Cats

I don't like cats. I never liked them, except for Hello Kitty and perhaps Doraemon. (Coincidently, one is without mouth and another without ears!:D) Cats are arrogant, they think you are their servant and they are the evil masters that are plotting away about how to take over the world. Urgh.

I'm a dog person. I like friendly creature. I refuse to respond to snobbish behavior (and i apply that to my relation with human too). I love mutual relationship. I need expressions for assurance.

I frowned upon my housemate's request to bring her cat to the house. But I liked Shadow at the first sight. With a body bigger than a Chihuahua and furs as fluffy as a chow chow, she's not any ordinary cats but an elegant descendent of Russian blue and Persian. Just as the name suggest, he is grey and you will not be able to see him in the dark. And he pretty much live up to his name by his ability to bug you untill you give him food.

Every morning, he never fail to remind you that he needs food. He waits for us to come home - though he never wag his tails, he purs everytime you play with him. He doesn't know how to catch a rat, just like my pampered and spolit pet-dog at home. You can't take him out for a walk of course, for he is a cat, but rather he wanders out on his own and knows how to come home - something I've never done to my dog.

I always thought catowners are boring, inward-looking and somewhat foolish. But with my new encounter with cat (and its owner), I begin to think that perhaps they are the more sophisicated ones. They can love nonetheless without receiving gratitude. They can allow their 'loved one' to have more personal space and more rights to be the way they are. and they can tolerate snobbish looks! They expect less and are more at ease at themselves - just as how their cats do.

But I still prefer dogs. Though Shadow shall be an exception.

Shadow the cat 

Hail 'His Majesty'!

Why I was not too worried about Anwar being jailed

January 9th, the day when all eyes were on Malaysia. 

Somehow, I was not surprised by the verdict that Anwar has been acquitted. Before this, while Anwar and his team went on a nationwide campaign to rally for support, and when talks are high on the fate of Pakatan Rakyat assuming that Anwar is going to jail (and speculations on who should be the interim Prime Minister), I've shared with a few close friends to take a chill pill because I don't think Anwar is going to jail. 

Firstly, by charging Anwar, Najib (assuming the conspiracy theory that the BN government is behind all this) risk repeating the history of 1998 Reformasi when the former deputy Prime Minister were sacked and accused for the first time, or at the least - as some argued that the reputation of Anwar has suffered some tarnishes by the continuous attacks from his enemies and might not reciprocate the same public anger of 1998 - Najib might still risk giving away the middle ground votes to Pakatan Rakyat out of sympathy. There is a chance that he might go the hard way to finish him off, but he is not usually a high risk taker, and my case were proven. 

Secondly, if Anwar was charged, it will reinforces the claim by Pakatan Rakyat of the tyranny of BN and give them a moral boost that the fight goes on. Now that Anwar has been acquitted, Pakatan Rakyat and those who cried foul previously are caught in between by their own words. Does it mean you were right to say Anwar was innocent, or were you wrong to say the judiciary is not independant? Certainly, I personally do not think that a single verdict that is perceived as fair is substantial to justify the legitimacy of the entire judiciary system; for two reasons: 1) It could just be a game played by Barisan Nasional for the reasons I've just mentioned above, and 2) even within the worst system, there could be people with conscious that does a few right. 

2011 Recapped

Calendar is but a human way to document dates and time. And yet, there are something that make 31 Dec so far apart from 1 Jan, as if a chapter has to be closed on the 11.59pm of 31st Dec before the New Year is ushered in, and as if how you spend your first moments of the year will determine how your new year will be. 

Surely, it is a good time of reflection, to be thankful for things that happened in the year and to plan for the next.  Somehow, the emotional attachment is not as strong to me, this could have be the fact that my birthday is in November, merely a month ago, which served as a better checkpoint for the year-long goals for me. When I was studying, our academic year starts and ends in June, thus rendering the New Year celebration somewhat meaningless as it would be only half the journey. As I started working, it was November, and coincidently, twice I've resigned/decided to resigned in November too. Major events in my life simply does not happen at the turn of the new year. 

Nevertheless, seeing the many beautiful ways year-end reflections and new year wishes were shared on Facebook, I too felt the need of summarizing it (peer pressure effect, you can say.) It took me a while, but it summarized my 2011 adventure most aptly. 

"A sheer boldness and hunger for adventures brings me back to KL before last year ends. 

This year, what I discovered is beyond what I expected:

I learnt to love, 

Friends new and old, Families near and far;

I learnt to care, 

causes great and small;

I learnt to be different, I learnt to be normal; 

I learnt to cry in joy, and laugh in pain; 

I learnt to give, I learnt to keep;  

I learnt that though feel far apart, God has never left :') "

Postal Votes Which Are Never Posted

[LoyarBurok] April 22th, 2011

Having acted as a coordinator for polling and counting agents for the Opposition campaign in the recently concluded Sarawak State Elections has made me more confused about the rationale of the electoral system in Malaysia, in particular with regard to postal voting.

Under Malaysian election laws, postal voting is mainly allowed for police personnel, members of the armed forces and Election Commission workers who are on duty on polling day. Six days before polling day, postal votes will be issued through a procedure which can be witnessed by agents from all contesting parties. The ballot papers are inserted into envelopes with an acknowledgment form attached to be ‘posted’ to the voters concerned .

Don’t be fooled by the name, though. In actual fact, only a very small number of overseas votes are sent by post. The postal votes for police personnel and members of the armed forces are dispatched by police and military officials respectively to designated police stations and army camps, whereas Election Commission workers are required to collect their own postal votes from the issuing centre.