lives seems to be mismanaged, from sports (don’t get me started on Malaysian football and FAM) to basic rights (ISA for protection?).

The educational system is a joke. What can we really expect when the very people that decide on these policies don’t themselves have a grasp on progress. The people that advocate the prominence of the Malay language do it with a misguided fear that recognition of the importance of English in an ever-shrinking globalised world economy would result in a diminished perception of the Malay race. They simply don’t understand the fact that it is impossible for Malaysians to remain competitive on a global arena if they cannot string two sentences of English together when they need to communicate the very message that would advocate Malaysia’s competitiveness. Would you not think that this would surely result in the diminished significance of the Malay race (note that I am not saying Malaysian).

The flip-floping of the use of Malay versus English in schools is a clear example of how things are not thought out before implementation. Who do you think suffers? Who is held responsible? Nobody! I wouldn’t dare suggest the Education Minister at that time – I’m sure there were more important things to think about than the Education Policy of the country!

A few months back following the 40% fuel price hike, there was a move to make it more difficult for Singaporeans to come into the country. Somebody was afraid that they, god forbid, would take advantage of our fuel subsidies. The move lasted a total of one day.  Thankfully somebody got thinking and figured that while we safeguarded our fuel subsidies we would lose out on Singaporean spending at retailers, food outlets, golf clubs and everything else that they would spend on when they come over to “steal” our fuel subsidies.

The move successfully highlighted our short sightedness to the world. I cannot speak for other presses, but the presses in Singapore had a field day, and rightly so! Was anyone held responsible for this gross misjudgment that has tarnished the image of the entire country? No. We however, would rather go on witch-hunts to punish a teenager for using the Negaraku in a rap song.  

It does seem that the government has been pulling at straws of late. Everything done seems to be in haste and not thought through. Every move made seems to be in response to and external stimulant – one wonders if the government now realising that it has to be answerable for it’s actions has in turn put aside all planed actions?

The tone of voice has changed too from its once omni powerful bellow to what now seems to be a whimper of an old man asking for understanding while holding up traffic.

While the rakyat does enjoy the fresh new voice, the daily antics of a few key political players and faulty administrative machineries (which I’m sure will be corrected soon) do seem to tire the thinking man.

The latest of a long series of faux passes is that of a certain Ahmad Ismail. It seems he has somehow forgotten how he was helped out from the wooden huts he and his kin used to live in by the very people he is now calling squatters. If not for the collective hands of the people who have built businesses in this country where would you be, oh little man?

With the race card once again played. All sort of responses have been garnered by the silly unthought-of remark. The most puzzling of all was from the last vestiges of an administrative function that was once (in fact it still seems to be) greatly influenced by the government. The police arrests the reporter that reports the misdeeds of a politician – only to realise a day later that the world and more importantly the thinking Malaysian public does not seem to cower in fear anymore.

A statement was made that the arrest through the use of the arbitrary Internal Security Act was indeed for the good of the arrestee. If this action did not demonstrate just how the ISA is arbitrary it would have been so funny. I wonder at this point what true value of trust and respect the general population has in the police. Maybe if they did the right thing and arrested the politician that called the Chinese citizens of this great country squatters this can slowly be put right but, god forbid, the Internal Affairs Ministry has not told them to do so - yet.

An interesting point to ponder is that the Minister was in fact “consulted” on the arrest but had chosen not to get involved. A great man once said, “all it takes is inaction for evil to prevail”.  Ministerial responsibility, anyone?

Today’s political climate of the country has created a unique phenomenon. It has changed the way newspapers are structured – they have brought the daily funnies to the front page headlines – a spot once reserved for the most news worthy piece of the day - spot that would determine the conversation content of millions of Malaysians for the day to come. As a result we now see a sillier Malaysian population – one that would laugh at the words and actions of the very people we collectively elected into office to govern this country.