New Year's Day

There was a time when you wake up on New Year’s Day, look out of the window and sigh; “I wonder what’s in store for me this coming year and the years to come.” Always hoping the things will be better that the past.

And then you get on in age and the future does not seem so important.

You have live a reasonable good life. You feel that you have sort of reach “there”, in the sense that what you wanted for you family and yourself have been achieved, though as always it could have been better and more.

What then goes through your mind on New Year’s Day now?

Its memories, my friend. Sweet ones and Bitter ones, too.

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

(Mary Hopkins - Those Were The Days, My Friend)

Fast forward, older now and you thought of those –

Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were

(Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were)

The bitter ones, well –

What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember...

Or if that doesn’t work, then remember –

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;

(William Wordsworth’s Splendour In the Grass

And you know, these memories are what keep this aged blogger going, providing the perspectives for him to understand things better in the world today.

A Happy and prosperous New Year to all.

Hoax Announcements - The indecency of it all

Where’s the decency?

Here is the man showing so much strength fighting to recover his health and you announced to all and sundry that he died.

Here are thousands of people from all walks of life mourning the passing away of that grand Lady and you chose to sneak in a sick joke of Monday being a holiday in
Bernama’s announcement of her death.

And you, and you and you and you……… are equally culpable for relaying the above via sms’es and e-mails. You share the same indecency.

Sigh!!!

Nicol David wins British Open

At last, a Hero, oops, a Heroine.

Nicol David won the British Open Squash Championship last night. In the process she chalked a couple of “firsts” – first Malaysian to win the title, first Asian women to be crowned champion and the first player to have won all the titles available in the British Championship (age group titles and now the Open).

With all the disappointments over the years following Malaysian sports and with Arsenal in mid table, her success has made it worthwhile for me, this morning, to read the back page of local daily.

Why has she succeeded when other Malaysian sportsmen and women have failed? Liz Irving, her coach, has this to say - (http://www.sitesquash.com/britishopen/today.html)

…… and she is keen to learn, and she is respectful of other people. She’s got the talent, the body and the mental strength to back it up.

I would add “discipline” and “intelligence”.

Arsenal - V3.0

“Arsenal will never admit it, but they’ll be happy to be second again,” said Bob Holmes, writing on the EPL in the Sun today. And this Gooner agrees.

It was obvious from last season that the club had not got the deep pockets to be able to strengthen the squad with established star players and would have to increasingly depend on its youngsters.

In a way Arsene prepared us, Gunners’ supporters, for this by parading what he called “my under 21 side” for several of the games at the tail end of the 2004/05 season. Robin van Persie, Jose Reyes, Philippie Senderos, Cesc Fabregas, Gail Clicy and Mathieu Flamini were all given their breaks last season and they did not disappoint.

Add to this, his statement, at the start of this season’s transfer window, that he would look at buying only one or two players in their late twenties because he did not want to stunt the development of his youngsters and the relative willingness (as compared to last season) to let Edu and Viera go, suggest the Professor is preparing a “new” team which will mature in a few years.

It mirrors what happened after the 1998 double. 3 years as runners up in the subsequent years, they came back with a bang in the new century winning two championships (2002,2004) and achieved three FA triumphs (2002,2003 & 2005). After the stars of 1998 – Anelka, Overmars, Petit and one of the famed back four, Winterburn - left one by one, in came Lauren, Pires, Wiltord and the Brazilian Edu. Together with the emergence from the youth ranks of Asley Cole and the players acquired earlier (Silvinho, Vieira, and Henry) a new team emerged to chase for honours.

So, as a long time Gunners supporter who have seen the highs and lows of the club’s fortune, the coming season is a launch of Arsenal V3.0 and expectations are moderate. Top four position will suffice. Of course the quest to regain the Championship will always be there. Bookmaker William Hill gave us a respectable 10/3 odds to do so.

All that said, today’s game against Newcastle is the season opener for us and a victory would be nice. Up the Gunners!

Midweek Thoughts - On UM (100 this year)

When I wrote theletter to Malaysiakini in 2001 about the Dewan Tunku Chansellor fire, I thought that, that was it – henceforth I would not want to know anything about the University of Malaya nor want to comment on it.

I was wrong. Pride in one’s alma mater doesn’t disappear just like that.

So I continued to eagerly look forward to any news or stories about the Varsity. And sometimes even “debated” on them with family and friends.

But it has been one painful experience. The good news and stories were few and far between.

And so when Datuk Noordin Abdul Razak, President of UM Alumni Association, was quoted in the cover story of the Stars education supplement last weekend as having said -

“However, when it comes to ties with their alma mater, UM undergraduates are lacking. “I feel this is our weakness. Those who study in foreign universities seem to have stronger feelings and value the experience more.”

his statement riled me.

The truth is, our individual pride at being a UM alumus notwithstanding, the university has become a “stranger” to a lot of us, among the 100,000 or so graduates that have passed through its door. It just isn’t the same anymore. In recent times the whole complexion of the U has changed - from academic and teaching standards to academic freedom to students’s rights to varsity administration to campus life and so on.

Can we then be blamed for feeling detached from our alma mater?

But it does not have to remain so forever, UM’s present situation, that is. All that is needed is a change in mindset.

UM alumnus Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam who was interviewed for the cover story mentioned above and Dr. Lee Kam Hing (who also wrote an accompaning story in the same Education supplement) made some points to this end, changing mindset.

“Navaratnam does not see much cause for joy in UM’s position. “If NUS can be at number 18, why can’t UM be much higher up the ladder?” [he was referring to UM’s 89th. position in the recent The World University Rankings conducted by The Times Higher Educational Supplement (THES) in the United Kingdom.]

He believes that it’s time the Government recognises the best and that the emphasis should not be on equity (among local universities) but quality. “There must be a few, like UM, which stand out.”

Dr. Lee, in turn, has this to say –

“Certainly, UM can look back with some pride that it has over the last one hundred years contributed to the nation’s political and economic development. The early commitment to a free and open enquiry, a willingness to engage with people of diverse views and ideas, and a determination to strive for excellence are enduring strengths it inherited. But in an increasingly globalised and competitive world, the challenge for UM is to uphold and safeguard these values.”

Good News -entertainment guidelines off for now

After I had posted my blog on "Entertainment Guidelines:What's You Stand?" I read in today's NST that the Cabinet had decided to put on hold the issuance of the Jakim's guidelines.

Culture, Art and Heritage Minister Dr. Rais Yatim was quoted in the report as saying that if at all any guideline is to be introduced it would be done after careful study.

He was said to have also commented that -

"I don’t think we are in the right direction when we simply utilise the decision of an esoteric committee, chaired by, perhaps religiously-imbued persons, on the general public.

"This would create a lot of conflict, in my view, and it would not lead to a happy end,".

Entertainment Guidelines - What 's Your Stand?

Tuesday last, Datuk Dr. Abdullah Md Zin, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Dept. said that the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has been tasked with drawing up guidelines on entertainment in the country for submission to the cabinet. The proposed guidelines, he said, included stopping all live and broadcast entertainment programmes during Muslim prayer times, banning all songs with lyrics deemed contrary to Islamic teaching and also a proposal to segregate male and female audience at events.

I have been agonizing over the implications and consequences of these proposed guidelines since then. But it was a relief to note that other Malaysians have also felt the same way. The Sunday Times (22/5) carried an article headlined Religious Guidelines on Entertainment: “Consult Others”. The article mentioned several individuals representing a spectrum of Malaysian society urging the inclusion of the views of all Malaysians before the guidelines are finalized.

And today I received this piece written by Dr.Farish Noor, via the mailing list, Beritamalaysia, on the same matter. As always his article is thought provoking. Read it here.

And his plea to us merits consideration -

Where will this leave Malaysia as a whole? For now the country's non-Muslims and a significant section of Muslims as well (often erroneously labelled 'liberal')
has been left with no choice save muted protest. Our national identity and the common shared collective temporal-spatial framework upon which the nation is to
be built is being carved up by religious functionaries who seem to be driven only by their own communitarian exclusive concerns. Worst of all, these religious
functionaries are in the pay of the Malaysian government and state, which means that their schemes are being financed by the ordinary Malaysian tax-payer! Is this the Malaysia that our founding fathers envisaged, or are we actually witnessing the
nascent Balkanisation of our country?

Dear Malaysians, this is OUR nation, and OUR collective national temporal-spatial space. It is there for all of us, on the basis of Malaysian citizenship, to share and build together, for each other and the generations to come. Yet our social-cultural and even temporal-spatial map is being carved up before our very eyes. For the sake of Malaysia, Malaysians and the Malaysia to come, this steady compartmentalisation and balkanisation of the nation has to be critically interrogated now, and not later.