Week 6

While it is mid term break for both NUS and NTU students now, I still need to go to school this week. I'm not complaing because our term started 2 weeks later. However I think the amount of effort we had put in definitely dwarfed what the students in other 2 schools combined.

Ok I'm exaggerating but it's no joke. SMU is too bloody competitive. I have friends already complementing a transfer to the greener pastures of NTU. (To the extent that she actually knows that transfer students can still apply for tuition grant if the switch took place within a year.) Everywhere you go, whether it's library, GSRs or even benches, there will be students around you mugging.

So far for me it's not that bad yet. The first few weeks were rather hard to get used to but I'm more or less adapted already. Didn't really study much for the past 2 weeks and I think it will start haunting me very soon. I need to complete 2 essays of 1000 words each by end of this week but I have no idea what to do about them. Next week will be mid terms for stats and biz law so it is probably good game for me by then.

Time really flies now. Before I know it, one week ends and all the deadlines and tests draw nearer. It's a stark contrast to those dark NS days whereby it was years before the weekend arrived. The only thing that hasn't change is that the weekend is still too short. I always set targets to meet during the weekends but in the end I will spend my time playing and watching football. A typical weekend will see me watch 5 EPL matches which is obviously not very productive.

I have made some plans for the holidays but none of them seem likely to be fulfilled. (Unless I go alone.) Nevermind though. I just hope that this semester will end quicky because all SMU students really deserve a break.

Heart-felt words

A few nights ago I was surfing the Wikipedia. I can't recall what was the first article I read but soon I was reading about our neighbour Malaysia. It was so interesting that I spent almost 4 hours reading about its monarchs, ethnic groups, politics and education system. All these readings really set me into thinking.

There are several interesting facts that I discovered. Malaysia is the only country outside greater China (ie Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) to provide Chinese-language education from primary up to tiertiary level. Sultan Iskandar of Johor 's assault on a caddy caused the removal of legal immunity for all the royal rulers in 1993. Singapore's 3rd President Devan Nair actually helped to set up the Democratic Action Party in Malaysia after Singapore' s separation in 1965.

There was no way to separate Singapore's history from Malaysia's one until 1965. However over the past 40 odd years, both countries had evolved quite differently. Some things that we take for granted in Singapore are not so readily accepted over the Causeway now. While our societies had many similarities 4 decades ago, the differences are clearly more obvious now.

One of the favourite activities of many Malaysian politicians is Singapore-bashing. It is clearly an over-used ploy to divert attention from their own internal problems. Singaporeans are portrayed to be arrogant; Malay Singaporeans are victimized by the government; Singapore is trying to take advantage of Malaysia during any negotiations; in other words Singapore is always the 'bad' guy. While I admit that there's some truth in the arrogance part, I think that there's jealousness whenever the politicians attack Singapore. Most of them see Singapore as their 'adik' and can't accept the fact that it is doing better than Malaysia.

Are the Malays here marginalized? Seriously I don't know but I don't think so. While many figures don't cast a favourable light on the Malay coummunity, I think that the community has tackled many of the problems it faces successfully. There are many professionals in the community now and no deserving Malay student (or student of any other race) is deprived of a chance to continue his/her education in Singapore.

I'm not sure if it's entirely the same case in Malaysia. Although meritocracy is supposedly practiced in public universities' entrance, Bumiputras are still enjoying preferential treatment. Independent Chinese High Schools certificates are not accepted for admission to public universities but many in Australia, UK, US and Singapore recognize them. In the end Malaysia suffers from brain drain when many of these students choose to stay overseas after completing their studies. This makes no sense at all.

It's a well-known fact that the Bumiputras in Malaysia enjoy certain rights guaranteed under the constitution. At the time of independence as part of the social contract, the Chinese and Indians agree to the Malays' special rights in exchange for citizenships. There are affirmative actions to help the Malays to improve their economic position while economic situations of other ethnic groups are largely ignored. The 7 million Chinese have always dominated the business landscape of the country and are in a better bargaining position with its larger population. However the Indians who are mainly descendants of estate workers form only 8% of the total population. Their voices are often not heard because of their small numbers and the community's economic situation is the most dire and neglected.

Despite these, I believe that most of them see themselves as Malaysians first before identifying themselves as members of their ethnic groups. Ask any of them and it's almost guaranteed that they love their country because Malaysia is their only homeland. However living in their own country as second class citizens will become increasingly unacceptable for the younger generations. They will question whether they still have a stake in a country which openly discriminate them. For me this thought is equally unacceptable.

What's the future for Malaysia? Communal politics will go on and politicians will continue to play the racial cards. Non-Bumiputra Malaysians can only complain. Few with the means will choose to leave but most have no choice but to accept the realities. Meanwhile I don't think the Bumiputras will ever be able to stand on their own if they continue to rely on the affirmative action. They must ditch their crutches in order to walk by themselves. Malaysian leaders must continue to manage the delicate relationships between the different communities carefully because just like Singapore Malaysia cannot afford any racial conflicts.

阿扁下台!!

For the past week, thousands of Taiwanese had taken to the streets and demanded the resignation of President Chen Shui Bian. His family had been involved in too many scandals and former DPP (Ah-Bian's own party) Chairman Shih Ming-teh had came up with this anti-corruption campaign.

While Shih Ming-teh is no longer a big political player as he once was, he is still respected for his contributions in making Taiwan a democracy as it is today. In total, he spent 25 years in jail as a political prisoner, 13 of which in solitary confinement and 4 on hunger strike. While people may disagree with him politically, no one can doubt his love for Taiwan.

Similar things had happened earlier in the year in Thailand when the Thais protested to get Thaksin resign. He did in the end, not really due to the pressure from the public but more because of the displeasure of the King. However there's no one currently in Taiwan who enjoys the same status and respect as the Thai King. It seems that there's no end in sight to the current political fracas.

Ah Bian insisted that he didn't do anything wrong and promised to serve until the end of his term in 2008. Interestingly, there are still people supporting him. They are known as the 'deep' green camp who fears that once Ah Bian is no longer the president Taiwan will revert back to an autocracy. I don't understand why they are still standing by a President who is corrupt and had failed in his management of the country.

For those who had voted for him previously, the scandals must have been a big blow. When Ah Bian came into office 6 years ago promising reforms, many supporters had high hopes for DPP to deliver its promises. 6 years on, they must be terribly disappointed. Life hasn't improved while Ah Bian's family and cronies lined their pockets with money. It's really unthinkable that Ah Bian had came into power due to his clean and upright image. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The high ranking officials in mainland China must be observing the situation with great interest. Firstly while Ah Bian isn't their favourite man to be president, his deputy Annette Lu is known to have stronger pro-independence sentiments. His resignation means that Annette will be the president until at least 2008. Secondly mainland China is also besotted with many corruption problems of its own. There is always a risk of their own citizens of doing something similar. They will never want a repeat of June 4th 1989.

Unlike the Taiwanese, Singaporeans don't seem to have any strong political beliefs. It's really unthinkable to see Singaporeans doing the same thing. Probably our education system has made us too pragmatic. I salute those who went to the protest. They all went on their own initiatives and had to brave the rain and wind. Many had travelled from different parts of the country or overseas to participate in the demonstration. They will not stop until Ah Bian resigns. While they haven't succeeded yet, Ah Bian certainly knew one thing: he no longer has any moral authority to lead Taiwan.

阿扁下台!!

Singapore idol 2 Top 4 Music video - All Stars

Oh my god... It's Edwin Wong!!

Jeremy off to Eire

KACC Legends @ Airport (+ manager Wenger)

Last night Jeremy left for Ireland to begin his medicine studies. I think he's just about to reach there while I am blogging here. I went down to the airport from school after completing the CT essay. The bus ride was slightly longer due to the road closures around Suntec and the security around there is really crazy. Every few metres there would be someone in uniform patrolling. Guess the threat of terror is pretty serious.

I was the second to reach after Kok Wai and the NUS people arrived in Ho Teck's car at around 8. In the end beside me, Kok Wai and Chiang the other 5 who were there were all studying in NUS now. No one from NTU came and neither did Ken. It seems that NUS is certainly the best place to study in.

We had our dinner at the Malays restaurant at the basement and continued what we were crapping on Sunday night. Jeremy was checking in his luggages when we went up and find him. Beside us some of his JC classmates came to send him off as well. Although Jeremy was supposedly the centre of attention, Qinyao aka 大哥 aka AJ stole all the limelight.

I picked up many new words last night too. Maoture, charismaotic, maomeries, maosquito, supermaoket, maotabak, maoney, maoster card.... the list went on and on. My cheeks went numb from all the laughing. The people standing around us must be thinking that we are mad.

Well it's quite weird that I was only an acquintance with Jeremy back in secondary school. I only got to know him better during the JC days because he started to join us for our Saturday football sessions. He would always jio us go eat buffets together too. Without him, football and makan sessions will never be the same again.

We all know that he is going off to pursue his dreams but there is always a tinge of sadness during farewell. It must be hard for him to leave everything familiar behind and start everything anew in a foreign place. On our way home, I was talking to Shahid about who will we miss if they go overseas. Our conclusion was that anyone not around would be missed. Qinyao especially... haha...

No 1 Team Singapore Supporter

Just now I went to watch Singapore play China at National Stadium. It was a Asian Cup Qualifier and the winner of the match will have a high chance of qualifying to the finals next year. I had watched Singapore's 2-1 victory over Iraq few months ago and Shahid jio-ed me to go this time again.

Our usual practice would be turning up at the stadium at match day to get the tickets. Most of the matches didn't attract large crowds and we would be inside the stadium within minutes. However when we arrived at the stadium at 7.10pm the queues were already unbelieveable. They stretched from the turnstiles to the steps and it took us like 35 minutes before we could get our tickets.

About 20 minutes of the match had passed by the time we found seats. The first memorable incident of the match was China's right back no 13 fell to the ground after clash of head with a Singaporean player. No 13 rolled on the ground for about 3 minutes as if he was shot. However once he was stretchered off he immediately sprang up to his feet. The medics must have some super healing power. No 13 instantly became our favourite player and he always received a 'warm' reception from the Singaporean fans whenever he touched the ball.

China admittedly was the better team but Singapore withstood their pressure stoutly. The defence was disciplined and luck played a good part too. Despite some misjudgement of crosses, Lionel Lewis was immense throughout with a brillant save off a header (a la Buffon) as well as parrying away a free kick destined for the goal. We had a goal rightfully disallowed for handball and someone should be at the end of Itimi's cross in the second half. However it was a good performace which kept alive our hopes of qualifying for the Asian Cup finals.

The turnout today was surprising good. I estimated the crowd to be between 30,000 to 35,000 with approximately one quarter to one third of them supporting the away side. Both the West and East stand were filled with the Chinese supporters mainly at the grandstand. The West stand were mainly Singaporeans but there were pockets of Chinese fans there as well. Some of them tried to be funny and walked around with flags on their backs. It wasn't the wisest thing to do and many home fans boo-ed them.

I'm not going into a China-bashing session but we had a lot of fun kaopeh-ing at stadium. Regardless of race, language or religion we would all just boo whenever the ref's decisions went against us and cheer when we had a goal-scoring chance. While we don't usually exhibit our patriotism, we brought all these feelings to the stadium. All the nationalist feelings were let out despite it being only a game of football. Football is really one amazing sport.

It was really a coincidence that I met 2 guys from my camp. I saw Wallace while queueing up for the tickets and Toh actually sat behind me throughout the match. What a small world after all. Kendrick and Ho Teck were very late and could only catch the last 25 minutes but it still didn't kill their enthusiasm. It was also the last time that Jeremy could see the mighty Lions play. I'm sure that he will miss them.

Singapore will be playing Palestine on 15/11 for the final match of the qualifiers. It may be a crunch match for us if we can defeat Iraq away. I think I will be there since I had watched the previous 2 home qualifiers. Actually I'm making plans to watch the finals if we qualify. So is anyone interested to join me?

The Joy of Being an NSman

My Stats mid-term test falls on the same day of my tech mob date. For the tech mob, I'm supposed to report with my FBO to Pasir Ris Camp within a certain time after being activated. So being a good soldier, I informed the SAF as soon as I found out about the test.

After getting no infomation from the NS portal I decided to just call the NS hotline. It was last Monday and the person attending to me had taken note of my situation and promised to forward my case to the relevant units which were 9DIV/Inf and 56SAB. When prompted to give me a date when I could get a reply, he said that within 3-5 working days someone will get in touch with me.

Ten working days had passed and I had enough of waiting. I called the hotline again today and the person speaking to me this time was called Eric. He checked the status of my case and told me that it was still being processed. I wasn't in the happiest of mood and was no longer speaking nicely. No one got in contact with me to update me on the whole thing. When I asked him to give me the numbers of the 9DIV/INF, he began to tell me some grandmother stories about the units not entertaining any enquiries and I had to go through the call centre to get to them.

All these were begining to infuriate me and I started to kaopeh. Who is going to be responsible if I get charged for not reporting for the mob? Who is going to be responsible if I get zero for my test? Eric, call centre or 9DIV? What had staff done over the past 10 days? Pushing the responsibility to different departments? It's less than 5 weeks to the date. There's really no fucking efficiency. How do you expect SAF to defend Singapore? Just put me through to that fucker S1 and we can trash it out. Going through the whole bureaucracy is damn stupid. All the shit about call centre and 9DIV/INF is really pissing me off. (Alright I didn't say all that but half of them at least.)

Eric chose to remain quiet when faced with difficult questions. He knew that whatever he replied would get shot down by me. He was probably trained to face difficult NSmen like me and I knew that all my tirades seemed to have not much effect. However it feels good to kaopeh those in green regardless of their rank. I had served my part and moved on. That's the joy of being an NSman.

P.S. If within the next few working days I still didn't get any reply I will make sure whoever answer my call at the call centre is going to get it.

I can't believe that....

Another week had passed and homework began to pile up. Some of the stuff that the profs went through in class were simply beyond me. The BOSS results was released on Monday and both my bids were unsuccessful. So my situation wasn't very ideal with only 3 credits. Feeling helpless about the whole situation I decided to bid for the management science module which Kok Hsien was going to.

I entered my bid on Tuesday and was making plans to attend the lesson on Thursday. However on Wednesday night I received one of the biggest surprises of the year. The school decided that having 3 credits is a no-no and assigned me the business law course. It is on Tuesdays which means that I missed 2 lessons already. Feeling rather pissed off with the whole fracas, I complained to my brother who was online then.

He added me into a conversation with his army friends. Both of them are in SMU and they were nice enough to answer some of my queries. One of them even offered to send me his biz law notes. After answering all my questions, they started their crappy stuff. They demanded payment for their services which is the complete list of pretty girls of the year 2006. Haha...I'm sure that I can come out with it.

Last night there was the Freshmen Bash at MOS. Kenneth from my CIP group was one of the finalists and he promised to treat us if he won the pageant. Despite being Mr Popular he didn't win the overall title. However cheers to Kenneth he still paid for us. We left early and went for supper. Over supper I heard the most outrageous things in my life. I never knew that TPJC and RJC prom queens were among us in the CIP group. I really can't believe that....