Reflections

It has been a while since I've posted any materials on this blog, all thanks to the very tight schedule I'm having for the past few weeks.

It seems to me now that I've questioned myself over a lot of matters, especially over matters back home and here. The mentality and perception of the peoples I've seen are different, the way things are done are different and they also have differing priorities. They have social ills, but differnent - they have knife crimes, we have rempits. Politics are different too - they have cash for questions/make new laws, we have corruption/money politics.

But there are things they do we would never do it back home without a night in jail back home, and vice versa.

It is weird to see that people here can march the streets and the police don't seem to mind, as long as you protest peacefully. When the same thing happens back home, the protesters will be greeted with water cannons and tear gas.

People here can express their outrage towards their governments openly and without fear as long its not slander with proper avenues for them to do so, and there will always be academics to critically assess the law or the conduct of politicians. Back home, those who criticise the government too loudly would likely to be locked up in Kamunting under the ISA.

The people here expects the MP/minister/government to be answerable to the people, the mandate. I don't think the situation applies back home, except when it concerns subsidies. The people here could criticise their governments so bluntly that its may reach to the point that the government never had any merits. Back home, its all about the good things our government does, and never had any bad press. Brown always get the boot, while Badawi always gets roses in the press.

Their Opposition parties are given the chance to ask questions and do tyr to hold the ruling government into account, while back home anything raised by the Opposition will be rejected by the Speaker on the grounds that it is not important and urgent.

The law here too have laws which seem arbitrary, like their Anti-Terrorism Act, but that is for suspected terrorists. Even that, the Act had a lot of opposition. Back home, ISA is used mostly against political figures, with the slightest of suspision, if not none. *Note though, due to the stronger majority in Dewan Rakyat, the controversial DNA Identification Bill had recieved a lot of opposition. No idea whether the Bill was passed or not.

The country I'm currently studying at has no written constitution with the name, 'the Constitution'. With only 'constitutional' statutes and conventions, it surprises me is that the country never got itself into anarchy. Back home, we have the Federal Constitution which have been amended over 700 times in the past 50 years, and I don't know what the amendments are. The American Constitution has only been amended a few times over their 250 year history. Why is that so?

As much as many things I admire about them, there were also things made by their politicians that remind me of the situation back home. The UK was hit by a change-in-law-just-pay-us-with-money scandal in the House of Lords, and a few here and there scandals.

We are at crossroads: to take a better path to success or the path to oblivion?

I know people will tell me, 'Hey, you can't compare our country with another country. Our's different. We have different histories and backgrounds. Plus, why are you looking up at other countries?'

My answer is this: I'm not saying the other country is better, because they have their bad share of things too. However, there are certain things they are good at, and I think it's good to have a look and learn from it. I'm not comparing and say that just because they did a better job we're have to blindly follow them. I'm just saying that we have room for improvement. They're not perfect too. Buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih.

I was told by someone that we'll never progress because of the mentality of our people - they will never change due to our history, how our nation was born. I beg to differ. I think we can, according to someone I had a lively discussion, the road may be long and winding, but we can do it.