Sunday, August 17, 2008

A Letter To Myself

Dear Me,

It seems funny at times to talk to myself, but then who would understand me more than me, myself? But then again, sometimes when i think i know myself well enough i'm actually confused with what i really need.

This year have been a year with lots of choices. Although it hasn't ended yet, but i think there are lots of choices coming my way. I've always wanted more choices to choose form in life. I think that if a person can afford to have the luxuries of being able to choose his way of life, then that person is successful. What i meant by choices is not just merely what to eat for breakfast, or where to dine on Valentine's Day, or how much can i spend on a daily basis. To me, choices is more like how i want to live my life.

i really don't want to be stucked in the rat race, but of course, who would want to? It's the law of the majority that you have to work to eat! And the rules to this game changes on a periodic basis. As people gets smarter, we have more competition. To survive in a competition filled society, one must at least be able to cope with the competitive nature of work, if not being ahead of it. But then, what i've seen in the "real" working life isn't what i thought it would be.

To be really honest with myself, i think of the working place a more awful place to be. No kidding. But then what i see is something slightly different. Some people would view it as a blessing but i think it's like a cancer. It slowly eat you out, and when you realize it's killing you, it's too late. What i was really referring to is the working attitude of people in this country.

"Cannot finish, leave it to do during OT lor!" or "Tomorrow only do lar. They're not going to pay you more if you finish this today!". Sounds familiar? i say out these words from time to time too. It may not be a good culture to make the workplace over competitive, but i really don't see much competition going on in this country. No one is striving to the best anymore. Hey, being second is jsut good enough, that's what they say.

This is the problem with the culture of this whole place. You know you never want to be just like everyone else. Stick to your principles, stay true to your thoughts, work hard and work smart.


Yours truly,
ChiM

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Disgusted

i'm feeling disgusted to read the news yesterday but was more disgusted with what our next-to-be PM.

And i'm talking about the demonstration by some Islamic activist in front of the BAR council's office on their open forum on a so-called "sensitive religious" issue.

The forum titled to be "Conversion to Islam: Article 121(a) of the Federal Constitution" was forced to wrap-up after started barely an hour.

Now, everyone knows i'm not a political analyst, and i'm not a religious activist either. I love my country and i want to be proud of it, but there are just so many idiots out there trying to make our country look like a shit hole in the eyes of other countries in the world, that makes me feel sad and ashamed to be a Malaysian.

What happened to our freedom of speech? What happened to our multi-racial rights? Coming back to this topic, why does this bunch of idiots have to demonstrate and cause a riot to force-close a behind-the-door forum inside private grounds? What rights do they have? They claimed we're touching sensitive issues in the Islamic religion, but what part of it is sensitive? Is Islam, this religion so closed minded that they cannot even accept someone else talking & debating about it? Is it that weak that it cannot be challenged by others? Is it so weak that it cannot accept a different point of view?

I truly doubt that. I may not be a religious person, and i may not be a Muslim by nature, but what i do believe deep down in my heart, a good religion is suppose to help people. It is supposed to be open-minded. It is supposed to be forgiving. Buddhism. Christianity. Hinduism. Islam. How diferent are they? Aren't all these religion supposed to be the light for those in need in the dark? Aren't these religions supposed to be a role model so that their believer will never stray from the path of righteousness?

What i see from this protest on the forum is not Islamic. It's just a bunch of idiots claiming to be Muslim trying to get on tv. They are just destroying the beauty of the religion.

Ok, maybe they are not educated enough to accept 3rd party opinions. Fine. I can accept that. What disgust me the most is what our very own next-in-line-PM said to the press, that the BAR council is 'stubborn' to organize such forum despite knowing the possible consequences of such events.

Seriously, i can understand if anyone on the road say this kind of remarks, but our deputy prime minister? He will be our next PM if everything goes well, and him making such a remark, do you still want him as your country's PM after the next election? I know i don't.

What will happen when he steps up? Will our country stand strong amidst other giants on the world & not fall? With what our leaders are doing now, i doubt it. Our country hasn't grown any stronger for the past 20 years, when all other countries with the same status as we were at that time have all grown to be a developed nation. Why are we still so left behind? Our ringgit didn't even grow a bit. Look at our neighbouring countries. Their currency has been going strong linearly year by year. Everyone else are improving but us.

Our country is weak, not because the people is divided. Not because of racial discrimination between races. Our country is weak because of leaders who do not know how to lead, blame it on others when they make mistakes. Our country is weak because our so-called-leaders do not believe we are not doing well enough, they believe we shouldn't be compared to other developed nations but we should be happy we're not like Zimbabwe. No offence there.

Malaysians are not stupid anymore. We're all very educated people now. We know what is right & what is not. We know how to choose, because we know we can. Look at our election results this year. This is just the first wave of what the people of the country is trying to tell the government. It's a Do-Or-Die situation now.

I met up with a friend of mine in Singapore last week, he commented that the chaos the government is in now between them & the Pakatan Rakyat, can be closely relate to a movie slogan.

The movie is AVP: Alien vs. Predator. The slogan is, Whoever Wins, We Lose. The clash of the titans to see who is the strongest, but no matter who wins, the people of this country is still on the losing side.