Moving Clouds

Moving clouds on a sunny day
Set against a sky so blue
Each one going its own way
No idea where it's headed to

Contemplating on the ethereal image
I think of all the ties I couldn't salvage
All the complements left unsaid
As I let the line go dead

Dancing daisies in a field of green
Kind of your run of the mill meadow scene
Each one swaying so gaily
So naive and carefree completely

Remembering the innocent faces
Seeing them morph into hazard warnings
I yet have been to many places
but the grasp of the painful reality is dawning

Colors fade, and petals eventually fall
All good things surely come to an end
I thought I have seen it all
well, trouble indeed is a friend

As I lay among the tall grass
I am overcome by the beckoning silence
I thought I could have it all
but I was wrong, at second glance.

Current Obsession

Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No. 1 (Orchestrated by Debussy)

For some reason it's emotionally provocative, but I'm not certain what kind of emotion it evokes. Some people may find it boring, but I really love the crescendo.



Number 2, is not as good as the first and the third, but I'll include it anyway.



Number 3 is my favorite. There's a sense of getting lost in a magical forest, you're in wonder, but also, you feel overwhelmed by the loneliness. Haha. The crescendo is the best.

I first heard of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie was from a ring tone on my Nokia phone, I decided I loved the song but it didn't occur to me it was a classic. Then, earlier this year, one of the Taylor's College CPU lecturers previewed his photo book using one of the Gymnopedies as a soundtrack, you can check it out here.

I'm not really an orchestra/classical music buff to fully appreciate or properly interpret the works, but I listen it just for fun, and some really get to me. I can't read music notes for my life, nor can I identify notes from ear, but I love the musical arrangements, the choice of instruments that give the piece some "soul".

So, yeah, rainy day, with some coffee and homework, and Gymnopedie.

Passing Time

This is my 444th post :D

There are things that I love and loathe about summer. I love that I don't have to wear thick clothes, yet at the same time I also loathe when it gets too hot. I like the fact that I get a break from school, but I hate it when there are uneventful days where I end up sitting about spending away money on food, but one reason that I like summer for is that when people are going away, they leave their books behind and I pick it up and read :D

So, I read this book by Ahmad Von Denffer, 'Ulum al-Quran, or in English, Sciences of the Quran, it's available in pdf, here, at least part of it.

It's kind of one of those books where you go to Islamic seminars and they open booths that sell books that are introductory in nature partly cuz maybe there are some people who are new to Islam and want to take baby steps in understanding the religion.

It's pretty much introductory about what 'Ulum al-Quran is about. I actually took the time to read it, because I used to have exposure on intro to 'Ulum al-Quran ages ages ages ages ago.

So, when I started reading it, it's your standard intro textbook, even the wording and arrangement seems really familiar, like I've read it before only in Malay.

So, the break down of what the book covers is :

1. History of how the Quran was revealed, transmitted and became a volume
2. Asbab al-nuzul (reason for revelation, where you look at the context in which the verses are revealed)
3. Al-nasikh wal-mansukh (the abrogating and the abrogated. like, which verses abrogate which. The reason the Quran was revealed in stages and not in one book is because each verse was revealed to suit the certain circumstance at the time it was revealed and later verses came, to put it crudely, "update" what was revealed before).
4. Script and style
5. Different modes (ahruf), readings (qira'a) and tajwid.

Of course, for tafsir purposes, 2 and 3 are important. Tafsir means "explanation", and tarjamma means "translation".

It gives you the low down on what each branch is about, like, you can't really go into that detail. but at least, it gives you an idea of what it's about and I like that the book includes an extensive bibliography so, it kind of points you to proper directions for in depth reading. I also like that they include a summary at the end of every chapter to recap.

So, briefly, the neat stuff that I learnt is:

1. The verses aren't revealed in the order because they're revealed befitting the situations it's revealed in, however, the arrangement of the verses and surah's were already fixed by the prophet. Some arrangements of the surah's differ between the companions because that's the way they wrote it down. The standardized version is Mushaf Uthmani.

2. Arabic script evolved with the Quran because they needed to standardize the way you read the Quran for non-Arabic speakers, even amongst the Arabs they have differences in dialects, so to ensure that the meanings don't change with the way you  read it, they had to standardize the script.

3. There's different modes of readings (ahruf) because the companions also read it differently, but select few are accepted. The reason that they allow for these different modes is so that it is easier accepted by multi-background Arabic readers at that time.

4. The location in which the surahs are revealed shows differences in the content, since they address different audiences. Surahs that are revelaed in Makkah tend to have messages of tawheed, whereas those revealed in Madinah tend to be more juristic (?).

5. The Quran contains two types of ayats. The Muhkamat and the Mutasyabihat. The Muhkamat ayats are clear, it is one-dimensional, whereas the Mutasyabihat needs further interpretation for it to be understood and the real meaning is only known by God, i.e. multidimensional.

6. There's actually surviving scripts from long ago kept in museums. Uthman's original copy (which he actually copied from Hafsa's copy) was called "Imam Mushaf". Different Mushafs from Uthmans have different ordering of the surahs and different number of surahs because that's how they took down erh, dictation of the surahs and bind it together.

7. The letters on the page margins like hizb, manzil and the juz are guides to how to divide the Quran for recitation in 30 days, 7 days, etc.

Probably those who were paying attention in Agama class already knows all this, but it's still good stuff to me. I might have forgotten them since I haven't looked at any Agama textbooks for a long time.

The volume also includes a brief commentary of work on 'Ulum al-Quran by the Orientalist where they attempt to disprove the Quran as the Word of God.

All in all, it's a good book to start with to get your bearings about what this field is about, and to kind of give you an appreciation of the discipline of tafsir. A lot of consideration and deliberation from different analyses of the Quran and Ahadith is needed before one can write a Tafsir, and even existing Tafsirs include commentaries on some weak sources that they included.

Seriously, Tafsirs are a lot of work. One, you have to look at the actual order is revealed, which ayat cancels which, what's the context of the revelation ? Is it supported by reliable ahadith sources for the allegations of the context in which the verses are revealed ? It's not really daunting though, at least it gives us, non-scholars, a good place to look for resources when it comes to self-checking.

So, that's it.

Dystopia

I admit, I've been watching wayy too much anime, but I'd argue that it's not just a waste of time. It actually sets the cogwheels in my head to think and reflect. (Although it is debatable if the thoughts are productive or not. You know I tend to spend time in my head). Futuristic dystopian animes are my favorite. It's like any other dystopia stories you've heard of, and mostly in dystopian literature, it may exist as a form of social commentary which is why I adore it so much other than the fact that I like to see how convincing the story teller puts this "new world" together.

What I like about dystopias is although it makes it seem like a different reality, but it does not give the same feeling as a fantasy world. Dystopias generally try to be as realistic enough to the point that you question yourself, "what if this is what the world to come would be like ?" Since it's based on some social commentary like a fable, you kind of get the uncomfortable feeling that it's the author's predictions of the future outcomes of today's generations' events. The social commentary may cover political, sociological, psychological, philosophical, environmental, economical, technology or religious themes.

However, why go through all this trouble of thinking up of a completely new world in order to critique the present day society ? Well, perhaps 1. The new world is a showcase of the author's creativity of coming up with concepts and descriptions and systems, and it's fun to create new worlds that bend to your own laws. 2. I guess it sends a better message with pictures of "this is what will happen in the future if you don't heed the warning". You can practically exaggerate anything to extremes for emphasis, but of course, to make it believable, back it up with some kind of science, sociology, anthropology, history argument. 3. I guess humans like metaphors and symbolism (erh, a weakly-put argument, but I don't wish to expound this).

When you talk of dystopia literature, I bet 1984 or any Orwellian dystopia comes to mind first, and being the cynic that I am, in times of political rife, suddenly, this novel becomes the in-thing, so much so that you create for yourselves an Orwellian dystopia delusion to justify your feelings- okay, that's wayy off topic.

Yes, people think of 1984, and the more recent Hunger Games. There's actually a lot of dystopia literature, and I think it became popular post-second world war, because the writers write it after their experience with the war, the feeling of bleakness, and of course, the modern age started with the industrial revolution, and capitalism-socialism and all that. My favorite dystopian novels would be The Time Machine, The Sleeper Awakes, Handmaid's Tale, and Brave New World.

There are also dystopian films like Metropolis, Gattaca, and I guess, from all these dystopia stuff comes the cyberpunk, steampunk and biopunk culture, but not gonna go much into those.

However, nowadays, I find that, ehem, excuse my anime bias, animes which have good story lines actually make better dystopian stories compared to any Western media nowadays. I don't know, I've lost faith with Hollywood movies, after watching Project X, not that I wanted to, someone was watching it, but after I did, I shook my head in dismay. This is what it has come to.

Not to say that animes are not laden with ecchi and hentai, bu the very few animes that are thought-provoking really are a gem compared to what the West serves you up nowadays. I guess in anime as well, there seems to be a broader universe in which you can make a story out of anything, and maybe because these Japanese people have weird fetishes. *coughs*

I've pretty much enjoyed animes like Ghost in the Shell, Steins;Gate (urh, don't think this is a dystopia anime, but it's pretty good), and the latest I added to my list is Shinsekai Yori, it draws some influence from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but pretty minimal, it retains its Japanese-ness not only in its art and culture, duh, it's an anime, but also in the social themes that plague the Japanese in history. Well, I guess some social themes are pretty much universal, but some of the historical context in which it occurred, varies cross civilizations. I'm not gonna review Shinsekai Yori. After I've watched the whole series, I checked out other people's reviews after writing my own in a short blurb on Facebook, I pretty much had the same thoughts as they did. Maybe that was what the storyteller intended its viewers to think. Who knows.

Some common things that I noticed in dystopian literature is the 1. totalitarian rule 2. banning of books or forms of knowledge or knowledge that is considered "dangerous" 3. regression of humanity 4. caste systems

I guess most of it comes from the critique of totalitarian governments, as a form of protest, I guess which is why in times of political rife, people can connect with it, and I guess it just goes to show that the human nature, the human psyche, has not changed much through times, it's just the manifestations change according to time and place. I kind of get the feeling that these portrayals of the dystopian world seem based on some value system that a society rejects. Whether or not these "values" are universal, well, I guess that's debatable.  I personally feel that I'm Westernized-inclined, but at the same time, I do have this suspicion of euro-centrism in the system, but that's another story.

How accurate are dystopian novels in its "predictions" ? Well, it's a story, real life may not actually turn out exactly like that, but there are some things that are eerily starting to go in that direction, which is what makes dystopian worlds uncomfortably.. real.

Day In 3

Too lazy to think of any other blog post titles, cuz that's what I've been doing. Too lazy to spend money going out.

So, this time around, I'm gonna talk about this.

Since my generation is at that age when we're starting to think about things more seriously now, I've noticed there's a wave of young people, who supposedly support "new" ideals of how one must run the country.

A majority of them (on my FB at least, it feels kind of sad to always assert this as to avoid generalization to the whole masses), seem to yearn for "kepimpinan Islam/ulama'" and is based on different ideals and interpretations. Yeah I know I seem like a broken record as I keep repeating the same things over and over again macam dah taksub, ha ha ha ha, I apologize, I just don't feel like blurbing on my activities.

I completely agree with the concept of having religious scholars as advisers in any leadership. I can accept that there are religious scholars who are also good leaders, but I disagree with the concept of having it mandatory that a good leader must also be a religious scholar as I've explained in a previous post.

This time, though, I'd like to dig into why some people actually yearn for this one man band religious scholar-leader combo. Of course, it is a matter of my opinion, people may actually feel differently about it, wallahualam.

There is sudden wave of realization that the younger generation is in trouble. Social ills are everywhere, and it becomes a basis for allegations of poor leadership. Semua insaf, semua start join usrah. (maaflah, prejudis sikit dengan usrah. kelemahan diri di situ. ehem. maybe komen tentang usrah tu some other post- said that in the past, but haven't had the mood to do it yet. but not all of what I'm going to say is baseless or irrelevant. Read on). Then, we have people who go overseas or have started to read and are charmed  by calls of "religious leadership" as the panacea to the social ills and inadequate leadership that they perceive.

I am not refuting that religion is not the answer (some people might debate this, but I choose not to speak on that for this post). I merely disagree with how they go about doing it.

Though the intention is there, but what I disagree with is the monolithic conception of religion. "The world is in shambles, but we shall save you, because our way is the right way, it is the ONLY way."

"Ohh tolak X, tolak Y, tolak Islam!" Senang betul label orang.

And they go about that by building an IMAGE, and IDEAL that people would automatically buy into, and thus easily reject anything that does not abide to that IMAGE or IDEAL.

I believe that there should always be room for critical thinking. You lay down the principles and give people room to think for themselves if what is being portrayed or acted upon is based on those principles. "Join me, I will guide you to greatness" is not enough. It is more convincing when people choose you and are able to provide solid reasons for their choices instead of simply because "ONLY YOU can do it right".

It sickens me even more when this mere IMAGE is conceived using religious verses or imagery that puts you on the pedestal of the saints from history, while you put down others who do not abide by this image.

A lot of the religious questions that are being asked, from my experience in Malaysia, pertains the most to image. "Why do you not wear the headscarf ?" "Why do you agree with such and such opinions ?" "Why do you not follow this Syeikh ?" "Why do you not believe in perjuangan Islam ?" I shall ask you back, what is perjuangan Islam ? Is perjuangan Islam only by doing so on your terms ?

Secondly, I feel that although a lot of people want to "find the right path", a lot of them still want to do it by complacently depending on a religious figure to think through everything for them. "It's okay, we have people who are skilled who can do the thinking for us. Have faith in him, because I'm sure what he says is right, and it's a good thing, so, we must abide to it for our own good."

I am not saying that the religious scholars' roles are irrelevant. What I'm saying is it is WRONG to forgo your own capacity of discerning right from wrong merely because "there is someone skilled in the scriptures to do it for you."

In a hypothetical situation where there exists no religious scholars to tell you this and that, but since you have given up your capacity for moral thought and reasoning because you rely on what the "specialist says", how would you know right from wrong ?

Which is why, here, in Canada, it is not a question of "we must have a caliphate figure to lead us", but the question is "what do we do when there is no caliphate figure to guide us ?"

You know the saying where one goes to the East and sees the muslims, but when one goes to the West one sees Islam ? Or something like that. That's because a majority-muslim country doesn't necessarily mean that it is one that follows true to the religion, and it somewhat shows that an "Islamic state" is not a precursor to have "good" muslims. Sometimes, in the absence of an "Islamic-state", or religious leadership, or a superficially Islamic-labeled leadership, "negara Islam" itu masih mampu ditegakkan in the individual muslim.

God wanted his people to be thinkers. Even when religious scholars give out fatwas, they say at the end "wallahualam", only God knows. Although ulama's may be pewaris nabi, but the nabi himself said that he left us with two things, "Al-Quran and sunnah".

Religious scholars are also only human. Thus, you must have the capacity to discern which part of what the "ustaz says" is merely his opinion, and which part of it is based on the principles that God intended us to follow. If you do not want to think for yourselves, the you do not have this capacity. The specialists may be able to tell us how to do things, but there is not only one way of doing things. Even amongst religious scholars there are differences of opinions, doesn't mean that only one is right and the others are sesat. After all, there are a lot of sects, but only one will go to heaven, and that one is the one that abides to the Al-Quran and sunnah, not based on which syeikh you follow.

So, that is all from me today. I bid you well and have a nice day.

p/s: my posts are annoyingly preachy lately. Forgive me >.<

Day In 2 : Post-Caffeine Induced Insomnia

So, 9 pm May 4th, I had accidentally downed a tall mug of coffee, and I couldn't sleep. At all. Since I wasn't doing anything anyway this holiday, so I just sorta catch up with some friends over Facebook, and my leg was hurting, and then, of course, it was the elections, so what the heck. 6 am on wards, my whole household was in on the vibe.

So, I've noticed not only massive campaigning prior to the election day itself, where in the end it ended up with videos of hooligans, and on the election day itself, social media has not yet ceased its deluge of postings of accusations of fraudulent voting process with vote-buying and phantom voters. Accusations still fly during the announcement of the results right up to the end and after. What with the sudden blackouts, and now issues of racist statements were raised. I'm not saying all of them were true, I am merely stating my observation of what people were purporting.

I'm not going to comment on whether or not it is a fair election. Allegations are hard to prove or disprove, and I don't have any first hand evidence to even say anything about it.

What I will say is basically about the take home message.

1. I'm starting to believe that there is such a thing as "militant social media" in how people were posting emotionally charged status updates, and sharing tidbits of information that they got off their friends regarding the election yang entah betul ke tidak tidak diperiksa terdahulu. share first, check later, kalau salah, apologize, bagus sangatlah perangai macam tu. Yeah and orang overseas ni pun most of our news about Malaysia comes from the social media. It is good that with social media more people are becoming more aware of the political landscape in Malaysia, but at the same time, it is also a bad thing because whatever that is being shared on social media is not being deliberated with discretion and much of the discussion on social media is still pretty much emotionally charged and it ends up being empty speeches of hate. For example, the way the "pengundi hantu" posts were shared although with the intention of ensuring fair elections, most of the posts ended up being inflammatory, and people ended up being hostile towards "perceived" pengundi hantus. Heck, I even disagree with labeling them "pengundi hantu" as if they are sub-human to be called "hantu", and just because you feel that their "foreign presence" is robbing Malaysians from exercising their rights in voting for their own country, you justify your racist hostile behavior towards "immigrant-looking" people. Even if you do not have faith in the authorities, taking things into your own hands isn't a completely good idea either especially when you recklessly judge people based on their appearances and your own sentiments from some posts you saw on the social media. You may claim yourself to not be racist, yet, that is exactly how you behaved during the election process itself, only that, towards a different minority.

2. I feel that Malaysians are still obsessed with this "us vs them" mentality. I hated how whenever I have discussions with fellow peers, each words that I say is being scrutinized and judged to determine whether or not I belong to one of the camps. Some even blatantly ask me which camp I belong to before eliciting an "appropriate" response. I find that offensive, because people here don't generally do that. They respect whichever stand you wish to take, and they debate based on the issues itself rather than peppering certain parties' names in debating the issues. And I've said it before I believe that I am only Orang Parti A when I cross the ballot paper for Parti A and then it ends there. Set the differences aside and hope for the best, and support whoever calon who won. Ini tak, "Oh you see when *insert party name*  did this, it became like this, but see how *insert another party name* this did this, it's a lot better." It becomes more of a discussion of the personal preference for one party rather than the actual issues. Secondly, I hate that people place certain stereotypes based on what parties you support, especially if it makes a personal attack on your believes and your religiosity. "Oh orang parti x sendiri tidak percaya dengan "perjuangan Islam" (what the heck is "perjuangan Islam" anyway *baca dengan nada sarkastik, and siapa yang paham apa yang aku maksudkan dengan pertanyaan ini, dia lebih faham cara aku fikir dan apa pertanyaan sebenar aku*) parti x". It's not nice. It's inflammatory and it speaks more about you than it does about parti x. Thirdly, the reason we have different parties is because they believe in different ways to go about things. A political party is ONLY a medium for politics. It is not a religion, nor is it politics itself. It makes more sense to ally with a political party that best suits your personal ideologies. Yet, some Malaysian people find it a lot more convenient to reduce these political parties to labels. "Oh kau sokong parti ni, kau sokong korupsi." "Oh kau sokong parti ni kau racist." "Oh hanya sokong parti ni aku boleh masuk syurga." As if all those things are already pre-determined for each party. I am especially irked when it comes to certain people who treat religion as if there is only one single way, one single jentera politik to uphold good religion. And just because a person supports the less popular side or the side that you're not on, doesn't mean he or she is blinding him or herself to all the negative things that are going on. That is an insult to their intelligence if you implied it that way. There are many ways you can call for change. Either you leave with another alternative or you could stay and improve. Please respect other people's opinions or stands even if it is not the same as yours. I can respect what you stand for, and I can terima your argument or why you sokong something, IF it is for the right reasons (i.e. not simply because fanatic dengan something or someone or because you rasa you je yang betul-refering to agama-related sentiments. ehem.) and if it is conveyed in a professional manner. People may almost be convinced with your cause, but your self-righteous disrespectful behavior could turn them away. Fourth, since there are different political parties with different ideas, there should be more communication between opposing parties to find common ground, it shouldn't be about dividing people based on which political party they support. If you actually look at the manifestos from both sides, you can see that they cater to different wants and needs. Maybe all this while opposing political parties have been listening to different groups of people, so now that a new government is formed, they can all share what they've learnt from what the different groups of people want. That seems like more constructive action than pitting people against each other.

3. Saya nak cakap pasal istilah "MMECOK". Mmecok is a Kelantanese word that roughly means "throwing a tantrum" or "getting upset because you can't get your way and then you tarik muka in protest". There is such a thing called "sportsmanship", and from the election you can see who has good sportsmanship and who doesn't. Who knows, this show of sportsmanship could determine your fate in the next election. Manalah tahu bila dah tengok your true colors in taking in the loss orang dah tak berkenan dah. I wouldn't want to vote for someone who's a sore loser. Be a good sport. Congratulate your opponent, wish him well, and then muhasabah diri why you lost, then do betterlah. Don't go blaming people for your loss. Itu satu. And secondly, this proclamation that democracy is dead. Berkabunglah. Itu adalah "mmecok". Yes, you're frustrated, you didn't get your way, I understand, but it is not constructive action. Neither is rioting nor calling on foreign media attention or foreign attention on hal-hal dalam negara. I find that a betrayal to the country. Be a man and fix your own mess in your country. Mungkin rasa tersepit tak dapat cukup airtime or control on the media, or rasa tidak adil, but there is no need to ask for another person to wipe your ass for you. Disebabkan kaciwa, sedih, sanggup gadaikan negara yang masa berkempen dulu kata sayang. We have laws, and you can act through the correct channel that is allowable within those laws. (Same goes dengan pengundi hantu allegation tadi in point number one). And then sampai sanggup putus kawan sebab berlainan fahaman politiklah. Itu adalah "mmecok". You can do better than that. Well maybe because my generation baru nak "up" politics, semua darah muda lagi, first time voters, tahulah sejarah oppo dah 55 tahun dah asyik kalah, tapi generation baru ni muda lagi. Jangan lah baru vote sekali dah kecewa. Any perjuangan is not for the faint-hearted. ALSO. I personally believe that I prefer to vote (even though belum layak, and rasa macam taknak comment sangat on who I want to vote when I can't vote) based on the individual, rather than the party, because I believe in every party there is a mixed bag of people with different plus points and kekurangan. Sometimes ada calon party kita sokong tak berapa molek tapi calon parti lawan better. Tengok dulu dan nilai dulu calon tu, bukan setakat gila ke party sahaja, you might lose some good men who can do a good job.

4. Cries of racism. Yes, the race card is being played out again, but I'm seeing people being so reactive towards it. Yes, I know that you feel a need to voice out against it and prove that you're not racist, but personally, I'd just shut up about it since I know that's not true, I'm at least not behaviorally racist, I do not impinge any race punya rights. Like, if you kinda react to it, don't you think that further propagates the hate ? and you're just dancing to the music the perpetrators of racism want you to dance to ? Keep it cool. I'm not saying that you should condone it, but I feel that you should just ignore attempts at breaking down the fabric of the society (man, my words just suck tonight). I don't know, reacting to it just shows how insecure you are about your own beliefs that you're so affected by false (maybe) accusations. Well, you might feel differently about it, wallahualam, but it just comes across to me as an insecurity and kalau betullah pihak tu nak menjatuhkan kau through that way, then they've won because you reacted to it. Being the cynic that I am masa ada cries of racism ni baru ni lah nak bawak keluar nama-nama kawan yang other races to prove that you're not racist. Tak perlu. kalau yakin dengan persahabatan non-racist kamu, you shouldn't even worry about some allegations that just want to kacau bulu ayam (arhhh heck. you get what I mean), err, disturb the peace, that's better. Don't let yourself get manipulated by other people with your own reactions.

5. It's time to do our homework, especially on the History, Politics, Constitution, Laws and Policy, Election Process, Bidang Kuasa Kerajaan Negeri dan Kerajaan Pusat as well as  a lil' bit on Economy. I understand that not all of us are lawyers or economists, but a basic understanding of how things work may help you dispel false information that is being sensationalized and propagated through social media. I'm pretty sure pemisahan bidang kuasa kerajaan negeri and kerajaan pusat pernah belajar masa Sejarah dulu,  I just didn't pay attention, but now it becomes important, because before you make any false accusations towards people, you can check first if they really did not abide to their limits of power, or if they did not do things that is required or allowed in their limit of power. Marilah kita menjadi masyarakat yang membudayakan ilmu, bukan sekadar terikut-ikut dengan maklumat sensasi di social media tanpa usul periksa. Oh, and may I suggest reading on logical fallacies as well, I'm still struggling with it myself, but it's a handy tool in making convincing arguments. And maybe some maths and stats too, semua giat duk analyze election results. :p

All in all, the massive voter turn out is proof enough that people want to participate in the .. government-building (?) process, and it's still not a lost cause.

Those who lost, better luck next time, those who won, kudos. Even so, that doesn't mean all the issues raised should be ignored. They should be addressed, but without any ill-feelings that you have against each other prior election. Cast aside the differences and work as a nation, instead for your personal or personal political party gain.

Sekian.



bosan gila posts aku pasal politiks dahla panjang-panjang tak ada gambar. mengomen je. but gotta admit, my bm improved a bit during election. hahahhaha. *gurau*

Day In

Hey, I'm home the whole day the whole weekend for once cuz my legs hurt from all that going out. I'd had planned to go see cherry blossoms today, but too bad I can't take anymore walking, and I just found out that the buses that go to the cherry blossom place doesn't run during the summer. I mean, for crying out loud, Hamilton, that's just so lame. The park opens only during Spring/Summer and you cease service to those parks come Spring/Summer ? Hello ? Common sense ? Okay, fine, so students go home and there's fewer people, so you cut costs by cutting bus route services, but still, it's not like the Mac kids go there during the term anyway or live around there anyway, so what gives ? Yeah, kinda sad that I have to stay indoors. The next time I'll get to see it is probably next year since cherry blossoms only lasts for a few days and there are only a few of them around Canada since they had to bring them in from Japan for the Canadian-Japanese partnership Project Sakura. Mac has one measly sakura tree but it's still pretty young and it doesn't have the big clumpfuls of cherry blossoms yet.

If there's one cliche'd romance trope that I am guilty for liking, it's the blooming sakura trees, sue me, too much anime. Some people find it overrated especially when the blooming sakuras aren't all too impressive, and I've seen some hanami videos where it's super crowded with people picnicking, spread-to-spread, but imagine this, one park with a carpet of green grass, blooming sakura trees yang lebat and rendang, providing shade, and it's just you under all that pink on a green sea. It's surreal. That's the kind of thing that I was hoping to look forward to today, because nobody goes around here in Hamilton anyway. I've come to be accustomed to the "loneliness" in Hamilton. Nobody comes to Hamilton, and you kind of feel that all this green, these waterfalls, they're all mine, and no one else's because nobody goes here. Not that I've not tried to "share" it with somebody, but it just never happens. I guess Hamilton just makes me more an introverted than I ever was, but it's nice. It's serene and exclusive and I don't feel disturbed.

Aku sebenarnya malas nak tulis in proper English or Malay, and I kind of feel like nak comment something about politics, yeah, after my exams haritu I've been catching up on politics news, tu pun rasa terlampau banyak lagi because there's just too much, and there's lots of thoughts concocting in my little head, itching to get it down, but then I kind of hold back, rasa macam, kurang sesuai nak comment, like, it's not my time yet, and I'd rather keep a clean record of myself, just in case, and most of the time, I try to keep my own thoughts and biases to myself, because I feel that it's not necessary for me to declare myself aligning to which ever party, and I'm pretty sure that once I do so, it's easy for people to pull up something to discredit my views or drag me into all this political riff-raff. I'd rather save myself the hustle and stay out of the mess, and observe. Tapi, even so, nak komen juga sedikit.

Truth be told, whatever conception of politics that I have, most likely stems from what I read, since I am absent from Malaysia, and I do try to read everything, from both sides, from anyone, but I stray away from tabloids. Secondly, my perception of politics, due to my absence, most likely stems from the media that I observe, and from the Malaysian people on my Facebook. So, I do find it in myself to tell myself that whatever I know might be subjected to these sources of biases, and from the sample of people I have on my Facebook, may not be representative of the general mass, or the real situation in Malaysia.

However, I do have people from different walks of life on my Facebook - the overseas mahasiswa, the local mahasiswa, people from my dad's generations, Canadians (irrelevant to this discussion), random people I know and I added on Facebook, I can kind of, at least know what the circle of people I know is thinking of.

There is a split between those who talk of politics the "old way" i.e. scandals, character assassination, jeering, and there is a group of people who do actually talk with facts, and whom I almost always follow the links they posted. With those people yang mode character assassination and all that, it kinda leaves me disillusioned. It leaves me thinking no matter how "good" that person appears to be, there's always going to be some scandal waiting to happen, and you don't even know if it's the real thing or not, so, most of the time, I'm pretty much skeptical and cynical about anything. Tapi satu je, that I will feel very strongly about in politics, and I will state my stand, it is when religion is being misused for politics, when the line between a person's opinion and suruhan Tuhan is being blurred, that, I shall never agree with. Saya tak berkenan tengok kawan itu kawan ini sokong parti politik berlainan pastu calling each other kafir. It makes me sick.

Of course, sometimes I do express myself, and I tend to generalize, but bear in mind that I'm completely aware that you can't possibly generalize everything, I know and I am open to anything that doesn't fall under the generalization. The only reason I tend to generalize is simple, because it is reflective of the sample of people I have on Facebook, and for those people who don't fall under that generalization, and sedia maklum, that they aren't, tak perlu terasa lah, and it's no big deal pun. I just can't shut myself up, I say things as I please.

Okay, that was a far off tangent, but my point is, as much as I also believe in change, what needs to actually change is the way you approach politics itself. Dalam kalangan mahasiswa pun ada juga golongan yang jenis taksub parti, share this and that, but there is also golongan mahasiswa who are keen on creating intellectual discussions and debate, and respect each others' opinions. Ini commentary spesifik sikit, but from what I see, from the sample of people I have on Facebook, there is a growing awareness amongst the mahasiswa and a majority of them are supporting parties (or party?) which appeal to them because it upholds values of liberty and justice as understood by these mahasiswa. They are starting to find confidence in themselves to talk about ideas. All those stuff yang menakut-nakutkan pasal kejatuhan melayu, Islam etc is old cheese. Not many people buy into that now, well, maybe there still are ..

Yet even so, despite that optimistic-sounding statement, I still do see some of these efforts to have intellectual discussions still gets reduced to the old way politics of calling names bringing out skeletons from the closets, either young or old. It always gets reduced to merely discussing about this scandal and that. It can't be helped, I have people from both ways of approaching politics. Then again, the system has been like that. Both the top and the bottom, and it takes a heck of a lot of effort to change the way people talk about politics.

Sometimes I don't know if people really are getting politically mature, or if it's just an easier thing to do to put the blame on the political leaders (regardless of whichever party they are from) and find ways to discredit them to prove them unfit for leadership than actually talking about real issues. As for me, I personally believe that whichever leader you elect comes from that same system that you are a part of. Kalau pemimpin dia macam tu, sebab datangnya daripada kalangan yang macam itu lah. If the system doesn't change, the leader can only do so much, no matter how good he/she is. After all, politics is merely the reflection of the people.

I personally don't believe that there is a need to be "Orang Parti A" or "Orang Parti B". I am only that "orang" for the time lapsing between pangkah-ing the voting paper and putting it into the ballot. Political affiliations is not part of my religion to me untuk diuar-uarkan, dipertahankan mati-matian. (not voting this year. tak cukup umur, by the way).

I may want to ubah, but I want to ubah CARA orang (rakyat, pemimpin, etc) berpolitik even more than anything, regardless of mana-mana parti pun.