Protest Against Fee Hike

This evening, I was at the IME Toastmasters meeting where I was the evaluator for the second speaker, Angelyn Lim. Good speech and yes, good evaluation from me too! I won the Best Speech Evaluator award. By the way, the Toastmasters here are indeed improving by the day!

On Wednesday, students and even lecturers poured into London to protest against the education cuts and also against plans to charge up to £9,000 per year in fees. There had been a huge turnout for the demonstration – much more than the 20,000 that had been expected. Student leaders later said there could have been 50,000 crowded on to the streets of Westminster. And predictably, there were strong feelings on the march – with much vitriol targeted towards Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

It finally ended when demonstrators invaded and occupied the Tories' London HQ at 30 Millbank Tower.and fifty-four protesters were arrested. It was, I believe, a spontaneous act by angry students.

And a BBC News report today had lecturers, from Goldsmiths, University of London, declaring: "The real violence in this situation relates not to a smashed window but to the destructive impact of the cuts". Good to see lecturers and students standing on common ground fighting a common cause!

Nina Power had written in UK’s The Guardian, ”…the best moments on any protests are when there is a real feeling of common purpose and a recognition that we are all on the same side. This is the true meaning of "big society". And then “…this protest – in both its peaceful and more violent dimensions – is a sign of a country unafraid to fight back, for the first time in a long time”.

She had explained that “…the protest as a whole was extremely important, not just because of the large numbers it attracted, and shouldn't be understood simply in economic terms as a complaint against fees. It also represented the serious anger many feel about cuts to universities as they currently stand, and the ideological devastation of the education system if the [Tory-Liberal] coalition gets its way. It was a protest against the narrowing of horizons; a protest against Lib Dem hypocrisy; a protest against the increasingly utilitarian approach to human life that sees degrees as nothing but ‘investments’ by individuals, and denies any link between education and the broader social good…”. Well said!

Bogus Degrees

In page 6 of The Malay Mail report on Wednesday, Fazley was again basking in unwanted publicity – the afternoon free newspaper was repeating the BBC story that Fazley had claimed to have a master’s degree and a doctorate in business administration, but that both have been proven bogus as these originated from the European Business School (Cambridge), an offshoot of the Irish international University, which was already exposed as a sham by the BBC in 2008. Yep, it is one of those “successful” degree mills that ‘sells” qualifications to Malaysians and others. To be sure, these people know the degrees are bogus in the first place!

In fact, on this blogsite http://www.noorizamshah.com/2007/01/26/dr-fazley-yaakob-pencetus-motivasi.html, Noorizam Shah on January 26, 2007 even gave Fazley an illustrious title “Melayu Boleh”! I guess the blogger will have to quietly withdraw this title and Fazley himself must be eating humble pie now!

I didn’t know Celtic could play so poorly against Hearts, and they did. Worse for 35 minutes, Celtic were playing with only ten men. Anyway, the former lost 0-2 against the latter.

It was no better with this EPL match between Liverpool and Wigan because a Torres goal (7) was cancelled by Rodallega (57), and the game ended with a 1-1 score. The Reds also had an awful game against a very determined opposition.

Well, at least Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 2-0, their goals coming from Marouane Chamakh (1, 90+4).

Dr. Fazley

I accompanied twenty-two BMB1204 students to Sunway Lagoon to work on their course project. Thanks to KP Loke, their Assistant Manager – Public Relations for making the necessary arrangement for us.

BBC News reported today that UK Education Minister Leighton Andrews had strongly criticized the University of Wales, accusing it of bringing Wales into ridicule and disrepute. His comments follow BBC Wales' Week In Week Out showed a Malaysian pop star (i.e. Fazley Yaakob) with a bogus doctorate ran a college offering University of Wales courses. It also uncovered doubts about Accademia Italiana, a fashion college in Bangkok.

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Fazley (or Dr. Fazley, as he introduces himself here) is also a well-known motivational speaker and now, he has just earned a measure of international fame (or more correctly, notoriety)! I did get a chance to hear him speak once to a group of young people (they're from NS, if I am not mistaken) – and I can recall that he spoke well, even if his speech was ahem, devoid of content!

Caught on Video

Photo above shows Indrahanians who attended the Joint Meeting. Hong Yuan is middle row, third from left.

Last evening, there was a joint meeting of two Toastmasters Clubs: Taman Indrahana and Stamford College, held at the latter’s premise in Jalan Barat, Petaling Jaya. The meeting room was packed with forty-six Toastmasters and non-Toastmasters – really a sight to behold! What was equally heartening was that there were seventeen Indrahanians who came to give support. And the meeting was especially special because it was Hong Yuan’s last Taman Indrahana Toastmasters meeting before she leaves for the UK. Besides these two clubs, there were Toastmasters from eight other clubs: D’Utama Advanced, HICT (yes, Alan Tan came!), MAS Mawar, Metro, Multimedia University, Scope, Sime Darby Healthcare, and Universiti Malaya. Better still, tonight’s speeches and evaluations were all superb, every single one of them. And the wonderful thing is, I didn’t even take part! I have enjoyed the meeting. Truly.

Finally revealed is a video clip of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud blatantly offering a RM600 bribe to longhouse voters during the Sibu by-election. To quote him: “I am prepared to give you 600 ringgit per [longhouse] door, its normal one, no change”. This footage came into the possession of Sarawak Report and it was then captured in Malaysia Today yesterday. All along we knew, but simple technology has nailed him!

BMB1209 Projects

First-year Sunway University College students in my BMB1209 class submitted their marketing projects yesterday and showcased too the commercials that they had painstakingly produced. Good job, people!

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British Sweatshops

The Malaysian Insider yesterday carried a report that the government had indeed taken action against the three civil servants who spat out racist remarks against the country’s Chinese and Indian communities. The BTN official (his story in my posting dated October 05) received a warning as well as a suspension from his duties as of October 06 while the two school principals (their stories in my posting dated August 22) have also been likewise suspended and have been put on desk duty at the state education departments in Johor and Kuala Muda as of August 23, at least according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz. He added that there were no plans to charge them for sedition as the government believed that the racist remarks made were not intended to “incite” hatred towards other races. After all, to err is human. I still say, it’s a wee slap on the wrist! Oh well, I bet you there will be other similar incidents soon enough…


One of the alleged sweatshops filmed by an undercover reporter in the UK.
Photo credit: UK’s Channel 4

UK’s The Independent has informed readers that clothing on sale in the high street is being made in UK sweatshops! Yes, surprise, surprise! We are not talking about the Third World but a First World country called Britain. According to secret television footage, a Channel 4 investigative reporter found dangerous and pressurized sweatshop conditions; pay at half the legal minimum wage; workers exhorted to work faster under threat of the sack; cramped and over-heated conditions with unsanitary toilets and at least one blocked fire exit; plus the fact that workers’ identity and legality was also not checked.

For three months, this reporter worked undercover in workshops in Leicester, stitching garments for British retail chains: Bhs (owned by billionaire retailer Philip Green who is advising UK Prime Minister David Cameron on public sector “efficiency” savings), New Look, Peacocks, C&A and Jane Norman. And all of the companies, with the exception of Jane Norman, are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which has a code of conduct aimed at preventing abuses of workers, or they have their own supplier codes of conducts.

UK buyers wish to buy high street fashion at low prices, but really, what is the actual human cost that they are paying? Shameful!

Reds Beat the Blues

I don’t know what’s in the Malaysian History textbooks nowadays but if I can remember what I have learnt years ago was that Malays, Chinese and Indians were all “pendatang” (immigrants) at some point in Malaysia's history. It is also true that the Malacca Sultanate was credited with fostering and promoting the Malay ethos and it was during this era that the Islamic faith became closely identified with Malay society and played an important role in defining Malay identity as we know today. Yet, one must remember that it was founded by a fugitive Hindu prince, by the name of Parameswara.

And in case, anybody gets riled up about what I wrote, just check out this year’s UMNO general assembly. In their showing-off, the fat cats did “let the cat out of the bag” when they started to poke fun at each other’s immigrant backgrounds. Former Prime Minister. Mahathir as we all know has mamak origins. His father was a Muslim Malayali from Kerala in south India who migrated to Malaysia and took a Malay bride. Mahathir himself was classified as an Indian when at university in Singapore (Webpage http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=600&Itemid=34, accessed November 07, 2010). Other UMNO bigwigs who were on stage were goaded for their Achinese, Turkish and other foreign origins. In fact, Muhyiddin told the audience that his father was Bugis and mother Jawa, and this combination makes him a Malay!

So, this is another sleight of hand where people can classify themselves as Malays – of course, there is the obligatory condition of becoming a Muslim – no matter where they come from, and therefore, qualify as “bumiputras” who are then entitled to “special rights”. Only in Malaysia!

Today is a great day because as Phil McNulty, chief football scribe for BBC Sport wrote: “Liverpool's rejuvenation continued as two moments of brilliance from Fernando Torres sunk Premier League leaders Chelsea at Anfield”. Torres opened the scoring when he collected Dirk Kuyt's clever pass and the Spaniard's finish was brilliant when he lifted the ball over Chelsea goalie Petr Cech (11). The second goal came when Liverpool’s Raul Meireles won possession from Chelsea’s Ashley Cole in midfield and finding Torres, who then curled a stunning finish (44) into the only space available to send me to the moon! Yay-yay-yay-y-y-y!

I am really glad that Torres, who has struggled for form and fitness since the 2010 World Cup finals, was back to his best to torment Chelsea once more, ensuring the champions' lead at the top of the table remained at two points and Liverpool rose into the top 10 with a third successive league victory.

A Number's Game

I came across this blog and this posting (Blogpage http://corruptedbarisannasional.blogspot.com/2010/11/bn-pouring-in-rm80mil-for-620-votes.html, posted November 06) made an interesting reading. It refers to BN’s massive victory in the Batu Sapi by-election and I am reproducing it here: "Going back to Linda, she received 9,773 votes versus PKR Ansari Abdullah's 3,414 and SAPP Yong Teck Lee's 2,031. Her majority is obtained by subtracting Ansari's 3,414 votes. It does not take into account Yong's 2,031.

Now, obviously this has to be done if one were to compare apple with apple and pear with pear. After subtracting Yong's 2,031 her margin is actually just 4,328 votes. No doubt, still credible but far less misleading than the 6,359 that is being shouted from every corner of the nation by the BN media.

Compared with Edmund who garned 9,479 votes and a majority of 3,708, it means the BN managed to increase their support by a mere 620 votes (4,328 less 3,708).

Very slow-going considering the huge amount of resources BN ploughed into the by-election. No wonder, Deputy Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and PBS chief Joseph Pairin were full of smiles – smiles of relief no doubt!"

I must also comment on the US mid-term elections. After all, I had alluded to them in my November 03 posting. Predictably, Barack Obama’s Democrat party lost control of Congress to the Republicans but managed to maintain a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. Even if there was little change in the gubernatorial elections of 37 states and two territories – the fact remains that the Republicans have staged a comeback!

Just in case, there are those who are in the blur, midterm elections refer to general elections in the US that are held two years after the quadrennial elections for the US Presidency.

Newcastle’s Andy Carroll beat Arsenal goalkeeper Lucasz Fabianski to Joey Barton's free-kick and nodded the ball into an empty net (45), to give the Magpies a 1-0 win over the Gunners. To be sure the latter had good chances at goal but they were just not lucky.

Caning Because of Non-halal Food

Yet another school incident where Malaysians have cause for alarm. On Wednesday (November 03), a mother, Angela Jabing, made public her claim that her 10-year-old son was caned by his school’s senior assistant for bringing non-halal food to the Kuching school. She had alleged that on October 15, she prepared fried rice with non-halal sausages for her son to eat during recess, and was shocked to learn that he was punished and caned ten times on the palm for bringing the food.

The Borneo Post (Webpage http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=73125, accessed November 06, 2010) carried a news report that the Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Fatimah Abdullah speaking to the said newspaper in a phone interview on Friday, commented that all parties concerned, like the parents, school board committee, school authority, principal, Teacher-Parent Association (PTA) and the senior assistant would sit down with a view to come up with a solution. I thought this suggestion was laughably absurd to even contemplate. What fucking solution? A wrong has been done. Once the deed has been ascertained to be correct, then swift punishment must follow. Otherwise, more bigotry – the religious and racist kind – will rear its ugly head again and inflict suffering on the innocents. Stop treating bigots with kid gloves! Actually, I much prefer for them to be lined against a wall and for a firing squad to take aim.


In Glasgow, Celtic steamrolled past Aberdeen 9-0 in a one-sided SPL match. It was certainly a very potent display by Celtic’s strikeforce. Anthony Stokes opened the scoring from the penalty spot (26) after Dons captain Paul Hartley saw red for handball. Then Gary Hooper grabbed a brace (28, 33), followed by Stokes who converted another penalty (45+1) when Aberdeen’s Langfield brought down Celtic’s Shaun Maloney inside the six-yard box. And Aberdeen’s Josh Magennis netted an own goal (61) and Hooper claimed his hat-trick (63) before Joe Ledley's long-range effort (71), a third for Stokes (74) and a Paddy McCourt penalty (85) completed the rout. Wow!