GOP Convention 2008

So I’ve been watching the Republican Convention live for the past few days (I watched the Democratic one too, though I took very little real interest in the speeches other than occasionally gasp in awe at their well trained presentation skills).

It’s like watching a soap opera. And I blame 7 seasons of The West Wing for making me take such a huge interest in American politics. Anyway, here are the best lines from some of the speakers so far from the party I believe I would be part of should I be a citizen of that country.

Rudy Giuliani
His rise is remarkable in its own right. It’s the kind of thing that can happen only in America.

But he’s never — he’s never run a city. He’s never run a state. He’s never run a business. He’s never run a military unit. He’s never had to lead people in crisis.

He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years.

Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada.

Nada, nothing.

*

I have some advice for Senator Obama: Next time, call John McCain.

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Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.

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And how — how dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president. How dare they do that.

When do they ever ask a man that question? When?

Mike Huckabee
So, I say with sincerity that I have great respect for Senator Obama’s historic achievement to become his party’s nominee — not because of his color, but with indifference to it. Party or politics aside, we celebrate this milestone because it elevates our country.

But the Presidency is not a symbolic job, and I don’t believe his preparation or his plans will lift America up.

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I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.

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John McCain doesn’t want the kind of change that allows the government to reach deeper into your paycheck and pick your doctor, your child’s school, or even the kind of car you drive or how much you inflate the tires.
He doesn’t want to change the very definition of marriage from what it has always meant throughout recorded human history. It is not above John McCain’s pay grade to grasp the simple fact that human life begins at conception, and he is committed to protecting it.

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Fred Thompson
the Democrats present a history- making nominee for president — history-making in that he’s the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president!

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And my friends, we need a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.

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Sarah Palin (my new hero)

You know what. Read her whole speech here. Or Youtube it. After McCain, Palin should run for president.

MSC Bill of Guarantees

7. ENSURE NO INTERNET CENSORSHIP.

Son of this Land

“as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races.”
- Bukit Bendera UMNO chief Ahmad Ismail.

Congratulations on your fabulous insight, sir. Now if only someone from a higher post would point out that the only race that is technically not immigrant are the aboriginals of this nation.

I have no problems being called an immigrant, or son of an immigrant, if those who are immigrants as well would acknowlege the fact that they are not sons of this land too.

Why the heck are we fighting for a Bangsa Malaysia if we can’t at least attempt equality?

Live Free or Die

Apparently, ‘Live free or die’ is a line people use in New Hampshire, America, where the first presidential primary is held. New Hampshire is quite fanatical about it because they’re the first state in the country to remind the country of their freedoms.

I live in Malaysia, and I understand that freedom mean a very different thing here. We might not be fighting terrorism in its most blatant form; Surely we are not being physically and forcefully invaded or attacked by another force on this planet; But our freedoms from within have been leaking.

51 years ago, life wasn’t fair. But we won our independence. We ended a long time of being under the rule of others. There will always be arguments about whether the British did us more good or harm, but that’s not the point. Malaya/Malaysia survived WWII, endured the British power, and took our lives for ourselves. Naturally, setting up a new nation meant that life wasn’t going to be filled with certainly, but we had hope. I’m sure every race would’ve been wary with one another, not knowing what this country was going to wade into. But, we had days, months, and years to look forward to. We were going to build something new. We were going to live free.

51 years later, we are still hoping. And our freedoms are being threatened still. Constitutionally, Article 3 and Article 11 no longer carry equal weight in our judicial system. The same people who invoke religious cynicism turns a blind eye to lawful obligatory tolerance and justice.

Equality has turned from hope to wishful thinking. If only Poverty was selective with her victims, then we’d be able to justify our imposed racial segregation. My niece was showing me her homework the other day. She was learning to differentiate race based on a person’s name and pictures of people of different color. She’s 6. With divisive education imposed at such such a young age, we can already dismiss the possibility that racial prejudice will end with our next generation.

Staturory declarations are very important legal documents. It’s a legal way of taking an oath. Oaths in any law or religion are very serious matters, but we wonder what the value of such things are in our country now.

51 years ago, we understand that a newborn media industry would require guidance and strict regulation for the good of the nation. 51 years later, we would’ve imagined our media industry would be free, not without regulation for no life should be left unchecked, but we would’ve imagined that we have learnt how to be responsible, and in turn hold others responsible. But we are still trapped in place where we’re not allowed to ‘talk back’ even when we are right.

We still fight for the right to speak out, and even more so, we are struggling to keep free what is already free. China has come under international fire for their strict censorship over the internet. America is in the thick of a battle to privatize the information of the internet, which would lead to a profitable control of information. Those nations have their freedoms to fight for. But the Chinese or the Americans do not hide their intention to control cyberspace. We do. We have a Communications and Multimedia Act that is progressive and has no intention (on paper) to censor anything, especially the internet. But we pull the plug on websites for because of controversial content posted up by someone who has a problem with our leaders, and cite every other law to justify their hypocrisy.

51 years.

Those who were born then now have white hair, or no hair. Those born somewhere along the way are learning our civil rights today are no better than when our parents were born. Those born today have no idea of what our country is like, and we who bring them to this world seem to be at a loss of how to protect them.

We have no plan for the next 51 years. We are not free yet.

And to that, we ask all Malaysians to continue to pursue freedom for all. And in all dictionaries, all means ALL.

It’s time we say that we will live free or die.

Happy Independence Day.

Internet Security Act

Ok. By now, the news of RPK’s website getting shut down has reached most corners of the country and some parts of the world. Let me just summarize it to help myself understand the wonders of our laws.

#1 - No censorship of internet
There is actually, if I’m not mistaken, no law or act that gives anybody the power to censor the internet (unless it’s a matter of pornography or something like that). The waves of cyberspace is supposed to be a free-for-all territory.

#2 - RPK’s website is, unless I’m really stupid, in cyberspace. No one can grab it, touch it, or stick a flag in there.

#3 - Our hero Syed Hamid (who was far from the best Foreign Minister and now far from the best Home Minister) had this to say: “the site had been banned because it published libelous, defamatory and slanderous content.” (source Malaysiakini. Click for full story)

#4 - I agree that people shouldn’t be libelous, defamatory, or slanderous. That’s why we have laws.

#5 - Wait. So the indirect way of censorsing the internet, or pullng the cyberplug out of free territory is to use other laws to nullify a perceived freedom of the internet is to call something libelous, defarmatory, or slanderous.

#6 - I’m quite sure they have the Internal Security Act somewhere up their sleeve.

#7 - So. I guess we do have an Internet Secutiry Act as well. Though it really isn’t spelt out somewhere. Basically it goes something like this: The internet is free unless it offends me*.

#8 - *Me: Whoever calls the shots

#9 - Darn.

Hero Lah

Let me try to summarize the whole BAR religious forum thing.

The BAR people wanted to hold an open discussion about religious conversion. PM says we should not hold such forums anymore. DPM says we should hold forums behind closed doors. Some PKR guys led the protest. The rest of PKR wants to investigate the PKR guys who led the protest. PAS (of all parties, goodness me) says that the forum should have been allowed to continue. Some UMNO people say that religious conversion forum is all about insulting Islam. He forgot to mention that the lack of discussion is all about insulting every other religion. MCA youth feels forum should go on, MCA oldies think so too.

Aiyoh people, chit chat only ma. Protest for what? You give a bad name to whoever you represent.

Bush’s 3rd Term Nonsense.

It’s funny how American people think. They rapped George W. Bush in both elections (in 2000 and 2004) about how he never served in the U.S. army, therefore he’s not cut out to be the commander-in-chief. Then now the world media is happily tilting toward Barack Obama, who *wink*wink* has no time of service.

So, either voters have decided that Obama will have better foreign policy advisors than G.W. Bush to be willing to vote (for the third term running) a man with no military credentials, or they have abolished that criteria altogether since Johnny McCain has a better military record than both Bushes, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, and Obama combined.

Well, I know the election is bigger than just foreign policy. But you know, it’s interesting how definitions change with the times. The people who politicized Bush’s lack of military service should apply equal scrunity on Senator Obama. If people are talking about the war in Iraq, John McCain didn’t start the war, but he has every intention of finishing and cleaning up the mess, and so far his idea is working.

But no, they just like hearing about hope and change presented in smart prose.

If they really thought a democrat could fix foreign policy they would’ve nominated Bill Richardson.

As a Malaysian, I am sick of reading biased news outside my own country, because hey, I get enough of biased media in my own country! Haha.

5 Steps to Beat Anwar Ibrahim

Now that the Permatang Pauh Parliamentary seat is up for grabs it’s fun to challenge your brain with the difficult questions. I know everyone has concluded that the race will end, no matter what, with an Anwar Ibrahim victory. While there’s a great element of truth in there, it’s not fun. What is fun, is, during your free time, think about how you would suggest to an UMNO boy to run against Anwar. It’s an uphill challenge, and it’s almost impossible. But the thing about politics is that there are always wedges. George H.W. Bush (senior) was up at 91% in 1991 but lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton then went on a scandalous trip through the White House and still managed to get re-elected in 1996 and after banging Lewinsky he still ended his two terms with a massive 65% popularity vote. Then let’s not forget junior Bush, who was in the low end of 40% in 2004, but still managed to beat the insides of John Kerry.

Just saying, it’s never fun to conclude things just because it appears conclusive. Plus, hey, you never know, they might find him guilty and stop him from running. Don’t be like this Kelantan MP who says that BN should boycott it. That’s not sporting. Losing gloriously could be fun. (Boycott by-election) Anyway, here are five things any UMNO kid can do to have any INCH of hope when running against Anwar Ibrahim:

1. Change the Message
Anwar has been on the offensive on oil price, corruption, goverment take-over. He has been rallying his crowd with national issues, and sadly, BN has not been responding in kind. They’ve responded with sodomy charges, etc. Here’s the thing, people are sick with both parties. They’re sick of BN’s lack of interest in the people, and they’re sick of PR’s promise of change with no results. The only change they’ve really brought about is the possible change of gender in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat. Bring the debate back to Permatang Pauh. Talk about the bread and butter issues that affects the town. Create new issues to fight about, not make accusations that are hard to prove.

2. Go positive, then negative.
Negative campaigning works sometimes. Smear campaigns really work most of the time. Giving people a breath of fresh air always works. Make Anwar your worthy opponent, as opposed to letting Anwar paint you as a BN crony, YOU should paint a reverse picture and talk about how Anwar is what an election is all about. Fierce competition. By showering a blessing on your bitterest foe you are in fact pouring heaps of coal on his head. This would give you a small dose of possibility where people will see you as reasoned and that your words are beyond politics. Perhaps, just perhaps, then, you earn the right to send in your barrage of negative comments.

3. Force a turnout.
To win this, BN will need a LOT of volunteers. The only advantage BN has right now is resource. Spend heavily in encouraging heavier turnout. Go door to door banging, lure out dormant and fearful supporters, sway the swing voters… But don’t lah resort to phantom voters ya.

4. Cave in.
Anwar is going to go full on with his attacks. Let him. Let him play the bully. It’s the best way for him to dismiss any competition. All BN needs to do is then ‘try’ to appear like an honest man trying to do a good job. Let him have his day as the pompous and inspiring politician who wants to take the country to new heights. BN just needs to field a guy who will want to get through the day and be able to say, ‘I did some work.’

5. Rig the votes.
To be frank, all of the above 4 steps can probably work marginally only. It’s a long shot from world’s ends for any political strategy to give UMNO a 50.1% vote in this by-election. What it might be able to do is embarrass Anwar a little bit (not that he’ll be embarrassed), but anything within a 35 - 49 region should be considered a win for BN. If they’re really desperate for the seat. Just rig it. Put 200 names in a single address. Get the deceased 120 year olds to vote. And spoil the good votes for Anwar. This might give you an additional 5% of the vote that just MIGHT put you over the top. Anwar is aware of this, as reported here. (Anwar braces for Massive vote rigging)

That being said, dream on lah. I predict an 80% victory of Parti Keadilan Rakyat for this one.

31 Days to Merdeka - Gold

It’s August already, and this year the country that we live in will turn 51.

I know I’m part of the culture that dismisses our sports teams. We make fun of our national football team. Jeer at them when they play against more popular teams. We make comments about our badminton team when they’re bad, and when they win we say it’s luck. So on and so forth.

I think this is a good time to think about why we say or do the things we say or do. We have seen moments, glimpses of what this country can do when we transcend the rot that we are so often mired it. Some of our sportsmen, for example, have shown that they are capable of everything ‘unMalaysian’ by achieving regular success.

I would love to say that ‘we suck’ and leave it at that. But we do not suck. We’re more misguided than anything. And fortunately, that can be changed.

I expect to see gold for Malaysia in the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. We have to keep expecting, and stop dismissing them before the day is over. Expect Josiah Ng to cycle past the Olympic heroes. Expect Lee Chong Wei annihilate Lin Dan. Expect Bryan Nickson to send shivers up the traditional diving powers. Expect. Expect. Expect.

All it takes is for SOMEONE to do it, and then more will come.

Let’s expect a golden Malaysia for Beijing 08′

14th International Symposium on Electronic Arts

So last Saturday I went to my neighbouring country for five days

To attend this academic conference at Singapore Management University. It was attended by many people. Engineers, Social Scientists, Artists… Anyone who deals with digital media one way or another, basically.

The seminars and parallel papers (At most times there are 5-7 talks going on at the same time so people have to pick and choose which ones to attend) were mostly held in the building shown below, the School of Accounting.

A typical seminar looks somewhat like this. Some with a bit more people, some with less. On average I think every talk had about 30-40 people sitting in to listen.

On Sunday, the conference was held at Nanyang Technological University for a change, and I must say that the campus is very very nice. SMU is a high tech city campus, while NTU is more traditional, but stylish.

Just a quick note: The number of people attending a talk is not representative of how good or bad a seminar is because sometimes the title is misleading, or it’s too niche. For example, the talk below was held in the biggest auditorium in NTU… It didn’t have more than 10-15 people, but I really enjoyed it.

So I was on the schedule too, back at SMU.

So here I am doing my thing.

I also attended some exhibitions and met quite a number of people. I had different friends drag me across the city every day. Special thanks to Eddie and his family for their hospitality, and to my cousin, who always made time for me whenever I dropped by Singapore, and to friends old and new from Monash and FGT who made me feel very welcome in a… u know, rival country. Haha.

I did take some pictures. Not a lot. In fact, most of the time I didnt’ have my camera on me. But this is oddly my favorite building. Mostly because it kept reminding me of Fortress Maximus from the Transformers lore.

And this is before my departure. Eddie had dinner with me at the airport and we decided to take a picture just to prove that I was at the airport.

All in all I had a good trip. Ate a lot (won’t comment on the food there as I want to be polite), walked a lot, and I was both happy and sad to leave. Glad because the city was starting to get on my nerves, sad because I already miss my friends.

That said, I’m happy to be home, and I had nasi lemak this morning when I got in to work. And felt right at home at the first bite of the curry chicken.

Till next time.