To actually be the best or to pretend to be the best?

And you wonder why Malaysian universities are in the state they are in nowadays?

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The Star, 16 April 2009

A UNIVERSITI Sains Islam Malaysia lecturer who passed only four out of 157 of her law students claims she was forced to resign so that the university could protect its reputation, Kosmo! reported.

Nor (not her real name) said the reason she left was because she could not stand the pressure from the university management on her to give “sympathy marks.”

“How am I to give extra marks if the marks they got is what they should be getting?” she said, adding that her downfall started when she received a show-cause letter on why so many students had failed.

She was then criticised by her superiors, who also wanted her to add marks based on attendance so as to reduce the number of failures.

“I stood my ground. How could I give them marks for that when it is their responsibility to show up for classes?” she added.

The university declined to comment.

Red Devils on to the last four

Ronaldo scored the goal that matters in Man U's 1-0 victory over Porto at the Dragao, in the Champions League quarterfinal 2nd leg earlier this morning

What can i say? i’m over the moon and overjoyed with Man U’s progress to the last four of the Champions League earlier this morning. I was getting really anxious before the match. Partly because no English team has ever won at the Dragao before and also because Porto is actually an excellent team, a fact that has been overlooked by most people. After all, they have reached the quarterfinals stage of the competition and they have beaten teams like Arsenal (in the group stage) and Athletico Madrid along the way. And in Lisandro Lopes, they have one of the best strikers in this years competition. 6 goals speak for his striking prowess.

Much have been made about the Dragao being an inpenetrable fortress, especially when it comes to English teams. But no English teams have ever played at the Dragao in a MUST WIN situation before, like the commentators at Sky Sports mentioned last night. However, Man U did get the supposedly unlikely job done last night. This was achieved, in no small part, due to Alex Ferguson tactical mastery. The 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in the first leg gave valuable insights about Porto’s strength and Fergie set the team out with a plan to, first and foremost, put a leash on that, before everything else. Stop Porto from playing, and with the quality that exists throughout the Man U squad, Fergie knew the impossible could be achieved. The main thing that Fergie did was to put Wayne Rooney on the wing, and let Ronaldo be one of the strikers. This worked because Rooney is a tireless worker and a team player. Besides being a danger himself on the sidelines, he would also track back every time Porto had the ball, particular to keep a check on Cissokho, Porto’s dangerous left wingback. Something which Ronaldo would not have done effectively, or rather, willingly. The second thing that Fergie got right was putting Anderson in midfield, in place of Paul Scholes. Anderson added steel and injected pace into Man U’s midfield, something that was missing in the first leg encounter. Rio came back to partner Vidic in defence too, after being missing through injury for quite sometime. With the two of them in defence, Man U looked more solid and a clean sheet was finally achieved by a defence that have leaked in goals and have looked out of sorts, recently.

A wonderful performance on a wonderful night with a magical goal by Ronaldo to cap. Glory glory Man United 1000000x

One Malaysia?

Utusan Malaysia, 15 April 2009:
Bangkitlah Melayu

Kuota bumiputera tidak diubah

Kabinet: PBB kecewa perwakilan Melayu

Peace, Love, Empathy

I just have to post this, albeit, belatedly. Recently was the 15th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. Rest in peace Kurt. It’s better to burn out than to fade away.

An effort at nation building

“One Malaysia” seems to be the new catchphrase of Najib Razak’s new government. In line with that, Rais Yatim, the new Minister of Information, Communications, Arts and Culture has proposed that every Malaysian TV station should have a “Membina Negara” (roughly translated as “Nation Building” ) segment. I guess it’s to promote and instil the spirit of unity and oneness among the racially-diverse Malaysian community. To put it bluntly, it’s a stupid idea. It’s like putting pictures of cancer victims on cigarette packs in order to deter people from smoking. It won’t work. A truly democratic country would find no need for such things. You only see such propaganda-filled programmes in autocratic regimes like North Korea or China.  I believed the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) programme – a programme, which government staff and government-sponsored students have to attend – began with such noble intentions, to instil patriotism and unity among the Malaysian people. Look at what a monster it has evolved into – full of racial politics and discrimations blatantly practised  by its fascilitators. If the government really intends to solve the unity problem, radical changes need to be put into place. Race-based politics need to stop. Also, the government must stop having the “Don’t question” attitude. How do you expect to solve the problem if you cannot discuss about race and religion? There is no need for demontrations, they say as everything can be solved behind closed door. That is akin to sweeping everything under the carpet. Anyway, the “Membina Negara” segment sounds like a typical RTM 1 programme. Who would want to watch anyway? Your target audience, the youths of Malaysia, care more about Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus than to watch RTM 1-kind of programmes.

Malaysian football hooligans

Last week, one of the worse cases of football riots occured at Sultan Muhammad IV stadium in Kelantan. In the incident, which poured over onto the streets outside the stadium, several cars were damaged including a police vehicle, which was torched in flames. An unlucky and innocent boy was blinded in the right eye, believed to have been caused by shrapnels from a teargas catridge fired by the police. In Malaysia, we have hooligans on par with the best (or worst) hooligans in the UK and Europe. Now, if only the football is of the same standard.

It’s been a long time coming

It’s been a while since my last post. Blame Maxis. I have been having problems connecting to the internet for about a week already. And they say it’s because of some upgrading work being done in my area.

In the mean time, Pakatan Rakyat beat BN 2-1 (i am imagining the two parties to be two football rivals slugging it out on the field) in the tri-elections (Yes!!). And Liverpool were  beaten 1-3 by Chelsea at home in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Sure, there were 3 other matches played. But the Liverpool loss was the most unexpected. And i guess you would say, “What?! Did you expect Barcelona to completely trounce Bayern Munich?” You bet i did. They’re the best team in the world right now. Heck, if Man U were to face Barcelona, i’d put all my money on the Catalans too, regardless of my being a die-hard Man U fan.

Batang Ai update

Heard that in Batang Ai, ballots are being carried by helicopter to polling place, unaccompanied by polling agents. Will this election be clean?

Election fever

Today is THE day. Can’t wait for the results of the by-elections at Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and especially, Batang Ai, to come up later this evening. I hope that the people will know to choose what is best for them and for this country.

Politics and WWE

J said that politics is just like WWE. It looks real, but it really is not. Go figure.