2007 Recap Part II

July
Immediately after the results was the moment where we had to apply for universities…I started off by enquiring whether about the re-application towards that university…and the reply was due to my pathetic results, I was no longer accepted. I was quite upset with my parents at that time because I had expected that would happen and I had let go of a golden chance to pursue my course…so therefore I had to think of another idea and tried something else…I knew USM and UPM had my course so I did what was most logical…and went to the school gathering to listen to the application process, but unfortunately I missed it and I was left out… but as I was a teaching staff in school, I used my free time to find the counsellor Siti and she gave me a personal session on how to apply for universities…Therefore I enquired about the chances of going to those places and was given advise to be more practical…and so it was a major reshuffle of my choices and it was something like UTM, UTHM, UTeMm, etc, etc…which apparently the two previously mentioned ones were in the middle… and I had a whole month to tinker with it…and besides that I had to prepare for the worse…(as all students would, given the unfairness in our education system…) I also applied to private universities like UTAR, MMU and UNITEN, and received favourable replies…in fact it was due to most students waiting for the response from local unis that I got what I wanted…I went to several educational fair after that…including the British Council in KLCC, and I had a great time there with my mom awestruck with me conversing with the Caucasians…(she thought I would be that sucker who showed his sour face in front of the NUS staff few weeks ago…) and most of the University staff were quite astounded with my IELTS, which was a 8.0 overall, (plus the fact that I’ve no practice, no workshops beforehand, and I had walked in that very day with no idea of what to expect…) but most of them encouraged me to apply and try my luck in UCAS...the results in the following month…and my parents encouraged me to go to MMU as it was more reputable than the rest and it was more flexible as I could respond to the government offer still after I’m there…so there I went…and spent a good time there…the orientation was awesome as we had to compete with the Melaka Campus…(CyberMMU rocks, minjie!! Bler!!) we obviously won…just that minjie never relented in this matter…and I got my government reply after that…and I got to do Robotics in UTHM…

August

What do you expect? It’s my favourite month…my birthday is in this month, obviously. So were the response at that time…from UCAS I got offers from Kingston University, Swansea, and University of Surrey, the latter even put in a form to apply for scholarship…so I was excited. Parents were not happy as the exchange rate was hurting…Previously after I got the government offer… I had to go to another gathering in school to meet seniors who were supposed to help us… it was spooky as the very first person I met at school was her, alone. Even worse was when I found out she got the same course as me, at the same university. My ex-classmates were quite thrilled with this piece of gossip and had I had a lot of problems with it later on…in fact I turned the offer down as I was still in MMU at that time…and I wasn’t going to somewhere better than that…so I just resumed where I was. The sucker punch was the fact that a lot of my classmates were heading to Singapore, including my bro Jordan, who got NUS Business Management…and well the jerk got what he wanted, obviously with that ridiculous achievement…as I have failed in the NUS-NTU applications…therefore we will not enquire about whether I got anything there or not…in fact that was the last time I saw her… and I have not heard anything about after that, not even a birthday greeting, as a reply for what I’ve done in the previous year. Oh well, I shouldn’t expect returns, should I? I was at home watching the Merdeka Celebrations for our supposedly 50th year of inderpendence…and honestly I wasn’t happy with the speeches made, as it reeked of racial discrimination and selfishness…I knew trouble would surface soon…

September

It was a quiet month, but not for the country…as soon the VK Lingam tape appeared, the Bar Council erupted…I saw the tape only yesterday from the source itself, and I could understand the hype…and soon it was protests and marches…which threw the country into further chaos…but little did I know what next month would bring…it was also the time where the Negara Ku song was debated and caused even more tensions…I felt ashamed in enjoying the song at the 1st place, but to say that the whole song was insulting, it was not. There were a few things in it that were true, and after listening to forums by several bodies, I found that there were as much supporters as there were dissenters. So there must be truth in the facts said inside the song. I must clarify that the lyrics about religion was not appropriate and was not supported by both camps…of the special rights…it was very obvious and seen, I wish I could be less political here, but it is obvious something is wrong, and people are flamed by the points made in this part of the song… I wish we had equal rights. Especially the 3rd generation of citizens here, like me. To shoo us back to our homeland is completely inconsiderate, the fact is, we are born and bred here, that makes us as much locals as anyone here is, and the fact is we have no homeland to go back to, and this makes me incensed that I’m being treated as a 3rd class citizen and an outlaw, it made me even sad as I’ve seen friends who were offered poor offers even they were National Top scorers, and people who get all Bs and yet got nothing at all, and the fact that the choices made were of less preferred fields…where is the justice in that? Not to mention the brain-drain, why would it not happen? As long as injustice continues to occur, the country will continue to deteriorate…until something is done to rectify this matter.

October

This was an interesting month...as the Bersih Rally kicked off and made me truly impressed as people are willing to show dissent, finally. For every revolution, it will have bloodshed. People were tear-gassed, water-cannoned, beaten and arrested for this, and still they marched on. They did what they came to do, and it was a show of unity at the dissent of oppression of the current regime. It was even unnerving to see the coverage by the local media that was minimal…even my parents were not aware of it until I mentioned it. It was an awful display of oppression and ridicule by the half-past –six ministers and the spiteful mindless man who started all of this on international media. If we are to have fair elections, the opposition must be allowed to have equal coverage of the media. Countries like Australia, Britain and all the Democratic countries, even the US, gave the opposition freedom to campaign openly, citing that citizens are mature enough to decide their candidates. Even the most recent US presidential candidates were fed by questions from the public through Youtube, and they had to answer them on the spot, and you would see candidates having advertisements campaigning themselves without obstruction. Let the people decide, what is there to lose, except the fact of the party itself is so ‘kiasu’ that they would not relent in relinquishing their dominance to others, which is plain selfish and naïve. Would this ever happen in our country? As we are reckoned by them to be immature…it is hardly going to occur any time soon. Hindraf came soon after. Honestly I am awed by the bravery of these people to voice dissents of oppression, in fact many people, to point out my father himself, are still petrified by the May 13th incident. It was this that was mentioned several times by irresponsible people to threaten dissenters. People like my father do not realise that they are only here for another 20years or more…but youngsters like me however, will certainly live much longer than that, therefore it is crucial for us to decide and be well-informed of the changes in governance and be active members in deciding our own future…their fear should not pass into ourselves and affect our judgement. Something must be done.

November

Another quiet month…as it was filled with work and assignments given by my lecturers…barely had time to complete some and was filled to the brim…I was looking forward to the break we have for Christmas…I kept tabs with the happenings in the country and towards the response from the administration…and I have little good to say with the government as they were in denial of everything occurring, which proves of their incompetence and naivety, and I couldn’t agree more with several bloggers that quoted of changes that must be made, though not to the extent of being desperate…I was inttrupted briefly by her sudden appearance that month, where she msned me one afternoon for no apparent reason…therefore I had to engage in a somehow tasteless talk about her life after I last saw her, it ended with a sudden disconnection and well, that was it. Ghosts of the past never let you go, right?

December

It was all about awaiting for Christmas…and boy was it good. Me and my friends went to party at one of our houses and spent the whole night there, without sleep. It was all booze and games…DotA and CS. My friend, being a very up-to-date geek, displayed several new stuff for our entertainment, including the game Crysis, where its impressive features are still fresh in my mind, (though the maximum thingy did annoy me a lot) and I was exposed to Texas Hold ‘Em by him and end up being the biggest winner…after that we watched several movies like American Pie and American Pie 2…which I hope I will cover soon… given the time… it was also the day I was thrown into action of my cooking skills, whilst our friends were happily playing while me and another friend of mine did all the work…it kinda make me feel bad on the times we were watching tv while mom cooked…sorry mom!! But the dinner was great, and everyone was happy with what I did...and I was relieved. The following night we went for midnight stroll and had our dinner in the city, by ordering dishes and having a feast…it was a good three days…so good that I needed several days to recover from our party mood… Yesterday I went to watch the countdown with them… and was greeted by a display of fireworks, ushering the New Year.

Therefore, this sums up a year which I would like to quote from Queen Elizabeth, an “annus horribilis” or better known as a horrible year. I pray for the winds of change to help reform the country and help set the balance straight. I pray not for another following “annus terribilis”, 2007 was bad enough, let us leave it there, and start afresh everyone!!

Happy New Year!!