The rakyat strikes back

On 8th of March, Malaysians from all walks of life headed to the polling stations for the 12th General Elections. Voting starts at 8 am and by 5 pm, the ballot boxes are closed and the counting process begins as the country's next 5 years hang in the balance. As every minute in the night passes by, the drama intensifies. The first few results to be announced were from Sabah and Sarawak and it seemed that the ruling coalition BN were leading with DAP capturing only the Kuching parliamentary seat.

I was watching TV 1 at first for the updates but eventually switched to Channelnewsasia when it seemed that the commentators there were talking lots of nonsense. Not only that, the speed of the results coming into TV1 were slow (probably intentional) as shock after shock rippled through. I'm actually surprised on the amount of coverage CNA has given to the Malaysian Elections and this was previously unheard of in 2004.

Around 8.30 pm, DAP claimed that the Chief Minister Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had conceded defeat. By 10 pm, it was confirmed that Penang fell to the opposition parties for the first time since 1969. Afterthat, news followed that PAS had retained Kelantan once again and even strengthen their hold there. Kedah also fell to the opposition with PAS set to be next state government. Nurul Izzah, Anwar's eldest daughter had won the Lembah Pantai seat. Samy Vellu lost heavily in Sungai Siput and Dr. Koh did not even manage to win his seat in Batu Kawan.

I watched the results till about 4am plus. By then, Selangor and Perak were shockingly reported as the new states to be under the opposition. Personally, I'm stunned especially on the results in Selangor. As a highly developed state, it has always being known to lean towards the ruling coalition. BN's loss in Selangor showed that the urban communities there are willing to throw caution to the wind for a change in Malaysia. 5 states will be under an opposition state government and 90% Kuala Lumpur under the opposition too. Altogether, the opposition won 82 parliamentary seats and more importantly, the BN were denied the crucial 2/3 majority.

On the morning of 9th March 2008, Malaysians woke up to a new Malaysia. I think the elections results are throughly unexpected by analysts, politicians, opposition, the media and even the rakyat themselves. In Penang, the opposition did not dream that they could make an almost clean sweep of the seats, much less decide who the next chief minister should be. The rakyat have shown that they will not be the silent passer-by anymore and they are not afraid to exercise their democratic rights. I'm proud to see that my fellow Malaysians have the courage to stand up for what they want. Now is the time spank those lazy constables and town councils who are sleeping on the job.

Hopefully, the two new MPs, Tony Pua and Dr. P Ramasamy would be a shining testament to induce more talented Malaysians abroad to return back to their homeland to serve. These two could have stayed in Singapore with a fat paycheck and joined many others who had abandoned the country in her time of need. However, they took the courage to stay in Malaysia to fight for the rakyat's justice.

The story doesn't end here as the opposition parties now have business to attend to, new chief ministers to be sworn in and executive councils being established. There isn't much problem with the chief minister post in Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan. The tricky one now is the Perak Menteri Besar given the nature of the coalition. Of course when I go back to Taiping, it would be under DAP now :) [something which I speculated already after seeing the shady M. Kayveas]

Looking forward to the future

The most anticipated day for the past two months had finally dawned upon me. I met up with my NYJC gang - TG, Sandeep and Sara at djudju to slack a little before going into the school hall. As I sat there waiting, every moment that ticks by is accompanied by thoughts of probabilities of the outcome of my results. Well, they announced the people with like 3-5 As first and also the subject analysis. From there, I could see that KI is a confirmed pass but none of the 6 pioneers had the A grade. So, the best hope for the subject is B. There was some optimism in Economics, seeing that there's 99.2% pass. Ok, at that point of time, I was thoroughly hoping that I don't belong to the 0.8% failure. Both History and Lit had a generous amount of As but did not exceed 40%. The top students list though presented some eye-raising entries. (eg. Booze also still can get 3As arh?)

After these announcements of the top students, all in the hall are to proceed to collect the result slips from the form tutors. And it was lining up and waiting at the line where the tension within just kept raging. All the hopes and dreams shall be revealed by that slip of paper. After I received my result slip, I just went over to one of those tables and slowly unravel one by one my fate. *drum rolls* And.......

I PASSED ECONOMICS AND EVEN GOT C FOR IT!

Honestly, I thought that my Econs paper was a goner given the way I answer my essay questions and also the inauspicious history that I had with the subject. I was so darn afraid that I could not even get E and pass. Well, I suppose some of those "common sense" answers that I gave in the case study did work out nicely :)

Knowledge and Inquiry (KI) was a C, pretty much neutral about it but became quite annoyed after knowing that a certain individual actually got the same grade despite being clueless about the subject for two whole years. No one in NYJC got beyond C (partly because also of a certain member of the teaching staff who is also a champion at slacking) Personally, I believe we have been shortchanged in the moderation process. The press claims that 75% of the cohort achieved A or B but its rather dubious that not even one in NYJC could get a B and the one that is slated for failure is on par with the best in the class. Using deductive logic or common sense, even a dumbo could see that the KI statistics is a big fat fallacy that doesn't tally up.


Now the best one: A FOR HISTORY AND A FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE!!!

When I saw that, I was totally ecstatic! My two favourite subjects! This meant that I've achieved a perfect score for my history subject career in Singapore..lol. I'm really glad that I got A for Eng Lit :) I kinda saw the possibility but it's still a nice pleasant surprise..haha. Well, this proved undeniably that Stan is 100% specialised in language and words.

For my O' Levels results, there was some disappointment on the outcome. Two years onwards at the A' Levels, I'm just feeling tremendous joy in achieving the best with my talents and having a key to unlock many more doors. One of the milestone days of my life has been completed and I'm certainly looking forward to the future. Of course, all glory be to God for the wonderful A' Level results that He had provided me. This is not luck or by any mere mortal effort. It is the grace of God who had everything planned since I stepped into Singapore. Thank you Lord once again for Your abundant guidance in my life.

Waiting

It's coming in less than two hours. Please pray for me...

The moment is here

Rawr! I'm currently back at Singapore to wait for the dreaded A' Levels results that would be released tomorrow. I took a night bus from Taiping yesterday night and reached this morning. The bus was quite fast and I'm already at the Singapore checkpoint by 6.10 am. There's a massive long queue at the checkpoint since everyone is rushing for work and school but I'm pleased that it's cleared within like 15-20 min or so. By the time I reached home, my mama and bro were preparing for school already. I kinda lazed around in my room before going to the hairstylist for a hair cut and a fresh coat of hair dye.

This is probably getting into me but..ARGHH!, it's the darn RESULTS tomorrow! Every moment that ticks by makes me sweat. And the Newpaper had to report about Knowledge and Inquiry (KI) as a subject that is unrecognised by some of the UK universities, particularly like London School of Economics. Basically, it's a subtle hint that the so-called "elite" bunch that went through an entrance test to do the subject is skrewed for university admission. Well, I think it's not only UK universities, but many others too if the Singapore MOE has been poor in the efforts in promoting the subject. This means that poor Stan here is also skrewed too because he took the subject to avoid taking Maths.

Nevertheless, like the two fellas in the paper that is recounting their experiences, I never regretted the decision in taking KI. I really learned a lot, being more aware of the hidden complicated mechanics that formulate our world and opened up to new dimensions and areas that I really never thought about. There were many thought-provoking and mind-wobbling stuff that I learned which makes me go really "wow!". Despite having one of teachers being totally off-duty from teaching, the subject is quite manageable with personal exploration. So, no matter what happens tomorrow, if given the same choices, I'll still do KI again.

The wait ends at 2.30 pm..

Premier League roundup

Since I did not manage to talk about the Newcastle match last week, I'll touch on it a little. After being pwned 6 goals at Old Trafford, it is highly vital that King Kev's Magpies make it hard for United at St. James Park so as to salvage some pride. But, that did not happened as the Toon Army soon found itself at another spanking by Man Utd - a loss of 1-5 right at their backyard. Rooney's professionalism and unselfish passing deserve some praise, as noted by the last goal. He could have attempted to ram in so as to secure a hat-trick but he generously passed it to Saha who happened to be in a better position. Newcastle's woes continued on with last week's 0-1 loss to Blackburn and they are in relegation battle now. Such a shame considering the amount of money that is being invested on the team and they are starting to emulate Leeds United's path.

Last weekend I watched the Arsenal match instead with my uncle since the Fulham match is kinda certain that Man Utd will win. Fierce match for Arse-nal since they're facing a buoyant Aston Villa that just smashed Reading 3-1. Shame on the Gooners too for failing to kill off the Birmingham team that played with 10 men for over 80 minutes. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed watching Villa tormenting Arse-nal. The surprising thing was that Villa were having all the chances while Arsenal had difficulty breaking into the final third. Timely quick runs by Agbalanhor just kept harassing the Arsenal backline. And in the 27th minute, Villas constant pressure paid off as dreamy Senderos "blurness" put the ball past his own net. Wow, great tap in by the defender, only that it's at the wrong end..lol. And I agree with the commentators that ah boy Senderos was virtually being "bullied" by the bigger Villans player. He + Clichy were always so blur together that they always run everywhere (possibly in panic) whenever Villa break through their lines. I think it was Gallas composed and timely challenges that prevented Arsenal from sinking further. I was preparing to cheer for an Arsenal loss when 15 seconds from final whistle, Bendtner just had to score the equaliser. ARGH..just 15 SECONDS more, it could have changed if any of the defenders had just hacked the ball straight upwards to the sky. Ahh, a draw's fine too and I guess Wenger must be sooo relieved.

Arse-nal lacked leaders to rally them and they always looked to be rather mentally weak. This long stretch of winless runs is already getting into the team. I don't see how Gallas could be one captain that motivates his team out of misery considering he himself is a newcomer. Arse-nal could really have used the leadership fire of Patrick Viera if he's still in the club. Anyways, Man Utd's fringe team easily dispatches Fulham 3-0 and grats to Hargreaves for getting his first United goal with a beautiful free kick. Tonight's Champions League match is against Lyon at Old Trafford and it should not be much of a problem with home support and an away goal cushion.

Spot on: 7 March

Confirmed. I was right! A' Levels result will be released this Friday. This date is also of annoyance to me because this meant that I would miss out on all the drama mamas of the Malaysian elections on 8th March. Ahh, if I had been numbing my thoughts on the exam results for the past two months, now is the time to panic! Time to reflect on my moment of brilliance and flops in the exam halls last year and hope thoroughly that I won't be skrewed on one particular subject : Economics. The other three is pretty ok, not that worried bout them but the point is that I'm shit scared that I can't even pass or get an E for Econs. Even my German exam in O' levels don't give me such chills. On the optimistic side, let's hope that the whole cohort screws up badly together with me and there's moderation..lol.

Well, there was a prison break in Singapore a couple of days ago which I was not aware of until I read in the Star newspaper today. It seems that theStar is so busy blasting news on the elections that it didn't really bother with the panic button that is raised over in the south. It was a lil' shocking too considering that the island prides itself in ensuring that the enemies of the state do not escape if detained or found guilty. Ahem..Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield) anyone?

Kursus Pelajaran Pemandu

Haha..I'm back! The guns did fell silent for a week..lol. My driving course experience was certainly an interesting one but i'm like 1/8 there only. I actually plan to complete the 5hr undang-undang course (road signs and general motor rules) and finish up the test. Apparently, the booking for the test was not possible within such a short time. I could have continued staying on to take the test maybe on tomorrow or on Tuesday but I'm speculating that the results would be out anytime this week since after this Fri is the March holidays.

I think the 5hr course was the first time in many years that I had sat down and listen to a very long lecture that is done in the Malay language(besides my Malay cikgu in SJI..haha). Well, I'm quite pleased that I didn't lose touch very much and could understand what was being taught. The first instructor was more serious but the second one is more on the light-hearted side. But to sit there listening for 5hrs + break time of 1hr + is quite a bore, that's y it's advisable if possible, do it with a friend. It seems that the driving module in Malaysia is quite advanced afterall. The undang-undang test is done computerised and all attendances etc are kept in the JPJ computerised database. This means that I could easily continue my driving course in Sarawak too if I wan too since all my progress is applicable to nationwide.

My stay in my aunt's house in Sungai Petani has been rather fun. I get to experience a real normal family life with lots of food tasting going on. That's way more like it to life than being stuck with two old folks. The only real setback is probably that I don't get Internet access. I also found that perhaps less than 30% of the Chinese in SP could converse in Cantonese as opposed to maybe about 70% in Taiping. The driving instructor uncle that drove me to the school only could converse with me in Mandarin, so I use wadeva broken words that I learn from watching Channel 8 dramas to communicate with him. And I rarely hear anyone speak Canton in SP except in my aunt's home. Of course, the amount of Canton speakers is mostly concentrated in Selangor and KL where I spent my early schooling days..haha. In Taiping, it's easy to converse in Cantonese with anyone there except maybe some of the younger ones.

I think I'm may be planning to go to Singapore on this Wed night if my speculations are confirmed. Haha, Wed night and not earlier cos i gotta watch my Champions League football in the afternoon :)