Less Than 24, or Holiday (Boys Like Girls)

It's not actually that hard to come up with titles for my posts, it's only sometimes finding the song titles or songs themselves that actually suit the post.

Random!

(Warning, this post may cause headaches, giddiness or uneasiness in the stomach. Not for those who suffer ADD, or have little interest in Malaysian politics or life of a 16 year old. Consult doctor before proceeding.)

Anyway, was reading this book about the past year elections. Yes, the March 8 elections held across Malaysia, in 2008. I remember what I was doing that day: I was playing paintball. As we were on the way to the 'battlefield', we could see the SAPP banners everywhere, and we even passed some voting centers. We joked that we could play the 'Capture the Flag' scenario in paintball, with one team taking the BN (Barisan National) flag and the other team taking an opposition party flag.

I don't really think anyone wanted the BN flag.

Anyway, reader discretion is advised when reading this article. When that is said, it loosely translates into, "screw what you think, I can write whatever I want until I get detained by the ISA". Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but hey, who knows. (Also, forgive me if some facts are incorrect).

So what happened is that on voting day Malaysians were like , "Hey, we shouldn't really take all this crap from the government without saying something. Maybe after 50 years, it's time to finally say something." Well, it took all of you long enough to realize, right? Just in time, though, and the ruling party (BN) was denied the two-thirds majority, which is important for yada-yada. We could see changes all across the board (except for Sabah and Sarawak, which are BN strongholds, and the opposition won less than 5% votes in both places combined) where Penang absolutely fell to opposition hands, Kelantan remained under opposition control etc. etc.

I was (and am) just a kid, so to me it wasn't that big a deal, but I even I could tell that the adults were quite happy with this turn of events. Everyone was talking of change and stuff. Even at school everyone (except maybe some Malays) was crying "DAP! PKR! PAS(well not really PAS)!". It seemed obvious that change was a given, and that the people realised that the people are the rightful to govern, not the politicians. It was time that the ruling powers knew that they had become to content; indeed, they had become too comfortable and gradually (or maybe from the start) became inept to rule.

To cut a long story short(er), Anwar, de facto leader of the Opposition, said he would take control of the government bla bla, and he failed. And those who voted in a no-confidence vote AGAINST the Prime Minister (then Badawi) were in DIP SH**, including our genius-minded SAPP, whose fate I can't even remember.

After the political tsunami of last year, everyone was crying for Badawi to step down. Obviously the next leader would still come from the party he was also from (U Must Not Object), so now we have our 'beloved' new Prime Minister, who has placed his personal guards in each state to make sure everyone does as he says.

They said that they wanted to postpone the voting till this year. What would have happened, I wonder? Would people get even more restless? Would ISA then be called to arrest more people for causing 'unrest'? Lucky then the Government had a bit of sense to agree to change. Our democracy had turned into one where BN gave orders and no one objected. In parliament, BN outnumbered the opposition representatives more than 4 to 1, so I can't blame the Opp for not speaking up or debating. Now at least there MIGHT be some consideration on the rest of the normal Malaysians like us.

Why, though? Why bring such a matter into play now, when everything is already different? When Najib was appointed the post as head of our country, I was in NTUC (a bit like Giant, but better), and I spied the New Straits Times and picked it up and read the article. I only glanced at it a while and left, because I wanted to 'save face' a bit. I read in detail the next day what happened.

It's different. In Malaysia with have the excitement and talk about all this. Even the school kids take interest. I remember us asking our class teacher who she would vote for, but she declined to answer with a knowing smile.

But here? It's pretty one-sided, and everyone in Singapore are used to the 'Just Follow Lah' culture, which most Singaporeans find easy to do. Follow, like lost sheep. I'm not saying it's wrong. I mean, look how well Singapore is doing. The people can afford to spend during the recession, because they are forced to save. Grumble they might, and laugh you may, but who has the money to spend during recession sales? That's right.

But it's boring. A straight stick is boring. A branch that branches out into more branches is ultimately more interesting. Sure, it might be more risky, but since when is there no risk? Be unprepared for risk, and that's the riskiest thing you could ever do. And Singaporeans are very complacent, and little things bother them.

I could go on, but it's 3 am in the morning. The REAL point of this post is to say I'm coming home tonight at 8.50 like that, arriving at only God really knows. I just wanted to say that

I miss Malaysia. I miss the food, the authenticity of the people, the PEACEFULNESS of the place. No more rushing around. No more feeling as if something needs to be done.

So here I come! Holiday begins when I'm truly back! I hope ISA doesn't get me! I hope it doesn't rain! I hope everything goes my way! I pray God answers all prayers! Except impractical ones! That wouldn't do any good!

I'll rant when I get home!

But before I end, some things I did!

~Watched Night at the Museum 2

Lamest. Movie. For A While.

~Bought clothes for myself

Crazy Club 21 Bazaar. 2 pieces of REAL CALVIN KLEIN for S$15 a piece!

I Will See You!