Our Struggle, Our Hope

"When injustice becomes law, to revolt becomes one's duty,"
Guinean rapper, Phaduba Keita.

I've been spending much of my time in the recent days going through news from Malaysia. The part that is of particular interest to me, and of which I am trying to keep the abreast, despite the limited information, is of the political goings-on in Malaysia. Over the course of the past few days, I have watched many videos of how the rule of law in Malaysia has been repeatedly raped by the very people whom the voting public, or the Rakyat as we are more familiar with, have given the mandate to protect. I have watched the carnage caused by the ruling coalition's strong arm tactics against what has to be the most sacred of proceedings in the governance of both the state and the nation. I have read and watched about the repeated abuse of the basic human rights guaranteed to every citizen throughout Malaysia. Every citizen regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, creed, economic and social standing.

This has bred within me a very strong sense of patriotism and belonging towards the country which I call home. A country which I grew up in, learned for the better part of my life, met and forged relationships with the people that I have and so on. If you had asked me about this about a year or two ago, I wouldn't have given much of an inspired thought about it. Yes, I would have admitted the deficiencies in governance by the ruling coalition, but at the same time, I would have also told you not bother too much as nothing could have been done or could be done to remedy the situation. I would go on to tell you that Malaysia is a waste of time, and no effort should be spent on rehabilitating it and that all who feel neglected and left out, should leave, to teach the government a lesson. But after watching, and reading about the struggles that have gone on, and are still going on, fought by brave and commendable men and women, and by citizens from all walks of life, be it the rich or the poor, the able or the disabled, I realize that there is still a mountain of work to be done to restore social order and the supremacy of the nation and the constitution. To restore all of this from being drowned by the greed of a few whom have grown complacent and have taken for granted their apparent "right" to rule the nation at the expense of the ordinary, hard working Malaysian citizen. I also realize that not everyone in this beautiful land are as fortunate as others to be able to simply pack their bags in a moments notice and move on to greener pastures in lands afar. But most importantly, I realized that it is not about running away. Running away would be no better than running away from your house and abandoning it for good when a thief or a band of burglars come to rob it. Sooner or later, these thieves are going to feel bold, and will start robing other houses too due to the lack of resistance out up by owners of those homes. This has gone on for long enough and should not be allowed to go on for much longer. We must put up resistance, and we must put our voices out so that those who are in power will realize and see that the reason they they are in power is because we, the people, put them there in the first place, and that all of that can, and will be taken away if we are continued to be abused on a daily basis.

Now some of you may argue that all of this is coming from the mouth of a hypocrite that is sitting 10000 miles away, comfortably in his plastic chair, ensconced in a land known for its incredible civil liberties, and who will probably never return home to join in the fight of the ordinary Malaysian. I can understand the basis of your argument. But I counter that by saying that the reason I am here is not because I am choosing to run away, but instead, I am choosing to expand. Deep down inside, I know that if there were opportunities back home, of the nature of which I am exploring, I would very much love to return home. However, clearly, there is none. The other reason which I have also noticed is that, despite the political ugliness that is happening in our country, very little of it is being mentioned abroad. A scan through any of the major tabloids and news publications around the world will reveal this. Which is why, someday, I do hope to become a political activist based abroad, which I hope will enlighten the citizens of the world about the struggles that citizens of Malaysia and hopefully, while voicing out, will be joined from citizens from other oppressed nations, currently face. As it goes now, I'm glad to have started many interesting discussions about the state of Malaysia with many of my foreign friends here. I hope that in this way, slowly but surely, someone, somewhere will have the proper voice or connections to propel it to the attention of those that matter. Of course, I can't do this alone. Therefore I am begging to all my Malaysian friends, anywhere around the world, to engage in discussions and to make aware of the current situation in Malaysia. Read the news portals, read the blogs, watch videos, and listen to interviews done by both the ruling and the opposition leaders, including by those who have been wrongfully incarcerated by a medieval, draconian law. This is one area in which plenty of work has to be done and can be done.

As ugly as the current struggles are, I know that they must be made in order to secure our liberties. The road will be long, the road will be hard. But together, we will emerge a more glorious and a more free nation. A nation capable of being a role model, an example to the definition of freedom, and an example of a nation built by the people, for the people.

This is my dream for the world. Our Struggle, our hope.

Thank you.

Rockshow

This is before they asked us to put my camera in the car. I only managed to get these pics. If it weren't for stupid security rules, I'd be bringing you pictures of David Dramian, Dan Donegan, Cristina Scabbia and gang

Hehehe...

Tuesday

In 3 hours and 20 minutes, my semester break will end, and I will once again be thrust into the world of books, studying, assignments and all that's associated with a summer semester. I have classes every weekday, and they all start at 8. Thankfully, one of my lecturers decided that class would start at 8.15 instead of 8. That's 15 minutes of extra sleep! In my case, that 15 minutes is not going to make any difference because, well, I sleep till 10 in the morning. It's going to be torture.

Two good news today.

1. My JPA loan as been approved. Yay!
2. *smiles*

On another note. I hate my guitar strings. They are absolutely, perfectly crap. I prefer the sound of my Elixir. This Ernie Ball set really disappointed me. Makes my dear Jasmine sound like a f*cking Kapok! Grrrr...

New Room

5th of May, I finally said goodbye to my room which I have slept in for the past 9 or 10 months. I moved all my stuff over to my new room, Adams 426. That took me quite some time. I have a new roommate too. You know Kenneth? The one from the fishing trip? Yeah, he's my new roommate now. In fact, right now, he's unpacking all of his stuff.

I had a conversation with Isaac today. He's one of my Malaysian friends. He said that he learned more morals living in the USA than he had his whole life in Malaysia. In fact, he said living here has taught him to become a better person. I don't know if I can agree with him entirely, but, where Daytona and Phoenix are concerned, it is definitely true. Quite a surprise no? Before I left, almost everyone I knew told me to be aware or to be cautious of those whom were not Asians. They had a different and immoral culture, they used to tell me. They said stay away from them so I won't get corrupted. Stay away from the Hispanics, so I won't go into drugs. Stay away from Muslims, because I would then be targeted as a terrorist. Do not grow a beard, or else I would also be stigmatized as a terrorist. But now looking back, I ask myself, oh really? Answer is, no. My best friend here is a Hispanic. Some of my good friends come from the Middle East. I have many African American friends. They among the most funniest and friendliest people I know. And my American friends and lecturers, couldn't care less if I had a beard. In fact, they speak very intelligently about it, and condemn the stereotyping often done by the press, and certain quarters about Muslim and Asian people, especially those with beards. Jesus has a beard. Is HE a terrorist or a delinquent? No He is not. People here treat you with respect. When you need help, these guys really go out of heir way to help you. I hang out, and take classes with them, I know. Of course, their culture in general, provides for a different temperament, and a different set of guidelines and lifestyle, but then again, which society doesn't? Each society has their own codes of ethics which they think is right. Yes, everybody has views about certain topics like abortion and sex. Some agree, and some don't. But who are we to ostracize and prejudge just because we don't agree?

So really, who's right, and who's wrong?

Spending Days

I've been spending my days watching Lost, playing Flight Simulator and IL-2 (some WW2 fighter game) with some of the pilot guys at the College of Aviation Lab. It's pretty fun actually. Of course, not being a pilot is a huge disadvantage to me. It makes dog fighting with them challenging. In fact, most of the wreckage you see, belongs to me, and it's not because I got shot down. In fact, I crashed many times while trying to take off =/ But when I was up in the air, it was pretty fun. I pulled of some rather hard banks, which caused me to stall so many times. I remember dog fighting with Evin, and as I was chasing him, I banked so hard to the right that my Mustang stalled and went into a huge spin, eventually crashing to the ground. I learned how to come out of a stall though. Turn the propellers off, point downwards, pickup some airspeed, turn the engines on, then pull back up. Easy! haha And since my flying skills aren't as good as them, what I'd try to do is to lure these guys to my home base, where my AA guns would take chunks out of them. Of course, it did hit them, but was barely enough to bring them down. In my last battle with Kenneth, I was going head on with him in my home base. My AA guns were pounding him, and I was pounding him with my own machine guns. But him being in an ME-109, he had an advantage. A rocket pod mounted at the center housing that holds his propeller. He fired, and the next thing I knew, I was going down. Disappointing, but pretty fun I would say.

No Roomie

After almost 10 months, I'm glad to say that I'm finally roommate-less. Callum moved out on Thursday, and just this evening, I helped Brandon move out from my room. He needed a place to stay for the night, and since Callum is no longer here, I decided to allow him to stay for the night. I know it's against the rules and they could kick me out for it, but hey, we can't leave our buddies out in the cold, can we?

Sleeping alone in the almost empty 3rd floor of Wood hall, is going to be rather unpleasant. Save for Bobby and myself, everyone has left. I thought Becca might be staying, but she's gone as well. I have a rather vivid imagination about the "supernatural" I'll try not to sleep with the lights on!