Feeling Back Home

Year 2008 marks my return to Penang after being away for more than 5 years. To add to the excitement of it, I have finally gotten a job that I am passionate and rewarding in Penang. That is really hard to come by.

Looking ahead this year with much enthusiasm. Many more exciting events are awaiting for me. I am certain 2008 will be a life-changing year, just by looking at the many important events lined up on my planner.

"God, I give thanks to You for everything in 2007. I continue to commit this year into Your loving hands and with full confidence that You will guide me through. Thank you, Lord. Amen"

Time Flies

Time really flies! I'm into the final 2 weeks of the Master program in NUS. The past one month had been one of the craziest month for the past 16 months of graduate studies.

Was this stint in NUS worthwhile? Have I made the right decision to pursue this Master, at the cost of giving up two jobs - a glamorous one and a high-paying one?

Well, as I reflect on the decision to give up the jobs, I do not have such a great regrets about it. Perhaps missed the money a little but the worthiness to come to NUS is ambiguous.

The 16-month had been generally demoralising and demotivating. I have encountered more of the negatives than the positives. Met more unpleasant characters rather than pleasant individuals. It's getting too negative! I guess no point going into the details about negativity but rather look into the positives.

On the positive side, I have benefited from several dedicated academicians, AB, SY, LBT and RCKS. They truly performed to the best of their abilities to be a dedicated teacher, despite their busyness with research and publication, unlike the general phenomenon, "Research is the priority, publication is everything, but teaching is a distraction and waste of time".

However to be fair, the lecturers that I encountered in modules I took outside of my department have been superb. They - PB, ET, RW and AR - are worthy to be called a teacher as they have done their teaching duties excellently. Therefore I would conclude that my bad experiences with "researchers hiding behind the mask of educators" as more a problem of the department rather than NUS as a whole. In reflecting this, I realized the teachers that I have respected very much - since primary, secondary, undergraduate and master level - have always been those who are dedicated and committed to teach, share, mentor and guide their students, rather than those with superb knowledge or high intellectual level.

Talking about the peers, I have benefited less than I expected. The general objective of fellow classmates were more towards securing a degree with A's and head off into the job market. Few were truly there to learn and expand their intellectual capabilities. For those of you who fall into the later category, I would like to let you know that your willingness to share, debate and argue on many different issues has certainly impacted me positively. I hope I had also done the same to you!

One more positive thing about this graduate program, the scholarship. I really have to thank NUS for this. No doubt, excellent!

In general, this 16-month has been a good eye-opener to many different things. It has been a good learning opportunity to me, but if given a choice again, I bet I would have chosen differently.

Just another Junction

It has been a busy and stressful month. Lots of important things need to be done while juggling many equally important decisions to made. At the same time, I am also excited by the many major things happening soon.

I'm coming to another junction in life. Faced with many uncertainty and tough decisions. There are many roads lie ahead of me; some I prefer to travel, some I love to travel, some I hope I could travel while some I might have to travel.

Despite all these mixed feelings, I thank God for the re-assurance that He is there with me. The sermon on Sunday was about the pleasures and pains of leadership, drawing from the example of Joseph. I am reminded of the importance of God's presence in whatever circumstances. It has been a comfort to know that when God's presence is with us, things will eventually fall into place and success will be with us, even though our surroundings and the process might not be as we expected.

The quiet time with God for the past 2 days had also been encouraging, looking at the life of Daniel, who has also found much success in life through God's providence and guidance. Daniel reminded me of the perseverance and steadfastly standing firm on God's principles when things around us were not smooth-sailing.

Well, this junction is just another junction in life. The process is important but let me be reminded that the goal is even more important. For all I know, God is still there with me and nothing better could I ask for, just as describe by the chorus of the song "Still".

When the oceans rise and thunders roar,
I will soar with You above the storm,
Father, You are King over the flood,
I will be still and know You are God.
Still, by Hillsong

Home Schooling - An alternative for schooling?

I first heard about home schooling about 5 years ago. Someone related to me began home schooling and I have the privilege to tutor him for a few months.

Home schooling is ideally the alternative schooling whereby a parent (usually the mother) will stays at home and tutor the child. The materials used were usually sourced from United States and some from Australia. The advantage of home schooling is that the pace of learning can be catered specially for the child and he or she could also benefit from the close supervision and interaction of the parent.

After listening to a talk on home schooling last week in the Sociology of Education class, I began to see some flaws in the home schooling scenario in Malaysia. In Malaysia, many of these home schoolers actually attend Home School Centre. These centres provide tutorship for the students and ideal study environment. It was also said that these centres also provide the necessary social interaction for home schoolers. However, this method of home schooling has defeated a very important fundamentals of home schooling, whereby parents are suppose to be the main tutor and guidance for the child's education. By sending the child to a home school centre does not make much difference in sending him or her to a conventional school and the role of parents as tutor has again been taken over by another so-called teacher in the centre.

Another part of me that could not agree with home schooling is the importance of schools. I have personally benefited from the rich experiences I gained in school, particularly my secondary education. The school has not only provided me with the necessary knowledge, but more importantly, has presented me a wonderful education to be a scholar, sportsman and gentleman. Once in a while, I do actually wonder whether will I be the same person if not for the 7-formative years in secondary school.

There could still be more arguments raised regarding home schooling, be it the pros or cons. I guess what is more important is how education can transform a person into a better person. Failing to do so, education has failed, regardless of the mean of schooling.

Brain Drain

"Brain Drain" has been one of the issues debated where development is concern. To my understanding, it is the situation whereby talents in developing countries are attracted to migrate and work in developed countries. This migration of talent is therefore known as "brain drain" (I might be wrong with this definition).

How do we measure "brain drain"?
I did a search on the articles regarding this topic and surprisingly, almost all of it was written with plenty of assumptions and uses mathematical models to predict the effect. I could not find any solid quantitative data showing "brain drain" and therefore it remains a question about the seriousness of this problem.

Is this "brain drain"?
To my understanding, "brain drain" is a flow of trained talents migrating from developing to developed countries. What if the potential talents have been attracted to these developed countries before receiving the full training? (i.e. brilliant students given scholarship to study in developed countries) Does it still consider "brain drain"?

Just putting down my thoughts regarding this issue. It seems to me that this is another difficult areas that quantitative information is unavailable. I guess developing countries might not be able to identify the amount of "brain drain". In a hypothetical situation, a person would not inform his/her country when he/she intends to move overseas. Therefore I was just wondering how do the country actually know the actual amount of "brain drain".

Make a Difference

Won't you Lord, take a look at our hands
Everything we have, we used it for Your plan

Won't you Lord, take a look at our hearts
Mold it, refine it and set us apart

We will run to the altar and catch the fire
To stand in the gap between the living and the death
Give us a heart of compassion
For the world without a vision
We will make a difference
Bringing hope to our land

I first heard this song, "Make a Difference", when I was volunteering at the NCO Training School in Ipoh in 2001. This period was one of the most challenging period of my spiritual walk with God. It was the time of slow recovering after a major "tsunami" in my spiritual life. The song meant to be my crying to the Lord and telling him the pain that is in me.

For the next few years, I came across this song a couple of times.

Then for the past two Sundays, this song have been sang during worship service, probably because it was International Mission Sunday. This time, the song brings a new dimension and understanding. It was now more of a cry asking God to use my life to fulfill His calling. That spirit within me is yearning to tell God, "I want to make a difference".

Looking at that, what remarkable blessings I have received from God since that crisis. Things have changed for the better and indeed God has used that dark point to become the turning point of blessings. Confidently, I can now tell God,

"Take a look at my hands and heart, use it for the purpose You intended for me to fulfill. I am willing to be the bridge over the gap in impacting the people You intended for me to impact. Take charge of my life in accordance to Your plan. Grant me a clear understanding of Your calling and provide all the support for me to accomplish the mission. Amen."

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Fifty years ago, this very day, Malaya gained its independence from the British empire. Being a Malaysian, it was indeed a day to be proud of the achievements that this 50-year old country had achieved.

Taking a few moments this very minute to ponder the meaning of Merdeka, I wish to pen several of my thoughts about the independence of my beloved country.

What is patriotism? I guess I could call myself a patriotic Malaysian. I have always felt proud being a Malaysian. Proud that I have the freedom to practice Christianity and living peacefully in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community.

Pondering deeper, I would think that this 50th celebration is not only counting the achievements of the past, but rather a good opportunity for Malaysia to reflect on the past and move forward. The country is at a crucial junction in many areas. As the country geared towards this celebration, many critical issues continued to head the headlines almost everyday.

The nation is still caught in debate about :-
about the role of Constitution;
jurisdiction between civil and syariah court;
increasing corruption;
continuation of affirmative policy;
the proposal of Common Law being replaced by Islamic Law;
the conduct of parliamentarians;
inefficient public service;
decreasing competitiveness; and more importantly
"is Malaysia an Islamic state?".

Why is the country still uncertain and indecisive about so many crucial issues?

Is it because Malaysians in the past were ignorant?

Or is it that Malaysia nearing the age of 50, began to need a pair of reading glasses, and therefore these issues were magnified?

Well, as the country celebrates its' 50th birthday, let all Malaysians take this opportunity to ponder on our stands in these issues. These issues have serious complication because Malaysia is standing at a crucial junction in this globalised world. We just could not afford to screw up any of decision pertaining these issues.

As for me, I will dedicate my prayer as a gift to this country.

"Dear Lord, thank you for Malaysia. Thank you for the blessings You have showered upon this country for the past five decades. More importantly, I must thank You for the freedom of religion, that Your children could worship You without persecution. I continue to commit this country into Your loving hands that You will continue to bless and guide her. Grant wisdom to the King and leaders that they will govern this country with fairness and put the nation before themselves. Grant that Malaysians would continue to live in harmony with one another and appreciate the diversity that You have granted in this land. Bless Malaysia O Lord! Amen. "

Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Economics! Oh Economics!

Economics, as a discipline, became 'scientific' over the quarter-century, but I put the word in inverted commas and I deliberately pronounce it pejoratively here. As it is practised in the 1980s, economics is a 'science' without ultimate purpose or meaning. It has allowed itself to become captive of the technical tools that it employs without keeping track of just what it is the tools are used for. In a very real sense, the economists of the 1980s are illiterate in basic principles of their own discipline...Their motivation is not normative; they seem to be ideological eunuchs. Their interest lies in the purely intellectual properties of the models with which they work, and they seem to get their kicks from the discovery of proofs of propositions relevant only for their own fantasy lands" (1986 Nobel laureate in Economics, James M. Buchanon)

This statement explains the frustration that I have towards economics. The sharp and frank criticism from a Nobel laureate certainly gives comfort because now I know I am not the only person who is frustrated with economics.

I love the subject but I just can't accept that every single notion can be quantified and every economics student are expected to know mathematics as detailed and in-depth as a mathematics graduate. To me, economics today had lost the human touch, whereby initially the subject existed with the noble idea to understand the scarcity within our society. Looking at top-notch economics journals today, I can confidently said that economics students, without advanced knowledge of mathematics, could not understand these so-called 'economics articles'. It is no more art of scarcity but rather some exclusive art of sub-standard mathematics.

Therefore, I sincerely thank my professor in Development Economics for bringing up this quotation for discussion. I cannot agree more with James Buchanon.

Pondering on 50th Independence Day

Reflecting on Malaysia's 50th year of independence, I could not but felt obligated to share my racial experiences growing up in this multi-ethnic country.

I attended the "national" primary and secondary school. It was so-called "national" because it was suppose to be schools catering for all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity. The 13 years of education in multi-ethnic schools have created the "Malaysian" in me. In school, besides during Moral Education/Islamic class or religious' fellowship, ethnicity was rarely a factor. Majority of the decision were more inclined to meritocracy. I have friends who were Malays, Chinese, Indians and Sikhs that I am still in-touch with. Perhaps I was too naive to think so much about ethnicity during my school days.

In 2002, I was offered a place in University of Malaya. After the week-long orientation, I stayed on in the residential college. This was when I had my first experience of what is racial segregation. Students were grouped or classified according to ethnic groups. Conscious or unconsciously, segregation policy has been in-placed in different ways, such as room allocation. Chinese students will all gathered in the basketball court and the seniors will tell us to be united and vote for the Chinese candidates in the residential college student council election. Subsequently, we juniors, were also told to be supportive of the so-called 'Chinese' projects.

One year later, a new Master took over the administration of the residential college and introduced a quota system for the election of the student council. All ethnic groups will be represented in accordance to the ethnic ratio. I was privilege to be one of the Chinese nominated to serve in this council.

In the council, the Malaysian in me began to resurface. To my surprise, the members of the council were actually non-racial although we supposed to represent our ethnic groups. Due to the cooperation and the non-racial viewpoint, we introduced many drastic measures in the residential college to eliminate or reduce the racial segregation. These measures were met with resistance and we were also being viewed as traitor by our respective ethnic groups.

Along the way, the wonderful friendship between Shakirin and Murali, both who served together in the student council, were eventually bonded. We were known as the Petronas group because we were always seen to be together (Petronas is the national oil company that always produced meaningful advertisements that reflect strong sense of interaction between the three major ethnic group in Malaysia). We began to have good long conversation, sharing our opinion, criticizing each other constructively and even sat for hours enjoying our supper at Abang Zul's foodstore. The working relationship in the student council eventually became true friendship that have no boundary of ethnicity. We even came to a point where I began to learn eating with fingers, while Shakirin began to use fork and spoon. I also clearly remembered how Shakirin helped Murali and me to feel at ease while attending a fast-breaking dinner, which we were the only non-Muslims in the dinner.

We began to see each other as Malaysians, rather than as Malay, Chinese or Indian. We began to discuss more complicated and sensitive issue like religion and politics with racial elements. More importantly, we have the understanding to "agree to disagree" and this prompted frankness and openness. No doubt, the strengthening of our friendship has further re-affirmed our strong sense of being a Malaysian.

More gladly, our spirit of friendship that has no racial boundary, also began to spread, as we began to see our juniors in the residential college began to develop such multi-racial friendship. We began to see students from various ethnic group sitting together during meals, watched TV, participated in sports, going for supper together, and more interesting taking part in each others' cultural activities and dance.

Indeed, Malaysia can truly look forward ahead with brighter hope as we celebrate the 50th years of independence, if all Malaysians began to see themselves more as Malaysian and less as Malay, Chinese or Indian.

Happy 50th Birthday, Malaysia!

Trip to China

I was with the 8th China Synergy Programme, visiting Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai from June 30 until July 16, 2007.

The trip was an eye-opening in many ways. Firstly, I have truly experience the rapid growing metropolitan of Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Without doubt, the public transportation of Hong Kong was well-managed and user-friendly, way beyond my expectation of an efficient public transportation system. On top of that, the opportunity to be in Hong Kong as this Special Administrative Region celebrate its 10th Anniversary was indeed memorable. The fireworks display on July 1, 2007 for more than 30 minutes was simply superb.

Glancing on the development of Beijing and Shanghai, without doubt, these cities are certainly on track in preparing itself for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The infrastructure development has been remarkable but there are still rooms for further improvement, perhaps when the big event draw closer. The Mass Transit, public bus system and even the airport system can be further improved.

However, throughout the trip, a puzzling thought kept tinkling in my mind. As we know, China is facing a problem of growing disparity between urban and rural area. The disparity has indeed grew worse since the last decade. With the rapid development in Beijing and Shanghai due to these international events, will the disparity eventually grow further to the point of no return? Furthermore, it seems that the opportunity costs for the development is indeed huge. Pollution, congestion and increasing social ills are among the obvious problems resulting from rapid development.

On a positive note, I have the opportunity to visit some of the tourism highlights of China. Visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xian; Great Wall and Palace Museum in Beijing; the Peak in Hong Kong; the Bund in Shanghai; West Lake in Hangzhou has indeed been an amazing experience. Without doubt, the wonders and the beauty of these places were almost indescribable by words. It was these visits that made the tiring trip memorable with a satisfying feeling.

In addition, the trip also enabled me to meet many outstanding Chinese youth from all over the world. The opportunity to learn from others is indeed valuable. Furthermore, through the interaction between Chinese of different background, I reaffirmed my identity sense of being a Malaysian Chinese.

Schools and Nation-building (Part 2)

As pointed out in Schools and Nation-building, the primary education in Malaysia is by nature racially segregated, which comprised of national, vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools.

The segregated primary education was a compromise negotiated among the ethnic groups when Malaya gained its independence in 1957. After 50 years of independence, the national schools had became the point of criticism and the student enrolment were predominantly Malays while Chinese parents preferred to sent their children to Chinese primary schools. This resulted in a worsening situation of segregation among the ethnic groups.

In order for schools to play a greater role in nation-building and fostering racial harmony, thorough revamp of the education system seems to be an unavoidable initiatives. To the general understanding, Chinese and Indian students in the vernacular schools received their primary education in a mixture of their mother-tongue along with Malay and English. The students in the national schools were taught in Malay and English with the Muslim students being taught Arabian.

As all students were expected to master 3 languages, perhaps the revamp of the education system could integrate the primary education into a common schools. All students are required to learn Malay language and English language while the remaining subjects are conducted in English. In addition to that, Malay students should be taught Arabian as the third language while Chinese and Indians studied Chinese language and Tamil respectively. To further ensure greater objectivity in the evaluation of students' achievement, the third language should be given a lighter weightage as compared to Malay and English.

With a united education system, then primary and secondary schools could played a greater role in enhancing nation-building and racial harmony among the students. Then it could truly reflects that education is indeed an investment that will produce the next generation of Malaysians that are truly Bangsa Malaysia.

Schools and Nation-building (Part 1)

Racial integration among university graduates is said to be an alarming concern of racial harmony in Malaysia. It was indeed true that the segregation of students according to ethnic groups has been happening in public and private universities. The Minister of Higher Education has also highlighted the issue when he spoke about the "Khidmat Masyarakat" (Community Service) programme.

I would viewed that the severity of the issue at the tertiary institutions as merely the consequences of failure in the education system to address the nation-building and racial integration agenda. University students spent on average 12-13 years of education before stepping into universities. Therefore addressing the issue at tertiary level might not yield such an effective outcome as compared to tackling the issue from the root of it, which is the primary and secondary education.

Observing from the current scenario in the country seems to have swayed into a contradicting direction. The national schools were predominantly Malays while the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools were almost exclusively Chinese and Indians respectively. Students from the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia do not seem to have the opportunity to interact and understand each other. Without doubt, the segregation of 12-13 years will eventually continue at the tertiary level. It would be a little over-optimistic if the integration could done within merely 3-4 years after so many years of segregation. Therefore, in long-run, the country as a whole will have to bear the consequences of racial segregation in the society.

If the country is serious in combating the problem, the major effort should be channelled to the primary and secondary education instead of tertiary to rectify the issue. Thorough revamp of the education system is much needed as the current primary education by nature is racially segregated. How could an education system driven by mother-tongues produced students with tolerance towards racial harmony? After all, education is said as an investment that will only yield its return from the subsequent generation.

P/S: This article is not against mother-tongue education. Further elaboration on the role of mother-tongues and national schools will followed in the subsequent article.

Penang or Yangon?

Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak or better known as KOMTAR, is the unique symbol of Penang. The majestic building is the tallest building in Penang, which housed the Chief Minister's office and other government departments. KOMTAR was also one of the earliest shopping complex in the state and currently still remains as the hub of public transportation in the island-state.

KOMTAR was built in the mid-80s and remains as one of the tourist attraction in Penang. However, KOMTAR today reflected the image of Yangon rather than George Town. One can easily mistaken that they might have went to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, instead of Penang.

Level 2 and Level 3 of the complex was crowded with Myanmarese shops - selling Myanmar foods and handicrafts with loud-banging Myanmarese music. Walking along the corridor of the complex, one could easily identify foreign workers, which at times even outnumbered the locals. This leave many Malaysians, particularly Penangites, felt rather unsafe. This kept many wondering why Myanmar workers could obtain license to operate business in Malaysia. What does the authority has to say about this?

To make the matter worse, most of these shops were selling foods and drinks. The processing and cooking of food was done in shoplots with no proper ventilation and piped water. How can this happened in a fast developing country? It looks like the management of the once-prestigious building of Penang have no idea how to deal with these Third-World-Migrant-Workers. The municipal council and local government agencies, which all have offices in KOMTAR, seems to be also unable to tackle the problem.

Perhaps the Chief Minister should also seriously look into this issue as all these nonsenses are happening just a few floors below his office!

Hope for Wisma Putra

I was reading "Servicing the Foreign Service" with joy and hope for Malaysian Foreign Service.

Finally, the ministry is able to recruit its own Foreign Service officers instead of selecting from the pool of Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (PTDs). I view this step as a positive development in rebuilding the Malaysian Foreign Service.

This direct recruitment exercise is certain to solve the problem of shortage in manpower. I can personally testified the seriousness facing this ministry as I once was asked to handle the workload of two Assistant Secretaries. The shortage of manpower has resulted in officers not being able to perform their task efficiently and contributed to consistent overtime. Many thought that government servants clocked out exactly at 5pm, but I have never done so in Wisma Putra. The earliest record I have clocked out was 6pm and the latest being 3am.

This is also a positive step in enabling the truly passionate and aspiring applicants to apply for the position of diplomats. Previously, the applicants have to applied through a common scheme of PTDs and to be posted. The competition was intense and sometimes the most suitable officer might be posted to other ministries rather than Wisma Putra.

Therefore, I certainly see this change to the recruitment policy as a stepping stone for the revamp and rebuilding of Foreign Service in Malaysia. However, I would also like to see further changes to the human resource management within the service, in line with the current development.

Although many people view the job as prestigious and glamorous, nevertheless, officers in the ministry has to faced many uncertainty in life. Malaysian Diplomats do not seems to have the choice in selecting their posting and is expected to be obedient in whatever decision made on them. However, many countries do not practise such policy. For example, Foreign Service officers in Australia and India, will have to apply for posting to overseas mission when there is a vacancy. This separate application process enable the officers to determine and plan their own career, in accordance to their family and personal needs. On the other hand, this also enable the ministry to choose the best candidate for every position and ensure that only the best deserving officer will be posted. The less competent officers will have to stay home and continue to improve themselves.

I take this opportunity to urge my former colleagues to continue striving on towards excellence with great hope that their over-burdened workload will soon be over. Gambateh!

Appointment to Service

I had the honour of being selected to serve Malaysia through civil service's elite scheme known as the Administrative and Diplomatic Service. It was a highly sought-after service where every aspiring bureaucrats would want to be in. I remembered going through 3 stages of interviews and assessment before being appointed. Following that, I attended a 2-week induction course. Throughout the course, all the newly- appointed officers were being instilled and taught the true meaning of service to the country in their capacity as civil servant. At the end of the induction course, everyone waited eagerly for their name to be called and to be presented with the posting order. Three days after the posting, every officer will report to their respective ministry or department and began their career journey as civil servant. All of us were expected to perform our duties as a full-fledged officer, even before attending the 6-month course on public administration.

For the past few weeks, there was this question lingering in me about God's calling. I have pondered and reflected upon it. This morning at the worship service, God reminded me of the prestige and honour that I experienced serving Malaysia as a civil servant. Happy and proud moments in that 4 months of working experiences kept repeating itself. If these temporary moments of being a junior diplomat was such memorable, then I began to think of the wonderful possibilities of being a career diplomat for the higher Kingdom of God. Coincidentally, the pastor spoke about service in the sermon following the worship. She shared about the 3 truths of service:

1) Called to Serve - a calling for every Christian
2) Gifted to Serve - discovery of gifts through service and not service after discovery
3) Connected to Serve - illustrated the importance of every Christian as a piece of jigsaw to connect for the completeness of God's purpose

From then on, I began to reflect how God is calling me into His service, drawing from my previous experiences with the civil service. Firstly, the appointment comes without a destination. I do not know where will I be posted at the moment of appointment. Similarly, I know God has a calling for me, which is waiting for me to answer that appointment.

Secondly, officers do not have choices regarding their posting. All posting is subject to transfer within short notices. More importantly, the newly appointed officers were being told and taught to accept and perform to the best of their ability regardless of the posting. However, without doubt, posting will be related to the skills and speciality of each officer. Similarly, I understand that when I accepted God's appointment, I have subjected myself to His posting. As a servant, I just have to perform my best. However, I also have the same understanding that every posting comes with a purpose, either in accordance with skills and expertise or with a learning experience at the end of it.

Thirdly, every officers in the civil service aspired to be posted to the prestigious or powerful ministries, such as foreign affairs, public service, international trade, tourism or internal security. Although I was privileged to be posted to the foreign service, I left the service after merely 4 months. Though the experience was short, it has created a huge impact on me and my future career. It has provided unique experiences which broaden my perspectives and worldview yet at the same time helped to realise many more purposes in life. Likewise, God could call us to any ministry regardless of the importance and prestigious. It will be vital to fully understand the directive and instruction from the Highest authority, for us to fully achieve the objective.

Fourthly, officers were expected to perform in accordance to their position. There is no specific and sufficient training provided before the posting. Officers were expected to be capable of learning from their superior and colleagues and yet perform accordingly. The actual training only comes 4 months later after the officers were more settled in their position. From various Bible characters, God has similarly placed His servant into the thick and thin of actions without providing them with proper equipping and sufficient training. However, it reminds me that it was through our weakness that we hold more firmly to God and rely on His providence. I was being reminded again that God does not necessarily equip me fully and sufficiently before sending me out for the posting.

As for now, I might still be waiting for the posting and direction in life. However, I am certain God has called and appointed me to be His servant in various ministry. Perhaps I need to remain versatile and open-minded in order to be able to answer whatever posting awaiting me in the future. One certainly is the appointment is a diplomatic calling but this time a higher authority than my country. I am eagerly waiting for the appointment notification, "induction camp" and "posting order" before I kickstart my first mission.

The Reluctant Politician

The Reluctant Politician by Ooi Kee Beng gave an interesting overview on the biography of Tun Dr Ismail and the Malaya/Malaysia's situation from 1950s to 1970s. The book also gave several exciting and surprising insights into some of Malaysia's policy. However, the most striking features of the book was Tun's opinion on the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the Special Position of Malays.

Tun Dr Ismail was one of the main character in the formation of NEP. It was correct to points out that Tun has foresee some of the problems pertaining the policy. Tun in his diary gave his perspective to the controversial policy by stating, "I said that we should aim at a target period of twenty years within which thirty percent of Malays would participate in commerce and industry and that it should be implemented in the context of a growing economy."(pg 256). From his perspective, it was clear that the participation is 30% of the Malay population as the target instead of 30% of equity as what was being implemented. Perhaps if his opinion was implemented, the outcome of NEP in 1990 could have been different.

Tun Dr Ismail also expressed his views in great details about the special position of Malays and the issue of the Bumiputera status. It was indeed surprising to understand that a Malay would view that the privileges as a handicap to the race. This reflected his foresight of problems that could surface in the future. Furthermore through his letter regarding this issue, it further reflected the true spirit of Malaysian's Malaysia in him, which he was said to be "the most non-racial, non-racist Malay" by his closed friend. However, it was surprising to observe his strong support of Malay language to be the national language despite his unconventional viewpoint about Bumiputera status.

The book also illustrated his illustrious career as politician, Minister of Home Affairs as well as the first Ambassador to the United Nations and United States. It was inspiring to understand problems and challenges that Malaya and later Malaysia encountered from the pre-independence to independence and into 1970s. It was clear, Tun was indeed a unique character who puts the country ahead of himself and his family. The book, through insights from Tun's memoirs and letters, also provided detail understanding of the country's history in addition to what was taught in secondary school history classes. It certainly has helped the reader to further understand the exact situation of the country during that period.

Indeed, the title was befitting to Tun Dr Ismail, the Reluctant Politician who was more a servant to the country than simply a politician.

P/S: This is my first book review. Appreciate comment and feedback for further improvement. Thank you.

What is Economics?

I have began to ask myself this question since I started to pursue a Master degree in economics. The economics that I am dealing with at the moment seems to be stranger to me. Everything is about theory and mathematics!

Where is the economics that I used to learn and enjoy?

Where is the human touch?

This reminded me of what Prof Tey used to tell me, "Don't bother so much about theory, it's the application and how you analyst things that is more important." His advice from an applied statistician viewpoint really puzzled me two years ago. Now I begin to understand what he meant.

After two semester pursuing the Master course, I learnt to appreciate the beauty of other subjects - public policy, development studies, political science, international studies and sociology - but strangely not economics. I enjoy attending classes and seminars of non-economics subject but struggling to even find the motivation to complete economics tutorial. This don't seems right!

Well, I guess, no matter how I felt, I have to struggle on, at least until I finish this graduate programme. I am actually counting my blessings because this is not a 5-year PhD program but only a 3-semester Master course. At least, I still have the opportunity to venture into other field of studies, which I believe the simple economics understanding will certainly be a great help in the future. I enjoyed my undergraduate studies in economics but I can't seems to say so for my current endeavour.

Travelling in Penang Public Bus

I was back in Penang for the holiday and travelled in a public bus for the first time since the revamp of the public transportation on the island.

It was really a scary and not too pleasant journey. The bus service in Singapore and Penang totally different and almost to an incomparable extent. There were so many aspects that could be improved, even without spending millions.

The most basic of all is the attitude and management of the buses and drivers. The condition of the bus was terrible and in fact worse than those buses I travelled 10-15 years ago. The attitude of the driver and bus conductor create an intimidating feeling on the passengers as if every passenger is immobilised without them. It was also evidenced that buses can stop anywhere along the road as long as someone raised his/her hand to flag the bus. Clearly, the management and administration could be improve and the company should always have the customers in mind as the most important priority.

City council and bus operators should focus more creating a more pleasant environment to encourage greater use of public transportation. Bus stops are filled with advertisement posters but one could not find any information about the bus services. I could not even find out the information of which bus actually will stop by. This reflected the hopelessness of the bus system because the bus stop is the first thing passengers will come across before even boarding the bus.

From these simple problems, the image of public transportation has scarred the image of Penang. As Malaysia is currently organising the Visit Malaysia Year 2007, perhaps greater effort and political will is needed to immediately improve the image of public transportation before it becomes a permanent feature of Penang.

In my opinion, Penangites are not asking for brand new and ultra modern buses. All the city needed is an efficient and friendly public transportation which include aspects such as consistent frequency of buses; pleasant attitude of drivers and bus conductor; clean and properly maintained buses; and proper bus stops with ample information on route were simple things that could greatly enhance the image of public transportation without going through a spending spree using the public fund.

Shock and Loneliness

The shock of seeing someone passed away in front of your eyes seems to have affected me more than I expected. I was still in a paranoid state of fearing being alone.

The question the counsellor asked was, "Does this problem of loneliness already existed?" If yes, perhaps the shock of such incident just escalated that feeling. I think perhaps he was right on this as I indeed felt lonely in Singapore despite the easy access of communication and not such a great differences in culture and lifestyle.

However, the next big question I began to ask following this incident is, "What God wants me to learn from this?" The more question I asked the more questions surfaced instead of answering it. In addition to that, I guess it takes time to get over the shock and then reflect on this moment. Certainly, I am not in the right frame of mind to reflect.

"Dear Lord, give me the courage to face all circumstances that I am facing. I acknowledge my weakness and inability to handle my emotions and fears in moment like that. Grant me the strength and carry me through these tough times. I commit myself into Your hands. Thank you Lord. Amen."

Condolences

Tonight, everything around the house (I rented a room) was quiet. I came back after dinner thinking no one is at home. I closed the door in my room and waited for ZL to come online. Sadly, she has to stayed back to finish off her assignment in office.

Then I was engaging in some online discussion with a friend from BB. Things were getting pretty bored as I was doing some reading for tomorrow's module while chatting online. Then I realise my landlady's son, BC, came back. While taking a break, I went out and said hi to him. After that, I went back to the computer and started to feel like writing some sort of farewell note of my BB ministry.

Just as I was about to logged on into the blogspot webpage, BC suddenly opened my door without knocking and called for help. Immediately, I rushed out of my room and saw the landlady lying there motionless. I then asked him to try to wake her up and I telephoned the ambulance. After calling the ambulance, I went to join BC trying to wake her up. I felt so helpless at that point, knowing I could do something like CPR but I simply lost the courage. Closer observation could see my landlady's face was already darken and the body was already stiff.

The ambulance arrived and pronounced the bad news. Then the police came and recorded statement from both me and BC. Then we waited for the relatives and doctor to come.

At that moment, I felt life was so fragile. I could felt the pain of BC losing his mother. I felt so helpless that I could not do anything to help or even comfort him. After much ordeal, my landlady was carried away from the house for the very last time.

Despite of all this incident, I hoped my landlady has accepted Christ as she was attending church but yet to be baptised. At least it was a great comfort knowing that she have heard of the good news and proclaimed herself as Christian.

I take this opportunity to express my condolences for the family.

"Dear Lord, may You bless the soul of Mdm L. Although she has yet to be baptised, nevertheless it was a comfort to hear that she has proclaimed herself being a Christian. May Your grace and comfort be with the family as they struggle silently within their heart for the lost of their loved ones, especially BC. Grant them the strength and courage in moments of sadness. May Your blessing be with them and ministered to them, especially those who have yet to accept your salvation. I commit their family into Your hands. Amen."

Penangites, What's Your Opinion???

What is your opinion regarding the repeal of rent control towards Georgetown?

Has the development of Georgetown became better or worst since year 2000?

Thank you all for the comments shared.

Hope for Public Transportation?

It was interesting to note the study by American Public Transportation Association that swapping a second car with public transport could save up to US$6,200 per year. This certainly gives encouragement and reason for government to further improve the public transportation system.

From my family's experience in Penang, my dad could travel to work within 30 minutes with public bus. This was before the public bus system in Penang was revamp and the cost is only RM1 per trip. When the government increased the fuel price and promised to improve the public transportation system, the entire bus system in Penang was revamped.

After the change in system and policy, my dad's travelling time increased almost double and paid twice the amount for the trip. This sort of improvement does not seems to benefit the society and the economy as a whole. What sort of improvement to the society when it becomes more costly to travel in public transportation?

If US$6,200 could be saved by using public transportation, similar argument could not explain the situation in Malaysia. Although the price of public transportation does not increase significantly, the other opportunity costs associated with travelling in public transport has certainly increase. The waiting time has increased; the efficiency of public transportation, the comfort or the convenience has certainly decreased tremendously. All these are economic costs to the consumer of public transportation.

Public bus is never punctual with non-functioning air-conditioning.
Light rail transit (LRT) is always crowded like sardin in a can.
Taxi fare is unreasonably high.

The government should put in serious effort in improving the public transportation with the society as the focal point. By improving the public transportation, such a huge sum of expenditure could be saved and eventually the extra savings could flow into the economy to generate more wealth in the society. It takes practical and good planning in addition with strong political will to improve the public transportation of Malaysia. Let's ponder on the improvement!

Parking Issue in Penang

Many non-Penang drivers commented that driving in Penang was a nightmare. However, Penangites encounter a worse nightmare on a daily basis - that is parking!

There are several major problems related to parking in Penang. Firstly, the city faced problem with the lack of parking space. Penang's vehicle registration is the third fastest in Malaysia, only slower than Klang Valley and Johor. However, the availability of parking space does not increase in correlation to the increase in vehicles. This posed extra difficulties in finding parking around the city, especially in the city centre.

Adding to that, Penangites also encountered ruthless parking attendants, both legal and illegal. Illegal parking attendants usually operate in the evening and collect parking fees in areas which are suppose to be free. The attitude of these illegal attendants were usually rude and threatening.

Besides that, some legal parking attendants posed a different woes to the driving community. Overcharged, illegal increasing of parking fees were among the common problems faced by drivers. There were also cases where drivers were forced to pay a high flat rate instead of the hourly rate.

In order to solve the problems due to human attitude, Penang Municipal Council has installed parking meters. However, as reported by The Star (4 January 2007, page N15), the council has 3000 parking meters of two different models. One of the models has only two maintenance clerks and another model has no spare part. This has contributed to the high number of faulty meters in Georgetown. If drivers think that they are lucky to receive free parking due to the faulty meter, then don't be surprise to receive traffic tickets (saman) for parking in slots with faulty meters.

The parking problem in Penang seems to be getting from bad to worse. The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has raised the matter with the municipal council nine years ago but Penangites still faced the same old problem when it comes to parking. Perhaps it is time for the council to adopt easier method in collecting the parking fees. There were several less problematic methods such as:

1) Paying machine along the road, where drivers will pay the machine and a ticket will be issued. The driver will then need to left the ticket on the car dashboard. The advantage is there only need to have one or two machine per street and unlike the parking meter allocated to every parking slot. This method has been used by the Petaling Jaya City Hall.

2) Coupons. Drivers will have to buy coupons from various outlet and displayed along the dashboard of the car. The method has been implemented in Seberang Perai, Johor and Singapore.

Both of the above two methods are more cost-effective and user-friendly. It seems to be more a win-win solution for both the municipal council with its higher revenue and to Penangites for a hassle-free parking facility.