cookie-cutter comments

We’ve got to observe the situation now very carefully.

Mr Huicheh’s got 2 articles from the BBC and China Daily over at his website, link over here. The two articles mentioned are as follows:-

The BBC
China Daily

I think we’ve got to keep the pressure on, and LKS and Ms Teresa Kok are maintaining it; let’s hope they don’t stop halfway. What I’m more concerned about is how all of this can be swept up in a storm of protests that focus on racial divides; God knows how easy it is for such an incident to fall into petty bickering about race and ethicity. It’s about fighting for justice and maintaining a position based solely on that criterion: justice.

Already, there are murmurs about ethnic dominance in the police force. Just today, I had a discussion with an Indian colleague, and he was incensed by the whole event. Not because the policewoman was Malay, but because police abuse is rampant in Malaysia today. He related an incident where one of his friends was an Indian policeman who would stop by Chinese restaurants and demand free beer/stout. This is just another case of abuse, and should clue us in to the obvious defects of the police force in general.

Head over to carboncopy’s post for some analysis. I’ve tried looking for the Criminal Procedures Act in my office and can’t find it (I’m bloody shocked). Will have to get my hands on it, though. Of course, powers are confered on the Police via Act 593 by the Executive Branch, but I’d like to examine the actual relationship between the Executive and the Police Force, if such a relationship is defined in the Act.

You get caught in the same haze. It’s so hollywood-movie, so very normal. I’ve been here before, and it seems these days I walk in circles. No pretensions of a superficial Return with a capital ‘R’, surely. Just jaundiced mummery reaching for some certainty in the everyday.

Something luthien said struck me as being completely true: “this is what this job can do to you. all your perspectives turn hayewire. but you know what the worst consequence of this job? overt self-importance. you think you’re invincible (quite honestly, you’re quite invincible to a certain extent), you think you rule.”

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What I dislike most is when bloggers get authoritarian with their posts. No matter, they have their own good reasons, I suppose, especially when you consider the larger contexts in which they operate. Jeff Ooi’s recent post about the use of technology over here(post1) sounds like an apologia of his previous post about bare-naked Chinese women in lockups, which you can find here (post2). In any case, it is a poorly thought-out defense, if at all. He notes that readers have not made the connection between the use of technology and empowering citizens to bring the government to task in his post about said naked lady.

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It’s late and my attempts at purging what refuse I had digested this evening hasn’t developed into a meaningful report. It’s all in pieces and I can’t make sense of it. That’s not a good thing, sir. Not making sense of madness is ok, but really, being the cause of that madness is quite another. I’m drifting, I don’t even know what I’m saying.

I had the shelling of my life this morning. It brought me back to my senses, and I wanted to throw punches. Throw punches. The last vestiges of decency cast aside for one, pleasurable smackdown. I was on the verge today, with him. But I took it out on a 3.30pm appointment instead. He sat down and I sat down and I dispensed with small talk.

I told him: “You’re over-charging”.

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The net’s abuzz with recent news of mms clips finding their way on the internet, clearly showing the abuse of a Chinese woman thought to be a Chinese national. The vid clip can be found on Malaysiakini’s website here. It shows the viewer the naked back of a Chinese woman commanded to perform “ear squats” like a kindergarten kid. From the viewpoint of that clip, it appears that the person giving the orders is a woman in dark blue uniform, though not specifically identifiable as a policewoman.

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With respect to political alternatives and manifestos, a copy of the same has been posted on the Keadilan website with reference to our discussion yesterday over here. The response from PKR is fantastic, and goes that much further to educating interested netizens about alternatives available to us.

Check it out and mull over the proposals. They are as concrete as is reasonable, with the promise of newer policy directions on the way.

I was quite surprised about what the PM said. The link to the Bernama article is here. PM Abdullah believes that “development policies like the New Economic Policy (NEP) remain relevant as long as the economic disparity between races exist in the country.” Now, this is all well and good, I suppose. A general statement like that could mean a variety of things, with nothing specific really said. A good opening, I’m sure. And then he says this:

He said the income gap between Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras remains wide where for every Ringgit earned by a Bumiputera, a non-Bumiputera earns RM1.80.

“The implementation of NEP cannot be seen as a racial issue,” he said in his written reply at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here, Wednesday.

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And the grand answer to that is: “I don’t know”. This afternoon while juggling several assignments, I began wondering about this while reminiscing about some heated arguments I’ve had with Singaporeans over the usefulness of an opposition party in parliament: what really is the use of an opposition party? You know the host of answers to these, which basically boil down to one or more of the following:-

1. As a check and balance to Big Brother
2. To present an alternative solution to issues
3. To represent minority interests (huh.. if at all)
4. To present a veneer of the democratic process…

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Affection’s a funny thing. She got the news yesterday and I was already planning to be home late. A quick phonecall and I was marvelling how close people are with handphones. I sound like a caveman, sure, but you learn to appreciate the really important things when the need and anxiety’s great. So she’ll go under the “ray gun” device thing for five weeks, then spend another five years popping an inexpensive pill to prevent mutations. Mutations. Isn’t that what happens? I wouldn’t know.

For a moment there I felt the urge to expound on enviromental problems and such, but realized I didn’t have the stomach to do it: you get enough of a dose watching crazy anime like Gilgamesh and Akira and such. I’ve never really understood this Japanese obsession with broadcasting these public service messages.

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It was close to 4.00pm, hot and my air-conditioning wasn’t working. I didn’t care, I was tripping on an adrenalin high. I was on my “circuit”, and I was weaving about with my beat-up car.

I was oblivious till I saw her in my rearview mirror. Black Toyota Vios, black suit, Chinese: an Oriental Psylocke with wisps of hair trailing and waving like black flags in high wind, only in slow motion. A frown, piercing eyes and pert lips pursed in irritation, I thought. The lights were still red, and the satria I was trailing threw out a few revs in anticipation.

A quick glance in my rearviews, and I saw her don her shades. It was a trick of slow-motion, maybe a trick of the sun making its way to its own grave: she was a picture of calm as the shades went on. An explosive, orgasmic being getting primed for some action.

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I can’t say I’m impressed with the hottestblogger deal, but hey, those girls are cute. I can’t deny that, and I can’t deny the fact that I wouldn’t have found such ravishing beauties on the internet if it wasn’t for his site. So, yes: I’ve patronized Kahsoon’s blog. Let’s get this particular hypocrisy out of the way first.

Then consider the fact that Kahsoon’s gone all out to sue Wingz, after having legal action threatened against his posting of lilacwine’s photos himself, and then consider the ensuing fireworks. Kahsoon’s been a pest for quite some time now, pinging PPS with abandon.

(I noticed just now how I’ve been using the phrase “with abandon” quite a bit lately. Some freudian, psychobabble thing or am I that limited? Ooh.. incriminating questions.)

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PM Abdullah has called on Malaysians to learn from Dr Azahari’s example and eschew violence, over here. He says, among other things:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in urging Malaysians to refrain from resorting to violence, said Azahari was a good lecturer who had chosen the path of self-destruction.

The path of self-destruction. Isn’t that tautological? Because if you’re a suicide bomber you will, by definition, blow yourself up. What self-destruction is he talking about? And these suicide bombers desire their own self-destruction, they want to go up in flames and little pieces for the greater glory of whatever brand of pot they’re on at the given time. It isn’t going to help us very much if we’re told not to be suicide bombers, is it?

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They hate each other and we popcorn-consuming, bedazzled bystanders are, get this, the shitnitz. My dear friends and non-friends, please allow me this moment to regress momentarily to my childhood: “Boo-fucking-hoo, people”. Exchanging barbs: not so bizarre, but between friends, it’s just enough material to get the blood going, ya know what I’m saying? Why pay Astro to watch some lame-assed television show about cute blondes saving the world from vampires, eh, when you have your own set of vampires here in “blog-o-blah-land”! It’s fun for the family, people, and we should watch with rapt attention!

Not only are innocent bystanders given the shaft, it appears we should write long, boring socio-political commentary for it, since quite a bit of ire is reserved for such worthies, eh? Wah, where should start? Let’s see:

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We have had a rare treat over the past few days. We’ve been able to sit back and watch mobs tear apart Dawn Yang for having gone under the knife. I’ve recently wondered if these inquisitive assholes have a right to know everything about her. For all those who’d love to mourn Princess Diana publicly, well, let’s just remember she got killed while speeding away from papparazi. Maybe celebrities deserve papparazi because, after all, people think they deserve to know.

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So how do you explain the banners UM put up in the recent days? I was reading theSun weekend today, discussing findings over at educationmalaysia. I choked on my breakfast when I read the write up, then stared incredulously at the findings, not because of the lack of accuracy, but rather for the sheer coincidence of the findings. That Chinese and Indian students were seen as foreigners is just too funny to swallow.

But the glorious reaction from UM is what caught my attention; 2 full entries with photos on the Screenshots site and I wondered what the fuss was about. Then I saw the banners and I was even more amazed: are we in the habit of celebrating failure? Because that’s how it looks to me; we’ve ‘progressed’ from institutionalizing mediocrity to, now, openly celebrating it. Is there a certain twisted logic to this? Who would UM’s current rankings impress? My dearly departed grandmother?

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