Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Rebels with causes.

I'm just so tired, sleeping late and waking up for 8:30am classes for two days straight, but I just have to blog about this - ANWAR WINS IN PERMATANG PAUH!

Looks like they did it!

Here's the news report:

Malaysia's Anwar heads for parliament after election victory

PERMATANG PAUH, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won a "landslide" victory Tuesday in a by-election to return him to parliament, and said he was on track to oust a weakened government.

The vote in his home state of Penang cemented a stunning comeback for Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier a decade ago and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated.

"We declare victory, the margin is very huge," said Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar's Keadilan party which leads a three-member opposition alliance.

"I think it's a landslide victory," he said, adding that Anwar's share of the vote could rise as high as 70 percent.

The official tally showed Anwar had won 27,977 votes, against 13,426 for his opponent from the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has dominated Malaysian politics for half a century.

- AFP

It's actually scary that people actually get used to seeing the nonsense we see in parliament every single day, day in, day out, that they begin to forget that change is possible.

But then again, let's not forget that the only constant in this capricious world is change.

Let's just wait and see how this all unfolds. I just hope that I'll change Malaysia for the better. I really, really do.

***

In other news, a very interesting individual was spotted in Canteen B, NTU, right after my marketing lecture imploring me and my fellow university students to "open up our minds" and "to be silent no more", and to actually have the courage speak up when we have too.

And he is no other than this gentleman here:

"Be silent no more!"

Recognize this face? He's no other than Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party. I first heard about him in this article published in the Far Eastern Economic Review titled "Singapore's Martyr, 'Chee Soon Juan'" (read the article here).

One thing to note is that because of that article, the Far Eastern Economic Review was sued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as the article supposedly suggests that he and his father, Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew, were corrupt. What happened was that the FEER was then banned from Singapore, leaving me without one of my favourite debate resources in late 2006.

Damned lawsuit. I loved the FEER, as cheem as it was.

Another interesting thing worth noting is that when my classmates and I realized that it was he and his sister giving out leaflets, none of my classmates dared to approach him for a picture for fear of being made the target of government lawsuits. Are Singaporeans really that conditioned by the iron grip of the government?

All I know now is that I really hope that everything turns out right.

Hamlet's Hero out.

***

P.S. One of my classmates is an synesthete! Go google of wikipedia it if you don't know what it means! But it is sooooooooo cool!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes they are

Kevin Chan said...

Ya lah. The friend of mine who took the pic of me and Dr. CSJ wrote his name as C_hee S_oon J_uan on her blog to avoid detection. Paranoidddd lahh!

Anonymous said...

I guess it's their mentality? The way they were raised, taught, 'brainwashed? And we thought Malaysia was bad

Anonymous said...

hey, that's unfair! you know those guys were just kidding about the govt lawsuits.. and i do that to all the full names i put on my blog cos i don't like my blog turning up on search engines!
-grace

Kevin Chan said...

Haha, okay Grace. (: sorry to have judged too quickly. My apologies. But I still believe that Singaporeans in general are afraid to express their dissatisfaction with the government.

Don't you agree?

Anonymous said...

kevin, what have u been shooting ppl in OB all these while? stereotyping ppl eh? haha. we aren't afriad to express dissatisfaction, singaporeans love to complain about govt's new policies!

royst

Kevin Chan said...

Yup, but complaining about it in coffee shops is one thing, but actually speaking up against the government is another.

Do I even see a sizable opposition in this country?

I don't mean to offend any parties, but this is just my honest observation of general behaviour here. (:

Anonymous said...

I heard that when every any serious opposition emerges in Singapore, the government will sue them for bankruptcy etc.? Is it true? (Not judging just wondering)

Royst L said...

i dont really mean complaining in coffeshops. more of writing in the forum of strait times and such.

royst

Jonathan said...

eh wow u actually met the singaporean opposition leader (is he?) aha nice