going away for a few days.

Insya Allah I’m going to Kelantan for a few days to sunatkan budak (circumcize little kiddos)! Yeay, hehe…it’s good practice for me and while I’m back in Kelantan, I’m gonna visit my grandparents as well. Will be back God willing, on the 19th.

Take care people.

it is not the critic who counts.

I was deeply inspired by this quote from former US Presidet, Theodore Roosevelt and would like to share it with everyone.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

no need to work hard for SPM anymore.

I can’t help but be amazed at the responses to Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s statement today that we should consider opening up 10% of UiTM to non-bumis. Not only was it merely a suggestion but it was a good one too which I will explain why in a minute. The sheer flak that he got from left, right and centre was just a reminder that we Malaysians still have a long way to go in becoming a developed nation. Some people think it’s a question of protecting the Malay rights and ensuring that we get what we ‘deserve’ but I strongly disagree. Below is a quote from The New Straits Times:

The press yesterday quoted Abdul Khalid as suggesting that 10 per cent of the current student quota at UiTM be opened to non-Bumiputeras and foreign students.

He had said that the suggestion could raise the quality of education and spirit of competition among students at the institution.

The suggestion, however, were met with opposition from former UiTM students who described it as illogical and did not deserve any consideration.

Now let me elaborate. Are these people who are opposing this suggestion (remember, it is still only a suggestion) basically saying that they can go in front of a non-bumi (who might be poorer than them), look them in the eyes and say “Hey, u tak boleh masuk UiTM walaupun u dapat better SPM results than me, sebab I melayu and I deserve this”. Errr??

The Malays have lost their competitive edge, which is the reason why we are where we are now. Don’t believe me? Ask Tun Dr M and see if he agrees that Malays have lost their competitiveness. I can’t for even one second take in the idea of one man who is willing to take a place at university at the expense of another man who is cleverer than him but is not from the same race. Does Islam teach us this?

Owh I know what some of the bumis will say, ‘But we Malays fought for independence, and we gave the non-bumis citizenship in exchange for more rights for the Malays’. Yes that’s partly true, but I would like to ask them this, did they fight for the country? No. Did they shed their blood for the country? No. It was those men and women decades ago who did that, not us. They have the right to demand things, not us. So to be fair, in terms of contributing to the nation’s independence, the current generation are all equal. In fact, some bumis should be ashamed of themselves for demanding things that they actually have done nothing to deserve.

Let me give you another example, imagine we are faced with a massive natural disaster and everybody had to hide in a bunker like the one in Deep Impact (seriously, you should see this movie if you haven’t). Now stretch your imagination further and let’s say that there is only one space left but you’ve got two people to fit in. One must be sacrificed. It just so happened (remember this is fictional) that there is one bumi who is an average person, a bit lazy and lucky to be where he is due to his ethnicity. The other guy is a non-bumi who is a top student, very hardworking but just did not have the luck on his side, again due to his ethnicity. Remember, you will need to rebuild your nation after you’ve gotten yourself out of the bunker and need all the people you can get. Who would you choose?

We have been stewing too long in our own incompetence and fooling ourselves that we are good when we are not. How do you increase a man’s resistance and willpower? You challenge him. That’s right. You throw everything you’ve got at him. That’s how they run army camps. Now instead of relishing the challenge and believing that we can still get our share of success through hard work, we are using our political power and running away. If you are good, then you are good no matter where you are. If you’re not good enough, then face it. Go back to the drawing board, get your head down and work harder. Don’t compromise the quality of the nation’s human capital by punching above your weight and hustling your way through. It’s a deep-rooted problem. Thousands of graduates don’t have jobs. Why? Because they are just not good enough and soon get found out in the unforgiving real world. They know that their IC will soon save them.

People are always better than you because they work harder, because they do things the right way, because they do things that you don’t. True, genes do play a role a lil’ bit, but they don’t do better just because they’re Americans, or Chinese, or Germans. The world doesn’t work that way. Everybody has an equal chance to begin with, it is what you do with your chance that makes the difference.

We must be clear in our minds, are we putting our nation first or our race first? If it is the latter, then we will forever be struggling to foster better solidarity. Even 10 Rukun Negaras won’t do us any good if we fail to grasp this concept. We will forever be trying to find out what is wrong with our country. It’s really really basic, do unto others what you want others to do unto you. The notion that non-bumis are always smarter is not true, in fact i have met many outstanding bumiputeras who are just bloody brilliant. We can do it if we want to, it is just that we are too comfy. And don’t even get me started on the definition of bumiputeras according to the constitution. So many loopholes! If you have time, read Dr Syed Husin Ali’s “The Malays: Their Problems and Future” to find out.

I remembered once when I was in school, I asked my religious teacher why Allah did not give success to all Muslims since they believed in Him and it was the correct religion. Then he said, well, one of the many names of Allah is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim which is Maha Pemurah and Maha Penyayang, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful. He then explained that Allah is gracious to all living things, regardless of religion, even those who do not believe in him, but his mercy is only for the muslims. So if you work hard, even if you are not a Muslim, you will have success. Why? Because you deserve it. Allah gives you success because you work hard, not because you are a Muslim. Obviously it would be better if you are both .

Wouldn’t it be good, if we understood this? Wouldn’t it be good if we rewarded someone because they worked for it and not because they are brown or black or white?

The increasing similarity between South Africa’s white supremacy and Ketuanan Melayu scares me more with each passing day.

Now, boys, just settle down.

I read this colum in The Star and found it amusing!

Brave New World
By AZMI SHAROM

The teacher has to rein in the unruly few or the lesson cannot start and the whole class, nay, even school, will suffer.

GOOD morning, boys. Good morning. Settle down, settle down. Now, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for us and as your class teacher, I think we should go over a few things.

We have been the premier school in the country for the past 50 years, but a few unpleasant incidents recently have put that position at risk.

If we don’t get our act together, we may lose our hallowed position.

Therefore, before we begin our history lesson, there are a few matters I would like to discuss with you.

First off, our head prefect, Mr Hamid, can you stand up, please? Well, it seems that you have …

You there, yes, you, the boy at the back. Can you please stop making that obscene gesture with your hands? No, you can’t say you are just tapping your right hand with your left. That is an obscene gesture. Keep it up and I’ll give you six strokes.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Mr Hamid. It seems that you caused a massive traffic jam at the school gates. Your prefects were stopping everybody and checking their badges and their bags. Do you realise that you caused a great deal of problems?

Boys were late to class and even teachers were late because of your overzealous behaviour. Mr Tan the Maths master was furious because half his class missed their calculus exam.

What did you say? You were concerned about the security of the school because you thought our rival school was going to cause trouble at your prefects’ meeting? And where, pray tell, did you get this intelligence?

Oh, you heard it on the grapevine? Well, the next time you choose to listen to plants, please check with me first before you go disrupting our school day.

Second on the list is our debating team. Gentlemen, please join me in a round of applause for the hard work of our team captain, Mr Chik.

He put up a courageous display against a debater who had miles more experience than him. Bravo, Mr Chik, a brave effort indeed.

Brave but futile, I’m afraid. Mr Chik, I have spoken to the debate master and he told me that you hardly did any research.

Listen, my boy, you can’t beat the opposition by making personal attacks on their past.

You have to put over your point clearly; otherwise you’ll just look foolish.

And one more thing; for the next debate, please bring a handkerchief.

All right, now it is time to discuss some academic matters. I have just marked your General Paper test and I was quite shocked with some of your answers.

Mr Ibrahim, stand up, please. Young man, I read your essay on government scholarships and it was very passionate and fiery but you can’t just make things up.

There is nowhere in the Constitution that says that all scholarships are reserved for Malays.

It says that reservations of a proportion of scholarships for Malays may be made by the King. It does not say every single sen is for one group or another.

Don’t argue with me, boy! You got it all wrong. All you have to do is read the blinking thing.

What do you mean you did read it? What did you see exactly when you read it?

Perhaps I should send you to the school nurse. I think you need glasses.

One last thing; as you all know, half the boys in this school stay in the hostel.

It has come to my attention that the day boys have been teasing the hostel boys by questioning, how can I put it, their … manliness.

This behaviour has got to stop. It is childish and undignified. It also reflects an obsession with matters sexual that borders on the unhealthy.

The next time you get the urge to speculate about another person’s private life, may I suggest you play some rugby and let the exertions raise your minds from the gutter?

Very well then, I trust the events of the past few weeks have taught you all a lesson and the debacles that have so embarrassed us will not be repeated.

We can now begin our history lesson. Would you be so kind as to take out your textbooks and turn to page …

For the last time, boy, stop making that gesture! You have had your warning, and seeing as how you are too uncouth to show the slightest bit of remorse and repentance, I shall see you after class.

Let’s see whether you can keep doing that with your hands once I’ve caned them raw.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, please open your books to page 46 …

> Dr Azmi Sharom is a law teacher. The views expressed here are entirely his own.

let’s all buy Mercedez to save money.

Ubah gaya hidup? Credit to Paul Tan's blog for the picture.

No, that’s not a typo. Apparently the new strategy to save money if you have a car is to buy a more expensive one with the argument that the servicing costs in the long run will justify its purchase. I don’t need to tell you that a Mercedez is more expensive than a Perdana V6, only a blind man will say otherwise. Even the deaf and dumb can guess which one is more expensive. The Terengganu’s MB decision to buy 14 Mercedez Kompressor E200 to replace their current fleet of Perdana V6 Executives just boggles the mind. Not only because of the amount of money spent, but also the rationale behind it.

Terengganu State Secretary Mokhtar Nong argued that the decision was made as a result of the Perdanas’ lack of reliability, explaining the Perdanas often require costly maintenance, especially on the gearbox, when used for continuous, long distance journeys.Two of the Perdana V6s in particular needed cumulative repair costs of RM175,229.97 and RM132,357.76 respectively since 2004. However, Proton denied the allegation of high maintenance costs from Terengganu state government, citing the regular maintenance (motor oil and oil filter replacement) for the Perdana to be around RM200. The controversy had created a possibility of maintenance fraud by the state government of Terengganu, as the regular cumulative maintenance costs of a typical Perdana V6 for the same period is far lower than the claim by the state government and also due to the fact that there was no such warranty claims being made by the state government since October 2004 for one of the defected cars.

Is he trying to insult other people’s intelligence by claiming that the repair costs for a car component is more than the cost of a new car altogether? I don’t care what car it is, (even if it’s a Bugatti Veyron) it just does not make sense that repair costs of a Perdana V6 is more than the cost of the car itself.

This whole illogical and incredulous sequence of claims leads to a high degree of suspicion that there was some hanky panky going on regarding the details of the entire car maintenance process for the Terengganu Excos. Who serviced them? Why did it cost so much? Are the numbers correct? The Star reported through its SMS alerts service today that several senior officers have been interviewed by the Terengganu ACA over the Perdana fleet’s maintenance costs. Sigh, maybe some people’s ambition in life is to taste how owning a Mercedez is like.

Sometimes, when people do something wrong, we try and find a way to give them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise known as ‘bersangka baik’. But this is just too illogical. And I mean, literally.

We hate people who are corrupted. We hate them more when they are corrupted and idiots.

rasuah: public enemy number one.

Maaf kerana lambat update. I was reading the news yesterday and as we all know, there has been a lot of arrests by BPR lately, that Immigration fellow, then yesterday a former Putrajaya Holdings landscaping staff. It is perplexing as to why Malaysians can be so corrupted. Morgan Stanley apparently reported that 330 Billion ringgit have been lost through corruption. That is a lot of money. I have been trying to figure out the reasons why and I have come up with a few theories.

Some people say that not everybody understands what rasuah means. Maybe yes, maybe no. People must understand that rasuah not only involves money, it can be anything that you receive in return for a favour. For example, if a guy gives you an all-expense paid holiday for you and your family in return for a favour from you, that is rasuah eventhough there was no visible exchange of money. He does not need to hand you 3000 ringgit in cash, he can just convert it into a different form to make it appealing to you. This is part of the first problem. People can talk all they want about rasuah, but sometimes they are just as susceptible to it when it comes knocking on their door in a different form, a form that looks ‘less guilty’ to them and more appealing.

There is also rasuah kuasa, when one uses one’s power to interfere in a supposedly neutral process to ensure that a particular outcome is in one’s favour. Conflicting interests must be declared and made clear so that people are aware of your business dealings. I still think that a lot of people know this but pretend they don’t. For those who genuinely don’t, then be aware and understand the concept.

We need to remember, rasuah is a sin that involves other people and a very serious one indeed. The profits that we get will be used to feed our family and later on in life, the consequences of that will be reflected in our lives. The mufti of Perlis explained that certain sins are best kept a secret if you know about them, untuk menutup aib sesama Muslim, but others are best publicized so that the public are not victimized. Rasuah falls into the latter category. If it’s between you and Allah, then asking for forgiveness in solitude is perhaps better for you. Tidak aib di dunia. But for things like rasuah, it needs to be discussed in the open and tackled rigorously as it involves other people’s money and is a threat to the society as a whole.

So I am reminding myself and my fellow friends who are about to embark on their working lives to keep themselves ‘clean’. Biarlah kita hidup sederhana tetapi dengan wang titik peluh sendiri yang sudah pasti lebih berkat dan memberi kita lebih kegembiraan daripada mendapat wang yang haram.

It’s not only for your own good, it’s for the nation.

“Dan janganlah kamu makan (atau mengambil) harta (orang-orang lain) diantara kamu dengan jalan yang salah, dan janganlah kamu menghulurkan harta kamu dengan (memberi rasuah) kepada hukum-hukum, kerana hendak memakan (atau mengambil) sebahagian dari harta manusia dengan (berbuat) dosa, pada hal kamu mengetahui (salahnya)”.

Al-Baqarah ayat 188

deritanya hospital lembab, lintah darat.

Let’s write in Malay for a change. Saya rasa terpanggil untuk berkongsi warkah berikut yang disiarkan dalam laman web Malaysiakini pada May 13 2008. Ia merupakan luahan hati seorang anak yang baru sahaja kematian ibunya gara-gara sikap yang boleh dilihat sebagai sambil lewa oleh sesetengah pihak. Mungkin ada perkara yang boleh kita jadikan pengajaran dan perbaiki daripada rentetan peristiwa yang berlaku ke atas si pengirim.

Pada mulanya saya rasa mahu mendiamkan saja perkara ini tetapi apabila difikirkan kembali, saya rasa perkara seperti ini perlu diketengahkan di dada akhbar dan menuntut penjelasan daripada pihak-pihak yang bertangungjawab bagi kepentingan semua rakyat Malaysia.

why medicine is tough. and exciting.

A few days ago I was reflecting back on my life these few years and how far I’ve come. I feel very privileged to have been chosen by God to be in this position Alhamdulillah; slightly more than halfway through medical school and everything to look forward to in the future. But I can’t deny that at times I have felt really tired and burned out emotionally and mentally. I’ve managed to pick myself up again and plodded along. Back when I was in school, people used to tell me how difficult medicine was and how it was not worth doing. Well, after 3 years of doing this stuff, I can confidently say that they were right about it being difficult but I have never regretted it even one bit.

in control.

Before I forget, I would like to pay tribute to the United team that just won the league over the weekend. What an outstanding achievement by an outstanding team. It’s the club’s 10th title in 16 seasons. It’s Ferguson’s 19th major trophy I think, something like that. To have the desire and hunger for success at his age and also to have the aptitude to do so in an ever changing world like football is something that we can all learn from, regardless of whether we watch football or not. I know most girls don’t watch football because it’s just 22 men in shorts chasing a round thing watched by 76000 drunken fans.

I read a comment by a football pundit on the BBC news website and he made a very interesting point that is probably true for most things in life. You see, on that last day of the season, not only was the title about to be decided, but also relegation issues and UEFA Cup places, etc were also up for grabs. So there were teams who just had to win to ensure their places and there were also others who had to fulfill their end of the bargain and at the same time hope for other teams to do them a favor by losing or getting a draw. In this case, you would rather be United than Chelsea, and Fulham rather than Reading or Birmingham. Why? Because you have destiny in your own hands.

torsades de pointes.

Twisting of the points. That is the literal definition of this french term described by Dessertenne in 1966 and now widely known among medical students on their cardiology rotation (well, not everyone). To the medics, it’s an uncommon variant of ventricular tachycardia. But to the Malaysian parliament it can also be used to described what happened last week =). I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read the papers.

Ok, we all know what happened. RPK (not Raja Perempuan Kelsom) was sent to jail for ’sedition’ based on his article in Malaysia Today – ‘Let’s Send The She-Who -Must-Not-Be-Named’ Murderers to Hell’. But apparently some people thought, well at least one guy thought, that ‘hell’ here literally means ‘hell’. An-Narr, neraka. And that ‘we shoudn’t interfere with the dealings of heaven and hell as it was God’s prerogative’. As you can imagine he was slated big time, to quote another guy-who-must-not-be-named, ‘No use going to University X if can’t understand an English expression’.