While recent generations have grown up with the version which in which "Wednesday's child is full of woe" an early incarnation of this rhyme appeared in a multi-part fictional story in a chapter appearing in Harper's Weekly on September 17th, 1887. In that version "Friday's child is full of woe." In addition to Wednesday's and Friday's children's +++role reversal, the fates of Thursday's and Saturday's children was also exchanged and Sunday's child is "happy and wise" instead of "blithe and good":
Monday's child is fair of face.
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is loving and giving.
Thursday's child works hard for a living,
Friday's child is full of woe.
Saturday's child has far to go.
But the child that is born on Sabbath-day
Is bonny and happy and wise and gay.
Trivia
This poem was recited on Snow White, starring Kristin Kreuk, to describe the new names of the dwarves.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.
DESI: You ask: How many? My fave number, of course, SE7EN.
You then ask: Have you patented this SE7EN as my trademark?
My staed to disappoint you: Someone else arrived at the starting lne before You and Desi!
You further have the cheek to ask: WHO?
I further have the gall to answer: No, that's NOT the singer or band, that's western. Another one, Asian.
Next don't aRseK anymore, just NOTE that I also play +++role reversal with several of my Y&A here. I'm mentee to them being Mentor!
DESI in serious mode from now onwards, which is a very, verily, short time:
I woke up this morning wondering: What child am I?
Do we really suffer the fate befitting the day on which we were fortunately/unluckily born/e?
My feeling generally I'm a Wednesday's Child.
My hope for Salvation is that Wikipedia tells me today (YES, i only found out topday!) that
sometimes, Wednesday's Child trades places with FRiday's child. Did Matt Monro influence such feelings?He who delivered the theme song in Quiller's Memorandum. Who can name me the star or starlet opposite Michael Caine? Or is Desi so faulty in memory recall it was not Mike?
Dear ER: You tell me two things today, as we are all fine of face today, for 24~~~~~~~
(1) What day's Child are you?
(2) From your life's experience to date, without influence from Desi's writes, do you feel generally the day you were born on matches the specific characteristic spelt out to you in the Nursery Rhyme?
(3) If you don't want to confess in public, being so shy like "PrimeDae's Childe", then Email chongyl2000@yahoo.com. I'll tell you your real fortune, provided you append that cheque!
My purpose for today's Post is to state, with no hesitation, that my late Mum (May Her Soul Rest In Peace) is a combination of a Monday's Child and Friday's Child. While "late" literally means she has moved on from this GoodEarth, I have used "is" because I know for sure she's Somewhere, out there, with a perennial half-smile, on a face full of brightness and cheer, with heart of gold shining through the clouds of grey and shades of darkness, on me and all my loved ones and friends, wherever we are.
When I receive my showers of blessing and safety every day,
I know I'll be fine. I pray, you too
JUST IN PASSING:
Two similar faces who come close to fulfill similar desiderata of fineness of face cometh to my mind:
(1) The Prime Minister's late wife, Datin Seri Endon Mahmood,
May her Soul Rest In Peace.
(2) Sdri Wan Azizah, PKR President,
wife of Sdr Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Miister-to-be-or-not-to-be.
"I pray: MAY GOD GIFT NEGARAKU WITH MORE and MORE SUCH EXQUISITE PERSONALITIES.~~
Amen."
Monday, February 05, 2007
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Absolutely Stunningly Fantastic!
By now, my dear EsteemedReaders roaming like deer on Blogosphere which is presently in a state of fever and fight and flight -- NOT fear! mGf for Truth shall prevail! -- for more than just a month would have sometimes been caught in bewilderment by some of my writes.
Puns and fun-Ds
I enjoy puan and pun, BUT NOT TUAN dan TUN.
I enjoy humour, yes, also rumour,
especially about someone's affairs, not my brother's infernal ramblings
It's nt that I don't enjoy johnleemk's rites,
I'm not one indulging in spikes and spites,
It's that rumour about him caught wityh a blonde in the library
He says there is no basis to the rumour, ah, the humour, he enjoys to the contrary.
THrogh writHings I'm tryoiing to reach that spiritedestination
I need 20million but I don't see the funD* coming this generation
So I cutltivate some Y&A Mentees
They become slaves to mentor at Desi's.
_________________________________________________
Dear ER, If you don't understand half of what is writ precedent to this line
It's okay, it's fien by Desi, as I often re-assure, the fault is entirely mine.
I have to live up to my nama sometimes, erring-man ways, also Desiderata,
So I make a slip hear and dare, yes, ma'am your slip is showing,
An my fly is Ooops, frying and we have to Mind Our Manners, no erotica!
Having pout you in the mood for a Sundae distraction, Sunday Inter:Lude today -- not to die for -- is doing some Standbby Comedy with mGf Rajan, who by the way is my 4A* mAn PR mAnAgAr, the otrher three I've publicised, are all femail, yes, the 3A*.
No need to mention, otherVice, the Inland Revenue may chase after them for wearing damn'd short miniskirts, also not declaring their incomes from PR outcomes. Sext, the Religious Department may kum-A-calling, so they wrote the IR a blank cheque which I just handed them each. Like the fly, it hops, skips and jumps! Usebale in Down Under, where the dears and antelope and kangaroos pray.
As I was saying, at CON BF this happy morn' when life was on top os bot us, Rajan says:
Rajan: Chong, we should have escaped during our younger daes to UK or US or even Timbuktu, just the two of us. We could have been millionaires by now instaed of jest having RM5 continental clone BF!
(CYL: that's short for shortie Chong Yen Long, or YL Chong, which I have been using my 'hole rofessional life, lest someone accuse me of not Blogging with a real name. Sext, which is a Compoung-word from next and sex, WHY do I sued it? Frankly, I dunno! Ask Rajan, onow shorted to R, to save energies.)
CYL: In Malaysia, when I write using DDC and crack some jokes, by the time the audience catches the first one, I would be into the third wan o'lady!
R: Yes, I dunno, I was telling my opub kaksi the same thing about that Harold Wilson's Irish one, although we wer in Seremban's The Goal pub, where a famous (or notorious) killing took place, and I was telling one hella of joke, but it's like the Bee Gees' number~~
THe Reporter was interviewing outgoing PM Wilson: "What was your greatest acheuvement for the past deacde off helming the Labour government, Sir?"
Wilson, full of wile and guile, answered wryly with a dry gin&tonic whisping his tongue: "England won the World Cup in 1966!"
I was watching TV live then in a Britsih pub (I was an illegal there then): The pub roarred with laughter even before the Cup was pronounced and everyone had already ordered a second, or third, or fourth, beer!
But here, at the Goal, I repeated the Joke, and all the funnies around me looked at me: Hey, what's the punchline?
I was close to committing another murder with a right punch, followed by a mortal blow from the left. I suddenly I am a leftist, and I left the blardy pub for this AP with you, Chong.
(NOTE: R calls me Chong, not Desi because he does NOT blog because most times he thinks too vividly for his own good, and all his CONfessions would be writ down and held against him in court. He once used to call me "Mr Chong" until I lambasted him I'm basically 6/7 a Socialist, for on the Se7enth Day (my fave number, remember?), I am Capitalistic and enjoy R&R&R. Why three Rs and not the usual two, you aks?
I asred R and he said: The third one stands for Rise (after all is done at the end of the day, we must look forward to that optimistic RIP, Rise If possible.)
CYL: Yes, Rajan, we would die as paupers if we do standUP comedy in Malaysia. Had we both stolen on mv ASsLI and sallied across the SE7EN seas (fave number, remember!), today I could have been up in the Hollywood billboards smiling down: US10,000 per person Final Act by Desiderata with his Final Erring APpearance. And YOU, Rajan, on billboards in LOndonderry smirking from ballboards: PoundSterling10,000 per person Semi-Final Act by DesperateDan Raja from Malaysia, FareTheeWellConsort.
R: What semi-fina;-lah?
CYL: If the collection is not good, at least you have fallout position! Me, I'm dead cetrtain, it's a fool-house. Knowing Yankees, their IQs are always rightUP dare. They know a Gem when they see one.
With these stiff-UPper-lips, I don't know, they don't take kindly to some Easteren King though you adopted that DesperateDan preix as safetry net. Raja reminds them of
Idi Amin, you know, who had a train of Whites holding him carriage-like in revenge for the Apartheid indulgences in the Dark CONtinent?
R: Yes, when I reire back to Malaysia with my millions, I must drop DesperateDan but retain Raja. There will be minions at mmy back and collar with my sackfools of British pounders.
CYL: Yeah, friend, Sidar has brough us the CON BF, you have a tennner, ah?
R: I forgot to bring my purse todie-lah!
CYL: I only have RM1,000 notes ~~plus US1,000 dollars which some kind Nigers gave me in KL in exchange for my RM1,000 lust month~~which I haven't surrendered to Bank Negara. Can we ask Sidar to record on Buku555, ah?
Sisdar, with broad s-mile-s, one to the left, one to the right: It's okay-lah, you guys come every Sunday, I'll record for next weakend when you're strogner," she's a darling who could read both our minds, Rajan's and mine.
So before I say farewell from a Comedic reharsal w'le sitting down at Furong MengKee hawker centre, let's depart with our last shot!
R: Hey, I enjoy tokking cock with you-lah, *YB!
*YB can stand for YangBerhormat, OR YangBerbodek, OR YangBertokkok)
CYL: AS LONG as we don't tokhen, kay! Cock and Hen Making the Eggs, and we can't count thsoe egss before we ourselces are hatched. See you, **Chow!
**means Eat Up what's left on the plate. OR See you again, not too soon. "Too soon" means you are in a state of Idleness, or IdolNurse, which are both bad. An idle mind is a Devil's workshp, and Idol worshipping nurses is Rajan's and Des's forts, not YOURS.
I know, YOU have been voted by Time as PERSON OF THE YEAR, but the sefl life is past by one month and 4 days. And 4 in Kantonis is pronouced Sei, whoich means ... FADE-OFF with Belles chiming and Plus-Litrak tolling.
PS: I cheeredUP one fellow Blogger who says every time CNY draws nigh, she gets the flu/ I tried to get that bug Flewing off out of the window by singing her a Julie Andrews' unforgetable number:
which contains a LONG word, vis:
from mGf: Wikipedia running nose~~~~~~~
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
(IPA pronunciation: [ˌsu.pəˌkæ.lɪˌfɹæ.dʒəl.ɪs.tɪkˌɛk.spi.æ.lɪˈdəʊ.ʃəs]) is a song and a long word from the movie and musical Mary Poppins.
The song describes using the word as a miraculous way to talk oneself out of difficult situations, and even as a way to change one's mood. The song appears in the film's animated sequence where Mary Poppins is harangued by reporters after winning a horse race and responds to one claiming there are not words to describe her feelings of the moment. Mary disagrees with that and begins the song about one word she can use. Ever since, the word is used as an adjective referring to "absolutely stunningly fantastic".
In the West End and Broadway versions, every one runs out of conversations and Mary and the kids head to Mrs. Corry's shop, where you can buy them. Jane and Michael pick out some letters and spell a few words. Bert and Mrs. Corry use the letters to make up some words (which Jane doubts the existence of). Mary says you could use some letters more than one time and makes the longest word of all.
The word itself has obscure origins, pertaining as to when it was first used. According to Robert B. Sherman, co-writer of the song, the word was mostly created out of double-talk. The roots of the word are fairly clear, as Richard Lederer wrote in his book Crazy English: super- "above," cali- "beauty," fragilistic- "delicate," expiali- "to atone," and docious- "educable," the sum meaning roughly "Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while still being highly educable." This is the perfect word for Mary Poppins to use, being that she thinks of herself as incredibly beautiful but also extremely intelligent.
According to the song, "you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus". In a good way Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews says it was her husband at the time, Tony Walton, who devised the backwards version of the word that is heard near the end of the song, Dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus (although, strictly speaking, only each individual root is reversed, rather than the order of each letter, with the exception of "rupus" which is somewhat reversed, misspelled, and mispronounced). The musical version says it with all the letters reversed instead.
Contents [hide]
1 Unsuccessful legal action
2 In popular culture
[edit] Unsuccessful legal action
In 1965 the song was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit by two song writers against the makers of the Disney film. They alleged that it was a copyright infringement of a 1951 song of theirs - Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus. The suit failed because affidavits were produced to the effect that "variants of the word were known to and used by them many years prior to 1949." and because no copyright was registered with the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington D.C.
[edit] In popular culture
It was ranked #36 in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Songs in Movie History in 2004.
The Sun headline.The headline "Super Caley go Ballistic, Celtic are Atrocious" was used by The Sun newspaper in 2000 following a famous upset in the Scottish Cup and was voted pun of the year for the year 2000 on The Big Breakfast. [1]
Wising All mGf a
"dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus" .
wickedend remaining...
Can we awe sing with one voice:
Daisy, Dasy, give me your answer do
I'm half-crzay, all for the love of YOU!
Puns and fun-Ds
I enjoy puan and pun, BUT NOT TUAN dan TUN.
I enjoy humour, yes, also rumour,
especially about someone's affairs, not my brother's infernal ramblings
It's nt that I don't enjoy johnleemk's rites,
I'm not one indulging in spikes and spites,
It's that rumour about him caught wityh a blonde in the library
He says there is no basis to the rumour, ah, the humour, he enjoys to the contrary.
THrogh writHings I'm tryoiing to reach that spiritedestination
I need 20million but I don't see the funD* coming this generation
So I cutltivate some Y&A Mentees
They become slaves to mentor at Desi's.
_________________________________________________
Dear ER, If you don't understand half of what is writ precedent to this line
It's okay, it's fien by Desi, as I often re-assure, the fault is entirely mine.
I have to live up to my nama sometimes, erring-man ways, also Desiderata,
So I make a slip hear and dare, yes, ma'am your slip is showing,
An my fly is Ooops, frying and we have to Mind Our Manners, no erotica!
Having pout you in the mood for a Sundae distraction, Sunday Inter:Lude today -- not to die for -- is doing some Standbby Comedy with mGf Rajan, who by the way is my 4A* mAn PR mAnAgAr, the otrher three I've publicised, are all femail, yes, the 3A*.
No need to mention, otherVice, the Inland Revenue may chase after them for wearing damn'd short miniskirts, also not declaring their incomes from PR outcomes. Sext, the Religious Department may kum-A-calling, so they wrote the IR a blank cheque which I just handed them each. Like the fly, it hops, skips and jumps! Usebale in Down Under, where the dears and antelope and kangaroos pray.
As I was saying, at CON BF this happy morn' when life was on top os bot us, Rajan says:
Rajan: Chong, we should have escaped during our younger daes to UK or US or even Timbuktu, just the two of us. We could have been millionaires by now instaed of jest having RM5 continental clone BF!
(CYL: that's short for shortie Chong Yen Long, or YL Chong, which I have been using my 'hole rofessional life, lest someone accuse me of not Blogging with a real name. Sext, which is a Compoung-word from next and sex, WHY do I sued it? Frankly, I dunno! Ask Rajan, onow shorted to R, to save energies.)
CYL: In Malaysia, when I write using DDC and crack some jokes, by the time the audience catches the first one, I would be into the third wan o'lady!
R: Yes, I dunno, I was telling my opub kaksi the same thing about that Harold Wilson's Irish one, although we wer in Seremban's The Goal pub, where a famous (or notorious) killing took place, and I was telling one hella of joke, but it's like the Bee Gees' number~~
THe Reporter was interviewing outgoing PM Wilson: "What was your greatest acheuvement for the past deacde off helming the Labour government, Sir?"
Wilson, full of wile and guile, answered wryly with a dry gin&tonic whisping his tongue: "England won the World Cup in 1966!"
I was watching TV live then in a Britsih pub (I was an illegal there then): The pub roarred with laughter even before the Cup was pronounced and everyone had already ordered a second, or third, or fourth, beer!
But here, at the Goal, I repeated the Joke, and all the funnies around me looked at me: Hey, what's the punchline?
I was close to committing another murder with a right punch, followed by a mortal blow from the left. I suddenly I am a leftist, and I left the blardy pub for this AP with you, Chong.
(NOTE: R calls me Chong, not Desi because he does NOT blog because most times he thinks too vividly for his own good, and all his CONfessions would be writ down and held against him in court. He once used to call me "Mr Chong" until I lambasted him I'm basically 6/7 a Socialist, for on the Se7enth Day (my fave number, remember?), I am Capitalistic and enjoy R&R&R. Why three Rs and not the usual two, you aks?
I asred R and he said: The third one stands for Rise (after all is done at the end of the day, we must look forward to that optimistic RIP, Rise If possible.)
CYL: Yes, Rajan, we would die as paupers if we do standUP comedy in Malaysia. Had we both stolen on mv ASsLI and sallied across the SE7EN seas (fave number, remember!), today I could have been up in the Hollywood billboards smiling down: US10,000 per person Final Act by Desiderata with his Final Erring APpearance. And YOU, Rajan, on billboards in LOndonderry smirking from ballboards: PoundSterling10,000 per person Semi-Final Act by DesperateDan Raja from Malaysia, FareTheeWellConsort.
R: What semi-fina;-lah?
CYL: If the collection is not good, at least you have fallout position! Me, I'm dead cetrtain, it's a fool-house. Knowing Yankees, their IQs are always rightUP dare. They know a Gem when they see one.
With these stiff-UPper-lips, I don't know, they don't take kindly to some Easteren King though you adopted that DesperateDan preix as safetry net. Raja reminds them of
Idi Amin, you know, who had a train of Whites holding him carriage-like in revenge for the Apartheid indulgences in the Dark CONtinent?
R: Yes, when I reire back to Malaysia with my millions, I must drop DesperateDan but retain Raja. There will be minions at mmy back and collar with my sackfools of British pounders.
CYL: Yeah, friend, Sidar has brough us the CON BF, you have a tennner, ah?
R: I forgot to bring my purse todie-lah!
CYL: I only have RM1,000 notes ~~plus US1,000 dollars which some kind Nigers gave me in KL in exchange for my RM1,000 lust month~~which I haven't surrendered to Bank Negara. Can we ask Sidar to record on Buku555, ah?
Sisdar, with broad s-mile-s, one to the left, one to the right: It's okay-lah, you guys come every Sunday, I'll record for next weakend when you're strogner," she's a darling who could read both our minds, Rajan's and mine.
So before I say farewell from a Comedic reharsal w'le sitting down at Furong MengKee hawker centre, let's depart with our last shot!
R: Hey, I enjoy tokking cock with you-lah, *YB!
*YB can stand for YangBerhormat, OR YangBerbodek, OR YangBertokkok)
CYL: AS LONG as we don't tokhen, kay! Cock and Hen Making the Eggs, and we can't count thsoe egss before we ourselces are hatched. See you, **Chow!
**means Eat Up what's left on the plate. OR See you again, not too soon. "Too soon" means you are in a state of Idleness, or IdolNurse, which are both bad. An idle mind is a Devil's workshp, and Idol worshipping nurses is Rajan's and Des's forts, not YOURS.
I know, YOU have been voted by Time as PERSON OF THE YEAR, but the sefl life is past by one month and 4 days. And 4 in Kantonis is pronouced Sei, whoich means ... FADE-OFF with Belles chiming and Plus-Litrak tolling.
PS: I cheeredUP one fellow Blogger who says every time CNY draws nigh, she gets the flu/ I tried to get that bug Flewing off out of the window by singing her a Julie Andrews' unforgetable number:
which contains a LONG word, vis:
from mGf: Wikipedia running nose~~~~~~~
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
(IPA pronunciation: [ˌsu.pəˌkæ.lɪˌfɹæ.dʒəl.ɪs.tɪkˌɛk.spi.æ.lɪˈdəʊ.ʃəs]) is a song and a long word from the movie and musical Mary Poppins.
The song describes using the word as a miraculous way to talk oneself out of difficult situations, and even as a way to change one's mood. The song appears in the film's animated sequence where Mary Poppins is harangued by reporters after winning a horse race and responds to one claiming there are not words to describe her feelings of the moment. Mary disagrees with that and begins the song about one word she can use. Ever since, the word is used as an adjective referring to "absolutely stunningly fantastic".
In the West End and Broadway versions, every one runs out of conversations and Mary and the kids head to Mrs. Corry's shop, where you can buy them. Jane and Michael pick out some letters and spell a few words. Bert and Mrs. Corry use the letters to make up some words (which Jane doubts the existence of). Mary says you could use some letters more than one time and makes the longest word of all.
The word itself has obscure origins, pertaining as to when it was first used. According to Robert B. Sherman, co-writer of the song, the word was mostly created out of double-talk. The roots of the word are fairly clear, as Richard Lederer wrote in his book Crazy English: super- "above," cali- "beauty," fragilistic- "delicate," expiali- "to atone," and docious- "educable," the sum meaning roughly "Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while still being highly educable." This is the perfect word for Mary Poppins to use, being that she thinks of herself as incredibly beautiful but also extremely intelligent.
According to the song, "you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus". In a good way Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews says it was her husband at the time, Tony Walton, who devised the backwards version of the word that is heard near the end of the song, Dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus (although, strictly speaking, only each individual root is reversed, rather than the order of each letter, with the exception of "rupus" which is somewhat reversed, misspelled, and mispronounced). The musical version says it with all the letters reversed instead.
Contents [hide]
1 Unsuccessful legal action
2 In popular culture
[edit] Unsuccessful legal action
In 1965 the song was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit by two song writers against the makers of the Disney film. They alleged that it was a copyright infringement of a 1951 song of theirs - Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus. The suit failed because affidavits were produced to the effect that "variants of the word were known to and used by them many years prior to 1949." and because no copyright was registered with the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington D.C.
[edit] In popular culture
It was ranked #36 in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Songs in Movie History in 2004.
The Sun headline.The headline "Super Caley go Ballistic, Celtic are Atrocious" was used by The Sun newspaper in 2000 following a famous upset in the Scottish Cup and was voted pun of the year for the year 2000 on The Big Breakfast. [1]
Wising All mGf a
"dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus" .
wickedend remaining...
Can we awe sing with one voice:
Daisy, Dasy, give me your answer do
I'm half-crzay, all for the love of YOU!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Din Merican on His Mentor: DR MAHATHIR
Dear EsteemedReaders, for contextual understanding of this Post, please re-read Feb 1's "Threading a Few Bloggers' Homes" at Desi's homey place, can?
It all started at www.bakrimusa.com with some hard-hitting comments from "malaysia is no future" and "Anon",the latter throwing a challenge to Dr Bakri Musa and his regular Fellow Writer DIN MERICAN to answer his charge that they were sycophantic supporters of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and had a "blind spot" when it came to seeing the former prime minister's faults and failings. I admit guilt in adding some cili padi to the findings, and had echo-ed Anon's challenge.
I thank Sdr Bakri and Din in advance for enabling a heart-to-heart discussion into which this kaypohchic Scribe here had lent his 3sen's worth. But we all ended up downing endless goblets of tehtarik, laced with Miss Sunthi. I don't know about Miss ..SENic..
Next change: we await Bakri's response.
Din Merican Says:
January 30th, 2007 at 1:38 am
"Anon, ylchong and others,
I refer to Anon’s hard hitting comments on Tun Dr. Mahathir, who is a mentor and a role model to men and women of my generation.
I do not deny that I have a lot of admiration for his intellect, guts, vision and political skills. At the same time, I am not blind to his policy failures. Like the rest of us, he is not perfect.
In my opinion, however, Tun Dr. Mahathir did things that he thought was good for our country. He was a very active Prime Minister who set very high standards for himself. He was also an excellent crisis and time manager with great work ethics. In my eyes, he is a Malay sifu.
On the domestic front, Tun Dr. Mahathir successfully turned around the economy after the 1997-1998 East Asia by introducing selective capitals. His actions checked the slide of the Malaysian ringgit and stabilised the macroeconomy.
His decision to impose capital controls in September 1998 was controversial, but over time, he won praise from the IMF and the World Bank,monetary experts and academics for doing so. He got the economy going again and restored investor and public confidence so that by 1999/2000, the Malaysian economy rebounded strongly.
Malaysia would not be what it is today in terms of development, especially modern infrastructure, if he did not make bold decisions. He never wavered. Over 22 years, he transformed the Malaysian economy from a colonial agricultural backwater into a modern export driven one.
*Tun Dr. Mahathir brought the internet and inter-connectivity into our homes, offices and cafes so that today we can do business efficiently and exchange views and ideas in real time.
**His achievements in the area of foreign policy and international relations, especially in promoting South-South cooperation and ASEAN, and projecting our image abroad would be difficult to emulate. On the world stage, he stood firmly in support of our national interest and those of the Third World countries. He was particularly critical of the unilateralist policies of the Neo-Con led Bush Administration. In evaluating him, it is easy for us to overlook the role he played on the international stage.
+++Tun Dr. Mahathir set a clear agenda (Vision 2020) for a united and caring Malaysia, but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity. Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game.
Anwar was at that time an admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Iran Revolution and had dreams of making Malaysia the new “Andalusia” of the Islamic World (See Ziauddin Sardar’s “In Search of Paradise”). This turned out to be a serious error of judgement, which he was to repeat with his choice of Badawi to succeed him in 2003. But no one dared to challenge him on both occasions. A few might have done so, but they might have been ridiculed or marginalized.
He was tough on his detractors and those who sought to disrupt public order. His human rights record was not good and that led him to be labeled an authoritarian leader or “dictator” by some. Did he grow arrogant? Yes, in some ways since he must have succumbed to persistent bodekism of his people.
++++Why should we impeach Tun Dr. Mahathir? On what grounds? He always sought parliamentary approval and those of his Cabinet colleagues for his proposals. We, as citizens and voters, too went along with him and kept him in office for 22 years. Most sought to curry his favour while others were indifferent, or did not dare to challenge his ideas. The minority who disagreed with him felt the heat of his high office. That is politics.
Those who wish to understand his politics and socio-economic programmes should read Khoo Boo Teik’s ” The Paradoxes of Mahathirism” (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995). Dr. Khoo made a fairly balanced assessment of the Tun.
As for Tun Dr. Mahathir and upon looking back, this much I can say: “He did what he had to do, he saw them through without exception and he did them his way”. For that, I thank him for his hard work, dedication and for his convictions.
Let us not be diverted from the present. Prime Minister Badawi is in the 4th year of his administration. So far we have nothing but talk only. He has yet to show me at least what he can do. I am waiting for the day when I can say “Thank You” to Prime Minister Badawi for doing what he had to do.
For the time being, I have yet to be convinced if he is up to the job. I will rejoice if he proves that I am wrong for taking very skeptical view of his administration.
______________________________________________________________
DESIDERATA: The highlights (THUS BOLDED) are Desi's.
Mainly to also say that Desiderata endorses these two points marked * and ** highlighted i.e. I share similar opinions as expressed by mGf Sdr Din Merican.
However, indulge me in rebutting two of Sdr Din's points, marked +++ and ++++.
(1) +++Tun Dr. Mahathir set a clear agenda (Vision 2020) for a united and caring Malaysia, but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity. Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game.
Desi believes that Dr Mahathir's Vision 2020 mainly incorporated the key features or beliefs he expounded in his book "The Malay Dilemma" which was banned by then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. And I contest many of the presumptions the former MP for Kubang Pasu (Aside: Dr Mahathir LOST in this seat in the 1969 General Elections) made in drawing up the socaled "clear agenda" of Vision 2020. But this forum is not for discoursing this topic in deail; suffice to add that the greatest drawback was the New Economic Policy, later extended after 20 yaers of its initial shelf-life for fixed periods under "guises" that the main target of attaining 30% of Bumiputra equity stakes in national wealth had not been achieved. It is now a fatally flawed "never-ending NEP" for which Dr Mahathir has the major part to answer. I believe the answer is found partially in the phrase I extract from Din's statement that "...but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity."
On the assertion "Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game." I would then ask of Din: A Prime Minister must hold overall responsibility for all his subordinates' actions, including his Deputy (Anwar Ibrahim), Yes?
Scape-goating one's deputy once too often reflects an "irresponsible" person, what more a national leader! -- is this also among the failings that many of Dr Mahathir's mentees inherited?
(2)
++++Why should we impeach Tun Dr. Mahathir? On what grounds? He always sought parliamentary approval and those of his Cabinet colleagues for his proposals. We, as citizens and voters, too went along with him and kept him in office for 22 years. Most sought to curry his favour while others were indifferent, or did not dare to challenge his ideas. The minority who disagreed with him felt the heat of his high office. That is politics.
Desi thinks there is ONE case which warrants Dr Mahathir's "impeachment" -- that of the Sacking of Lord President Salleh Abas and several fellow senior judges in 1988. Recently, there has been calls, especially by the Bar Council, to "review" the Case, perhaps with the establishment of a Royal Commission to thoroughly examine the Case.
I reiterate here the same call for the formation of such a Royal Commission. The panel which reviewed the Bank Bumiputra Finance debacle is a good example to emulate.
PS: I remember a three-man panel was set up to report of the BMF incident in which one Malaysian paid with his life, and most Malaysians saluted the fantastic work done by the three EMINENT MALAYSIANS, I believe we still have many such Good Men in NegaraKu. Otherwise, why should Desi, maybe I guess fellow Malaysians -- Bakri and Din -- want to continue writing?
It all started at www.bakrimusa.com with some hard-hitting comments from "malaysia is no future" and "Anon",the latter throwing a challenge to Dr Bakri Musa and his regular Fellow Writer DIN MERICAN to answer his charge that they were sycophantic supporters of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and had a "blind spot" when it came to seeing the former prime minister's faults and failings. I admit guilt in adding some cili padi to the findings, and had echo-ed Anon's challenge.
I thank Sdr Bakri and Din in advance for enabling a heart-to-heart discussion into which this kaypohchic Scribe here had lent his 3sen's worth. But we all ended up downing endless goblets of tehtarik, laced with Miss Sunthi. I don't know about Miss ..SENic..
Next change: we await Bakri's response.
Din Merican Says:
January 30th, 2007 at 1:38 am
"Anon, ylchong and others,
I refer to Anon’s hard hitting comments on Tun Dr. Mahathir, who is a mentor and a role model to men and women of my generation.
I do not deny that I have a lot of admiration for his intellect, guts, vision and political skills. At the same time, I am not blind to his policy failures. Like the rest of us, he is not perfect.
In my opinion, however, Tun Dr. Mahathir did things that he thought was good for our country. He was a very active Prime Minister who set very high standards for himself. He was also an excellent crisis and time manager with great work ethics. In my eyes, he is a Malay sifu.
On the domestic front, Tun Dr. Mahathir successfully turned around the economy after the 1997-1998 East Asia by introducing selective capitals. His actions checked the slide of the Malaysian ringgit and stabilised the macroeconomy.
His decision to impose capital controls in September 1998 was controversial, but over time, he won praise from the IMF and the World Bank,monetary experts and academics for doing so. He got the economy going again and restored investor and public confidence so that by 1999/2000, the Malaysian economy rebounded strongly.
Malaysia would not be what it is today in terms of development, especially modern infrastructure, if he did not make bold decisions. He never wavered. Over 22 years, he transformed the Malaysian economy from a colonial agricultural backwater into a modern export driven one.
*Tun Dr. Mahathir brought the internet and inter-connectivity into our homes, offices and cafes so that today we can do business efficiently and exchange views and ideas in real time.
**His achievements in the area of foreign policy and international relations, especially in promoting South-South cooperation and ASEAN, and projecting our image abroad would be difficult to emulate. On the world stage, he stood firmly in support of our national interest and those of the Third World countries. He was particularly critical of the unilateralist policies of the Neo-Con led Bush Administration. In evaluating him, it is easy for us to overlook the role he played on the international stage.
+++Tun Dr. Mahathir set a clear agenda (Vision 2020) for a united and caring Malaysia, but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity. Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game.
Anwar was at that time an admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Iran Revolution and had dreams of making Malaysia the new “Andalusia” of the Islamic World (See Ziauddin Sardar’s “In Search of Paradise”). This turned out to be a serious error of judgement, which he was to repeat with his choice of Badawi to succeed him in 2003. But no one dared to challenge him on both occasions. A few might have done so, but they might have been ridiculed or marginalized.
He was tough on his detractors and those who sought to disrupt public order. His human rights record was not good and that led him to be labeled an authoritarian leader or “dictator” by some. Did he grow arrogant? Yes, in some ways since he must have succumbed to persistent bodekism of his people.
++++Why should we impeach Tun Dr. Mahathir? On what grounds? He always sought parliamentary approval and those of his Cabinet colleagues for his proposals. We, as citizens and voters, too went along with him and kept him in office for 22 years. Most sought to curry his favour while others were indifferent, or did not dare to challenge his ideas. The minority who disagreed with him felt the heat of his high office. That is politics.
Those who wish to understand his politics and socio-economic programmes should read Khoo Boo Teik’s ” The Paradoxes of Mahathirism” (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995). Dr. Khoo made a fairly balanced assessment of the Tun.
As for Tun Dr. Mahathir and upon looking back, this much I can say: “He did what he had to do, he saw them through without exception and he did them his way”. For that, I thank him for his hard work, dedication and for his convictions.
Let us not be diverted from the present. Prime Minister Badawi is in the 4th year of his administration. So far we have nothing but talk only. He has yet to show me at least what he can do. I am waiting for the day when I can say “Thank You” to Prime Minister Badawi for doing what he had to do.
For the time being, I have yet to be convinced if he is up to the job. I will rejoice if he proves that I am wrong for taking very skeptical view of his administration.
______________________________________________________________
DESIDERATA: The highlights (THUS BOLDED) are Desi's.
Mainly to also say that Desiderata endorses these two points marked * and ** highlighted i.e. I share similar opinions as expressed by mGf Sdr Din Merican.
However, indulge me in rebutting two of Sdr Din's points, marked +++ and ++++.
(1) +++Tun Dr. Mahathir set a clear agenda (Vision 2020) for a united and caring Malaysia, but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity. Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game.
Desi believes that Dr Mahathir's Vision 2020 mainly incorporated the key features or beliefs he expounded in his book "The Malay Dilemma" which was banned by then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. And I contest many of the presumptions the former MP for Kubang Pasu (Aside: Dr Mahathir LOST in this seat in the 1969 General Elections) made in drawing up the socaled "clear agenda" of Vision 2020. But this forum is not for discoursing this topic in deail; suffice to add that the greatest drawback was the New Economic Policy, later extended after 20 yaers of its initial shelf-life for fixed periods under "guises" that the main target of attaining 30% of Bumiputra equity stakes in national wealth had not been achieved. It is now a fatally flawed "never-ending NEP" for which Dr Mahathir has the major part to answer. I believe the answer is found partially in the phrase I extract from Din's statement that "...but he failed miserably to change the mindset of the Malays to embrace Islamic modernity."
On the assertion "Regretably, he allowed his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim a free hand to outwit PAS in the Islamisation game." I would then ask of Din: A Prime Minister must hold overall responsibility for all his subordinates' actions, including his Deputy (Anwar Ibrahim), Yes?
Scape-goating one's deputy once too often reflects an "irresponsible" person, what more a national leader! -- is this also among the failings that many of Dr Mahathir's mentees inherited?
(2)
++++Why should we impeach Tun Dr. Mahathir? On what grounds? He always sought parliamentary approval and those of his Cabinet colleagues for his proposals. We, as citizens and voters, too went along with him and kept him in office for 22 years. Most sought to curry his favour while others were indifferent, or did not dare to challenge his ideas. The minority who disagreed with him felt the heat of his high office. That is politics.
Desi thinks there is ONE case which warrants Dr Mahathir's "impeachment" -- that of the Sacking of Lord President Salleh Abas and several fellow senior judges in 1988. Recently, there has been calls, especially by the Bar Council, to "review" the Case, perhaps with the establishment of a Royal Commission to thoroughly examine the Case.
I reiterate here the same call for the formation of such a Royal Commission. The panel which reviewed the Bank Bumiputra Finance debacle is a good example to emulate.
PS: I remember a three-man panel was set up to report of the BMF incident in which one Malaysian paid with his life, and most Malaysians saluted the fantastic work done by the three EMINENT MALAYSIANS, I believe we still have many such Good Men in NegaraKu. Otherwise, why should Desi, maybe I guess fellow Malaysians -- Bakri and Din -- want to continue writing?
The competition is from outside Malaysia, mate!
A friend based overseas alerted me to a recent BBC news report (Jan 24, 2007) to share with Malaysians. It's pertinent to those who keep on harping on the National Economic Policy as never-ending to ponder over this: THE COMPETITION DOES NOT COME FROM WITHIN ONE'S COUNTRY, IT IS FROM NEIGHBOURS LIKE CHINA AND CHINAand other prowling tigers.Or dragons -- and they don't come in the still of the night. They come marching in in broad daylight, but our people just choose to close both eyes -- Okay, close one eye!
IT's not only China, which has been featured in a few economic updates here (written by PY CHIN) that has awakened from a long slumber, and since last October, has boasted the highest foreign reserrves in its national coffers -- more than USD1TRILLION!
Now you see another Asian tiger roaring loudly in Information Techonoloy -- India. It has got its right manpower and resources to attract US biggies in IT to locate their operations there, or outsourcing its operations and services there.
Is Malaysia prepared for such competition?
With an Abundance of Rip van Winkles around, I am in doubt. Wake me from my deep freeze of doubting Thomasy, and I'll give thee Teh-See!
Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News, Bangalore
India's software and outsourcing industries are growing fast
When 13-year old Taylor, who lives in Modesto, California, wants help with her homework, she no longer goes and asks her mother for help.
Instead she goes to her computer and gets on the internet, where she dials up an e-tutoring service, TutorVista, based in Bangalore, India, for help with her maths and English.
"My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before," says her single-parent mother, Denise Robison.
Denise pays $2.50(£1.26) per hour for the service, a fraction of the $40 per hour charged by US online tutoring services or the $100 an hour charged for face-to-face tutoring.
The Internet IT services revolution
Denise's experience is just one small example of the IT services revolution that is sweeping the world of business, and is changing the face of India.
In the past, economists thought that only goods could be traded across borders, while most services could not be imported and therefore were not subject to the same pressures from international competition.
The IT sector has a definite potential for contributing to broad-based growth and broader economic objectives
Professor Nirvikar Singh, University of California, Santa Cruz
But the internet has changed all that, and now the fastest-growing portion of international trade is trade in services.
And it is big companies, not private individuals, who are making the most of the lower cost of many internationally traded services.
They have found that it is cheaper to outsource many white collar tasks - such as accounting, IT support, and payrolls - to locations overseas.
See who is moving to India
The global leader in the provision of these services, known as business process outsourcing (BPO), is India, which exports $25bn per year worth of these services, a figure that is expected to rise to $60bn by 2010.
Advantage India
There are many reasons why India has become the centre of the global IT services industry.
We believe that India is the hub for the world where the ICT sector is concerned
Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer, Cisco Systems
It has a highly educated workforce, with two million college graduates a year, all of whom speak English.
It has excellent international data communications links, and good internet access in the major cities.
And the wages of its professional IT workers average one-quarter to one-tenth of the wages of equivalent posts in Europe or US.
Infosys' IT campus in Mysore can train 10,000 workers
But the Indian IT services industry only began to develop when the government opened the country to the forces of globalisation, ending regulation at home and lowering barriers to foreign investment, in the early 1990s.
The government deliberately targeted the export-oriented IT services sector for growth, giving it special subsidies.
Multinationals rush in
Foreign multinationals flooded into India, eager to take advantage of the cheap professional labour and the opening up of one of the world's biggest markets.
Shopping mallls have proliferated in Bangalore, India's IT capital
The first US multinational company to enter India was Texas Instruments, back in 1988.
At first they faced considerable obstacles in getting data sent back to their head office in the US.
The Indian Ministry of Communications refused to allow them to set up their own private satellite dish unless a government official was present in the control room of the company's satellite data transmission centre at all times, according to the company's first Indian managing director, Srini Rajam.
But within a decade all such barriers were swept aside, as the cost of data transmission plunged due to the creation of trans-oceanic fibre optical cable networks.
Now more than 500 major international companies have IT operations in Bangalore alone.
Among the household names are Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, and Accenture.
A faster chip
For Intel's John McClure, the company has no choice but to be India.
Office space in central Bangalore is dominated by foreign multinationals
Intel's Indian development centre played a key role in the company's strategy to develop new chips for computers which will be compatible with Microsoft's new Vista operating system, which will begin rolling out in January.
Mr McClure told the BBC that Intel's new R&D centre ramped up quickly in order to lead in designing Intel's new dual core Centrino chip for laptops.
Microsoft itself has established one of its three global fundamental research centres in Bangalore - the other two are in China and at Microsoft's HQ in the US.
The fact that so many hi-tech companies have located in India can bring broader advantages.
"The IT sector has a definite potential for contributing to broad-based growth and broader economic objectives," says Professor Nirvikar Singh, University of California, Santa Cruz.
World hub
It is clear that it is no longer cheap labour that is attracting these companies.
In December, Cisco Systems, announced a $1.1bn investment in Bangalore, creating 6,000 jobs.
It will be run by its new chief globalisation officer, Wim Elfrink.
Companies like Cisco see being in India as vital to spotting the next generation of products and services that the company should be making.
"We believe that India is the hub for the world where the ICT sector is concerned," said Mr Elfrink.
------------------------------------ PONDER -----------------------------------
IT's not only China, which has been featured in a few economic updates here (written by PY CHIN) that has awakened from a long slumber, and since last October, has boasted the highest foreign reserrves in its national coffers -- more than USD1TRILLION!
Now you see another Asian tiger roaring loudly in Information Techonoloy -- India. It has got its right manpower and resources to attract US biggies in IT to locate their operations there, or outsourcing its operations and services there.
Is Malaysia prepared for such competition?
With an Abundance of Rip van Winkles around, I am in doubt. Wake me from my deep freeze of doubting Thomasy, and I'll give thee Teh-See!
Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News, Bangalore
India's software and outsourcing industries are growing fast
When 13-year old Taylor, who lives in Modesto, California, wants help with her homework, she no longer goes and asks her mother for help.
Instead she goes to her computer and gets on the internet, where she dials up an e-tutoring service, TutorVista, based in Bangalore, India, for help with her maths and English.
"My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before," says her single-parent mother, Denise Robison.
Denise pays $2.50(£1.26) per hour for the service, a fraction of the $40 per hour charged by US online tutoring services or the $100 an hour charged for face-to-face tutoring.
The Internet IT services revolution
Denise's experience is just one small example of the IT services revolution that is sweeping the world of business, and is changing the face of India.
In the past, economists thought that only goods could be traded across borders, while most services could not be imported and therefore were not subject to the same pressures from international competition.
The IT sector has a definite potential for contributing to broad-based growth and broader economic objectives
Professor Nirvikar Singh, University of California, Santa Cruz
But the internet has changed all that, and now the fastest-growing portion of international trade is trade in services.
And it is big companies, not private individuals, who are making the most of the lower cost of many internationally traded services.
They have found that it is cheaper to outsource many white collar tasks - such as accounting, IT support, and payrolls - to locations overseas.
See who is moving to India
The global leader in the provision of these services, known as business process outsourcing (BPO), is India, which exports $25bn per year worth of these services, a figure that is expected to rise to $60bn by 2010.
Advantage India
There are many reasons why India has become the centre of the global IT services industry.
We believe that India is the hub for the world where the ICT sector is concerned
Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer, Cisco Systems
It has a highly educated workforce, with two million college graduates a year, all of whom speak English.
It has excellent international data communications links, and good internet access in the major cities.
And the wages of its professional IT workers average one-quarter to one-tenth of the wages of equivalent posts in Europe or US.
Infosys' IT campus in Mysore can train 10,000 workers
But the Indian IT services industry only began to develop when the government opened the country to the forces of globalisation, ending regulation at home and lowering barriers to foreign investment, in the early 1990s.
The government deliberately targeted the export-oriented IT services sector for growth, giving it special subsidies.
Multinationals rush in
Foreign multinationals flooded into India, eager to take advantage of the cheap professional labour and the opening up of one of the world's biggest markets.
Shopping mallls have proliferated in Bangalore, India's IT capital
The first US multinational company to enter India was Texas Instruments, back in 1988.
At first they faced considerable obstacles in getting data sent back to their head office in the US.
The Indian Ministry of Communications refused to allow them to set up their own private satellite dish unless a government official was present in the control room of the company's satellite data transmission centre at all times, according to the company's first Indian managing director, Srini Rajam.
But within a decade all such barriers were swept aside, as the cost of data transmission plunged due to the creation of trans-oceanic fibre optical cable networks.
Now more than 500 major international companies have IT operations in Bangalore alone.
Among the household names are Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, and Accenture.
A faster chip
For Intel's John McClure, the company has no choice but to be India.
Office space in central Bangalore is dominated by foreign multinationals
Intel's Indian development centre played a key role in the company's strategy to develop new chips for computers which will be compatible with Microsoft's new Vista operating system, which will begin rolling out in January.
Mr McClure told the BBC that Intel's new R&D centre ramped up quickly in order to lead in designing Intel's new dual core Centrino chip for laptops.
Microsoft itself has established one of its three global fundamental research centres in Bangalore - the other two are in China and at Microsoft's HQ in the US.
The fact that so many hi-tech companies have located in India can bring broader advantages.
"The IT sector has a definite potential for contributing to broad-based growth and broader economic objectives," says Professor Nirvikar Singh, University of California, Santa Cruz.
World hub
It is clear that it is no longer cheap labour that is attracting these companies.
In December, Cisco Systems, announced a $1.1bn investment in Bangalore, creating 6,000 jobs.
It will be run by its new chief globalisation officer, Wim Elfrink.
Companies like Cisco see being in India as vital to spotting the next generation of products and services that the company should be making.
"We believe that India is the hub for the world where the ICT sector is concerned," said Mr Elfrink.
------------------------------------ PONDER -----------------------------------
Friday, February 02, 2007
NudeCrookedTimes' Optimistic Commentary
Since Desi endorsed Optimism as a Desideratum (Desired feaure) for success as a Writer or/and Leader, he as incoming GEIC of the Nude Crooked Times will practise the virtue.
Yes, cliche it may be, there is nothing like Leadership by Example.
The Young&Articluates today are no more like in our parents' times (Though we are presumptious speaking on their behalf, but that's just this scribe's premise, not YOURS, so you won't be flamed.) -- "Just follow my instructions, don't question. You may speak, but it won't be heard,": something along such diplomatic lines.
Now, what the hell is this Desi talking about?
Mr and Miss Patience is also Virtuous, okay!
My style of writing includes the perennial rhetorical questiion, but some NaSTy readers still would respond to Desi although minus the tehtarik offer.
To wits1, first I recall from:
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The NUDE CROOKED TIMES Returns
"The Frontpage reads:
Gov't sacks education minister S-G & D-G,
promises reform to correct depressing state of affairs
Seremban, Tuesday: Just a month into taking over the reins of government, the Cabinet at its fourth meeting yesterday sacked the Secretary-General and Director-General of the Education Ministry for the many failures to check the decline in eduacation standards, especially that of the English standard.
The newly-appointed Education Minister of the Alternative Aces Action FRont noted the dismal failure of the many adhoc measures to overhaul the school system as well as the consistently falling standards of the local universities, chiefly in producing the bulk of graduates who could not write a 100-word letter in simple English.
The Education Minister pulled out an old copy of a Malaysain daily dated 30 January 2007 to cite two examples of(1) the ad hoc measures taken by the former Government contributing to the present state of affairs;(2) Malaysian students today replacing Korean and Thai students having chalked up the honours of graduates with poor English language skills at Australian universities.
The Nude Crooked Times would refrain from paraphrasing the reports referred to by the Honourable Education Minsiter, just reproducing the gist of the issue in question:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year One pupils to get 18 English lessons a week, instead of the present eight, under a pilot project with emphasis on getting pupils to understandand be more comfortable with the English language Mathematics and Scienceclasses will be effectively turned into English lessons.
__________________________________________________________
To wits2, now happily read from one of your fave dailies, The Star, page N25 (that's alos another presumed thought of Desi, so don't prostest!):
Nation Friday February 2, 2007
Teachers refuse to back ministry
PETALING JAYA: The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) disagrees with the Education Ministry’s intention to increase the number of English sessions for Year One pupils.
Its secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said the union was not consulted on the matter at all.
“We do not agree with this at all. How will our pupils learn Science or Mathematics if their lessons are turned into English classes?” she said.
Lok said the children should not be turned into guinea pigs under the pilot project.
It was reported on Tuesday that Year One pupils would get 18 lessons on English a week, instead of the present eight.
Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon had said a pilot project would be carried out in 50 schools.
He said the one-year project to be called Early Literacy Through English programme or ELiTE, would see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.
Dr Ahamad said the ministry had selected schools in rural areas, particularly those with poor results in the English language, as it wanted to give pupils a stronger grasp of the language.
DESIDERATA:
Through the decades, every and each new DG at the Ministry would introduce some adhoc initiatives -- Communicative English, Nuffield Science, Bahasa Baku, et cetera, ad nauseum...(PLease note that the last two are NOT among the initiatives!) but years later, anything that had been working ship shape was mostly turned upside down.
Year 6 pupils could NOT master the three Rs of Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.
Form 5 or 6th Form students cannot write a decent 150-word or 300-word Essay in English.
University graduates have to be re-trained -- too many square pegs to fit the round holes.
You know Who or What is the CHIEF CULPRIT?
(Who, What are two of the five Ws and one H in basic Reporting skills to follow. If you're planning a career in Journalism, contact Desi and I'll give you aMore tutorials. No, freelunch is NOT included!:)
The Education leaders with their EXPERIMENTS using the ppupils and students as GUINEA PIGS. NOT my word -- it's from the horse's mouth of NUTP Secretary-General. BRAVO, Miss Lok Yim Pheng!
"I hope Malaysia springs forth more thinking citizens like thee
It replenishes the spring of Optimism and Hope in Desi
And many of my EsteemedReaders too
That they don't drown in a cesspool of woe."
Yes, this morning I'm OPTIMISTIC there is some hope for NegaraKu yet.
Now just THINKING ALLOWED, THINKING ALOUD before I depart:
Okay, add another W: the Why? Implementing these adhoc projects. PILOT project -- How much does it cost? That's the answer about the Motivation. And of course, maybe an omission in my Optimism today, did the money mainly flow into implementing the Pilot project?
After millions have been thrown down the drain -- I Think Yes, 90% went into the implementation of the projects. We must have faith in our politicians who set good examples in leadership to the civil service, Yes!
OR could it be syphoned off into certain mighty deep pockets? One bold ER from Ipoh whispered into Desi's ears: Remember that 90% of the Computer laboratories could not be used after the contract monies had been speedily paid?
"DEsi, you've got such short memory!" said Whispering Hope full of awe, Raising Helen.
Oh, I forgopt to reproduce a piece of good advice, another Desideratum for Good Leadership under new regime in 2017, the cover-date for the reprised NCT which announced those two news-making sackings:
*The old culture of "fostering sycophancy" shall be replaced by one of "in pursuit of excellence" in all fields of Malaysian endeavour, the Minister stressed.
__________________________________________________________________
PPS: A* Knightly Command!
Now boys and gals,
Go quietly amid the noise and haste
to Yahoo! News and view, for your soul's sake:
Heartfelt 'Idol' moment
A 64-year-old "Idol" hopeful's audition
left Paula Abdul in tears and Simon Cowell silent.»
Relive it
____________________________________________________________________
UPDATEd @5.10PM:
American Idol Season 6 "Have a heart"
Oh Sherman, if only there were more men like you.
I'm glad "American Idol" aired Sherman Pore's audition. Just when I was starting to think the show's execs have no heart, they showed that even they can be touched by love.
Sherman Pore, the 64-year-old man who helped his "lady," as he called her, keep her spirits up through a battle with cancer by petitioning to get on the show, sang "You Belong To Me" and it brought Paula to tears. And for the first time, I didn't even feel the need to mock her for it, because I understood.
He told the story about her battle with cancer, and how his petition had helped smooth her passing. Ironically enough, she died only two days before the audition. So, without offering sympathy, which Sherman said he didn't want, the judges allowed him to sing.
Watching Sherman sing that song, it was like you could almost imagine that he was seeing his lady in front of him as he sang it. Seeing how heartbroken he was, it made me think about whether love like that even exists anymore, and about how lucky Sherman was to have had it.
posted by Eileen Fredes at 9:56 PM on Jan 31, 2007
desiderata said...
thanks eileen for posting this.
this morning, I saw the short clip over Yahoo! News video, it was indeed a wise and exceptional audition waiver to allow 64-year-old Pore's TRIBUTE to his wife. I was like Paula, moved to tears.
PS: Can I reprise your post, Eileen, at Desi's Plcae? (My blog is (N)on-profit, strictly with NO ADs!:)
February 2, 2007 4:12 AM
A SALUTE TO SHERMAN PORE,
an exceptional guy who earned an exceptional audition
HE DID IT FOR THE love OF HIS WIFE:)
You Belong To Me
Patti Page Lyrics |
See the pyramids along the Nile.
Watch the sunrise from a tropic isle.
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me.
See the marketplace in old Algiers.
Send me photographs and souvenirs.
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me.
I'll be so alone without you.
Maybe you'll be lonesome, too.
And blue.
Fly the ocean in a silver plane.
See the jungle when it's wet with rain.
Just remember till you're home again
You belong to me.
Yes, cliche it may be, there is nothing like Leadership by Example.
The Young&Articluates today are no more like in our parents' times (Though we are presumptious speaking on their behalf, but that's just this scribe's premise, not YOURS, so you won't be flamed.) -- "Just follow my instructions, don't question. You may speak, but it won't be heard,": something along such diplomatic lines.
Now, what the hell is this Desi talking about?
Mr and Miss Patience is also Virtuous, okay!
My style of writing includes the perennial rhetorical questiion, but some NaSTy readers still would respond to Desi although minus the tehtarik offer.
To wits1, first I recall from:
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The NUDE CROOKED TIMES Returns
"The Frontpage reads:
Gov't sacks education minister S-G & D-G,
promises reform to correct depressing state of affairs
Seremban, Tuesday: Just a month into taking over the reins of government, the Cabinet at its fourth meeting yesterday sacked the Secretary-General and Director-General of the Education Ministry for the many failures to check the decline in eduacation standards, especially that of the English standard.
The newly-appointed Education Minister of the Alternative Aces Action FRont noted the dismal failure of the many adhoc measures to overhaul the school system as well as the consistently falling standards of the local universities, chiefly in producing the bulk of graduates who could not write a 100-word letter in simple English.
The Education Minister pulled out an old copy of a Malaysain daily dated 30 January 2007 to cite two examples of(1) the ad hoc measures taken by the former Government contributing to the present state of affairs;(2) Malaysian students today replacing Korean and Thai students having chalked up the honours of graduates with poor English language skills at Australian universities.
The Nude Crooked Times would refrain from paraphrasing the reports referred to by the Honourable Education Minsiter, just reproducing the gist of the issue in question:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year One pupils to get 18 English lessons a week, instead of the present eight, under a pilot project with emphasis on getting pupils to understandand be more comfortable with the English language Mathematics and Scienceclasses will be effectively turned into English lessons.
__________________________________________________________
To wits2, now happily read from one of your fave dailies, The Star, page N25 (that's alos another presumed thought of Desi, so don't prostest!):
Nation Friday February 2, 2007
Teachers refuse to back ministry
PETALING JAYA: The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) disagrees with the Education Ministry’s intention to increase the number of English sessions for Year One pupils.
Its secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said the union was not consulted on the matter at all.
“We do not agree with this at all. How will our pupils learn Science or Mathematics if their lessons are turned into English classes?” she said.
Lok said the children should not be turned into guinea pigs under the pilot project.
It was reported on Tuesday that Year One pupils would get 18 lessons on English a week, instead of the present eight.
Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon had said a pilot project would be carried out in 50 schools.
He said the one-year project to be called Early Literacy Through English programme or ELiTE, would see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.
Dr Ahamad said the ministry had selected schools in rural areas, particularly those with poor results in the English language, as it wanted to give pupils a stronger grasp of the language.
DESIDERATA:
Through the decades, every and each new DG at the Ministry would introduce some adhoc initiatives -- Communicative English, Nuffield Science, Bahasa Baku, et cetera, ad nauseum...(PLease note that the last two are NOT among the initiatives!) but years later, anything that had been working ship shape was mostly turned upside down.
Year 6 pupils could NOT master the three Rs of Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.
Form 5 or 6th Form students cannot write a decent 150-word or 300-word Essay in English.
University graduates have to be re-trained -- too many square pegs to fit the round holes.
You know Who or What is the CHIEF CULPRIT?
(Who, What are two of the five Ws and one H in basic Reporting skills to follow. If you're planning a career in Journalism, contact Desi and I'll give you aMore tutorials. No, freelunch is NOT included!:)
The Education leaders with their EXPERIMENTS using the ppupils and students as GUINEA PIGS. NOT my word -- it's from the horse's mouth of NUTP Secretary-General. BRAVO, Miss Lok Yim Pheng!
"I hope Malaysia springs forth more thinking citizens like thee
It replenishes the spring of Optimism and Hope in Desi
And many of my EsteemedReaders too
That they don't drown in a cesspool of woe."
Yes, this morning I'm OPTIMISTIC there is some hope for NegaraKu yet.
Now just THINKING ALLOWED, THINKING ALOUD before I depart:
Okay, add another W: the Why? Implementing these adhoc projects. PILOT project -- How much does it cost? That's the answer about the Motivation. And of course, maybe an omission in my Optimism today, did the money mainly flow into implementing the Pilot project?
After millions have been thrown down the drain -- I Think Yes, 90% went into the implementation of the projects. We must have faith in our politicians who set good examples in leadership to the civil service, Yes!
OR could it be syphoned off into certain mighty deep pockets? One bold ER from Ipoh whispered into Desi's ears: Remember that 90% of the Computer laboratories could not be used after the contract monies had been speedily paid?
"DEsi, you've got such short memory!" said Whispering Hope full of awe, Raising Helen.
Oh, I forgopt to reproduce a piece of good advice, another Desideratum for Good Leadership under new regime in 2017, the cover-date for the reprised NCT which announced those two news-making sackings:
*The old culture of "fostering sycophancy" shall be replaced by one of "in pursuit of excellence" in all fields of Malaysian endeavour, the Minister stressed.
__________________________________________________________________
PPS: A* Knightly Command!
Now boys and gals,
Go quietly amid the noise and haste
to Yahoo! News and view, for your soul's sake:
Heartfelt 'Idol' moment
A 64-year-old "Idol" hopeful's audition
left Paula Abdul in tears and Simon Cowell silent.»
Relive it
____________________________________________________________________
UPDATEd @5.10PM:
American Idol Season 6 "Have a heart"
Oh Sherman, if only there were more men like you.
I'm glad "American Idol" aired Sherman Pore's audition. Just when I was starting to think the show's execs have no heart, they showed that even they can be touched by love.
Sherman Pore, the 64-year-old man who helped his "lady," as he called her, keep her spirits up through a battle with cancer by petitioning to get on the show, sang "You Belong To Me" and it brought Paula to tears. And for the first time, I didn't even feel the need to mock her for it, because I understood.
He told the story about her battle with cancer, and how his petition had helped smooth her passing. Ironically enough, she died only two days before the audition. So, without offering sympathy, which Sherman said he didn't want, the judges allowed him to sing.
Watching Sherman sing that song, it was like you could almost imagine that he was seeing his lady in front of him as he sang it. Seeing how heartbroken he was, it made me think about whether love like that even exists anymore, and about how lucky Sherman was to have had it.
posted by Eileen Fredes at 9:56 PM on Jan 31, 2007
desiderata said...
thanks eileen for posting this.
this morning, I saw the short clip over Yahoo! News video, it was indeed a wise and exceptional audition waiver to allow 64-year-old Pore's TRIBUTE to his wife. I was like Paula, moved to tears.
PS: Can I reprise your post, Eileen, at Desi's Plcae? (My blog is (N)on-profit, strictly with NO ADs!:)
February 2, 2007 4:12 AM
A SALUTE TO SHERMAN PORE,
an exceptional guy who earned an exceptional audition
HE DID IT FOR THE love OF HIS WIFE:)
You Belong To Me
Patti Page Lyrics |
See the pyramids along the Nile.
Watch the sunrise from a tropic isle.
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me.
See the marketplace in old Algiers.
Send me photographs and souvenirs.
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me.
I'll be so alone without you.
Maybe you'll be lonesome, too.
And blue.
Fly the ocean in a silver plane.
See the jungle when it's wet with rain.
Just remember till you're home again
You belong to me.
Desideratum of a Good Writer or/and Leader
Q: What do you think of problems faced by Muslims around the world, particularly in Malaysia?A: Of course, many of them are enraged by the policy of the West, particularly the United States under this administration of Bush. It is very difficult for them to see a just resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians; we see this unending battle in Afghanistan and continuing occupation of Iraq. This has caused a lot of anxiety among Muslims.But we have to deal with this and that, notwithstanding our disagreements with some of the foreign policy prescribed by the U.S. We must remain in a moderate voice and promote understanding.
Q: The restrictions on you will be officially lifted in 2008; are you optimistic?
A: I will always be an optimist. Otherwise, I would not have survived in jail.
DESIDERATA: I start Friday's morning at 12.05AM, yes, five minutes past midnight Thursday, so that I can beat everyone at PPS as the first to ping on this Day of Gifting and Li'ving.
I start off with A* Challenge is:
Q: Who is the Subject answering the two questions posed to him/her?
KLUE: Blogger 2020freelunch cannot play this gAme:)
Prize: First three right answerers will get a goblet each of tehtarik, Au, Ag and Pt,
IF YOU CAN TRACK Desi DOWNTOWN FURONG THROUGH THE MAZE!:(
My parting gift is to remind that trait the subject has in plenty: OPTIMISM, should be emulated by all. In awe. Et Al.
I am with him all the way, especially as a writer, I believe without this desideratum, one can't carve a succesful career in scribing, so minus Optimism, what's there to go on?
"Dear ER, mGf -- Chow, join Desi at supper?" No, 2020freelunch is not included.
Q: The restrictions on you will be officially lifted in 2008; are you optimistic?
A: I will always be an optimist. Otherwise, I would not have survived in jail.
DESIDERATA: I start Friday's morning at 12.05AM, yes, five minutes past midnight Thursday, so that I can beat everyone at PPS as the first to ping on this Day of Gifting and Li'ving.
I start off with A* Challenge is:
Q: Who is the Subject answering the two questions posed to him/her?
KLUE: Blogger 2020freelunch cannot play this gAme:)
Prize: First three right answerers will get a goblet each of tehtarik, Au, Ag and Pt,
IF YOU CAN TRACK Desi DOWNTOWN FURONG THROUGH THE MAZE!:(
My parting gift is to remind that trait the subject has in plenty: OPTIMISM, should be emulated by all. In awe. Et Al.
I am with him all the way, especially as a writer, I believe without this desideratum, one can't carve a succesful career in scribing, so minus Optimism, what's there to go on?
"Dear ER, mGf -- Chow, join Desi at supper?" No, 2020freelunch is not included.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Threading a few bloggers' homes
with a nigh-Common Rebuttal by lazy, but humble-lah, (hamba) servant serving a few goblets of tehtarik to lace thy unique brain with some tonic or arSENic.
Thread1:
Salute1 to a Commenter Anon @www.bakrimusa.com making a challenge to the host and a regular fellow guest writer Din Merican in Bakri's Post titled:
“Little Limp Napoleons and Mighty Ming Emperors” and I threaded to two Comments, one by an ANON responding to this, whose piece was pretty long but eye-opening and worth your trouble to traverse there to read in full, as I serve thee some extracts.
Firstly, Bakri's few opening paras:
" Little Limp Napoleons and Mighty Ming Emperors
If Prime Minister Abdullah cannot handle the Little Limp Napoleons in the bloated Malaysian bureaucracy, there is little assurance that he could deal with the Mighty Ming Emperors of the competitive world.
We had a preview of this in the bungled negotiations over the proposed crooked bridge to replace the causeway. That was an embarrassingly graphic demonstration of the administration’s ineptness. If that was Abdullah’s performance in dealing with representatives of only a Little Ming Emperor, imagine if the adversary had been the big Ming Emperor!
In the negotiations with Singapore over the proposed bridge, Abdullah nearly gave away the store after being indulged with effusive flatteries. Malaysia is currently deliberating a Free Trade Agreement with America; that treaty will have major social, economic, and foreign policy implications. If the recent experience with Singapore is any indicator, I reckon that with only a brief visit to the White House, minus a state dinner, would be enough for America to secure whatever it wants from Malaysia."
Secondly, please indulge a pretty long extract:
"malaysia is no future Says: January 29th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
"The citizens of Bolehland ended the year 2006 in high spirits. Even though things did not quite work out for the work-with-me Prime Minister (PM), the government of the day took us to great heights in various ways.We were also kept high-minded by former PM Dr Mahathir (Dr M), who instead of riding off into the sunset, got on his high horse and refused to come down from it - even after his manhood had been questioned.Dr M felt it was high time to highlight to the PM that the latter had sold the country, stooped before his neighbours, stopped listening to ‘My Way’, stabbed him in the back and scrapped his pet projects……….He was not interfering, merely asking Pak Lah to step down, that is all.It was difficult to differentiate between the annual haze and Dr M’s high-end smokescreen. ..."
:
:
:
"Sharing Pak Lah’s prize for hypocrisy was Dr M who complained that he had been denied the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and that he was a victim of a police state - a legacy which he had so proudly left behind.He even very humbly claimed that he never had anyone arrested under the ISA for political reasons and blamed the mass arrests of Operation Lalang in 1988 on the police. A highly-incensed Lim Kit Siang reminded Dr M, who was also the then Home Minister and Justice Minister, that he was the ‘mastermind’ of the 1987 dragnet.He complained that the mainstream press had spurned him and spiked his statements. He even alleged the existence of spin doctors. Dr M was given a taste of his own medicine.
:
:
"It was also a year when the chickens came home to roost. Ani Arope, ex-chief of Tenaga, enlightened us on the role Dr M played in the higher electricity rates we are paying for. Anwar highlighted Dr M’s contribution to Bolehland RM30 billion loss as a result of forex speculations.One-time corporate high-flyer Tajuddin Ramli disclosed details in a court document regarding his “national service” duty to Dr M. Former High Court judge Syed Ahmad and former Lord President Salleh Abbas provided more disturbing information on the 1988 judicial crisis and other scandals in the judiciary which still stink to high heaven.The Pricewaterhouse Cooper Report on the Mismanagement of Proton Holdings (1996 - 2005), which The Edge had called “Proton’s Can of Worms”, provided a revealing glimpse into the worsening saga faced by the auto industry in Bolehland and exposed how the citizens had been taken for a ride.
:
:
:
"Alas, 2006 was a year when Pak Lah and his half-past-six-government functioned at half throttle, displaying half-measures against corruption and half-hearted efforts in the public service delivery system, and often indifferent to how the other half lives.It was also a year when we had to endure sky-high prices (resulting in high cost of living), high and scandalous wastage of government funds, high destruction to the environment (which resulted in a big flood in Shah Alam in early 2006 and another at the end of the year in Johor), high death tolls of 6000 a year on our roads, etc. The citizens of Bolehland were paying the high price of believing in the tell-me-the-truth government led by Pak Lah. There is, however, a high probability that they will still vote in the BN government in the next general elections in spite of all the ‘high points’ of 2006, being as absent-minded as they usually are! "
Thirdly, Anon wrote, and I reproduced his comment in full:
anon Says: January 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
"Well written piece with great commentary by “Malaysia is no future”.
The question remains: QUO VADIS, Malaysia!! Vested interests are very entrenched everywhere in business, civil service, and GLCs in particular (exempt PETRONAS) and at the grassroots level. If not, why did Tun Dr. Mahathir attack Badawi, his anointed successor!!
Tun Dr. Mahathir has no right to comment because he had destroyed institutions, including the judiciary, and weakened UMNO by “killing off” smart leaders like Tunku Razaleigh, Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and others, leaving behind a huge leadership mess in UMNO. He did that in order to stay in power. To his political credit, he was successful for he ruled like a dictator after removing people who could stand up to him intellectually and in politics.
Look at the main thoroughfare in Putrajaya. It reminds me of Hitler’s dream for Berlin, which, as we all know from history, was a disaster. Cyberjaya is too a serious state of disrepair and parts of Putrajaya are badly maintained. For all these, Tun Dr, Mahathir should be impeached or taken to court for abuse of power. Even our education system is a a huge mess.
Just in case we forget, who introduced money politics and KKN (Korupsi, Kronynisme, Nepotisme) in Malaysia? Who started this Islamisation programme, if not Mahathir. Corruption is now a budaya in our country.
I wonder what people like PaK Din Merican and California-based Dr. M Bakri Musa have to say about this. I feel when it comes to Mahathir, both these critics of the Badawi Government have a blind spot.
Both Badawi and Najib are mediocre. It is true, but we can confidently say that Mahathir had a big hand in their rise to power today. Mahathir is the supremo of the “blowing out the candles of others” syndrome. But in an attempt to protect his legacy, Mahathir is screwed up. What he has done in the last 22 years is being systematically dismantled and replaced by the father of Islam Hadhari.
So it is no wonder we as a nation are in the dumps and hopes of getting out of it are slim. No political will or just plain incompetence now?
LazyDesi's comment (C&P1):
ylchong Says: January 29th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
"Bravo to (Anon) for an articulate summary of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his successor Pak Lah, focuing on their weaknesses mainly.
Wrt:” Tun Dr. Mahathir has no right to comment because he had destroyed institutions, including the judiciary, and weakened UMNO by “killing off” smart leaders like Tunku Razaleigh, Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and others, leaving behind a huge leadership mess in UMNO. He did that in order to stay in power. To his political credit, he was successful for he ruled like a dictator after removing people who could stand up to him intellectually and in politics. ”
I would say Dr Mahathir should not be dismissed from such a forum or discourse. He should answer the charges. I would add that not only DR Mahathir destroyed all the four Estates. He turned the Executive (fFrst Estate) into a Dictatorship, lessened in magnitude by anointed successor no doubt, but the inherited “supreme power” vested in the PM’s office largely remains; Dr M also disembowelled the Legislature (Second Estate), enhanced by Pak Lah’s massive 90% mandare so it has become equally weakened and has become sycophantic to the PM chiefly;and as mentioned by“anon Says: January 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm “, Dr M also dstryed the Judiciary (Third Estate). My reading after three years is that Pak Lah has slighly improved the Judiciary, but it’s early days yet to be positive it will be across-the-borad progress or merely cosmetic and selective. Whatever semblance of the Fourth Estate that existed was a compliant, sycophantic Press (mainstream) with some online alternatives starting to bloom as New Kids On The Blog! On this last field, Pak Lah’s performance is premature to find a Verdict. Even if the Fourth Estate rises to a freer performance, I believe it’s driven not by Executive wishes but forced on the arrival of the infant “Fifth Estate” represneted by Internet-enabled citizen-journalism and blogging. JUst an aside. The outcome of the current defamation suits by NSTP plus associates against two Bloggers would have a landmark impact on Malaysian Blogsworld future direction.
To be fair, I must accord to ex-PM Dr Mahathir his contributions to putting Malaysia on the world map. He performed superbly in his first 10-12 years. My judgment is that it was in the second half of his helming the ship called NegaraKu was mis-directed by “over-staying his welcome” as the country’s CEO, compounded by his children’s involvement in “BIG” businessness. The writers’ reference to “K,K and K” is relevant, but I won;t dwell long in this field lest I be seeen as promoting the clarion calls of ex-DPM Anwar and his Reformasi movement. Cronysim, Corruption and Nepotism” remians well entrenched thanks to Dr M’s 22 years’ moulding and cast-ironing, yes?
I have also written aboutr the next point, and benefited through (later) discussion with Sdr Din Merican, wrt Anon’s next point I had also thrown at the two “gentlemen”. Gentlemen because Din still bought me kopi and nasi kandar while I traded with my terhtarik. I look forward to –ditto– with Sdr Bakri, but California is still ….s-miles away:)
“I wonder what people like PaK Din Merican and California-based Dr. M Bakri Musa have to say about this. I feel when it comes to Mahathir, both these critics of the Badawi Government have a blind spot.”
I echo Anon’s Q in Hi-desibels so that Bakri would still buy Desi grapefruit when I visit with a HelLo- and Behold, and we can continue our banter in Bazk Malay!:) I know Din will still belanja Nasi Kari Ikan Kepala Tenggeri or Kepala Ikan Yu!:)
PS: I will engage you (Anon) Amore if you ID yopurself, preferably with A* link to your webpage if you are a fellow Blogger?
Thread2:
Salute2 to hoRst @www.xpyred.textfiend.net in his post I'm reprising in full:
« disengagement and the batu talam boycott are bloggers partisan mouthpieces?! »
pm badawi says bloggers spread lies I can’t help but feel that the whole national media is being geared toward a full scale war on prevailing opinion. The latest salvo comes from this Sunday’s edition of the New Straits Times with a supposedly exclusive interview with PM Badawi. When the NST says “exclusive interview”, they make it sound like they stumbled upon PM Badawi during the WEF summit and dragooned him into speaking with them, don’t you think. Quite like happenstance. I looked through the write up in the online version of the interview, and saw a picture showing Hishammudin Aun with other NST stalwarts. Wait a second, isn’t En Hishammudin one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Jeff Ooi and Rocky? So what is he and his fellow NST top brass doing when they ask questions like this: Q: But do you think the criticism against you has gone overboard? If previously there were people who disagreed with certain matters the leaders did, the government did, today there seems to be more integrated efforts from a particular group to discredit you. This is most evident in cyberspace. Why is this happening? A: Seems that these people are captivated by these tools, the SMS, electronic media. They feel they are free, they cannot be disturbed and they can say whatever they wish to say. They do it (post comments) anonymously. This sort of freedom had made them resort to such action (of spreading lies and making unfounded allegations). Even bloggers or those who maintain websites use this opportunity to create stories. Lies after lies are being told. To them, everything is not right, everything is not good. If I allow myself to be distracted by all this, I will not be able to do any work. That is what they want, that I not focus on my work. My focus now is to ensure the 9MP is successful and I am confident that the nation is on the right track and is moving forward. The economy is expected to grow. I feel more energised to fulfil Malaysians’ ambitions. I don’t know. Fighting his case in the media via PM Badawi? I’m not sure. I’m sure its purely speculative at this juncture, and Hishammudin certainly didn’t say those things above. It’s just funny that’s all. I mean, what does it mean when the Editor-in-Chief allows comments from the PM which discuss, if tangentially, “lies” spread by bloggers in general (and the defendants in particular)? Maybe nothing at all. In any case, I wonder if bloggers do report lies. See, the way I see it, bloggers comment on news articles in the mainstream media. They then speculate but don’t assert. Sure, bloggers ask rhetorical questions like: “Is the government paranoid?” or “Is PM Badaw failing the people?” Parties are free to puncture holes in bloated speculations with truth, of course. But truth is a valuable resource in Malaysia… especially when everything from arrangements with toll concessionaires and water deals are shrouded with blanket imprimaturs from a Cabinet which classifies these issues “official secrets”. I’m not saying the government or its representatives tells lies. I’m saying that some people might interpret classifying everything as “secret” as avoiding the responsibility to tell the truth - they don’t need to lie, if they’re so inclined, you see? Talking about secrets, why are arrangements with toll concessionaires secret? How do details of such arrangements constitute, if revealed, a threat to national security? I’m not saying that “secret” details are potentially damaging to people in the government, of course - I’m just saying that obscurity leads to speculation and speculation cannot be controlled. The very fact that speculation cannot be controlled should, logically, influence a non-tyrannical, democratic and just government to champion transparency. Especially where it concerns money leaking out of the collective wallets of the rakyat. As I was saying, truth is a valuable resource, but hard to find in Malaysia. There are white lies, grey lies, multi-coloured lies, etc., but no stark truth. Maybe PM Badawi should do the following: De-classify documents pertaining to toll arrangements, etc. Allow public discussion, not merely in the official media, of matters arising from details of such agreements. Reveal details of the 880 projects completed under the 9MP, including allowing the independent audit of the RM 35 billion spent. In the meantime, I’ll not be holding my breath for any of the above to happen.No Tags
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LazyDesi's comment (C&P2):
# ylchong wrote: xpyre minus d d: Hope you indulge me lots today as I just traversed from http://www.bakrimusa.com/ and I added my 3sen worth’s to an ANON commenter’s two main points: Holding ex-PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad accountable for 22 years reign during which he destroyed, disembowelled all the four Estates — Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and Media/Press. I comented birefly on the infant Fifth Estate involving Bloggers. The “more relevant” point was Anon’s challenge to Bakri and a regular Guest Writer Din Merican for their “sycophantic” support for Dr Mahathir in their writes, which I too echoed and called on the two to reply/rebut. Similarly this point of “Sycophancy” in news treatment by the MSM, esp UMNO-controlled The New Straits Times, and several of the former GEICs and senior Editors from NSTP have taken to Blogging (one is now involved in one of the two defamation suits). The test again I would ask of these ex-NSTP-turned-Bollgers is: Are they not equally, if not more, guilty of propagating the news in their MSM heydays just akin to present “being geared toward a full scale war on prevailing opinion”.I have voiced my opinions strongly in Bakri’s blog, so I won’t bore repeatiung similar views on your current “mainstream” media review ~~ Times remain almost the same, it’s chganging of the casts…. PS: APologise for slight Digression/aggresion, my bad habit even as a Guest! To show Repentance, I would like to render assitance to help thee in starting an Onion…I do the peeling, OK!:)January 30th, 2007, at 1:47 pm #
Thread3:
Salute3 to the hoRst @jelas.info who wrote, only initial paras reproduced here:
Mahathir’s War Tribunal - Research on Participants Reveals Complete Lack of CredibilityPublished by nathaniel tan February 1st, 2007 in International, Judiciary and TELITI. 6 Comments
"Tun Dr. Mahathir wants to set up a war crimes tribunal? This looks like some of the least credible collection of “judges” ever.
Justice cannot come from the unjust, and TDM - the man who singlehandedly destroyed Malaysia’s judiciary - cannot possibly be expected to place justice above personal politics.
If Saddam was tried in a kangaroo court whose outcome was always known, do we think that George Bush and Tony Blair stand any chance of being found innocent (a fundamental aspect of true justice) by this so called Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission? Don’t make me laugh..."
LazyDesi's comment C&P3:
Feb 1st, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Nat, borrowing thy words: EVERYTHING IN THIS LIFE ON the good earth is “… about credibility, objectivity, and a true sense of justice; without which we are left with a situation in which the unjust attempt desperately to outkangaroo one another while the truth rots alone in some sad corner…”
“If you really want people like George Bush or Tony Blair to go down in history as war criminals, get some people with cleaner slates to do the judging. Don’t get the guy who manufactuared finding Anwar Ibrahim guilty of sodomy to lead the way.”
I have said it many times at other forums — the ex-PM who destroyed or disembowelled all the Four EStates of NegaraKu, what locus standi does he and his cahoots stand on to preach Peace, Justice and Transparency?I say Amen: God save us from more of these self-serving souls.
________________________________________
DESIDERATA: Somehow in blogosphere many writers forget the past and its lessons. Maybe as a journalist by training, I fall back too much into the past to put into perspective the present happenings and those reporting on the current goings-on. I see patterns of old guard/prder versus the new guard/order defining the divides, and I also make my stand after considering the past and present with a view to improving things for a better future NegaraKu.
Sadly, I detect much displays of sycophancy, and more subtly, the protection and perpetuation of "old interests" -- but who is Desi to judge?
I note the goings-on and try to alert my ESteemedReaders to see beyond the surface. Yes, there is much more than meets the eye, I have intimated to readers like allofhelen.blogspot.com who reluctantly stepped into Desi's cyber home at the beginning, but like curiosity cat not from Catsville, has come back for aMore, and I thank her for staying the course to see theorugh the mists and maze and haze. Hopefully to find some starlinght in the darkness of the Malaysian night. If now, blame this knight for not riding in with a shining armour on a white horse with a laser beam-light, will try harder, my promise with not a Brownie's honour. Scout, be it boy or girl, never mind as Desi preaches promoting a Malaysain society transcending Colour, Race and Creed, regardless of gender and age.
Thread1:
Salute1 to a Commenter Anon @www.bakrimusa.com making a challenge to the host and a regular fellow guest writer Din Merican in Bakri's Post titled:
“Little Limp Napoleons and Mighty Ming Emperors” and I threaded to two Comments, one by an ANON responding to this, whose piece was pretty long but eye-opening and worth your trouble to traverse there to read in full, as I serve thee some extracts.
Firstly, Bakri's few opening paras:
" Little Limp Napoleons and Mighty Ming Emperors
If Prime Minister Abdullah cannot handle the Little Limp Napoleons in the bloated Malaysian bureaucracy, there is little assurance that he could deal with the Mighty Ming Emperors of the competitive world.
We had a preview of this in the bungled negotiations over the proposed crooked bridge to replace the causeway. That was an embarrassingly graphic demonstration of the administration’s ineptness. If that was Abdullah’s performance in dealing with representatives of only a Little Ming Emperor, imagine if the adversary had been the big Ming Emperor!
In the negotiations with Singapore over the proposed bridge, Abdullah nearly gave away the store after being indulged with effusive flatteries. Malaysia is currently deliberating a Free Trade Agreement with America; that treaty will have major social, economic, and foreign policy implications. If the recent experience with Singapore is any indicator, I reckon that with only a brief visit to the White House, minus a state dinner, would be enough for America to secure whatever it wants from Malaysia."
Secondly, please indulge a pretty long extract:
"malaysia is no future Says: January 29th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
"The citizens of Bolehland ended the year 2006 in high spirits. Even though things did not quite work out for the work-with-me Prime Minister (PM), the government of the day took us to great heights in various ways.We were also kept high-minded by former PM Dr Mahathir (Dr M), who instead of riding off into the sunset, got on his high horse and refused to come down from it - even after his manhood had been questioned.Dr M felt it was high time to highlight to the PM that the latter had sold the country, stooped before his neighbours, stopped listening to ‘My Way’, stabbed him in the back and scrapped his pet projects……….He was not interfering, merely asking Pak Lah to step down, that is all.It was difficult to differentiate between the annual haze and Dr M’s high-end smokescreen. ..."
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"Sharing Pak Lah’s prize for hypocrisy was Dr M who complained that he had been denied the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and that he was a victim of a police state - a legacy which he had so proudly left behind.He even very humbly claimed that he never had anyone arrested under the ISA for political reasons and blamed the mass arrests of Operation Lalang in 1988 on the police. A highly-incensed Lim Kit Siang reminded Dr M, who was also the then Home Minister and Justice Minister, that he was the ‘mastermind’ of the 1987 dragnet.He complained that the mainstream press had spurned him and spiked his statements. He even alleged the existence of spin doctors. Dr M was given a taste of his own medicine.
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"It was also a year when the chickens came home to roost. Ani Arope, ex-chief of Tenaga, enlightened us on the role Dr M played in the higher electricity rates we are paying for. Anwar highlighted Dr M’s contribution to Bolehland RM30 billion loss as a result of forex speculations.One-time corporate high-flyer Tajuddin Ramli disclosed details in a court document regarding his “national service” duty to Dr M. Former High Court judge Syed Ahmad and former Lord President Salleh Abbas provided more disturbing information on the 1988 judicial crisis and other scandals in the judiciary which still stink to high heaven.The Pricewaterhouse Cooper Report on the Mismanagement of Proton Holdings (1996 - 2005), which The Edge had called “Proton’s Can of Worms”, provided a revealing glimpse into the worsening saga faced by the auto industry in Bolehland and exposed how the citizens had been taken for a ride.
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"Alas, 2006 was a year when Pak Lah and his half-past-six-government functioned at half throttle, displaying half-measures against corruption and half-hearted efforts in the public service delivery system, and often indifferent to how the other half lives.It was also a year when we had to endure sky-high prices (resulting in high cost of living), high and scandalous wastage of government funds, high destruction to the environment (which resulted in a big flood in Shah Alam in early 2006 and another at the end of the year in Johor), high death tolls of 6000 a year on our roads, etc. The citizens of Bolehland were paying the high price of believing in the tell-me-the-truth government led by Pak Lah. There is, however, a high probability that they will still vote in the BN government in the next general elections in spite of all the ‘high points’ of 2006, being as absent-minded as they usually are! "
Thirdly, Anon wrote, and I reproduced his comment in full:
anon Says: January 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
"Well written piece with great commentary by “Malaysia is no future”.
The question remains: QUO VADIS, Malaysia!! Vested interests are very entrenched everywhere in business, civil service, and GLCs in particular (exempt PETRONAS) and at the grassroots level. If not, why did Tun Dr. Mahathir attack Badawi, his anointed successor!!
Tun Dr. Mahathir has no right to comment because he had destroyed institutions, including the judiciary, and weakened UMNO by “killing off” smart leaders like Tunku Razaleigh, Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and others, leaving behind a huge leadership mess in UMNO. He did that in order to stay in power. To his political credit, he was successful for he ruled like a dictator after removing people who could stand up to him intellectually and in politics.
Look at the main thoroughfare in Putrajaya. It reminds me of Hitler’s dream for Berlin, which, as we all know from history, was a disaster. Cyberjaya is too a serious state of disrepair and parts of Putrajaya are badly maintained. For all these, Tun Dr, Mahathir should be impeached or taken to court for abuse of power. Even our education system is a a huge mess.
Just in case we forget, who introduced money politics and KKN (Korupsi, Kronynisme, Nepotisme) in Malaysia? Who started this Islamisation programme, if not Mahathir. Corruption is now a budaya in our country.
I wonder what people like PaK Din Merican and California-based Dr. M Bakri Musa have to say about this. I feel when it comes to Mahathir, both these critics of the Badawi Government have a blind spot.
Both Badawi and Najib are mediocre. It is true, but we can confidently say that Mahathir had a big hand in their rise to power today. Mahathir is the supremo of the “blowing out the candles of others” syndrome. But in an attempt to protect his legacy, Mahathir is screwed up. What he has done in the last 22 years is being systematically dismantled and replaced by the father of Islam Hadhari.
So it is no wonder we as a nation are in the dumps and hopes of getting out of it are slim. No political will or just plain incompetence now?
LazyDesi's comment (C&P1):
ylchong Says: January 29th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
"Bravo to (Anon) for an articulate summary of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his successor Pak Lah, focuing on their weaknesses mainly.
Wrt:” Tun Dr. Mahathir has no right to comment because he had destroyed institutions, including the judiciary, and weakened UMNO by “killing off” smart leaders like Tunku Razaleigh, Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and others, leaving behind a huge leadership mess in UMNO. He did that in order to stay in power. To his political credit, he was successful for he ruled like a dictator after removing people who could stand up to him intellectually and in politics. ”
I would say Dr Mahathir should not be dismissed from such a forum or discourse. He should answer the charges. I would add that not only DR Mahathir destroyed all the four Estates. He turned the Executive (fFrst Estate) into a Dictatorship, lessened in magnitude by anointed successor no doubt, but the inherited “supreme power” vested in the PM’s office largely remains; Dr M also disembowelled the Legislature (Second Estate), enhanced by Pak Lah’s massive 90% mandare so it has become equally weakened and has become sycophantic to the PM chiefly;and as mentioned by“anon Says: January 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm “, Dr M also dstryed the Judiciary (Third Estate). My reading after three years is that Pak Lah has slighly improved the Judiciary, but it’s early days yet to be positive it will be across-the-borad progress or merely cosmetic and selective. Whatever semblance of the Fourth Estate that existed was a compliant, sycophantic Press (mainstream) with some online alternatives starting to bloom as New Kids On The Blog! On this last field, Pak Lah’s performance is premature to find a Verdict. Even if the Fourth Estate rises to a freer performance, I believe it’s driven not by Executive wishes but forced on the arrival of the infant “Fifth Estate” represneted by Internet-enabled citizen-journalism and blogging. JUst an aside. The outcome of the current defamation suits by NSTP plus associates against two Bloggers would have a landmark impact on Malaysian Blogsworld future direction.
To be fair, I must accord to ex-PM Dr Mahathir his contributions to putting Malaysia on the world map. He performed superbly in his first 10-12 years. My judgment is that it was in the second half of his helming the ship called NegaraKu was mis-directed by “over-staying his welcome” as the country’s CEO, compounded by his children’s involvement in “BIG” businessness. The writers’ reference to “K,K and K” is relevant, but I won;t dwell long in this field lest I be seeen as promoting the clarion calls of ex-DPM Anwar and his Reformasi movement. Cronysim, Corruption and Nepotism” remians well entrenched thanks to Dr M’s 22 years’ moulding and cast-ironing, yes?
I have also written aboutr the next point, and benefited through (later) discussion with Sdr Din Merican, wrt Anon’s next point I had also thrown at the two “gentlemen”. Gentlemen because Din still bought me kopi and nasi kandar while I traded with my terhtarik. I look forward to –ditto– with Sdr Bakri, but California is still ….s-miles away:)
“I wonder what people like PaK Din Merican and California-based Dr. M Bakri Musa have to say about this. I feel when it comes to Mahathir, both these critics of the Badawi Government have a blind spot.”
I echo Anon’s Q in Hi-desibels so that Bakri would still buy Desi grapefruit when I visit with a HelLo- and Behold, and we can continue our banter in Bazk Malay!:) I know Din will still belanja Nasi Kari Ikan Kepala Tenggeri or Kepala Ikan Yu!:)
PS: I will engage you (Anon) Amore if you ID yopurself, preferably with A* link to your webpage if you are a fellow Blogger?
Thread2:
Salute2 to hoRst @www.xpyred.textfiend.net in his post I'm reprising in full:
« disengagement and the batu talam boycott are bloggers partisan mouthpieces?! »
pm badawi says bloggers spread lies I can’t help but feel that the whole national media is being geared toward a full scale war on prevailing opinion. The latest salvo comes from this Sunday’s edition of the New Straits Times with a supposedly exclusive interview with PM Badawi. When the NST says “exclusive interview”, they make it sound like they stumbled upon PM Badawi during the WEF summit and dragooned him into speaking with them, don’t you think. Quite like happenstance. I looked through the write up in the online version of the interview, and saw a picture showing Hishammudin Aun with other NST stalwarts. Wait a second, isn’t En Hishammudin one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Jeff Ooi and Rocky? So what is he and his fellow NST top brass doing when they ask questions like this: Q: But do you think the criticism against you has gone overboard? If previously there were people who disagreed with certain matters the leaders did, the government did, today there seems to be more integrated efforts from a particular group to discredit you. This is most evident in cyberspace. Why is this happening? A: Seems that these people are captivated by these tools, the SMS, electronic media. They feel they are free, they cannot be disturbed and they can say whatever they wish to say. They do it (post comments) anonymously. This sort of freedom had made them resort to such action (of spreading lies and making unfounded allegations). Even bloggers or those who maintain websites use this opportunity to create stories. Lies after lies are being told. To them, everything is not right, everything is not good. If I allow myself to be distracted by all this, I will not be able to do any work. That is what they want, that I not focus on my work. My focus now is to ensure the 9MP is successful and I am confident that the nation is on the right track and is moving forward. The economy is expected to grow. I feel more energised to fulfil Malaysians’ ambitions. I don’t know. Fighting his case in the media via PM Badawi? I’m not sure. I’m sure its purely speculative at this juncture, and Hishammudin certainly didn’t say those things above. It’s just funny that’s all. I mean, what does it mean when the Editor-in-Chief allows comments from the PM which discuss, if tangentially, “lies” spread by bloggers in general (and the defendants in particular)? Maybe nothing at all. In any case, I wonder if bloggers do report lies. See, the way I see it, bloggers comment on news articles in the mainstream media. They then speculate but don’t assert. Sure, bloggers ask rhetorical questions like: “Is the government paranoid?” or “Is PM Badaw failing the people?” Parties are free to puncture holes in bloated speculations with truth, of course. But truth is a valuable resource in Malaysia… especially when everything from arrangements with toll concessionaires and water deals are shrouded with blanket imprimaturs from a Cabinet which classifies these issues “official secrets”. I’m not saying the government or its representatives tells lies. I’m saying that some people might interpret classifying everything as “secret” as avoiding the responsibility to tell the truth - they don’t need to lie, if they’re so inclined, you see? Talking about secrets, why are arrangements with toll concessionaires secret? How do details of such arrangements constitute, if revealed, a threat to national security? I’m not saying that “secret” details are potentially damaging to people in the government, of course - I’m just saying that obscurity leads to speculation and speculation cannot be controlled. The very fact that speculation cannot be controlled should, logically, influence a non-tyrannical, democratic and just government to champion transparency. Especially where it concerns money leaking out of the collective wallets of the rakyat. As I was saying, truth is a valuable resource, but hard to find in Malaysia. There are white lies, grey lies, multi-coloured lies, etc., but no stark truth. Maybe PM Badawi should do the following: De-classify documents pertaining to toll arrangements, etc. Allow public discussion, not merely in the official media, of matters arising from details of such agreements. Reveal details of the 880 projects completed under the 9MP, including allowing the independent audit of the RM 35 billion spent. In the meantime, I’ll not be holding my breath for any of the above to happen.No Tags
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LazyDesi's comment (C&P2):
# ylchong wrote: xpyre minus d d: Hope you indulge me lots today as I just traversed from http://www.bakrimusa.com/ and I added my 3sen worth’s to an ANON commenter’s two main points: Holding ex-PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad accountable for 22 years reign during which he destroyed, disembowelled all the four Estates — Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and Media/Press. I comented birefly on the infant Fifth Estate involving Bloggers. The “more relevant” point was Anon’s challenge to Bakri and a regular Guest Writer Din Merican for their “sycophantic” support for Dr Mahathir in their writes, which I too echoed and called on the two to reply/rebut. Similarly this point of “Sycophancy” in news treatment by the MSM, esp UMNO-controlled The New Straits Times, and several of the former GEICs and senior Editors from NSTP have taken to Blogging (one is now involved in one of the two defamation suits). The test again I would ask of these ex-NSTP-turned-Bollgers is: Are they not equally, if not more, guilty of propagating the news in their MSM heydays just akin to present “being geared toward a full scale war on prevailing opinion”.I have voiced my opinions strongly in Bakri’s blog, so I won’t bore repeatiung similar views on your current “mainstream” media review ~~ Times remain almost the same, it’s chganging of the casts…. PS: APologise for slight Digression/aggresion, my bad habit even as a Guest! To show Repentance, I would like to render assitance to help thee in starting an Onion…I do the peeling, OK!:)January 30th, 2007, at 1:47 pm #
Thread3:
Salute3 to the hoRst @jelas.info who wrote, only initial paras reproduced here:
Mahathir’s War Tribunal - Research on Participants Reveals Complete Lack of CredibilityPublished by nathaniel tan February 1st, 2007 in International, Judiciary and TELITI. 6 Comments
"Tun Dr. Mahathir wants to set up a war crimes tribunal? This looks like some of the least credible collection of “judges” ever.
Justice cannot come from the unjust, and TDM - the man who singlehandedly destroyed Malaysia’s judiciary - cannot possibly be expected to place justice above personal politics.
If Saddam was tried in a kangaroo court whose outcome was always known, do we think that George Bush and Tony Blair stand any chance of being found innocent (a fundamental aspect of true justice) by this so called Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission? Don’t make me laugh..."
LazyDesi's comment C&P3:
Feb 1st, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Nat, borrowing thy words: EVERYTHING IN THIS LIFE ON the good earth is “… about credibility, objectivity, and a true sense of justice; without which we are left with a situation in which the unjust attempt desperately to outkangaroo one another while the truth rots alone in some sad corner…”
“If you really want people like George Bush or Tony Blair to go down in history as war criminals, get some people with cleaner slates to do the judging. Don’t get the guy who manufactuared finding Anwar Ibrahim guilty of sodomy to lead the way.”
I have said it many times at other forums — the ex-PM who destroyed or disembowelled all the Four EStates of NegaraKu, what locus standi does he and his cahoots stand on to preach Peace, Justice and Transparency?I say Amen: God save us from more of these self-serving souls.
________________________________________
DESIDERATA: Somehow in blogosphere many writers forget the past and its lessons. Maybe as a journalist by training, I fall back too much into the past to put into perspective the present happenings and those reporting on the current goings-on. I see patterns of old guard/prder versus the new guard/order defining the divides, and I also make my stand after considering the past and present with a view to improving things for a better future NegaraKu.
Sadly, I detect much displays of sycophancy, and more subtly, the protection and perpetuation of "old interests" -- but who is Desi to judge?
I note the goings-on and try to alert my ESteemedReaders to see beyond the surface. Yes, there is much more than meets the eye, I have intimated to readers like allofhelen.blogspot.com who reluctantly stepped into Desi's cyber home at the beginning, but like curiosity cat not from Catsville, has come back for aMore, and I thank her for staying the course to see theorugh the mists and maze and haze. Hopefully to find some starlinght in the darkness of the Malaysian night. If now, blame this knight for not riding in with a shining armour on a white horse with a laser beam-light, will try harder, my promise with not a Brownie's honour. Scout, be it boy or girl, never mind as Desi preaches promoting a Malaysain society transcending Colour, Race and Creed, regardless of gender and age.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A WedNURSEday's Inter:Lude!
This Wednesday is less of woe, but more of gifting and l'ving, because among myGoOdfriends are several Friday's Childe. I have in mind especially one dwelling nigh Catsville.
I'm writing a long and rambling Post today because of a conjunction of some happenings in the lust 24. And forwarning is that I'm using DDC in generous doses-- not venomous nyet! -- to deter some readers because, as I wrote Yesterday, my Comments channel went BUST! because of overwhleming response to The New Nu'espaper intro.
Yes, "lust" in the first sentence in DDC plays TWO ROLES -- the literal refers of course to "last" night w'ile the "knotty" side implies something "sexy" coming along to feed the voyeuristic tendencies in each of YOU. YOU is spelt with CAPS to remind the honourable ER here, sometimes spelt "hear" (Cos you're supposed to listen while I speak, No?) but mainly to emphasise the importance of each individual mousing in as Time's PERSON OF THER YEAR 2006.
I keep reiterating this Honour because two fellow Malaysian Bloggers are facing defamation suits. I may not agree with awe/all the things that JeffOoi (whom I regard as my Taiko) and RockyBru had written, wrote, write but I believe the plaintiffs have used a hammer to try kill two flies. I don't know who invented this "metaphor" so I can't prim and properly attribute, jest don't charge Desiderata2000.BC for "plagiarism". It may be just, not fair. Okay, remove the "comma" and let's see if there's a difference: It may be just not fair. I'm a democrat at heart, so YOU -- Time's P....... (I hear mGf the *hoRst of allofhelen.BC whispering: Cheong hee wan!) -- decide/deside.
I was concerned this morn/mourn when I received an email from a Times&Chimes reader saying that he/she could not access desiderata2000.BC. I asked her to "try again", even desperate enough to plead she went about it a roundabout way thus:
"OooohhhhhH somebody is sab(O)taging my Blog!Try again; OR go visit yantouch.wordpress.com, the*hoRst of my Borneo Post writes, and in the righthandcolumn, click on her Daily REads ~~ desi."
NOW I REACH THE BODY OF MY POST TODie AFTER A LONG PREAMBLE, which is the BIGGIE for Intro, which is the short for that long INTRODUCTION. Remember in my early Desiderata.English writes, I lectured you on Essay-Writing? That a good Essay must have an arresting INTRO, with an alluring BODY, and a climactic CONCLUSION?
What I would consider a "miracle" happened when I jumped into Blogospheric writHing was on the first day, my intimation -- don't mix up with intimidation! -- of my poetic-asspirations won me a fair maidenly visitor. She was a month older, so I acknowledge her as Blogsworld Jie-Jie, who ID herself as Yan. She has since led me up the garden path in exactly 1-1/2 months to sing FirstOfMay on The BorneoPost using exquisite words, as "WORDS are all I have, To take your hear away... " We later exchanged reminiscences on the Bee Gees and Don't Forget to Remember Me, she with The Boy Next Door, and Me, with FirstOfMay "when I was small, and Christmas trees were tall..."
I had to APologise to Yan, hoRst of www.yantouch.wordpress.com -- no, not that I did not gift her an AP! -- recently when I exchanged SMS with her using an overdose of DDC. She reminded me that she's dyslexic, and in last Sunday's Inter:Lude, I had writ:
"Interruptus: *is DDC, short for Da Desi Code, for newbies to this site which I use to spice up my **'rites for I believe LIfe is already too serious so we must ENJOY Blog's rides together, hence some adventurism with humour and wordplay. I APologise to a few of my ER (EsteemedReaders) who have what is termed DYSLEXIA, which I shall write more about in another Inter:Lude."
_____________DETOUR TO FELLA BLOGGER's SOJOURN___________
Yan elaborated on her "problem" soon after on Jan 19, thus:
Being TaggedPosted by Yan under Uncategorized[3] Comments
I have been tagged byJust me on five things you don’t know about me.
Probably, the ‘big thing’ you don’t know about me is I am dyslexia. Huh? Yes, I am. I am going to tell you what I don’t know how to do being dyslexic.
I am not going to count because I don’t count. I don’t count well. I remember when I was in Primary school, when we started to learn the times table (2×2 equals 4 etc), my teacher hit hard on my palm 99 times because I only get one correct, that is 2×1 is 2. Today, still very much handicapped with the times table, thanks to technology, there is a thing called calculator.
I learnt my Chinese first. That was an advantage to a dyslexia. Because I only concentrated on one language. I learnt Chinese well, but not without tears and pains. Thanks to my father who had treasures of Chinese classic stories that attracked me.
I learnt my English only when I entered fourth form. Thanks to my Engish teacher from India, Francis! I wrote about him somewhere in this blog. read it here
I never get to settle with Bahasa Malaysia! I just could not grasp the logic of per, me, kan…
Yes, I am dyslexic. But I read pretty well. I write articles too, both Chinese and English. Thanks to God for working on me, and still working on me…. I always borrow the words of Robert Browning's to tell my significant other or good friends -
Grow old with me, The best is yet to be!
Well, it’s my prayer too!
__________________Thanks, Yan, for the reminder! ____________
From here onwards, I'm not using any DDC. The DDC used in the preamble is to demonstrate the kind of words a dyslexic like Yan would have difficulty in deciphering, and I want to tell her:
Treat my Post today as a personal challenge. Read at leisure the preamble before her Post I reprised above, and slowly but surely mull over the wordplay a friend had concocted to tease my EsteemedReaders, including thee.
My motivation is above board, which means it's gifted to a Friday's Childe with this scribe using a percious God's gift to try to lead my readers on a critical thiking path. I have had stated I'm a democrat at heart. It's tru I try to avoid didactic writing. Didactic writings are shuffed down te reader's throat, which in the main is "suffocating". May even result in mental death.
I am encouraging Yan to accept the challenge of reading my DDC writes, including the old ones, to perhaps digest them at lesiure without fear, and just maybe, with a lightning strike of "awakening" one beautiful day, her dyslexia suddenly vanishes into thin air.
Then I'll come with a killer Mr Bill, even if I have to swim across the South China Sea.
I think a wordsmith must win his readers over to te extent of ENJOYING THE BLOGGER's JOURNEY, or he would have failed in this endeavour. It is bonus to me when some readers engage me further via Email -- and hopefully, we one day become fRiends. I type the last word in the previous/precedent sentence verl slowly, that I not leave out the "R", hence the emphasis with in Cap. Otherwise, it could prove to be a fatal mistake, typo not withstanding.
I wish to address the "problem" being faced by mGf numbering SE7EN on my fingers-and-toes ledger in Life's journey. Yes, Yan, this Post is specially dedicated to YOU.
I had promised I would blog on (after some research-lah:) this subject later, so here it's served on a silver goblet of Haridas' kambing rendang teased with BlueFurongRoserie tenderiser and ever-flowing tehtarik perfumed with Catsville RedBungaRaya lacey ginger.
On googling, here comes one dictionary definition, followed by some medical information about DYSLEXIA :
1) dyslexia. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. ...A learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend written words.
New Latin : dys- + Greek lexis, speech (from legein, to speak;...
(2) The following characteristics have been adapted from R. D. Davis,
37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia.[20] [edit]
General Individuals with dyslexia: May appear bright, intelligent, and articulate but are unable to read, write, or spell at an age-appropriate level. Have average or above average intelligence, yet may have poor academic achievement; may have good oral language abilities but will perform much more poorly on similar written-language tests. Might be labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough," or as having a "behavior problem."
Because dyslexia primarily affects reading while sparing other intellectual abilities, affected individuals might be categorised as not "behind enough" or "bad enough" to receive additional help in a school setting. Might feel dumb and have poor self-esteem, and might be easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing. Might try to hide their reading weaknesses with ingenious compensatory "strategies". Might learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.
Can show talents in other areas such as art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering. Have related problems with attention in a school setting; for instance they might seem to "zone out" or daydream often; get lost easily or lose track of time; and have difficulty sustaining attention.
[edit] Vision, reading, and spelling
Contrary to how it has been portrayed in the popular press, individuals with dyslexia do not perceive words backwards or upside down. In fact, visual problems are typically ruled out before a diagnosis of dyslexia can be made. Early studies of dyslexia did focus on the possibility that dyslexia is caused by visual difficulties, however very little evidence was found to support this theory. Likewise, there is little evidence that visual training provides effective treatment.
[21]. A popular theory in the 1970s suggested dyslexics may have Meares-Irlen Syndrome, a visual deficit in which the glare of the white page against black letters causes the words to shake, shiver, spin, etc. after a few minutes of reading. The proposed treatment was the use of colored plastic overlays that were thought help anchor the words to the page. This treatment has fallen out of favor as scientific studies have failed to support these claims. (See link below to asfedia).
Spelling errors - Because of difficulty learning letter-sound correspondences, individuals with dyslexia might tend to misspell words, or leave vowels out of words (e.g., spelling "magic" as mjc).
Reading - Due to dyslexics' excellent long term memory, young students tend to memorize beginning readers, but are unable to read individual words or phrases.
[edit] Writing and motor skills
Because of literacy problems, an individual with dyslexia may have difficulty with handwriting. This can involve slower writing speed than average or poor handwriting characterised by irregularly formed letters. Some studies have also reported gross motor difficulties in dyslexia, including motor skills disorder. This difficulty is indicated by clumsiness and poor coordination. The relationship between motor skills and reading difficulties is poorly understood but could be linked to the role of the cerebellum in the development of reading and motor abilities.[22].
[edit] Math abilities
Dyslexia should not be confused with dyscalculia, a learning disability marked by severe difficulties with mathematics. Individuals with dyslexia can be gifted in math while having poor reading skills. However, in spite of this they might have difficulty with word problems (i.e., math problems that rely on written text rather than numbers or formulas). It is also possible that individuals with dyslexia have difficulty with multiplication tables, and other mathematics which involve remembering the order in which numbers appear.
DESIDERATA hopes this little sojourn to understanding a little medical condition will inform us better. That we approach our interactors on a daily basis as human beings with strengths and weaknesses, but that as a God-fearing person, we must render each other support to enhance the goodness in each of us. With the less positive traits, we render assistance too to minimise the defects so that we are mutually enriched. I need to remind myself too of this credo, easily said, not so easily endeavoured.
Desi ends with a small prayer that all persons placed on this Good Earth will perform to the peak of their individual gifted potentials. The good Lord always has a plan and programme for each of us to walk in FAITH with Him, however and whoever YOU perceive Him to be.
I wsih all mGf, especially Yan, well as well as can be in our Times and Chimes,
For if we try hard enough, we will always hear the bells of joy ring,
We give thanks for tender mercies that come with small dimes,
We give thanks most of all for the miracles that each new dawn will bring.
I'm writing a long and rambling Post today because of a conjunction of some happenings in the lust 24. And forwarning is that I'm using DDC in generous doses-- not venomous nyet! -- to deter some readers because, as I wrote Yesterday, my Comments channel went BUST! because of overwhleming response to The New Nu'espaper intro.
Yes, "lust" in the first sentence in DDC plays TWO ROLES -- the literal refers of course to "last" night w'ile the "knotty" side implies something "sexy" coming along to feed the voyeuristic tendencies in each of YOU. YOU is spelt with CAPS to remind the honourable ER here, sometimes spelt "hear" (Cos you're supposed to listen while I speak, No?) but mainly to emphasise the importance of each individual mousing in as Time's PERSON OF THER YEAR 2006.
I keep reiterating this Honour because two fellow Malaysian Bloggers are facing defamation suits. I may not agree with awe/all the things that JeffOoi (whom I regard as my Taiko) and RockyBru had written, wrote, write but I believe the plaintiffs have used a hammer to try kill two flies. I don't know who invented this "metaphor" so I can't prim and properly attribute, jest don't charge Desiderata2000.BC for "plagiarism". It may be just, not fair. Okay, remove the "comma" and let's see if there's a difference: It may be just not fair. I'm a democrat at heart, so YOU -- Time's P....... (I hear mGf the *hoRst of allofhelen.BC whispering: Cheong hee wan!) -- decide/deside.
I was concerned this morn/mourn when I received an email from a Times&Chimes reader saying that he/she could not access desiderata2000.BC. I asked her to "try again", even desperate enough to plead she went about it a roundabout way thus:
"OooohhhhhH somebody is sab(O)taging my Blog!Try again; OR go visit yantouch.wordpress.com, the*hoRst of my Borneo Post writes, and in the righthandcolumn, click on her Daily REads ~~ desi."
*hoRst is an ORI DDC from Yan in a story she related. If thou art a true-blooded Curio cat, go search in both our archives. There is not such a thingy as free catsfood, or freelunch2007.
NOW I REACH THE BODY OF MY POST TODie AFTER A LONG PREAMBLE, which is the BIGGIE for Intro, which is the short for that long INTRODUCTION. Remember in my early Desiderata.English writes, I lectured you on Essay-Writing? That a good Essay must have an arresting INTRO, with an alluring BODY, and a climactic CONCLUSION?
What I would consider a "miracle" happened when I jumped into Blogospheric writHing was on the first day, my intimation -- don't mix up with intimidation! -- of my poetic-asspirations won me a fair maidenly visitor. She was a month older, so I acknowledge her as Blogsworld Jie-Jie, who ID herself as Yan. She has since led me up the garden path in exactly 1-1/2 months to sing FirstOfMay on The BorneoPost using exquisite words, as "WORDS are all I have, To take your hear away... " We later exchanged reminiscences on the Bee Gees and Don't Forget to Remember Me, she with The Boy Next Door, and Me, with FirstOfMay "when I was small, and Christmas trees were tall..."
I had to APologise to Yan, hoRst of www.yantouch.wordpress.com -- no, not that I did not gift her an AP! -- recently when I exchanged SMS with her using an overdose of DDC. She reminded me that she's dyslexic, and in last Sunday's Inter:Lude, I had writ:
"Interruptus: *is DDC, short for Da Desi Code, for newbies to this site which I use to spice up my **'rites for I believe LIfe is already too serious so we must ENJOY Blog's rides together, hence some adventurism with humour and wordplay. I APologise to a few of my ER (EsteemedReaders) who have what is termed DYSLEXIA, which I shall write more about in another Inter:Lude."
_____________DETOUR TO FELLA BLOGGER's SOJOURN___________
Yan elaborated on her "problem" soon after on Jan 19, thus:
Being TaggedPosted by Yan under Uncategorized[3] Comments
I have been tagged byJust me on five things you don’t know about me.
Probably, the ‘big thing’ you don’t know about me is I am dyslexia. Huh? Yes, I am. I am going to tell you what I don’t know how to do being dyslexic.
I am not going to count because I don’t count. I don’t count well. I remember when I was in Primary school, when we started to learn the times table (2×2 equals 4 etc), my teacher hit hard on my palm 99 times because I only get one correct, that is 2×1 is 2. Today, still very much handicapped with the times table, thanks to technology, there is a thing called calculator.
I learnt my Chinese first. That was an advantage to a dyslexia. Because I only concentrated on one language. I learnt Chinese well, but not without tears and pains. Thanks to my father who had treasures of Chinese classic stories that attracked me.
I learnt my English only when I entered fourth form. Thanks to my Engish teacher from India, Francis! I wrote about him somewhere in this blog. read it here
I never get to settle with Bahasa Malaysia! I just could not grasp the logic of per, me, kan…
Yes, I am dyslexic. But I read pretty well. I write articles too, both Chinese and English. Thanks to God for working on me, and still working on me…. I always borrow the words of Robert Browning's to tell my significant other or good friends -
Grow old with me, The best is yet to be!
Well, it’s my prayer too!
__________________Thanks, Yan, for the reminder! ____________
From here onwards, I'm not using any DDC. The DDC used in the preamble is to demonstrate the kind of words a dyslexic like Yan would have difficulty in deciphering, and I want to tell her:
Treat my Post today as a personal challenge. Read at leisure the preamble before her Post I reprised above, and slowly but surely mull over the wordplay a friend had concocted to tease my EsteemedReaders, including thee.
My motivation is above board, which means it's gifted to a Friday's Childe with this scribe using a percious God's gift to try to lead my readers on a critical thiking path. I have had stated I'm a democrat at heart. It's tru I try to avoid didactic writing. Didactic writings are shuffed down te reader's throat, which in the main is "suffocating". May even result in mental death.
I am encouraging Yan to accept the challenge of reading my DDC writes, including the old ones, to perhaps digest them at lesiure without fear, and just maybe, with a lightning strike of "awakening" one beautiful day, her dyslexia suddenly vanishes into thin air.
Then I'll come with a killer Mr Bill, even if I have to swim across the South China Sea.
I think a wordsmith must win his readers over to te extent of ENJOYING THE BLOGGER's JOURNEY, or he would have failed in this endeavour. It is bonus to me when some readers engage me further via Email -- and hopefully, we one day become fRiends. I type the last word in the previous/precedent sentence verl slowly, that I not leave out the "R", hence the emphasis with in Cap. Otherwise, it could prove to be a fatal mistake, typo not withstanding.
I wish to address the "problem" being faced by mGf numbering SE7EN on my fingers-and-toes ledger in Life's journey. Yes, Yan, this Post is specially dedicated to YOU.
I had promised I would blog on (after some research-lah:) this subject later, so here it's served on a silver goblet of Haridas' kambing rendang teased with BlueFurongRoserie tenderiser and ever-flowing tehtarik perfumed with Catsville RedBungaRaya lacey ginger.
On googling, here comes one dictionary definition, followed by some medical information about DYSLEXIA :
1) dyslexia. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. ...A learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend written words.
New Latin : dys- + Greek lexis, speech (from legein, to speak;...
(2) The following characteristics have been adapted from R. D. Davis,
37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia.[20] [edit]
General Individuals with dyslexia: May appear bright, intelligent, and articulate but are unable to read, write, or spell at an age-appropriate level. Have average or above average intelligence, yet may have poor academic achievement; may have good oral language abilities but will perform much more poorly on similar written-language tests. Might be labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough," or as having a "behavior problem."
Because dyslexia primarily affects reading while sparing other intellectual abilities, affected individuals might be categorised as not "behind enough" or "bad enough" to receive additional help in a school setting. Might feel dumb and have poor self-esteem, and might be easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing. Might try to hide their reading weaknesses with ingenious compensatory "strategies". Might learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.
Can show talents in other areas such as art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering. Have related problems with attention in a school setting; for instance they might seem to "zone out" or daydream often; get lost easily or lose track of time; and have difficulty sustaining attention.
[edit] Vision, reading, and spelling
Contrary to how it has been portrayed in the popular press, individuals with dyslexia do not perceive words backwards or upside down. In fact, visual problems are typically ruled out before a diagnosis of dyslexia can be made. Early studies of dyslexia did focus on the possibility that dyslexia is caused by visual difficulties, however very little evidence was found to support this theory. Likewise, there is little evidence that visual training provides effective treatment.
[21]. A popular theory in the 1970s suggested dyslexics may have Meares-Irlen Syndrome, a visual deficit in which the glare of the white page against black letters causes the words to shake, shiver, spin, etc. after a few minutes of reading. The proposed treatment was the use of colored plastic overlays that were thought help anchor the words to the page. This treatment has fallen out of favor as scientific studies have failed to support these claims. (See link below to asfedia).
Spelling errors - Because of difficulty learning letter-sound correspondences, individuals with dyslexia might tend to misspell words, or leave vowels out of words (e.g., spelling "magic" as mjc).
Reading - Due to dyslexics' excellent long term memory, young students tend to memorize beginning readers, but are unable to read individual words or phrases.
[edit] Writing and motor skills
Because of literacy problems, an individual with dyslexia may have difficulty with handwriting. This can involve slower writing speed than average or poor handwriting characterised by irregularly formed letters. Some studies have also reported gross motor difficulties in dyslexia, including motor skills disorder. This difficulty is indicated by clumsiness and poor coordination. The relationship between motor skills and reading difficulties is poorly understood but could be linked to the role of the cerebellum in the development of reading and motor abilities.[22].
[edit] Math abilities
Dyslexia should not be confused with dyscalculia, a learning disability marked by severe difficulties with mathematics. Individuals with dyslexia can be gifted in math while having poor reading skills. However, in spite of this they might have difficulty with word problems (i.e., math problems that rely on written text rather than numbers or formulas). It is also possible that individuals with dyslexia have difficulty with multiplication tables, and other mathematics which involve remembering the order in which numbers appear.
DESIDERATA hopes this little sojourn to understanding a little medical condition will inform us better. That we approach our interactors on a daily basis as human beings with strengths and weaknesses, but that as a God-fearing person, we must render each other support to enhance the goodness in each of us. With the less positive traits, we render assistance too to minimise the defects so that we are mutually enriched. I need to remind myself too of this credo, easily said, not so easily endeavoured.
Desi ends with a small prayer that all persons placed on this Good Earth will perform to the peak of their individual gifted potentials. The good Lord always has a plan and programme for each of us to walk in FAITH with Him, however and whoever YOU perceive Him to be.
I wsih all mGf, especially Yan, well as well as can be in our Times and Chimes,
For if we try hard enough, we will always hear the bells of joy ring,
We give thanks for tender mercies that come with small dimes,
We give thanks most of all for the miracles that each new dawn will bring.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The NUDE CROOKED TIMES Returns
DESI today generously -- after raising another 2million -- puts out a SECOND EDITION of The Nude Crooked Times due to Popular demand. "Popular" is an understatement because the Comments channel to the Inaugural Edition of the said daily was "disabled" due to the overwhelming response coming from my EsteemedReaders and I had to truncate to just five, oh, S'X, as an added-on because of its sexy nature.
The Frontpage reads:
Gov't sacks education minister S-G & D-G,
promises reform to correct depressing state of affairs
Seremban, Tuesday: Just a month into taking over the reins of government,
the Cabinet at its fourth meeting yesterday sacked the Secretary-General and Director-General of the Education Ministry for the many failures to check the decline in eduacation standards, especially that of the English standard.
The newly-appointed Education Minister of the Alternative Aces Action FRont noted the dismal failure of the many adhoc measures to overhaul the school system as well as the consistently falling standards of the local universities, chiefly in producing the bulk of graduates who could not write a 100-word letter in simple English.
This situation has prevailed in the past decade and is a growing disaster in an internationalised market-place where communication skills in the English language has emerged as the chief determinant of landing the executive level or corporate job.
The Minister pointed to the consistent appearance of Malaysians as among the foreign students graduating from universities abroad who couldnot communicate in prim and proper English, what more using exquisite English.
The Education Minister pulled out an old copy of a Malaysain daily dated 30 January 2007 to cite two examples of
(1) the ad hoc measures taken by the former Government contributing to the present state of affairs;
(2) Malaysian students today replacing Korean and Thai students having chalked up the honours of graduates with poor English language skills at Australian universities.
The Nude Crooked Times would refrain from paraphrasing the reports referred to by the Honourable Education Minsiter -- who is humble to the extreme as to not wanting his picture to be frontpaged.
Not that he did not wish to compete with the beloved Prime Minister, but that it's the contents of the topic that should be highlighted, and bolded thus, not the personality, he said.
The old culture of "fostering sycophancy" shall be replaced by one of "in pursuit of excellence" in all fields of Malaysian endeavour, the Minister stressed.
Example 1:
Frontpage
English on the double:ELiTE plan to boostEnglish proficiency
30 Jan 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year One pupils to get 18 English lessons a week, instead of the present eight, under a pilot project with emphasis on getting pupils to understandand be more comfortable with the English language Mathematics and Scienceclasses will be effectively turned into English lessons.
The objective: To help illiterate Year One pupils as they are the ones who struggle with their studies in subsequent years. Last year, 163,835 Year One pupils had trouble reading and writing.
KUALA LUMPUR: A plan to double the periods for English lessons will be tried out in schools in a bid to boost the pupils’ proficiency in the language. A pilot project to give Year One students 18 English lessons a week instead of the present eight would begin soon in 50 schools, said Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon.
The year-long project, called "ELiTE or Early Literacy Through English programme", will see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.
:
:
:
Stopping from boring the Press further, the Minister pledged that from now on, the new Governemnwil no longer "experiment" with any pilot or non-piloted schemes in education.
He promised a review of the school and university systems by Eminent Malaysians for six months with a blue-print to be implemented two years from now to ensure a long-term road map in education for Young and Young@Heart Malaysians.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DESI: Okay, now it's timely to reprise the relevant news item headlines, from Jan 23, 2007 titled: Introducing a new nu'espaper:
(See, Desi is a great believer in Re-Cycling to keep healthy and wise, or OtherWise:)
Declining English language standard:
Students' proficiency higher than teachers'
-- Researcher and findings dismissed
The Nude Crooked Times ran an exclusive report examining the causes of the falling standards of English in local schools and universities, quoting many parents as hearing from their school-going kids that their teachers were speaking "funy" English in class, adding "s" to nouns and verbs when they should not carry any "asses", and vice-versa.
It is "embarassing" to say the least for situations arising when some pupils stood up to "correct" the teacher's grammar. Of course, the pupils did not have any inclination to "embarass" the teachers, but such scenarios have become a common feedback to the Parents-Teachers' Associations.
Also, the parents urged the Education Ministry to be stringent in recruiting teacher- trainees as English specialisit teachers in requiring them to undergo competency and proficiency English tests conducted by internationally accredited and recognised bodies.
___________________________________________
EXAMPLE 2:
World (as of 5:01 PM)
Study: Asians graduate in Australia despite bad English
SYDNEY (AFP) - More than one-third of foreign students graduating from Australian universities, mainly Asians, have such poor English skills they should never have been admitted, research released Monday showed.
A study by demographer Bob Birrell found that more than 50 percent of South Korean and Thai students did not have sufficient English to work professionally in Australia, along with more than 43 percent of Chinese graduates.
m
Some 17 percent of students from Singapore and India, where English is more widely spoken, also failed to reach the required level, Birrell found.
Overall, 34 percent of the graduating foreign students offered permanent residence visas in 2006 did not have competent English.
Birrell, of Melbourne's Monash University, said almost all the 12,000 graduates tested for the survey were from Asia because these students are the most likely to apply for permanent residency on completing their studies.
However, he said that he believed the study to be representative of all foreign students, partly because Asia was a major source of fee-paying overseas students for Australian universities.
"It does raise questions about university standards," Birrell told AFP.
Education Minister Julie Bishop described the survey as "an extraordinary attack by professor Birrell on our universities."
"International students must meet international benchmarks in language in order to get a place in a university in Australia," she said.
The study found all graduates tested had enough command of the language to cope in most situations.
"But people who have reached this standard are still not capable of conducting a sophisticated discourse at the professional level," it said.
Tertiary institutions are reliant on international students because they provide 15 percent of funding, leading to suggestions that academic standards are sacrificed in favour of financial rewards.
In his report, Birrell said there was a "mountain of anecdotal material" that many overseas students struggle to meet their course requirements and that universities cope by lowering the English demands of courses.
"There is widespread recognition of the English problem," he said.
But universities were hesitant to make students take extra language courses because this would make them more expensive and therefore less attractive than rival institutions, he said.
Professor Gerard Sutton, the president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, said most foreign students would be proficient in reading, writing and listening to English.
"What I think has been highlighted is a deficiency in spoken language," he told AFP, adding that a deficiency in this area would not prevent them from completing a university course.
Of the students surveyed, those from South Korea fared the worst with 55.5 percent not meeting the required English standard.
They were followed by Thailand (50.9), Nepal (47.9), Taiwan (47.4), China (43.2), Hong Kong (42.9), Bangladesh (42.0), Japan (36.8), Vietnam (32.9), Indonesia (32.0), Sri Lanka (25.1), Pakistan (24.8), Malaysia (23.5), Singapore (17.8) and India (17.3).
Education is Australia's fourth largest export, with foreign students paying some two billion dollars (1.5 billion US) to attend universities annually.
DESI: To be continued~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~from 11.55AM~~
The new Education Minister noted with "deep regret" that Malaysia's ranking in 2007 has now risen to number two after Indonesia in the latest findings by Australian academics on the "performance by foreign students in English language proficiency" with the number 1 ranking as "faring the lowest" in English proficiency.
He drew the attention to the fact that China and Thailand have improved by leaps and bounds since the Jan 30, 2007 news report and now are almost on par with Singapore, which retains its supremo position as being the"most proficient" in English mastery among the foreign graduates in Australia.
"We have lost it in terms of competitiveness in the key areas of education and globalised village, as international commerce is closely tied to the Englsih language mastery, now the dominant medium used by all the important players in the mainly high-tech and Internet-cum-knowledge economy." he added.
_________________ IMPORTANT NOTICE ______________________
GEIC: Please note the Cover-date of the latest edition of The Nude Crooked Times is Jan 30, 2017.
___________This is a Privileged Look at the Possible Things to Come IF ONLY MALAYSIANS DO THEIR PART RIGHT____________ Desiderata2000
The Frontpage reads:
Gov't sacks education minister S-G & D-G,
promises reform to correct depressing state of affairs
Seremban, Tuesday: Just a month into taking over the reins of government,
the Cabinet at its fourth meeting yesterday sacked the Secretary-General and Director-General of the Education Ministry for the many failures to check the decline in eduacation standards, especially that of the English standard.
The newly-appointed Education Minister of the Alternative Aces Action FRont noted the dismal failure of the many adhoc measures to overhaul the school system as well as the consistently falling standards of the local universities, chiefly in producing the bulk of graduates who could not write a 100-word letter in simple English.
This situation has prevailed in the past decade and is a growing disaster in an internationalised market-place where communication skills in the English language has emerged as the chief determinant of landing the executive level or corporate job.
The Minister pointed to the consistent appearance of Malaysians as among the foreign students graduating from universities abroad who couldnot communicate in prim and proper English, what more using exquisite English.
The Education Minister pulled out an old copy of a Malaysain daily dated 30 January 2007 to cite two examples of
(1) the ad hoc measures taken by the former Government contributing to the present state of affairs;
(2) Malaysian students today replacing Korean and Thai students having chalked up the honours of graduates with poor English language skills at Australian universities.
The Nude Crooked Times would refrain from paraphrasing the reports referred to by the Honourable Education Minsiter -- who is humble to the extreme as to not wanting his picture to be frontpaged.
Not that he did not wish to compete with the beloved Prime Minister, but that it's the contents of the topic that should be highlighted, and bolded thus, not the personality, he said.
The old culture of "fostering sycophancy" shall be replaced by one of "in pursuit of excellence" in all fields of Malaysian endeavour, the Minister stressed.
Example 1:
Frontpage
English on the double:ELiTE plan to boostEnglish proficiency
30 Jan 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year One pupils to get 18 English lessons a week, instead of the present eight, under a pilot project with emphasis on getting pupils to understandand be more comfortable with the English language Mathematics and Scienceclasses will be effectively turned into English lessons.
The objective: To help illiterate Year One pupils as they are the ones who struggle with their studies in subsequent years. Last year, 163,835 Year One pupils had trouble reading and writing.
KUALA LUMPUR: A plan to double the periods for English lessons will be tried out in schools in a bid to boost the pupils’ proficiency in the language. A pilot project to give Year One students 18 English lessons a week instead of the present eight would begin soon in 50 schools, said Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon.
The year-long project, called "ELiTE or Early Literacy Through English programme", will see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.
:
:
:
Stopping from boring the Press further, the Minister pledged that from now on, the new Governemnwil no longer "experiment" with any pilot or non-piloted schemes in education.
He promised a review of the school and university systems by Eminent Malaysians for six months with a blue-print to be implemented two years from now to ensure a long-term road map in education for Young and Young@Heart Malaysians.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DESI: Okay, now it's timely to reprise the relevant news item headlines, from Jan 23, 2007 titled: Introducing a new nu'espaper:
(See, Desi is a great believer in Re-Cycling to keep healthy and wise, or OtherWise:)
Declining English language standard:
Students' proficiency higher than teachers'
-- Researcher and findings dismissed
The Nude Crooked Times ran an exclusive report examining the causes of the falling standards of English in local schools and universities, quoting many parents as hearing from their school-going kids that their teachers were speaking "funy" English in class, adding "s" to nouns and verbs when they should not carry any "asses", and vice-versa.
It is "embarassing" to say the least for situations arising when some pupils stood up to "correct" the teacher's grammar. Of course, the pupils did not have any inclination to "embarass" the teachers, but such scenarios have become a common feedback to the Parents-Teachers' Associations.
Also, the parents urged the Education Ministry to be stringent in recruiting teacher- trainees as English specialisit teachers in requiring them to undergo competency and proficiency English tests conducted by internationally accredited and recognised bodies.
___________________________________________
EXAMPLE 2:
(You can refer to The Star World news for similar copy, but what follows is the Original I copied after Yahoo-Searched)
World (as of 5:01 PM)
Study: Asians graduate in Australia despite bad English
SYDNEY (AFP) - More than one-third of foreign students graduating from Australian universities, mainly Asians, have such poor English skills they should never have been admitted, research released Monday showed.
A study by demographer Bob Birrell found that more than 50 percent of South Korean and Thai students did not have sufficient English to work professionally in Australia, along with more than 43 percent of Chinese graduates.
m
Some 17 percent of students from Singapore and India, where English is more widely spoken, also failed to reach the required level, Birrell found.
Overall, 34 percent of the graduating foreign students offered permanent residence visas in 2006 did not have competent English.
Birrell, of Melbourne's Monash University, said almost all the 12,000 graduates tested for the survey were from Asia because these students are the most likely to apply for permanent residency on completing their studies.
However, he said that he believed the study to be representative of all foreign students, partly because Asia was a major source of fee-paying overseas students for Australian universities.
"It does raise questions about university standards," Birrell told AFP.
Education Minister Julie Bishop described the survey as "an extraordinary attack by professor Birrell on our universities."
"International students must meet international benchmarks in language in order to get a place in a university in Australia," she said.
The study found all graduates tested had enough command of the language to cope in most situations.
"But people who have reached this standard are still not capable of conducting a sophisticated discourse at the professional level," it said.
Tertiary institutions are reliant on international students because they provide 15 percent of funding, leading to suggestions that academic standards are sacrificed in favour of financial rewards.
In his report, Birrell said there was a "mountain of anecdotal material" that many overseas students struggle to meet their course requirements and that universities cope by lowering the English demands of courses.
"There is widespread recognition of the English problem," he said.
But universities were hesitant to make students take extra language courses because this would make them more expensive and therefore less attractive than rival institutions, he said.
Professor Gerard Sutton, the president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, said most foreign students would be proficient in reading, writing and listening to English.
"What I think has been highlighted is a deficiency in spoken language," he told AFP, adding that a deficiency in this area would not prevent them from completing a university course.
Of the students surveyed, those from South Korea fared the worst with 55.5 percent not meeting the required English standard.
They were followed by Thailand (50.9), Nepal (47.9), Taiwan (47.4), China (43.2), Hong Kong (42.9), Bangladesh (42.0), Japan (36.8), Vietnam (32.9), Indonesia (32.0), Sri Lanka (25.1), Pakistan (24.8), Malaysia (23.5), Singapore (17.8) and India (17.3).
Education is Australia's fourth largest export, with foreign students paying some two billion dollars (1.5 billion US) to attend universities annually.
DESI: To be continued~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~from 11.55AM~~
The new Education Minister noted with "deep regret" that Malaysia's ranking in 2007 has now risen to number two after Indonesia in the latest findings by Australian academics on the "performance by foreign students in English language proficiency" with the number 1 ranking as "faring the lowest" in English proficiency.
He drew the attention to the fact that China and Thailand have improved by leaps and bounds since the Jan 30, 2007 news report and now are almost on par with Singapore, which retains its supremo position as being the"most proficient" in English mastery among the foreign graduates in Australia.
"We have lost it in terms of competitiveness in the key areas of education and globalised village, as international commerce is closely tied to the Englsih language mastery, now the dominant medium used by all the important players in the mainly high-tech and Internet-cum-knowledge economy." he added.
_________________ IMPORTANT NOTICE ______________________
GEIC: Please note the Cover-date of the latest edition of The Nude Crooked Times is Jan 30, 2017.
___________This is a Privileged Look at the Possible Things to Come IF ONLY MALAYSIANS DO THEIR PART RIGHT____________ Desiderata2000
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Face of A Tiger
(or The Face of An Anarchist)
A was aged about 21
He came from the Village
They think all villagers were Morons
B must be a year older
He came from B'g, B'd City
I know this one was a Menace
Bee spoke of socialism
That we must take care of humankind
Therefore be kind to your fellow men
Aye told Bee to take his socialelitism
with him back to his toilet
Bee was furious
So he sent Aye a lawyer's letter
"My client wanted to be your Friend, Aye.
But you had the audacity to reject him.
That's not very socialistic.
That's not what humankind should be.
Furthermore, we are both C.......ly brothers."
Yeah, Aye replied:
"We are both Homo sapiens but not C.......ly.
Don't call everyone you meet Brother,
Or fRiend."
"Drop that 'R', Tiger."
DESIderata was inspired to pen this poem about 10.33AM,
January 29, in the Year of Our Lord 20h0hSE7EN
by johnleemk's uestion over the wickend:
Does “Walk With
Us” stand for anarchy?
A was aged about 21
He came from the Village
They think all villagers were Morons
B must be a year older
He came from B'g, B'd City
I know this one was a Menace
Bee spoke of socialism
That we must take care of humankind
Therefore be kind to your fellow men
Aye told Bee to take his socialelitism
with him back to his toilet
Bee was furious
So he sent Aye a lawyer's letter
"My client wanted to be your Friend, Aye.
But you had the audacity to reject him.
That's not very socialistic.
That's not what humankind should be.
Furthermore, we are both C.......ly brothers."
Yeah, Aye replied:
"We are both Homo sapiens but not C.......ly.
Don't call everyone you meet Brother,
Or fRiend."
"Drop that 'R', Tiger."
DESIderata was inspired to pen this poem about 10.33AM,
January 29, in the Year of Our Lord 20h0hSE7EN
by johnleemk's uestion over the wickend:
Does “Walk With
Us” stand for anarchy?
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