National Day

Today is our Merdeka day. Happy Birthday Malaysia ! You're 51 today and I wish you all the best. Things seem rather quiet - I watched the parade on tv and just sat there thinking of all the things that has happened in the last year. I wonder if things will be the same next year? And the next? If there are changes, as I'm sure there will be what kind of change will it be? I wish to see a change in the politics - more equitable for all and more help for those who really need it. I'd like to see forms without the word race there to be filled. I think its time we do without that and just put Malaysian. Because if qwe want to put race - what race am I? What race is Repin and Rizal and Sophia my granddaughter? She's half chinese because her mother is Chinese, but then her father his 1/4 Pakistani, 1/4 Chinese, a bit of Bugis, 1/8 Afghan and a number of others. So what race are we all really? There's no category to put us in... and is it fair to put my grand daughter under the category others as well? So Malaysia - wake up and let's just be Malaysians!!
I'd really like to see a more transparent govt too - we all want to know what really happened in the Altantuya case and also the Anwar sodomy case.
And lastly I wish for a more efficient police force, less corruption and more intelligent ministers. Am I asking for the moon?

Yesterday was my talk in Seremban. Went there early - about 6.30am. Malliha was waiting for me at the toll as promised and I followed her car to the school, which was lucky because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find it, I'm sure. The talk went well even if I say it myself. Roughly 70 teachers attended. Most of them may not have attended any workshops on testing I think. So it was really useful for them. However there wasn't enough time to actually do everything so I only touched on the important parts - namely fundamentals of testing, building multiple choice items and Bloom's taxonomy. Had a short workshop after that and we ended by 12.00 pm. It being a long weekend the teachers were quite in a hurry to get back - they all probably had other plans for the weekend.
Went back to KL on Sunday - Rizal was coming to visit and I'm waiting to see my grand daughter. Have not seen her for a month and I do miss her!

You can see her making her funny face here.

Sophia

Aaah my cucu is back in KL and here I am in Melaka. If I could sprout wings I'd fly back in an instant. But patience my heart... I'll see her cheeky smiling face with its wide smile soon enough. I don't know what it is with grandparents and their cucu. Repin is like play dough in Sophie's hands. He'd let her do anything with him - even pull his hair, upset his glasses, turn his pockets inside out. My heart is so full when I see her. I can't even say she is so cute because I know Rizal and Sarah were cuter at that age. Wan was a little devil but a good looking one and Shasha, for all her lack of hair was cute too. I guess its just that here is a little piece of you - one you didnt make yourself, and one you are not responsible for so you can just love this little piece of you as much as you want and spoil them too.

I think Poh lin is a good mum - she won't spoil Sophie that's for sure. And the little one is so smart for a one year old. Here's a video that Repin took of her on her birthday last month.

As for my garden - they're all looking rather wiltd right now. My roses have caught a disease - reminds me of that Blake poem - Oh rose thou art sick....makes feel kind of sick too, seeing the blighted leaves and the pretty little buds becoming brown and falling off before thy can bloom.

On other matters - to morrow I'll be giving a talk in Seremban. It's on testing and evaluation. I know its my own field but I still get the jitters before a talk. How ever ready I am, I stll feel anxious every time. And these are not only English teachers but also other subjects. I'll do the first part on Fundamentals of Testing and then do a workshop after that. Its less taxing that was.

Haven't seen Chia for a long time too - years I think. The last time was in 2005 when I was still working I think , so this workshop will be a chance for us to catch up. I didn't realise he had transferred to Mantin - thought he was still in Ampangan.

By election

So, Anwar has won the by election. I wonder what this means to the politics of this country? More fireworks... and less work? I think just judging by the political furore of these past few months, not much will change. The alternative front is just all talk and very little action, unless it is to march and protest over the oil price hike, which are actually non issues. The ruling coalition on the other hand has much to do and undo... to get back the people's trust. As for Anwar's "landslide win" in PP - was there any other result expected? It was his first constituency - he was almost born there - even when his wife won the constituency in days gone by - no one sane and reasonable expected anything different. BN would hav been over ambitious if it had ever expected to win PP. Of course they could try... which from what I read and heard, they did. Oh well... some other life time perhaps Pak Lah.

I've been trying to picture Anwar at the helm of a new Malaysia - on as Raja Petra and a number of others have been saying - non racial politics. Can we ever have a non racial government, if what we hav now according to them is very racial? Will the Chinese stop clamoring for a bigger share of the cake, the Indians a bigger quota of everything else and what about the others? The IBans, the Kadazans and all those other tribes in Sarawak and Sabah? Will they too demand for a bigger share of the pie? And amongst all these, who will look after the ordinary people? The quiet ones with no voice - the silent majority who are the cogs in the wheel. Even now Selangor has seen some quiet changes - road signs in chinese, tamil and rumi. Not Jawi anymore.

I have always maintained that whatever the political party, whoever at the helm, the ruling emotion, the ruling creed will be the " ME" ideology. IT's me first and foremost, then those who helped me, and then those who helped those who helped me.

We can never run away from our basic instincts. Otherwise proverbs such as Birds of a feather flock together will never come about. Even if we do mature, and become more open and more giving, it comes at a cost.