30 yrs + Muhibahness

Not only we are the champion of creating records, most of the time you-wonder-why kind of record as a manifestation of our Malaysia Boleh spirit, we are also the JUARA when it comes to changes! As much as I think there're lots of truth in the quote "the only truth in this world is change", I can hardly keep up with our forever changing Malaysian policy esp in EDUCATION. Youth (ok, late youth ok?? !) like me had underwent tonnes of changes when we were still under our ever-changing (in this case, definitely not dynamic!!!) education system here in Malaysia! Let's recap! We were the pioneer batches introduced to KBSR and hence KBSM without knowing what it is until now, we were the generation who practise Bahasa Baku (proud to say East Malaysians are very baku in pronounciation without uttering words like "sayE" instead of "sayA"!!!) then there's no need to baku anymore, Bahasa Melayu-Bahasa Malaysia-Bahasa Melayu-Bahasa Malaysia (what the heck??? when's tat going to stop??? what's the correct one now?), degree in university from 4yrs to 3 yrs then to 4yrs (esp certain professional courses), from penggal to semester then back to penggal and who know what it is now?, and recently the hoo-ha of reviewing our decision of making English as the medium for S&T (mind you, it's science and technology babe!) subjects !!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm tired and very very tired indeed. I wonder how the teachers cope with all these changes which goes on like for eternity ???? We had gone thru the process of debating, arguing, picking up fights and raises some so-called sensitive issues such as "di mana nak diletak maruah bahasa kebangsaan (which by the way, is it Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia is still under debate)" and finally settled for this policy. Not an easy one and looked promising as government spend lots of money investing in this new changes, e.g. providing laptop for teachers involved, slight (yes.... very slight) increase in salary for the "keperitan mengajar dalam bahasa inggeris" (which i make me think, is it sth too much to ask for, for a teacher to master another language so widely spoken and reward had to be given for such a thing???) etc and NOW WE HAVE TO REVIEW THE DECISION AGAIN, WITH ONLY LIMITED RESULT. We lost another great religious figure. I think the last religious figure's death which great generated comparable magnitude to this was Mother Theresa's. St. Peter's Square is full of thousands of people flocking to see the pope for the last time. But lately, it had been something like a celebration. News in TV featuring people shouting happily boarding the train to Rome to join the crowd makes me thinking what's the real motive of these people? But to think about it deeper, can't this be a celebration? A celebration of the end of suffer to the old and dying pope. A celebration for the fact that the world is still appreciating the great leaders. A celebration on humanity.

SEPET RulesWatched Latte@8 and Sharifah Armani, the main cast of Sepet was the guest. She looked familiar to those of us who sticked to TV watching Malaysian Idol coz the gal co-host is her sister. Young and still acting young (which is good, for not being pretentious) I hav no doubt that she's being herself as portrayed in the movie. Sepet made us proud and I wrote my rant on Sepet previously. I asked my frens to go and watch it and some of my die-hard Chinese educated frens also took up my challenge to watch it and they LOVE it !!!!!!! Again, finally the 1st MALAYSIAN movie was made and I'm so happy it receive great response from the cinema-goers as some of my frens didn't manage to get ticket for it. Tiket Habis??? Way to go Yasmin !!! Get Rabun out to the cinema. Pat on the back to Columbia Tristar too, and certainly they hav good taste in films...... Kung Fu Hustle also receive modal injection from them!!!

Finally when we are in the 30s, we found out that things we dun even have any courage to attempt the things we dare not attempt when we were 20s! Hence, those dreams when we were 20s will never be achieved when we were in the 30s. So, to avoid having the regrets and living in "what-if" later in our whole life, we might as well live our life to the fullest NOW. Finally it came as a revelation, just a little bit more of courage, our life can more and more exciting and colorful NOW. <> OK, tat being said.... wat I want to make my life more colorful ??????????????? Hey, S!!! It's raining heavily now in KK actually and as we chatted today (or is it yesterday?)...

OK, our nation in the past few days was blasted with the big hoo-ha of the F1 but since I'm not a great fan (sorry, people!), I'm more attracted to other issues that sort of dominated the media for few days (at least the Chinese papers). The sekolah bahasa ibunda issue. Sparked by the finally-determined MCA to request more Chinese primary schools to be built, it was fueled by "allegedly" our Pak Lah's comment of not approving it, the issue of our racial integration is finally surfaced again after so much "tenggelam-timbul" situation. Ironically, aren't we harmonious enough ??? Well... our media and also national TVs always show our "Muhibah'ness" on TV with endless reports on "Rumah Terbuka" during EVERY SINGLE celebration with patrons from all walks of life and ALL RACES???????? And now with that "strong" muhibahness that we have built in our citizens, one could not question the chinese primary schools are going to be a threat to national integration? I recently read an article by an English-educated parent who send his children to chinese primary schools with the reason of hoping his children getting the chance to learn Chinese. Yes, suggestions sprung up to introduce chinese classes in Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) but frankly I dun think it's enough, in addition, the Chinese classes proposed will be held outside the normal school session, thus means sth like kelas tambahan! Not an encouragement I would say. Education issues are tricky and unavaidably sensitive but since it was agreed as the right of the citizens, simple economy principle should apply, when there's demand, the should be enough supply! Furthermore, it's not the race issue already since lots of non-Chinese parents send their children to Chinese primary schools. And almost 95% of these chinese primary schools end up in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan with the so-called "national curriculum" and why the national integrity is in question? Too late to instill racial integration in secondary school??? How about those study in religious school then? Or those "elite" and "outstanding" students who study in Sekolah Berasrama Penuh / Sekolah Menengah Sains all around the country which always the TOP SCORER with clean 100% passes??? However, I'm glad that Pak Lah finally said it's stated in the constitution that it's the citizen's right to have mother-language education system! Well.... I think we need more Yasmin Ahmad's movies (oh I wonder how long will I have to wait till they show Yasmin's previous work, Rabun? And I can't wait for her next work, Gubra is it???), more real plot rather than the stereotyped drama such as "Tin Gei Bin" shown in TV1 or some cheesy Cerekarama (ok, some are brilliant), more Mew Tsang Ching and Ramli Ibrahim's dance performances shown in TV than the ever-boring muhibbah-filled type of dance called "tarian rampaian" with dancers in extremely colorful attire (even those fashion show in Milan during spring season pun kalah) presenting a rojak dance of all the "allegedly" traditional dance of all the races in our country (and mind you, as stereotype as it can be, "Tien Mi Mi" and "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" is like the must-have when the Chinese and Indians were featured and come on.... traditional dance??), more Chinese listening to Sheila Majid, Ning and M. NAsir or more Malay listening to Fish Leong or Penny Tai, more constructive efforts to promote our local food than doing questionable and laughable gimmick (come on.... bring nasi lemak, roti canai to the space???? hey, that's not muhibbah!!! what about char kuay teow? tosai? kuih lapis? or better send another chinese bloke with thick glasses and sepet eyes and another macho Indian guy with moustache all over to make up the muhibbah picture???? imagine watching the image of muhibbah-inspired astronauts coming from satellite on our TV!!!!!)