Posts filed under 'Rants'
i recently met someone who said that bloggers are a difficult bunch to deal with. his exact words were, “bloggers these days are so damn demanding. they think just because they have a couple of hundred hits a day, everyone has to treat them like royalty or like some celebrity.”
and you know, it’s so damn true.
for the information of those who werent aware of this, i was working with Nuffnang for some time a couple of months back. so i got to see firsthand all that diva attitude some of our so-called ‘celebrity’ (and some not-so-celebrity) bloggers are capable of when it comes to making money from their blog. “where’s my ad???” is the number one question we field. and then giving them ads is not enough wan you know, must give them two stacked ads so that they can make double the amount per week. if not, they will complain and complain and complain till the cows come home.
first, there is the ‘celebrity’ blogger (i use this term with much pain) who gets a lot of traffic and whines about not getting ads. then, there is the blogger who gets less than 20 hits a day and also whines about not getting ads.
let’s talk about the greedy celebrity blogger first. granted, we dont have that many celeb bloggers, and luckily for us only very VERY few of them are divas. but these divas still exist. and to be honest sometimes i dont know why they are celebrity bloggers. they write like crap - quality that does not warrant the kind of ego they have - ie absolutely no substance or clarity in their writing, coupled with horrendous grammar and spelling. broken english everywhere, sometimes cant even spell the product name right. yet they keep talking about and marketing themselves as if they’re some kind of revolutionary new wave of media, capable of propelling your business to greater heights just with a link or two on their oh-so-famous blog. well, if you wanna have so HUGE an ego, at least have some goods to bring to the table besides rotten writing and an over-dependence on random pictures you ripped off the internet.
i just cant stand it when so-called celebrity bloggers get all smug about their supposedly more-popular-than-thou status, thinking they are better than all the ‘little bloggers’ out there who by the way WRITE MUCH BETTER THAN THEM ANYWAY -___- it’s like there is this huge cloud above their head that says, ‘i may have lousy english and writing skills but that’s okay because i’m a CELEBRITY BLOGGER, and i can hence tell YOU off for having bad english because YOU’RE not a celebrity blogger like ME.’ true story, people, true story. seriously lah there is nothing wrong with a blogger having bad english; in my opinion you dont need to have better language skills than everyone else to write a really good blog.. but i think it’s totally hypocritical, RUDE and delusional if someone with bad english thinks they can go around telling people how bad their english is simply because they are some sort of ‘celebrity blogger’. the lack of humility pisses me off so much. honestly, it does not the fuck matter that you have a gazillion hits a day and make a couple of thousand dollars from your blog if you are by nature a disgusting, greedy person with too big an ego and absolutely no integrity whatsoever.
these bloggers have made so much profit from Nuffnang, but when asked to go on a revenue share for certain projects, REFUSE TO DO SO. i am just so in awe as to how anyone can be so terribly ungrateful. is 30% so much to give up? would you even have that other 70% if it were not for Nuffnang? and to add to that, they have the nerve to keep demanding higher pay per advertorial even if it means Nuffnang makes less. like i said - disgusting, greedy and ungrateful.
and it’s not like these bloggers are the next in line for Pulitzers or something. these are blogs that are littered with random glowing reviews about lousy food and products, but are written anyway in the hopes of catching the eye of the involved businesses. these are blogs that are filled with advertorial after advertorial with no substance in between. and it’s become all about being famous and making money and getting free food. what’s the point in having a blog like that? what’s the point in being so proud of a commercial blog that hides behind a pseudo-personal front? have you no shame that you are so smug about being the face of the Malaysian blogosphere and yet maintain a blog that is just out to make a quick buck?
the perfect example of nice and down-to-earth celebrity bloggers are Kenny Sia and Suanie. despite his monster-sized daily traffic that could populate a small country, Kenny has got to be one of the most humble and approachable celebrity bloggers i have ever met. if anyone has a right to be a diva blogger, it is him, but he simply doesnt pull that shit. in fact, he was one of the few people who urged Nuffnang to start doing revenue share because he felt Nuffnang deserved it :) Suanie is a blogging celebrity in her own right, but so down-to-earth about her status and influence, and unpretentious in her blogging. if you want a semblance of what the old pre-traffic obsession blogosphere used to be like, Suanie’s blog is the best place to find it.
sigh. i have absolutely no respect for so-called celebrity bloggers who like to throw their weight around. if you have a high readership, put it to good use instead of taking advantage of each hit to make money for yourself. get your brain working and churn out some meaningful writing like the rest of the other ‘little bloggers’ that you look down upon so. if you cant do that, then stop touting yourself as “XYZ the blogger” and just be a regular XYZ like the rest of us. how about that. how about some humility and some grace while you’re at it.
and it’s not just celebrity bloggers who can be greedy and ungrateful. when i was working with Nuffnang, i received scores of emails a day from bloggers who have like 10 hits a day or something, threatening to leave the network if they didnt get anymore ads. or simply going “eh why i so long no ad ah??” how about it’s because you dont even meet the freaking traffic requirement, you MORON. and even if you have what, 21 hits a day, stop complaining about the cents you’re making compared to the dollars you think you deserve; because without Nuffnang, that space on your sidebar is NOTHING. you wouldnt be making ANY cents if Nuffnang wasn’t out there touting your blog for you to advertisers. dont forget that you make as much money as your traffic gets you; so if your traffic is next to nothing, know that you are in no place to demand more money.
so you think your sidebar space is worth more than the amount you’re getting? quit gabbing and remove the unit lah then. we’d rather give the money to other bloggers who have the same amount of traffic that you do, but actually appreciate the work that we do for them. pulling power goes to the nice or the influential. so what happens if you’re neither? fuck off then, and take your precious sidebar space with you.
what angers me the most is blogs that sport the classic url of makemoneywithblogging.blogspot.com or something; set up SOLELY to make money from blog advertising, are full of weird Click Me banners and little adsense thingies, have random lyrics and other copy+paste shit, or sometimes even nothing at all… and then they can write us emails asking us WHY THEY HAVE NO ADS. hello????? your blog is not even a blog!!!!!!!!!
i’m just lamenting the fact that Nuffnang, who has been doing so much for the blogosphere, is not getting the gratitude that they deserve, from big bloggers and small bloggers alike. dont take all that money in your Earnings panel for granted - us folks in the office have to work long and hard to deliver that kinda money to you. our bosses have sleepless nights and dont even declare themselves a salary each month just so they can do this one thing for the blogging community. and yet, what do you as a blogger do? refuse revenue share. demand more ads. email boss to ask him to ‘check’ why you have no ads. pester about the status of your cheques. please lah. it’s time some gratitude is shown.
and i’m also lamenting the degenerating state of personal blogging. what happened to the days where blogging was all about getting your point across and sharing opinions and writing about your day-to-day experiences? now it’s become all about updating every 2-3 days so that your readers dont go away, it’s become all about stupid little gimmicks to keep your traffic up, it’s become a science and a business rather than the art and hobby it used to be.
haih. actually i didnt mean to sound so angry. i totally got carried away, didnt i? but i just cant help ittttt i’ve got so much pent up ANGST!!
one of these days, i’m going to give 5 links of 5 malaysian blogs that i think have good, sincere and heartfelt writing. none of that whiny give-me-ads commercial stuff. i think it’s about time we called some attention to the blogs that really deserve it. so if you have any hidden treasure blogs that you love to read, do drop a comment here and we can all partake in the good stuff :)
November 23rd, 2007
i was latelatelate as usual this morning, and while rushing into the car, i hit my head rather painfully against the doorframe part thingy of the car. the result was a huge bump on my forehead that just wouldn’t go down (thank you, fringe) and a wake-up call, in more ways than one. things just seem a lot clearer sometimes after you’ve been given a big smack in the face. or in this case, on the forehead.
i’m growing up. it’s a strange thing to realize about yourself, but it’s true. things, and people, look different to me now than they looked a couple of weeks back. i’ve lost my appetite for lollipops. and somewhere along the line i also lost myself. there are days when amidst all the period cramps and coffee table magazines, i wonder to myself where my identity went. who is this person holding this book and walking and talking on autopilot? i mean yeah sure people change.. but there’s always a core of themselves that they maintain. but i don’t know if i ever knew that core. i think once upon a time, i did. but it’s probably lost somewhere in all those yellowing high school yearbook pictures.
oh haha, i was such a character back in high school, which of course was not very long ago. lemme tell you what i was like. being in the top class of the form has its expectations, and in the words of West (Heroes reference, is Season 2 boring or what) - when in the top class, you’re supposed to be a robot, not an alien. but i was an alien. robotness just wasnt in my blood. which explains why i was really mad when Claire didnt do that backtuck off the tower. hands up how many people felt this rumbling disappointment in their stomach when she turned around and said, ‘you’re right, cant do it’ like a really bad imitation robot. cmon girl let that alien in you out! but i am digressing.
so yeah i’ve been in the top class all my life. but like everywhere else, there’s always a certain character type that people expect you to be when you are lumped in a stereotypical category, and if you dont fit that prototype, sometimes it confuses people. my classmates were all really bookish and tight-laced people who were always eager to please, and sometimes this robotness scared the hell out of me. i remember how i had this really huge screamfest with one of my teachers, and every single one of my classmates were looking down at their tables the entire time. i mean, no one even dared to look up and watch, let alone say something on my behalf. for goodness sakes lah, what’s so scary, she’s just a teacher with a short fuse. anyway i ended up in tears in the bathroom; that sense of total alienation was just looming all over me and it pissed me off that i could be affected by something so little.
if there is anything that taught me the pains of conformity, it was being in that class for years and years on end. being a top class student, you were expected to be really goody two shoes and stuff. there was them, and then there was me, in my skirt cropped 2 inches too short and only turning up in school once or twice a week or something. i could have been like them, yknow, apologizing profusely for the littlest mistake or kissing Cikgu ass every lunch break, and it would have made my high school life so much more pleasant, but i just couldnt. i liked my skirt even though it got me a lot of flak from the more conservative teachers. i liked not being in school because school didnt make me happy. i liked sleeping in class during the boring lessons. i just did. i mean, i totally understand why teachers and some of my more super uptight classmates thought i was being disrespectful, but i was really just being an individual. i was never rude or anything, everyone can tell you i have the biggest smiles when talking to people, and i’m always very warm and friendly .. but geez.
i never understood it. the thing that got me really angry was when i wanted to run for student council president, and i thought i would have done a great job at it. apparently a few of my classmates didnt think so, and they voiced this out to the pihak-pihak berkenaan, and so my nomination was withdrawn just on account of that. yah i dont get it either. what do these people have against someone who is not like them? i dont judge you despite the fact that you are a boring kiasu shoe-polishing twerp robot; why should you judge me for having some colour and knowing how to speak my mind?
i remember how teachers used to tell me in Form 3 that i would probably be the one person in my class who wouldn’t do very well in PMR. yeah they would always say this to my face. i ended up getting straight A’s and a few of their apple-bringing pets didn’t. they said the same thing to me in Form 5, i would probably fail this or that if i kept up my ‘indiscipline’, but look who came up top student for SPM. look who got 12 A’s. suddenly there were all these warm smiles and claps on my back, and murmurs of well done, we knew you could do it. yeah right. i remember every single word of discouragement you gave me through all the years, encik-encik dan puan-puan sekalian.
aiyah i dont actually know how this post turned into such a rant. all i wanted to say was that back in high school, i really knew who i was and i would never compromise my identity, despite all this pressure to conform to the goody top-class mould. i was the butt of all absentee jokes, a lot of teachers would have loved to see some proper punishment slapped on me, and it was hard to relate to many of my classmates, but i really stuck to who i was and i was darn proud of it. darn proud of the fact that i was an alien, and not a mindless robot.
but these days… i dont know. i’m getting a lot of robot vibes from myself. help.
happy days from school :
October 24th, 2007
once again, i am very angry.
over the past few weeks, i’ve been watching this judiciary debacle very quietly. for those not in the know of this issue, and i am sad to have discovered that this number is far greater than i would care for it to be, which is also one reason that spurred this post in the first place, here is a brief summary of the issue before i continue :
made public via Malaysiakini last month, was a 8-minute video clip that is proof of the corruption that exists in our judiciary system. taken in 2002 when Mahathir was still PM, the video clip showed a senior lawyer VK Lingam having a phone conversation with an unidentified person, strongly believed to be Datuk Ahmad Fairuz, who was at that time the Chief Judge of Malaya (CJM), the 3rd highest post in the judiciary.
the situation was that the Chief Justice (CJ) of that time, aka the top guy, the judiciary No.1, the main man who has the post everyone else covets, was stepping down as CJ soon. but before his tenure was to officially end, it seems he was hard at work making sure his ‘men’ would secure the top judiciary positions after he left.
Ahmad Fairuz (judiciary’s No.3 guy, aka person allegedly on the other end of the phone conversation in the video clip) is not part of the CJ’s camp, and would probably NOT be promoted to No.2 or No.1 unless something was done. obviously, he would like to be No.1, right? and so ’something’ must be done.
the Chief Justice is appointed by the country’s Agong upon advice from the Prime Minister, and so the Prime Minister is the person you want on your side if hypothetically speaking you would like to become the Chief Justice of Malaysia. but of course the PM is not accessible to all and sundry, so when you wanna get to him, you get to his good friends first. the PM’s good friends in this case and as implicated in the video, are none other than Tan Sri Vincent Tan (tycoon and owner of Berjaya Group) and Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan (current Tourism Minister).
enter VK Lingam, well-connected and ‘correct’ lawyer as he is, who offers to help Ahmad Fairuz obtain the CJ post. he claims to have already pursued - and will continue to pursue - the assistance of Vincent Tan and Tengku Adnan in persuading Mahathir to appoint Ahmad Fairuz as the next Chief Justice of Malaysia. can lah friend, can lah can lah, i help you because you suffer so much already. ya ya correct correct i help you.
long story short : Ahmad Fairuz -> VK Lingam -> Vincent Tan & Tengku Adnan -> Mahathir
remember that this video was secretly filmed in 2002. one year later in 2003, Ahmad Fairuz was appointed Chief Justice of Malaysia. end of summary of issue.
so yes, our judiciary is helmed by someone appointed not by means of meritocracy or integrity, but by means of corruption. it can be deduced that if corruption can exist at such an elevated position in the judiciary hierarchy, it can exist at all lower levels of the judiciary too.
also, if the appointment of someone this CRUCIAL and INSTRUMENTAL to the country can be manipulated so simply, just so long as you know the right people, then think about all the people in the higher levels of your government. the people in the higher levels of your police force. your cabinet. your ministers. does it not disgust you to know that the people who run your country are people appointed because they are cronies of the government, because they are corrupt, because they know who to bribe and pull strings with, and not because they are the best people for the job?
does it not make you sick to the stomach to think that the people in your country’s judiciary - the people who decide who is wrong and who is right, the people who mete out punishment and sentences, the people who have the power to release alleged criminals, the people who are supposed to uphold JUSTICE in the name of 27 million Malaysians - may be crooks?
does it not make you wonder about recent court cases of government vs anyone else, and all the verdicts that have been passed? do you not think of the Altantuya case which has been twisted beyond recognition (dont forget who was implicated in the first place) and is now almost forgotten? do you not think of Lina Joy?
all of the above makes me angry. it makes me angry to know that such injustice can happen in ironically what is supposed to be the body of justice in the country. and you know what else makes me angry? the UTTER AND COMPLETE INEPTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN DEALING WITH THIS ISSUE.
the response of the government thus far has been this : “shock. how can our government’s judiciary be corrupt. no such thing because we are not corrupt. wait, the rakyat are not happy and demand that this incident be investigated? okay, but first we dont believe that this video is real. it could be fake. it could be people trying to set up Ahmad Fairuz cos they dont like him. it could be, gasp, opposition tactics to erode belief in the government!!! so yes we understand that this could be a serious issue, but before we investigate Lingam, Ahmad Fairuz or anyone else implicated in the video, let us first determine the authenticity of the video. let us set up a 3 man panel that will decide what to do. only when this video is deemed ‘authentic’ by the panel, then will we make the next step.”
if you have been following the news, you will know that this 3 man panel that was set up to probe this issue is essentially DOING NOTHING. Lingam cant be reached for comment and the panel is not even following up. Ahmad Fairuz has denied any involvement in this and the panel has decided to allow him to do that. basically this panel has been given the most narrow terms of reference, and what they’re doing is sitting back and saying, okay we cannot do anything unless the person who took this video owns up.
what. the hell. is that.
why is there a need for the videotaker to own up, when the proof in video form, is right there for the entire country to see? it is SO CLEAR that the people to be investigated are the people IMPLICATED, not the one who exposed this issue. say if a person kidnaps a child in a mall, and there is video footage of him doing so, you bloody arrest the kidnapper lah right? you dont get to say, ‘oh, the kidnapper is a friend of mine, so i kinda wanna determine the authenticity of the footage before we make any drastic decisions, ok? btw i’m gonna arrest the shopkeeper because i think it was really irresponsible of him to accuse someone of kidnapping! nvm that he has video proof! the proof may not even be authentic!’
i mean, what for crying out loud, is ‘authenticity’ of video footage anyway? what exactly would make this panel sit up and say, okay yes this video is authentic, we can now proceed to the next stage of investigation? seriously, would having a name and face to the videotaker prove anything? i am willing to bet that if someone really did own up to taking the video, they would come up with a million reasons to say why this person could have faked the entire video for anti-government, anti-patriotic, disharmony-inciting reasons.
see this is how messed up the system is. you get stuck at Stage 1 because of all this red tape, because the government doesnt really WANT anything to be achieved, but then they blame it on lack of evidence and authenticity. so in the end, what gets settled? absolutely jack shit! as i write this, it’s Hari Raya, and the whole of Malaysia will be happily feasting on raya cookies and beef rendang for a whole week. all the newspapers will be covering happy clappy open houses instead of keeping the public focused on what really matters. we have a freaking angkasawan on some high tech space trip (when he is really but a ‘flight participant’ on this journey), and everyone is happy because Malaysia is making history by sending the first ever Malaysian up in space! yay got a few days Raya holiday, i think i’m going to go to Pangkor Laut! oh Government so nice say dont have petrol price or toll increase for the whole of next year! huh what judiciary incident? forgot already lor!
i am SO MAD that this is allowed to happen. all this delaying and stalling tactics, so that people will forget what is going on, so that the rakyat’s zeal to see a conclusion achieved will die down, and in the end the corrupt judiciary and government get to save face and of course win the next election.
our favourite minister from the PM’s department Nazri Aziz was recently interviewed on this issue. oh my god the GEMS that came from this text!
when asked on what the government will do to protect the identity of the videotaker, and under what Act will this protection be granted, he said “The government can do anything. (The protection is) actually in various Acts, the government can provide protection. It doesn’t have to be in any other Act.”. just listen to that arrogance, just listen. it completely befuddles me as to why this arrogant, lazy, corrupt government is given power election after election. yea if you can do anything, why not listen to what your people are demanding of you, and do a proper investigation into this matter rather than something so half-assed and plebeian! you all can do anything wat. why not subject Ahmad Fairuz and VK Lingam to the law and make them cough up real answers? if you can simply detain people under the OSA and ISA and Sedition Act, then surely you can do something as small as this, oh powerful Barisan Nasional!
when asked on whether the government is serious about this issue, he said, “Of course, we are serious. We have to settle this problem first. If it turns out that the video clip is not authentic, there is no case at all. What is there to talk about?”. ahh see. that is all they are setting out to do! not to prove the ‘authenticity’ of this video as good law enforcers and justice keepers would, but to disprove it so that they can save face and cover up exposed mistakes. no case, indeed! how dare he have the nerve to say that! being so saturated in politics, and being in the PM’s department, he of all people would be the most privy to any corruption going on in the upper echelons of our country. how dare he sit there and have the cheek to deny that there is something so very wrong going on!!! *furious
when asked on how the panel is to proceed when the videotaker is not coming forward, he said “You have to ask them, I don’t know.”. yes obviously even the freaking panel does not know.
oh and then and then and thennnnnnn, he said this : “I can’t interfere, I am the executive.”. HAHAHAHA YA RIGHT as if the executive EVER had a problem with withholding interference in the 50 years leading up to this very day!!!!!! suddenly when you’re accountable for something so huge, you have a RIGHT to say that you CANNOT interfere??? what is this???
and this is my favourite part. the interviewer made a comment that if action is not taken by the government soon, then this issue would be forgotten by Malaysians. and Nazri Aziz said, “Who’s fault is that? It’s not the government’s - the fault is on Malaysians.”
so this is me playing my part as a good Malaysian. i sat here for an hour blogging one whole long angry post about this, so that this issue will not be forgotten by whatever few people i can reach out to. you know how when it comes to issues like this, people always say, there’s nothing you can do? WRONG. i have NEVER believed that there is nothing we can do, especially when armed with something as powerful as intellect, opinions, the freedom of speech and the one thing the government of Malaysia feels threatened by - blogs.
all that tripe about how bloggers are irresponsible, about how bloggers cant be trusted, obviously they say that because they know that we blog all their dirty dark secrets. we blog about what our crappy newspapers cannot say for fear of having their licenses revoked. we blog the truth. and that is what scares them, that is what makes them feel insecure, because they are afraid of us knowing the truth, the truth like this corrupt judiciary case. so here i am blogging about this, making sure my opinions about this are heard and that this issue is refreshed in the midst of all this complacence.
is there really nothing we can do to save the judiciary? of course there is. just keep talking about it over our lunch hours. keep blogging about it. join that Save The Judiciary group on facebook if you must. sign petitions. just keep talking and talking and talking, because that will pressure the hell out of them and ultimately force them to take some form of swift action that will satisfy the masses. we should not fear them; they should fear us because we have the voting power to take them out of government. and the more people realize this, the more educated and aware we become, the better off we are as a country and one people. because then, they know that we are smart. they know that we expect things, and that is when they will deliver. do you seriously want to continue remaining stupid for a government who wants to keep you stupid so they can exploit the hell out of you?
please think about that.
Selamat Hari Raya everybody.
October 13th, 2007
i sat next to the one man who understood my moods best, my dad, and he had to all but open his mouth for 2 seconds and i was out the door in a flurry of blinked back tears and hurriedly grabbed things. i dont know what is it with me lately - it’s like every little thing upsets me. i broke a glass and started crying. i accidentally got UHU glue on my fingers and felt this burning fury, like i wanted to smear the glue all across the world. i looked at the toilet and thought, what a sad sad thing it must be to be a toilet. ass kisser. shit eater. puke canvas. jamban.
went to dinner alone and the expanse of the menu freaked me out. so many things. is it possible to have this many different pizza toppings? it was like a reverse claustrophobia, at the epicenter of which was me, and i could only see this ocean of happy yellow menu in all directions. i was treading panic and swallowing hopelessness. i ended up ordering 3 different pizzas and touching none; brought them back for my brothers who were lunchless this afternoon but now they are nowhere to be seen. clever boys. the house sucks. i would leave too if i were them.
met someone the other day. whether her speech was directed at me or not, the former of which was rarer, all the things she said angered me. it was total deja vu; i know the type - Machiavelli with doe eyes - and i cant stand it. i tried to like her, i really did, but why did she have to say things like that? red-under-green kind of things. it made me angry to have to sit there and listen to such armed talk, to have to be socially correct, to maintain poise, to be equally, if not more, red-under-green in return. to smile and to keep giving birth to conversation attempts, when i would have given anything to openly express my distaste for her and her breezy, conniving remarks, maybe even strangle her, without feeling bad or regretting it.
in the cab on the way home, i dug around my wallet for change. all i kept getting were singaporean coins. singaporean 20 cents, singaporean 50 cents, singaporean dollars. the worst and most exasperating of the lot were the singaporean 10 cents. where are all my malaysian coins? do i even have any? i should get some. and if so, today is the day i should do it. or so i keep saying. and saying. and saying, but never doing. or at least, doing it the right way, in the stuffing handfuls of lima puluh sen in my wallet kinda way.
right now, my hair smells like pepperoni. or milk. and like life, it is making me queasy. but unlike life, this queasiness can be washed away with a good bottle of Redken Smooth Down shampoo.
September 30th, 2007
you know how it is. we’ve all heard it many times : ya ya ya malaysia is going down the drain ya ya government stupid opposition stupid all also stupid ya ya cant wait to migrate ya ya when i graduate there’s no way i will come back to work here blablabla aiyah but then actually ah deep down inside ah i really love Malaysia wan. because we got damn good food and we invented Manglish! so, happy Merdeka everyone!!!!!!!!
what does it say about the state of Malaysia, that after 50 years of independence, the only good things about the country the average Malaysian can come up with are the food and a hodge podge language that our government isnt very proud of anyway? what does it say, that there’s not much else that contributes to the awesomeness of our country besides some kuih muih and the concept of 24-hour mamak stalls?
yeah all these party invitations. all these countdowns and flag-flying and Merdeka Jumps. it IS a 50 year anniversary after all; if you’ve not been patriotic ever in your life, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon and do it.
wave that flag as if there is nothing seriously wrong with our country.
paint the jalur gemilang on your cheeks as if you know and embrace how half of your fellow Malaysians are treated as second-class citizens by the other supposedly superior half who seem to have forgotten why they have their ’special rights’ in the first place.
blindly believe that there is fairness in this country, despite how politicans constantly play the Sacred Constitution card, but doggedly believe and announce to the world that Malaysia is an Islamic state, is not a secular state, and was never secular to even begin with.
knock back a celebratory beer for the sad state of our gagged and bound state-controlled mass media outlets who brainwash 27 million Malaysians each day. knock back another for the silencing of truth and the filtering of information by an insecure and cowardly government, who would rather the people be kept ignorant and in the dark, all in the name of PRESERVING PEACE.
make a toast to Malaysia while bearing in mind the likes of Lina Joy who was denied her fundamental freedom by our country’s judiciary, Makkal Osai the Tamil newspaper suspended for realpolitik reasons cleverly veiled by an all too convenient scapegoat, Revathi Masoosai who was seized by Islamic authorities and forced to eat beef (despite her Hindu beliefs) as part of a rehabilitation process to Islamize her.
write happy clappy Merdeka essays or paint Merdeka buntings for your school while paying tribute to this Fear we’ve been brought up to live with and accept; to scare-tactics brazenly and comfortably employed; to a lack of censure in government because the system cleverly insulates them from such 21st century democratic liberties; to draconian devices designed to effectively keep the ruling regime in power.
look up proudly at billboards displaying our 5 Prime Ministers’ faces, and blissfully ignore the fact that high crime levels still plague the streets of our country and corruption of all kinds is still rampant in all levels of our society, despite firm and loud-ringing promises during election season.
three claps to non transparency, another three to non existent check and balance!
clap yourself on the back for having elected to power politicians who froth at the mouth over a tongue-in-cheek Youtube video, citing disrespect of the national anthem and screaming for the videomaker’s blood when it is all really a strategized case of rallying and capitalizing on dormant racial tension. ignore the fact that these same politicians never applied the same standards of ‘incitement of racial hatred’ when certain parties called for the revoking of citizenship for those who opposed Malay rulers, as well as when a certain leader promised his race that he would soak his keris in Chinese blood.
valiantly declare that you’re proud of Malaysia and its 50 years of contemporary achievements; laud it for the substandard rote education it has given you, for the censored and biased version of your country’s history that you grew up thinking was the truth; for the Societies Act and the University & University College Act that slyly impose a glass ceiling on mental growth and freedom of expression among our students.
jump up and countdown the seconds to the dawn of a country where in time to come, the intelligent and capable will have flown the coop, bitter and eager to be appreciated elsewhere; where the ones who remain are complacent in their non-competitiveness and mediocrity, lazy in their elevated positions, obtuse and unchallenged in their ignorance.
and while you’re at it, why not hop on the Eye on Malaysia. invest some moolah in the PKFZ. take a drive down that dumb Smart Tunnel. eat a plate of nasi lemak, because you know, apparently it rights all the wrongs in our country.
as August 31st dawns upon us this Friday, i urge all of you to think carefully about why you’re celebrating this 50th anniversary, about why you love this country as much as you say you do, and about what Merdeka really means to you.
August 28th, 2007
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