Depression

Depression. I hate the feeling. It comes out of nowhere and hits full force when least expected. When I should actually be happy, I find myself feeling the exact opposite. From wikipedia, clinical depression exhibits the following symptoms and signs:

1. Persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood
2. Loss of appetite
3. Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
4. Restlessness or irritability
5. Feelings of worthlessness, inappropriate guilt, helplessness
6. Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
7. Difficulty thinking, concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
8. Thoughts of death or suicide or attempts at suicide
9. Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed
   
10. Decreased energy
11. Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as digestive disorders

Aside from feeling suicidal, I would have to say that I've been experiencing everything else. I guess that the only question is the duration and how badly it affects my general lifestyle. If things get too bad, I should really get some medical help. I should just take things easy, but I can't. This place is quite literally killing me. I really need to get out of this rut as soon as possible and return to my old happy self.

EDIT@1500: Decided to sleep it off. Got up at 9am and lay in bed, doing nothing, until almost noon. Taking it easy. d:

UPDATE+1: I'm fine already. Sleeping in did me a world of good. This is still the top post because there's nothing else to blog about at the moment. Hopefully, I'll have other things to write about soon.

Anti-Lies

Any sane person will know that the Internet is filled with lies. I used to tell people that they should not believe 9 out of 10 things that they read on the Internet, and they should know that 9 out of the 10 things that they believe, will turn out to be lies. So, be very careful of what you read on the Internet.

People tend to believe anything that is in print. That is why newspapers have always had such a sway on public opinion. If a newspaper claims that a scientist had discovered a way to make pigs fly, most people will believe it without question. Hence, journalists have had to maintain a certain level of integrity, in order to protect the public trust. The Internet has changed all that though.

This new age is filled with strange new words like blogs and wikipedia. Some have dubbed the Internet as the new or alternative media as opposed to legacy and mainstream media. This is a reflection of how people have come to consume media. We are increasingly looking to the Internet as an authoritative source on everything, especially that which the regular media chooses not to report.

As a result, we turn to citizen journalists, who are really just a bunch of regular people like you and me, for the truth. How these people could possibly discern the truth from the spiel that gets spewed out by the establishment, really boggles the mind. In reality, most bloggers just end up writing biased views on what is perceived truth. This concerns me because bloggers have strength in numbers. When a lie gets repeated oft enough, it starts to sound awfully like the truth.

Therefore, I have always been troubled by one simple fact: that the Internet is filled with opposition blogs and anti establishment news sites. I would prefer a more balanced Internet, where I could read views and opinions from both sides of the fence and draw my own conclusions. I have previously suggested that bloggers are fallible. Sadly, the pro-establishment writers don't seem to have a strong presence. They are probably too busy just trying to keep on top of their own biases in print.

So, I applaud our Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, who has called for the setting up of websites to counter these counter establishment lies. I would go further and even suggest that he start the ball rolling by setting up his own personal blog. He is the Minister of Communications. It doesn't take 15 minutes to set up a blog. He can choose to use any one of the many public and free online services. If he is confused, he should just ask his fellow opposition politicians about which service to use. They have got a wealth of experience in this area.

Personally, I really look forward to reading the anti-lies from our ruling coalition. With some of the jokers that we have in parliament, I'm sure that it will make excellent reading for a dull afternoon.

An anti-lie is the opposite of a lie. It should not be mistaken for, an entirely different creature, truth, which is alien to politics, the progenitor to both lie and anti-lie, where spin is it's highest form.

PS: Maybe our ruling politicians are just afraid of what they may end up saying. They cannot really blame their own blog for misrepresenting what they say or mean, especially when they don't really know what they actually mean to say.

Beware the Facebook!

I have regularly been asked why I refuse to sign up for facebook. When I first found out about Facebook ages ago, it set off many red flags in my head, and it smelled funny. That was the main reason why I have, since, refused to sign up to facebook and I never will. It was never due to the lack of invites.

There is an article in The Guardian, today, entitled "With Friends Like These...". It's much better researched than my simple gut feeling. So, I'd recommend everyone to give it a read. Actually, please give the entire article a read. It's a fairly long article simply because there are so many reasons on why Facebook is evil and people should avoid it like the plague.

It's now good to know that there are more others like me, out there.

In my book, Facebook is evil.

How to recognise a Code Monkey

I've mentioned several times in my blog, recently, that when hiring someone for a job, companies should value the person, not a piece of paper. Today, I read an interesting blog on how to recognise a good programmer. Although it's main target was programmers, in general, it could be used to apply to any skilled discipline. Through my experience, I'll have to agree with all the points that were raised in the blog. I'd encourage anyone who wishes to be good at anything, to actually read the blog. It's main points are:

1. Passion
   I agree with this. In order to be really good at something, a person needs to be driven by passion. Someone who merely does it for the sake of the job, will never be good at it. I personally believe that passion is the most important ingredient.
   
2. Self taught
   If someone needs to be taught something, they aren't going to get very good at it. In the case of programmers, most of them start really young. I've personally known someone who started programming at 4! So, it's never too young to start learning any skill. It just gives them more time to get good at it.
   
3. Intelligence
   Just because someone may lack certain social skills, doesn't mean that they're stupid. It's important to be able to evaluate intelligence and the only good way to do it is by actually talking to a person about something relevant. None of the small talk crap. Also, no amount of parametric testing will help at all.
   
4. Hidden experiences
   Do not assume that a CV tells everything. Someone who is passionately drive, will have things done for "fun", that don't make it into the CV. In fact, they'd probably have more missing from their CV, than in it. If they had to list everything, it'll probably take 20 pages instead of 2.The CV would just contain the highlights.
5. Variety of expertise
   Their knowledge would not be constrained by anything but their thirst for knowledge. They would also, naturally, have knowledge in other relevant areas. Anyone who claims to only be good at one thing, is probably only good for one thing.
   
6. Formal qualifications
   Degrees and certifications are a completely useless indicator of how good a person is. They're only good for HR to cover their asses. A person who is good at something, will do it not for a degree. Any degree is just dressing.

Although, I've mentioned that we should value a person, not a piece of paper, I'm beginning to have an idea on how difficult it might be to do so. For example, a HR manager will find it difficult to identify who a good programmer when he/she knows nothing about IT. The IT manager might have difficulty doing so too, if he/she was never a good one to begin with.

Although a certification does not tell you how good someone really is, it will at least tell you how bad someone isn't. If they were able to pass the exams, at the very least, they'd know ABC, even if they didn't know XYZ. As a result, people ended up having to rely on a piece of paper to help them out. Certificates ended up being used as a baseline. As a result of this hiring practice, most people end up hiring the baseline.

So, how do we identify a code monkey then? Easy. Put 100 programmers in a room, get the 5 who are good to leave, and the ones that are left are the code monkeys.

Shoot.

A Coin has THREE Sides!

Most people in the world live with the idea that there are two sides to a coin. Many are even taught this in school. Unfortunately, this is patently untrue. Believing in such lies will only get one into trouble. There are at least three sides to a coin: look to the picture on the right for the truth.

With recent events, we have seen the shadow of growing Islamisation, enveloping our nation. There are plenty of such examples, like the recent intellectual property claim on the word Allah by some idiots in our Government. But this problem isn't only happening at home. For some unknown reason, there is a gradual creep of increased religious piety worldwide. For example, Christian extremists in the USA are challenging evolution with intelligent design and believe that they are a Christian nation. Sigh, where are the centrists?

I tried to do my bit recently, on the blog of our opposition leader. A parent had written to him, to ask for advice, and he decided to politicise the issue for no good reason. I found that fairly irresponsible. The issue was about the school principal madating the prefects to wear a songkok as part of their uniform. As a Chinese Christian family, the parent felt that this was an attack on their race/religion. From many of the comments, you can tell that most people see it in the same way.

I tried to point out the fact that it was not a race/religion issue, but an issue of personal freedom. I asked one comment, how wearing a songkok is against the 10 commandments as none of them mention attire, and got called an agnostic. I asked another, if the male prefects had been mandated to wear skirts to school instead, would it be a gender issue, and got called illogical. I find this fairly comical as I've also been called the exact opposite. Seems like I must have hit a nerve.

The thing that I find sad is that most Malaysians will see this issue as a race/religion issue. I cannot blame them as we have been conditioned from young to see everything through the lens of race/religion. As a result, politics in Malaysia will not change. Our National Front (BN) will continue to rule by divide-and-conquer and our Opposition will exploit exactly the same thing. On the surface, it does involve race/religion as the songkok is a Malay traditional head wear and Malays are, by definition, muslims. But dig deeper, and you'll see that it's a crime of stupidity, not hate.

I have always hoped that our Opposition will grow up and handle real issues. I have blogged about this many times before. The problem with Malaysia is that, through the many decades of conditioning, our fellow countrymen have become mostly bigots. The centre is growing thin and crumbling. When the centre becomes too thin, the coin falls over.

When that happens, as a nation, we are so screwed.

Our government needs You!

When I read this, I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry! According to the article, "parents who have already paid non-mandatory fees to school should treat the payment as a kind of contribution to the institution instead of seeking a refund." To get a better perspective, let's look at the story from a couple of months ago.

In early November, our Education Minister announced that the government was, "prepared to forego RM160mil next year (RM130mil to provide free textbooks and RM30mil for abolishing school fees) as the quality of education cannot be compromised." Presumably, this great selfless act was as a result of the government's great love for the rakyat. In the next breath, "Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the ministry would source for alternative revenue."

Okay, that should have set off a whole bunch of alarm bells. But, we were all too happy with the whole idea of free education that nobody really understood what our humble minister meant, when he said that. Now, things are becoming all too clear, how the whole scheme is supposed to play out. Just like a casino, our government holds all the cards and so, they'll always win.

Parents, nationwide, were treated to a rude shock at the beginning of this school year by an unexpected hike in the cost of education. "Parents ended up paying extra charges on the first day of school although the Government has waived school fees this year. Many parents complained they had to pay up to almost RM200 just for extra charges, which were well over the Education Ministry’s regulated ceiling charges."

As a result of the great generosity of our government, they expected the rakyat to be equally as generous. Therefore, people like this single mum "in Alor Star had to send her four children a day later to school because she had to go around asking for donations to pay more than RM750 charged by the schools." According to her, "donations payable for her two secondary school children came to more than RM150.For her two primary school children she had to fork out a total of RM192.50 while for her two secondary school children, she had to come up with more than RM560."

I don't know whether to laugh at the exceptional scam scheme or to cry at the plight of the poor.

Imagine what you would do, if you were told by the government that income tax is now abolished. But when you go to collect your pay check, you find that 50% of your pay had been deducted as a personal contribution. In your anger, you demand for an explanation, only to be told to see this as a donation, that will be used as alternative funding towards nation building.

From the article, "Hishammuddin said that the ministry had no plans to streamline the payment of these additional fees because there were some parents who actually wished to contribute to the schools. Some of them may be millionaires and can afford to give the sum or in fact, more than what the schools ask for. We don't want to hinder them." I truly wonder how many millionaires send their kids to government schools instead of private ones.

With the rising cost of oil subsidies, falling corporate taxes and giga-project scandals, maybe our government is running out of funds. Therefore, it has to find alternative sources of funding, i.e. personal donations by the rakyat. This is like an IPO, just without any shares issued. Looks like the investors are planning to exit.

We are so screwed.

Where's our Barrack Obama?

I mean, please watch this video and tell me, where is our Barrack Obama? Let's not even talk about anything else but the single most important quality that a leader needs, unity. We need a unifying leader, not more divisive ones.

PS: Watch this one too. Very funny!!

Goodbye, virile old man!

Seems like my preliminary analysis of the situation was right. Our Health Minister, has been completely ousted, not just from his government position, but also his political seat and all his party posts within the MCA. All this, within 24 hours after he publicly declared that he was the man caught in the recent sex DVD scandal in Malaysia.

According to our opposition leader, in his blog:

The first betrayal was the very orchestrated and professional manner in the surfacing of the video DVD. Who was behind it? All fingers point to his political enemies from within the MCA.

The second betrayal was whether he had been misled into believing that his admission in his Labis statement would suffice, and he could continue to keep his government and party posts, when in fact, his Labis statement would be the basis to force him to relinquish his government and party posts – as has now happened.

As I had inferred earlier, this was internal party politics, being dragged into the open. It became fairly obvious, once you consider the source and distribution methodology involved. Somebody wanted him out, and devised this strategy to get him out. It's only sad that the only political scandal in Malaysia, worthy of publication, had come to such a quick and painless end. Or has it? Regardless of all this speculation, it's unfortunate that he was forcibly removed.

Firstly, I think that it's undemocratic, to remove him from his position as MP. It makes a mockery of the whole democratic process. He was a democratically elected leader and by that virtue, he should only lose the position through democratic means. He is there because the electorate put him there, not his party. So, if the people still want him, regardless of his infidelity, he should be kept in his seat. If they want him out, the people can kick him out.

Secondly, I think it's unprofessional to have him resign as Health Minister. A person should only be judged professionally, based on their job performance. I can certainly think of several incompetent ministers, who should be dragged out and burnt at the stake. For some reason, our Health Minister isn't on the list. He's probably one of the very few ministers we have, who actually knows something about his job.According to the IHT, "Chua had been praised for cutting bureaucratic delays in medical services and working to combat AIDS, smoking and junk food consumption."

Thirdly, I think that it's kind of sad when other dirtier politicians, are still behind the reigns of power, while he got caught with his pants down, literally. Seriously, if the worst thing they could hit him with was infidelity, he's probably one of the cleaner politicians in government. It's sad when politicians who're caught having sex are forcibly removed, while corrupt and incompetent ones are kept on. It seems that, "some Malaysians have a holier-than-thou attitude."

So, we should just sit back, and watch the rest of the show. The best way to figure out who the dalang is, is to observe the food chain and see who benefits. Nobody goes through all this trouble for nothing.

PS: Maybe now, he can consider going over and working for Pfizer or Bayer!

After reading this interview, now I'm really sad that he has to go. He's very tajam in his answers. He's obviously seething. We're so screwed.

Finally, a scandal worthy of publication!

Finally, we have a scandal in Malaysia, that is worthy of publication. Not some artificially inflated issue that is then solved by doing nothing. Our Health Minister must've gotten a belated Christmas present this year. Now, he's got international fame, with the publication of his antics in Reuters. Maybe he should pen a book about how he got caught on video, screwing around.

Personally, I think that it's a good thing that he's still able to get it up at his age. His plumbing must still be in fairly good shape. Low cholesterol, healthy heart. Either that, or he has a free supply of little blue pills from Pfizer. Maybe, it's one of the privileges of being the Health Minister (HM), a lifetime supply of little blue pills.

Also, I don't think that it's anybody's business, what he chooses to do on his own time, who he chooses to have sex with. As long as it was consensual sex between two adults, I don't see why anyone else should have any say in it. If we really wanted to persecute every adulterer, our whole society would be crippled.

Moreover, I do think that it'll be better to have a minister that is still virile and strong at such an age, than to have one that spends most of his time sleeping and too exhausted to think, even without a young lady to drain him. As long as he practised safe sex, that's setting a good enough example. Any parent who thinks that this is setting a negative example for the children needs to be shot in the head for being dumb enough to ask the kids to emulate a politician!

The deeper question that needs answering is who manufactured this scandal. According to reports, this sex DVD was allegedly distributed by the pirates. To me, this suggests that someone within his own party was involved. So, I believe that this is an internal MCA power struggle, being dragged into the open. That's why the dalang has yet to be unmasked. As for his parliamentary seat, he'll still win it as long as he runs. It's only if he's barred from running, does one need to ask who benefits.

As I understand the Law, adultery isn't illegal in Malaysia. It merely provides the spouse a clear legal justification to seek divorce. What is illegal in Malaysia, is the possession of porn. So, it's fairly obvious that the mass media (i.e. TV channels) broke the law by, not only possessing but also broadcasting, the said material. Also, the people who manufactured, distributed and sold the DVD, have broken the law. Also, I don't think that we have privacy laws in Malaysia, but it's still going to be bad for business when people realise which hotel it is that secretly records it's clients antics.

The lesson to take away from this issue is that there are no such things as secrets in today's world. If you're afraid of being caught doing anything, just don't do it.

PS: Might I suggest that he become a spokesperson for Pfizer and endorse the little blue pill.

UPDATE@1645: I love the BBC take on him: "Mr Chua said he had taken no part in the making of the DVD recordings, one of them said to be almost an hour long." and "As health minister, Mr Chua has advocated giving out free condoms to reduce the spread of HIV, in the face of religious opposition."

Problem Solving, the Malaysian Way!

One of the very first things that we were taught, during the first year at my former university, was problem solving. At first, I was fairly surprised that such a skill had to be taught. But then, I came to realise that some people lack the necessary logic facilities to work out how to solve problems. And as engineers, this could be a problem. Hence, problem solving became part of the syllabus, to teach us how to approach a problem and tackle it.

Generally, the steps involved are:

1. Define the problem clearly and concisely.
   
2. Consider all factors, criteria and constraints.
   
3. Come up with ideas using different techniques.
   
4. Test each solution against the factors.
5. Choose a final solution.
   
6. Implement it.
7. Voila, problem solved!
   

Through my reading of various media, I've come to conclude that our government works with a different 7-step programme. From what I understand, it's generally:

1. Redefine our Constitution and create a problem where there was none.
2. Trumpet the problem and raise public awareness of it.
3. Present a solution, which is to restore status quo.
4. Do nothing (i.e. restore status quo).
   
5. Claim to have solved the problem.
6. Show that the government loves the rakyat.
   
7. Voila, problem solved!
   

There are just so many examples of such situations. The issue with the Christian publication, Herald, is one example. Actually, all other major national issues are the same, such as the NameWee and Hindraf scandals. In each case, the government tramples on the Law, artificially inflates the issue, and finally solves the problem.

So, it's really no wonder that we're still stuck with 50 year-old problems, such as national unity, and regressing further each day. Little progress can be made on the real issues, when the government is too busy putting out fires that it lit itself. Maybe, the solution is to send all our ministers for a problem solving course and teach them how to put out real fires.

I love this quote by Shepherd Book from Firefly:

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."

Oh, we're so screwed.

Escaping through Islam

Now, just as I thought that I've got things figured out, I get further confused again. Reuters had just posted an article on the Subashini case. In short, it is sort of a custody battle between to parents whose marriage is now void. But in this case, the issue is not of physical custody, but rather, religion.

According to the article, "the Federal Court rejected her request for an injunction on technical grounds, leaving her free to try again, but one judge noted the court's jurisdiction was limited, given the husband was now a Muslim and therefore governed by Islamic or sharia law." It also states: "the judges' comments made it clear they recognized the husband's right, as a newly converted Muslim, to have recourse to the Islamic courts."

Okay, let's deal with a hypothetical situation:

As I understand it (IANAL), under Syariah Law, a woman who claims to have been raped, would need to produce either a confession from the rapist, or four male witnesses of the crime. Otherwise, the alleged rapist would usually get acquitted of the charge as there wasn't an easy way to prove the crime. In return, the woman, could then be charged under adultery (Zina) and punished accordingly, which is incidentally, stoning (for a married woman) or 100 lashes.

So, it would seem that the best recourse for any rapist in Malaysia, would be to convert to Islam after they're caught. It would give them the best chance of escaping the crime. It doesn't seem to matter whether or not the crime was committed before or after their conversion. They would have recourse to the Islamic courts and can duke it out there, instead of the regular courts.

This is totally confused!

I certainly hope that our country figures things out so that things don't confuse me utterly.

UPDATED@29/12: It seems that there's hope after all. According to this article, a recent 2-1 Federal Court decision has set a legal precedent in the country and asserts that: the Family Court has exclusive power to decide on matters involving divorce and custody rights of a couple of which one spouse has become a Muslim. The judges felt that a Muslim spouse cannot seek legal recourse through the Syariah Courts as it would amount to abusing the legal system. So, it seems that it's not going to be so easy to escape the civil courts after all and another potential legal loophole, has been closed.

I'm Confused!

Granted, it's almost 7am here, and I've yet to sleep a wink. For some reason, I am unable to get any shut-eye tonight. I'm physically tired, but my brain refuses to shut down. So, I thought that I'd read some news articles and hopefully, get bored and fall asleep. Unfortunately, the news articles got me confused and alert instead.

Malaysian Public Services
It seems that we had a special awards night for the public services, a short while ago. According to this article: "THE Public Sector Quality Awards 2007 (AKSA 2007) was held amidst much pomp and splendour at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Nov 30." But for some reason, this was only reported 27 days later by TheStar. I guess that this must be designed to help enhance the perception of the speediness of public sector delivery, as compared to the private sector (or maybe, it was just a typo).

This awards show is part of our dearest Prime Minister's plans to improve public services. According to this article: "WHEN Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced sweeping changes that would revamp the public delivery system of the Malaysian property sector more than six months ago, the entire industry breathed a huge sigh of relief." Among the different ideas that our PM had, was to create a task force, aptly called PEMUDAH. And according to this article, they've come up with some quantifiable deliverables.

All in all, it sounds very nice. So, you may wonder which bits of it confused me. Well, there was another article that came out on Boxing Day, through Reuters, about public services in Malaysia. In general, it damningly states that: "Malaysia's drive to woo investment is losing traction, as efforts to get rid of red tape and inept bureaucrats falter, threatening to further relegate it behind neighboring Singapore. A year after the authorities vowed to speed up the business approval process, entrepreneurs are still battling unwieldy procedures and inert government staff. Civil servants have become more courteous, they smile more than usual, but the bureaucracy, the red tape, is still there."

Now, I hope that you can see the source of my tiny confusion. On the one hand, I have TheStar telling me that all is well, we're speeding up delivery of public services, and we even have an awards show to prove that things are working (albeit reported 27 days later). On the other hand, I have a Reuters article, commenting on the fact that the only improvement in public services is that the officers dealing with the rakyat smile more. I cannot help but think that the articles in TheStar are some form of spin, designed to offset any fallout from the Reuters article.

Malaysia-Iran Oil Deal
Quite a long while ago, I mentioned that our country was in talks on a USD$ 16 billion deal with Iran. In that blog, I commended our nation for standing up to the world's bully and doing business with any country we wished, regardless of the country's status as a terrorist state as defined by the bully. That was from a different time and place. Today, it seems that we have finally sealed the USD$ 16 billion deal, as reported by TIME and FT.

Now, I'm confused.

As I had written a short while ago, according to our government, groups who deal with other terrorist groups (as defined by the USA) are considered terrorist groups as well. Since we're now in business with a state sponsor of terrorism (as defined by the USA), I sure hope that we are not to be considered a state sponsor of terrorism. We would get into a whole sh*tload of problems if we were. I'm terrified by the mere thought of it.

So, how do we get out of this confusion? Like this:

"The contract, signed on Wednesday between Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company and Malaysia’s SKS Ventures, owned by Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukary, includes the $6bn development of the Golshan and Ferdows gas fields in the next five-and-a-half years."

So, it seems that our national oil company is not directly involved in the venture. So, I guess we're safe then. We cannot possibly he considered state sponsors of terrorism as our government isn't directly involved. If the righteous people decide to raise a fuss over this, we can always lay the blame on a single individual, the 7th richest man in Malaysia, as listed on Forbes. Our government can just label him a terrorist and invite him for a short stay in Kamunting, like we've done to 5 other people recently. I'm sure that he'll have a water bed, TV and all the comforts of home there.

** Image from TheStar/Forbes **

Two old dudes

Haha, I read an article about our former PM, Tun Dr Mahathir, getting quizzed by the ACA about the Lingam-gate scandal. This old dude is still so sharp. However, I doubt that many people would've actually gotten the message. Anyway, here's the quotable quote:

"If the people selected to lead are the people who support the use of ISA, then they will use it. The choice is yours."

In one fell swoop, he's giving us a slap across the cheek and good advice, at the same time. He's telling us to be careful of who we vote for. Also, that we are all a bunch of idiots, and we got what we richly deserved. For someone like me, I tend to agree with him. When we put jokers in parliament, we cannot possibly expect anything but jokes to come out of it.

We are all a bunch of fools. Technically, that's true, as by definition, only the top 5% are smart, then the balance 95% cannot possibly be smart too. But democracy is about mob rule, in other words, rule by numbers. So, all issues need to be distilled down into something that can be understood by the 95%. This inevitable leads to over-simplification and over-generalisation by all the political parties. Like this bit of comment by another old dude on an article in the NST:

"Since Ong knew about such intellectual fraud of fake thesis writing and pseudo-PhDs, the Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha Mohamed would have known or Ong would have failed in his duty in not keeping his Minister informed of such serious intellectual transgressions in our universities.
Why didn’t Mustapha or Ong sent [sic] officers from his Ministry incognito into universities where such intellectual malpractices are rampant to verify and root them out?
Is this because intellectual dishonesty is the order of the day in the entire Malaysian university system with the adoption of the fraudulent meritocracy system by equating two completely different examinations – STPM and matriculation – of the same standards for university entrance despite the vast gap in intellectual attainments for both examinations?"

This is a frakkin' (mis)leading question, and one that leads to absolutely nowhere. Astute readers will notice the fantastic leap of logic required to link the problem of dishonest thesis writing and the problem of university entrance exams. I'd certainly like to ask Uncle Kit, how he managed to link the two disparate problems. I feel that this has diluted his otherwise, rather cogent attack on the problem.

Yes, there is a problem of people dishonestly submitting theses/work written by others, as their own work. No, this problem will never be eradicated as long as there is inherent "value" placed on a piece of paper, called a "degree". No, it's not a problem that merely plagues our local universities as it happens everywhere, including here. Yes, there is a gap in intellectual attainments for STPM and Matriculation. No, a university doesn't need to standardise entrance qualifications.

I have had two personal experiences with the former problem, here. I had once seen an internal "wanted" ad for someone to help write up a thesis. The pay was fairly attractive and I would be very surprised if nobody took up the job. I had also once marked two reports that were fairly obviously copied. However, there was nothing that we could do to the students as they were on exchange from MIT. So, the problem exists everywhere, and is difficult to dislodge, even in the top universities of the world.

As for the latter problem, we shouldn't be asking for a standardisation of entry qualifications but rather an expansion of entry qualifications. You cannot objectively say that an A from one exam is worth less than an A from another. If Malaysia truly wishes to be an educational hub, it needs to recognise not just the STPM/Matriculation, but also various other examination standards from all over the world. So, students need not only depend on these two but can also use alternative entry qualifications to get in.

However, reading the comments on Uncle Kit's blog, you'll see that many of his readers have swallowed his comment whole, without chewing it first. And as usual, you'll see the bashing of local graduates versus foreign graduates. I particularly liked one reader's comment (see if you can spot the many errors):

"I currently doing my Master (Australian Uni), they not only scan for Internet/Intranet or community sites. It does scan and comparing your work against others or prior student papers. I personally do not have confident on local Uni… no standard, no credibility, no market value…"

Moral of the day: value the person, not the qualification.

Swimming at the Form-Formless Interface

As I've mentioned earlier, I work mainly at the software-hardware interface. I used to believe that I could walk along the interface. But through my work, I have come to realise that it's more akin to swimming.

Working on pure software is easy, as everything is bounded by hardware. The designer has to come up with a solution to a problem, using whatever hardware is available. The first step usually involves selecting the right hardware for the job. Then, it's just a matter of coaxing the hardware to do the work by writing the right software for it. Although the task itself may be difficult, at least the problem is bound, so it's a finite problem.

Working on pure hardware is easy too. The designer has to design a solution to the problem, using whatever is physically available. The first step will involve selecting the right physical technology for the job. Then, it's just a matter of wiring everything up and turning on the power. Once more, although the task itself is difficult, the problem is bound.

Now, the difficulty with working at the software-hardware interface comes from the fact that I'm working at a shifty boundary. I can solve the problem, either in software or hardware. This grants me the added flexibility of either implementing the solution in software or hardware. But this flexibility comes at a cost, as I have to double my search efforts to search for solutions in both hardware and software spaces.

When the multiple solutions are found, I will then have to compare them. It's easier to compare apples and oranges. They're both fruit. With hardware and software solutions, one solution is physical, and the other isn't. The only common metric that can be used is time, i.e. which solution is faster. If speed was the only criterion, then it is simple. The trouble comes when I need to trade-off speed for something else.

Sigh. I think it's more like sinking at the interface now. It's as frustrating as it is exciting.

Wolfson Formal

Wow, Wolfson must have felt like there was an Asian invasion today. XianJie organised a truly massive Wolfson formal made up of mainly Singaporeans and Malaysians. There were so many of us that we virtually took up 1/3 of the hall.

I walked to Wolfson from my room. It took me 40 minutes to get there as I didn't want to risk going to the back gate, as it is usually locked. So, I went round the long way, down Barton Road. The formal was okay. I thought that the veal was a little too salty and the wine was a little too sour. The post-dinner drinks were quite good, though.

Anyway, at one point during the formal, the topic of Singapore vs Malaysia came up. As usual, I defended our country as I felt that we had relatively more freedom in Malaysia than in Singapore. I'm speaking from the point of personal freedoms and doing things in life. Generally speaking, there is more room to manouvre and more flexibility in life, in Malaysia than in Singapore. At worst, we can always settle things in Malaysia.

I agree that Singapore probably has a better system and infrastructure in place, than we do in Malaysia. That's the reason why so many Malaysians flock to Singapore to work and to earn a living. On the other hand, Singaporeans often come to Malaysia to spend their money. I'm not talking about buying cheap groceries or pumping cheaper petrol. I'm talking about doing things in Malaysia that they just cannot do in Singapore.

This is the trade-off for having an efficient and good system in place. It is something very easy to explain and understand. However, I rarely get the chance to explain it to most Singaporeans as they naturally shut me off. This is simply due to my lack of tact, in explaining things. But that's just me. So, here goes:

• In the absence of any system, there is full flexibility as anyone is allowed to do anything. In such a society, there would be absolute personal freedom. Yes, society would probably be chaotic, but that's the price you pay for absolute personal freedom.
• In the presence of a perfect system, there is zero room for doing anything outside the system. In effect, there would be absence of personal freedom. And yes, society would not be able to function in such a scenario either.
  

So, it's all about a trade-off between personal freedoms versus societal harmony. This is where things are a little different between our two countries. Whichever one is better, depends on the individual choosing. Some people thrive in absolute chaos, while others crave the stability of structure.

PS: The photo was taken handheld, without a flash, under low lighting.

General Assembly

T'is the bumper season for political quotes in Malaysia. It's time again for the annual UMNO general assembly. I found a few interesting ones and I thought that I'll just mention them here. As usual, these quotes are obtained from the official media, which are the best source for quotes from important people.

Keris Quotes
Our Education Minister, says that the keris will protect everyone, not just the Malays. He goes on to explain that the keris is a symbol of strength and for centuries a part of Malay heritage. He claims that some quarters last year, misrepresented the keris as a symbol of fighting. He accuses these people of not understanding the culture of our people and country even after 50 years of independence.

"The keris is unsheathed with the aspiration to defend our people and country, not just the Malays but also the non-Malays in the country."

I think that, that quote settles it all. The keris is not a symbol for fighting but a symbol for defending our people and country, regardless of race. So, it's used to defend our people against an unknown bogeyman without fighting for anything. It's all so clear to me now. Thank you very much.

Rocket Quotes
With the recent success of our angkasawan programme, some people were eager to jump in on it. Umno Youth's Vice-Chief has suggested that "Rocket Clubs" (Kelab Roket) be set up in schools. This has got me a little confused. The rocket has always been a symbol for the main opposition. Their official print publication is called "The Rocket". So, the DAP should find a way to cash in on this little unwarranted publicity. Maybe they can trademark the phrase. Either way, they should find a way to prevent unauthorised people from misusing the term as it will only serve to dilute their brand.

Education Awards
I found this last stunt the most pathetic. Wanita UMNO will be presenting RM1,000 cash prize to the top non-Malay student from several of our universities. The students selected are from Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS and Universiti Malaya. According to the article:

"We thought, since this is the 50th independence year, we will present the gold medals to the non-Malays in recognition of the other races."

Such is the way things are in Malaysia. 50 years of struggle and hardship has been valued at RM3,000. This is to say that each month was worth about RM5 (disregarding inflation). This is just kind of sad. Thank you very much!

Opposition 2.1

After the chat that I had with Teresa Kok, yesterday evening, I started thinking about some of the things that she said and I would like to share some thoughts on it. Even the people from Khazanah agreed with this. We were all in agreement that the biggest problem in Malaysia is the communal mentality.

This is one bit that I do not understand about the opposition. I consider the fact that there must be at least a few bright people working for them, someone must've come up with this realisation by now. Maybe they haven't, maybe they have but are unable to do anything about it. Either way, I thought that I should put it down in my blog.

I got the sense that one common frustration that our opposition suffers is the tight control that the state has on media. They are unable to get their stories out and that in itself means death in the world of electoral politics. Another frustration that they have is that the other side does not play fair as it uses money and power to work the election. All this can be likened to playing cards at a table where the dealer holds on to all the aces.

So, for as long as the opposition continues to play the same game, they will never be capable of winning. In this case, the only way to beat the house is to change the game. This is where I see our opposition failing. They are engaged in the same game as the ruling coalition and are therefore, doomed to lose, time and time again. The opposition cannot possibly win, when the deck is so stacked against them.

They need to change the game. DAP needs to lose it's image as a Chinese opposition party. Instead of depending on PAS and PKR to take the Malay votes, DAP should itself go down and try to take the Malay votes away from UMNO. The same goes for PAS and PKR. All the opposition parties should stop branding themselves as communal parties and stand up for some real issues. We are still stuck in the pre-Merdeka mentality, after 50 years. Things have got to change. Granted, this is a risky strategy, as it may result in the opposition losing it's traditional communal voters, but then, that's just a risk that they need to take.

Now, if the opposition decided to present themselves as a truly Malaysian party, that doesn't cut itself across communal lines, they can at last call themselves a true alternative to the ruling coalition. Then, everyone will have something exciting to talk about in the local kopitiam and warong. The people will truly have something different to discuss and look at. The viral marketing that results, will be worth more than anything the BN can buy with their media. People will truly have something to look forward to, and not just to more of the same old stuff.

There are so many common issues that cut across racial lines in Malaysia. Let's deal with the issue of education. Instead of fighting for mother tongue education, why not fight for standards of education. Personally, I don't really care what language science is taught in as long as the scientific principles are taught correctly. Using an example from the extremely democratic world of technology, it doesn't really matter if a browser is written in C, Java, Pascal or whatever, it will work as long as it follows the HTTP standard.

Maybe I'm naive, but this is what I think.

The Cambridge Malaysia Forum

We had an official function today, The Cambridge-Malaysia Forum, which was organised by ASLI and supported by the University. We were graced by the presence of our Foreign Minister and Second Finance Minister. I went out at 9am this morning, and only just got back at 11.30pm. It has been an interesting day to say the least. I have learnt many things today.

For starters, I made a boo boo and was told off by JiaYi, for talking so loud. I mentioned quite loudly, that there were no signs marking out where the registration counter was and that the breakfast room was filled with men with too much white hair for me. If anyone from ASLI took offence with my statements, too bad for you. I'm just a little nobody mouthing off, there isn't any need to take offence with my statements.

Then, we get to the speeches. Our Foreign Minister went on his usual droning. I totally lost concentration about 10 minutes into his 30 minute speech. Our 2nd Finance Minister struck me as an extremely soft-spoken person. But the gist of the message to take away from them is that:

1. They have lost the plot. They kept pointing out that our country is in trouble. We are approaching the slippery slope fast and we need to find a way to stop and turn around, before we hit it. The government is stepping back and hoping that the people will figure a way out of if, which is the nice way of saying that they have no idea of what to do and are shifting the responsibility to the people.
   
2. They are in denial. The kept harping about this policy of growth with equity, which I think has a very different meaning from equitable growth. It's essentially trying to redress the whole race based economy in glossy terms. They know that it is not working, but they still continue to propagate it (in different words). This is the bit that confuses me, as I'm generally a logical minded person. If something isn't working, fix it!
   

After their speeches, the two ministers promptly left, which just showed how much interest they actually had in the dialogue. The dialogue wasn't much of one anyway. It's only during Malaysian dialogues, where I find that forum participants have so little time to speak, while ministers and prominent speakers have so much more. I thought that the while idea of a dialogue was to encourage participation. But I guess I thought wrong. It's not much of a dialogue if you ask me.

So, the morning was pretty boring. But since there was a free lunch (at Catz, so the food was quite good and the dessert was awesome). I think that many people actually attended the forum for the food. We're after all, Malaysians First!

Over lunch, I met this interesting lady, who runs a corporate communications firm for researchers (that's the gist of her business) in the UK. I spoke to her about my background and she was fairly piqued. She even suggested that I'm going to be a millionaire one day! I certainly hope so, but it's still a ways off at the moment. She pointed me towards a UK government body that might be able to help me. I think that I might check them out at a later stage and see if there are any interesting things that I could do.

For tea, I went for an informal lunch with the people from Khazanah. I am genuinely interested in going home to work. Call me idealistic, but I would really like to find a way to contribute positively to my country (even after a bad lesson that I had, I still hold the view that I should do something for my country). However, from the different chats that I had with the different people from Khazanah, I get the impression that, they do not believe that I really want to go home, and they do not really want me to go home. I don't know why.

Then, after dinner, a bunch of us met up with Seputeh MP, Teresa Kok. That's a photo of some of us with her after lunch. From my impression of her, she's one of the old guard. She belongs to an older generation of politicians, who believe (personally or otherwise) in racial politics. I don't blame her for it, but I do believe that for us to progress as a nation, people like her have got to go. We tried to let her know how we felt about the issue, and she wasn't very receptive to our views. But I still appreciated her sparing her time to have a chat with us. None of the government ministers ever bother to do so.

So, the general lessons for me to take away today are:

1. Our country is in trouble and the leadership is in denial. This is never a good sign.
2. My country doesn't really want me to go home and help out.
3. The opposition is hopelessly lost. They will forever remain in opposition.

PS: The photo is a little bad (unlike my usual stuff) because I had my camera set for the room, not the hall. So, it didn't quite turn out right.

My upgrade to Gutsy

It's about a week before the release of K/Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. So, I decided that it was okay now for me to upgrade. But since the upgrade involved downloading about 1Gb of software from the Internet, I decided to do it in the department. I was headed in to work on my TA work anyway, today. So, I thought I'd just upgrade it at the same time.

Firstly, it was not trivial to set up my laptop in the department network. It's not just your average plug-n-pray. It involved a little skulduggery. But, I managed to get it all working in the end and proceeded to perform the upgrade. It took about 30-45 minutes to get it all done. Then I rebooted my computer and prayed. Miraculously, it started up.

It was then, that I got a visit from one of the staff members. I was asked "how" I had managed to gain access to the network. I just told him that I had "plugged my laptop in directly". I was then told that I am not allowed to use the departmental network for my personal stuff. Since I was already done with the upgrade, I decided not to argue the point and just proceeded to unplug my computer and move off.

Then, I came home and checked to make sure that everything was working. The first problem that I ran into was a problem with KDE PIM. For some reason, it wasn't using my saved contacts, calendar or tasks. A quick google came up with the solution to the problem. A setting was missing from the configuration file, which I manually added in. The second problem is that my laptop will now hang (or seem to hang) when I suspend it. This is a curious problem as it implies a problem with the kernel. However, it's using the same kernel version that I've been using for the last few months. It's a known bug and has been reported. I'll need to recompile my custom kernel to have it all working.

All in all, I have to commend the K/Ubuntu people for doing a great job of things. Hopefully, they'll sort out the different problems before the final release next week. I look forward to using the new version. I'm also looking forward to the new 8.42 ATI drivers due out by the end of this month. It's supposed to have the performance of the previous drivers, but with various bug fixes. My computer sometimes hangs when I use the new drivers due to graphics corruption.

My Thoughts on our Angasawan Programme

Seems like our long awaited Angkasawan finally got sent into space today. The event has gotten quite a bit of media attention worldwide. TheStar has got a report on the whole launch and I expect that they will have a flurry of articles for the next 9 days. The Beebs highlights the fact that this is the first time that Ramadhan will be observed in space. France24 quotes our Angkasawan as saying that he has a responsibility towards all Muslims in this world. So, what do I think of the whole event?

Firstly, it is a waste of our tax dollars. As it is, we are already running low on cash and are having to increase our foreign debt in order to subsidise various public projects. So, I don't know how this pet project could be considered a priority. Spaces tourists routinely pay several million dollars to get themselves into space. The RM 100 million or so, could have been better spent on various public services projects such as improving our schools.

Secondly, it does not bring us any benefits. Taking a taxi ride into space, does not a space-faring nation make. If we wish to join the coveted space club, we should really work on developing our own domestic space programme. Considering that we're located on the equator, this works to our own advantage as it is cheaper and easier to launch from the equator. All efforts spent in developing space technology would also have it's spill-off effects onto other technology areas. All we have now, is a costly PR stunt, which will impress nobody.

So, I don't see what sort of benefits would the country get from this programme. Our Angkasawan would not be able to impart his training onto other people as we do not have our own space programme. So, all the training that he has gotten would be essentially wasted. Our country would not benefit through any scientific/technological way. Our people would cheer for a week, and forget about this PR campaign after that.

What a waste of RM 100 million.