Hello!

HELLO THERE! HOW ARE YOU?

Born & raised in Penang, Malaysia; I have lived in the island throughout my life. Brought up in a middle class family, my family put a lot of importance in education. Being nurtured to love reading since at a young age, the passion has grown from reading school textbooks to newspapers, magazines and non-fictions.

Like many other Malaysians, I have benefited from the Government’s education policy whereby my parents only need to pay a small sum of fees for my studies; from primary, secondary up to the tertiary level.

My interest in making a social change began when I was still in primary school. My mother, working in a bookstore then, brought back some books on famous figures of the world. I remember I have read about Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela and how they have make changes to the world.

It was when I was in secondary school that I started taking actions to make social change. I joined and volunteered in the school’s societies. I was especially active in Red Crescent.

When I graduated from secondary school, I kept myself active in assisting the local community in various ways.

These has led me to join politics where I believe I could make social change at a different level.

As a proud Malaysian, I aim to contribute my time & energy for the development of my community & country through the best ways that I could give.

Of course, my life is not all about work, social change, and politics. I put some of my time for arts, design, photography, piano, technology, basketball and reading.

Reforming Political Funding

coins and chess pieces

The recent news of the RM2.6 billion found in the bank accounts of Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has caused the majority of the people in the nation to be in anger especially when the source of the funds is still undisclosed. Although it has been announced by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) that the funds were political donations, Malaysians generally feel suspicious of the financial transaction.

At the height of all these issues happening, I believe it is time to reform and regulate political funding in Malaysia. There are many laws and regulations that we can refer to other countries in terms of political financing.

Looking at the political parties in Malaysia, there are different ways that they are funded. The most basic contribution is through their party members via annual membership fees and subscriptions. Most of the larger political parties operate an investment arm or own corporate companies to generate funds for their political activities. Besides that, business people also fund the parties through different types of donations including gifts of money, property, sponsorship of events, fundraising dinners and many more.

In foreign countries, some organizations which share the same political views with a party will contribute funds as well. Take it as an example, in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party is formed by the trade unions and socialist societies. These trade unions pay an affiliation fee to the Labour Party and in return, they and their members receive the privileges of affiliated membership. Some governments in other countries such as Germany also fund directly to political parties for their political activities in what they call public funding.

Of course, some of these foreign methods of political funding may not be agreed by the people or practical in our country. But let’s look at the basics of certain political funding regulations that should be proposed.

The first would be the financial disclosure of political funding and expenses. What is the minimum value of donations that should be reported? Who are the funders who have contributed to the political party or candidates?

Should we also implement limitations to the donors? Is there a ceiling on the amount a donor may give to a political party over a particular time period? Who or what organization is allowed or denied from making political donations? Are Government Linked Companies (GLC) or companies that work on Government contracts allowed to fund as a donor?

Currently there are already laws and regulations on finance in Malaysia’s electoral process. However, the laws and regulations are not empowered. Malaysians only start to pay attention when there is a huge amount reported such as the issue of the RM2.6 billion. What about the fund-raising dinners that have been organised by DAP over the years? The amount for each fund-raising dinner may not rise up to billions, but there have been so many dinners organised in parliamentary and state assembly constituencies throughout the nation. DAP managed to build their multi-million headquarters in Penang within two years of ruling the government. Who is funding the development of the headquarters?

Of course, the implementation of such political funding regulations must come together with the political maturity of Malaysians. If a corporate company donates to one political party, will the company take action when the opponent takes over as the Government? If an individual donates to one political party, will the person be condemned and threatened due to difference of political views?

Not only the leaders and politicians should be matured politically; the voters and the people must set a new approach towards politics. Probably the young Malaysians today who are so keen in discussing current issues should start to set the benchmark of new politics.

A New Year Resolution: Unity

Year 2014 has finally come to an end. The year has ended with a stream of bad and negative events. As some Chinese may have believed that people, organizations or even countries that have to do with the word horse will face bad luck in the year of the horse. Unfortunately, maybe those who have believed in that are indeed accurate with that forecast.

Our country experienced a number of bad happenings in the year of the horse.

Two major aircraft mishaps, the flight MH370 that has never been found since March and the flight MH17 that has been shot down in July due to the Ukraine-Russia dispute. Both flights totaled up a number of about 500 lives.

Several terrorism kidnapping cases were in the news and some Malaysians were recruited to extremists organizations in the Middle East. A Chinese tourist and a resort worker were kidnapped by the terrorists linked to Abu-Sayyaf in early April. A few weeks later, a Chinese fish farm manager was kidnapped by the militants. While in the Middle East, we have seen reports of a number of Malaysians joining in terrorist and jihadist activities with Islamist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

Then we have seen some religious issues being politicized and risking religious tensions. The word ‘Allah’ was banned in the Herald, a Malaysian Catholic Weekly. We have also heard the call by Ibrahim Ali, with his extremist remarks, to burn the bibles.

And we also witness some serious social issues. The infamous Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin or maybe we will know her better as Kiki, who was filmed abusing an elderly man by hammering his vehicle with a steering lock. Malaysians also have our own infamous couple, Alvin and Vivian filming themselves having sex which sparked a huge controversy throughout the nation.

At the end of the year, the nation faces one of the worst disasters in history. After the mud flood in Bertam Valley and Ringlet at Cameron Highlands and followed by floods in several states in Malaysia which caused more than 100,000 people being evacuated to flood relief centres.

Throughout all these events, many Malaysians have shared news, views and information regardless of whether it is accurate or not. These are some of the main news that will be remembered by Malaysians, maybe particularly during the election campaign period when it will be politicized. Unfortunately, but true, we Malaysians tend to keep on sharing such negative news. Worst is, some not only share negative news, they share inaccurate news that causes misunderstandings and confusions.

How many of us remember the positive things that have happened to the country? Or how many have actually shared such news often? Not much.

News such as Mohd Nasrudin Mohd Yusof being the first Malaysian to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize last August will most likely be forgotten.

How many of the Malaysians actually feel proud of Malaysians winning the UN Security Council seat? Or when the US President visited Malaysia for the last time in 1966?

How many have shared and promoted the moderation campaign that has been initiated by several groups and organizations? That is what Malaysians should have been encouraging their peers to talk about rather than keep on spreading negative information. But we have been spreading more negative energy rather than the positive ones.

But coming to my main point of this article is more about setting resolutions. Every beginning of the year, we hear a lot of personal resolutions being set; be it getting fit, building families or climbing up the career ladder.

As many resolutions that we could have set, I would suggest to my fellow countrymen that we add another resolution to our list, a “civic resolution” or maybe “unity resolution”. A Malaysian myself, I would love to see real unity, moderation and harmony enlivens rather than all just in talks and discussions.

We need to keep a resolution for ourselves that we can share to be part of the group that promotes civic responsibility towards unity, moderation and harmony.

Some of the resolutions may be:

– We share only information that has been verified officially.

– We listen to both sides of the story before making any judgment.

– We reduce criticism, we find solutions.

– We will make time to join friends of another ethnic during their celebrations.

There are many ideas of resolutions that can be thought of, but the most important thing is that we must move mountains and hills to make the real unity, harmony and moderate community to happen!

Let us not wait for others or any so-called leaders to organize any campaign. We take the responsibility and be the leader to create a better society. We Move!

Finally, I would like to wish all a Happy New Year and may we achieve our Unity Resolution in the years ahead!

Aren’t we not destroying our enemies when we make friends with them?

On May 18th 1860, four Republicans awaited the news that would change their lives forever. William H. Seward, New York Senator and former governor; Salmon P. Chase, Ohio Governor; Edward Bates, former Missouri Attorney General and Abraham Lincoln, former Illnois Representative. The Republicans were to select one of them to contest as the 16th President of the United States of America.

Despite being the least popular among the four of them during that era, Abraham Lincoln became the victor in the Republican nominations. He then proceeded to win the presidential election.

As many have known President Abraham Lincoln, he is widely famous for his death by assassination, the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves and his role in the American Civil War especially the Gettysburg Address which is given in just a few minutes.

But very few have learned that one of his significant decisions as a newly elected President is on his appointment of his members of the Cabinet. Not only did he appoint capable leaders as his teammates to lead the country, he has appointed a group of his fiercest rivals to be in his Cabinet.

Lincoln recruited Seward as the Secretary of State, Chase as the Secretary of Treasury and Bates as the Attorney General. He has also appointed Edwin Stanton from the Democratic Party as the Secretary of War.

Later on, Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune asked Lincoln why he had chosen a cabinet composed of enemies and opponents. He particularly questioned the president’s selection of the three men who had been his chief rivals for the Republican nomination, each of whom was still smarting from the loss.

Lincoln’s answer was simple, straightforward, and shrewd. “We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.”

Not only that this remarkable leader has managed to bring all his rivals together, but two of them; William Seward and Edwin Stanton, have grown to become the closest people with Lincoln. So close was Stanton with Lincoln, that he stood by his deathbed, and uttered one of the most memorable quotes, “Now he belongs to the ages” and “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.”

The rest was as written in the books of history, Abraham Lincoln became one of the greatest American Presidents that the world has known.

Rivalries can be so destructive that we can hardly ignore them, especially when one’s rivals are so strong. Great leaders instead will take the opportunity to turn their rivals into allies for the better good of any movement, organization or country.

Sadly, we can hardly see such a scenario happening in the leadership of any political movement in Malaysia.

The only time when we see rivals share the same tune is when the country cheers for sports. When we cheer for Dato’ Nicol David in squash championships; when we cheer for the Malaysian badminton team in Thomas Cup competition and when we cheer for Harimau Malaya in the AFF Suzuki Cup Tournament. That is when all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, gender, age or political affiliation shouted and cheered for the same cause.

In our country’s politics, leaders often try to eliminate each other or at least prevent the other from climbing higher in the hierarchy. Potential leaders and ambitious youth who outshines their superiors while scaling the ladder are often “politically-murdered” before they could cling to a strong enough power. The incumbent leaders are usually afraid that their power might be seized by the new ones.

When will we be able to see political rivalries turn into alliances for a better cause for the community and country?

Imagine it if in the General Elections, capable representatives were elected to the Parliament regardless of the political party that they are representing. We would have an effective Government and also Opposition. Decisions and Bills tabled in the Parliament will be debated solely for the betterment of the country, and not because they debate due to them being in the opposing factions. The country would have flourished.

If leaders were pushing for excellence in their respective organizations, they wouldn’t be afraid of others excelling over them. Real leaders would have encouraged others, even those who are better, to work together, to form an ultimate team, even if they are rivals.

Unfortunately, we humans are so afraid of losing our power and positions that we turn defensive when threatened. We tend to think more for ourselves, that we forget when we work together as a great team; we are doing it for ourselves too.

Thinking twice, aren’t we not destroying our enemies when we make friends with them?

Life is unfair

Most of us grew up complaining at least once that life is unfair. Or maybe once is too absurd, we all do complain about it a lot of times throughout our lives.

I found a quote in an article that says, “Unless you’re winning, most of life will seem outrageously unfair to you.”

We complain life is unfair because our parents forced us to bed at 9pm.

“Life isn’t fair because the classmate across the room scored better grades than I do when I studied harder than he is.”

“I hate life because that ugly guy who lives down the road is dating the most beautiful girl in town.”

“It is not fair that the nerdy guy got promoted as Manager.”

“I worked so hard, why couldn’t I become rich? Life is unfair!”

Sounds familiar? But we will never stop complaining that life is unfair so long as we judge ourselves by our thoughts.

Our subconscious minds tend to have positive thoughts towards ourselves. “I have worked hard”. “I am good looking”. “I’m friendly”.  Unfortunately, this is not what the world sees us nor is it any form of optimism. It could be a self-deception by our own minds trying to calm ourselves to sleep every night. It seems like we have done to our best ability for ourselves and if anything goes wrong, it is the fault of others.

Lately, a friend who is aspiring to build a business came asking for ideas to source for investors and funding opportunities. I suggested the government as there are different forms of business grants and loans depending on the type of businesses.

Immediately without even asking me what sort of assistance there was, he doubted my suggestion of ‘government assistance’. And he goes complaining that the government is unfair. The government only helps the Malays. Only the Bumiputras will get the approval for business loans and grants. The applications of non-Malays are sure to be rejected by the government. Life is unfair, as he said.

At that moment, I only asked him two questions: Have you applied for any government grants or loans? How many non-Malays that you know that have applied for the grants and loans have been rejected?

He replied no for both answers.

The problem with my friend here is that he has a very negative perception towards the Government. Whether the Government is unfair or not is another matter. Before he even tried to apply for any assistance from the Government, his perception had already blocked his action and therefore, blamed them for being unfair.

In another matter, which happened last week during the heat of the debate at the UMNO General Assembly. Many said that it is a season of ‘Malay agenda’ where the UMNO delegates will usually raise issues to protect the interest and rights of the Malays.

One of the highlights that caused an uproar to the public, especially the netizens, is the debate statement made by UMNO Permatang Pauh Division Chairman, which claims that the Chinese in Penang are rich due to illegal economic activities.

Various comments and criticisms were made over that specific UMNO delegate. Yes, I do agree with the public that it is a ridiculous remark. Such statements made by any leader, be it from the top leadership or even grassroots leaders, should not even be thought of. These baseless accusations are definitely unacceptable.

But that is all that they have heard from the UMNO members. Have the people heard that there are also moderate UMNO delegates that fought for the preservation of vernacular schools? Have they known that they have even debated that the Malays should also learn a third language which is either Mandarin or Tamil?

Now, wouldn’t that be unfair for UMNO instead?

I am not trying to defend UMNO. If there is any wrongdoings that UMNO has caused, I urge that the voters must punish them by denying votes from them. Furthermore, those hurtful remarks made by insensitive delegates are just debating points and will not be taken into action unless the top leadership do so, which in this case they did not.

But let us think twice, when we think that people or life has been unfair towards us, is the outside force really unfair to us or is our mind that has been choosing to be unfair towards ourselves?

Sometimes it is our thoughts that are unfair to ourselves. We choose to just look at only one side of the coin. Probably it is time for us to open our minds and redefine our perspectives.

Too much of anything is good for nothing

Too much of anything is good for nothing. That proverb by the old folks indicates that too much or too little of anything is bad. This has been true all the while as it is proven that we need a balance in everything we do in our life.

We need sugar to provide energy, but extreme consumption of it will cause diabetes.

A lot of Malaysians love Western countries during winter due to its cooling weather, but extreme coldness will cause frostbite and probably death.

Workout at the gym is a healthy thing to do, but extreme workouts will injure and damage the muscles.

Same goes to politics and advocacy; it is the right of the people to fight for the rights of their race and religion, but when it is too much, it is EXTREMISM.

History itself has proven again and again that extremism keeps repeating, despite the fact that many are aware of it.

Biblioclasm or libricide, the practice of burning or destroying books or other written material is one of the methods of extremism that history has known since centuries ago.

In 213 BC, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty of ancient China burned the books and buried Confucian scholars to prohibit all heterodox thinking.

During the siege of Baghdad in 1258, the House of Wisdom along with all the libraries in Baghdad was destroyed by the Ilkhanate Mongol forces. The books from Baghdad libraries were thrown into the Tigris River in such quantities that the river ran black with the ink from the books. Scientists, philosophers and academicians were also killed by the forces.

The German Student Union conducted a book burning campaign in the 1930s to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria by classical liberal, anarchist, socialist, Communist, Jewish and other authors whose writings were viewed as subversive or whose ideologies undermined the National Socialist administration.

Earlier a few months ago, Ibrahim Ali sparked a controversy by suggesting to burn the bibles written in Malay.

And then we have the sex blogger Alvin Tan and her then girlfriend posting their Ramadan bak kut teh on Facebook. Then we have the activist Ali Abd Jalil asking for the royal institution to be abolished and that he was not afraid to die for saying so.

Extremism has existed since the birth of humans when we have certain groups of communities trying to get too many rights for themselves while ignoring others.

I suppose most of us have to agree that the freedom of speech in Malaysia has increased compared to the past decades. Some may argue that it’s due to the government’s inability to control the social media sites which belong to foreign countries. Whether we like it or not, I think we must say that a lot of people have been making criticisms openly without fear or favour.

In the past, the people in our community restricted ourselves from saying sensitive remarks and words especially those from the May 13th generation. That generation has always used the tolerance or avoiding conflict method.

As our country has developed since 1969, so has the mindset of our community. The young generations are not bonded by the May 13th fear or any historical baggage anymore as they have never experienced such bloodshed and conflict. They are more daring to speak out their minds compared to their fathers and grandfathers. But sometimes, they voice out in an overly extreme manner such as the cases of Alvin Tan and Ali Abd Jalil.

Yes, it is their right to speak and voice out. But when a community is in a transitional phase towards a more freedom and democratic society, not everyone is able to accept the criticism of others towards their beliefs and culture. And Malaysia is going through that phase now. Yet, even the people in a country with real freedom can’t accept criticisms that don’t make sense.

I have always heard from a lot of people that they are neutral, unbiased and moderate. These are some of the characteristics that made them look holy or divine. Unfortunately, I have also seen that these people hardly practice what they preach. Being Chinese, I have always heard a lot of friends complaining about the loud azan during the Muslim prayers. But have they ever thought of the loud getai singers during the Hungry Ghost Festivals or any Chinese festival celebrations that last until late night?

Being moderate does not only mean you are considerate for yourself or your own race. It requires huge courage to actually stand up and fight for everybody in a fair manner. And sometimes being moderate, you have to face some extremists claiming that ‘you are selling out your own race.’ In this case, if we want others to be fair to the activities in Chinese celebrations, then we have to be fair to the azan as well.

Every now and then, we have extremists voicing out their biased opinion, and making us wonder whether we can achieve the real racial harmony that we have always dreamed of. Then, there are also voices of the moderates that hit back those extremists. But it is difficult to really determine which is the minority and majority as there are many people who are very opined but remain quiet to themselves.

Nevertheless, there is always hope for a racial harmony as long as the moderates still exist. All we have to do is to keep on educating and spreading the right thoughts of moderation to the people. The transformation will not happen in a few days, few months or few years. It takes a long period and I do believe one day, the Malaysian dream will come true.

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” – Robert F. Kennedy

Empowering the Youth: Youth need not only listen, they must think and act

Democracy has existed in Malaysia for decades.

63 years ago, our forefathers witnessed the first local election in the George Town municipal council seeing the success of the Radical Party and Labour Party.

59 years ago, Malaysians then participated in the first Malaya General Elections before the nation achieved its independence.

The people of Malaysia have witnessed and participated in democracy at different levels; in the Government, in organizations, and even students in school. We vote for representatives and a Government. We vote for leaders in organizations. We vote for leaders in our school societies. Sometimes, when a family needs to decide where to go for dinner, we vote. Today, as a nation, we have achieved another milestone of democracy, which is the election of the first Youth Parliament. It also marks in the books of our history that Malaysian youth are more empowered than ever.

I am proud to be one of the generations that lived, not only to see the creation of the first Youth Parliament, but to participate in it.

My fellow Malaysians,

I was born, bred and taught in Malaysia as most of us are. As typical Asians, we were always taught from young that we must listen and obey to our parents, our teachers and those who are older than us. We were told that we must not defy our parents’ words or we will be deemed as a rebellious child. Some parents in a family may even go to the extreme of deciding on their children’s education, job and even their love life.

When we are younger, how many times have we heard from our parents, “You should do this. No, you cannot do that. You must listen to me!” It also happens now as in the recent “Listen, Listen, Listen” episode in a forum of a local university. It is a norm for a typical Asian family that “adults command, children listen.”

Now please don’t get me wrong. I totally agree to the fullest that respect towards the elders is one of the most important values of all. It is definitely our pride that all Malaysian families teach that. But at the same time, I believe in youth’s right to voice their thoughts and expression. It is timely enough to deliver empowerment for the real youth. The existence of Youth Parliament is a good way to encourage youth empowerment.

However, Malaysian society needs to understand the true meaning of youth empowerment in order to enable young people to think and act on their own. The current proposed Youth Parliament has the objective of projecting the voice and concerns of the youth to the Government via the Ministry of Youth and Sports. But does it remain as merely a voice in the Youth Parliament? Is the Youth Parliament serving the youth just as a place to voice their grouses or can it do more than that? Maybe the Government should consider allowing the elected Youth Members of Parliament to make certain decisions particularly on youth issues. Let them think, debate and then act on their decisions. When people are given the opportunity to think and act on their own, that is where they learn. This would be a different reform of approach towards developing young people in the country.

But youth empowerment should not stop just at the level of Youth Parliament where it elects 119 members. The empowerment should be implemented beyond the 119 members of Youth Parliament. It should involve the nationwide youth. And it begins at home and at school.

Make the kids decide on their plans and activities during the school holidays. The role of the parents is to make their kids’ choices well-informed with the pros and cons. Encourage the kids to speak up their minds and to make choices. Allow them to think and act on their own. Instead of saying “No, you can’t choose that,” we must ask them “Why are you choosing this?” This is one of the ways to begin empowering and developing the maturity of the youth.

Let us advocate, not only the Government to empower the youth, but the society itself to start giving the youth the opportunity to make well-informed choices and to participate in decision-making processes at all levels. I have always believed that to develop a strong nation, it begins by good education of the young ones, at home.

Today, I am lucky enough to be successfully nominated as a candidate to the Youth Parliament. With my thoughts and ideas on youth development, hopefully I would get elected as to be given another new level of responsibility to the nation.