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.