Archive for August, 2007
while looking through some of my folders, i found a bunch of pictures that i’d forgotten about! i’d meant to collect at least 10 of these photos of myself and roadsigns of the roads in KL that i frequent, but i only got to 7 before i’d forgotten all about it. haha. so because i know i’m never gonna get around to photographing the other 3 roads, here are the first 7 anyway, along with my favourite and frequented places along said roads.
Jalan Bukit Bintang
Photographer : Waimin
What’s there :
- Starhill (Tiffin Bay, Jogoya and the Feast Village!!)
- a Japanese restaurant called Dontaku which used to be so good but not anymore
- Westin Hotel (Prego, Qba)
- the Marriot which has a fantastic chinese restaurant called Shang
- Sg Wang which is like a melting pot of everything
- Oggi at The Regent which is a pretty good Italian restaurant
- the huge Giordano signboard above the Mcdonalds which used to have Utt on it, and i would always stare dreamily at it while waiting at the intersection’s red lights.
Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
Photographer : Short Brother
What’s there :
- Sasso Rosso which has the best panna cotta ever
- Market Place, a nice restaurant & lounge, where i had a really good chocolate mousse
- Smokehouse which used to be my go-to for Yorkshire pudding but sadly it’s degenerated into a really crap place
Jalan Doraisamy
Photographer : Ivan
What’s there :
- Asian Heritage Row!!! i like Cynna and Bar Savanh.
- Bar Blonde for nights of gossip and conversation
- Palacio has good tapas
- and of course there is Maison (as opposed to Maisons wtf is Maisons, people) but that’s technically off the Heritage Row
- and my new workplace is here too wtf.
Jalan Ampang
Photographer : Kelvin Tan
What’s there :
- there is of course Suria KLCC, one of the top malls in KL
- La Risata, a cosy italian trattoria that serves great food
- the ‘Korean Village’ at the other end nearer to Ampang itself
- Jalan Damai is off this road, and that houses Hajime and Rahsia as well as this place called Arabic where everyone goes to shisha.
- Zoukkkk
- Great Eastern Mall is here too, and that naturally means Alexis.
-a decent Jap place called Onagi
Jalan Telawi
Photographer : Hock Chuan
What’s there : omg my favourite road of all the 7!!!!!!
- Bangsar Village 1, which has the Delicious Group’s new place called D’lish where the concept is healthy, self-service and quick takeaway. Village Grocer is here too, easily best supermarket in KL.
- Relish’s 2nd outlet. yum yum gourmet burgers
- Kuku Bar, where i get my pedicures and threading done
- Theophileus Tan’s house hahaha
- Starbucks at Telawi 3, my favourite Starbucks outlet in the whole wide world. nothing tops it.
- Bangsar Village 2 at Telawi 3, where MARMALADE is!!! Sole Lovely has some cute shoes. Kitsch has even cuter shoes and those Little Miss Something tshirts that i totally want.
- Nirwana at Telawi 3, the institution of banana leaf rice. great maggi goreng too
- Mooie at Telawi 2, one of the better boutiques in bangsar
- Strip at Telawi 5, my other pedicure place. it’s actually a nice waxing salon, but i’ve never gotten that done
Petaling Street
Photographer : Chi
What’s there : i used to think Petaling Street is such a crap place for ’shopping’ cos i hate all that fake LV wallet shit. but then while looking for stuff for this carnival i organized in high school, i poked around the other streets near Petaling St and was pleasantly surprised to find that there are a lot of interesting little places that sell the coolest stuff for quite cheap. Petaling Street also has great hokkien mee, beef noodles, apam. Terrence says there is a good porridge stall that caters to the post-clubbing and breakfast crowd, but i’ve not been.
Jalan Kiara
Photographer : Martian
What’s there :
- Plaza Mont Kiara which has a Starbucks outlet where i used to pull all-nighters at during SPM days coz it was the only Starbucks in KL that opened 24/7
- the first Marmalade cafe
- the most important Coffee Bean outlet ever
- Somo which is a nice hangout place
- and of course, Martian’s apartment :)
Other roads i wanted to include :
Jalan Pudu
- my family doctor is here! Dr Tham. hahaha.
- best curry mee
- the original wai sik kai
- Pudu’s best kept secret aka Marmite Chicken Rice at this cafe called Vinz
- best siew yoke ever but technically it’s off Jalan Pudu
Jalan P Ramlee
- Ozeki which is a damn good Japanese restaurant!!!
- Passion, one of my favourite bar lounges
Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang
- Frangipani, best fine-dining restaurant in all of KL. sorry Lafite.
- El Cerdo, a modern european restaurant serving many porky dishes. the pork knuckle and the young blonde manager are so yummy. definitely a must-go
- Twentyone, a nice bar that just opened. i love the vibe here
- The Magnificent, a fish&chips place. even has mushy peas haha.
————
okay no more. KL really has some great places, eh :)
August 18th, 2007
it’s really so very hard these days to find a good listener.
you know how it is - there’s the type who zones out whenever you’re talking and goes ‘huh what sorry?’ when you ask if they’re listening, then there’s the type who always turns your story around to be a story about themselves (’oh that reminds me of something that happened to ME last week.. blablablabla’), not to mention those who belittle your problems, or those who scold you about making mistakes when all you really want is just someone to listen to you rant.
i usually know when people are not interested in listening to my problems, so i dont tell them. and i also know not to talk to people who tend to get really aggressive or all i-told-you-so. simply put, i know when not to talk to bad listeners. but you know what’s the most deceiving of all - it’s the people who are really interested in what you have to say, give you good feedback, are sympathetic, and then fucking tell the entire world about it.
i hate it when i tell someone something in confidence, and then find out over the next week or so that the whole world has already heard about it. especially when these issues are delicate or really personal. i mean, do people have no respect for trust these days. when someone trusts you enough to disclose little secrets or big problems, you should know that these things are weighty and to keep it to yourself, right? but no, these juicy things spread like wildfire simply because there exists people who love to be the go-to for the latest gossip and information. they love it when they’re in this elevated position - oh you know, i’m closer to her than you are and that’s why i already know this and you dont! - and they fucking thrive on it for their selfish little purposes of feeling important and well-connected.
yknow if you actually care about this person you’re talking about, then okay yeah discuss the issue and come up with ways to help the person or whatever. but dont freely divulge these things to nosy and irrelevant people over your salad bowl during your bloody lunch hour, just so you can have something to talk about, or because you relish the feeling of dropping bombs and being able to elicit wide-eyed disbelieving looks from all around the room.
ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PERSON CONCERNED SAID, ‘DONT TELL ANYONE THIS’.
erhghghfgjfhgjdfhgjdfhgjdhgiudfgdfh.
and you know what’s worse, it’s when bloggers are involved. oh my GOD when bloggers are involved -____- seriously, it is taking this whole ‘blogosphere’ shit way too far when you start seeing it fit to tell other people things that you are not supposed to, simply because ‘we’re all bloggers wat’. yeah yeah community spirit and all, but subscribing to that does not mean you feel comfortable with every single person in that community, much less them knowing intimate details of issues that you’d rather only a select few knew about.
i’m just very pissed off at myself because i always make this mistake of being too open about my personal life, even to people i dont know that well. and even to friends whom i’ve known forever and are really close to but have a reputation of being the biggest gossipmongers ever, i tell them things anyway. and then i get pissed off when the stories get out. it’s like i never learn. i never never learn.
oh ya i wanted to say something earlier but i forgot. i think there is a loophole in the creation of universe - how can it be possible and allowable for people to put words into other people’s mouths, and then get away with it?? someone came up to me the other day and asked, eh i heard you dont like this guy A. and i was like WHAT? i’ve never even harboured a single mean thought about A! and she goes, ‘oh this girl B told me’. and i know for a fact that B herself doesnt like A. so you see what’s the case here - some bloody bimbo who wants to bitch about a person she doesnt like, but doesnt have the guts to say so and instead uses someone else as a channel to make her statements. stupid wan lah i dont understand why people like them are allowed to exist.
*fumes*
August 16th, 2007
there was a clump of hair clinging wetly to the drain in the shower stall of our hotel room. long and brown and red, there was no question that those miserable scalp-forsaken strands belonged to me. the sight of it really quite disturbed me for some reason, yet i found myself staring down curiously at the tangled mass for the entire time i was taking a shower. in my mind, i was just drawing parallels between this strange sight and other worrying things that are going on in my life. sometimes there is just no escaping metaphors.
after my shower, i crawled naked into bed with Martian, who was already asleep. i held him to me for a while, put my hands under his shirt to feel his heart beating. and then i reminisced about the past week, keeping myself company with memories of the silly little things we did, all the cheekiness we were up to. then i kissed him, and he stirred to kiss me back and to murmur some sleepy nonsense. i am reminded of a moment a long time ago, during our mont kiara days as we affectionately call it now, where he once said to me, ‘for your future reference, i’m a light sleeper’. i remember rolling my eyes and thinking to myself, ‘as if i’ll be needing future references about you!’. sigh. but look where we are now. isnt it funny how delightfully wrong one can be sometimes?
i wonder a lot where we go from here. i wonder a lot about many things. but most of all i wonder how we can be so lucky as to have everything just fall into place for us. gods. to think of how it all started. to think how narrowly we almost missed each other in the grand scheme of things. it panics me. but then i remember how we have each other, that we love each other, and how in the end that is ultimately all that really matters.
okay sappiness aside! here’s something i’ve always wanted to do. if you could ask Martian any one question, what would it be?
i’ll start. baby why do you always have to disturb me in the morning!
August 12th, 2007
dear friends,
i lovingly pen this epistle from beneath the orange lantern lights of the resident Starbucks in Capital Tower, Singapore, while sucking down a venti skim iced chocolate with extra whipped cream, a little pleased to find that at the bottom of this cup lingers a delightful treasure trove of undissolved cocoa powder sediment that goes so very well with my tongue.
i am the only person here not on some business meeting or other. everyone here is in yuppie apparel, looks a tad too serious, has paper and pen ready, is drinking a latte. i dont mean to eavesdrop, but this is lim su ann reporting live from the table behind the wall and next to the only plugpoint in this outlet, and there is a heated discussion going on between 5 men; all Chinese, two balding, one young and quite cute, all reaching for their cellphones each time an electronic sound is heard in the vicinity. to my three-o-clock, a man is furiously flipping through papers with DBS letterheads while muttering incoherently, every now and then staring into space before he hits a eureka moment and starts scribbling frantically on his papers. i regret to inform that i cannot see what the couple behind me are doing, but they are talking about hedge fund management, and er, bali. yes bali. i really like bali! good shopping, eh, and nice art too. did you go to the dirty duck diner? yes yes i did. cool cool cool…
i am a little bit irritated at myself because a women’s magazine sent me an email interview regarding blogging, and i sent my answers half a day too late. stupidness. there goes my one and only shot at coffee table and while-getting-your-hair-done fame! and i’m also irritated at myself because i was supposed to finish 2 articles this week at least but i have not. i need some discipline. father dearest is on my case about spending too much of his money, and mother dearest is on my case about spending too much of my boyfriend’s money. yknow, the way they talk about me, you’d think i was some kind of high maintenance daughter/girlfriend or something. but i am not. i almost resent this. and i also resent that Freddy threw a party back home that i cannot attend because they are there and i am here. WHY ARE YOU ALL ALWAYS DOING FUN AND HAPPY THINGS WITHOUT ME. WHY.
the other day i went to a pool party with the collegemates. it’s this annual summer thing that we have, and usually it’s a hoity toity prom with fancy dresses and corsages, but this year it’s a pool party at Zul’s place because aiyah we’re so like that. anyway i havent seen them all in months and months, so when i went it was very nice to see them all again. hugs and gossip galore. but everyone is leaving. everyone is just leaving. the boys are good loud fun as always, the girls are still hot stuff. alvin has finally decided to graduate but leon hasnt, isa has all these piercings now like his gf’s, raihan is so bising like always!!!, dennis was armed with his videocam, jolin and sharmin and jia yoong were not there, amy is so tanned now, fayeandzul are still tall. there were also many freshmen whom i do not know. i feel old.
i wont be going back to college this fall, mainly coz i have SAT 2 to prepare for (sigh, it’s going to be another 10-day prep again) and also coz i’m starting my internship in a week’s time. and then i apply to college in the US come december. will that really be 2 years since SPM? form 5 felt like yesterday. i remember when we used to call in to McDonalds for breakfast. sausage mcmuffins and barbeque sauce, haha! man, high school life was rock n’ roll.
i wanna share a little part of my college life with y’all. here are a few faces i managed to take photos with, and a little bit of our story.
#1 here are the boys doing their thing again :P at every event, they’ll play and sing Secondhand Serenade’s Your Call and Oasis’ Wonderwall. when Vineet was around, it would be Guns N Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine
#2 some of those shoes on the floor were later thrown in
#3 the people
#4 with Raihan and Nisa. Raihan’s the babe with the ANYA HINDMARCH BAG OMFG. i never actually took a class with her, but i would say it is impossible to not come into contact with her whilst in college. coz she’s so damn noisy and bubbly!! but sometimes she faints and that’s scary too. and last year she came to the Halloween party all decked out in gangster girl wear, haha, which was cool because all she ever gives out is this goody-two-shoes demeanour. Nisa is the pretty girl in pink, and she doesnt look malay at all but she is. so creative and such a good baker; she makes the most awesome stuff. we met while planning the Halloween party together, and later on were in the same Psychology 201 class, where we had to team up to present on the Endocrine system. haha we got stellar scores but of course.
#5 this is Ashley. the first time we were introduced at the italian restaurant in SS15, i grinned and said, wow such a pretty name! and he said ‘why thank you, i know’, while flicking his wrist in mock girlyness, and i knew he was cool. he’s really into working out, and always gives me tips and keeps tabs on my fitness routine, telling me what i’m doing right or wrong. and he always bugs us to go out and eat rabbit satay :( :( :( someone make him stop doing that!
#6 Amy! i sat beside her for Macroeconomics last semester. she’s hot and also damn smart; i met a high school friend of hers while clubbing once and he said she was a ’study-study type of girl lah’ back in school. which was not surprising, because you can tell from her grades and the questions she asks in class. oh and she’s going to Drake this fall to do actuarial science. she’s also always in pageants wan - every now and then you see her in the papers winning Miss Talented or Miss Beautiful Legs or something!
#7 me with Dennis, and i am blocking Jien’s face. Dennis was so helpful from the moment i enrolled in ADP, and he was the one who took me to Zul to run for council elections. he gave me all his Algebra and International Relations notes too, haha. he’s a future filmmaker and believe you me, is going to make big waves in time to come :) Jien is the guy whose face I’m blocking, and i met him before college actually, at a party Lynn-Nee threw at her place. i remember all the girls talking about how good-looking he is, haha wtf. but Jien is really the coolest. he’s so random and WEIRD! he’s always drawing shit on his arms and trying to sell us weird gadgets. my favourite part about Jien is when i asked him why he’s not going to Amy’s party and he smiled and said, ‘i cant. it’s my 3rd year anniversary with my girlfriend’.
#8 this is Gan, but waimin and i call him Music Elitist because that’s what he is. i’ve never taken a class with him but we started talking in some ECA meeting where he said something snobby like, ‘i like music that no one else listens to’. so i asked, okay like what. and he goes, ‘post-rock’. and i went, ‘oh mogwai and godspeed and sigur ros and all’. and he balked. hahaha. we dont talk much in school, but when we do it’s usually about music. he’s jealous that i went to watch Jaga Jazzist last March, i’m jealous that he’s gonna go watch The Arcade Fire :(
#9 haha me and the boys. Kote is the one behind me and we’ve never really spoken. Daryl’s the one trying to lick my face and he is the ultimate representation of chill. he’s also damn hamsap, haha. Isa’s on the right side of the photo and an awesome guy who’s very nice to talk to. when we first met, he used to be very emo and was always hung up on this one girl, but he has since moved on and is now very happy and no longer emo! and we’ve got this Banoffee appointment that we’ve not done until now.
#10 HAHA this is alvin. my first contact with Alvin was when he called me from the college office telling me that some of my classes clashed. he’s been in college like forever lah, so he’s the best source of information when one is confused about anything college-related. he’s damn sarcastic wan, and was the editor of Flipside for awhile together with Shahani. he’s going to Buffalo to study; i’ll miss him when he goes.
#11 t’is Mike. he’s a 2007 freshman whom i met when i was helping out with orientation, and he had this funky red fringe at the time. i never saw him around school much, and then i took the following semester off, but he’s generally a nice guy with a good heart. and i like him also because he went to SMK DU and not SMK DJ.
#12 Robin, who is Rachel’s hiphopping breakdancing boyfriend. he’s damn funny and he sat opposite me during our TOEFL exam. he performs at all our college events and can dance to any tune. the coolest dance he ever did was the one with Tiffany during halloween!
#13 with the girls and Jun Wei. Jun Wei is this really nice guy who’s so clever and managed to maintain a 4.0 CGPA for a good portion of his college life. people, what that means is an A in English 101, which is a amazing feat in our college, trust me on this one. he sat next to me in Philosophy class, and then we were on the same team for that Machiavellian politics debate, which we won, heehee.
so that’s a little slice of my college life. i spent one year there but sometimes it feels like i spent no time in there at all. time flies so fast when you’re having fun.
August 10th, 2007
i had the opportunity to attend the Malaysian Student Leaders Summit over the weekend, the first of many more to come. basically it’s a convention where Malaysian students who are studying all over the world congregate back here in KL to listen to speeches about the state of affairs in our country, and then discourse with the speakers about those topics in open mic sessions. over 350 students attended, and 16 speakers from very diverse fields came to address us.
haha i must admit that i love conferences and summits like this, what more when the list of speakers include the likes of ministers and corporate bigwigs, and we’re allowed to ask them all sorts of questions! furthermore the students who attended all came from good schools and were intelligent and concerned about the country, so the post-session dissecting over coffee and MICE food were very interesting. it’s always so very heartening to encounter young malaysians who have fought against the dumbing-down of the malaysian education system and have emerged victorious. ya screw pendidikan moral and all that KBKK crap; one day we are going to take over the world! and it wont be because we hafal-ed 30 nilais the night before our exams.
so this conference was quite good! definitely the most exciting panel of speakers i’ve seen so far in all the summits i’ve been to. most (but not all as you shall soon be told!) of the sessions were very informative, and the Q&A sessions that followed usually had the whole floor sitting up and leaning forward. a lot of the questions were damn interesting, and some were outright challenging. but then quite funny also lah got some sesat questions like when one girl demanded to know why the government charges for SPM, when padahal the fees were actually abolished some time back. haha. i think she was from a private school.
the sessions are as follows :
The Army and Leadership
Speaker : Laksamana Tan Sri Dato Sri Mohd Anwar (Former Chief of Defence Force of Msia)
okay this one was quite bad, quite possibly the worst of the 12 sessions. the Laksamana mostly talked about the army and naval forces of malaysia, and didnt correlate either to leadership, which was what his session was supposed to be about. it was really one big Pro-Army evangelistic talk that lasted way longer than it should have. the Q&A part saved it lah i think, because some people asked about Nuri, as well as offense/defense policies, and recent army/navy purchases. he took the questions well; his answers were quite satisfactory. haha and then there was a University of Toulouse student who asked him something, and he answered back in French wtf.
Malaysia’s Economy
Speakers : Prof Emeritus Dr Mohd Ariff Karim (Director of Msia Institute of Economic Research)
Justin Leong Ming Loong (Head of Investment, Genting Group Bhd)
i was really really really looking forward to this particular session, but it was quite disappointing overall. the Professor’s presentation was basically slide after slide of regional macroeconomic data and how Malaysia is doing in comparison; while quite informative, it was really nothing new. it got better when he outlined issues that Malaysia has to overcome in order to prosper economically, such as decreasing private consumption, jobless growth, brain drain, intraethnic income disparity, dan lain lain lagi. he touched a little on how these issues can be resolved, and i wished there had been more of that than the graphs and statistics!! Justin Leong from Genting is damn young and a damn good speaker who commands your attention right away, but there wasnt much to be gleaned from his speech. actually i dont really remember what he talked about, but he did speak about economic crises and also about the recent flourishing of msian economy. it was good rhetoric, but once again i wish there had been more substance and opinion rather than a fact-based speech. the Q&A for this session had to be cut short drastically, because Mr Navy from earlier spoke over his alloted time. only 2 questions could be asked :( which was a shame because this was such a good topic.
Corporate Governance & Transparency in Malaysia
Speakers : YM Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim (Former Prez Transparency Msia)
Dato Zarinah Anwar (Chairman of Securities Commission)
i really liked this session! they were both so passionate about their cause against corruption, and their zeal was contagious. not only were they so aware of what problems we face in regards to transparency and corporate governance, they also knew how what should be done about it. and they shared this with us. it was a very inspirational session overall. such likeable speakers :)
Corporate Challenges for the Young and Bright
Speakers : Dato Johan Raslan (Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers Msia)
Dato Tony Fernandes (Group CEO of Air Asia Bhd)
Dato Azman Mokhtar (CEO and MD of Khazanah Nasional)
haha i think this was everyone’s favourite session. Johan Raslan (sigh, so handsome! why are all the Raslan brothers so hot!) gave a very good speech that was very relevant to the audience. he expounded on What’s Hot and What’s Not in the corporate world, basically what to chase after and what to avoid. then gave us a 5-point checklist on how to succeed in the new era. sigh i am believing anything he tells me, really. Tony Fernandes was up next, and like Johan Raslan, he engaged everyone in the hall from the moment he stepped up to the mic. he mostly told his famous story of how Air Asia started and how They Did It, with the underlying message that we should all come home after our studies to make this country better. well you know how this reverse-brain-drain message can sometimes get very plasticky? with Tony Fernandes it was not like that at all. it was in fact very impelling and sincere, and it was very nice to hear the story of the Little Guy who went against the Big Guy and came out on top. fills one with so much hope and determination :) i think at the end of his speech, everyone wanted to start an airline. Azman Mokhtar was up next, and he gave a short and frank piece about how we should come back to serve the country, but it is important to pick the right time and be optimal in applying ourselves. very very good advice, i thought, and so honest too.
Malaysia’s Foreign Policy
Speaker : Dato Seri Jawhar Hassan (Chairman of ISIS)
this guy was very wise and knowledgeble, but unfortunately he has no rhetoric, so it turned out to be quite a slow session. he led us through a little history lesson of Malaysia and how we’ve dealt with external forces in the past - general stuff you should already know. then he spoke about challenges in putting ourselves forward, cohesive action, the muslim community and all that. the irritating thing about this session was that you could tell this guy had such a huge brain to pick and that he knew so much, but he just couldnt get his points across well. it was only during the Q&A that he did himself any justice. his answers were damn good and were clearly the mark of a learned man.
South Johor Economic Region
Speaker : YAB Dato Haji Abdul Ghani (Menteri Besar of Johor)
i was actually looking forward to this talk, because i have so many questions when it comes to the IDR. unfortunately it was a really bad session. a good portion of it was dedicated to telling us why the IDR is without a doubt an excellent government project. aiyah a bit lazy to listen lah, so we all skipped out on this one and went for dinner. i dont actually know if it got better, but i do know that this guy cant speak.
Environmental Governance in Malaysia
Speaker : Karam Singh Walia (TV3 Environmentalist)
i missed this one cos i left early. biiiiiig mistake. apparently it was one of the best talks of the entire summit. GRR.
Challenges & Prospects in National Building
Speaker : DYTM Dr Raja Nazrin Shah (Raja Muda of Perak)
oooh the crown prince of perak came to speak to us! this guy’s like an Oxford and Harvard graduate. i dont remember much of his speech, but i remember thinking that he had good content despite bland execution. he told us that we should look to Tun Dr Ismail as a role model. haha damn cool. he also said, ‘get a copy of the Federal Constitution if you havent already!’. then he told us what to do to contribute to national building, but i dont remember what he said. and unfortunately there was no Q&A for this session, for obvious reasons. aiyah okay lah nevermind.
Unity in Diversity - Myth or Reality?
Speakers : Prof Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim (Historian, Universiti Malaya)
Datuk Rafiah Salim (Vice Chancellor, Universiti Malaya)
this was a strange session that fell short of addressing the issue at hand. Rafiah Salim went first; she gave an unmemorable speech that was really eclipsed by the horrific manner in which she handled her Q&A session. how typical of someone from a local university to deny the fact that our universities do not provide a platform for students to speak up and be heard. someone asked her if she thought students produced by local unis were going through a system where they are not taught to voice their concerns and opinions, and she replied with ‘there is no such thing!’. umm yah right lah. anyway she got booed and table-pounded when she said that, the first and only of such an occurence in this summit. and then she went like, ‘har see see behaviour like this is why you students will never be heard! all you want to do is protest! do you think protesting will get people to listen to you?”. another horrific thing she said was how there should be only one education system in this country and made uniform to all. ya allah thank god that is not the reality. Prof Khoo’s speech was more graceful and enlightening; the reach of his knowledge is so vast it’s almost scary. he cleared some misassumptions about racial disharmony in malaysian history, and spoke a little on colonialism and how it was our downfall, but ultimately it was a rather lacklustre speech. to me lah, at least. lots of people liked his speech, but i had hoped for something more powerful.
Higher Education
Speaker : Dato Mustapha Mohamed (Minister of Higher Education)
nothing too great about this speech. the best part of the session was the Q&A do, and that was when Dato Mustapha really flexed his intelligent muscles. he was asked a lot about the state of local universities and how are we supposed to level with other international institutions, and also about the competitiveness of locally-produced students, and i must say that he fielded the questions rather well.
National Economic Policy - is it still relevant?
Speaker : Prof Dato Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin (Prof of Anthropology, UKM)
haha and here comes the session on NEP, the #2 Isu Sensitif Yang Tidak Harus Dibangkitkan! the Prof referenced the Constitution a lot in his speech, and pointed out how unfair the ‘peculiarities’ were when it comes to special rights of the majority in return for ’special rights’ of the minority ie citizenship. he was very frank most of the time, and made many good points, but he hedged as well in giving direct answers when asked for his opinion. tried to be PC lah i suppose which is understandable. maklumlah, we were discussing isu-isu sensitif.
Education in Malaysia
Speaker : Tan Sri Wan Zahid Nordin (Former Director-General of Education)
this dude had a speech with damn a lot of content, and quite good one at that. he basically gave many recommendations toward the improvement of education in our country, in the form of ‘pillars’, among which were Autonomy Pillar, Pedagogical Pillar and R&D Pillar. very substantial speech with extremely good recommendations which i hope to see put into effect for the sake of our students. Q&A session was alright although he didnt answer the questions pertaining to the UCA.
——————-
and that was the end of our 2 day long summit. during the summit, we were also split up into about 10 groups to discuss certain issues such as democracy, education, environment etc. i got media in malaysia, which i was glad to be put in. at the end of the 2 days, each group had to come up with 5 declarations that would be compiled and then forwarded to the government. it was very interesting listening to each group’s 5 declarations. twas one of those Proud To Be Malaysian moments.
okay this post very long. but i will still put up 2 pictures of Andrew and Wai Kin sleeping during the summit :
August 7th, 2007
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